Ephesians 1: 11-14 • Loved in the Spirit
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
From Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, this is In the Covenant of Grace. Here's the president of Covenant Seminary, Dr. Brian Chappell.
Look at the design of God down at the smallest level that we can perceive. The smallest cells that could be identified in a flower to the stars. How great is the God who created us!
Our God is so great, so strong and so mighty.
There's nothing our God cannot do.
Our God is not just powerful in doing all these great things, but what is He doing them for?
The mission of Covenant Theological Seminary is to train servants of the Triune God that they might walk with Him and learn to interpret and communicate God's Word to lead God's people that they would be living in the Covenant of Grace.
Today Dr. Brian Chappell comes to the second part of his message entitled, "Loved in the Spirit" from the series, "Eternal Love of Our Eternal God."
A carpenter or mechanic will often mark their expensive tools with their names or initials, indicating the tools belong to him or her in the event they're lost or stolen.
But did you know that those who follow Jesus Christ also carry a mark that reveals to whom they belong?
The scripture text for today's teaching is from Ephesians Chapter 1, Verses 11-14.
Now once again, here's Dr. Brian Chappell with today's broadcast we've entitled, "Loved in the Spirit." Listen to how the work of the Spirit is explained to us as the Godhead is first referred to and then more specifically the Spirit mentioned in the final verses of this passage. Verse 11, "In Him we were also chosen.
Having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. In order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of His glory. And you also were included in Christ. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory."
It's a message first of an expanding covenant that God who made a covenant with the people of Israel has now broadened the net and said to more people, to the nations of the world, that through the witness of those who were first to believe from among the Jews will also now come the ushering in of the Gentile nations so that heaven and earth will be one but also so there might be unity among the people of God. One of the most remarkable to me is if you just can read precisely what he says in verse 13. "You were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth." Now what did you think he was going to say when you believed the word of truth, when you responded to the word of truth? But all he said was, "You were included with Christ when you heard." There's a kind of passivity here of no qualification whatsoever.
As Jesus said, "There are those who have eyes but do not see, and there are those who have ears and do not hear."
So when you hear, the very hearing, actually really hearing the gospel that is in Christ Jesus, actually being able to hear is the evidence that you're God's, that you are included in the covenant before he says anything about any performance, any doing, anything. He just says, "You're receiving this. Your ability to hear it is saying the covenant applies to you." Now that is rich mercy. I mean there is no qualification in there whatsoever. It is simply the Spirit of God turning on your hearing to spiritual things. And when you hear, the mercy extends to you. Now when you begin to recognize this, so much I want to say to you at once, it's just hard to even put it together. Our God has said this, there's a big picture. The whole universe is being organized for the glory of Jesus Christ.
And not only is there a big picture, but there's a broadening mercy, like a balloon being filled up. The universe is being filled up with the mercy of God. And the mercy that's extending first from the covenant people of the Jews is now going through you and it is filling up the whole universe with the purpose of God. So that everything that is happening is spreading the message, is making it more known, is making everything come more and more into conformity with the plan of God for the praise of Christ's glory. But it's not just a big plan and a broadening mercy. You're a part of it. I mean think of the implication of the last words of this section, verse 14. The Spirit comes to bring redemption to those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. So that these people are being included now, or not just the Jews, but you and I too are to the praise of His glory. We're part of the plan. You know there's kind of a Calvinism that's gone to seed at times where people begin to say, "Well you know, God's just in control of everything and He just takes His word to His people, so you know why should I speak to anybody? Why should I do anything?" Because God's plan is to use human instruments to the praise of His glory. As those who were the first to believe from among the Jews became the witness to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles are now the witness to the entire nations. If you ever get the chance to go to Calvin's Geneva and go to St. Peter's Church, it is amazing to see the record of the Calvinists who literally trained people for the nations of the world. They believed in the sovereignty of God, but just as clearly they believed that a sovereign God was willing, in fact chose, to use human instrumentality for the spread of the gospel.
And so Calvin himself was responsible for training over 120 missionaries to go back into France,
where he had been exiled.
And not only did he spend those back to France, but he invited people like Knox from Scotland to come Geneva, and to learn to spread the gospel there, and from Spain, and Italy, and Hungary, Transylvania.
People coming from all over the world because Calvin believed that he was part of the big plan that God had in mind. That's what you believe. You believe you're part of the plan. It has been God's choice to use human instrumentality.
Now, when I begin to believe that, to say there's this big plan that is moving forward the purposes of God,
and I'm part of it in all of my weakness, in my frailty, in my stumbling, in my not knowing the right things to say, even still, God has a plan for me in the big picture.
It changes everything. The way I look at myself, the way I look at my world.
You know, I'm always chasing rainbows.
You show me a rainbow and I'll go running for a camera. And whatever spouse, or child, or pet I can get in the picture with it.
I love doing that.
But you know, as much as I love taking pictures of rainbows,
I never, while my feet are on this earth, will have a chance to take a picture of a complete one.
