Chapter 1, I want to read one verse of Scripture
here in this passage, verse 13, "...in whom you also trusted,
after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise. Really just a couple of things
I want to look at in this verse today. A couple of words that
make it a very distinctive word. The gospel is a simple thing,
it's a singular thing, it's an absolute thing. And it's difficult
for men because of that. It's only one way, one truth,
and one life. It's not hard to understand.
The Gospel is easy to understand. It's hard to swallow, impossible
apart from a work of grace in your heart. The things that stand out in
this verse that make it distinctive are the word, After, in whom you also trusted after,
and the Word of Truth, the Word of Truth. I've gotten in trouble
over the years with several people over this word, after, because
it's a very defining word. Paul says you believe or trusted
Christ after you heard the Word of Truth. was a doctor one time,
an optician, one of those guys that work on eyes from down in
Florida who came and had read some of the stuff I had online
and was interested. So he actually moved to the area.
And he came and seemed to be supportive of the ministry there.
One day I was preaching from Ephesians and reached this word
after. and illuminated on it a little
bit and he cornered me on the front steps of the church and
told me that he was saved back when he was a child and that
he believed God and he believed the truth and he had never heard
the gospel and I told him that he hadn't
because you believe after you hear the word of truth He called
me up later and told me that he wouldn't be coming back, and
he was real angry with me, and I told him, I said, I don't doubt
your experience, whatever happened to you when you were a young
man, because people have experiences, everybody does. I've had plenty
in my life, most of them in false religion, but I had tons of experiences,
and they were real, they felt real, they've changed me a little
bit for a little bit of time, and I said, I don't doubt your
experience, but here's what you have to do, As a child of God,
you have to weigh your experience in light of the clear declaration
of Scripture. And he didn't like that, so he
left and went to a town about 50 miles away and joined a Presbyterian
church, because I guess they never brought that up. But nonetheless,
these are the words of Paul. He says, "...in whom you also
trusted after you heard the word of truth." These words, "...in
whom you also trusted," is how this verse begins. And this with
the last phrase of verse 12 is the first reference to the believer's
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus in this wonderful treatise
of the work of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, and salvation,
it begins in verse 3 and ends in verse 14 of this chapter. This is the first reference to
the work of the Holy Spirit, because we know it's the Holy
Spirit that takes the Word of God and applies it to the hearts
of people. We preach the gospel to all creatures. We tell all
men to close with Christ. Some come and some don't. We
know those who do come, come because they've been taught of
the Father. For everyone that has learned of the Father comes
to Christ. It's what our Lord said. We know those who don't
come and don't have any interest is because they have no need
or desire for Christ whatsoever. And that cannot be created by
the preacher. That is a, God uses that terminology because
it's important for us to understand that these things are felt and
understood by men. We know what it is to be thirsty.
Now we naturally don't know what it is to thirst after the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, but we do know what it is to thirst. And I can't
make you thirsty. If you're thirsty, you know it,
and if you're not, you know it. So if I tell you that you need
Christ, you might say, well, you're crazy, I have no need.
If I tell you you're thirsty, you say, I'm not thirsty at all,
I just had a glass of water. If I tell you you're hungry,
no, I just had a meal. The need is created by God Almighty, the
thirst is created, the hunger is created by God Almighty. And
that's when men come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the
work of the Holy Spirit taking the things of Christ and revealing
them unto the elect of God. The word also refers back to
the last phrase of verse 12, as I said, which is this, it
says, "...that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ." Paul is making a distinction here, somewhat,
and I believe the distinction he's making is between the Jews
and the Gentiles, because later on in verse 2, He illuminates
the fact that that no longer exists in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the difference between the Jew and the Gentile, because Jewish
believers and Gentile believers are all one in Jesus Christ.
Of the twain He's made one new man. So He's distinguishing it.
The Jews were the first to receive the gospel. They were the first
to hear the gospel. And since as a national religion
they rejected it, we know that from Acts chapter 13, the gospel
was sent to the Gentiles. That's you and me. He does not
make the distinction to show some difference, but rather to
eventually show that there is no difference in Christ. The
difference lies between the spiritual and the natural. The first distinction
is that of time, this word after, in reference to the knowledge
of salvation. The elect, whether Jew or Gentile, do not know of
their salvation until after they hear the Word of Truth. You might all and be important
to look a little bit at the concept of salvation. You know, it's
bandied about. Everybody talks about salvation.
