The Purpose-Holiness (Eph. 1:4b)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/31/2018 11:34 AM

My Worship Time                                                                          Focus:  The Purpose—Holiness

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:4b

            Message of the verse:  “that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” 

            I have mentioned many times that God chose us before the world was formed, and when we think about that we realize that God knew, as He knows all things, that we would be in a state of sinfulness when we were born, therefore God would have to make a way for us to be saved from that sinfulness, and that way of course was through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Now as we look at this portion of verse two we see the word blameless and this word in the Greek is Amomos and it literally means without blemish, or spotless.  So as we look at this small portion of verse four we see the purpose for God choosing us and that is to make us blameless before Him.  It is because we are chosen in Him that we are “holy and blameless before Him.”  Let us look at 1 Peter 1:18-19 for a little help “18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life

Inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”  As we look at these two verses we see how it is that we have been redeemed, which is with the precious blood of the unblemished and spotless blood or Christ.  This is how we are holy and blameless before God for we are “in Christ,” and as mentioned before we are what Christ is, and that is holy and blameless.  I am thinking of a passage from the book of Zechariah that I will have to look for but it shows the High Priest as being in filthy closes, but God sees him as being clean and pure.  “1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?" 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. 4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him." Again he said to him, "See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes." 5 Then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the LORD was standing by. 6 And the angel of the LORD

admonished Joshua, saying, 7 "Thus says the LORD of hosts, ’If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here (Zech. 3:1-7).”  The angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate Christ.

            John MacArthur writes “The unworthy has been declared worthy, the unrighteous declared holy.  It is Christ’s eternal and foreordained plan to ‘present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and blameless’ (Eph. 5:27).” 

            Paul is talking about our position and not our practice.  This speaks of the sanctification that believers receive when they are born again.  We are declared righteous by God through Christ, and as we live our life on earth we continue to grow in Christ to become more like Him, and then when we get to heaven we will perfectly sanctified.  “Our practice can and does fall short, but our position can never fall short, because it is exactly the same holy and blameless position before God that Christ has.  We are as secure as our Savior, because we are in Him, waiting for the full redemption and glorious holiness that awaits us in His presence (MacArthur).”  Because of what we are in Christ we should strive to live lives not that reflect the holiness and blameless that is our destiny.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  After going over the first seven verses in Psalm 51 earlier this morning and then learning that I am holy and blameless in position in Christ I am to continue to desire to live a life that will please the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I have to decide how I am going to teach my Sunday school class this Sunday as there are some things that I am thinking about that I am not sure of.  I trust the Lord for wisdom.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Luke.”

Today’s Bible question:  “Where did people think Samson’s strength lay?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/31/2018 12:22 PM

           

Two More Sub-Sections from Eph. 1:4-6a

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/30/2018 10:13 AM

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus: The Object—The Elect

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 1:4-6a

            Message of the verses:  “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,”

            I think that a little review is in order as we begin this SD.  As most know I am following the outline from John MacArthur’s commentary on the book of Ephesians and as a reminder the title of the second chapter in his commentary is “The Body Formed in Eternity Past,” and this chapter covers Ephesians 1:3-6a.  There are two main sections in this chapter, the first one is entitled “The Aspects of Blessing” and this covers Eph. 1:3, and it had seven sub-sections in it.  The next main section is entitled “The Elements of the Eternal Forming of the Body,” and we just finished yesterday the first sub-section under this second main section.  We just finished the first sub-section in our last SD and are now ready to move onto the following six sub-sections that fall under this second main section.  These are much shorter than the first sub-section and I will try and complete two of them in today’s SD.

THE OBJECT—THE ELECT

            When the word elect is used is speaks of those whom God has elected or chosen in eternity past and so the object of the elect is “us” as seen in verse five “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.”  John MacArthur writes “Those whom God elects are those whom He has declared holy before the foundation of the world and who have identified with His Son Jesus Christ by faith.  Being a Christian is having been chosen by God to be His child and to inherit all things through and with Jesus Christ.” 