Oh, you say, "You've seen complete rainbows." Well, let me question that a bit. You've seen all the colors in a rainbow, I'll grant you that. And you may have seen even a rainbow arc with both legs upon the horizons. And you may have even seen a double rainbow.
But you only see the arc, you never see the full circle.
Now, you can see the full circle. Some of you have. If you draw back from this earth that's always getting in the way,
and you actually get above the clouds in a plane,
you can look down where the rain is not creating the shearing effect, but is a plane beneath you. And you can sometimes, on rare moments, see the whole circle.
Do you know what God has done in this passage of Scripture?
He's pulled back away from earth so that you can get above the clouds and look from the heaven's perspective. And he has said, "From the beginning, I planned all of creation to be for the praise of Christ's glory. And I worked my plan through the covenant people of Israel, so that from them would be the first to believe in Christ, and they would share the message with the nations, so that ultimately all the world would bow to the need of Christ and claim Him, Lord."
You can't see that. The things of earth get in the way. And it's hard for us to believe that's what's going on.
I look at pastors working in remote places, who are my friends, who have been there for years, and do not feel there's a possibility of any other place for them. And they are so discouraged by they seeing so little effect of the gospel among their people, and really feel there's not much effect of their lives.
I look at a couple who has lost a child in an auto accident to a drunken driver,
and cannot believe that God was there in that moment when they lost their child.
There's too many things of earth that get in the way of our vision to believe that God has an eternal plan.
And so with wondrous mercy, the apostle pulls away from the things of earth,
and shows us the whole picture, the whole rainbow from heaven's perspective, and says it all fits in the circle of God's plan. It is received by faith. It is not easy to accept, but the heart of the believer says, "My God is so great that even my weakness,
and the fallenness of this world, is not undoing the plan of my God."
It's sometimes so easy for me to believe that.
I have had a wonderfully, in human terms, blessed life.
But when I was in Europe, one of the places that I went was a place called the Museum of the Desert.
The place where it's recorded the history of the Huguenots, those who in standing for the reformed faith were murdered by the thousands.
And little memory of them is now around. You go to this little farmhouse that is their museum out in the middle of nowhere. It's not even on the tourist maps. Nobody pays attention.
And you pass one particular area where there is a white marble wall, where for three generations are recorded the names of those who were either exiled,
or executed, or imprisoned for all their lives if they were women, caught for expressing their faith, and their children taken away from for all their lives.
And when I look at that marble wall where I recorded the dates of what happened to people and what happened to them, first of all I'm struck. Somebody was keeping record.
For three generations somebody was keeping record.
But these people, how did they do that?
How did they continue to stand for the faith when they were losing their children, losing their lives, sending their husbands to the galleys for life, if that's what they were caught doing, worshiping God according to the scriptures.
Could they believe that there was some purpose in this?
What amazing faith.
I go to a faculty meeting and I look across the table at people who are teaching the Word of God right now at our seminary, some of whom have spouses who are wrestling with horrible disease of this world.
Some of whom are wrestling with things in their own bodies.
And I think to myself it is so easy for me to believe that God has a purpose for my life, but how hard for you.
And then I think what God is doing, he's actually strengthening me by them, by the witness of the Huguenots past and faithful professors today,
that even in their suffering, even in their difficulty, God is working his purpose in my life, in your life, because I can tell you about it. And I am too finite, I am too small to put all of that together and say how it works, which is why God by his Spirit gives us this Word to tell us, "I tell you with the authority of heaven itself, it's under control.
It's in my plan. I will not come undone because your world seems to come undone." There is still the complete plan of God worked out from the beginning of time that he is still bringing to fruition and the things of earth will not get in the way.
He will still accomplish his good will.
If only it were true, if only I could believe it, how can I believe that?
He says, verse 13, "You were included in Christ when you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who as a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory." We are being told what the purpose of the Holy Spirit is. He comes, that Holy Spirit, into our lives as a seal, the images of wax put on a document in ancient times that would have the mark of the king's signet ring on it to say, "I assure you by this mark that my promises are true."
And the Spirit is that seal on our lives. And then the Apostle who in this one long sentence just has thoughts that begin to multiply on one another, doesn't just say the Holy Spirit is that seal. Verse 14, he's the deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession. Like a down payment on the house, you make the down payment so that you secure it for the future purpose. He's the deposit, guaranteeing that you get the rest, that the promise will be fulfilled. What all is going to happen in this world is purposes for God's people. The Spirit is this seal and deposit and first fruit of the grand harvest. That's the Spirit's purpose. Don't you have any questions now? Well, yeah, that's the Spirit's purpose, but what's the Spirit's evidence? Well, that's wonderful that that's his purpose, but how do I know it applies to me?
You very much need that information. I'm going to ask that you look very closely with me at the middle of verse 13 and what follows. You were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation period. Now, is that period there? In the original language, that period is not there. That's done with good intention for our English reading so we can make sense of this. The gospel of your salvation,
having believed, is that comma there? No. You are marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Now, what we do because of that period is we create sequence. What we say in our minds is you had the gospel of salvation. Then, having believed, after that, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. And we create a sequence of things. You need to know the sequence is not there. You need to read it without the periods and without the comms. Having believed, you were marked. Having believed, you were marked. If you create sequence, you'll start to say this. You believe and then the Holy Spirit comes somehow. And we begin to interpret all kinds of things. You speak in tongues, you can interpret prophecies, you can create miracles. But the very point of the apostle is having believed, you were marked.
