Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 14, 2025 | Ephesians - Chosen, Redeemed, and Sealed

Transcript

September 14, 2025 | Ephesians - Chosen, Redeemed, and Sealed · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Great to be with you.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who uh were with us the last two months, we are going through that onward series.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: I've ran out of things to talk about with space.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: And so I've got nothing left.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: I put it all out there.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm I'm really excited to start a new series with you this morning as we look into the letter to the Ephesians.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Um if you've come to TBC for the last couple years, you know that we are just sort of going in order through the New Testament and the fall.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: And so last fall was Galatians, this fall is Ephesians.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: And um as we get into this letter, uh, you know, there's as we go through the series, we'll talk a little bit more about the context.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: But uh, this morning is really focused on if you had the opportunity to speak to a group of people, high capacity, you know, on fire for the Lord, uh, these churches around Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey, you know, just exploding in growth.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: If you had the opportunity to speak to a group of people like that, what would you encourage them to do?
1:14
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of the setting for the book of Ephesians here.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: As Paul is writing from chains, he is under house arrest in Rome.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh this is one of the letters that he wrote while under prison guard there.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: But he lived in Ephesus for two to three years.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: He knows these people, um, but his goal here is to write a message to them that is going to be circulated amongst all the churches in the area.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And so it's not just to one group of people.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So, whereas, like last fall we saw with the book of Galatians, there were some really personal situations, some interpersonal conflicts, some people were name-dropped, you know, and as part of it.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that doesn't happen in this book.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Really, Ephesus is a city that is exploding in growth, right?
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Paul planted the church there, and in Asia Minor is just taken off to the races.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is spreading farther and faster than anyone can imagine.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Acts chapter 19, we find out that there's this massive um uh shrine to shrine temple to the god Artemis in Ephesus.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And the Christianity had grown so much in this church over the uh the time that Paul was there that the silver makers, the silversmiths who were making false gods for the shrine got upset with him and in fact started a riot in the city because there were so many fewer people buying their gods to Artemis.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: So many people had trusted in Christ.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul writes to this group here, you know, they love the Lord, they want to follow after him, but you can tell that his heart behind this is, but there's this next step for you to take.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, I know you love Jesus, but what goes past that?
3:03
SPEAKER_00: And what he's gonna choose to do in this letter, it's only like 2,400 words.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: If you read the book of Ephesians out loud, uh, you'd be done in about 20 minutes.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: It's not a particularly long letter, but what he does is he drives home over and over and over again who Jesus Christ is, and for those who trust in him, what it means for their life to be in Christ.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And that phrase itself, in Christ, is going to become very important.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Writing about 30 years or so after Jesus ascended into heaven, Paul has this message for them.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: You as Christians need to know what it means to be in Christ.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And as he starts the letter this morning, his whole point is about the blessings, the way that your relationship with God is defined, defined by the blessings that you have received by being in Christ.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: So, excuse me.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: So he starts the letter here in his normal kind of greeting, but you're going to notice he's mentioning somebody quite a lot.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, to the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: We've got Jesus on the mind right now.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, if uh if you're not particularly familiar with this phrase, Christ is not the first or last name of Jesus, but rather it's a Greek word that means to anoint, and it's the same word that's used when they translate the Hebrew word for Messiah.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: So what Paul is doing, and anytime anybody uses the phrase Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus, they're emphasizing the fact that he is king.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: He is the king, he is the savior, he is the one, he is the Lord over all, he is the Messiah that was prophesied from the throne of David in the Old Testament.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: He's the dude, okay?
5:01
SPEAKER_00: He is him.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And as Jesus comes along in this way, Paul is going to bring up this phrase that he's used elsewhere, but it becomes a big deal in Ephesians.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be in Christ?
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul's an apostle of Christ, and these blessings come through Christ, but to be in Christ?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has been gone for 30 years.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: How can you be in somebody like that?
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, what he means, and it's kind of an umbrella term here, that all Christians are in Christ.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And what he is talking about is that the Father, which he's going to explain, has given an immense amount of blessings to all Christians.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: And the conduit, the pathway that God is going to deliver all of these blessings is through Jesus Christ.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: And so for Christians to receive these blessings, it means that they are in Christ.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: Who do they love?
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Who do they follow?
5:58
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be somebody who knows and cares for Jesus, trusts in him as their Savior?
