Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Hagerstown, MD, USA
www.mycrossway.org
View this and other messages at: https://mycrossway.churchcenter.com/channels/8118
Today we’re in Ephesians Chapter 1, verses 11 through 14. We’re going through this amazing letter written by the Apostle Paul. In these opening verses, we find an 11 verse doxology in which Paul brings to light some glorious news: that as believers in Christ we are recipients of “every spiritual blessing of God” (verse 3). Over the last few weeks, I’ve walked you through some of those blessings and more importantly directed your attention to your identity in Christ. And we said the primary and first blessing was we were chosen in Jesus Alone to be called children of God. Paul writes in verses 4 through 6, we were chosen “in Him before the foundation of the world” and predestined to be adopted.
Secondly, there is the blessing of redemption. Paul writes in verse 7: “In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” Now, as we come to verse 11 we read the final blessing: Our Inheritance in Jesus Alone. Not only were we chosen before the foundation of the world, adopted and redeemed, but we are also heirs of eternal blessings.
Our election happened in the past, redemption is going on in the present, and in the future, we have recipients of eternal and Divine inheritance. All of this is given to us by God in Christ Jesus Alone.
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In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:11–14 ESV)
1. In Jesus Alone We Know Our Relationship with God
What Paul is wanting the church in Ephesus to know - and for us to know as well - is that we have a wonderful and glorious identity in Christ. Unfortunately, there are many believers today that do not understand or live into their God-given birthright as adopted children of God. Believers may think they are undeserving of God’s redemption. Believers that think it is dependent on their own righteousness. Believers that are living spiritually impoverished, do not know they are actually recipients of eternal blessings, but instead are focused on worldly treasures.
We have an identity crisis in our culture today and that includes our churches. Instead of knowing who we are in Christ, people use the things of this world to define themselves and it is destroying people. We use terms like “sexual identity” even to the point of denying our biological gender given to us by God. We use race, political affiliations, age, socioeconomic status, even religion to give us identity. None of those things will fully define who we are because they use things outside of us to define us. All of these things will pass away, but your identity in Christ is something that is eternal. Here’s the amazing thing: that identity is given to you when you are reborn spiritually. Your identity in Christ is not something that is added to you, it is fully who you are with God.
We are now living in a time of incredible deception. You look around at the level of hatred, division, crime, violence, rage, selfishness, immorality, a pandemic, and the wickedness perpetrated by this pandemic including medical malevolence and deception. Our own government supports abortion, childhood sexualization, transition, abuse, and trafficking. We call it the new normal. Is this world we are living in something that should be considered normal?!
Our nation has succumbed to demonic evil and we even celebrate it. We make stars out of people like Harry Potter and worse. Some want to hide their heads in the sand in denial and others say they don’t want the church to face it; we just need to be loving. Is it loving to turn a blind eye to what is abhorrent to God?
Others are asking, “How could a society fall so fast? How is it that we become so easily victimized by corruption, wickedness, and sin?” Well, the same question was asked in WWII, “How could Hitler be so easily able to persuade normal German people to murder as many 31 million people, including a million children, and 6 million Jews?” You could ask the same question about Russia. How could Stalin convince the Russian people to slaughter something over 20 million people? So collectively, 50 million people are slaughtered. You might think the answers are complex; actually, they’re not. The answers to those two questions are pretty simple: All the unredeemed are of their father the devil, who is a liar and a murderer. And unless you restrain that in human life, it will run amok. It’s easy to get people to do evil; it’s the way they’re hardwired. It’s their bent. (MacArthur)
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And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:28 ESV)
?Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15 ESV)
If this is what is now considered normal then it stands to reason that any Bible-believing, God-fearing church and her believers are going to face incredible opposition. Even more, as we rush toward the end of the age, we as believers can expect increased turbulence and persecution as the world continues to descend. The world doesn’t need any “woke” pastors or “woke” churches. When the church is so full of the world that it would rather defend the world to the gospel than the gospel to the world, it ceases to be the church. It is now more important than ever that we have a full and biblical understanding of who we are in Jesus and the incredible blessings that come from God alone.
This is in no way our ‘best life now.’ To all who call Christ “Lord, Savior, and God” our best life is yet to come. Our hope is in Glory and our passage in Ephesians that we just read promises an inheritance that is guaranteed and sealed with the Holy Spirit. The God who of all truth, who defines truth, and who speaks the truth, promises to all who are in Christ every spiritual blessing in the heavenly in Christ. Either we believe that and we live by that or we don’t.
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Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23 ESV)
2. In Jesus Alone We know our Eternal Inheritance
The keyword in this passage is the word, “inheritance” that appears in verse 11 and verse 14. It is the verb. Kleroo. It basically means “to obtain an inheritance.” The idea is really more, “We are an inheritance.” than we receive an inheritance. This is an amazing statement that doesn’t discount the fact that we have an inheritance, but the greater part of this is that we are part of that or we have been made an inheritance. (MacArthur)
If we were chosen to be in him, then the focus is on the end of the process, or what results. And while that truth is present, the focus is more on the origin of God’s choosing than its end results (Chapell). In other words, we are not just merely awaiting our final destination, but our eternal reward and victory.
We are Christ’s inheritance which he purchased on the cross. He inherits us.
