Sealed with the Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:07.990 Let's turn our attention to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians one, I'll read verses 2 00:00:08.109 --> 00:00:14.310 one through fourteen. Tonight I'll do my best to focus on verses thirteen and 3 00:00:14.429 --> 00:00:19.030 fourteen. I have a feeling will be dipping a little bit back into where 4 00:00:19.070 --> 00:00:24.219 we came from. So let's hear God's word tonight. Ephesians chapter one, 5 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:31.100 versus one through fourteen. Paul an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will 6 00:00:31.179 --> 00:00:35.579 of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ 7 00:00:35.579 --> 00:00:40.570 Jesus, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord 8 00:00:40.609 --> 00:00:46.009 Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 9 00:00:46.810 --> 00:00:51.039 who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 10 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:56.200 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that 11 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:00.359 we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us 12 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:06.670 for adoption as sons through Christ or through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose 13 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:11.269 of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has 14 00:01:11.349 --> 00:01:17.109 blessed us in the beloved. In Him, we have redemption through his blood 15 00:01:17.629 --> 00:01:22.140 the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which he 16 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:26.980 lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery 17 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:30.739 of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 18 00:01:30.260 --> 00:01:34.090 as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, 19 00:01:34.209 --> 00:01:40.609 things in heaven and things on earth. In Him, we have obtained an 20 00:01:40.689 --> 00:01:46.209 inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things 21 00:01:46.250 --> 00:01:49.799 according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the 22 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:53.920 first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory. 23 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:57.480 In Him. You also, when you heard the word of truth, the 24 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:02.909 Gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy 25 00:02:02.950 --> 00:02:08.430 Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we require possession of it, 26 00:02:09.110 --> 00:02:15.740 to the praise of his glory. Amen. Maybe seated. A great 27 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:20.939 question to ask whenever you come to a passage in the Bible is to ask 28 00:02:20.979 --> 00:02:27.419 yourself, to better understand it and apply it, what's God's objective in this 29 00:02:27.819 --> 00:02:32.849 passage? What's God accomplishing? What's he wanting to accomplish? And here that 30 00:02:32.969 --> 00:02:38.370 objective and verses a, one through fourteen, three through fourteen in particular, 31 00:02:38.370 --> 00:02:44.680 is very clear. His glory, the praise of his glory. It begins 32 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:46.680 and it ends that way, with the glory of God, doesn't it? 33 00:02:47.199 --> 00:02:53.000 Blessed be the God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and several 34 00:02:53.080 --> 00:02:55.919 times throughout, three times, I think, ending at the end with to 35 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:00.750 the praise of his glory. Over and over we have this, this this 36 00:03:01.509 --> 00:03:07.830 call to praise God. But it's more than a call, it is a 37 00:03:07.949 --> 00:03:12.310 praise of God. Right, Paul is not merely telling us something we should 38 00:03:12.310 --> 00:03:15.860 do. He is doing the thing right. He is praising God, he 39 00:03:16.060 --> 00:03:23.939 is blessing God, even even as he writes this. They glories that come 40 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:30.169 to us in this passage come to us through this. This is the not 41 00:03:30.289 --> 00:03:36.009 a great way of putting it, but a rich set of doctrines. They 42 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:42.319 are doctrines, but it's not a checklist of things right. It's not a 43 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:49.800 diagram of the Ur, a map and of the things that