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, you can summarize it by saying they are in Christ.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: But as Paul continues on, you're going to see that this becomes a theme that he will hammer home in the next few passages, namely, what are these blessings?
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: For he chose us in him, in Jesus, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: That becomes the statement that he will use the next few passages to explain.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for a God who is blessed in every way conceivable?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for him in love to choose to bless you and me?
7:20
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for us to be in Christ and to receive these blessings, these blessings which are spiritual and from heaven and through Jesus?
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is going to outline four of them.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: In this passage here, he talks about us being chosen by the Father.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Then he'll speak of being redeemed by the Son, that we are promised an inheritance, and finally that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: And that's not an exhaustive list.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: That's not like the only ways that God blesses you.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: But for Paul, keep in mind again who he's talking to here.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: He's like, you, like wonderful, growing, spreading church who loves Jesus Christ.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: What if you loved him even more?
8:04
SPEAKER_00: What if you understood that the cross was not just a solitary event that saved you from your sins, but rather a moment that had been planned from eternity past and unleashed blessing upon blessing for every single person who would believe in it?
8:23
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus didn't just die on the cross for your sins, but that salvation through him was the beginning of the blessings that you would experience through Christ.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the idea here.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: He brings up some big topics.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: And listen, I'm going to take the same tactic as Paul.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Paul does not expound and just like give, you know, a systematic theology of what he means when he says that God chose us before the foundation of the world.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: The point that he brings up here is rather, and he'll do it a couple times elsewhere, he's like, the idea that you get in your head is that God made this decision before you were involved.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: God made this decision before you messed up.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: God made this decision before you did something right.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: God made this decision before time itself was established, before Genesis 1.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: God's moving and shaking with his plan for all the world, including his creation.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: He chose us in him before the foundation of the world to what?
9:29
SPEAKER_00: To be holy and blameless in love before him.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, now we move from the way back when to the way future.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: The idea here is that the Father has chosen a group of people, right?
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Amongst all of his creation, which has rebelled and walked away from him and sinned and broken the world, right?
9:49
SPEAKER_00: Amongst his creation that has chased after death with great abandon, okay?
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, amongst that population, he has chosen a section of them who will be righteous and holy, the way they were always designed to be and created to be, such that when they are presented to the Son at the end of time and the culmination of all things, they will be holy and blameless before him.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you understand the gospel message, you know the way that that takes place is by people trusting in Christ as their Savior.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: They accept that his blood was shed for their sins, that is how they become holy and blameless.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: That part is just sort of skipped.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Paul's assuming that the Ephesians, hey, you guys know this.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: You know how it is that you become holy and blameless.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: It's not your works, it's the work of the Father through the Son, sealed by the Spirit.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless when we would be presented to Jesus in the future.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: This idea of being chosen is one that comes out of love.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Over and over and over again, we see that God made this decision for you and for me because he loves us.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: He chose you intentionally, specifically, on purpose, because he loves you.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: And as for Paul, that just becomes this snowball that rolls down the hill and affects everything else.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: This idea that you were chosen in love before the foundation of the world then leads into his next point, which is about adoption.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously you're familiar with what adoption is, but it carries a different kind of weight in the ancient world than it does today, because to take somebody, in this case, um, who is far away from the king, and to lift them up out of their life and bring them into the royal palace, right?
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Sort of imagining this is God's kingdom, the wild and dramatic thing that would be shocking to Paul's readers is that they know and understand that when you are adopted, you receive all of the legal rights of the parent, the same way a biological child would.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Really popular example is that Augustus Caesar, the first emperor of Rome, was the adopted child of Julius Caesar.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And yet here Paul is describing an even greater adoption, that every single person who has trusted in Christ has been adopted by God as a son or daughter of the king.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Such that even though we are not Jesus and we don't become gods or anything of the sort, we still receive the same inheritance and share in it with Jesus.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: Which is a wild concept that's really hard to wrap your mind around.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: The fact that the Son of God, the inheritance that he is going to receive from the Father, not least of which is raising him up to be king and putting all of his enemies under his feet, that God says, Hey, do you also want to be a part of that?
13:05
SPEAKER_00: I have chosen you before the foundation of the world.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: I have saved you, and I have adopted you.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: You aren't just safe, but rather you have been brought into the royal family.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: But we also find out that the reason God did this, it was because of love.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, why does God do anything when he is sufficient and satisfied on his own?
