Good morning. I invite your attention to Ephesians
chapter 1, the epistle of Paul to the church in Ephesus, first
chapter. God willing, we will today conclude
this series of four messages on spiritual blessings in Christ. I'm going to begin reading in
verse number 1. My text is in verse 3, but my
subject will be found throughout verses 3 through 14. Paul, an
apostle, an apostle is once sent forth with a commission. There
were 12 that Jesus chose. But he himself is said to be
the apostle of our faith sent from God with God's authority
to be the one sent forth unto us. Paul's apostleship is by
the will of God. No man had anything to do with
it. He writes to the saints or the holy ones which are at Ephesus,
but that would be inclusive of those in Great Falls as well. and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. To be faithful is to be full
of faith, that faith is toward Christ. And Paul writes to such people,
grace be to you and peace. Grace is God's unmerited favor
and where His grace comes, peace is right behind. And where you
find peace with God, you can be sure that Grace has already
been there. This is from God the Father and
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider both of these. Give us this grace and this peace.
My text is blessed. The word here means happy. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ only because the subordination
of the Son to the Father in order to redeem sinners. In his humiliation,
he who was in the form of God, equal with God, and was God,
made himself of no reputation, and when he did so, God became
his God. God became a father to him in
much the same sense that God has become a father to us. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed
us. Notice, he blessed us and we
bless him. He blesses us by adding to us. We are incapable of adding to
him. We bless him by worshiping him,
pleasing him, praising Him, preaching Him, believing Him. That's how
you make God happy. And He has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings. These are spiritual blessings.
Men of the world want physical blessings. They want clothing
for their body, food for their belly, a roof over their heads. Jesus said those are the things
that Gentiles look for. Do not ask for such things. Seek
ye first the kingdom of God and he'll give you all those and
then he'll give you spiritual blessings that no one else receives. These are spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. They originate with the Father
in heaven They come down to earth to men and women who have heavenly
citizenship. These blessings come according
as God hath chosen us. Who are the us? The saints and
faithful in Christ Jesus. He chose us. We did not choose
Him. He chose us in Christ because
that's where all our blessings are. He did it before the foundation
of the world, before we existed, before we could make a contribution,
before there could be any merit in us. This is all of grace,
folks, and it is the first spiritual blessing Paul mentions. Why did he choose us? That we
should be holy. separated from the world, and
consecrated unto God, and without blame, not a blemish in us, and
stand before God in love, and never be the objects of his hatred. Having predestinated us, foreordained
us, before the foundation of the world, he predestinated us
unto the adoption of children, God has only one begotten son,
but he has a whole family full of adopted children. He did it
by Jesus Christ himself, to himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will, not because we deserved it. God said, it's my will, and
I do my will, and he did his will. And this is to the praise
of the glory of his grace. No praise to us at all. wherein
he hath made us accepted." The word actually would be better
translated, highly favored in the beloved. Now in the beloved,
verse 7, we have redemption, which is a release from bondage
through the payment of a ransom. And the ransom is his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. And
God is no pauper when it comes to grace. His coffers are full,
wherein in His grace He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, made us wise, and given us good sense so that we
can make right decisions about something, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, a mystery as we considered last
week is a truth that the world cannot receive unless God reveals
it to us and He has done it. And then given us wisdom to believe
it and the prudence to act according to it, according to His good
pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times God might gather together in one
all things in Christ. both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him." We concluded last Lord's Day's
message on that point. At the final day, all saints
in heaven will be joined with all saints on earth. And this
creation that now groans around us because of the sinfulness
of man upon it, it will quit groaning and it
will rejoice with the great liberty of the sons of God. Now we come
to the subject for today. Verse 11, in whom, that would
be Christ, also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ." Who was the first person to trust
in Christ? Consider it. that we should be
to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Who
was the first person to trust in Christ, to believe in Him? May I be so bold as to say it
was God the Father? God said, I trust Him with everything
I have. I trust Him. I believe in Jesus
Christ. I'm telling you, if God the Father
believes in Jesus Christ, believes He's worthy of praise, and trusts
in Him to fulfill His purpose, God forbid I should not. Who
first trusted in Christ. By the way, I'm not the first
person to say that. Hawker said it. I got it from
him. In whom ye also trusted. After that, ye heard the word
of truth. Well, you couldn't trust before then, could you?