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and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:17 ESV)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3 ESV)
?giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (Colossians 1:12 ESV)
Do you realize the value you have to God? You are not some throwaway. He purchased you as a treasure. The world places value on people by mere temporal things, God has a much different view. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard told a story of thieves who broke into a jewelry store but didn't steal anything; they simply rearranged the price tags. The next morning, the expensive jewelry was sold as junk, and the junk jewelry was sold as expensive. His point is obvious. We live in a world where someone has rearranged the price tags.
In our culture, people are valued for how they look, what they can do, or even what they have, but rarely for who they are. In our world, you have to be beautiful by mathematical standards, entertaining), and if you are not, the world has no place for you. If you can't make the Top 100 in the world on some list, you are nothing. This pressure on self-esteem has devastating consequences in the lives of our young adults. Young men commit heinous acts just to prove to someone they are a man. Young women get involved in destructive relationships because they are told they are nothing if they do not follow the culture's standards.
3. In Jesus Alone We Are Sealed With the Holy Spirit
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so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:12–14 ESV)
What Paul says next is remarkable. Everything has been orchestrated so that “we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:12). Now, some people will ask, “If everything is God’s predetermined plan, why are people held responsible for doing what they did?” Well, God predetermined the death of Christ for the salvation of sinners, but the fact that God predetermined that doesn’t justify a person’s rejection of that sacrifice.
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But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, (John 1:12 ESV)
Without a solid understanding of the Holy Spirit's work in our lives, we will be deficient in our spiritual walk. I have found that it is true that many Christians today live as though the Holy Spirit doesn't exist. The Holy Spirit tends to be ignored in many circles. Why? We are not the church and we are ineffective as believers and His church without the active work of the Holy Spirit. The best way to answer this question is with another question, “Who lives your Christian life?” Obviously, it is you who make the choices that you make.
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And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (John 16:8 ESV)
?“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. (John 15:26 ESV)
Whatever is wrong with you as far as ability, knowledge, economic status, grades, nationality, are minor details compared to the issue of sin before God. The punishment of sin will either fall on the sinner or the person of Christ because of your faith in him.
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So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17 ESV)
As a result of that faith, we are given a guarantee of our inheritance. That we are Ephesians 1:13 “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” This is something that is promised even in the Old Testament. The prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah both made this clear.
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“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34 ESV)
Now it says the seal of the Spirit: “You were sealed in Him.” What does sealing mean? A man had a signet engraved as his identifying mark to identify anything that was his. Any legal document, contract, deed, decree, anything that a king or ruler wanted to notate as his authority, he would seal with wax with an impression from that ring.
You remember that Christ’s tomb was sealed with a Roman seal, which meant that no one could break that seal. No one had the power to break that seal unless they had more power than Rome. That was a way to secure something. And that is exactly what the seal of the Spirit is. We are secured, and we are secured by the Holy Spirit, and no one has the power to break the seal. So God seals us to secure us, and He seals us so that it is labeled that we belong to Him. We are legitimate, authentic sons of God.
That is a marvelous way to think of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who grants to us delegated authority to access all divine resources in every spiritual blessing. Jesus said, “Ask anything in My name and”—what?—“I’ll give it to you—anything according to My will.” That’s not equating God to some kind of genie in the bottle. Not at all. Being sealed with the Spirit is a sign of security, authenticity, ownership, and authority; and we exercise all those things as believers.
You are a child of God. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are an heir of God. You have a heavenly inheritance. You are joint-heirs with Him. Heaven is preparing for your arrival and Jesus, through his Spirit is preparing you for your arrival to heaven.
Don’t get caught up in this world. This world is not our home; it never will be our home. We can’t fix it - we’re not supposed to fix it. If you’re like me, you wonder why the Lord even tolerates you. After all, He is perfect and we’re a mess in every way. It’s incomprehensible to imagine a situation where you are all together, in every way, exactly what He wants you to be so that you have the capacity for only one thing, and that is to bring praise to His glorious name. That’s what heaven is all about. It's not about you getting your own mansion, it’s not about you traversing the New Jerusalem and counting the jewels; it’s about God having made you like His Son so that you fully satisfy His holy desire. You are to Him as His own Son is to Him. That’s your best life and it is yet to come.
Two brothers were convicted of stealing sheep many years ago in England. In accordance with the punishment of those days, they were branded in the forehead with the letters “ST” for sheep thief. One brother, unable to bear the stigma, fled to a foreign country where he died full of bitterness and was buried in a forgotten grave. The other brother chose not to run away. He said, “I can’t get away from the fact that I once stole sheep, but I will remain here and make the best of it. I’ll change my way of living, do what’s right and try to get back the respect of my neighbors, as well as my own self-respect.” The years passed, and he gradually established a reputation for his integrity and respectability, his honesty and worth. Then one day a stranger was in town and he happened to notice this old man with the letters “ST” branded on his forehead. He asked one of the local people what that meant. After pondering for a while, the villager said, “It all happened so long ago that I can’t remember the particulars. But I really think the letters are an abbreviation for the word “Saint.” (Davon Huss, Sermon Central)
Satan wants to brand you with your failures. He wants you to constantly look in the mirror and see your inadequacies. Jesus said, Revelation 21:5 “5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also, he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Will you come to him today?