            In our Sunday evening service earlier this week we listened to our youth pastor as he is going through preparation for his ordination and so he has been preaching through some of the doctrines of the Christian faith.  Afterwards was a question and answer period and one of the questions was if he believed in “limited atonement.”  Limited atonement is a part of what is called the Calvinist belief.  TULIP is the acrostic that is used to speak of what Calvinists believe and the “L” is for limited atonement.  Simply put this belief is that Christ came and died for the elect only.  I have to say that I am up in the air as far as whether to believe it or not.  I have heard sermons from John MacArthur on this subject and am still not sure if this is true or not, but this kind of comes up in our study of Ephesians and so I thought that I would mention it.  I wrote to our youth pastor and told him that I was up in the air about this, but then told him that one of the ways that I try and make up my mind about things like this is to ask the question does it go against the attributes of God. 

THE TIME—ETERNITY PAST

            This is our next sub-section and it also comes from Ephesians 1:5 as God elected us “before the foundation of the world.”  This means it was before the creation, the fall, the covenants, or the law, that we were sovereignly predestined by God to be His as He designed the church, the Body of His Son before the world began.

            Let us look at some verses from Peter’s first letter:  “18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1 Peter 1:20).”  The focus in really on verse twenty and according to John MacArthur this verse states that it was God’s plan Christ be crucified for us ‘before the foundation of the world’ as seen in 1 Peter 1:20.  He goes on to say “we were designated for salvation by the same plan as that same time.”  "Then the King will say to those on His right, ’Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34).”  This is when it was prepared for the elect, before the foundation of the world.  I think that I may have mentioned this before, but after I became saved and finally joined a church the Pastor, Pastor Burns said something that I have never forgotten about this subject of the elect and that is that this doctrine is for believers.  This is a true statement and so if one does not think of unbelievers and many do when this subject comes up, then it is easier to understand this doctrine.  Our names as believers were “written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (Rev. 13:8; cf. 17:8).”

            I know that this subject takes some thinking and also praying and that is one reason that I only take small bites of it as we go through these first verses in Ephesians chapter one.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Paul” (Acts 23:12).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who wrote the book of Acts?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/30/2018 10:53 AM

PT-4 "The Method-Election" (Eph. 1:4-6a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/29/2018 12:39 PM

My Worship Time                                                            Focus:  PT-4 “The Method—Election”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:4-6a

            Message of the verses:  “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,”

            I promised to quote from the book by J. I. Packer entitled “Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God” at the beginning of this SD.

“All Christians believe in divine sovereignty, but some are not aware that they do, and mistakenly imagine and insist that they reject it.  What causes this odd state of affairs?  The root cause is the same as in most cases of error in the Church—the intruding of rationalistic speculations, the passion for systematic consistency, a reluctance to recognize the existence of mystery and to let God be wiser than men, and a consequent subjecting of Scripture to the supposed demands of human logic.  People see the Bible teaches man’s responsibility for his actions; they do not see (man, indeed, cannot see) how this is consistent with the sovereign Lordship of God over those actions.  They are not content to let the two truths live side by side, as they do in Scriptures, but jump to the conclusion that, in order to uphold the biblical truth of human responsibility, they are bound to reject the equally biblical and equally true doctrine of divine sovereignty, and to explain away the treat number of texts that teach it.  The desire to over-simplify the Bible by cutting out the mysteries is natural to our perverse minds, and it is not surprising that even godly men should fall victim to it.  Hence this persistent and troublesome dispute.  The irony of the situation, however, is that when we ask how the two sides pray, it becomes apparent that those who profess to deny God’s sovereignty really believe in it just as strongly as those who affirm it.”

            One of the problems that people have with the teaching of election and the sovereignty of God is that they put God into a box.  What I mean by that is that they do not believe that a loving God would chose people for salvation before the foundation of the world.  I cannot answer as to why God does what He does all of the time, but in my mind I have to continue to look at the attributes of God and remember that God will never do anything against His attributes, which makes up His character, and His character is perfect.  So when you look at what the Bible teaches about election, and it does teach a lot as we have seen as we go through this section we must come to the conclusion that God choosing people before the foundation of the earth for salvation does not go against His attributes, in fact one of His attributes is His Sovereignty. 