13:35
SPEAKER_00: It is because it will bring him praise and glory.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: And that's a motivation that we find throughout all of Scripture is that God is doing all of these miraculous things for you and for me, with the ultimate end that you and I recognize that and go, thank you, God.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this feedback loop here, right?
13:56
SPEAKER_00: God, out of love, does this thing that we don't deserve and gives this gift to us.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Not the end of the gifts, by the way, we're just getting started.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: But he does all of this for us out of love so that we might be presented to Christ in the future, blameless and spotless and wonderful.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: And God does this in part so that we would go, wow, Lord, it is amazing what you do through Jesus, what you have done through the Son.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: It is amazing that the cross is far more than just him shedding blood for humanity, for the sins and paying for them in your kingdom.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Rather, that is the beginning of the blessing, and in fact, we praise you and give you glory that you have done such a thing.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: To the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us, poured on us, right?
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Just overwhelmed us in the beloved one, in the Son of God.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: So, of all the blessings that Paul is going to list out here, the first one has now been shared.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: We are chosen by the Father.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: And if you want a phrase to say to yourself, a thing to remind yourself, it's that I am chosen and not forgotten.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: The truth that God has chosen you intentionally, specifically, with purpose, before you were ever a twinkle in your parents' eye.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: The fact that he did that should give you an unshakable amount of confidence.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: It should give you confidence in your faith.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: God's choice was made before you did anything bad, before you did anything good.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: And no matter what happens in the future, you will always be somebody who was chosen by God.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: There's no test that you can fail where this is taken away.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: You will always be somebody who is chosen by God.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: You were always picked last for the dodgeball team.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: You always get passed over for the promotion.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Nobody recognizes what you do at home.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: God chose you before it all began to be his son or his daughter.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: And that is something that you just need to carry with you because it's part of our theology, it's part of our faith, but it is also something that God has chosen to reveal to us.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: Right?
16:25
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to get into the why behind he did all of this stuff, but he does.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: And he says, I want, it's important for me, God says.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: It's important for me that you know that I wanted you.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: Not that you were just something that happened along the way.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: And if the creator of the universe wanted you, nobody's else's rejection defines you.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: But this is not the end of the blessings.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is the beginning of them.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: That we were chosen by the Father leads us into the great statement of redemption through the Son.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: In him we have redemption through his blood.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Jesus here again, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, that he purposed in Christ as a plan for the right time to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, redemption is our big word.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Redemption being something beyond salvation and even adoption, right?
17:44
SPEAKER_00: Redemption brings in the idea, especially how Paul is using it, of slavery.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: That it is more than being set free from something, but it is being restored to a higher position afterward.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: You can think clear example of this is in the Old Testament with the story of the Exodus in Egypt, where God takes his people, his chosen people, who are slaves in Egypt, un slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh, and he not just frees them from that slavery and then just says, you know, go walk, wander amongst the desert places, but he says, You are now my people.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I have chosen you.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: You are my holy nation that is now a part of me.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Like I have, I'm going to give you my special attention.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: There's a whole story that goes into why they were chosen, and but nevertheless, Israel becomes this thing that is lifted up far beyond just being freed slaves.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: God redeemed them.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: He brought them into a special place.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And now for you and for me, what's going on is that since Christ has come, we are being redeemed of a different kind of slavery, and that is a slavery to sin and death.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: You and I are shackled to this: to our rebellion, to our rejection of God, of his plan, of his goodness, of his mercy, of his desires for our life, of his will.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: We reject all of these things in our natural selves.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: But by the grace of God, because he has chosen us, and the power of the Spirit, we come to understand who Jesus is and what he has done for us.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: And now we are not just set free from slavery to sin and death, but we are restored and redeemed to an even higher place.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: You need to understand that movement because he's not done talking about it, right?
19:40
SPEAKER_00: So at this point in time, okay, you are the freed slave who has been restored and adopted by a king and now are going to receive the same sort of blessings that the other children, natural children of the king would receive.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: That's where we're at right now.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: But this idea of Christ redeeming us, and in fact, the Father choosing to work out his mighty plan through the Son, what it does for Paul is it makes him go, man, God, you're really good at plans.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: You're really good at thinking through, in all wisdom, how this could be possible.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Paul begins to just marvel at the fact it's clear that one of his through lines in this passage is that this was done before we arrived.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's just like, that's crazy.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: That's just wild, God, that you were making these decisions before we were ever here, choosing to love us, knowing that we were going to reject you.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: It's an analogy that breaks down if you push it too far, but you can think of it like playing chess against a grandmaster, right?