God has done. 44 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:55.030 We could certainly create that from this and that would be a helpful exercise 45 00:03:55.270 --> 00:04:00.430 to really understand the particular things that are here, to go through and maybe 46 00:04:00.550 --> 00:04:03.870 list out the doctrines that are taught, the things that are taught here. 47 00:04:04.590 --> 00:04:09.669 But I just want you to note that we don't have a list, right, 48 00:04:10.020 --> 00:04:16.060 we have a doxology, we have a praising of God as he gives 49 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:25.209 us of these things. There is this intimate connection, a connection that can't 50 00:04:25.250 --> 00:04:30.449 be broken, between the stating of the glory of God, that it is 51 00:04:30.810 --> 00:04:35.089 and is in such and such a way, and the glorifying of God. 52 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:41.399 All right, those two things are totally they're not, I don't even want 53 00:04:41.399 --> 00:04:46.360 to say they're woven together. They are the same thing here in this passage, 54 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:50.800 and I know for myself that's how I want my life to be. 55 00:04:53.230 --> 00:04:58.389 It is a good example of the of what Christian living is ultimately all about, 56 00:04:58.589 --> 00:05:01.629 isn't it? It's not having a head full of knowledge, a list 57 00:05:01.670 --> 00:05:05.550 of doctrines, though that's a good thing right, nothing wrong with that, 58 00:05:06.459 --> 00:05:11.740 but it's about something much more than that. It's about these doctrines coming to 59 00:05:11.899 --> 00:05:16.180 life, not just in this and that practical application, but the doctrines themselves 60 00:05:16.259 --> 00:05:23.610 living in a way, not just causing life, but being alive in us, 61 00:05:23.689 --> 00:05:30.810 a glorifying of God, of not an abstract God, a god of 62 00:05:30.850 --> 00:05:34.329 our own imagination, but the God who is right here, the God who 63 00:05:34.370 --> 00:05:42.040 exist, is explained in these scriptures. But I know for me, and 64 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:48.560 I suspect no for you, that there is a disconnect between those things, 65 00:05:48.680 --> 00:05:55.629 right, a disconnect between the things that we know and the ways that we 66 00:05:55.870 --> 00:06:00.709 live, our sense and knowledge, or at least some kind of knowledge, 67 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:08.579 of who God is and what he's done, and our ability, our desire 68 00:06:09.660 --> 00:06:20.170 to praise him and his glory. How do we overcome that disconnection? Well, 69 00:06:20.209 --> 00:06:23.769 there's a number of ways in which you can answer that question. I 70 00:06:25.050 --> 00:06:30.129 think there's two main things. One thing that causes a disconnect between what we 71 00:06:30.329 --> 00:06:38.759 know and and who we are is a knowledge problem. Our knowledge of the 72 00:06:38.879 --> 00:06:44.959 things of God is really shallow sometimes. In other words, the faith, 73 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.589 and this is the other problem for the disconnect, a lack of faith in 74 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:56.230 God is weak sometimes because the god that we're putting our faith in is a 75 00:06:56.269 --> 00:07:00.589 god we just don't know very well, right. It's a God that we 76 00:07:00.709 --> 00:07:05.100 don't fully or we don't understand very well, a god that we haven't had 77 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:12.459 a lot of experience with. You know, if I give you some directions 78 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:17.329 to a place that you've never gone before and the map looks confusing and you've 79 00:07:17.370 --> 00:07:20.689 never quite you haven't quite studied it yet. You might be a little nervous 80 00:07:20.730 --> 00:07:26.250 about going that way, about trusting, about trusting the path. It's hard 81 00:07:26.410 --> 00:07:30.759 to it's hard to just enjoy the journey right if you're constantly looking at your 82 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:35.680 GPS making sure it's right, testing it, checking it out. On the 83 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:42.240 other hand, sometimes we know very well and we we have a sense of 84 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:46.029 everything that are we have everything that we need, and yet we simply don't 85 00:07:46.029 --> 00:07:50.110 trust it's like, let's going back to the GPS example. Let's say you 86 00:07:50.149 --> 00:07:54.829 were given a GPS. You're given it by someone who is used at a 