            People do not or should I say cannot stand the tension, mystery, paradox, or antinomy, so all of us are inclined to adjust what the Bible teaches so that it will fit our own systems of order and consistency.  However this “presumptuous approach” is unfaithful to God’s Word and then that will lead us to confused doctrine and a weakened living.  This is not the only doctrine taught in Scripture that is apparently paradoxical to our limited minds.  John MacArthur gives the following examples:  “It is antinomous that Scripture itself is the work of human authors, yet the very words of God; that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man; that salvation is forever, yet saints must remain obedient and persevere to the end; that the Christian’s life is lived in total commitment and discipline of self, yet is all of Christ.  Such inscrutable truths are an encouragement that the mind of God infinitely surpasses the mind of man and are a great proof of the divine authorship of Scripture.  Humans writing a Bible on their own would have attempted to resolve such problem.

            “It is not that God’s sovereign election, or predestination, eliminates man’s choice in faith.  Divine sovereignty and human response are integral and inseparable parts of salvation—though exactly how they operate together only the infinite mind of God knows.

            “Nor is it, as many believe and teach, that God simply looks into the future to see which people are going to believe and then elects them to salvation.  Taken out of context, Romans 8:29 is often used to support that view.  But verse 28 makes it clear that those whom God foresees and predestines to salvation are those whom He has already ‘called according to His purpose.’  Any teaching that diminishes the sovereign, electing love of God by giving more credit to men also diminishes God’s glory, thus striking a blow at the very purpose of salvation.”

            The following is a quote from John Chadwick:

“I sought the Lord,

And afterwards I knew’ He moved my soul to seek Him,

Seeking me!

It was not that I found,

O Saviour true;

No, I was found by Thee.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful, though I do not know why the Lord elected me for salvation in eternity past.  There is no way that I sought the Lord when He saved me as I was attempting to do something that was sinful, and yet God had other plans as His plans were for me to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of my life.

My Steps of Fait for Today:  Trust the Lord to allow me to tell others about this amazing gift of salvation so that they too can be saved and spend eternity in heaven with the Lord.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Golgotha” (Mark 15:22).

Today’s Bible question:  “Concerning whom did a group of Jews bind themselves under a curse that they would not eat or drink until they had killed him?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/29/2018 1:20 PM

PT-3 "The Method-Election" (Eph. 1:4-6a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/28/2018 8:39 PM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-3 “The Method—Election”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:4-6a

            Message of the verses:  “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,”

           

            We continue this evening to look at the method is election which is the first sub-section under the main section entitled “The Elements of the Eternal Forming of the Body.”  In our last SD I said that we would begin looking at this SD by first of all talking about Israel who was God’s elect, His “chosen one” as seen in Isaiah 45:4 and we will also look at Isaiah 65:9 and 22).  “4 "For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me.”  9 “I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, And an heir of My mountains from Judah; Even My chosen ones shall inherit it, And My servants will dwell there.”  “22 “They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.”

            Now I want to look at a passage from Deuteronomy 7:7-8 to show us why Israel was God’s chosen one.  “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, 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.”  We see the reason why God chose Israel and that was because of His sovereign love.

            Next we want to look at angels who are also elect.  “21 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality (1 Tim. 5:21).”  Next we will look at 1 Peter 2:6(KJV) “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”  This verse shows us that Jesus Christ Himself was also elect, and in John 15:16 we see the apostles were elect too:  “"You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”  John MacArthur writes that “By the same sovereign plan and will the church is elect.  God ‘has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity’ (2 Timothy 1:9).  In Acts we are told, ‘And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed’ (13:48).”

            Paul tells u in 2 Timothy 2:10 “10 For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”  We can see from this verse and others that Paul was driven, it was his heart’s desire to reach the elect, the ones who were already chosen, in order that they might take hold of the faith that was already granted them in God’s sovereign decree.

            One more verse for today and in this verse we will see that Paul gave thanks for the church because it was God’s elect:  “13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.”

            I will close with a little story that I kind of made up to give to our Sunday school class to help them understand the truth about the sovereignty of God in choosing a bride for His Son.  Now you will have to understand that this is a story that I made up and that there is no disrespect to God, as I would never do that, in this story.  God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit were having a morning coffee break in eternity past when the Father says to the Son that He was going to give Him a bride, He was going to chose a bride for His Son and that the Son was going to have to go to earth and pay the price for His bride.  Now this in a sense is what happened, this was to give glory to the Father as He chose this bride for His Son, and the best part about this is that all of those that He chose for His Son would come to Him receiving Him as their Savior and Lord because the price that He would pay for them was His own blood as He died on the cross for them.

            I hope to finish this sub-section in our next SD and at the beginning of it we will look at a quote that was written by J. I. Packer from his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.  Some people have a difficult time with this subject as they say if all that God chose will be saved then why do Christians witness. 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “John the Baptist and Jesus Christ” (Matthew 3:2; 4:17).

Today’s Bible question:  “The name of what place means the place of the skull?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/28/2018 9:15 PM

PT-2 "The Method-Election" (Eph. 1:4-6a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2018 12:16 PM

My Worship Time                                                               Focus:  PT-2 “The Method—Election”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:4-6a

            Message of the verses:    “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,”

            In our last SD when we began to look at “The Method—Election” I forgot to mention that this is the first sub-section under the main section entitled “The Elements of the Eternal Forming of the Body.”  This first sub-section is a fairly long section and so it may take us a little while to get through it.

            I promised to talk about free will in this SD and so we will try and better understand what this is all about.  When Adam and Eve fell as we spoke of in our last SD that plunged the entire world into a great problem, and that problem is sin.  Why do people sin?  Well people sin because, as a friend of mine once said, “they are born wrong.”  We are all born wrong in that we are all born sinners and because we are born sinners we sin.  Sinners can only sin unless that receive the salvation that Jesus provided on the cross, so sinners only have the free will to do sinful things.  In our last SD we began to learn about election, that in eternity past we were elected by God and that the Holy Spirit of God gives an effectual call to those that God chose in eternity past and Jesus died for.  Some think that this is “unfair” of God to do this, and yet it does not go against any of God’s attributes.  Let me talk about Judas who was the one who betrayed our Lord in the garden.  Jesus knew that this was going to happen because it was prophesized in the OT that this would happen.  Some may think that this was also unfair, and yet this was not only prophesized, but it was the desire of the heart of Judas to do this act.  The same is true to all those who turn down the salvation that Jesus has provided for them, in their heart they do not want anything to do with it.  So does man have a free will?  John MacArthur writes “Although man’s will is not free in the sense that many people suppose, he does have a will, a will that Scripture clearly recognizes.  Apart from God, man’s will is captive to sin.  But he is nevertheless able to choose God because God has made that choice possible.  Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16) and that ‘everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die’ (11:26).  The frequent commands to the unsaved to respond to the Lord (e. g., Josh 25:15; Isa. 55:1; Matt. 3:1-2; 4:17; 11:28-30; John 5:40; 6:37; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:17) clearly indicate the responsibility of man to exercise his own will.

            “Yet the Bible is just as clear that no person receives Jesus Christ as Savior who has not been chosen by God (cf. Rom. 8:29; 9:11; 1 Thess. 1:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:2).  Jesus gives both truths in one verse in the gospel of John:  ‘All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out’ (John 6:37). 

            “God’s sovereign election and man’s exercise of responsibility in choosing Jesus Christ seem opposite and irreconcilable truths—and from our limited human perspective they are opposite and irreconcilable.  That is why so many earnest, well-meaning Christians throughout the history of the church have floundered trying to reconcile them.  Since the problem cannot be resolved by our finite minds, the result is always to compromise one truth in favor of the other or to weaken both by trying to take a position somewhere between them.