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And before the game, the grandmaster hands the entire list of his moves to a judge who's watching on the side.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: And you begin to play, and no matter what you do, these moves that the grandmaster had determined ahead of time, he knew everything that you would do.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: He knew how you would respond to this move and that move and rook to A5 and all of those things.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: He knew exactly what was going to happen.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: And as you find out at the end of this game, every single, after you've been handily defeated, every single decision that led to ultimately your defeat was determined ahead of time.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: There's many ways that this aligns with God's battle with Satan.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, battle isn't even the right word, as if it's two evenly matched beings.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: One thing that Paul brings up here that leans into this idea of God's plan and even how Satan is involved, is the fact that it is a mystery.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: A mystery.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Well, Paul says, Lord, you've created this great plan with wisdom, with design, with amazing execution, but it's clear that in your wisdom, you chose not to reveal it to us all at once.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You've sort of dribbled it out over time.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: You've given it to some of the patriarchs, you've given it to the prophets, you've given it to, you know, these individuals who could see parts of your plan coming together over hundreds and over a thousand years, all pointing towards this great moment.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: And it's like top secret files that are now being declassified, Paul says.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: That since Christ has come, God says the plan is being unveiled in its fullness.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Because 1 Corinthians 2 tells us that Satan was watching this plan unfold the entire time.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Satan was watching and had it in his mind, obviously, to try and destroy God's plan and ruin it.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: And so, in God's wisdom, knowing how finite, how foolish Satan would ultimately be, basically left a trail of breadcrumbs such that when Christ came along, the devil himself thought it would be his best move to kill him.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: And really all it was was God saying, Don't you remember me talking about the serpent in Genesis?
23:30
SPEAKER_00: The snake will strike his heel and then he will crush its head.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's what I just led you into.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: You worked right into my trap.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: And Satan ultimately brings about his own demise by killing the Son of God, thinking that he is victorious.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: But Paul's point is thinking about God's plan and how he has slowly revealed this information.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: He says it was once a mystery, but now we understand these things.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, God, you are choosing in this era of the church and after Christ to tell us these plans and the hows and the whys of it all.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: But there's one great reveal that God had been waiting for.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Oh Lord, you have, this was a plan for the right time, but to do what?
24:24
SPEAKER_00: To bring everything together in Christ.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Both things in heaven, notice that, and on earth.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: All of creation.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes we think of Jesus again as this.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross for our sins.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's like, so much more than that.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: All of creation is broken, including the heavenly realms.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Right?
24:48
SPEAKER_00: We've got demons, we've got Satan, they're running.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's like, this is not the way the world is supposed to be.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Not to mention humanity and creation in this broken world that we live on.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Paul's like, all of it, the plan of the Father is for it all to be redeemed.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Not just you and me, all to be redeemed through the Son of God, ultimately through what he did on Calvary.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Everything is brought together.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the fixer and everything is being fixed.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: God says, or rather, Paul says, Praise be to you, Lord, that you are telling us this kind of information.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: It is mind-blowing.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: What is uh you're choosing not to redact this stuff.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: But for you and me, where do we find our hope?
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Where do we find our purpose?
25:37
SPEAKER_00: We are redeemed by the Son.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: We are redeemed by the Son.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: I am redeemed and not enslaved.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's something you need to remind yourself of, because even though you have trusted in Christ, hopefully you have.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you have believed in him as your Savior.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: That he died on the cross for your sins.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: You must also understand that part of that is being set free from the shackles of sin and death.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: And yet some people still put the shackles back on, and some people act like the prison door hasn't been opened.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: We have been given power to live the life that God has called us to, being sons and daughters of the king, adopted into his divine and royal home.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: And as we live and breathe in the kingdom, and we're supposed to be bringing the kingdom back to earth here until Jesus comes, sometimes we live and act like we are not redeemed people.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Because being redeemed is more than forgiveness, it's freedom.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: You have been set free.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Jesus broke those chains, and we need to step out into this new life.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we need to extend that new life to other people, to forgive them, give them the opportunity to be redeemed, knowing that because our sins weren't held against us by the Son, we should not hold sins against others as well.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: But Paul's not done here with these blessings.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he's going to continue that metaphor: this one who has been raised up from slavery, he's going to show that there is something greater coming in the future than we can even imagine in the present.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: In him, in Christ, we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: That's one big sentence.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot in it, right?
