Ephesians Lesson 8 part 5

Now verse 6 of Isaiah chapter 9:

Isaiah 9:6-7
"For unto us (Israel) a child is born, unto us (Israel) a son is given: and the government (the 1000 year rule and reign when He will be King of kings and Lord of lords, and we feel we're getting closer all the time. Is this for only the 1000 years or for eternity? As the 1000 years is but a metaphor an an allegory for eternity. I mean we're getting close!) shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."
So Who do we have intertwined in this one verse? God the Father, God the Holy Spirit and God the Son. Because the Holy Spirit is all three and is therefore the Godhead which Jesus was filled with as the Son of man. Like so many westerners think in only a compartmentalized fashion of mindset they want to think of God as being only one part of the whole. This style of mindset is what also plagued Israel as a nation because it thought of itself as being above all others. (We must keep in mind that He ways and thoughts are NOT as we think and see things.) When in actuality it was not, it was more corrupt then all others because it had forsaken God and broken His word and Covenant and become idol worshipers of its own making in religion. Moving on this reminds me of John chapter 14, what did Jesus tell Philip?

John 14:9
"Jesus saith unto him, `Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father:...'"
We know this is mind-boggling, but we've got to remember that even though it's three Persons it's one God. Yes! Jesus is the Prince of Peace, but that does not limit Him to being the Peace of Jerusalem as He is our Peace with God when we've willing surrendered our all to Him for He told Israel, its all or nothing (paraphrased; Deuteronomy 6:4-6 and Jesus said in Matthew 10:37, 22:37 and then Paul says in Romans 12:1-3). Now verse 7.

Isaiah 9:7
"Of the increase of his government and peace (the world has no idea what it would be like to live in total peace. And of His peace) there shall be no end, (in this coming 1000 year reign there won't even be a little brush fire war. It will be a 1000 years of peace under the rule and reign of the mighty God. And where is He going to rule from? Jerusalem but and here is the trouble will it be an earthy or Heavenly Jerusalem for even King David sought the Heavenly Jerusalem because he saw it for it is witnessed of him as his HOPE! Hebrews 11) upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. (And how is it going to happen?) The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this."
See how this all fits with God's timeline as found in Psalm 2 up to verse 8. And in our last lesson we were seeing the power of God. His power will bring all of this about, and don't worry whether all these things will happen. They will happen! In His fashion and not mans understanding. Hey we're all human. We read these things and wonder, "Is it really going to happen?" That 1000-year reign with Christ almost sounds to good to be true, so as humans we wonder is it really going to happen. It's not that we're doubting it, but on the other hand we have to face reality, "Is all of this really going to happen?" In the way in which we see it and understand it? We couldn't help but think about all of this the other night, and all of a sudden the Lord sent the thought into my spirit, "But listen, everything that the Old Testament prophesied concerning His first coming happened." And we imagine those people back 1500 years before Christ couldn't even begin to imagine that all these things would happen. So we imagine that they felt the same way. Is God really meaning business with us? Yeah, He was because it all happened. So don't ever lose heart, and remember that God's Word is sure. Now back to our text in Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:13-14
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Ephesians 1:13a
"In whom ye also trusted,..."
Remember who is Paul writing to? Believers. He's writing to those who are now believers, so he's writing to us as believers today also. Now of course as he writes to believers it's also going to have an effect on the unsaved person. And here again is how we've gotten our position in Christ. By hearing and hearing the Word of God though it may have become distorted in our hearing the Holy One, the Spirit who is our trainer and teacher of all Truth gives His life of Light to it and thereby causes it to grow within us we don't know how.

Ephesians 1:13a
"In whom ye also trusted (what's the other word for trust in the Bible? Faith or receptivity, or to believe, as you can use any of the four. When did you trust, receive, believe, or have faith?) after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:..."
Too many people just glibly read this without really understanding what it says. That we trusted Christ so that He could place us into the Body of Christ, His divine assembly. But when did we trust? After we heard the word of truth, not before. And what gospel did we believe? This Gospel of God's Grace for entry into the promised New Covenant. Now that reminds us of a couple of verses in Romans. Let's just drop down to verse 13 of Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10:13-17
"For whosoever (and who are the whosoevers? anyone) shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Now we had a nice conversation with someone the other morning, and he was wondering about the words saved and righteous. He had a verse where they were more or less in the same context. So we told him they were interchangeable. In fact we read a long time ago it would probably be more appropriate for us to say today that we were made righteous, rather than to say we were saved. We're not taking anything away from the word saved, but really when we're saved what happens? When we were made righteous, which is to be right with God. At this point God places us in the first estate to be tutored by the Holy Spirit through the Old Testament where He reveals to us our former undoneness and the utter sinfulness of sin and its hold in our flesh. He then gives us a choice within its hold or our putting of it to death, the mortifying its deeds. He does this by revealing the highlights of the hidden Truth in the New Testaments revelation. So it's really more appropriate to say I was made righteous when I believed rather than just simply saying I was saved.

When we were made righteous, God imputed the righteousness of Christ to us. But look what had to happen first. We had to call upon Him and let Him know. We tell people to verbalize it, don't just say, "Yeah, I believe." But rather we verbalize it, "Lord I believe that you died for me. I believe that you were buried, and that you rose from the dead and that I was in You. I believe that your shed blood is payment for my sins, I believe and receive that!" Don't just assume that God can read your mind, although we know He can. He wants our willful agreement to His revelation by way of our acknowledging of it to Him. Now verse 14.

Romans 10:14
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"
So it takes the whole complex human being to bring all this into experience. We have to have heard it, we have to thought about it, we have to comprehend (receive) it, and then we have to use the mouth and verbalize it.