If you'd like to follow along,
please turn to the book of Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter
one. I'm just gonna read verses 13
and 14. In whom? Jesus Christ. in whom ye also trusted. After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of His glory. My title today is The Earnest
of Our Inheritance. The Earnest of Our Inheritance.
The Holy Spirit is called several
things. It's called the Spirit of God,
Spirit of Truth, Spirit of Life, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost,
and also the Spirit of Christ. But here, Paul expressly names
the Holy Spirit of God as the earnest of our inheritance, and
that's what I wanna talk about. In verse 13, he starts, within
whom ye also trusted. Believers trust Christ with all
that entails. You understand, this is not a
human trust. This is a supernatural trust.
This is a spiritual trust. You understand, I know whom I
have believed. Paul wrote that and I believe
it. And it's true. You can use some human illustrations,
okay? You can say if you want to, since
Christ uses marriage as a part of a spiritual union, an illustration
of a spiritual union, you can say I trust my wife. But if you
can't believe anything she says, you're not gonna be trusted.
It's not happening. There are people who say they
trust Christ, but they don't believe what he said. I've had
them tell me that to their face, to my face. Well, that doesn't
say that, or he didn't mean that. No, Christ said what he meant,
and he meant what he said. The problem is not with Christ
or Christ's words or a translation of the Bible, the problem's with
me. The problem's with us. The problem
is with man and it always has been. But believers trust Christ. The
antecedent, the beginning of where it says in verse 13, in
whom you also trusted, you look up in verse 12, that we should
be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. And then Paul says, in whom ye
trust. That's in Christ. You don't have to trust me. In
fact, sometimes I might encourage you not to. Trust his word. If I'm speaking according to
his word, trust his word. This word is all we have. We believers, it says, Because
it says we trusted, but it says this. After, after what? Ye heard the word of truth. Now what does Paul mean by that?
Oh, I think he means what he just wrote after that. The gospel
of your salvation. We heard the gospel of our salvation. how we hear is not written here.
But I can tell you this, from a sermon that Paul heard himself
as solitarsis, if you've heard the gospel of your salvation,
it's because God has circumcised your heart and your ears. Because
if you are of uncircumcised heart and ears, you will always resist
who? The Holy Spirit. You always will
resist the Holy Spirit. That's the lot of man as he is
naturally. So Paul is writing to believers
and he's writing about believers. Paul is writing to those who
trust in Christ Jesus. And that includes us today. if we believe Christ, if we trust
Christ. But you will only trust after
you have heard the gospel of your salvation. And you will
only hear after God has given you ears. But if God has given
you ears that hear, eyes that see, and a heart to understand,
you will believe and you will trust when you hear his gospel
preach. The good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and him crucified,
but not just crucified on the cross. Crucified and risen from
the dead and ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father
and he is right now at the right hand of the Father Our God is
in the heavens and he is doing whatsoever he please. And his
people will be willing in the day of his power. Then he says this statement. in whom you've trusted after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed. With that Holy
Spirit, here's another one, of promise. The Holy Spirit of promise. But you were sealed. Now I heard
a man I listened to several of his recordings on the book of
Ephesians, and I dearly love the man's preaching. He helped
me tremendously. But when he got to this scripture,
he had been breaking it down verse by verse almost. Breaking
it down and saying, this is what it says, and guess what? That's
what it means. But when he got to this one,
He said, I know, Paul said, the only thing here is that it's
after you believe you're sealed, but there's more to it than that.
And I'm here to tell you today, there's not. Because if there
was more to it there, Paul would have wrote it right here. The only prerequisite, if you
want to put it, for being sealed by the Spirit is what? To believe. We just went through
it a little bit. How do you believe? Well, he
goes on in Ephesians to tell you that we believe according
to the workings of his mighty power. And the fellow preached
great about that. Sometimes this stuff drives me
up a wall. Because see, when I started out, and I thought
about this on the way up here, Walter, I was listening to Henry
Mahan. And when I first started out, I was going to an Armenian
church. after, and I believe, after God
had saved me. Because I didn't know anywhere
else to go. I had nowhere else to go. But I could hear Henry Mahan
on the TV and agree with everything he said. Henry Mahan said, God
will save you or you won't be saved. Well that's not what some
of these people were saying. And see, I had this, I was ignorant. Seriously, I was totally ignorant
of Christianity. And of the Bible, and of the
truth of God. I just thought preachers were
people like me, every now and then they just said stupid things.
Well it turned out once I learned a little more, it was a lot more
often than every now and then. And see now my prayer today is
please God keep me from saying something stupid. Because I know
I'm capable of it. I'm capable of mistakes. But
if I stay with his word, I should be good. Because his word is
always true. And all of his word is always
true. But this fellow said that, and
the only prerequisite Paul puts here for the sealing of the spirit
is believing. And I'll put a period right there.
