Table of Contents
Talbot Louis Lectures On Ephesians is a commentary module on Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians.
Talbot, Louis T. – Lectures On Ephesians
Talbot, Louis T. – Lectures On Ephesians
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction (Eph_1:1-3)
2. The Church, the Body-Its Triune Creator, (Eph_1:4-23)
3. The Body-Its Twofold Construction, (Eph_2:1-18)
4. The Body-Its Present Purpose, (Eph_2:19-22)
5. The Supplement to Ephesians 2-The Jewish Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple – Shadows of the Church – The Living Temple
6. The Body-Its Mystery and Glory, (Ephesians 3)
7. The Body-Its Walk Part I (Eph_4:1-16)
8. The Body-Its Walk Part II (Eph 4:17-6:9)
9. The Body-Its Warfare (Eph_6:10-24)
Excerpt from the module
CHAPTER TWO THE CHURCH, THE BODY-ITS TRIUNE CREATOR
Eph 1:4-23
IN Eph 1:4 the great mystery begins to unfold. Before we begin the study of this first great division of the Epistle, let us glance at the chart, noting the five main parts of the book:
1. The Church, the Body-Its Triune Creator.
In which we see that God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit had a part in the creation of the mystical Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The Church, the Body-Its Twofold Construction.
Wherein we see that this Body is composed of strange material -saved Jews and saved Gentiles, who were, before the Spirit of God touched them; dead in trespasses and sins.
3. The Church, the Body-Its Present Purpose.
In which we as believers are taught that the Body of Christ is the habitation of God and the temple of the Holy Ghost during this age.
4. The Church, the Body-Its Mystery and Glory.
Revealing that the church was a mystery, hidden in the past ages, is revealed in the present age, and will be glorified in the future ages.
5. The Church, the Body-Its Walk and Warfare.
In which we see that this Body has certain responsibilities and that it must necessarily be engaged in warfare with the powers of darkness while here on earth. The Epistle closes with Paul’s greeting to the saints at Ephesus and with a benediction.
Before we enter into the detailed study of what each member of the Godhead has done in bringing into existence the church, let us read Eph 1:4-14 in order that we might obtain a view of what the Triune God, the three Persons of the Trinity, has done.
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 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 (Eph 1:4-14).
We see immediately that each member of the Godhead has done three things.
– Through the Father we were “chosen,” “predestinated,” and “accepted.”
– Through the Son we have “redemption and the forgiveness of sins,” and an “inheritance.”
– By the Holy Spirit we are “quickened,” “sealed,” and given an “earnest.”
After the Apostle Paul reviewed the work of the Godhead in behalf of the Body of Christ, he prayed that the Ephesians might have minds illuminated by the Holy Spirit, in order that they might grasp the truth of this revelation.
Now let us go back and get a detailed account of what each member of the Godhead did.
In Eph 1:4-6 we see the work of the Father which is threefold.
I. THE WORK OF THE FATHER
(1) “Chosen in him before the foundation of the world.”
Here we have God’s sovereign choice of us. How far back did He make this choice? “Before the foundation of the world” was laid. The church was not an afterthought with God. My name, your name, and the name of every believer living since Pentecost was upon His heart before He brought a star into its place, or before the planets were started whirling in their orbits.
In Gen 1:1 we read about the creation: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” This revelation of the creation of the heaven and the earth is great, indeed, and often-times we wonder how many years in the past this was performed. Some scientists have placed the age of the earth at 100,000,000 years. Be that as it may, Ephesians presents a revelation that antedates the foundation of the world. “Chosen in him before the foundation of the world.”
This is a great revelation, the greatest, indeed, that God has made known; He therefore desires that we should believe it.
You see, God foreknew everything….
Excerpt from the Module
CHAPTER THREE THE BODY-ITS TWOFOLD CONSTRUCTION
(Eph 2:1-18)
WE NOW enter upon the second division of this Epistle, entitled: The Church-Its Twofold Construction, covering Eph 2:1-18. In these verses the Holy Spirit gives us a picture of the material which God is using in the construction of His church, the mystical Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. This material consists of Jews and Gentiles who were once worthless sinners, “dead in trespasses and sins,” but now, through the regenerating power of the Holy Ghost, have been raised from spiritual death, given new life, and baptized into this mystical Body.
The Gentiles are first described, and we have a picture of what they were by nature. My! But what a portrait God has given with regard to what we were before the marvelous transforming power of God changed us into what we are now by grace.
In the first three verses we have a life-sized portrait of our lost condition. The Spirit gives this portrait in order to show the exceeding riches of God’s grace. We cannot see the wonders of His matchless grace until we first see ourselves as we were before God’s mercy rested upon us. Let us read Eph 2:1-3, noting carefully each statement:
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
I. WHAT WE WERE
(1) You will note that the first declaration concerning our condition is that we were “Dead in trespasses and sins.”
This is the most terrible statement which God has made concerning unconverted man, the Holy Spirit portraying the condition of the natural man by this figure of speech. Other references are made where we are called “lost sheep,” “wild ass,” “dead dog,” but here a stronger figure of speech is used-we are described as “dead.”
You will remember that in Gen 2:17 God said to Adam: “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
Of course, this does not merely mean physical death because Adam and Eve did not die physically the day on which they ate of the fruit. It refers to spiritual death, and because Adam is the federal head of the human race, it follows that Scripture bears witness to the fact, in Rom 5:12 : “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Death, in the Bible, never means cessation of existence or annihilation. It means “separation.”