Religion talks about salvation all the time, but that says something. The word means something. To
be saved means that you were in trouble. To be saved means
that you were held captive. To be delivered means you were
held captive. So when we're talking about salvation,
we're talking about an act of God whereby He delivers His people. It's not just some concept that
is thrown out there that man can man can take at their will
or that is some kind of commodity that can be taken off of a shelf.
This is a matter of something taking place. When we are talking
about salvation, we are talking about things like the Lord said
of going into Satan's domain and unthroning Him, or dethroning
Him, and taking His spoils. That's salvation. And always
in salvation, from Genesis to Revelation, two things are always
true. God saves His people and destroys
His enemies. That's always the case. That's
what salvation is. So, the salvation being talking
about, this Word of Truth, the Gospel of your salvation, is
about something taking place because God has done it. The two distinctions, I said,
is that of time. Until you hear the Gospel, there's
no sense at all in which you will understand that salvation
is yours, until you hear the Gospel. The other things that
are called the gospel will be of no benefit whatsoever to you. Now these people have been chosen,
they've already been told that. In verse 3 and 4 of this chapter,
God has chosen them unto salvation. according it is chosen them in
Christ to salvation before the foundation world that they should
be holy and that word be means a state of being be holy and
without blame before him in love so until the gospel came to them
they were ensconced in their pagan works of religion Ephesus
was a place where Diana was the chief god, and she was a pretty
big deal in Ephesus, and even today in that area some people
still worship her. They have been chosen, they have
been predestinated, they have been made to be holy and blameless
and accepted and forgiven. That's their case. They can look at the history
of the record of their salvation, or of salvation, they can say,
whoever God has saved, He chose, predestinated, forgave, gave
wisdom and understanding, gathered in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
a done deal. That's a record. That's a record that can't be
changed. It can't be tampered with. They all have been told
this about themselves, but yet they don't know of it all until
they hear the gospel. They don't understand it and
they don't appreciate it until they hear the gospel. Paul told
young Timothy to preach the gospel here at Ephesus. He told him
to stay there so nobody would preach any other doctrine, if
you read that in 1st Timothy. Now, it was not until some preacher
came along. Now, if you're the elect of God,
you were already chosen, already made holy. already redeemed,
already forgiven, but you was walking around and practicing
your paganism just like everybody else, you had no idea of it,
until somebody come along and preach the gospel to you. That's
what it means, you didn't believe until after you heard the Word
of Truth. No one knows Christ, no one knows
Christ without hearing the truth, the Word of truth. And they must
hear the truth or they will continue to be in unbelief. You must hear
the gospel. That's why the gospel in itself,
the language of the words, good news, good news, that's something
broadcast, that's something published, that's something said. The gospel
is the gospel when it's preached in reality. That's how it comes
to me. And I know some people say, well,
you can read the scriptures and God will save you. Maybe he will,
maybe he won't. I don't know. I'm not going to
corner God on anything, try to will him out to what he's not.
I don't know. But we have no warrant to say
that in scripture, nor right to say that. I had a fellow tell
me one time that, well, they usually ask the question, do
you ever believe a person can be saved by reading the scriptures?
They usually ask that question. And I usually say, well, why
do you ask? because I know where they're coming from. They believe
they were saved before they heard the gospel. And this fellow was
a preacher and he said, well, I believe I was saved just reading
the Bible. I said, well, maybe you were, I don't know. I said,
but you don't have any warrant to say that. He said, well, I believe
it. I said, well, next time you get up next Sunday, when you
go to preach, just close your book. I said, we're not going
to meet anymore. Let's go home and read your Bibles. He had nothing to say about that,
but that's the case. The gospel is a thing that is preaching.