A period. This is the apostle to the Gentiles. Now. Who do you believe? If you believe Christ. If you
believe his word. If you believe his gospel, you're sealed. You're sealed
with the spirit of promise. There's a promise that goes with
the Holy Spirit. And you understand, in order
to get this far to where you believe, the Holy Spirit's already
gotta be in you. You understand, we do not believe,
there was a sign coming up the hill here, well right before
the big dip there, the Free Will Baptist Church. I was a dead
man walking until I found Jesus. No, no dead man has ever found
Jesus. No dead man has ever found Jesus,
and no dead man ever will find Jesus. Life from God comes before
even faith. And with life, the Holy Spirit
will give you faith. And with that faith, You will,
what, believe when you hear, I love how this says, the gospel
of your salvation. You understand? Because I'm not
concerned with the gospel of Walter's salvation. At that time
and in that place, I was worried about my salvation. It is intensely
and totally personal. Because I didn't know Walter
was corrupt, I knew I was. I didn't know you were corrupt,
Mason, I knew I was. And listen, I will admit to being
totally selfish about this. I was worried about me and nobody
else. Then I read in the scriptures
where it says the Lord kills and he makes alive. He ain't gonna make you alive
till he kills you. And he's not gonna kill you physically, he's
gonna kill you up here in your own head. He's gonna kill you here
in your own heart. You can't be saved until you
know you're a sinner. Guess what? That's the work of
the Holy Spirit of promise. I like that, I do. Paul says,
after you believe, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
And then it comes to this statement right here, which is, Now guess
what he's talking about here. He's still talking about the
Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. You understand? Here, if you
want to, being sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise is the
earnest of our inheritance. You understand? If the Holy Spirit
seals you, You're sealed. I don't know any other way to
put that, you know? It's just like, if God saves
you, you're saved. If Christ saved you, you're saved. You understand? Christ Jesus
never failed at anything. And I don't care what any preacher
says. Because if they say anything
different than that, they're lying. Because our God is in the heavens
and he is doing, he's not doing whatever you'll let him get away
with. You understand? Our God is not in the heavens
and won't you let him save you. I've heard that. Seen it written
on signs, let Jesus save you. Trust me, you get in his way,
he'll kill you. And then he'll make you alive
if he wants. Our God's in the heavens, he
has done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar
learned. That God is in the heavens. He does according to his will
among all the inhabitants of the earth, in heaven, beneath,
everywhere. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? and you are sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, that's the earnest of our inheritance. The
earnest of our inheritance. Now, the word earnest, and I
remember Earl talking about this years ago, and it kinda kicked
me onto this. This, the earnest, is a financial
term. It's about money. Now understand,
this is, Paul using this as an illustration of what this is.
Paul says, this is an illustration, it's an earnest, it's a financial
term. The word earnest means a payment made of part of a purchase
price and it's given in advance as security for the whole purchase. It's not used much now. They
still use it maybe in real estate and you don't talk about big
money, they talk about, the phrase is this, earnest money. That's
what they talk about. See, I call it a deposit. But
see, my purchases are a lot smaller than real estate most of the
time. Some people call it down payment.
But that's the phrase, earnest money, and that's the exact phrase
that Paul's using. You can look it up in the Greek,
I did. In our financial dealings, we
don't have enough dealings to put down earnest money, but we
will maybe have to make a down payment on a house, or a car,
or something like that. And what you do when you're putting
that money down, you're promising to pay the rest. Why? To complete the transaction. I like that, I do. And not only
that, when I complete the transaction, the bank sends me a title. And
you know what? I own that car. It's mine, totally
and completely. And I can do what I want with
it. I can keep it and I can sell it. But here, and here's the
truth of the matter. This is something else. This
word is used only three times in the scripture, earnest. And
I mean this word. It is used, let's see here. Second
Corinthians one and verse 21 and 22. Now, he which established us,
established us, with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God,
who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit
in our hearts. It's the same exact word. The
other place is 2 Corinthians 5, in verse five. Now, he that hath wrought us
for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us,
what? The earnest of the spirit. You understand, there's three
times Paul uses, he's the only one that uses this word in the
New Testament, and all three times, he's talking about the
Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of promise. Our earnest is a real person. Is a real person. All three times,
is it all three times that Paul uses this word, He's talking
about the Holy Spirit of God. He's talking about the Spirit
of Christ. He's talking about the Spirit of truth. He's talking
about the Spirit of promise. God has anointed his people. Anointed. God has sealed his
people. God has given His people, His
spirit. Because the earnest has nothing
to do with you. The earnest is completely of
God. It's completely of God. Our sealing and the earnest of our inheritance
is the Holy Spirit of God. in you, in you, in you. A divine work, and here's the
thing that I wanna talk about today, a divine payment. A divine payment. What is it? No, who is it? Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
You understand, a good hope, a sure hope. Not only that, a
divine hope in you. That's the hope of glory. That's
the hope of glory. And a promise. He has wrought
for us the same thing as God, who has also given unto us the
earnest of the Spirit. And what? After that ye believed,
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit. A promise, a promise. A promise from God through his
Son and by his Spirit to his people. And this promise is of
a complete salvation. Complete salvation. And he's
promised it to us at the last day. Everyone All that the Father
giveth me will come to me, and I will. Who said that? Jesus Christ said that. What
did he say? I will raise them up at the last
day. Now, what part did Jesus Christ
give to you in that statement? Well, you're gonna be there,
and that's it. He's promised to raise you up. He didn't promise
to raise you up if you believed hard enough. He didn't promise
to raise you up if you were a soul winner. He didn't promise to
raise you up if you're a preacher. No. All that the Father hath
given me shall come to me and I will raise them. What? All that the Father gave me.