            “We should let the antimony remain; believing both truths completely and leaving the harmonizing of them go God.

            “Eklego (chose) is here in the aorist tense and the middle voice, indicating God’s totally independent choice.  Because the verb is reflexive it signifies that God not only chose by Himself but for Himself.  His primary purpose in electing the church was the praise of His glory (vv. 6, 12).  Believers were chosen for the Lord’s glory before they were chosen for their own good.  The very reason for calling out believers into the church was that ‘the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places’ (3:10).”

            Now I realize that this is a rather long quote, but the reason that I am attaching this to this SD is so that we can begin to understand what is the truth concerning election and so that is my desire in quoting it.  I want people who read these Spiritual Diaries to understand the truth of Scripture, and although I am not saying that I have the answers to all of the difficult questions that are in Scripture, I do the best that I can to put out what I believe is the truth and I know that some may not agree with me that is not up to me.  I can say that I love to study the Word of God and as mentioned it is important, very important  to me to make sure what I write is truth so that the Holy Spirit can use what I write to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ, for if it were not for the fact that Christ saved me, and that the Holy Spirit lives within me that I would have no interest in writing what I write.

            In our next SD I want to begin by talking about Israel who was God’s elect.

            Spiritual meaning for my life:  I am thankful for God’s “longsuffering” that has been demonstrated in my life as it took me a fairly long while to begin to understand what I understand now about man’s free will and God’s election.  No human being understands all of this but both are taught and so I must believe them both and leave the difficult part to God.  Perhaps I will find out all there is to know about it when the Lord takes me to heaven, until now I will continue to trust what the Lord has taught me about both.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to teach me from His Word and understand it better.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “He was taken up and a cloud received Him out of their sight (Acts 1:9).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand?”  (Two People)

Answer in our next SD.

10/27/2018 12:53 PM

PT-1 "The Method--Election" (Eph. 1:4-6a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/26/2018 10:37 AM

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-1 “The Method—Election

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:4-6a

            Message of the verses:  “4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,”

            As we begin to look at verses 4-6a of Ephesians chapter one we will be looking at a controversial subject, a subject that has divided households and churches for a long time.  One of the ways that has caused me to better understand this subject is studying the attributes of God, seeing as best I can who God is and what He can and cannot do.  Yes there are things God cannot do, and one of them is sin, God cannot sin.  God cannot do things that are not a part of His characteristics or attributes.  God is perfect and God does not or cannot change.  Keep this in mind as we study this subject of election.

            Let us begin by looking at three kinds of election that are found in Scripture.  The first one we will look at is what is “God’s theocratic election.  We see this when God chose Israel “"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. 7:6).”   This election has no bearing on personal salvation.  “6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED (Romans 9:6-7).’”  Because you are physically descended from Abraham does not mean, as Paul stated, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.”  “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also (Romans 4:11).”

            Let us move on to the second kind of election that the Bible speaks of and that is vocational election.  Once again this has nothing to do with personal salvation as we will see.  Two examples of this are the Levites who are the priestly tribe of Israel, from where the priests come from, but that does not mean they were all believers.  Second, from the NT is Christ chose twelve men to be apostles but only eleven of them to salvation.  John MacArthur writes “After Paul came to Christ because of God’s election to salvation, God then chose him in another way to be His special apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Rom. 1:5).”

            Now the third kind of election that is taught in the Bible is the election to salvation, which is the kind Paul is speaking in our present text.  “No one can come to Me,’ Jesus said, ‘Unless the Father who set me draws him’ (John 6:44).  MacArthur goes on saying “Helkuo’ (draws) carries the idea of an irresistible force and was used in ancient Greek literature of a desperately hungry man being drawn to food and of demonic forces being drawn to animals when they were not able to possess men.

            “Salvage yards use giant electromagnets to lift and partially sort scrap metal.  When the magnet is turned on, a tremendous magnetic force draws all the ferrous metals that are near it, but has no effect on other metals such as aluminum and brass.

            “In a similar way, God’s elective will irresistibly draws to Himself those whom He has predetermined to love and forgive, while having no effect on those whom He has not.

            “From all eternity, before the foundation of the word, and therefore completely apart from any merit or deserving that any person could have, God ‘chose us in Him,’ ‘in Christ’ (v.3).  By God’s sovereign election, those who are saved were placed in eternal union with Christ before creation even took place.”  When I first began to look at this subject I heard my first Pastor that I had after becoming a believer say that election has nothing to do with unbelievers.

            In our next SD we will begin by talking about man’s free will, or perhaps man does not really have a free will.  I heard my second Pastor that I had after being saved state that the only two people who had a free will were Adam and Eve, and they lost that free will pretty fast when they sinned.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Although I never and perhaps will never completely understand election I am thankful that God has called me to be a believer in Jesus Christ.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Be thankful that I am a child of God through the blood of my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Preaching” (Titus 1:3).

Today’s Bible question:  “After walking and talking with His disciples for 40 days after His resurrection, what happened to Jesus?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/26/2018 11:14 AM

PT-5 "The Aspects of Blessings" (Eph. 1:3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/25/2018 10:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-5 “The Aspects of Blessings”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:3

            Message of the verses:  “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”

            It looks like we finally made it to the last aspect of blessing found in verse three of Ephesians chapter on. 

THE BLESSING AGENT—JESUS CHRIST

            I first want to say that I covet your prayers for me as I continue on through this wonderful book of Ephesians.  God has been reminding me of things that I knew but when you don’t use things you seem to forget them. I have mentioned in an earlier SD that we see the words “in Christ” and “in Him” many times in this book and that is the case at the last part of verse three which I have highlighted.  We as believers possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because we are “in Christ.”  Being in Christ happens as soon as a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior as believers are placed in a marvelous union with our Savior.  1 Corinthians 6:17 says “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”  John MacArthur writes “Our unity as Christians is more than simply that of common agreement; it is the unity of a commonness of life, the common eternal life of God that pulses through the soul of every believer (cf. Rom. 15:5-7).”  “5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

            I realize that this is hard to believe, at least for me but all that the Lord has, those in Christ have.  I believe this is true for a couple of reasons that I can think of off the top of my head.  The first reason is because of the love that God has for us as He wants all of His children to be like His Son.  The second reason I can think of is that in order for us to enter into heaven we have to be spotless and that happens when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Now I am not saying that we don’t sin after accepting the Lord, but when we do we are to confess it to the Lord as 1 John 1:9 tells us, but our position in Christ is perfection as it has to be in order to be with Him.  Paul writes the following (for you my sister) in Romans 8:16-17 “16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together (KJV).”  

            MacArthur concludes this rather short section:  “Christ’s riches are our riches, His resources are our resources, His righteousness is our righteousness, and His power is our power.  His position is our position:  where He is, we are.  His privilege is our privilege:  what He is we are.  His possession is our possession: what He has we have.  His practice is our practice:  what He does, we do.

            “We are those things and have those things and do those things by the grace of God, which never fails to work His will in those who trust Him (1 Cor. 15:10).”  “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

            I don’t think that I have ever written so many Spiritual Diaries on one verse, and yet there is much to learn from this 3^rd verse of Ephesians chapter one.  Lord willing, we will begin to look at “The Elements of the Eternal Forming of the Body” in our next SD.  This section also has multiple sub-sections to it and we will be covering Ephesians 1:4-6a as we look at how the body of Christ is formed, or should I say was formed in eternity past which is a part of God’s eternal plan that forms the church which is the Body of Christ.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that I may have some wrong conclusions as to all that has been looked at today, and it is my prayer that the Holy Spirit of God will show me the things that He wants to teach me regarding all we have looked at today.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Have a teachable spirit so that the Spirit of God can teach me, and reinforce the things that we have been looking at in Eph. 1:3.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Four” (2 Kings 15:12).

Today’s Bible question:  “Through what does God now manifest His Word?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/25/2018 11:50 AM

PT-4 "The Aspects of Blessings" (Eph. 1:3)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2018 11:21 AM

My Worship Time                                                           Focus:  PT-4 “The Aspects of Blessings”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Ephesians 1:3

            Message of the verse:  “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,”

            I want everyone to understand what we have been looking at as we move through verse three of Ephesians chapter one.  “Paul here presents six aspects of the divine blessing he is about to unfold.”  (John MacArthur)  We have looked at four of these aspects in the last few days and want to move onto the fifth and hopefully the sixth aspect of the divine blessing that Paul is about to unfold.  I guess one could say that this is a preview of the blessings that hopefully we will begin to look at in our next SD.

The Location of Blessing—The Heavenly Places

            I suppose that this section from Ephesians 1:3 is the most difficult part of this verse to understand, at least it has always been for me.  We read that our God and Father along with His Son, Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.  Now the question perhaps most of us would ask is where is the heavenly places, and as I look at the NASB95 the word “places” is written in italics which means that it was not there in the original, but was added in the English to make it more understandable.  The Amplified Bible “Blessing (praise, laudation and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (Holy Spirit given) blessing in the heavenly realm!”  Not sure this is helpful or not.  I want to look at Philips Paraphrased Bible “3 Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for giving us through Christ every spiritual benefit as citizens of Heaven!”  I think that is more help in the section we are looking at today as he writes “as citizens of Heaven”   John MacArthur writes “The heavenly places (cf. 1:20; 2:6; 3:10) encompass the entire supernatural realm of God, His complete domain, the full extent of His divine operation.”

            He goes on to state that “Christians have a paradoxical, two-level existence—a dual citizenship.  While we remain on earth we are citizens of earth.  But in Christ our primary and infinitely more important citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20).”  “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;” As believers Jesus Christ is our Lord and King, thus we are citizens of His realm which is “the heavenly realm.”  Paul wrote the following in Colossians 3:1 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” 

            It is because we are members of God’s dominion, which is unlike what Luke writes in Luke 16:8 “"And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.”  The highlighted portion is what unbelievers are, “the sons of this age.”  We are not and so we are able to understand the supernatural things of God, things which as Paul writes the “natural man does not accept” and “cannot understand” as seen in 2 Cor. 2:14.” 

            Hopefully this little illustration will help us understand what we are talking about at this time.  Suppose a person from the United States of America travels to another country, now when he gets there he is every bit as much an American citizen as when he is in the United States.  It makes no difference as to where he goes he is still a citizen of America even though he is outside his homeland, and still has all the rights and privileges that such citizenship holds.

            MacArthur writes “As citizens of God’s heavenly dominion, Christians hold all the rights and privileges that citizenship grants, even while they are living in the ‘foreign’ and sometimes hostile land of earth.  Our true life is in the supernatural, the heavenly places.  Our Father is there, our Savior is there, our family and loved ones are there, our name is there, and our eternal dwelling place and throne are there.”  However we are presently trapped in the tension between the earthly and the heavenly.  I don’t know about you but I can truly relate to that tension.  Paul explains more about that “tension.”  “8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things (2 Cor. 4:8-9; 6:10).”  So what is the key to living as a heavenly citizen since we live in an unheavenly situation?  Well the answer is found in the book of Galatians where Paul writes “Walk by the Spirit.”  If we do that then “we will not carry out the desires of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).  Paul goes on in verses 22-23 of Galatians five to show us that when we walk in His power He produces His fruit in us which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”  MacArthur concludes “We receive our heavenly blessings by living in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.”   

            I am thinking of another verse which I think goes well with what we are to be doing:  “Php 2:12  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; Php 2:13  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  We have a responsibility in all of this and I think a part of that responsibility is to trust in the Lord to do what He says He has already done for us because we are “in Christ.” 

            I wanted to get done with these six aspects of blessing but I have to admit that this has been a drain on me just to get through this fifth aspect and so we will, Lord willing, look at the sixth aspect in our next SD which is a shorter one.