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Again, we are brought back to the idea of predestination, of election, but again, it is clear that Paul's point is not to explain what that means, but rather to emphasize that a decision was made before we arrived.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: That this, in this case, inheritance that we will receive from God as a son and daughter of the king, something that is coming our way, again, that we do not deserve and we have done nothing to earn, that this again was an act of love and mercy and grace and desire that God had for us.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Why?
28:26
SPEAKER_00: That it would bring praise to his glory.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: You should be picking up on a rhythm by now.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: God brings blessings out of his love for us.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: He does it through no action of our own, right?
28:43
SPEAKER_00: We yes, we are active participants in his will.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: We there is a responsibility that we have to respond to these divine gifts and grace that we've received through Christ.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, Paul is saying, you get these blessings, and God has given them to you because he loves you.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: And then you have this opportunity.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: It's not even responsibility, even though we should see it that way, but it's this opportunity to understand what God has done.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: He's revealed his mystery to you.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: He's not working in the shadows, he's working in broad daylight.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: And as we see these things, know these things, and take them into our hearts, we then respond and bring praise to his glory, to the only one who deserves it.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: And so when we think of being this special blessing, being heirs to the King, like Christ, Paul says, you should see this as another blessing.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: We're promised an inheritance.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm an heir and not a beggar.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: When you go before the Father in prayer, you are speaking to him as a son or daughter of the King.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: You are not going before him as one who has a debt to be paid.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: You are not going before him, one who is angry at you for what you have done.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: If you know Christ, you have been given access to the heavenly realms as a son or daughter of the king, and as an heir, you have the ability to ask the Father for things.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: And he wants you to ask him for things.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, what does it mean for you to live your life today and every day like you have an inheritance coming that is bigger than you can ever imagine?
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Stereotypically, when we think of people in this world who kind of have the trust fund or a massive inheritance given to them, it's what?
30:39
SPEAKER_00: They don't make as much of a use of it as their parents did, they didn't work for it, they don't appreciate it as much.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Certainly not always true, but stereotypes are there for a reason.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: And when we think about that type of individual, right, we say, well, we have an opportunity.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: We have an opportunity for us, chosen by God, to be heirs to the king and to live in a way, live unlike anybody else.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: What would it mean for you to, in one way, just live with an understanding that you have blessings coming your way?
31:15
SPEAKER_00: And I don't necessarily mean like monetary blessings.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: This isn't the health and wealth kind of gospel, but rather that God has stored up for you something that is incalculable.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: Something that is far better than any regal or you know 300-foot yacht that anybody can sail.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: That no matter the trappings and possessions of this world, which occasionally God does give as blessings, but are no guarantee, that those things are finite and they rust and they fade and they go away, and you have an inheritance that is uh will not perish and will not fade and will not rust.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: That you have something waiting for you that will last in eternity.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Everything that you are working for now, other than what is done for God, will ultimately fade with time.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: And yet you have an inheritance that is coming your way that will not fade with time, an inheritance that God has determined beforehand for you.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: That's wild that you would get that opportunity that I would as well.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: And yet that's what he's doing.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: So, how might that affect the way that we treat others with generosity in this life when we consider a king who has been so generous to us?
32:31
SPEAKER_00: How might that affect our ability to hold on to our possessions more loosely in this life, knowing that we have more than we could ever imagine, screaming towards us, either when Jesus returns or God calls us home?
32:45
SPEAKER_00: You're an heir of the king.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And you know what else?
32:49
SPEAKER_00: When suffering comes, when life feels like the furthest thing from blessing, you can keep in mind that you have something secured from the Lord that is coming your way.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: And there's no amount of your suffering that is going to last for an eternity if you've trusted in him, if you are an heir.
33:11
SPEAKER_00: Fourth and finally, Paul is going to draw into this idea of what the Holy Spirit does for us through Christ.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: And I love that he brings this up because if you've tracking with me, we've talked about salvation, adoption, redemption, and inheritance, right?
33:34
SPEAKER_00: We're understanding this role that God sees for us in the way that he has placed us before we're ever even, you know, we're a thought.
