Ephesians– overview of 3:1-9; tapping into the power of God, part 17.

Sunday, November 17, 2019

 

 

Deu 7:6 "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

 

Deu 7:7 "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,   

 

Deu 7:8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.   

 

Passions rule the natural man. Christ must rule the spiritual man.

 

It is through the knowledge of Christ, taught to the spiritual man since human eye, ear, nor mind can comprehend them, that empowers a man to lay aside the rulership of passions and to take on the mantle of the rulership of Christ.

 

1Th 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that, as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you may excel still more.

 

1Th 4:2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

 

Joh 5:44 "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

 

1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;

 

1Th 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

 

1Th 4:5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;

 

The most intimate exchange possible between two people is to be done with divine love; anything else is a selfish perversion.

 

1Th 4:6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

 

Always do good to your fellow man and let God deal with the justice of things. Love sets us apart from the way of the world.

 

Joh 13:35

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

 

1Th 4:7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

 

1Th 4:8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

 

The goal of instruction is love, 1Ti 1:5.

 

1Ti 1:3 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,

 

1Ti 1:4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith.

 

1Ti 1:5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

 

Two Christians who love like God does would have far more in common doctrinally than not in common.

 

1Ti 1:6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion,

 

1Ti 1:7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions.