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