Welcome, Baptisms, And Ephesians Overview

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If you're a guest, special welcome. Delighted that you're here. I'm Bark Kef O'Segan, and I'm one of the pastors here, as you might see. Uh, we're gonna do some baptisms today. And we're just delighted you're here. We invited some of the folks from first service to come back so they may come back. I noticed we left the splash zone almost empty. Very, very proud of you. Yeah, you're gonna want to spread out when the time comes. But we're just delighted that you're here this morning. If you're a guest, we want you to know we've been in uh the book of Ephesians, and we've talked about the fact that this is a very weighty book. And so we're actually gonna spend seven months in this book. And so far, we're only dealing with the first chapter, in fact, the first 14 verses of the first chapter. And uh, as we've been studying together, we've noticed that the sentence that we see in our English that starts in verse 3 goes all the way to verse 14 in the Greek. It is considered by scholars one of the most difficult sentences to translate in Koinine Greek because it has such weighty, meaty stuff in it. In fact, in this, the apostle Paul is reminding the Ephesian believers, the Christians in Ephesus, who are Gentiles, that is, they're not related by blood to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Anybody who's related by blood to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is Jewish. Anyone who's not related by blood to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is a Gentile. And so he's talking to these Gentiles and he's reminding them of some things. And as Paul is wont to do, the first three chapters of this letter, this book, if you will, is all about theology and understanding who God is and who we are in Christ. And the last three chapters are about now, so what? How shall we then live? So Paul doesn't tell the believers, look, I need you to start acting right and doing right, pull yourself up by your little spiritual bootstraps. That's not at all what he's doing. Rather, what he's saying, do you know who you are? Do you know whose you are? Let me remind you of it that you once again would well up from the inside out and in the strength that God provides, represent Christ well, who is yours forevermore

Predestination As Corporate Calling

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through simple faith in him. Now, as we began to break up this uh too long sentence, if your your English teacher looked at it, she'd say, What are you doing? You can't have a sentence that long. Well, it breaks up into three parts. We look at the will of the Father, which we saw two weeks ago. We look at the work of the Son, what he's accomplished on our behalf, we saw that last week. And now we're gonna look at the witness of the Holy Spirit. That is how he gives testimony in our very hearts of whose we are, now that we've placed our faith, our trust in Christ alone as Savior. But before we get any further, we're gonna run in really shortly, we're gonna run into this 25-cent word, predestined. And so we need to remind ourselves again what's going on in the book of Ephesians when it talks about predestination. And so I thought I'd just read for you from Dr. Evans. Here's what he says: the focus of the book of Ephesians is on the corporate church, not on individual Christian salvation. Therefore, the choosing, election, the predestination, deciding beforehand, to which Paul refers is not for individuals to eternal life, but regards God's choice to establish a group of people, that is, the body of Christ, in the beloved one, whose purpose is to live godly lives and reflect his Jesus' holy character in a sinful world. This election defines the corporate identity believers share because of their relationship to Christ. So the idea is every time he talks about election or predestination, he's not saying that God in eternity past look willy-nilly over a group of people that says, I pick you and I pick you and I pick you. Ergo, I pass over you, I pass over you, and I pass over you. And therefore, those that are pass over, you don't even have an opportunity for salvation. No, that's not at all what he's teaching. What he's saying is in eternity past, he made a decision that of those who had place their faith, their trust in Christ in the church age would be part of God's forever family and be part of a unique body of Christ made up of both Jews and Gentiles representing Christ.

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Dr.

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Evans goes on.

