Series: Abounding in Christ

Text: Ephesians 1:13-14

Title: The Earnest of the spirit

Text: Ephesians 1:13-14

Title: The Earnest of the Spirit

Introduction: In Ephesians 1 we see the doctrine of the Trinity. Each name of God teaches us something different about His character and in each one we receive a different benefit. Names are important. Your name is important—protect it.

Illustration: We have only one name and we try to protect that name. Sometimes people want to hide their name. There are some humorous true stories of criminals who were their own worst enemies and a big help to the police. After coming home in a cab, a drunken man robbed the driver at gunpoint. Another stickup man carefully disguised his face and vehicle but forgot to remove his maintenance uniform, which had his name and place of employment printed on it.

As Paul taught the Ephesian Christians about the riches we have available in Christ, he taught them about the Father. He chose us (that we should be holy and without blame). We love Him because He first loved us! He gave His only begotten Son for us.

He taught them about the Son who willingly went to the cross. In this sermon we will learn about the Holy Spirit.

Remember, we are talking about the riches we have in Christ.

Illustration: After weeks of getting the cold shoulder from his wife, an unhappy husband finally confronted her. “Admit it, Linda,” he said, “The only reason you married me is because my grandfather left me $10 million.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” she shot back. “I don’t care who left it to you.”

Illustration: It is amazing what an inheritance can do to a person. You might even be like the guy who met with his friend looking forlorn, and almost on the verge of tears. His friend said, “Hey, how come you look like the whole world caved in?”

The sad fellow said, “Let me tell you. Three weeks ago, an uncle died and left me forty thousand dollars.”

“That’s not bad.”

“Hold on, I’m just getting started. Two weeks ago, a cousin I never knew kicked the bucket and left me eighty-five thousand free and clear.”

“Sounds like you should be grateful.”

“Last week my great aunt passed away. I inherited almost a quarter of a million.”

“Then how come you look so glum?”

“This week . . . nothing!”

There are three aspects of Christ’s riches that we enjoy in the Holy Spirit.

I. The Word and the Spirit v. 13

Illustration: The great American preacher, Dwight L. Moody, was scheduled to launch an evangelistic campaign in England. Hearing of Moody’s plans, an elderly English pastor complained to a younger colleague, “Why do we need Mr. Moody to come here and preach to us? He’s an uneducated former shoe-clerk--and he’s an American, for goodness’ sake! Who does Mr. Moody think he is, preaching to us? Does he fancy he has a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?” “No,” the younger pastor replied, “but the Holy Spirit seems to have a monopoly on Mr. Moody.” That was true. In fact, D. L. Moody himself once observed, “I believe that the moment our hearts are emptied of pride, selfishness, ambition, and everything that is contrary to God’s law, the Holy Spirit will fill every corner of our hearts. But if we are full of pride, conceit, ambition, and the world, there is no room for the Spirit of God. We must be emptied before we can be filled.” Many people today miss this simple but profound truth about the Holy Spirit, as given to us in Ephesians 1. When we placed our trust in Jesus Christ, we were sealed by the Spirit of promise, and our inheritance of God’s riches was guaranteed. We already have all there is of the Holy Spirit. The issue that confronts us is this: Does the Spirit have all there is of us?

A. The Word of God results in faith

Notice two areas of emphasis that are always found together in Scripture—the Word and the Spirit. Both are absolutely essential. There is no salvation without both of these instruments of God’s eternal purpose. It is always a mistake to emphasize one to the exclusion of the other.

Ephesians 6:17
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Some groups and individuals emphasize the Spirit and ignore the Word. They say, “We don’t need the Word. All we need is the Spirit within. All we need is to trust our feelings--the indwelling Spirit will lead us.” This is almost invariably a prescription for error and heresy as people drift away from the revealed truth of the Bible and into all sorts of confused, mystical, cultic views and practices, all in the guise of “following the Spirit within.” Many a cult has begun with earnest, sincere believers who fell under the spell of a false messiah who claimed to speak for the Spirit of God, even while contradicting the clear teaching of the Word of God.

Yet there is an equal danger in following the Word and rejecting the ministry of the Spirit. In that case, people are prone to do their “Christian duty” while demonstrating no motivation, satisfaction, love, warmth, or joy.

In Scripture you find the two together, the Word and the Spirit. The Spirit interprets the Word, and the Word becomes fresh and vital where the Spirit of God is present.

The Spirit of God would never urge us to violate the teaching of God’s Word. So we can be assured that if some inner urging runs counter to God’s Word, it does not come from the Holy Spirit. There are many spirits abroad today, many voices talking to us, many sources of information and ideas that bombard us daily. How do we know which of these voices and sources are true and which would lead us into error? The Word of God points to the true Holy Spirit while detecting all false spirits. We must have together the Word and the Spirit for balance in our Christian lives.