87 00:07:54.910 --> 00:07:59.779 thousand times without fail. It has the certification of every kind of mapping company 88 00:07:59.819 --> 00:08:01.939 you would ever want, and yet, just because you are the way you 89 00:08:03.019 --> 00:08:05.860 are, you're just not going to trust that thing right, and so you 90 00:08:05.939 --> 00:08:09.899 you don't look at it, you don't pay attention to it. It's like 91 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:13.730 that with the things of God. Sometimes our problem is that we don't know 92 00:08:13.970 --> 00:08:18.810 very much. We're simply unfamiliar with him, unfamiliar with the things he said. 93 00:08:18.449 --> 00:08:22.649 Other Times it's that we're familiar with them, but we simply don't believe 94 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:26.680 them and we don't trust them. Sometimes it's both. So how do we 95 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:35.039 overcome that disconnect right between knowing the things that make God Glorious and actually glorifying 96 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:39.159 him in our lives? Well, there are, as I said, are 97 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:41.509 a number of things we can say, but I want to focus on these 98 00:08:41.830 --> 00:08:48.909 to and perhaps even help with these two things tonight, our knowledge and our 99 00:08:48.990 --> 00:08:52.629 faith. And I think the way we can approach it and help with this 100 00:08:52.830 --> 00:09:00.580 problem is by receiving the word of God as it comes to us, hearing 101 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:07.740 Paul lifting up his soul in this glorious doxology as he is receiving the God 102 00:09:07.259 --> 00:09:11.889 who speaks, of course, knowing that it's not just the Apostle Paul who's 103 00:09:13.009 --> 00:09:18.970 writing to us, a holy, godly man who is very knowledgeable and understanding 104 00:09:18.049 --> 00:09:22.889 of the things of the faith, but this is an apostle who has been 105 00:09:22.929 --> 00:09:30.559 sent by Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to communicate these things 106 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.600 to us. In other words, it's not just Paul Who's speaking to us 107 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:39.789 this evening, it is God himself, and so we can come to to 108 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:48.230 him. We don't solve this disconnection problem by heading to some other thing and 109 00:09:48.350 --> 00:09:52.740 then fixing that and then coming back to God right our disconnection with God is 110 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:58.820 solved by being in God, going to God, receiving the things of God. 111 00:10:01.860 --> 00:10:05.100 So I want to think now in verses thirteen and fourteen in particular, 112 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:11.450 what we're told here. Relate that back to the what we've heard before and 113 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:20.169 and and hopefully tie some things together in a helpful way. So we read 114 00:10:20.769 --> 00:10:26.360 in verse thirteen that in him that's referring to Christ and has been referring to 115 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:31.000 him throughout this passage. In him you also, when you heard the word 116 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:35.070 of truth, the Gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed 117 00:10:35.230 --> 00:10:41.350 with the promised Holy Spirit. Just a little bit of exposition here. In 118 00:10:41.509 --> 00:10:48.950 him refers to Christ. You also refers to these ephesian Christians and, by 119 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:54.659 extension, US. Paul has in mind the the EPHESIAN church and the churches 120 00:10:54.700 --> 00:11:01.500 in the in in in that at that time, which by and large were 121 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:05.809 gentile. There's a distinction that we talked a little bit about last time, 122 00:11:05.809 --> 00:11:09.970 between the Jews and the gentiles. He's saying we, as these first, 123 00:11:09.250 --> 00:11:13.169 these people who first believe, these believing Jews, have received these things, 124 00:11:13.250 --> 00:11:18.169 and now you also, you gentiles, as the Gospel is going forth, 125 00:11:18.210 --> 00:11:22.639 are receiving these things as well. So in Him, in Christ, you 126 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:28.000 also, when you heard the word of truth, the Gospel, the good 127 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:33.029 news of your salvation, and believed in