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In Christ, God adopts sons and daughters for himself for a specific purpose. To be adopted in the ancient world meant receiving the rights, same rights, privileges, and inheritance due to a natural-born adult son. Once you're adopted because of your faith in Christ, you're defined by your new father. God gives all of his children access to every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. This is similar to a family member sharing in the medical insurance benefits of the head of the household. So God decided beforehand to bring a group of people into his family, drafting them into his son for the goal of receiving spiritual benefits and manifesting his heavenly rule in their lives and bringing him glory. Election, predestination, is for service and spiritual benefit, not for individual personal salvation. That's really important that we understand that. Otherwise, anyone who says, Well, I guess God just didn't pick me, they would be right. But that's not true. Every man, woman, boy, and girl has an opportunity to investigate the evidence for the authenticity of Christ's testimony about himself. And if they will do that honestly,

Jews First, Then Gentiles In Christ

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they will be persuaded. They'll place their faith, their trust, they will believe in Jesus Christ and ergo be gifted eternal life. Now, in these first few verses that we're going to cover this morning in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 11 and 12, we're dealing with a transition moment that the apostle Paul is explaining. Listen, I want to remind you guys that we Jews were the first to trust Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ. And then when you heard the truth of the word of God, you believed, and when you believed, not when you heard, but when you believed, you became God part of God's forever family. And so he begins to talk about this. And we read it this way. Also we, Jewish believers, have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who are the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In him, you Gentile believers, also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now it's important to know some people think that, you know, Old Testament saints were saved by being good people. Only New Testament saints are saved by grace through faith. So we'll study in depth in two weeks, Ephesians 2.8.9. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is a gift from God, not as a result of works that no man should boast. But all people at all time have always been saved by grace through faith in the promised provision of the Messiah to come. So even the Old Testament saint was saved by faith. No one, Romans says, is saved by works of the law. That was a tutor to drive the Jewish belief people to believe that Jesus would need to come. In fact, there's this thing from the very moment that man fell, Adam and Eve fall. And in Genesis chapter 3, we have what theologians call the proto-evangelium, meaning the first gospel message. And here's what we read. The NIV puts it this way in Genesis 3.15. Jesus, the preincarnate Christ, who walked with Adam in the cool of the day, now is bringing condemnation upon the evil one for having tempted Adam and Eve to sin. And here's what he says, and I will put enmity, hostility, between you, Satan, and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. Now this is Hebrew proetry, and what he's saying is, listen, Satan, you're doomed. The day is coming when Jesus will crush you under his feet. Ah, but for that to happen, there's going to be a moment where you're going to give him a death blow, which Heavenly Father will raise him from the dead. This is the first promise that, hey, God's going to make a provision. And to come through a woman, this person is going to be of flesh and blood. And all those from ancient times have always looked to God's promise. When? Where is this person? Who could possibly accomplish this task? We find out with great anticipation from the very beginning that it was the Jews who were told. In fact, Paul says this in Romans 1:16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Now, we studied not that long ago the book of Acts. And in the book of Acts, we notice that every time the Apostle Paul went to a new city, the first thing he did was go to the synagogue to preach to the Jews. Why? Because they should have been easy evangelistic pickings. They knew the prophecies concerning Jesus the Christ. And so he goes to them first. It says, Hey, remember what we have? I want you to look in chapter and verse with me. Jesus fulfilled all of this. And a handful do indeed trust Christ. But during the Acts journey, very few percentage-wise of the Jews trust Christ. Ah, but on the day of Pentecost, when Peter and the 12 were preaching, thousands trust Christ.

