Dishman Baptist Church
Eph 1:13-14
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  • This Is My Father's World

      • Hebrews 10.19-21CSB

      • Hebrews 10.22-24CSB

      • Hebrews 10.25CSB

  • Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Please turn in your Bibles with me to Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1.
    We’re good with the corporate nature of Christianity. We’re confident when it is somewhere out there. When it is someone else. We can all read the opening verses of Ephesians and think of people who fit what Paul is saying there. But can we apply those descriptions to ourselves?
    We know ourselves - and we know the struggles that we have applying these truths to our lives.
    We also know the challenges that still remain from the presence of a sin nature that, while defeated is still
    We’re less comfortable when it goes from being out there to in here.
    300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans Peace with God, Not Always with Ourselves

    We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be past the prince’s hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner’s hand.

    WILLIAM GURNALL

    What a change in our Christian lives - not even the church but just our individual lives - would be wrought if we would read the promises of Ephesians 1:3-12 not in a corporate “out there” manner but in a personal “in here” manner.
    Ephesians 1:3–12 CSB
    Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. 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. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. 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. In him 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.
    This is not Paul focusing on the Jews in verses 11 and 12 and then the Gentiles in verses 13-14
    It is Paul focusing on the broader view of all believers in verses 3-12 and then focusing in on the personal nature of our faith in verses 13-14
    Paul zeroes in on the hearts of his readers and he zeroes in on our hearts today regarding the one thing that all believers struggle with - assurance of our salvation.
    Ephesians 1:13–14 CSB
    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. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
    Paul is going to apply to comforting balm of the Holy Spirit to the anxious heart’s wavering this morning. He is going to demonstrate that we can have assurance of salvation in three ways - the promised seal, the powerful truth and the promised redemption.

    Promised Seal

    The first evidence that Paul gives us is the seal of the Holy Spirit
    The seal that Paul refers to here is to an official mark or identification that was placed on letters, contracts or other important documents
    It was a formal identifier that carried significance
    Seals were used in ancient times to denote authority, ownership, and authenticity
    They were inviolable and individual - it would have been very difficult to fake a seal
    Authority
    Nehemiah 2:7–8 CSB
    I also said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let me have letters written to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah. And let me have a letter written to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple’s fortress, the city wall, and the home where I will live.” The king granted my requests, for the gracious hand of my God was on me.
    Nehemiah was granted the provisions that he desired not because of who he was but because of the letters he carried from the king
    God has placed His authority in us and we are operating according to His direction
    As ambassadors we declare the Gospel not on our own authority but because we have been given God’s.
    Our having His authority has a purpose - if Nehemiah had taken the king’s letter and not fulfilled what he was sent out to do it would have been useless
    300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans Not to Help God Is to Oppose Him

    God has work to do in this world, and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements is to cast off his authority. Universal holiness is required of us, that we may do the will of God in our generation. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness, but we must also serve our generation as David did before he fell asleep. God has a work to do, and not to help him is to oppose him.

    JOHN OWEN

    It is a blessing to know that we have His authority and that the seal of the Holy Spirit demonstrates that authority but we mustn’t forget that we also are under authority as one who is owned - the second thing the seal of the Holy Spirit declares
    Ownership
    Desired to own a cattle ranch in Wyoming
    Cattle are branded to show ownership
    In ancient times, cattle and even slaves were branded to show ownership
    The bond-servant would have his ear pierced
    Exodus 21:2 CSB
    “When you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for six years; then in the seventh he is to leave as a free man without paying anything.
    Exodus 21:5–6 CSB
    “But if the slave declares, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I do not want to leave as a free man,’ his master is to bring him to the judges and then bring him to the door or doorpost. His master will pierce his ear with an awl, and he will serve his master for life.
    The seal of the Holy Spirit declares God’s ownership over us
    That the purchase price has been paid and we are His
    ​
    300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans The Spirit Stamps God’s Image on Believers

    When God sets his seal on a man’s heart by his Spirit, there is some holy stamp, some image impressed, and left upon the heart by the Spirit, as by the seal upon the wax. And this holy stamp, or impressed image, exhibiting clear evidence to the conscience that the subject of it is the child of God, is the very thing which in Scripture is called the seal of the Spirit, and the witness or evidence of the Spirit. And this mark stamped by the Spirit on God’s children is his own image. That is the evidence by which they are known to be God’s children; they have the image of their Father stamped upon their hearts by the Spirit of adoption.

