Ephesians (Program #20) – Saved by Grace to be the Masterpiece of God (2)

Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God created all things, the heavens, the earth, the universe, man and all the living creatures. And how even a simple gaze at  creation often fills us with awes as we consider His creation.  But not until the New Testament book of Ephesians are we told what is at the very top of all that He has done and even all that He is doing. Or use Paul’s language in Ephesians what is His masterpiece.  Listen to Ephesians chapter 2:10 “For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.”  We, are His masterpiece, we, meaning the Church.

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Ephesians (Program #19) – Saved by Grace to be the Masterpiece of God (1)

We all know that God is a loving God, in fact the Bible says that God is love. But what does it mean when it says “but God been rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us.”  Well, it means in our fallen natural condition we were so low, that not even God’s love can reach us, we needed something more. We needed God’s mercy to reach into the depths of our lowest state and bring us to a place where His love could affect us in His most marvelous and complete salvation.  This is the message that the apostle Paul brings in Ephesians Chapter 2 and this is also our topic on our program for today.

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Ephesians (Program #18) – Dead in Offenses and Sins

The first Chapter of Ephesians presents us with one of the highest, most substantial views in the entire Bible. Because it presents us with the heavenly view of God’s eternal purpose in the universe and our place in it. Chapter 1 ends in the most glorious way as well with the Body of Christ been built up and the Church been produced out of the transmission of the ascended Christ from the heavenlies into us, His redeemed. This surely is the view from the top.

But Chapter 2 gives us the view from the bottom up, from the condition of the fallen men. And we will get into this view today.

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Ephesians (Program #17) – The Triune God Dispensed Into Us and Wrought Into Us

Ephesians Chapter 1 is truly a wonderful portion of the scripture. It begins with God’s blessing to us, the believers and concludes with the Church, Body of Christ as the fullness of Christ. The implication is that everything in between, all that God in Christ has passed through and accomplished has an issue or a result and that result is the Church. But what this Chapter also reveals is that it is not just the doctrines or teachings of this marvelous things that has such an issue, it is the transmission of them by the Spirit to the Church. This transmission or dispensing is the focus of our program today.

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Ephesians (Program #16) – The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power—Christ to be Head Over All Things to the Church

The apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 1 that the believers would be brought into a condition where they can see and enter into God’s eternal purpose. His prayer primarily touches three great matters: hope, glory and power. For us, hope and glory are both future items that will issue from God’s blessings concerning to us. But it is His power, the divine energy, that carries out and applies what God has promised to us. The surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe is the topic of our program today.

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Ephesians (Program #15) – The Hope of God’s Calling and the Riches of the Glory of God’s Inheritance in the Saints

Hope can be a tremendous thing. If a person has hope, then their ability to withstand hardship and suffering is immeasurably enhanced. And as Christians, we above all people should live a life that is full of hope and therefore equipped to handle whatever may come our way. Paul, the apostle, experienced many hardships and knew much about hope; and in his letter to the Ephesians he opens up his earnest prayer to God on behalf of all the believers. One of the items that he prayed for strongly was that we all would see clearly and truthfully what is the hope of our calling. Where hope is a wonderful thing but our hope needs to be founded in truth and in the reality that the Bible conveys and not in something fanciful or simply according to the popular thought of the day.

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Ephesians (Program #14) – A Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation and the Eyes of Our Heart

Ephesians is a book filled with marvelous spiritual facts, it reveals the mystery of the will of God. Yet to many people even Christians, Ephesians is a closed book; though they read it and understand the words, they do not gain the vision that is conveyed in this book. That’s because to see spiritual truth in reality is different from mere mental comprehension. That’s why the apostle prayed so earnestly in the first chapter that the readers would have all the necessary tools to see and enter into the vision that he is presenting in his letter. Listen as he prays in verse 17 & 18, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him. The eyes of your heart having been enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”

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Ephesians (Program #13) – The Pledge of Our Inheritance

In ancient times when one purchased a piece of land, upon payment of an initial deposit, the seller would then give the buyer a bit of the ground as a pledge or guarantee that the property was in fact the very same parcel agreed upon. The apostle Paul picks up this custom to help illustrate one of the important functions or aspects of the Holy Spirit in God’s plan or economy. In Ephesians 1, Paul referring to the Holy Spirit says in verse 14, that the Spirit is actually the pledge of our inheritance. We will explore just what it is that we get when we receive this pledge.

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Ephesians (Program #12) – Sealed with the Holy Spirit

Of the three in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit is the most mysterious and the least known. Yet the Bible tells us that the Spirit functions in many definite ways. For example, it is the Spirit that broods over us before we’re saved; it’s the Spirit that convicts us, bringing us to salvation; the Spirit gives life; the Spirit also teaches and guides us into all the reality. But Ephesians gives us at least two additional functions of the Spirit in 1:13-14 “In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in Him also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, Who is the pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of the acquired possession, to the praise of His glory.” These verses tell us that the Spirit seals us and also that the Spirit becomes the pledge of our inheritance.  The sealing and pledging Spirit is our subject today and in the next program on this life study from Ephesians.

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Ephesians (Program #11) – The New Testament Believers to the Praise of God’s Glory

Three times in the first chapter of Ephesians, the apostle Paul uses an expression like “to the praise of His glory”. The first time in verse 6, the praise is offered by us – the believers – as the issue of our sonship. The second mention, however, in verse 12 also deals with our sonship but the praise is not offered by us but rather it is the angels even the creation itself that joins in praise to God because of what He has accomplished in us – His sons. Now, not just sons in name and position but sons of God in life and nature.

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