– Physical death is the separation of the spirit from the body;
– Spiritual death is separation of spirit and body from God.
Sin always spells separation. If you allow sin to enter a home, it will separate husband and wife. Let sin enter a business, it will separate employer from employee. Sin has entered the human heart, not only marring God’s creation but a great, impassable chasm has been put up between a holy God and His creature, man.
Note that Paul, in declaring that we are “dead in trespasses and sins,” is dealing with what we are and not with what we have done.
In other words, he does not discuss our acts of transgression, but our actual state. “Dead in trespasses and sins,” is the description of every man, woman, boy or girl, regardless of how cultured or how refined that one might be.
Someone may ask, “Do you mean that an innocent seventeen-year-old without Christ is ‘dead’?”
Yes. When the Lord Jesus Christ talked of the necessity of the new birth and declared: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” He was talking to one of the most righteous persons of that day, Nicodemus. The righteousness of Nicodemus was the result of those repressive influences under which he and others like him had lived for years. In other words, his righteousness, like the righteousness of all other unregenerate people, was only external. Consequently, the Lord said to him: “Ye must be born again” (Joh 3:7).
Sometime ago, I was called upon to conduct two funerals in one day. The first was held in the morning and was that of a young man who had died in France and had been placed into one of those hastily-constructed graves. At the close of the war, the United States government removed his body to this country. The casket was not opened for his loved ones to see because his body was in a state of putrefaction. Had that casket been opened, no one would have raised the question as to whether or not he was dead, for the evidence would have been abundant.
In the afternoon, however, I conducted the funeral of a young woman who had died suddenly at the age of twenty-one. I stood by the side of the casket in which her body lay. There was light playing upon her features and she looked so life-like that it was difficult to believe that she was dead. Putrefaction had not set in; her features were just as they were in life, and she looked as though she were just sleeping or resting.
Standing by the casket, I thought of the funeral in the morning, making a contrast between the two bodies. When I did so, I remembered that there was a parallel as well as a contrast.
They were parallel in that the girl was as dead as the man whom we had buried in the morning. And after the service, we went to the cemetery where her body was lowered as deeply into the earth as was the man’s. The application is this: It is true that we see a difference in people morally; however, that difference passes away in the spiritual realm. If a man is without Christ, though he be circumstantially good, he is just as “dead” as those whose lives are outwardly corrupt, and absolutely void of virtues.
Christ has said, “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son, hath not life.” Those who have not the Son, therefore, regardless of what they may be morally, are spiritually dead, for Christ is life.
(2) The next statement concerning what we are by nature, is that we “Walked according to the course of this world.”
When we read “world” in the Word of God, that world does not mean the physical world or the world of man. Joh 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” The “world” is humanity. The Lord not only loved the “world” of man, but He loved the physical world as well. He loved the lakes, the mountains, the rivers. He loved to walk by the Sea of Galilee. No, this is not what is meant here when it is declared that we “walked according to the course of this world.” It refers rather to the trend of the age in which we are living. It refers to that moral scene which began with Cain when he “went out from the presence of the Lord,” and builded cities, and manufactured musical instruments and went in for a “happy” time in forgetfulness of God. Upon this scene the judgment of God rests and in it every unregenerate man has his existence. The man who knows not God lives in this “world.”
The judgment of God will fall one day upon this realm when our Lord returns in glory to reign. To walk “according to the course of this world” means to travel in the trend of the age, live for self, and repudiate Christ’s claim upon the human heart. Do you belong to this realm, my friend?
(3) The third statement, “According to the prince of the power of the air” means that we walked according to Satan.
Before grace touched us, we were in a realm over which Satan presided and were his subjects.
In these verses we have brought to light some of the most momentous and far-reaching statements God has ever revealed to us with regard to the realm of fallen humanity. We are introduced to the doctrine of the personality of Satan.
There are people, wise in their own conceits, who believe that there is no Satan, saying that he does not have personality, he does not exist. We know, however, that Satan does exist just as God exists, and the Lord Jesus Christ exists. The Bible does not argue the existence of God; neither does it argue the existence of Satan. If God exists, Satan exists. This is the only conclusion to which any human mind can come if reason dominates that mind.
A study of these teachings brings one to the conclusion that behind all of the erroneous teachings and evil there is a master-intelligence having many expressions, and that master-intelligence is Satan. Contenders for this teaching attack the deity of Christ, the inspiration of the Scriptures, and the blood atonement on Calvary with the view of deceiving man and leading him into everlasting destruction.
Let me state that the devil is not a hideous monster with a red body and forked tail, as he is often portrayed in newspapers and pictures. Man changes everything he touches. In art we always see an angel pictured in the form of a woman or a baby. The Bible always portrays angels as young men. In like manner, man has portrayed the devil as a hideous monster with horns and a forked tail, dwelling somewhere in hell and appearing at intervals for the purpose of taking someone to his lair. This tradition or false representation has led thousands of people to deny the personality of Satan and to look upon him as a joke. But Satan is not a joke. Prophecy says that toward the end of the age his power will dazzle this world, the Antichrist being his masterpiece. Foreboding shadows increase about us every day, indicating that that time nears.
continued in the module…
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