The morning Manna
will be provided at 6am. Thanks.
Studying Ephesians in
the SSnet.org series Lesson 14, may the Holy Spirit be the speaker to your
heart.
The Topic today
is: “Ephesians 2 about salvation by grace only no works salvation and true faith
that produces good works of sanctification towards perfection for Morning Manna
of the Sabbath School Lesson Ephesians”.
The Opening Hymn
will be 229 "Spirit of the Living God."
The Sabbath School
Quarterly, downloadable from SSnet.org in the Teacher's Edition is on page 112-114
and 176-179 in the Teacher’s edition (alternative one below).
The SSnet.org site
allows anyone, anywhere to read the lesson in their own language. Choose your
own language to see God speaking also to your heart.
Why do you not
click on this now?
https://www.adultbiblestudyguide.org/pdf.php?file=2023:3Q:SE:PDFs:EAQ323_14.pdf
---Or try in
alternative this one: https://ssnet.org/lessons/23c/less14.html
------For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10,
---Ever heard of
both sides of the same coin? In 1985 Denis Priebe wrote about salvation focusing
on Sanctification. In 1987 Helmut Ott wrote about the same focusing on
Justification by faith alone without works.
---Then Arnold
V. Wallenkampf wrote a book to fuse the two and have an eclectic accommodative
approach to the subject.
Source: https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/1988/06/justification-perfection-and-the-real-gospel
---By Grace are
you saved without works (Helmut Ott says period, no more talking). Denis Priebe
said the same but continued to say that there is an importance of
Sanctification following this event and that perfection needs to be attained.
---In this text
Paul speaks like Priebe (on Justification) and like Helmut Ott (on
Justification) but also like Paul, Priebe said it leads to good works. Ott wants
to debunk any good works even with the Holy Spirit as important.
---Ellen White
through all her works had the two side coin approach. Justification is
important and no works of ourselves can save us. We need divine help. The
purpose of Justification is to lead the person to good works and
Sanctification.
---Those who
insist that Martin Luther only spoke of salvation by grace alone or justification
and not also of good works or sanctification, should check the sermon of Luther
at the Leipzig debate with Eck in 1519.
---It was Debate’s
off day and King George went elsewhere so Luther could preach. They could not
find a church so they used the debate floor.
---“On the next
day there was no debate. Luther had been asked by Duke Barnim to preach. No
church could be obtained for him to deliver the sermon, and he was forced to preach
in the hall of debate. The hall was crowded. Some had come as spies to find a
cause against Luther. Duke George had gone to Dresden and was not present.
Luther spoke on the Gospel for the day, Matt. 16, 13 — 19. He touched upon the
great questions on which the debate turned, and explained them briefly and to
the edification of his hearers. On the basis of Jesus' words : "Flesh and
blood hath not revealed this unto thee," etc., he showed that in spiritual
matters divine grace must do all, and human free will can do nothing. The soul
must first despair of its own strength; then comes faith, which lays hold of
the grace of God, and in the state of grace and by grace the believer then begins
to do good works.”
---That is what
Paul said. That is what Luther said. That is what Ellen White said. That is
what Denis Priebe said. That is what Andrew Kang said. That is what Helmut Ott
also said but with reservation as to the possibility to attain perfection which
was also the point of Luther but all the others agreed: perfection is a must.
---Then there is
the issue whether perfection is all from above or from above and below?
---Paul said
with Ellen White and Denis Priebe and Andrew Kang that perfection is from above
and below in cooperation with the Holy Spirit only and not without it.
---There is no
good works possible by human’s own endeavor ever, said Ellen White in Steps to Christ.
Listen to Luther
in his Commentary to Galatians in 1523:
“The true way of salvation is this.
First, a person must realize that he is a sinner, the kind of a sinner who is
congenitally unable to do any good thing. "Whatsoever is not of faith, is
sin." Those who seek to earn the grace of God by their own efforts are
trying to please God with sins. They mock God, and provoke His anger. The first
step on the way to salvation is to repent.”
Source: Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1549/1549-h/1549-h.htm
---Like Paul,
Ellen White side also with James that man is not only saved by faith minus good
works. It is faith that produces good works that is the true faith. Get that?
Paul said it in Romans 10 and James in James 2.
Listen to Luther
in his Commentary to Galatians in 1523:
“Here the
question arises by what means are we justified? We answer with Paul, "By faith only in Christ are we
pronounced righteous, and not by works." Not that we reject good works. Far from it. But we will not allow
ourselves to be removed from the anchorage of our salvation.”
Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1549/1549-h/1549-h.htm
---If you have a
secret sin that you cling to and do not want to give up, then of course you do
not like the call to perfection and of course you will insist that man cannot
really keep the law and of course you will not see it a problem to be saved by
9 commands instead of ten, because you go to church on Sunday. Correct?
---Good works
and overcoming are brothers. Jude 24 says Christ is the effective example of a
perfect Overcomer for us.
---Revelation
asks us more than 8 times to overcome.
---Jesus said to
the Woman caught in Adultery after Justification, “Go to your sanctification process
‘and sin no more’”. Correct?
---Welcome to
the true gospel that is a case of both sides of the same coin.
---But, Luther
was a beer and wine drinker at his Table Talks. So perfection? Not possible.
---Listen to
Luther in his 1523 Galatians
Commentary:
“To live as a Jew is nothing bad. To eat or not to eat
pork, what difference does it make? But to play the Jew, and for conscience'
sake to abstain from certain meats, is a denial of Christ.” Oops. This is
the man that with Augustine wants to say perfection is not possible ever on
earth because of original sin in us.
Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1549/1549-h/1549-h.htm
---Do not say
that the Reformers were not properly informed at that time. They were. They had
strong debates after this year on Infant Baptism versus Adult Baptism. Oh.
---They had
George Joye saying in his Daniel Commentary on Daniel 7:25 that the papacy is
the Little Horn because he changed Saturday Sabbath to Sunday, in 1542!
---They had the
debates among themselves on the role of the will and grace all along.
---The heart
must be fully surrendered to God. Not 9 commands of the Law only. Not 99%.
Correct?
---Is your
pastor a smoking or drinking pastor? Oops. Better speak to him. When?
Immediately. He has to change. If he does not want to get out of that church. Call
an Adventist pastor in your area. They are not smokers or drinkers and try to
keep all ten commandments, including Saturday as Sabbath. Got it?