Well, good morning. Well, turn with me to Ephesians,
Chapter 1, if you would. You know, it's such a delight
for. Robin and I to be here and just have some fellowship with
Rupert and Betty. And, too, you know, it's, you
know, I don't often think of this, but it's just as I get
ready to preach to you, it's such a delight to preach to people
who love the Lord, people who rejoice in the gospel of God's
free grace, you know, and It makes things so easy, doesn't
it? It really does. When you can
preach with freedom, knowing that those who are hearing rejoice
in the truth. And we know that that's something
that's only brought about by God. And you know, particularly
as a missionary in New Guinea, When I'm preaching the Gospel
to a group of unsaved people, well, that's not the case, is
it? And it just occurred to me this
morning, as I was thinking about preaching, of what a blessing
it is to preach to the Lord's people, His sheep, to know that
they hear His voice. And so I trust that the Lord
will be with us this morning. You know, here in Ephesians chapter
1, this is a glorious chapter, isn't it? But here it speaks to us of the
work of God, and this morning I want to speak a little bit
about the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit. Now, the
Holy Spirit is revealed to us in the Word of God as a distinct
person of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit, too, is eternal,
unchangeable. He, too, is sovereign and all-powerful
in all His capacities. In the beginning was the Holy
Spirit. In the beginning, the Spirit
was with God the Father and with God the Son. The Holy Spirit
is God. We can say the same of the Holy
Spirit, of what is said of the Word in the beginning there of
1 John. In the beginning was the Spirit,
and the Spirit was with God, and the Spirit was God. The work
of the Holy Spirit in the eternal purposes of God is a wonderful
work. With respect to creation, think
of this. With respect to creation, the
Holy Spirit was active from the very beginning. In the second
verse of God's revelation to us, in the second verse of Genesis,
in the Bible, we read that the Spirit of God was hovering over
the face of the deep. The Spirit of God is operative
in all of God's works of providence. In Psalm 140, we read, you send
forth your Spirit and all things are created. And you renew the
face of the earth. All things are upheld by the
Word of His power through the Holy Spirit. All things. All
things. But above all this, the Holy
Spirit is at work in the redemption of God's people, isn't he? God reveals himself to us in
his word in three persons, and yet one God. The Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in purpose, one in mind,
one in heart, one in power, one in eternality. And it's impossible
to separate each person entirely in terms of the work of God in
redemption. What do I mean by that? In other
words, let me just give you an example. We read of the father
calling us into the fellowship of his son. The father calls,
but so too does the son, doesn't he? The son too calls. So there
can't be an entire separation, but The Father doesn't die for
us, does he? But the Son does. And so, they're one in purpose,
one in mind, one in heart. They're one God. But they are revealed to us as
distinct persons who have particular work in the work of redemption. We see, in general, like I say,
we can't separate these out entirely. How could we? How could we comprehend
God in all of his great work of redemption of his people?
We can't. But we see that the word reveals to us that God the
Father purposed and planned this glorious redemption. And the
Son fully, completely, and perfectly accomplished this redemption
planned by the Father. And the Holy Spirit then graciously
and sovereignly and powerfully applies this redemption to all
those that the Father gave to His Son. That's what we see revealed
in the Word of God. Now, the Son... And how blessed we are to understand
this truth. The Son accomplished redemption,
didn't he? He accomplished redemption for
all those whom the Father had given to him. What grace! What grace for sinners such as
you and I! What a gift! And like every gift,
there's a point in which the gift is bestowed. Isn't that
right? And that's what we read in the second chapter there in
Ephesians, where we read, "...for by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God." It's not just faith that's a gift, is it? It's all of salvation
that's a gift. And there comes a time when the
Holy Spirit comes to the elect sinner and He works this great
change, this marvelous change in the heart, in the mind, in
the will. The scriptures describe this
as what? They describe this as being born
again. Born again. Here is this man,
or this woman, or this child, dead. dead, spiritually dead
in trespasses and sins, not a flicker of life. And the Spirit comes
and takes this person and pours out light into this person's
heart and mind. And life is brought forth out
of death. Life. And here is this person
without understanding. How does the word describe it?