    We are marked out by the Holy Spirit as those who belong to God. We are not like the character Ignorance in the Pilgrims Progress. While he may appear to be on the road to the Celestial Kingdom he has no scroll and did not come there the wicket gate but rather crept onto the road. In the end his doom is sealed because he did not have the seal of the Holy Spirit and his walk was not authentic.
    Authenticity
    Ignorance had all the trappings of Christianity
    “I know my Lord’s will, and I have been a good liver; I pay every man his own; I Pray, Fast, pay Tithes, and give Alms […] Gentlemen, ye be utter strangers to me, I know you not; be content to follow the Religion of your Country, and I will follow the Religion of mine. I hope all will be well. And as for the Gate that you talk of, all the world knows that that is a great way off of our Country.”
    But he did not possess the authentic markers of the Christian life
    Galatians 5:22–23 CSB
    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
    ​
    This is a powerful demonstration of God’s faithfulness - if He kept the promise to send us a Helper, He will keep all of His promises

    Powerful Truth

    There is no truth in the history of the world that is like the truth of Christianity
    Paul tells us the process of salvation here - hearing and believing.
    God speaks, you respond.
    God’s sovereignty in the proclamation, your responsibility in the response.
    Romans 10:9–10 CSB
    If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
    ​
    Romans 10:14 CSB
    How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
    Paul tells them that this is the truth that they heard and that when they heard it they believed
    Romans 10:17 CSB
    So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
    And this is not just any truth - this is the Gospel of Jesus Christ
    Paul is going to give a succinct and concise explanation of the Gospel in chapter 2
    Notice here it is not the gospel of salvation - it is the gospel of your salvation
    Even here Paul is driving for the hearts of his readers - and for your heart today
    Remember - Paul knew what these listeners had received
    Many of them had heard him preach while he was in Ephesus
    Acts 20:18–21 CSB
    When they came to him, he said to them, “You know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time, serving the Lord with all humility, with tears, and during the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. You know that I did not avoid proclaiming to you anything that was profitable or from teaching you publicly and from house to house. I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.
    This is the Gospel of your salvation
    Christianity did not come into the world to proclaim a new morality and, sweeping away all the supernatural props by which men were wont to support their trembling, guilt-stricken souls, to throw them back on their own strong right arms to conquer a standing before God for themselves. It came to proclaim the real sacrifice for sin which God had provided in order to supersede all the poor fumbling efforts which men had made and were making to provide a sacrifice for sin for themselves; and, planting men’s feet on this, to bid them go forward. It was in this sign that Christianity conquered, and it is in this sign alone that it continues to conquer. We may think what we will of such a religion. What cannot be denied is that Christianity is such a religion.
    B. B. WARFIELD
    Jesus came to redeem sinners - of whom we are the worst
    And yet He lived the life we could not live
    He died on the cross in accordance with the Scriptures
    He was raised from the dead in accordance with the Scriptures
    He ascended to Heaven where even now He waits, interceding for His people - for you, until such time as His Father says to go…and effect the redemption of His possession

    Promised Redemption

    The Holy Spirit is called the down payment of our inheritance
    Christ is the inheritance of every believer - as we are His
    The word is arrabon - it meant a financial pledge or a down payment
    Earnest money to buy a house
    A form of the word came to be used for engagement ring
    The Holy Spirit is the pledge given to us by God that all of His promises will come true
    John 14:16–17 CSB
    And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.
    And the greatest promise that we still wait for as believers is the promise of ultimate redemption
    John 14:3 CSB
    If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you may be also.
    We are pilgrims here - not residents, not citizens but temporary aliens
    One day we will be called back from the field to our true home
    The Holy Spirit, one of His roles for the believer, provides assurance that this will actually happen
    His very presence in our lives is a reminder that one day God will effect the full redemption of His people.
    ​
    ​

    Praise His Glory

    This is great news
    We can be assured of our salvation - through the seal put on us by the Holy Spirit, the truth that we have believed and the promise of redemption

      • Ephesians 1:3–12CSB

      • Ephesians 1:13–14CSB

      • Nehemiah 2:7–8CSB

      • Exodus 21:2CSB

      • Exodus 21:5–6CSB

      • Galatians 5:22–23CSB

      • Romans 10:9–10CSB

      • Romans 10:14CSB

      • Romans 10:17CSB

      • Acts 20:18–21CSB

      • John 14:16–17CSB

      • John 14:3CSB

  • Hallelujah What A Savior
Dishman Baptist Church
kharrison@dishmanbaptist.org
509-926-0575
http://www.dishmanbaptist.org
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