him. We're sealed with the promised 128 00:11:33.070 --> 00:11:39.429 Holy Spirit. We were seeing yield, with the promised Holy Spirhirit. And 129 00:11:39.470 --> 00:11:43.110 then he explains a little bit about that. He says, who is the 130 00:11:43.230 --> 00:11:50.539 guarantee of our inheritance until we would acquire possession of it? To the praise 131 00:11:50.340 --> 00:11:58.659 of his glory, in these verses and in this whole chapter, up to 132 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:07.730 this point, God has been presenting himself to us as a triune God. 133 00:12:09.889 --> 00:12:18.360 This is so important because we are not trusting in merely a divine power, 134 00:12:20.120 --> 00:12:30.110 a force of fate. We are trusting in the tried personal though be three 135 00:12:30.429 --> 00:12:35.470 person God, Father, son and Holy Spirit. Now that's not something that 136 00:12:35.590 --> 00:12:41.350 I'm making up or pulling out of Christian tradition or theology somewhere. That is 137 00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:48.580 the explicit teaching of this passage from the very beginning. Grace to you and 138 00:12:48.700 --> 00:12:52.820 peace to you from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Then 139 00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:58.299 verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 140 00:12:58.649 --> 00:13:05.250 who has blessed us in Christ, with every spiritual blessing attributed to the Holy 141 00:13:05.289 --> 00:13:09.769 Spirit there in the heavenly places. The God whom we serve is a God 142 00:13:09.929 --> 00:13:16.639 who has revealed himself to US and bought us in the sun and applied those 143 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:24.679 benefits to us by the spirit. This father in Christ, through the spirit, 144 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:28.029 is the God we serve. There's no other there's no other God. 145 00:13:28.350 --> 00:13:37.350 This is who he is. Right, you don't have mother right as as 146 00:13:37.429 --> 00:13:45.019 a parent or father. You have your mom, your dad, who has 147 00:13:45.059 --> 00:13:48.220 a particular set of traits and characteristics. Right, you were not born of 148 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:54.659 motherhood, you were not born out of fatherhood. You were born of two 149 00:13:54.769 --> 00:14:01.649 people who had names and identities and all the rest. It's like that with 150 00:14:01.850 --> 00:14:05.690 God. We are not born of a God, we are not born of 151 00:14:05.850 --> 00:14:11.679 a power of force or whatever. We are born of the father, through 152 00:14:11.879 --> 00:14:18.759 the son, by the spirit. There is no other God than this one. 153 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:22.960 So when Paul says who is the to the praise of his glory, 154 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:28.470 the Glory of Christ, the Glory of God, the glory of the spirit, 155 00:14:28.549 --> 00:14:33.190 this is who we are talking about. And if you are serving any 156 00:14:33.269 --> 00:14:37.669 other God, if you are glorifying any other God, your heart, your 157 00:14:37.830 --> 00:14:43.740 life is not aligned, that is disconnected from this God who has revealed himself 158 00:14:43.860 --> 00:14:48.179 to us. Other things we learn about this God who has revealed himself to 159 00:14:48.259 --> 00:14:52.690 us is that, as the words are, there in him. We have 160 00:14:54.009 --> 00:15:00.570 in him, we have believed, we have trusted, we have put our 161 00:15:00.610 --> 00:15:05.970 faith in right. This is important because it teaches us that Jesus of Nazareth, 162 00:15:05.090 --> 00:15:13.559 the Christ, the anointed one, is not some kind of secondary agent, 163 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:18.279 a human agent of God who accomplishes a mere human agents of God who 164 00:15:18.279 --> 00:15:26.190 accomplishes some mission. He's not a second class, a divine being. We 165 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:30.549 read at the beginning of this chapter that we were chosen in him before the 166 00:15:30.669 --> 00:15:35.620 foundation of the world. Jesus didn't become God here on, in his earthly 167 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:41.419 ministry somehow, or at his baptism or anywhere else. No, he was 168 00:15:41.740 --> 00:15:46.259 God from the very beginning. Right when we go to Jesus for our salvation, 169 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:52.850 we're not going to anyone apart from God. We're not going to a 170 00:15:52.049 --> 00:15:58.009 salvation that is something other than God. When we go to Jesus Christ for 171 00:15:58.049 --> 00:16:03.330 our salvation, when we believe in him, as he says in verse thirteen, 172 00:16:03.490 --> 00:16:07.200 and receive all of these gifts, including, as will mention in a 173 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:14.960 moment the promised Holy Spirit. We are not going to anything other or anyone 174 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:21.029 other than God himself. We see that in his existence before the foundation of 175 00:16:21.110 --> 00:16:25.190 the world, in him being the source of our foundation, of the source 176 00:16:25.230 --> 00:16:30.070 of our salvation, in him being the means and mediator of our salvation. 