In darkness, in such total darkness, that the person does not even
know they're in darkness. Stumbling around. Without any understanding. Foolish
and ignorant. And the Spirit comes. And we
read there later in the first chapter there in Ephesians, the
Spirit comes, and what does He do? He opens the eyes of the
understanding. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His
calling. And what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power toward us who believe?" That's the Spirit, isn't it?
That's the Spirit working, doing this great work. And here's this
person unrepenting. Now, what is there to repent
of? They're not a sinner, are they?
You and I weren't sinners until the Spirit showed us that we
were. Isn't that true? So how can there be repentance? But when the Spirit comes, that
unrepentance turns to repentance. That too is a gift of God, isn't
it? Where does it come from? The Spirit. The Spirit granting
this repentance. And of course, there's the unbelief,
isn't there? We're just not going to believe. We're not going to believe. It's
just not going to happen. until the Spirit comes, and He
works this work, and He grants faith, and what a marvelous work
this is. I know I take it for granted.
I think so little of it, of this work that God does in bringing
us to Himself, opening the eyes of our understanding that we
see Christ. What's the Holy Spirit doing
in all of this? He's giving us this great gift
of salvation which has been accomplished by the work of His Son, the work
of God's Son. The Holy Spirit is applying to
us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places which has
been purchased by Christ. We could say the Spirit takes
the salvation wrought by Christ and gives it to us. You know,
the work of the Holy Spirit is so broad, like everything of
God. It's so broad, it's so deep,
it's so incomprehensible. How can we understand it? But
all I'd like to do today is point us to what the Lord reveals in
verse 13. Let me just read those verses,
13 and 14. of the first chapter of Ephesians. In Him, in Him,
that is Christ, in Him you also trusted after you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having
believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who
is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession to the praise of His glory. Well, When we come to these verses,
let's just think of the context of these verses. What is revealed
to us in this chapter is the Word of God brings us to these
two verses. This chapter, as I know you know,
is in essence a summary of God's grace. to lost sinners, isn't
it? It's a summary of the great work
that God Himself has done, the great work which has been accomplished
by His Son and through His Son. Now, let me just read these.
These are verses which I know all of us probably could recite
them by heart virtually, isn't that true? But let me just read
these verses again in your hearing, and as I do, Think, who is working? Who is working? Who is acting? Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful
in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here we begin. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. in love, having
predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the
Beloved. In Him we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will
according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined
according to the purpose of Him who works all things according
to the counsel of His will. that we who first trusted in
Christ should be to the praise of His glory. And then we read
those two verses that we're going to look at this morning. Well,
as I asked, I say again, who is working as we read these verses?
Who is working? Well, God is working, isn't He?
He is the one that blesses us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. He is the one that chooses us
in Christ. He's the one who's predestined
us to adoption by Jesus Christ to Himself. And who are we accepted? We're made accepted in the Beloved,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have this glorious redemption. Who's that in? It's in Him. It's
through His blood. We have forgiveness. What a wonder
that sinners such as you and I would have forgiveness of sins. In Him. In Him. He's made known
to us. How do we know this? How do we
know this gospel which is the word of truth? Well, He's made
it known to us. He's the one that gathers together.
All things in Christ. Well, who's working? Well, the
Father is working, isn't he? God the Father is working. His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is working. And we see in verse
13 and 14 that we're going to look at this morning, that the
Holy Spirit is working. Well, what person is missing? What person is missing in this
description of the work of salvation? You and I. You and I. You and I. Man is missing, isn't
he? That should tell us all we need
to know. That's all we need to know. You know, in the 38th chapter
of Job, we read of God questioning Job out of the whirlwind. You
remember that? You remember that Job, he's in that great trial
that the Lord has brought upon him in his purposes to reveal
great truths to him and to us. And he's questioning him, and
Job in his state, particularly because of these
friends that had come to counsel him, is confused. And it says,
"...the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who
is this who darkens counsel without knowledge?" Who is this who darkens
counsel without knowledge?" Now that's man, isn't it? That's
man. Now prepare yourself like a man. I will question you and you will
answer me. God says to Job, where were you
when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have
understanding. Well, the entire work of redemption
accomplished by Christ is revealed to us as a work of creation,
isn't it? It's a work of new creation.
