Ephesians Part 4 (Introduction to the Letter)

Intro: Having introduced the writer and the recipients of the letter we are ready to consider the salutation of verse 2. The twofold subject of the next sentence in this letter is. In all of the known letters of Paul, he introduces his letter with the words, grace and peace and closes the letter with at least the word grace. Now if we are to understand Paul's words to the Ephesians then it is essential that we understand what he means by the word grace. You may wonder why I am devoting an entire message to this word. This word occurs 12 times in Ephesians. We will not do a message on it each time we come to it. I encourage you to take notes so that you may refer back to it for we will not be spending much time on this word from here on.

When I went to Bible school, modern psychology was just catching on there. We were taught that man's two great needs were security and significance. At first I was very impressed with many of the things I was being taught. In my fourth year, being on the Bachelor of Theology program, I was to write a major thesis paper. I chose the topic of the nature of man. How I thank God for leading me to that topic. But after all my required work was done on the nature of man I had turned away from modern psychology to a fully convinced view that there is no psychological textbook like the Bible.