177 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:37.220 How are we saved? By whom is our salvation made possible? Well, 178 00:16:37.259 --> 00:16:41.940 theologically and biblically and through all the scriptures, we know that the only one 179 00:16:41.340 --> 00:16:47.289 who can save a wretched and deplorable people from their sins is God himself. 180 00:16:48.529 --> 00:16:52.210 As the people said to Jesus. Who can forgive sins but God alone? 181 00:16:52.250 --> 00:16:56.649 Right, who can do this? But he was and is that mediator. 182 00:16:56.570 --> 00:17:02.679 When we go to him, we are going to God. No salvation apart 183 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:07.880 from him, all salvation in him, in the Sun. And then we 184 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:11.359 see that the spirit, too is in perfect union with the father and the 185 00:17:11.480 --> 00:17:17.109 son. This gospel of where our salvation, this thing that we receive, 186 00:17:17.470 --> 00:17:23.109 is nothing less than the Holy Spirit. Right when we are saved. Notice 187 00:17:23.150 --> 00:17:29.829 what he says in Verse Fifteen Fourteen. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee, 188 00:17:30.259 --> 00:17:37.779 or you could translate that down payment of our inheritance. Let me stop there 189 00:17:37.819 --> 00:17:40.819 for a second. You know, down payment can work in a couple ways. 190 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:45.769 Sometimes we make a down payment as you sort of give the down payment 191 00:17:45.849 --> 00:17:49.609 and then later on you pay the thing and then you get your promise back 192 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:53.009 in a way. So under that view, God would sort of give the 193 00:17:53.089 --> 00:17:56.609 holy spirit and then once he gives us the inheritance, he would take it 194 00:17:56.730 --> 00:18:00.279 back, sort of take the holy spirit away from us. This is obviously 195 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:06.039 not the teaching of scripture. The teaching of Scriptures that the Holy Spirit himself 196 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:11.559 is the inheritance. It is the guarantee, the promise of that inheritance, 197 00:18:11.910 --> 00:18:18.230 which is a remarkable thing because when we think about what is it that I 198 00:18:18.430 --> 00:18:22.829 have been given in Jesus Christ right, they are all kinds of benefits that 199 00:18:22.990 --> 00:18:30.420 we might a name and list, including a glorified body, a new heavens 200 00:18:30.460 --> 00:18:36.180 and a new earth, a perfect communion with humanity bound up in in Christ. 201 00:18:37.819 --> 00:18:41.210 But we must never forget that all of those blessings, as he says 202 00:18:41.250 --> 00:18:45.970 in the beginning, are from him and through him, they're in him. 203 00:18:48.210 --> 00:18:52.450 Remember Verse Three. He has blessed us in Christ with every spirit virtual blessing. 204 00:18:53.089 --> 00:18:56.319 So it's not like, okay, there's this benefit of Christ, and 205 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:00.839 there are all these extra spiritual blessings over here or that. There it's like 206 00:19:00.960 --> 00:19:07.200 this or like this or just like this. No, in Christ you have 207 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:12.390 everything right there. So you think back to the very beginnings of the Bible 208 00:19:12.470 --> 00:19:18.950 when God starts making his covenant promises to his people. What is the most 209 00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:26.259 basic way of explaining that covenant? He says, I will be your God 210 00:19:26.980 --> 00:19:32.059 and you will be my people. Right, he says, I will give 211 00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:40.849 myself to you, I will be your God in some amazing way which I 212 00:19:40.970 --> 00:19:48.329 hesitate to say too much about. God belongs to us. He not because 213 00:19:48.329 --> 00:19:52.000 we just grab him