This is what the Word of God tells us. So the same question
can come to you, and to me, and to anyone with respect to this
great work, this great work of salvation, this great work of
new creation. Where were you? Where were you? Where were you when I counseled
together with my Son and with my Spirit and said to my Son,
you are my Son. Today I have begotten you. Ask
of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance
and the ends of the earth for your possession. Where were you?
Where were you when I chose you in Christ? That speaks to you
and me, doesn't it? Where were you when I chose you
in Christ? Where were you when I made you
accepted in the Beloved? Where were you when my son went
up that mountain?" Where were you? We read, In Hebrews chapter 1,
"...who being the brightness of His glory," Christ, "...who
being the brightness of His glory in the express image of His person,
upholding all things by the word of His power, who by Himself purged our sins,
and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty Anheim." Where
were you? Where were you? Where were you?
The question comes to us. Well, the gospel of our salvation is
the gospel of God, isn't it? He does all the work. All the work. Well, we come to this verse 13. Look there. in Him you also trusted,
that is Christ, in Him you also trusted after you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having
believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."
Now, when the Holy Spirit comes to the elect, He works in them
through two things. That's what we're told here.
He works through them through the word of the gospel and faith. The Word of the Gospel and Faith. You know, people believe they're
saved for all sorts of reasons. Isn't that true? Everywhere. You know, in New Guinea, I hear
so many testimonies of what people believe in salvation. One of
them, people believe they have a dream. They have a dream. I
can't tell you how many people I've heard speak to me about
a dream they have about this being and these lights and all
of these things, and they think that this constitutes salvation.
Oh, well, now I believe. They have a dream. They think
they're saved because of some experience. People believe they're
saved because they go into the waters of baptism. People believe
they're saved because they at one point in time are moved to
come and make this decision to accept Jesus into their lives.
And they believe that because of this, they're saved. Well, here we're told that the Spirit
works through two things. The message of the Gospel. The
message of the Gospel to bring faith. You know, in the first
chapter of the Epistle to Romans, Paul writes, the Gospel will
have... Where do we find this Gospel?
The Gospel of God, it's of God, which He promised before through
His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. That's where it's found, isn't
it? It's found in His Word revealed to us. That's where the gospel
is found. That's where this word of truth
is found in the Holy Scriptures. And who is it concerning? It's
concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is declared to
be the Son of God with power according to the Holy Spirit.
Well, that's where the Gospel is found, in His Word. And we're
told, too, in that first chapter, that this Gospel, the Gospel
of Christ, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who
believes. Well, if that's true, and it
is true, why would the Spirit use anything else? Anything else? Once again, that's all we need
to know. If this is the power of God according to His determined
purpose, but it's the Gospel that's His power, well, the Spirit
is going to use the Word revealed to us, revealing the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and nothing else. Nothing else to accomplish
this great and glorious work. Well, why is this message so
powerful? Think of this. Why is this message so powerful?
Why is the message of the truth of the Gospel so effectual in
accomplishing salvation? Well, because it's of God, isn't
it? Because it's of God and not of
man, primarily. But how does God use it so effectually? Well, because to the elect, this
is good news, isn't it? That's what the Gospel is. It's
good news! The good news of what? Read that
again. Look there. "...in whom you also
trusted after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of..." Your
salvation. Your salvation. Isn't that why
it's good news? When the gospel came to you,
you didn't believe, or I certainly hope not, you didn't believe,
well, this is good news because it speaks about the salvation
of a multitude of sinners. Well, that's true, isn't it?
But that doesn't save you. No, what did you believe? What
did the Spirit impress upon your heart and upon your mind and
upon your will? That this Christ is your salvation. This is the gospel of your salvation. And that's good news, isn't it?