Salvation By Grace From Genesis Onward

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Still just a small percentage of all the Jews who were in Jerusalem at the time. So the truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ did indeed go to the Jew first. And in fact, the apostles themselves were confused for a while. They didn't realize the door had been opened to the Gentiles as well. And God had to show them this. And Peter had to learn this, particularly in chapter 10 of the book of Acts, where Cornelius, this Gentile, has gets a vision of an angel saying, You need to call on Simon Peter, and he will tell you the name by which you must be saved. And so Peter does go. And now we find that both Jew and Gentile stand together at the foot of the cross. We all are blessed through Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, what's unique about the church, particularly what we're going to find today, is that the Old Testament saints would periodically have the Holy Spirit come upon them, but he was not permanently indwelt in them. But to the New Testament saint, from the time of Pentecost on, the moment we place our faith, our trust in Christ, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit forevermore. I don't know if you remember, but um on Resurrection Day, there are two men who are been listening to all the teaching of Jesus, and they too thought that perhaps Jesus was the Messiah. But he's been murdered by the Romans, instigated by the religious rulers of Israel. And they've been hearing stories that women of all people have witnessed the resurrected Christ. And they're on a seven-mile walk, our mess, and as they're walking, they're discussing what could all this mean. The resurrected Christ, cloaking himself so they don't recognize him, walks alongside and says, What is this you're talking about? To which they say, Are you the only person in the area who doesn't know about Jesus of Nazareth, his righteous life, his powerful preaching, the miracles that he performed? We thought for sure he was the Messiah. But the religious rulers had him crucified, and the Romans indeed crucified him and buried him. And we've heard rumor even this day that some of the women have seen the resurrected Christ. And in Luke chapter 24, verses 25, and following, Jesus says this, and he said to them, Oh foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scripture. As Paul says, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of salvation to all those who believe, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, meaning the Gentiles. Paul's encouraging the believers in Ephesus. He wants to encourage them with what's transpired in their lives so they would know who they are and whose they are. And so he begins to lay out for them the issue of the witness of the Holy Spirit. And we see this after these first few verses, where Paul's explaining how he, among the rest of the Jews who were the first to trust Jesus' Nazareth, is indeed the Messiah. Now Gentiles have heard it and they have trusted ever since Cornelius. And then he says, now here's something I want you to know. Verses 13 and following. We could paraphrase it in our own mind. Jesus paid for your sins already. You simply need to place your faith, your trust in Christ alone as Savior, and he will gift you eternal life, and the Holy Spirit will come into you, and you will experience newness of life. We could say all that.

Hearing, Believing, And Being Sealed

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But there's something about quoting the Scripture. The first testimony of the Holy Spirit is the Word of God itself. The Word of God itself is a letter to you and me from God the Holy Spirit. Over 1,500 years, some 40 authors, he inspired them by the moving of the Holy Spirit in their hearts and their minds, using their testimony, using their vocabulary to communicate word for word exactly what he wanted them to, guarding their words, not dictating to them, but guarding the very words that they would write for you and for me to study. In fact, 2 Peter 1 20 and following says this. But know this first of all that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Hebrews 4 12. The word of God is living and active and is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joint and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. When we quote the word of God to someone else, the truth of that word, it's God Himself who's speaking to their hearts. And I don't want to be the one telling them. I want God to tell them. Don't listen to me. Listen to God. Sanctify, set them apart in truth. Your word is truth. First thing he's highlighting for us is the word of God, the preached word concerning Jesus Christ. You heard it and you believed. And in believing, you became part of his forever family. Knowing about Jesus doesn't save anybody. Trusting that Jesus saves, believing him at his word, being convinced that what he says about you is true, that he is fully paid for your sins, and if you believe in him, he gifts you eternal life. So he's just reminding them hey, listen, we're gonna find out in the second half of this book that many of these believers really aren't representing Christ well. Rather than, you know, pick up a ruler and slapping him on the hand, he's gonna let me encourage you of who you are and whose you are, and see if it doesn't well up from the inside out that you want to walk in a way that represents him well.

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Next thing he says, he talks about the the seal of the Holy Spirit.

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We look at this in verse 13 again. In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now, this whole idea of a seal, it goes back to a cultural practice, and many ancient ancient paprier will find like this, and and those in great authority would have what's known as a signet ring with great markings on that ring, and they would take that ring and they would press it in wax, or they would press it in some kind of flasher, and they would press it. This is a a corded signet document. And so it represents this the signet, represents the person, the authority, the power of the person who sealed it. In ancient times, it was really important. It was it was considered more secure than a signature. Because only one person could hold on to that particular signet ring. And therefore, it represented their power, their ability to be truthful to whatever they're sharing with you. Now we we have some examples from ancient times. You can put that up. This is this is somewhere about 400 BC. It was found in Cyprus.

