In Him Series

IN HIM

Ephesians 1:9-14

My brothers and sisters there are certain buzz words that identifies certain institutions from the rest. In business the buzz words are portfolios and commodities. In the world of our young, it is being down, and a couple of other words that is not proper to be discussed in a church setting. And in the church, there are words like hallelujah, praise the Lord, and Thank Ya!!! This evening during the Super Bowl you will hear, “Its first down and ten, or a certain quarterback drops back to pass.” I tell you if you close your eyes or if you were blind folded, you could tell what setting you are in, simply by the language you hear.

In this lesson we will hear the buzz word of this first chapter of Ephesians, it is “In Him.” There are two positions of the Christian believer. The first being that Christ should be in us, as the scriptures say “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing.” And the second being that we should be in Him as the previous scripture announced and II Corinthian 5:17 tells us “Therefore, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation”; The Epistles of Ephesians wants to remind us of what we are, whose we are and what we will be in Him. We were reminded last week about being predestined before anything was created. The fact is that verse four says that we were chosen “In Him” before the foundations of the world. So, as John 15 encourages us to be in Him and He in us, Ephesians encourages us to be basically the same.

So, let’s take a look at these encouraging scriptures.

First of all . . .

1. BEING IN HIM WILL ALLOW YOU TO KNOW THE MYSTERIES OF HIS WILL (v.9)

“Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself;

When you are in Christ, there will be certain things that will be made know to us, and that is the mystery of His will. Now for the person that is prayerful and studies God Word on a regular basis, the mystery of His will is not hidden or mysterious, because of their frequent study of His Word, the more you read God’s word the more you know God’s word. And if you are not a student of God’s word I encourage you to do so. But truly the more you read the more you know. For instance in verse seven Paul reveals to us some of the Lord’s mysteries. The first being that we have redemption through His blood, (2) the second being we have forgiveness of sins, (3) and the third thing is that both comes according to the riches of His grace. Thus the mysteries that we find in verse seven lets us know in verse nine that these mysteries of His will, will be made known to us according to His good pleasure which He has purposed in Himself.

My brothers and sister it is of the Lord’s good pleasure that we search His scriptures to find out the mysteries of His will.

Secondly, if you are In Him . . .

2. YOU WILL HEAR HIS TRUE WORD AS THE GOSPEL OF YOUR SALVATION (v.13)

“In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy spirit of promise,”

In order to be in Him, we must trust His Holy Word as being the truth. But there are many that do not believe that the word they hear on Sundays is the absolute truth. One way that you can tell if someone believes that the word is true, is by watching how they live outside of these sacred walls. It’s easy to act the part in church but can you live the word in the your community or at your work place, when none of the preachers and deacons or the members are around, the question is can you do it. My answer is yes you can, if you only believe in your heart that the word of God is the gospel of your salvation. His word can be the gospel of our salvation when we believe that He is our salvation, then we can be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In other words when we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, the seal signifies; a finished transaction, ownership and security until the day of redemption.

Finally . . .

3. IF YOU ARE IN HIM, YOU ARE SEALED WITH THE GUARANTEE OF GOD (V.13, 14)