or steal him or control him, but he gives himself 214 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:59.720 to us in a way that we are we possess him. I will be 215 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:07.039 your God and you will be my people. Here he says he is the 216 00:20:07.190 --> 00:20:15.109 guarantee of our inheritance. The thing that we are given as a result of 217 00:20:15.349 --> 00:20:25.500 being in Christ is nothing less than Christ himself. This is you don't want 218 00:20:25.539 --> 00:20:29.980 to think of this possession like you might think of a as a pet or 219 00:20:30.019 --> 00:20:33.819 a, you know, fire truck on Christmas or something like this. We 220 00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:44.529 possess God in the way of of a relationship. My beloved is mine and 221 00:20:44.650 --> 00:20:48.529 I am his. This kind of language, it's a love language. I 222 00:20:48.650 --> 00:20:52.000 will be with you, I will be for you, I will fight for 223 00:20:52.160 --> 00:21:00.279 you. This week I read Psalm Eighteen, salm eighteen, and David is 224 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:06.670 just he's flying high. And saalm eighteen. You know, anything that would 225 00:21:06.670 --> 00:21:10.990 come at him is no problem. He will crush it, he will destroy 226 00:21:11.150 --> 00:21:17.269 it. God is for him and for his people. He will win the 227 00:21:17.309 --> 00:21:22.339 day. But all of David's confidence in God is because God has given himself 228 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:30.180 to us, to him. But he does that not in a way that 229 00:21:30.299 --> 00:21:34.049 we control him, but in a way that he ultimately controls us and gets 230 00:21:34.089 --> 00:21:40.009 all the glory, because he says who is the down payment of our inheritance. 231 00:21:40.650 --> 00:21:45.609 Until, better translated, as you might see in a footnote, God 232 00:21:45.769 --> 00:21:56.119 redeems his possession right so we. He gives to us the Holy Spirit until 233 00:21:56.359 --> 00:22:03.349 that day when God takes us as his prized possession. You will be my 234 00:22:03.670 --> 00:22:11.789 people. There is this day that is coming, this adoption day, you 235 00:22:11.829 --> 00:22:15.740 might think of it, when our bodies are said to be adopted. He 236 00:22:15.859 --> 00:22:19.539 talks about this in Effesians, for well, in effusions one, verse five, 237 00:22:19.700 --> 00:22:26.140 he predestined us for adoption. As sons through him, but also in 238 00:22:26.220 --> 00:22:30.009 Effusians, for Verse Thirty we read do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, 239 00:22:30.210 --> 00:22:33.490 by whom you were sealed, for the day of redemption. And if 240 00:22:33.529 --> 00:22:37.170 you go and you read First Corinthians fifteen, there's all kinds of language about 241 00:22:37.170 --> 00:22:41.529 this, that there's this day coming when we will be raised up and the 242 00:22:41.690 --> 00:22:48.279 Kingdom of God will be given to him and there will be this adoption or 243 00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:55.480 this complete adoption of us that began there on the cross. God will take 244 00:22:55.559 --> 00:23:03.190 us up fully and completely in himself all then, to the praise of his 245 00:23:03.349 --> 00:23:07.269 glory. We don't stand on top of the mountain and plant our flag and 246 00:23:07.349 --> 00:23:11.950 we say look what I did right. We go to the top of the 247 00:23:11.029 --> 00:23:14.980 mountain and plant our flag and then look up I aro and say look what 248 00:23:15.140 --> 00:23:18.940 you did all right. That's the picture here. That's what God is doing, 249 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:27.049 and he does this all through this through this amazing work of redemption which 250 00:23:27.130 --> 00:23:32.769 the father sends the son to redeem us out of transgressions and sins. Is 251 00:23:32.809 --> 00:23:37.690 Verse Seven says, through his blood, so that we might receive the Holy 252 00:23:37.890 --> 00:23:41.880 Spirit, so that we might receive God himself and all of his blessings and 253 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:48.200 be united to Christ until one day the fullness of these things come in to 254 00:23:48.480 --> 00:23:55.000 the praise of his glory. So when we think about what we have been 255 00:23:55.119 --> 00:24:00.349 given, namely God himself, all the all the spiritual blessings in him, 256 00:24:00.750 --> 00:24:07.950 salvation forgiveness of sins, we find that this is our God, Father, 257 00:24:08.230 --> 00:24:15.180 son and Holy Spirit, the Father Lovingly predestinating us in Christ for salvation and 258 00:24:15.299 --> 00:24:22.819 