The belief itself is the mark of the Holy Spirit. How do you have any assurance that this world will be made new? Because your world has already been made new. You were dead in your trespasses and sin. And now you believe that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. The world doesn't believe that. How did you believe that? That is the evidence of the Spirit of God in you. The Bible says the natural man does not believe the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. Do you discern and believe that you are a sinner in need of a Savior who is also the Savior of the world? Do you believe that? That is the Spirit of God in you. It is the Pledge of God that your heart confirms. God, my God sent his Son for my sin. I believe that. Spirit of God works with your Spirit to confirm that you are a child of God and your belief is the mark of the Spirit. Don't let anybody deprive you of the wonder of the miracle of your belief. That is God's Spirit marking you as a child of God. And it's when some of you, unlike me, I became a Christian as a child, but some of you have the great grace of being converted as adults so that you can actually recognize light coming into darkness. A new world replacing an old world of your habit and thoughts and mind and patterns.
And somehow you know that is a miracle. As great as speaking in tongues, no, it's greater than that. Your world has been transformed. You think as you never could have thought apart from the work of God's Spirit so that your belief that God sent his Son for you is God's wonderful affirmation that his Son is coming again to make this world right and that you are a part of that plan launched since the dawn of creation to bring all of creation under the headship of Jesus Christ. It's his promise to you which you actually already have inside. Do not minimize the wonder of the miracle of the Spirit of God in you that lets you believe. When you know that,
when you know my heart's very profession of Christ is the evidence of the Spirit of God changing this world inside and the first fruits of the whole world to be changed and everything made right by the working that he is now performing through that Spirit,
we're not just waiting for rainbows. All the world now takes on a different color.
It's technicolor before us. The picture is always complete because we can see from God's very perspective by actually peering within to know what he has done. May God so work in your heart
that you have so, so marveled at the miracle of your own belief that you would say, "Thank you, Holy Spirit of God for this evidence of a transformed universe in me that gives me the confidence of the whole universe in the hand of my God as I am because I've seen the rainbow
complete and full, God's full plan for his people. I can see it. I can see it because I see Jesus and know he's mine." Pray with me. Father, I would pray for the people gathered here that you would remind them how precious is the miracle of their own faith, a work wrought by you in their hearts that is the deposit, the guarantee of what is ahead for all.
Apart in the big plan to glorify Christ and make all the peoples of the world name the name of Jesus as he makes this world right. Father, give us the joy of our salvation, we pray. This we ask in Jesus name. Amen. All who put their faith and trust in Christ have been chosen by God and adopted through the sacrifice of Jesus. If you have benefited from the teaching on today's In the Covenant of Grace with Brian Chappell, audio copies of this teaching are available. Request the broadcast entitled "Loved in the Spirit, Part 2." Write to In the Covenant of Grace, 12330 Conway Road, St. Louis, Missouri, 63141. Or call 1-800-264-8064. That's 1-800-264-8064. Again request "Loved in the Spirit, Part 2." We do ask for $5 for an audio copy of today's broadcast. You may also review today's teaching by Brian through our chapel online real audio internet service. Visit us at covenantseminary.edu. Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved, but how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they're sent? In the Covenant of Grace is the outreach of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, rooted in grace for a lifetime of ministry. We're the National Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in America. At Covenant, we're committed to your intellectual and personal preparation for ministry. Our task is to train men and women from ministry, but this task is expensive. The average full-time Covenant Seminary student is 27 years old with little or no income. Some students have families to provide for. Most of us are not called to seminary or to the pastorate or to the foreign mission field, but have you considered the fact that you can help fulfill the Great Commission by partnering with Covenant Seminary? Your monthly financial support will make it possible for us to continue our calling of training men and women for ministry. Send your support to in the Covenant of Grace 1-2-3-3-0, Conway Road, St. Louis, Missouri, 63141. And when you do, request your complimentary subscription to Covenant Magazine. Call today 1-800-264-8064. At Covenant, we made it easier to answer God's call to service. Now you can earn an accredited Master of Arts from anywhere in the world without relocating. Covenant Seminary Access offers a 60 credit hour program, ideal for church and ministry staff workers, Bible study leaders, teachers, missionaries, anyone who desires to have a solid biblical foundation for their life and service. In addition to the Access program, students can also earn a graduate certificate, begin their Masters of Divinity degree, or take individual courses. For more information and a catalog, call 1-800-264-8064 or through the web at Covenant Seminary.edu. And once again for an audio copy of today's message, request "Loved in the Spirit, Part 2." Our address in the Covenant of Grace, 1-2-3-3-0, Conway Road, St. Louis, Missouri, 63141. Or call 1-800-264-8064. Thanks for being with us today, and be sure and join us again next week as we continue to discover how abundant life will be when we are in the Covenant of Grace.