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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 1:13,14
Intro. We are talking about our trusting in Christ.
I. "In whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth."
A. Paul asked in his epistle to the Romans, "How can they believe
in Him of whom they have not heard?"
1. The hearing of the word of truth is the first step.
2. The trusting in the word, that it is truth is the
second step.
B. Paul went on to explain that faith then comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God.
C. Though nature speaks to us of God, the problem is that
revelation of God through nature is not complete enough to
bring us to salvation.
1. Nature can tell us of the glory of God.
2. Nature can tell us of the wisdom of God.
a. It teaches us that He is a God of order.
b. It teaches that He has set certain laws that
govern our universe.
3. Nature cannot reveal to us His grace, love and mercy.
4. To know these truths took special revelation.
a. So God in different times of history and to
different men revealed these truths to mankind
by His prophets.
b. Finally God sent His only begotten Son to teach
us concerning Himself.
D. Another problem of the revelation of God through nature, is
that we are getting a distorted view of God because of fallen
nature.
1. Man has left his mark of pollution all over the world.
2. Through air and light pollution we do not see the
heavens that Abraham saw when God told him to go out
and look up at the stars.
3. Where man could at one time see the truth of God more
clearly in nature, it is necessary now to hear the
truth of God.
E. Having heard the truth, you have now come to trust in Him.
F. The truth of the gospel of salvation that He has offered to
all who would trust in Him.
1. He has chosen us.
2. He has predestined us for adoption into His family.
3. He has accepted us.
4. He has redeemed us.
5. He has forgiven our sins.
6. His grace has abounded toward us.
7. He has made known to us the mystery of His will.
8. He has given us an inheritance.
9. This is all a part of this glorious gospel of
salvation.
II. "In whom also after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise."
A. This is true of everyone who has ever believed in Jesus Christ
for their salvation, they have been sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise.
1. On the day of pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured
out on the church, when the people convicted by the
word of the gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead asked the apostles what they must do.
Peter answered, "Repent and believe in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for this promise
of Joel when God promised to pour out His Spirit on all
flesh is unto you and to your children and to those who
are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall
call.
2. Paul again in writing to the Romans declared that if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His.
1CO 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and [that] the
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
GAL 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
1JO 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in
him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit
which he hath given us.
3. This being sealed with the Holy Spirit is not the same
as being baptized with the Holy Spirit which is the
enduement with power to be witnesses of Him.
4. All believers have been sealed with the Holy Spirit,
not all believers have been baptized with the Holy
Spirit.
B. What is meant by being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise?
1. Ephesus was one of the world trade centers of that day,
the goods from the East would come into Ephesus to be
carried from their by sea to Rome and the other
capitols of Europe.
2. It was a city of bustling commerce, and always filled
with merchants from Rome, and other major areas.
3. These merchants would buy their goods there, then ship
them from Ephesus to the Western world. It was here
that East met West.
4. When they would purchase the goods, they would pack
them for shipment, they would then put their seal of
ownership on the merchandise that was to be sent to the
Roman port of Puteoli where the merchandise would be
identified and claimed by the servants of the merchant.
a. The seal was the sign of ownership.
b. These goods belong to the owner whose seal is
affixed to them
5. The Holy Spirit is God's mark of ownership on you.
1CO 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not
your own?
1CO 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your
body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
6. We who are Christ's have given up our rights to Him.
I am not my own to live as I please, or to do as I
please, I have surrendered those rights to Him. I am
now His and He can do as He pleases with me.
7. It is interesting how many times we find ourselves
asserting our rights which we really no longer have.
"The path that I have trod,
Has brought me near to God,
Though oft it led through sorrows gate,
It's not the way I chose,
For in my way, I might lose,
The joy that yet for me awaits.
Not what I wish to be,
Nor where I wish to go,
For who am I, that I should chose my way?
The Lord shall chose for me,
Tis better far I know,
So let Him bid me go, or stay."
III. That seal of the Holy Spirit is earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession.
A. When the merchandise was bought in Ephesus and sealed by the
owner, it was then placed on the ship and carried to Rome.
When it arrived in port and identified by the seal, it was then
claimed by the owner, who redeemed that which was His.
1. We have been sealed by God's mark of ownership, and are
presently on the journey to the home port, when we
arrive He will claim us as His for He purchased us, it
is then that our redemption will be complete.
2. Paul to the Romans spoke how that the whole creation
was groaning and travailing together as they waited
for the manifestation of the Sons of God, to wit, the
redemption of our bodies.
B. In the mean time the Holy Spirit is the earnest of our
inheritance.
1. Last week we saw that we had obtained an inheritance
as the sons of God. Heirs of God and joint heirs with
Jesus Christ of the promised Kingdom of God.
2. The Holy Spirit is my proof that God is earnest or
sincere in His intentions concerning me.
3. How certain am I that God is going to complete my
redemption and give to me the inheritance?
a. The oath that God has taken.
HEB 6:17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of
promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an
oath:
HEB 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which [it was] impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
b. The seal of ownership which is the Holy Spirit
who is the earnest or down payment of my
inheritance.
c. The glory and joy of walking in the power of
the Spirit is just a foretaste of the glory
and joy of the full inheritance that awaits me
when I arrive in the home port.
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