That's good news to a guilty sinner. It certainly was to me. We hear the Word. There in Hebrews
9, you know too, where it speaks of this gospel of our salvation,
where it speaks of Christ entering that most holy place once for
all. Why? Because it's an accomplished
work, it's a finished work. He entered the most holy place
once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Later in
that chapter, we read how He appeared to put away sin, and
we were speaking about this yesterday. If Christ appeared to put away
sin, if God Himself appeared to put away sin, do you think
it's done? Well, it certainly is, isn't it? And if He appeared
to put away sin, then He did put away sin. And that's good
news, the Gospel of your salvation. When the Spirit comes and shows
us this, well, that is good news, that Christ put away my sin. What marvel! What marvel! The
Holy Spirit, as you know, and what a blessing that it's preached
from this pulpit, isn't it? That Christ has saved His people. What a message. What a message.
He has saved. Not that He will save. Not that
He will save if you do this, or if you do that, or anything
else. But that Christ has saved His
people. He came to do that, and He accomplished
it. The Spirit reveals to us that we have redemption through
His blood. Not that we will have redemption,
but that we have redemption through His blood. We have the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. Now, this is the
reason every believer trusts Christ for all things. You see,
He says, in whom you also trust Him. But why do we trust Him? Well, because the Spirit reveals
to us that Christ has accomplished everything. Isn't that right?
Everything. Well, why wouldn't we trust Him? If that's true, why wouldn't
we trust him? Of course we trust him. We trust
him for everything. Let me just give you a simple
illustration of this. In New Guinea, hiking to the
many different villages where there's churches in the tribal
area that we work, I often have to ford through these mountain
rivers and streams. Very, very rocky coming down
out of the mountains. You come to the edge of that
And there's all this tumult of water crashing over the rocks,
and sometimes the water can be fairly deep. And the people,
they go and come across these rivers all the time. And I've
seen this more than once. A man is carrying his child,
a small child, and someone might, another relative or something
might, as they come to ford the river, they might reach out for
the child and say, here, I'll help you to take the child across.
Well, this is the reaction of that child when the person reaches
out. Why? Because he's not about to
trust anybody else to take him across that river. But He's going
to trust His Father. He knows His Father. He believes
in His Father. And isn't that true of you and
I when the Lord opens our eyes and reveals that Christ has accomplished
all of salvation for us? Well, why would we trust anyone
else? There's always things reaching
out for you and I, isn't there? Saying, here, we'll help you
with this. We'll take you across. And we'll
shrink back, won't we? We'll shrink back, just like
that child. Because we trust in Christ for all things. Well, too, here in these verses,
we're also told of a specific action that the Holy Spirit accomplishes. We're told that when a person
believes that you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now what does that mean? What
does that mean? Sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise. Well, this is something that's
been abused unbelievably, as you well might imagine. And here
we're told it's a glorious truth. We're sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise. So let's just think about that
for a moment. What does sealed mean? What does sealed mean?
Well, turn over to John 6, chapter 27, and we see one meaning of
sealed. Chapter 6, down in verse 27. And as you know, this is after
Christ had performed that great miracle of feeding the 5,000,
and then he left and many, many people followed him. Why? Because
their bellies were filled, solely for that reason. And they come
and then the Pharisees are questioning him. He answers them, let's begin
in verse 26. He says, Most assuredly I say
to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because
you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the
food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting
life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father
has set his seal upon him. Well, what does that mean? It
means that God has given him this authority. He's given him
authority. This is an official, as it were,
we see it in other things, an official seal certifying that
this is the authenticity of something. He set his seal upon him. He's
given him authority, in this case with Christ, over all things. He's given him authority to grant
salvation. He's given him authority to judge.