The Spirit’s Seal: Ownership, Authenticity, Security

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This is a family signet ring. So if they're going to have a contract, they're going to actually do something like this, and they're going to stick that in some wax or something that's pliable. They're going to stick their signet in it. And then whoever they send it to is going to know that really is from so-and-so. Here's the next one. This one's from Egypt. This is about 2,000 years old, 2,500 years old, I believe, is what it tells us. This is from Egypt. And it actually belonged to a priest in Egypt, a priest of one of the Egyptian gods. Then we have what's called the cylinder. Now, this is a cylinder from Mesopotamia. It's 3,500 years old. Now, in Mesopotamia, we're talking about Iraq, that general area, that area between the two famous rivers, the Euphrates. And the whole idea is that whoever presses that seal on is their authority, their power, their word for whatever is in the document. So he's going to use this figure of speech. He's going to talk about hey, this is the signet, this is the guarantee, this is how you know that you belong to him. This is the authentication that you're truly his. This is the reality that he owns you. He's bought you the price of his death on the cross. So you're his forevermore. It's your security. Then no one can overpower God. You're his forever. The power of the signet is behind the person who it represents. Now, some of our ladies just recently had been studying the book of Esther. And in the book of Esther, you learned that King Asherareth had actually given Haman, this evil Haman, his signet ring, to go pass a law that would represent the very power of the king. And in fact, once that law was passed with that signet ring, it could not be broken. And unfortunately, that law was about wiping out all the Jews in the area. But then Mordecai, that leader of the Jews, after all this praying for him, he ends up rising in favor in the eyes of the king. And the king now gives him the signet ring, and he's able to pass a law that contrabands that, contradicts that, meaning that now the Jews can go defend themselves, and that's where the whole celebration of Purim comes from. But what is it? It's the signet ring. He's using this same illustration, the power of the king behind it. What king?

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King Jesus. What did the signet ring represent?

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What did this sign represent? There's at least three things that we know from Scripture that parallels what a signet ring or cylinder would represent in the world of that culture of that time and why Paul was using this example. There are three things. The first is the seal represents ownership. Secondly, it represents authenticity. And third, it represents security. And we see this in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Here's what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 concerning ownership. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Don't you know? Jesus bought you.

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He bought you with his death on your behalf. You're not your own. Glorify God in the way you live your life. He goes on.

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The idea of the seal of the Holy Spirit conveys authenticity. We see this in John chapter 14. Here's what Jesus says. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever. That's a new thing. Old Testament saints didn't have that. They were saved by simple faith in the promise of God, but they didn't have the clarity of who was going to be the one to fulfill that promise. They looked toward the cross, waiting for the one to be identified. We look back on the cross knowing he's already been identified. And I will ask the Father, and he would give you another helper, speaking of the Holy Spirit, that he may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. What a glorious thing. In Romans 8.9, he says it this way If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't even belong to him. The moment you place your faith, your trust in Christ alone, the Savior, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of promise. Romans 8.16 puts it this way: the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are children of God. Where do you get your confidence that you belong to Jesus forevermore? It's the Holy Spirit living within you. He's the one that when you hear the truth of the Word of God, you know that you know that you know, because the Holy Spirit has sealed you for that day of redemption. The seal of the Holy Spirit represents the ownership, the authenticity, and now the security. Once saved, always saved. This whole idea of security, often the uh empires would put a seal over something that they wanted secure. If they wanted the jail secure, they'd put a seal over that jail. This represents the power of the king. Violate this, and it costs you your life. What happened on the day that Jesus was crucified and buried, uh the Jews knew that Jesus had prophesied that he would rise again on the third day. So they go to Pilate, the governor, and they say, Listen, that that pretender, that faker, that fraud. They said that he was going to rise on the third day. So we need to make sure that his disciples don't go and steal his body. And he says, Okay, you can take the guards with you. Put the seal across that stone. And the guards would have to give up their lives to allow that to be penetrated. And so he tells them to seal it in Matthew 27, 65, and following. Pilate said to them, You have a guard, go, make it as secure as you know how. And they went and made the grave secure along with the guard. They set a seal on the stone. Now, you know that seal didn't help them. You know why?

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Because their king's not more powerful than our king.