What is it? All thine are mine and all mine
are thine. That's what Jesus Christ said
in his prayer to the Father in John 17. All of thine are mine,
and all of mine are thine. Oh, I like that. That's a promise. That's a promise from Jesus Christ. Oh my. Paul uses this example
of earnest money three times. to let us know that Jesus Christ
will never leave us nor forsake us. We are his. He's not ashamed
to call us brothers and sisters. He's brought us into his family. He's made us members of his body. And not only that, I like members
in particular. He'll put you in the body where
he wants you to be. And you're gonna be there because
he wants you to be there. It's amazing. Here's the thing. God has never
made a contract that he didn't keep. Never. People break contracts
all the time, trust me. You understand? People let their
cars go back. I deal with that at work sometimes.
Most of the time, the way I deal with it is I give the job to
somebody else because it's not mine. It's okay. But people break
contracts every day. That's why there's lawyers and
that's why there's lawsuits. You can actually sue someone
for what they call breach of contract. But God never made
a contract, never made a testament, never made a covenant that he
didn't keep. We can miss a payment. God won't. You understand, we can be slow
and we can be late. God's not slow, God's not late. His arm is not short that he
cannot save. We stumble. He keeps his promise. We fail. He keeps his covenant. And even though we fall, we will
not be utterly cast down. Why? Because he will keep his
testament, his promise. The earnest of our inheritance
is the Holy Spirit of Christ. Those redeemed by Jesus Christ,
the Holy Spirit seals them, and he is the earnest of our inheritance. And here's the thing about the
earnest, this is one that I wanna point out. You understand, the
earnest is just a little tiny price of that purchase. They say usually in these big
purchases, you know, it's like two or 3% it used to be, or 5%
maybe, you know? But you know what you get when
you put out that money? You get the whole thing. It's
gonna be paid. Everything's gonna be paid. Why? Because of the Holy Spirit of
promise. In you. In you. God himself is the earnest. And here's the thing, he's the
earnest of our Yours and mine, our inheritance. The earnest
believers have an inheritance. We are heirs of God. It says in Romans, heirs of God,
and not only that, we are joint heirs of Jesus Christ. Oh my, it's our inheritance. and our inheritance is secure. Why? Because of the Holy Spirit
of promise. What is it? It's incorruptible,
it's undefiled, and it will never, ever fade away. Oh, I like that. What is it? Reserved in heaven
for you. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that
glorious? And you know why? Because the
Holy Spirit's the earnest of our inheritance. You understand,
God has given to us his spirit. Christ has put himself in us,
the hope of glory. And that's just a taste of what's
coming. That's just a taste. The earnest
money is just a little bit. There's more to happen. Oh my,
I like that. It's just a small fraction of
our inheritance as we walk in this life, but it's a perfect
guarantee of it. We are sealed and our inheritance
is secured by the Holy Spirit, let's say, until the redemption
of the purchased possession. Now we talk about redemption
a lot around here. There's a reason why. Because
we got nothing without redemption. Everything we have is because
of the redemption of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we were not
redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold as in
your vain conversations, which is all we ever have when we're
talking about anything else is vain conversation. No, but with
the precious blood of Christ. The work of redemption is done.
There's no more purchase price to be paid by the redeemer. But, the scripture is clear.
This redemption's not finished. It's purchased. And I love it,
I mean, I think I said it a while back when I preached on this,
that I don't really need an adjective in front of the word redemption.