He's given him authority over all things. All power has been
given unto him. This is one reason. This is one
meaning of seal. It certifies the authenticity,
the authority. to another, a seal too, we know
it from the Word of God. The seal is used to mark ownership,
isn't it? That's essentially what a brand
is, isn't it? Cattle branding? It's a seal
to mark ownership. And then the Word of God reveals
that this was used in the case of even slaves, that slaves were
sealed, they were marked to mark ownership. So that's another
meaning of sealed. Well, two, another meaning that
scripture reveals to us is, remember when Christ was laid in that
tomb and the stone was rolled across, The Jews said, well look, someone
might come and steal away the body. They're saying he's going
to rise from the dead, let's seal the tomb. And so a seal
was placed upon the tomb, wasn't it? What's the reason for that? A seal is for security. It's for security. It's to demonstrate
that something is untampered, that it's uncorrupted, that it's
kept safe and kept secure. Well, that's another meaning
of sealing. Now, I say this because all of these
things are included when it speaks about that we are sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise. The work of the Spirit in our
hearts testifies to us that God has set His seal upon us. We are the genuine article, as
it were. We have the authority of being
the work of God, the authentic work of God. The indwelling of
the Spirit in our hearts, too, is the seal of the ownership
of God. We belong to Him. That's the
seal upon us. We belong to Him. were His. We've been bought with a price,
and more than that, we've been adopted even as His own sons
and daughters. And, you know, we see both of
those things there in John 1, in that first chapter, where
we read, "...as many as received Him, to them He gave the power,"
that is, the authority, the right, "...to become the sons of God,
even to those who believe on His name." And two, As I said,
the sealing of the Holy Spirit is a seal of security. And this
is a wonderful truth. Turn over to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8. Look there in verse 9. In fact,
here in this chapter we see all of these elements there. Romans
chapter 8 and verse 9. Look there. That you are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not
His. If anyone does not have the Spirit
of Christ, he is not his. But if anyone does have the Spirit
of Christ, what? He is his. If anyone has the
Spirit of Christ, he is his. We are his. He is the owner.
This is the seal of the ownership of God. We belong to Christ. Look down in verse 16, and we
read there, let's begin in verse 15, "...for you did not receive
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit
of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father!" The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. You see, the Spirit is the seal
of authenticity, isn't He? The seal of authenticity to us.
He bears witness that we are indeed the sons of God. He bears witness. Is his witness
true? It certainly is. He bears witness with our spirit
that we are indeed the true sons and daughters of God. That's
quite a seal. And verse 17 there, and if children,
well look, here he's a seal of eternal security. If children,
then heirs, heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if indeed
we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. The Holy Spirit will keep safe
everything, everything which has been given to us by God in
Christ. Every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places, kept safe and sealing us to be glorified together with
Christ to an inheritance. That's what he says here, that
we're inheritors together with Him. kept safe, sealing us, securing
us, to receive, to be glorified together with Christ, and receive
this promised inheritance, this inheritance which is incorruptible
and undefiled, and does not fade away. Well, in verse 14, we read,
too, that He's in Ephesians, but turn over to 2 Corinthians,
chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, and we'll
look there in verse 20. But in Ephesians, in Ephesians
1 and verse 14, we read there too that the Spirit is the guarantee,
the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. The Holy
Spirit is the guarantee of God to us, His children, of our inheritance
with Christ and in Christ. What a guarantee that is, isn't
it? What is this speaking of? This is speaking of a deposit.
We use this all the time. For example, if you're buying
a home, you might put down this earnest money, a deposit, a guarantee
that you're going to give the final payment. being spoken of here. It's this
deposit. This deposit, it's a promise.
It's a promise of God of fulfillment of all the things that he's promised
us. And look there in verse 20. For all the promises of God are
in him, that is, in Christ, yes, and in him, amen, to the glory
of God through us. Now, He who establishes us with
you in Christ and has anointed us is God who also, now listen,
who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as
a deposit. A deposit. A deposit of what? A deposit of what? Let's just
think of that. We're told that in Him, all of
these promises, in Christ, are yes and amen. Well, let's just
think. Let's just think for a moment. Just a few of these promises
that have been given to us in Christ, and we're told here the
Spirit seals these promises to us. The Spirit, that He is a
deposit of all of these things which have been given to us in
Christ. This is a richness. This is a super abundance of
the promises which are given to us in Christ. Let's just think
of some of them. What promises are yes and amen
in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we've just read some of
them here, haven't we? The enlightening of our understanding. Yes in Christ. Yes in Christ. The Spirit seals that to us.