What is the word of truth? The gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until
the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of
his glory. Okay. Fourteen verses, and it's only three sentences. When you consider the writings
of John and Paul, there's a vast difference between them. And
it is because of their background. John was, by occupation, a fisherman. How does a fisherman describe
something? He uses short sentences. Put some line on the reel, thread
it to the end of the rod, period. Put a hook on the end of the
line, period. Put a worm on the hook, period. Cast it into the water, period. Wait for a fish to bite, period. Now that's the way a fisherman
writes. How's a lawyer right? Here comes the party, the first
part, who resides in Great Falls, Montana, and is employed at Acme
Steel, the largest meal in the state, who is pressing charges
against the second party, who also resides in Great Falls,
but does not is not employed at Acme Steel and is a comma
after every half a dozen words. That's a lawyer. Paul writes
that way. He's a lawyer. And yet both of
them have been used of God in such great degrees. I want you
to know that your usefulness to God does not depend upon how
much you know nor upon your occupation, nor upon your trade." God used
both these men. A simple fisherman and a great logger. Now, three
sentences. I just did some quick arithmetic. I think I got it right. Let me see if I can get this
right. In verses 1 through 2, there
are 54 words, 5 commas, 1 colon, and 1 period. In verses 3 through
6, there are 89 words, 5 commas, 2 colons, and 1 period. In verses
7 through 14, there are, in one sentence, 124 words, 7 commas, 2 semicolons, 3 colons,
and 1 period. If my arithmetic is right, in
3 sentences we have 267 words with 17 commas, 6 colons, and
2 semicolons. Miss Charlie, that is not the
way to write a term paper. But when you read what Paul has
to say, it is though he writes something and he says, I've got
to add something to it. And I'm so glad he did. This
is blessed. I am so blessed by what Paul
has written. And I even forget that the commas
and the semicolons and the colons are there. It's what he has written
that is most important, not the way he did it. I digress. We have considered thus far the
first five blessings, and we considered that it's every spiritual
blessing. It is all spiritual blessings,
and there is no way that any of us could enumerate them all. Paul does not attempt to do so.
He only names about seven. We have looked at thus far election
in Christ, predestination to sonship, redemption in Christ,
forgiveness of sins, knowledge of God's will. Today we come
to the sixth blessing, and that is receipt of an inheritance.
If you're following in your synopsis, it is on page four, halfway down
the left-hand column. receipt of an inheritance in
Him, in Christ also, we have obtained an inheritance. Now
what is this inheritance? What is this inheritance? It
is God's future kingdom. God's future kingdom. How do we know? Jesus said so. In Matthew 25, verses 31 through
34, Jesus says, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and
all the holy angels with him, Then he will sit on the throne
of his glory. All the nations will be gathered
before him. And he will separate them one
from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He
will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. And then the king will say to
those on his right hand, the sheep, come you blessed of my
father. What are you going to do? He
says, inherit the kingdom. prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Come inherit it. Come inherit it. It's a kingdom
and God prepared it before time began. He knew how big it had to be before there was anyone in it. He made it glorious, suitable
for himself, and all those who would inherit it, and none of
them earned it. It's an inheritance. Now, I should
add, it is God's future kingdom. It is still in the future. It
is not the present mediatorial kingdom of Jesus Christ. There are two aspects of this
kingdom. The mediatorial kingdom of Jesus
Christ is that in which he rules as the mediator between God and
men in this present time. He established this kingdom when
he came to this earth. He bound Satan, cast him into
a bottomless pit, and then began to rule for a thousand years.
He did it in his incarnation. He is ruling right now, Peter
says in Acts chapter 2, on the throne of his father David in
heaven. This is the mediatorial kingdom.
It is a temporary kingdom. It did not exist until the mediator
Jesus Christ established it during the days of his incarnation.