But the scripture gives two good ones. You know? Because redemption
is Christ's work. And by definition, Christ's work
is perfect. But there are two adjectives
that go with the word redemption. Psalms 130 verse seven, you don't
have to turn there. This is one I preached on a while
back. It says that with him, with God, is plenteous redemption. I like that word, I like that
word. There's an overwhelming abundance of redemption. Matter of fact, there's no way
you could get any more redemption than Christ's blood. Plenteous
redemption is overwhelming. And Hebrews 9 and verse 12 says
this, that Christ Jesus himself, by one offering to the Father,
obtained eternal redemption. for us. Oh, I like that too. Understand, redemption is overwhelming,
and redemption, oh what? Eternal. Eternal. There's no end to the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus. Redemption is plenteous
and eternal, and one day, Our redemption, which is already
totally paid by Jesus Christ, but our redemption in full will
be complete. Complete. Because this life on
this world is not all there is. Paul said it, if we had hope
only in this world, we'd be of all men most miserable. But we
don't. You're sealed by the Holy Spirit
of promise. You have the earnest of our inheritance. Romans 8.22 says, for we know
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together
until now. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves,
grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
redemption of the body. The Holy Spirit in you, Christ
in you, the hope of glory is the hope of more. This mortal
is gonna put on immortality. This corruptible is gonna put
on incorruption. And then it'll be brought price
to say, death is swallowed up in victory, y'all. There's more
coming, folks. We have a guarantee of it right
now, right here, in the spirit of Christ within you. If you
trust him, if you believe him, if you believe his gospel, Because the Son one day is actually
going to present us, all his people, to the Father. And we are going to be, not what
we are in promise now, but in reality, spotless, blameless. without sin, every sin that there
was was paid for in the redemption of Jesus Christ by his precious
blood being shed. And the Holy Spirit is a guarantee
in you of more. More. Because now we have a part. We do have a part. The earnest
of our inheritance. We have a part. You know what
we know now we know in part And what we see is like through a
glass darkly. But then, face to face, face to face, oh my. What did Job said? I know my Redeemer liveth. And
in the latter days, he's gonna stand on this earth. And though
the skin worms may devour this flesh, I may die, yet, In my flesh shall I see God. See, people take no notice of
something like that. They think, well, we're all gonna be happy
and holy. No, listen, you understand, in my flesh, I'm gonna see God.
Whom no man has seen and lived, except the Son. Now it comes
to heaven, who we gonna see? We're gonna see the Son, because
he's the light. Oh my, but in my flesh, I'm gonna
see God. And the Holy Spirit, which has
sealed me, and the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
he's gonna bring us there. The Spirit of Christ is gonna
bring us there. The Son will actually present
us to the Father, and all of his body will be gathered together
in one. Jesus Christ. What? Unto the praise of his glory.
You understand? This is, I think is good. But it's not for my good, it's
for his glory. because God is glorified in every
work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. God is glorified in the
work of Christ. God is glorified in his redemption
of sinners. God is glorified in his bringing
out, calling out his lost sheep and bringing them into the flock.
God is glorified and God is glorious in every work of Christ. All
that God requires is complete in him, Jesus Christ. In Christ's holiness, Christ's
righteousness, Christ's sacrifice. And God is glorified in the results
of the work of the Son of God. The salvation of his people. He will save his people and deliver
them to God on the last day. What? Under the praise of his
glory. Under the praise of his glory. The question is, do you want
the earnest? Do you want the Holy Spirit of
promise? Do you want to know Christ? Do you want to believe
Christ? His word's right here. His word
is right here. Believe him, trust him. And we
sing a song. I'm gonna close with this, just
a verse. Prepare me, gracious God, to
stand before thy face. Thy spirit must the work perform,
for it is all of grace. I like that, Augustus Toplady
wrote that. the earnest of our inheritance. It's our inheritance given to
us by our elder brother, by our joint heir, by Jesus Christ the
righteous. He paid the price so that we
never will pay the price. And we have his promise. that
we will stand with Him, before Him. Bow at His feet in glory. Ah, that's just grace. That's
just grace. That fallen worms will stand
before God. But we only stand in Christ.
He's the one. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
again for this time, this place, Thank you most of all for all
you've given to us. Your son, your spirit, Lord,
you've given us everything. Your life, your faith, your salvation,
you've given it to us. In Christ, we try to praise you
as we ought. By His Spirit, we try to pray
as we ought. Help us, Lord, give us words. Be with Walter as he comes to
preach your gospel this morning. Be with everyone wherever they
are. Bless them with your Holy Spirit. In Christ's name we pray,
amen.