33:44
SPEAKER_00: The way that God chose us before the foundation of the world.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: And yet, even though we get that piece of information that there was nothing we did or could do to earn or or run away from his promises, even though we understand that information, we still feel so often like it is sand slipping through our fingers.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: You might have seen a couple, I think it was two weeks ago, two winning Powerball tickets were sold in Texas and Missouri.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I think when the Powerball was, uh when they won the Powerball, it was like$1.8 billion.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Split twice after taxes, that's still a lot of money.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know about you.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: My wife and I occasionally, you know, be on a walk and you just go, can you imagine?
34:39
SPEAKER_00: What if?
34:40
SPEAKER_00: We don't play Powerball, but what if you just had you know more zeros in your bank account than you could even count?
34:48
SPEAKER_00: And yet, you know what I also thought of when I heard that piece of information on the news is they're holding this flimsy little piece of paper that got printed out from some gas station register.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: And in their hand is whatever,$900 million before taxes.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: I would never let go of that thing.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: I would sleep with it.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: I would laminate it.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: I would, I don't even know what I probably wouldn't go to sleep just for fear that I would lose hold of that ticket.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: And you know, some of us feel that same way about our salvation.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: We hear about these amazing promises, all the things that's coming our way, all the good blessings that the Lord has given to us, and we're just holding so tight, thinking it could be taken away in a moment.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: But you know that's not the way that God operates.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells us, far from it.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit comes along, who is God Himself, the third person of the Trinity, and dwells within every single person who trusts in Christ.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's point here is illustrated two different ways.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: The blessing of the Holy Spirit.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: The first is of a seal.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: And this is not like the that's not the seal we're talking about.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Different seal.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: This is the seal, think of a king who has a ring, and he puts a wax, you know, a daub of hot wax on a uh a royal decree, and then only him, is it only he is able to place his royal seal on that wax.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: And everybody who sees it knows not just that it came from the king, but that it's assured by the king and guaranteed by the royal house.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, that's your soul.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: You have the Holy Spirit now that acts as a seal.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: God Himself dwells within you.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Anybody who has believed in Christ, believe that Jesus is God, that he died on the cross for the sins of humanity, that in him we have life, and that life comes through nobody else.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in the gospel message, you receive the Holy Spirit.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: Don't need to speak in tongues first.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: You get it already.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: And what it is, is it's a message from the Father that you are secure.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: You are assured, you are guaranteed in your salvation.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: But not just that, Paul says there's another thing that the Holy Spirit does, which it serves as a down payment.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: When Paul talks about our grand inheritance, he doesn't explain what it is.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: It's sufficient enough to say that you're getting a grand inheritance from the king.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: But the one piece of information he gives us here is he says, But the Holy Spirit is a down payment of that inheritance.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: As in, there's more to come, and the fact that God dwells within you is simply part of the blessing.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: You get to open one present on Christmas Eve.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: The rest come on Christmas Day.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit is your Christmas Eve present.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: It is a down payment.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: There is more to come, and you should see the Holy Spirit within you, empowering you, enlivening you, giving you the words that you cannot speak, helping you communicate with the Father, live in freedom, do all the things that He has called you to do.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: It is a security deposit and a down payment.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: The Father is working all of these things out in and through Christ.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: And for everybody who is in Christ, they have these things.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Fourth and finally, this morning, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit's presence means that you are God's and He isn't letting go.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that it is not always like you can, you know, sense.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: There's not a part that you can open up and see the Holy Spirit's flame within you to check on it.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: It is an aspect of faith.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: God is spirit, okay?
39:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not like a little man has begun to dwell within you and is pulling levers.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: His spirit dwells within all believers.
