Before we get into our study in Ephesians allow me to add some information which has been hidden from view by saying the following. My wife just opened one of those books written back in the 1600's, this one by William Law, titled “A Demonstration of the Gross and Fundamental Errors.” In which he reveals much of what we've been saying about the Lord's Last Supper on through His ascension as being a continuous action. And this one startling fact that the Lord Himself by the very words used as recorded by Luke and Mark reveal Him as the God of creation, the Light of Genesis 1:1-3 and a host of other scriptures of both the Old and the New Covenants. Which are necessary for all things to be established just as we in our limited understanding have said. William Law's approach to a thesis written by another is by way of a argument against a doctrine on the Lord's Last Supper from a purely external and literal point of view. Which in effect is how the Hebrews remained a pagan people in a false religion of their own making and design. For they both refused God and then to hear Him and then to do as He had told them through His Prophets. They took all things literally not knowing or understanding their spiritual meaning because of their hardness of heart, unbelief. This was and still is the err of the institutional churches which keep all things in the literal essence (the pagan idolatry of Judaism) which is the hidden Harlot of Babylon of Revelation and the worth-ship of Baalim, or Baalam or Belial (2 Corthians 6:15).
In the beginning of his argument he states the following in Dem 16: “And that, if it were anyone's desire to do exactly what our blessed Lord charges upon the Pharisees and lawyer, "that they shut up the kingdom of heaven, took away the key of knowledge, entered not in themselves, and those that were entering in, they hindered": were this the deepest desire of anyone's heart, the one only effectual way of doing it, must be the way that this author has taken in this treatise. For, it shall also be made appear, that these principles of his are that very veil which the apostle says was upon the hearts of the Jews; and that the scriptures have never been useless to, misunderstood, or rejected by any people of any age, but for this reason, because their hearts were blinded and hardened by this very method of knowing scripture truths, which he proposes to us. All the characters of "stiff -necked, hardened, blind, carnal, and uncircumcised in heart and spirit," which are in the scriptures given to unbelieving Jews, are only so many various ways of describing that state of heart, which these very principles had produced in them.”
Then in Dem 18 we find this: “But to begin in my proposed method. The holy sacrament was instituted in these words: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it: for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." Matt. 26:28. In St. Luke the words of institution are: "And he took the bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you." Luke 22:19.
Then in Dem 20 and 21 we have this: “The scripture saith, "He spake the word, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created." {Psalm 148:5.} Has this way of speaking any parallel in the language of men? Do human things and transactions furnish us with anything like this?[Dem-21] Now the Word which thus speaking created all things, is not more extraordinary, more above the common rules of speaking, or more without human example, than that Word which, in the institution of the sacrament, spake, and it was done; commanded, and it was created. For it is the same omnipotent Word that here speaks, that spoke the creation into being; and the effects of his speaking in the institution of the sacrament, are as extraordinary, and as much above the effects of human speaking, as when the same Word "spake, and they were made; commanded, and they were created." And it is impossible for anyone to show, that there is less of divine power and greatness, less of mystery and miracle implied in these words spoken by the eternal Word in the institution of the sacrament, than when the same eternal Word said, "Let there be light, and there was light.” It soon becomes obviously there is much more of interest to us within this book hidden because we're just in the beginning of it. And so I would suggest that all who may have an interest download this book as it is on the public domain in CCEL. Now back on course or track of our study.
We trust that you will just get your Bible and study along with us. We guess one of our favorite expressions is, "now that's what the Book says." After all His Word is all we can go by. But we must of necessity hear God speak to us through His Son and not take of the words in a purely literal sense. It doesn't matter what we think, or what somebody else thinks, or what some denomination thinks, but what does God's Word say about it. Because as the portion of Mr. Law's book has revealed we need to seek God about what He is actually saying for us or to us through His Son first. We know a lot of people try to twist some of these things and make an argument out of it, but usually the Word is so plain, and we can just take it for what it says. As we've seen, what God is looking for more than anything else is "Faith!" That is to say, We're to Just Believe what He has said with all your heart.
Guess we had better take a minute and explain "believing." We've had 2 or 3 questions come up where people will ask, "Bill what do you mean when you say believe?" We suppose everyone thinks about that sometime. We said, "For most it's just a mental accent to an historical fact. But for us its a taking of the word as the Word and as revealed throughout scripture this Word is Christ." That's believing. Then when somebody says, "Oh yeah I believe that Christ was crucified, yeah, I believe that He probably arose from the dead." Hey that's not what the Bible calls believing. Believing is when with our whole being, this whole mind, will, and emotion, recognizes that it's hell bound, it's hopelessly lost, it's without God. And then it can say, "Yes I believe with all my being. That Christ didn't just die a historical death, but rather He died for me, and He arose from the dead for me," and that's why we call salvation personal. Jesus when on the night before His betrayal said, "This is my body which is given for you, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you."(Luke 22:19-20) Jesus as the Son of God in who the fulness of the Godhead was in bodily form and as the Living Word given flesh as the creator of all said this He was saying more than meets the eye or in a literal sense because of what Psalm 148:5 and elsewhere says about Him. This when coupled with the Lord's Last Supper, His suffering in the garden. The illegal court in front of which He was called and stood in all righteousness before evil and wicked men as His judges, both Jew and Gentile. And when He was nailed to that tree which He caused to grow from dead lifeless earth. And while still nailed to it said, “IT IS FINISHED.” He had ended completed finished the Old and inaugurated the New because all power had been given Him (Psalm 2:6-9; Matthew 28:18, 11:27). While He laid in the earth three days and three nights. Then arose in the power of the Endless Life, which He in parted to that same earth from which all animal and plant life came and expounded the old testament scriptures concerning Him for forty days, until He was taken home. When we receive the revelation of our being counted as being IN HIM through this all from the Supper even through His ascension and now seated with Him in the Holiest place, we can say that we're God-child again.
We have to come to this place and understand and believe with all our heart that He died for me. In order for me to gain entry into Him and through Him we gain all the promises of the New Covenant which far out reach those of the Old because they cover both In Christ. Not in a wholesale number, but for me, and for you. This may be hard for some people to believe that He knows everybody individually, but we compare everything again to the stars in space. Out there God has trillions of them, and God has never lost track of a single star. Not only that but God also knows everyone of them by name, so if He can keep track of all those stars. Then He can keep track of a few million believers. So we maintain that it's by believing, and believing alone, it's not just a mental accent to something, it is literally saying, "God I am casting my whole eternity on what you have done for me." That's what we mean by believing, and that's faith, because God has said in His Word what He has done.
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