then affecting, making effectual that salvation by giving us the spirit who unites us 259 00:24:22.859 --> 00:24:30.569 to Christ and his father, and all grounded on his will, according to 260 00:24:30.650 --> 00:24:33.650 the purpose of His grace, according to his will and the plan and the 261 00:24:33.690 --> 00:24:37.369 fullness of time. God, God, God, God, God. Why? 262 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:41.640 For the praise of his glory, for the praise of his glil glory, 263 00:24:41.680 --> 00:24:45.000 for the praise of his glory. God, God, God. From 264 00:24:45.079 --> 00:24:49.440 beginning to end, it's all in him. And when he gives himself to 265 00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:55.750 us, we don't become these creatures that are somehow lifted up into divinity above 266 00:24:55.789 --> 00:25:03.150 him, but we become creatures that bless him and praise his name and glorify 267 00:25:03.190 --> 00:25:11.859 him all the more. This is our story. This is the story of 268 00:25:12.059 --> 00:25:18.420 everyone who, as Paul says, have heard the word of truth the gospel 269 00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:26.609 of our salvation and believed right. That's that faith part. I can say 270 00:25:26.650 --> 00:25:32.970 all of these things, but unless we open our hands and receive the things 271 00:25:33.009 --> 00:25:38.720 of God, they don't do us anything. We have a part in this. 272 00:25:41.079 --> 00:25:47.880 What is our part, as he says, hearing and believing. But 273 00:25:48.039 --> 00:25:53.630 note what kind of actions those are? Those verbs are those verbs, those 274 00:25:53.670 --> 00:25:59.069 actions that are required on our part are not the kind of words. They're 275 00:25:59.069 --> 00:26:03.390 not the kind of actions the undermine the great sovereignty of God and all of 276 00:26:03.549 --> 00:26:08.900 this. Because what kinds of words are they? They're receiving words, accepting 277 00:26:10.059 --> 00:26:19.970 words, taking what is given. We open our hands to God even as 278 00:26:21.009 --> 00:26:25.809 he gives himself to us. How on the basis of the work that he's 279 00:26:25.970 --> 00:26:32.809 already done in us, even before the foundation of the world? My brothers 280 00:26:32.849 --> 00:26:37.240 and sisters, this is the essence of our faith. It's all right here 281 00:26:37.319 --> 00:26:45.319 in effusions one, one through fourteen. You should know this, you should 282 00:26:45.359 --> 00:26:49.950 understand this, you should memorize this, treasure it, hide it in your 283 00:26:51.029 --> 00:26:56.109 heart. If you think about God in ways that are different than this, 284 00:26:56.230 --> 00:27:03.299 abstracted from this, in thin ways that don't really get at the ways that 285 00:27:03.420 --> 00:27:10.220 God has explained himself here the not just might explain the disconnect in your life. 286 00:27:10.259 --> 00:27:18.369 If you have trouble, trouble glorifying God, Ask Yourself, is it 287 00:27:18.529 --> 00:27:22.250 because I don't know who God is? And now, having heard who he 288 00:27:22.529 --> 00:27:30.160 is and been reminded who he is, glorify him, believe in him, 289 00:27:30.279 --> 00:27:37.559 trust in him, give him all the praise. This is the heart of 290 00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:42.000 our faith, the essence of our faith. We should know it, and 291 00:27:42.160 --> 00:27:48.109 it establishes every reason to do everything that God has ever commanded us to do, 292 00:27:48.190 --> 00:27:52.630 whether that's loving our neighbors as ourselves, to love as we have been 293 00:27:52.710 --> 00:27:59.660 loved in this way, or whether that's fighting the sins that we have been 294 00:27:59.779 --> 00:28:04.140 redeemed from. Paul say, why grieve the Holy Spirit by whom, as 295 00:28:04.180 --> 00:28:07.859 I read, you were sealed? Right? This is the basis of why 296 00:28:07.940 --> 00:28:14.690 we fight against sin, why we love our neighbors and why we hope in 297 00:28:14.809 --> 00:28:22.410 the coming resurrection, why we hope in the full possession of the inheritance that 298 00:28:22.569 --> 00:28:29.440 we have. It's why we do everything that we do. And so, 299 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:34.000 if this is your story, Mike, it's Paul's story here, obviously. 300 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:40.400 So if you have heard the word of truth, the Gospel of salvation, 301 00:28:40.519 --> 00:28:47.990 and have believed, then let your heart sing, praise, glorify him who 302 00:28:48.069 --> 00:28:52.990 has loved you, not by merely saying so, but by doing so, 303 00:28:55.069 --> 00:29:00.180 even as Paul gives us an example right here. Let's pray