It's not until you hear it. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the clear declaration
of Scripture. But how shall they call on Him in whom they've not
heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be seen? How shall they believe in Him
who not heard? And how shall they here without a preacher
this is the declaration of scripture uh... and uh... in first corinthians
paul told we preach christ the wisdom of god he's the wisdom
of god because the world by its own wisdom cannot know god we
preach christ the wisdom of the power of god this is essential
truth what we're talking about this is elementary stuff this
is kindergarten you know people say elections a high and holy
doctrine no it's kindergarten This is basic stuff. This is
basic stuff. A man has not preached the gospel
and he preaches the Word of Truth and the Word of Truth is specific
in this passage is specifically set forth. The major and essential
distinction is this matter of the Word of Truth. Now the elect
believe after they hear the Word of Truth. That's the language.
That's the language. What then is the truth they hear?
This is astounding. This is astounding. Most every
religion that travels under the umbrella of Christianity believes
that they preach the gospel, they say they do, and that they
believe the truth. If you ask them, they'll tell
you they believe the truth. But this passage not only states
that the truth must be preached, it declares the truth that faith
believes. It's the truth that the elect
hear. It's a specific truth to them. You believed after you heard the word of truth now I
preach the gospel to many people who have no interest in Christ
whatsoever do they hear the word of truth they hear the gospel
they hear the gospel as it's preached but do they hear it
as the word of truth remember Paul wrote to the Thessalonians
that you heard the word of God and we were glad for that but
you heard it not as if it were the word of men but as if God
himself was speaking to you, or if it was the word of God
in truth. Most every religion that travels
under that Christian umbrella believes that they believe the
truth. But if a preacher tells his hearer that there is something
that they must do to be saved, is he telling them the truth? No, he's not, not telling them
the truth. Not according to this passage,
If a preacher tells his hearers that God cannot save them unless
they let him, is he telling them the truth? No, he's not telling
the truth, not according to these words. The first 12 verses of
this chapter lay out a precise language, exactly how God saves
sinners, how God saves his people. And the thing that is obviously
blatantly absent is the contribution of mankind on any level. There
is no contribution from human beings in these verses. Read
them over and over again. Find one instance where man does
something. Unless one possesses the inclination
to twist scripture to his own destruction and explain away
the truth, one cannot casually read verses 3 through 12 and
come up with a notion that anyone but God had anything to do with
their salvation. If you can read those verses
and come up with something for man to do, let me know. Because
it's simply not there. It's simply not there. This is
the truth that the believer hears and afterward believes. But there
is more to this than that. There is more to what the elect
hear when they hear the word of truth. And this is the amazing
thing. It comes as the gospel. Now we
say, I'm a gospel preacher and I preach the gospel. The gospel
is good news. It's good tidings of good things.
Many of those whom I preached to over the years, it wasn't
good news, but it was the gospel. It was the gospel, but it wasn't
good news. They heard it. It comes to the
elect as the gospel. It comes to the elect as the
good tidings of good things. They hear it that way. There
are multitudes who hear the truth proclaimed but have no interest
in it whatsoever. Why? They don't have any need
for it. It's not good news to them. The
good news does not address what they believe about their own
condition. So it's not good news at all.
The gospel is good news to those who have been by the Spirit made
hungry and thirsty for that which they cannot of themselves attain. Good news for the hungry is not
the bread that bread might be attained. That's not good news
to the hungry. It's good news to a hungry person
to hand him a piece of bread. Isn't it? That's good news. That's good news. And that's
what the gospel is. That's why it's called the Word
of Truth, the good news of your salvation. And this is the marvel
of what we do when we stand and we preach the gospel, or we tell
folks about Christ, or tell them what He's done for us. you know,
from your own experience when you've done that, a lot of people
just look at you with a blank stare, their eyes cross, they
don't know what the heck you're talking about, but some people
you've talked to, after a while they begin to say, well tell
me more, tell me more, why is that? Because it's good news
to them, it's the word of truth, what is the word of truth? It's
the good news of your salvation, Now it gets personal. God gets
personal about this. What do you hear if you're one
of the elect, if you're one of the sheep? What do you hear when
the gospel is preached? Do you hear a list of things
that you must do in order to be right with God? Do you hear that it's possible
that you could be saved? Is that the language? Do you
hear even that it's probable that you will be saved? Or if
you do this or that that you will be saved? What do you hear?
