Ephesians Lesson 26 of 39 part 4

Paul in Romans chapter 1 starting at verse 8 reveals God's view of all mankind and from 8 to verse18 shows mans need of righteousness or as we have said in the past mans need for an awakened spirit. This is seen in the very next verse number 9 where Paul states, God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers. Paul is the first outside of the eleven and those others in the upper room to have this enormous awakening of spirit within him. Oh do not get me wrong there were others who had received the LORD the Spirit but Paul is the one who came to the forefront because of his assignment and commission. Verse 16 is where we were headed so we will look at it now.

Romans 1:16

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (this Gospel) is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth*;..."

* takes God at His Word.

To every person that takes God at His Word. We have to trust God, but how can one trust some one they do not know? I mean take a girl and a boy matters not their age. How can a girl trust the boy? First and foremost by getting the know him, spending large amounts of time talking and dating to build a relationship of trust between the two of them. For some people this may take years or weeks or even just a few months but none the less it takes time. With God it is no different though His breath is our very first breath received at birth and His presence is within from that moment on, keeping in mind that He is the Spirit of all human Life. Yes Human life, for the animal kingdom was spoken into being as were the bugs and plants and do not for get the stars, Sun and Moon they were also called forth by His voice. So how do we come to know God, the answer may surprise you, your very own conscious. Yes, our conscious is the source of our hearing of His voice when we have allowed yourselves to listen. He is always there speaking to us but do we listen to Him? Sadly we do not instead we are forced by violence to accept the voice of our flesh from a young age on. In the Proverbs 22:6 it says, to train up a child so when he gets old he will not depart of God (paraphrased). we are given the word to use as a means of training our children and ourselves but do we use it properly? NO! For many of us we follow the leader not knowing that that very leader does not know Truth. We are therefore mislead by them even though they have good intentions, good intentions are not enough. We all star with good intentions but along the path we go astray either by mans intervention of flesh or by Satan's intervention of false voice, both amount to the same thing and out come, death.

Paul says here that he is not ashamed of this Gospel of good news and later on he says that he does not water it down or twist it in any way shape or form. But sadly there are many who do, they force it to say what it was not intended to say. And our many churches and diverse denominations prove the distortion of the Truth. But Truth is the power of God onto Salvation, not mans contrived message but the Truth is what awakens our souls to receive God's voice when spoken in Love and Truth by those who have chosen the path of hard knocks a path of resistance by the spirit of the world. Which God's angels as Revelation bears record to do battle in our behalf to keep us on the right path to be Christ's messengers on a mission of Love and Truth at all cost of life and limb if need be.

Let’s come on over to where we were several chapters back in chapter 2 of Ephesians. Here in verse 8 is a classic salvation verse.

Ephesians 2:8

"For by grace are ye saved through faith*: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God:"

* the taking God at His Word by believing Paul’s Gospel.

There are many we could go to - and we need to hit several. Why? Because we are to use the Word to confirm the revelation of the Word. Or to prove the Word of Truth, though it should be able to stand alone. Let’s back up a page or two to the little book of Galatians chapter 2, and verse 20. This is Paul’s own testimony.