39:35
SPEAKER_00: But the point that Paul is drawing forth here is again and again, God chose you.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: You didn't do anything to deserve it, neither did I.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that he chose you brings with it countless blessings.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: In this particular passage, he is highlighting your movement and my movement from slaves to sin to heirs of the king.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: And as he is doing that, he says, you might think that that can slip away if you mess up, but as long as you believe in Jesus as your Savior, it is secured.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: You cannot do anything, and furthermore, Satan cannot take you out of the Father's hand.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: And so when we have this, you can walk in even greater confidence than you had before.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: Not just confidence that you are loved and chosen, but confidence that that is something that is guaranteed.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to have insecurity about your salvation.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Paul does say in another letter that we are to work our salvation out with fear and trembling.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: And so it is something to take seriously.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: We're not flippant about it.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: It is more than just understanding with our heads that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: It is trusting in that by faith.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we do make it too complicated.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: The Father has chosen.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: We are sealed by the Spirit.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: And when you doubt your salvation, you can lean into that Spirit.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: Pray for His comfort, listen for His voice, trust in His power to transform you, because nobody can break the King's seal.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: So as we take a step back from this passage here, we keep in mind really one important thing.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: I'll say two things.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: The first is that Paul had a desire to help people understand the blessings that come because we are in Christ.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: None of the things that we've talked about happen outside of Jesus, meaning you have to trust in him as your Savior.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: You have to believe in order to receive the blessings of the King.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: In order to be a son or daughter of the King, you have to believe in the King in the first place.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: That's just part of the deal.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: And Paul wants those in Ephesus and the surrounding churches to understand that there is more to trusting in the King than just seeing him die on the cross.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, he is doing more than just saving you.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: It is the Father's plan that all of creation would be redeemed through him.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: Far more than our minds could have imagined until God revealed that mystery to us.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: But second of all, that as we reflect on these things, as he mentioned three different times in the passage, the appropriate response is praise and glory to God.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: We even see the Trinity get a walkout here, right?
42:46
SPEAKER_00: The Father is choosing, he has initiated this salvation process.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: It is accomplished by the Son, and it is guaranteed by the Spirit.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Paul covers all of them because all are God Himself working in this fashion through the different members of the Trinity to bring about our acceptance, our adoption into His kingdom.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: And what does God expect in response?
43:15
SPEAKER_00: He says, Well, that you would bring me glory, that you would say thank you, that you would say, now what?
43:25
SPEAKER_00: How can I use this to change the lives of other people?
43:29
SPEAKER_00: How might I bring greater glory to God knowing what he has done for me?
43:33
SPEAKER_00: How might I use my life as a living sacrifice in praise to him?
43:40
SPEAKER_00: How might I ever attempt, though I cannot actually, ever attempt to repay him for what he has done?
43:48
SPEAKER_00: And yet we also know that we are not beholden to shackles any longer.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: The response to God's work in our lives through Christ.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Is not something where we are just put into a distant, different system of slavery.
44:07
SPEAKER_00: We are still free in Christ.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And so the opportunity that you have before you is to say, with the freedom that you have been afforded, knowing all the blessings that you have in Christ, what will you do?
44:22
SPEAKER_00: How will you bring glory to God?
44:24
SPEAKER_00: How will you praise him?
44:25
SPEAKER_00: How will you use your life as worship for him?
44:29
SPEAKER_00: And yes, there are parts of this passage, okay?
44:32
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about election and predestination.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: You've got questions?
44:37
SPEAKER_00: I've got questions, okay?
44:38
SPEAKER_00: But Paul's point is not to work all of them out.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: He says it is good enough to know that God has simply done it.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: And in that we should find hope and praise and bring glory to God.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you today.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you revealed this mystery to us.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: I think of the saints in the Old Testament.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: I think of Abraham.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: I think of uh I think of Isaac and Jacob.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: I think of uh Lord Moses and Joshua, I think of these prophets like Elijah, I think of these individuals, Isaiah, who you were slowly dripping out information, revealing to them parts of your plan.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: We look back now, Lord, with the benefit of hindsight, and we see how you were moving and working these things out from eternity past to eternity future.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: And God, in your mercy, you have chosen to involve us in that plan.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: You didn't need to, but out of love, you have invited us to respond to the gift of Christ.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, not just a simple gift of salvation as if that was not enough already, but Lord, the immense, unfathomable blessings that you have prepared for us in the heavenly realms to be adopted as sons and daughters of the King.
46:09
SPEAKER_00: Let that be our heritage, something we think of more often than we currently do.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: Lord, what does it mean that you specifically picked us?
46:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't always feel that way.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: I certainly don't feel like I deserve it.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: And yet your answer was instead to draw us into praise, saying that you loved us and you cared for us.
46:34
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you that the Son has redeemed us and that the Spirit seals us so that we can be lifted up to a place and know that we are secure there.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: We are not at the top of a tree thinking we might fall out.
46:47
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are on secure ground that you have prepared for us in advance.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: As we think about these things, as we try and incorporate them into our life, help us simply remember what it looks like and how our goal should be to give you all the glory and honor and praise, because Lord, who else is worthy of it but you?
47:10
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for these things that you have done in and through Christ for us, your trusted and beloved chosen.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: Love you.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Have a good week.