What did you hear when you heard the gospel? And this is the marvel. You heard that you had been saved. Not that you could be. you see
it's the gospel the good news of your salvation that's the
word of truth now we preach the truth to all men but the word
of truth comes to the elect with the good news and what does it
say it says God the father of the Lord Jesus Christ has blessed
you with all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ wait a minute
I have them all you have them all And He's done it according
He's chosen you before the foundation of the world, that you should
be holy and without blame before Him. In love, having predestinated
you to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He's made
you accepted in the Beloved. That's the good news. Not that
you have something to do, but God has done this wondrous thing.
I didn't know He chose me, I had no interest in such a thing.
You mean while I was out here living like a hellion? I had
been chosen to salvation? I had been chosen and ordained
to be holy before God? You mean that had happened? It
was already taking place, there was no changing to it? That He
had chosen me to be adopted in the Lord Jesus Christ? That He
had made me holy? that He accepted me in the Beloved?
And it's all for His praise, and the praise of His grace,
and nothing to be praised in me? This is what you heard. This is the Word of Truth that
comes to the elect of God. That's why they believe after
they heard the Word of Truth. God gives them faith and they
say, look what God has done for me, not what I've done for God,
or what can be done, or what could be done, or what might
be done, or there's a possibility or probability that I might be
saved. They heard, God has saved me. God has saved me and called
me with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ
before the world began. This is good news. You want good
news? You tell an old, dead, wretched
sinner who can't lift as much as a finger and has no interest
in God whatsoever that God has done wondrous things for him
You say, God has saved His elect, God has saved His people, God
has done that, and that's good news. But if you tell Him, if
you'll just get out of your grave, or being lame and halt and impotent,
if you'll just take the first step, that's not good news. Or
if you hold out a carrot on a stick, and say, here's a biscuit if
you're hungry, come and get it, but he's dead. And he can't do anything. That's
not good news. Here's the good news. This is
why we have confidence in the message that we speak. We're
not speaking to people who won't hear. Some won't, but some will. God's people will hear. And here's
what they'll hear. God has shaved me. He's redeemed
me. He's forgiven me my sins. He's
gathered me in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given me an excellent
wisdom. He's made me have wisdom and prudence, and you have that.
You have what no other person in the world has. Think about
it. You have an excellent wisdom. Now, it is singular. It's not
wisdom of all things. It's the understanding of all
things and how they work according to God's purpose, but it's the
wisdom of the singular knowledge that you know how God saved you. And you're glad to tell it. You
know how God has operated in this matter of salvation. And
you're an expert. You have a extreme intelligence. That word wisdom down here in
this passage is extreme intelligence in this one thing. I know how
God saved me. I know how God saved me. And
I know why He saved me. saved me for the praise of the glory
of his grace. God gave me faith. What did I
believe? That God had saved me. That's what faith believes. It
believes the report that God has given concerning His Son.
When Ruth and Naomi were in Moab, they were in Moab and everything
had went wrong. Naomi's husband had died and
Ruth and her sister's husbands had died and they were destitute.
In Ruth chapter one and verse six, it says this, they heard some good news. It says, they heard that God
had visited his people in giving them bread, not in offering them
bread, not in making bread available to them God had visited his people
in giving them bread this is what the gospel is God has visited
his people in giving them the bread of life he's given it to
them because he's given them all spiritual blessings in the
Lord Jesus Christ When do we believe? After we hear the Word
of Truth. What is the Word of Truth? The
Good News that God has saved us. This is Good News. Nothing else is Good News. You
believe after you heard the Word of Truth. The Gospel is the Good
News of salvation realized as belonging to us. It's yours. Your salvation. Though prior
to hearing it, there is no knowledge of election, or even of God,
as He is revealed in the Word of Truth, prior to that work
of grace. The Word comes on wings of mercy,
saying to the elect, Salvation is yours, and has been yours
since the world began, and the faith that the Word has created
believes the good news after it is heard. You see, the Gospel
is a record. In fact, this whole book is a
record. It's a record, an historical account of the salvation that
God has accomplished for His people and given to them before
the world began. This is the gospel. This is the
good news of your salvation. And you believed it after you
heard the Word of Truth. Father, bless us for understanding.
We pray in Christ's name. Amen.