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit of God in order to live in the heavenly realm with power to do what God has called me to do.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to accomplish the things He has planned in eternity past for me to accomplish.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Exodus 20.”

Today’s Bible question:  “For how many generations did Jehu’s sons rule?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/24/2018 12:19 PM

The Problem of Man and the True Meaning of Life

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/23/2018 11:02 AM

My Worship Time                                     Focus:  The Problem of man and the True meaning of life

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 1:3-6a

            Message of the verses:  “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace,”

            After finishing my Spiritual Diary yesterday it was my desire to go over some of the things that we have been looking at from the third verse of the first chapter of the book of Ephesians.  However I let time get away from me and did not do it and so I decided to go over it this morning, and so I began with the introduction from John MacArthur’s commentary, and reread it.  I have to say that I did not carefully go over all that was in the rather short introduction but I had read it a while ago.  At any rate as I read through this introduction I became convinced that I needed to quote a large part of it for today’s Spiritual Diary.  As I went over it I came to the conclusion that what he wrote has the answer to man’s problems after he gives the actual problem all mankind has.  With that said I will quote this introductory section hoping that it will affect others as it affected me.

            “People today are greatly concerned about identity, life purpose, self-worth, and self-acceptance.  Consequently there is a plethora of books, articles, seminars, and schemes that attempt to fulfill those longings.  But because God and His Word are not considered in most attempts, the only source for finding the truth is eliminated, and men inevitably are led back to themselves for answers.  In spite of many variations and sometimes complex formulas, the end result is to tell men they are really all right after all and that what identity, worth, and meaning they find in life they must find in and for themselves.

            “We are told to think of ourselves first and are shown how to get on top by using and manipulating others, by intimidating before being intimidated.  We are told how to be successful and how to be number one.  We are counseled to find meaning in the heritage of our family and ethnic roots, with the expectation that finding out where we came from will help explain where we are and perhaps where we are headed.  But such approaches give only a psychological gloss that helps cover, but does not help remove, the underlying problem of meaning in life.

            “Others set about trying to establish their worth by works righteousness, some even become heavily involved in church work and other Christian activities.  They look for praise and commendation and before long they are entrapped in the same kind of hypocritical religious games that characterized the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day.  As their self-satisfaction grows their spiritual lives shrivel, because such effort feeds the flesh and cripples the soul.

            “But every human effort and self-improvement or self-satisfaction—no matter what its religious covering may be—is subject to the law of diminishing returns.  Genuine and lasting satisfaction is never achieved, and increased achievement only brings increased desire.  More importantly, the guilt and fear that cause the dissatisfaction are suppressed but not alleviated.  The longer such superficial games are played, the deeper become the depression, anxiety, and feelings of guilt.

            “The only way a person can achieve a true sense of self-worth, meaning, and significance is to have a right relationship to his Creator.  A person without Christ has no spiritual value, no standing before God, no purpose or meaning in the world.  He is like ‘chaff which the wind drives away’ (Ps. 1:4).

            “A Christian, however, is a child of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.  If he has no comprehension of those blessings he needs to understand the position he already has in his Savior.   To give such Christians the right understanding of their position and possessions is the foundational thrust of Paul’s Ephesian letter.

            “If we belong to Christ, Paul says, we can be sure that God put our name down as part of His church even before the world began.  Out of grace and in divine sovereignty, He chose each one of us to belong to Him.  It was not because we were more worthy than anyone else or more deserving or meritorious—but simply because God willed to choose us.

            “Though this is an incomprehensible truth to finite thinking, it is one of the most repeated in Scripture.  The record of God’s redemptive history is that of His reaching down and drawing to Himself those whom He has chosen to save.  In these opening verses of Ephesians Paul gives us a glimpse of eternity past.  He lets us eavesdrop as God planned to save us—not only long before we were born but long before the earth was born.”

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Eve” (Genesis 3:6).

Today’s Bible question:  “In which book and chapter do we find the listing of the Ten Commandments?”

Answer in our next SD.

10/23/2018 11:39 AM