B. The Spirit of God Results in Security

2 Corinthians 1:22

Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

II. Salvation and the Spirit v. 13

There are three steps given here to salvation.

A. Heard the Word

Be careful about a system of belief or teaching that gives an order contrary to the clear teaching of God’s Word. The world in which Paul lived and wrote was a world like ours today--filled with all kinds of distorted ideas and godless philosophies. Then as now, there were many delusions and illusions abroad.

Romans 10:13-17
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The Gospel is a return to reality. It is truth. It is the end of illusion. By hearing and receiving the Word of truth, we get back in touch with reality.

For example, the Gospel describes the true condition of the human heart. It punctures our human denial, our false and self-deceptive desire to insist that there is nothing seriously wrong with the way we live, the sinful habits we tolerate, the wrongs we perpetrate. We all want to see ourselves as “good people,” as being “okay.” Sure, we sin and fail like everybody else, but we think we’re really not so bad.

The Gospel comes crashing into our denial, rubbing our noses in the fact that our condition is so bad, so desperate, that our sins literally nailed the Son of God to a cross! Our problem is so desperate that it is truly incurable—from a human perspective. We cannot save ourselves. Only God Himself can save us.

By the way, I’d like to take a moment and stress the importance of church planting. We need young men who are sent, trained, and preaching the Word of God!

B. Believed in Christ

Notice the word whom in verse thirteen which is referring to the, “Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed…”

John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Belief is an essential prerequisite to a relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul stresses this fact: we must not only hear the word of truth, but we must also respond to it in faith. We must believe it. And to believe it means to accept it as truth and to act accordingly. If you say that you hold something to be true, but you go on living in the old, unbelieving way, then you haven’t really believed it. You are only kidding yourself. Belief results in change—in conforming yourself to the reality of what you believe.

What’s more, our belief must be focused in a Person—the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul never lets us forget this. In the first fourteen verses of Ephesians, he mentions the Lord Jesus Christ fifteen times. He is constantly bringing Him before us because God wants to drive home this great fact—that we cannot experience blessing in our lives apart from a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

C. Sealed by the Spirit

When? After that they had believed, the Holy Spirit is given, not (as some teach) after baptism, but after one believes. Baptism has nothing to do with salvation.

You don’t have to plead with God to send the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to wait and hope for a second experience after salvation. It is impossible to have salvation apart from the indwelling of the Spirit. The promised Spirit is received simply by faith in the Lord Jesus. The minute you believe in Him, you receive all you will ever have of the Holy Spirit. As you grow and mature in your faith, becoming progressively more obedient in your walk with God, the Holy Spirit gains more and more of you.

What does it mean to be sealed with the Spirit? This is undoubtedly a reference to the ancient practice of sealing letters or other official objects with sealing wax and impressing the wax with a raised seal worn on a ring, bearing an identifying image. The use of the seal always denotes two concepts: ownership and preservation.

The presence of the Spirit in your life, the joy and the peace that He gives, is the guarantee that there is more yet to come from God. The Spirit is the down payment on a much greater, fuller, richer experience of God than you have ever known before. The Holy Spirit is just the beginning of the blessings that you will receive in Christ.

The seal shows three things.

1. Completed Transaction

John 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

2. Ownership (see also verse fourteen—purchased possession)

The seal on the letter made it clear that the letter was owned by the individual who had sealed it. And the seal of the Holy Spirit makes it clear that the life that is sealed by Him belongs to God. The Spirit who seals you is God’s mark of ownership upon you.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

3. Security

Just as the seal on a letter preserved it from tampering, the Spirit’s presence speaks of God’s preserving seal upon our lives. We find this concept richly described for us. As Paul puts it here, God has guaranteed our inheritance by means of the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 5:5
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

III. The Promise and the Spirit

A. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit

Acts 1:4
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.

Illustration: A little boy was spending his morning playing in his sandbox. In the process of creating roads and tunnels for his toy cars, he discovered a large rock in the middle of the sandbox. The boy dug around the rock, managing to dislodge it from the dirt. He pushed and nudged the rock across the sandbox by using his feet. He was a very small boy and this was a very large rock. When he got it to the edge of the sandbox, however, he found that he couldn’t roll it up and over the little wall. The determined little boy pushed, shoved, and pried; but every time he thought he had made progress the rock fell back into the sandbox. Again the little boy pushed and shoved until he smashed his chubby fingers and burst into tears of frustration.

All this time the boy’s father watched from the living room window as the drama unfolded. At the moment the tears fell, a large shadow fell across the boy and the sandbox. It was the boy’s father. Gently, but firmly, he said, “Son, why didn’t you use all the strength you had available?” Defeated, the boy sobbed back, “But I did, Daddy, I did. I used all the strength I had!”

“No, son,” corrected the father kindly. “You didn’t use all the strength you had. You didn’t ask me.” And then the father reached down, picked up the rock and removed it from the sandbox.