The Christian, God's Own Possession
Jesse M. Hendley
Ephesians 1:1
If you have your Bibles, friends, I want you to turn with me to the Book of Ephesians, in the New Testament, and today we are studying THE CHRISTIAN, GOD'S OWN POSSESSION.
We need to know this today. I think one of the troubles of this hour, why people are not happy, is that they think they can rule their own lives. They think they can control themselves. They can't, any more than children can. One reason why God says, "Children, obey your parents," is that children are incapable of knowing what is best for them worldly-wise, but the parents usually do. So God says, "Children, obey your parents." It is better for the child. The child cannot guide its own life. It must be guided by someone else who is wiser and stronger.
So it is with us and God. For a real life of success GOD must control our lives. The thought that we are God's own POSSESSION is really a blessed thought, to the child of God, and in Ephesians 1:14 we read these words: "Which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the PURCHASED POSSESSION, unto the praise of His Glory." Now I lift out of the text that expression, "the purchased possession." I lift it out, not to "interpret" it, because one of the faults of much teaching today can be found right there: the idea of trying to interpret a text out of its context! It cannot be done, friends. The Bible is not a hit-or-miss proposition. And just taking the text out of its context (that which goes before and follows after) has done more mischief in false teaching, and has ruined more souls, and has blasted more lives, than anyone can say. For instance, "There are many ways of salvation," according to the many different groups of so-called faiths today. But actually the Bible teaches only ONE WAY of salvation. If a person reads it through and gets the whole connection, he can never go off on a tangent on any of these profound truths. A man ...
Jesse M. Hendley
Ephesians 1:1
If you have your Bibles, friends, I want you to turn with me to the Book of Ephesians, in the New Testament, and today we are studying THE CHRISTIAN, GOD'S OWN POSSESSION.
We need to know this today. I think one of the troubles of this hour, why people are not happy, is that they think they can rule their own lives. They think they can control themselves. They can't, any more than children can. One reason why God says, "Children, obey your parents," is that children are incapable of knowing what is best for them worldly-wise, but the parents usually do. So God says, "Children, obey your parents." It is better for the child. The child cannot guide its own life. It must be guided by someone else who is wiser and stronger.
So it is with us and God. For a real life of success GOD must control our lives. The thought that we are God's own POSSESSION is really a blessed thought, to the child of God, and in Ephesians 1:14 we read these words: "Which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the PURCHASED POSSESSION, unto the praise of His Glory." Now I lift out of the text that expression, "the purchased possession." I lift it out, not to "interpret" it, because one of the faults of much teaching today can be found right there: the idea of trying to interpret a text out of its context! It cannot be done, friends. The Bible is not a hit-or-miss proposition. And just taking the text out of its context (that which goes before and follows after) has done more mischief in false teaching, and has ruined more souls, and has blasted more lives, than anyone can say. For instance, "There are many ways of salvation," according to the many different groups of so-called faiths today. But actually the Bible teaches only ONE WAY of salvation. If a person reads it through and gets the whole connection, he can never go off on a tangent on any of these profound truths. A man ...
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