It will cease to exist when he comes back And it will then be
brought into God's eternal kingdom. And he's going to rule over that
too. And that's our inheritance. It is a kingdom, folks. It is
a kingdom. It is not a democracy. It is
not a republic. It is not a dictatorship. It
is a kingdom ruled by the omnipotent Jehovah. Now, we have that kingdom right
now because in the very first beatitude,
Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is, present
tense, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. If you are poor in
spirit, right now you are in that kingdom, but this future
kingdom This kingdom of power and glory that God is going to
bring upon this earth, we're going to inherit it. Therefore,
the third beatitude by Jesus says, blessed are the meek for
they shall, future tense, inherit the earth. Therefore, this future
kingdom of heaven will also be on this earth. A new heaven and
a new earth, John says, he saw. We're going to inherit it. We're
going to inherit it. Come ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Now, not only are we going to
inherit that kingdom, we're going to have joint heirship with Jesus
Christ in it. According to Romans 8, 17, the
children of God are heirs of God. Oh, what a glorious statement
is that! Heirs of God. Not only that,
joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Do you realize the glorious truth
that is there? What did Jesus Christ inherit? Everything. The book of Hebrews
says that he is the heir of all things. Every aspect of creation,
God the Father says, my son inherits it. It's his. It's his. And then God says, and all you
who believe in him, it's yours too. You are joint heirs with
Jesus Christ. Can you imagine? What a blessing
is that? that God causes his son to be
the heir of everything, and then God says, by the way, whatever
my son inherits, you inherit too. Your joint heir is with
him. How blessed, how sweet is that? This inheritance, we are told
by Peter, is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that does not
fade away, reserved in heaven for you. It is incorruptible. It'll never be lost. It'll never
be lost. Do you remember the story about
the prodigal son? Rich man had two sons, and the
younger said, Father, give to me my share of the inheritance
now. Well, it's kind of foolish, but okay, all right. You can
have your share right now. So the younger son gets his share
of the inheritance. I mean, the father, who still
has evidently a long time yet to live, takes half of his possessions,
or whatever, actually being the younger son, he would not have
gotten half, but it would have been a good portion And the father
just gives it to the son, liquidates the funds and gives it to the
son, and the son goes off and spends it, wastes it in riotous
living. Came back home, repentant, the
father received him. But his inheritance is already
gone. When the father dies, everything goes to the older son. That son had a corruptible inheritance,
and he lost it. We have an incorruptible inheritance. You have not yet entered into
it, so therefore you cannot lose it. God never lost anything,
so therefore this inheritance is quite secure. It's undefiled, unblemished,
and pure. There is perhaps a man who dies
and leaves his house to his son. And the son comes home to look
at the house and, well, it's falling apart, got some broken
windows and the doors won't close correctly and weeds have taken
over. I might have been just as well
to have not inherited this. It is a defiled inheritance,
but not this one from our God, not this from our Father. It
is undefiled. It does not fade away. It will
never lose its luster. It is reserved in heaven, and
no man can go there and snatch it. It's safe. Now that's our
inheritance. It is incorruptible, undefiled,
does not fade away, and is reserved in heaven for you. And the Holy
Spirit promises the earnest or guarantee of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession. The earnest. The earnest. What is an earnest?
Here's a man who's got a house. He's got three people wanting
that house. Whichever one of them can put
the earnest money down first gets it, gets it. What is the earnest? It's the
guarantee that I'm going to pay the rest of it. It is a house
that is on sale on the market for $200,000. I go down to the trust company
and I put down $1,000 as earnest. That's my guarantee that I'm
going to buy it. Should I go home and my wife
says, I don't like that house, we're not buying it, I lose my
$1,000. I have gone back on my guarantee.
That was earnest. I cannot get it back unless the
owner says something is happening and I cannot sell it to you.
Then I get it back. God has given us the Holy Spirit. Is He in you? Are you led of
the Spirit? That is the earnest of your inheritance. As long as you know that the
Holy Spirit is within you, that's the guarantee that this inheritance
can never be taken away from you. But before we leave this
thought and go to the final Consider this. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5
that no fornicator, no unclean person, no covetous man who is
an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and
God. No inheritance. No inheritance. This inheritance is not yours. unless you are a saint who is
faithful in Jesus Christ. I hope this inheritance is yours.
Oh, do not leave this building today until you have ascertained
that I have an inheritance. I have already obtained it. That's the language Paul uses
in him. obtained, past tense, an inheritance. We have not entered into it yet, but we have the earnest of the
Spirit, and that's the guarantee. It's mine. I cannot lose it. I cannot lose it. We have obtained
an inheritance, the greatest inheritance ever known. My parents were godly people,
common, Folks, my father was a faithful gospel preacher, and he was not wealthy in the eyes
of the world. The Lord met all our needs, but
there were some tight times. My father and my mother left
me an inheritance. I was glad to get it, but I could
not retire. Not enough. I'm thankful for
it. I was blessed by it. But I have an inheritance from
God that is greater than any inheritance anybody else ever
gave. Number seven. Seventh blessing. sealing with
the Holy Spirit, verses 13 and 14. In Christ also, having believed,
you are sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise. Now, we are
sealed in a twofold manner. First, a seal authenticates or
confirms something as genuine or true. Genuine or true. When a king in ancient times
sent a letter out He'd give it to a courier, and the courier
would ride a hundred miles over to wherever the letter is to
be delivered, and he would deliver it to the man to whom the letter
was to go, and the man might say, How can you prove that this letter
came from the king? Look at the seal. Because when
a king would write the letter, He would use perhaps something
like an envelope like we use and he'd take a bit of wax and
drop that hot wax from the candle onto where the folds of the envelope
are or the scroll. He takes his signet ring, has
his stamp. Nobody's got it but him. It's
his. And he puts the impress of his
seal And that authenticates. That wax turns hard and when
that courier delivers the letter, the wax better still be in place. It's a seal. It's a seal. It confirms something is authentic
or genuine. Jesus Christ has the seal of
his Father. God the Father has set his seal
on the Son of Man, Jesus said in John 6, 27. When God the Father
put his seal on Jesus Christ, he said, that's my son and here's
my seal to prove it. Jesus Christ is thereby by God's
seal authenticated and confirmed to be the Son of God and likewise
The Holy Spirit authenticates or confirms believers as genuine
or true children of God. We read in Romans 8.16 that the
Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God and if children then heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. I've got the seal. What is the
seal? The Spirit of God within me agreeing
with my spirit. I'm a child of God. That's the
seal. The Spirit of God gave it to
me. Second, a seal secures something, makes it secure. So the body
of Jesus Christ is taken down from his cross, taken a short
distance over to the garden, put into a tomb, There has been
a very large stone that has been made big enough to close the
entire opening to that tomb. And the stone is put into place.
