Sunday, February 3, 2019

PT-3 "The Spirits Power" (Eph. 3:14-16)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/3/2019 4:53 PM



My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-3 “The Spirits Power”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Eph. 3:14-16



            Message of the verses:  14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”



            We finished looking at verse fourteen in our last SD and want to begin to look at verse fifteen today.  When I look at verse fifteen in the NLT it reads “the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.  I think this makes it easier by looking at the NLT to see that Paul is not teaching that God is the spiritual “Father” of every being in the universe.  God created Adam and Eve and from them comes all people who have ever been born, but that by no means that all people are spiritual children of God, this teaches universal fatherhood of God when it is stated that God is the spiritual father of all people, and that is not true.  If that were true then why would Christ need to come to pay for sins?  The Bible teaches that one must be born from above, and that is done by admitting that you were born a sinner, and that you sin because you were born a sinner, and that you can do nothing on your own to have your sins forgiven.  Paul writes in Romans chapter one that “no one seeks after God.”  God has to seek after us in order for us to be saved by grace through faith.  In the eight chapter of the gospel of John, Jesus told the unbelieving Pharisees “If you are Abraham’s children, doo the deeds of Abraham. But as it is, you are seeking to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.  You are doing the deeds of your father…If God were your Father, you would love Me;…You are of your father the devil” (VV. 39-42, 44).  John 3:10 states “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious:  anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother’ (3:10).  By these verses it reinforces that truth that God is not the spiritual Father of everyone.



            John MacArthur writes “Every family in heaven and on earth’ refers to the saints of every age—those now ‘in heaven and those still remaining on earth.’  They are the only ones who legitimately derive their names from God the Father.  Christians are no more or less the children of God than were believing Israelites, as well as believing Gentiles, before the coming of Christ.  ‘Every family’ of believers is a part of the one spiritual family of God, in which there are many members but only one ‘Father’ and on brotherhood.”



            As we look at verse sixteen we see the first request that Paul prays for these believers, and not only those in Ephesus but those who are believers throughout the church history.  16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”



Today’s Quote:  “If I have seen farther than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of Giants (Isaac Newton).”



2/3/2019 5:17 PM

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