Pledge Of Our Future Inheritance

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Jesus put it this way Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word, my message about me, and believes Heavenly Father who sent me, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. In fact, in Ephesians 4 30, he puts it this way: Paul says this, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And this is interesting to me because he's basically telling the Ephesian believers, you know what? Some of you are grieving the Holy Spirit by not representing Christ well. But you know what? You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption. Would you embrace that reality and allow the encouragement come from the inside out? You belong to him forevermore. And by the strength that God provides, you can represent him well. So we've looked at the fact that the Holy Spirit in the scripture is the first testimony we have. We have the Holy Spirit as a seal, ownership, authenticity, and security. And finally, we have the Holy Spirit as a pledge of future inheritance. Look at verse 14. Who, the Holy Spirit, is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory. Now, this word pledge is Araban, and it means an earnest, a guarantee. Now, we don't use the term earnest money very much unless you're in real estate. If you're in real estate, you know what earnest money is. You're representing someone who wants to purchase a house and they're going to give an offer for the home. And when they give that offer, they have to give a certain percentage of money as earnest money, telling the person who wants to sell their home, if you sign this contract, I'm promising this much money that I'm not going to back out of it. And by the way, if you do back out of it, you give up your earnest money. Because it's a guarantee of more to come. What he's saying here is the seal of the Holy Spirit is also a pledge of more to come. You see, although we've been redeemed, the moment you place your faith, your trust in Christ, the true you began to live forever. But you haven't received full redemption yet. You know why? You're still in this mortal body. But the day's coming. What we experience now is the guarantee that the day is going to come. This is not all there is.

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One day we will live forevermore physically.

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I don't know about you, but as the days get longer, I groan a little bit more. How about you? I had such a pleasure this past week. I had a little preventative maintenance done. Oh, what fun that was. I look forward to the day, but I don't have to do any more preventative maintenance. What about you? He's saying we have a down payment, a guarantee of more to come. Ephesians 1 13, and following the New English translation, says it this way. When you believed in Christ, you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 21, and following New Living Translation says it this way. Over and over and over again in the New Testament, we're told that the Holy Spirit has given us a pledge, a promise of things to come. As great as it is today to know that he indwells us, and by his strength and his power we might represent him well. Because of what he's done, when we mess up, we can confess our sins,

Live By The Spirit’s Strength

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as 1 John 1.9 says, if we agree with God, what he's told us is wrong, he will forgive us our sins and cleanse us for all unrighteousness. We can have that fellowship restored. We never lose our salvation, but we can lose the joy of our salvation. But we can have it restored moment by moment, because the Holy Spirit encourages us to agree with God and to let him continue to transform us. In 2 Corinthians 5 5, it's put this way Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave us the Spirit as a pledge. This morning we've been looking at the witness of the Spirit, the witness of the Spirit through the Scripture, the witness of the Spirit through the seal of the Spirit in our lives, demonstrating true ownership by God, authentically belonging to Him, and the security that once saved, always saved. And finally, the Holy Spirit is a pledge of future inheritance. This is not all there is. During his great campaign to conquer the world, he came across Egypt, and Egypt was kind of nipping at his heels. And so he sent his emissary with his signet ring to go talk to the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh, and to tell him back off or else. He sends his emissary, not with soldiers, not with a platoon, not even with a single guard, not even with weapons on himself. His emissary had nothing but Alexander's signet ring. And he goes before the king of Egypt, who has his entire army arrayed before him. He tells the king of Egypt, I'm here to represent Alexander. And he calls on you to cease all hostilities toward his endeavors. To which the emissary drew a circle in the ground around the king of Egypt, and he said, I'll wait, but don't step out of that circle without giving me your answer. Now there's the entire army of Egypt. They could have drawn and quartered him. They could have cut his head off right there. Ah, but the king of Egypt knew that that emissary had to sign the signet ring of Alexander. Touch him, you're touching Alexander. So he took just a moment and he said, You can report to Alexander, I accept his offer. And he stepped out of the circle. Listen, Alexander had no power anywhere near comparing to your king and mine. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, and we can operate in his strength and not our own exactly what Peter tells us to do. Don't pull yourself up by your own spiritual bootstraps. But operate in the strength that he provides. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. I get such things. There is no law, the fruit of the spirit. Would you stand and pray with me?