And the Sanhedrin goes and says, you know, that's not good enough.
Why, his disciples can come and roll that stone away and steal
his body. So they told the governor put
soldiers there and put a seal on it. Put a seal on it. Now a seal does not have to be
all that strong. Why, you have one on your electric
meter probably at your house. You can cut it with a pair of
fingernail clippers That metal is that thin. You better not
do so. You're in trouble if you do.
It's a seal. You cannot touch it. You better
not touch it. They put a seal on the tomb of
Jesus Christ. You better not break it. You
can't get to it anyway. The soldiers have it there. Of
course, the angels who came down to roll the stone away were not
concerned about soldiers and man-made seals. That seal protected
and secured the tomb of Jesus Christ from any mere mortal. Not only does the Holy Spirit
seal us in the sense of confirming and guaranteeing that we are
children of God, but He secures us. We are assured that the Holy
Spirit of God By the Holy Spirit of God, you were sealed for the
day of redemption. Sealed for the day of redemption. Now remember, what is a redemption? A release from bondage through
the payment of a ransom. A release from bondage through
the payment of a ransom. The ransom has been paid by the
blood of Jesus Christ, but we are sealed for the day of redemption. And the day of redemption will
be the final day, the redemption of the purchased possession.
The possession of Jesus Christ has already been purchased by
His blood. It has been delivered from the
sins it committed. but it is still in bondage to
this sinful nature. There's coming a day at the redemption
of the purchased possession. Oh, think of it, my friend. I'm going to be done with this
nature. I'm going to be done with this wickedness and evil
that is within me. You have no idea of the wickedness
that is in my heart, unless you know the wickedness of your own.
But we're going to be freed from this. Sinless. Think of it. Yeah, you can try. It goes beyond
your comprehension. But just think about it. No more
sinning. not even in your thoughts. I have been sealed unto that. I am secure and one of these days
I'm going to be free from sin at the redemption of the purchased
possession. Believers in that day will be
redeemed from all sin and its effects, and our physical bodies
glorified, glorified. That, my friend, is that to which
we are sealed. We now are sealed with the confirmation
that we are God's children. The Holy Spirit within us is
letting us know, you belong to God. You belong to God. You're His. And I'm the proof
of it. I'm the earnest of your inheritance.
But in that day, the seal is no longer needed.
I'm sealed now. Preacher, do you believe in eternal
security? Yeah, most certainly. You believe
once saved, always saved, only for those who once were saved.
But it's true. It's true. The Holy Spirit has
secured God's children. And we're going to get into that
inheritance because we're sealed into it. Well, Paul, You could have just gone a few
more sentences and wait a minute. He's going to go more into the
depth of these blessings, but I am so glad that he described
these blessings. Now, be careful of this. There are some people who would
say, I like that ceiling and I like that inheritance. Yes,
those are great blessings. Yeah, but what do you think about
the first two, election and predestination? Oh, I don't care too much for
them. Well, then you can't have the others. God has blessed us with all and
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. If you have received one of these
blessings, you have received every single solitary one of
them. God will not withhold any one
of these blessings from any one of His children. They get them
all beyond measure for all eternity. If we should deny this election
and predestination because we say, God violates my free will, then you can't have any of the
others. You cannot believe in salvation by man's free will
and have redemption from Christ and have the forgiveness of sins
and have an inheritance in glory and be sealed unto it forever.
You cannot. It all begins there. And that's
why we can say, blessed. Oh, may I make him happy. May
he be pleased with me. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Well, as I told
you, four weeks ago. I was going to try to expound this
whole passage in one message, and it did not work. It took
us four, but I hope it's been a blessing to you, and I hope
these blessings are yours. And O God, our Father, to the
glory of your name and to the honor of your Son, Jesus Christ,
be pleased, we pray, to let our hearts and souls bless you with
our praise for all your blessings unto us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.