The hope of His calling. Yes, in Christ. The Spirit seals
that to us. The exceeding riches of His glory among the inheritance of the
saints in life. Yes, in Christ. The love of God,
which passes knowledge. This is a promise given to us
in Christ. And the Spirit seals it to us
in Christ. It's yes in Christ. Peace with
God. Yes, fellowship with His Son,
brought into living fellowship with the Son of God. Yes, in
Christ. The promise of the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God. We're
going to speak about that in the next service. Yes, in Christ. Isn't that remarkable? That we would stand holy and
without blame before Him. Yes, in Christ. The Spirit is
sealed, all is to Him. The forgiveness of sins, yes.
Eternal inheritance with the saints in life, yes. Peace, which
passes understanding, yes. Deliverance from death, yes.
Adoption of sons and daughters, yes. The love of God in Christ,
yes. In fact, a promise of the fullness
of God in Christ. Yes! Look, turn back to Ephesians
chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3. Now listen.
Listen to this. We're promised all the fullness
of God in Christ. Look there in verse 14. And Paul
is praying for these saints there. These saints who have come, been
sealed with this Holy Spirit of promise. And he says, for
this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to His riches in glory, to be
strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and
height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that
ye may be filled with all the fullness of God." This promise
is yes in Christ. The Holy Spirit seals that to
us. It seals it to us, to everyone
who has been made Christ. We read there, look back in verse
14, and we'll finish there. Back in chapter 1 in verse 14.
Let me just read that again. Speaking of the Spirit who is
the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession to the praise of His glory. Ultimately, in the end, all of
this is for what? For God to receive what is His,
to receive His own possession. Now, the redemption, it speaks
about the redemption of the purchased possession. We measure the value
of our possessions by their cost to us, don't we? We speak of
this, often if a person receives something for nothing, at no
cost to themselves, they have little regard for it. We measure
the value of our possessions by the cost they are to us. For example, if a woman has a
fine necklace, Maybe spent $250,000 for this gold and diamond necklace. Well, that's a precious possession
to an average woman, isn't it? That's a precious possession.
But think of this. Well, what of a child? What of
a child? Is your child a purchased possession? No. Now, it's not a purchase
possession, but what is the value of your child? Think of that.
What is the value of your child? If your child was taken from
you, and a ransom price demanded, what would you pay? Everything, wouldn't you? Everything. If necessary, You'd pay everything,
everything you had. In fact, as a father, I think you'd be willing to give
even your own life for your child, wouldn't you? I think you would,
when it came right down to it. Well, what's this purchased possession
that we read of here? It's you. And it's me. And it's everyone whom the Father
has given to Christ. We're that purchased possession. Now, what was the purchase price?
We know what it was, don't we? It was a price of infinite value,
a price of unimaginable cost. This purchase price was the precious
blood of the Son of God. In fact, we're told that the
blood of God Himself was spilled to purchase this purchased possession
that's being spoken of here. Well, what are we worth? What are we worth? Nothing. Isn't that true? Nothing. We're worthless, and we're less
than worthless. Well, this is grace, isn't it?
We're worthless, and yet God, in his purpose, has purchased
us with a great price, a price of unimaginable cost, the price
of the life of his own son. He's given us his own son. And we're a purchased possession
of great value to the Father. The Holy Spirit, we're told here,
is a guarantee of this purchased possession. The Holy Spirit is
a guarantee of the redemption of this purchased possession. The fact is, the Spirit is the
guarantee of this. The Spirit is the guarantee that
the Lord Jesus Christ will have what is His by right and His
by purchase. The Father gave them to His Son,
didn't He? They're His, and He'll have them,
and the Spirit is the guarantee of the redemption of the purchased
possession. The Lord Jesus Christ will have
what is His by right and His by purchase. The Holy Spirit
will make sure He does. He surely will. He surely will. And for what reason? That the
most wonderful and most noble of all ends will be realized. What do we read? Who is the guarantee
of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession
to what? To the praise of His glory. Amen. I'm glad we're 11. And...