If you would turn with me in your Bible to Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1. We're going to consider together only a couple verses of this great chapter, verses 13 and 14, but to get the context of what Paul is doing, we'll begin at the beginning of the chapter and work our way to verse 14. So Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. Hear now the very word of our God. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with His pleasure and will to the praise of His glorious grace which He has freely given us in the one He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding and he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head even Christ 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. Now our text for this evening. 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 the 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. Thus far, the reading of God's Word. May He bless it to us. Part of the reason I wanted to read all of this chapter is not just because it is a wonderful statement of praise that Paul offers for all the work that God has done going from before the foundations of the earth all the way through to the present audience to whom Paul is writing. But really in the original language, as I'm sure you've heard before, this is one great statement all pushed together. It's hard to carve out any one piece of it without at least recognizing the beauty of the whole. But of course, there's too much here for us to go in depth into every small part of this passage. And so we're going to look in a particular way at verses 13 and 14. And to see beautifully how Paul has brought this message of praise through this first chapter. Praising God for what he has done. Praising God for what his plan was from the beginning of the earth. And we can even see how Paul moves in an orderly way through the praise of God. Beginning in the first place with those things that God did before the foundations of the earth were laid. In purposing to save a people for his name. And that in the fullness of time, in accordance with God's perfect plan, he then brought Christ into the world to do that redemptive work that needed to be done for his people. So really, after Paul's opening in the first two verses, we see in verses 3-6 this electing plan before the foundations of the earth, moving into verses 7-10 of this plan of redemption put into place when Christ came into the world. And then in verses 11 and 12, Paul moves into praising God for those amongst the people of God, the Jews who had first believed. And now he gets to verses 13 and 14, which deal with this Gentile people to whom he's writing. And he praises God because these people too have also believed. He's really praising God for this plan that has worked itself out in history and brought itself to the point at which Paul is writing to the Ephesians and saying, in him you also believed. This plan in a beautiful way has been brought into this church where Paul is writing. And so we want to look at what particularly is Paul praising the Holy Spirit for in this passage. And I think we can see three things. Three things that Paul is particularly praising God the Holy Spirit for doing in his church. The first thing he praises is the words of truth. The second thing is the work of faith. And the third is the guarantee of glory. The words of truth, the work of faith, and the guarantee of glory. Now you might say, well, what do you mean the words of truth? After all, doesn't Paul just talk about the word of truth? And he clearly seems to be talking about the gospel. But you see, there's another important word of truth to which Paul alludes when he talks about the promised Holy Spirit. When we hear Paul talk about the promised Holy Spirit, it immediately brings our minds to where was the Holy Spirit promised? How do we see that promised Holy Spirit? What is Paul thinking of when he uses that word to describe the Holy Spirit? And if we look at the Bible, we can see places where God has promised the Holy Spirit. And we can't go into all of them, but there are two in particular that I think relate, especially to who Paul is talking to in these two verses. Because remember, he's brought this story of redemption forward to the Ephesian context. And they are largely a Gentile church. And so Paul has particularly in mind the promise of the Holy Spirit, not just in general terms, but the promise to the Holy Spirit that was particularly for the Gentiles. And one thing Paul is concerned with is that these Gentile Christians not see themselves as second-class citizens in the kingdom of heaven. That they understand that the promise is for them The promise has always been for them And we can see that if we look at texts That talk about the promise of the Holy Spirit In the first place we can think of the prophecy of Joel Where Joel prophesies about the Holy Spirit that's coming Joel is a book written to people who have suffered From an attack of locusts who have destroyed the land and it's a clear picture that this is a picture of god's judgment on them for their unfaithfulness but in joel chapter 2 and towards the end joel reminds the people as many prophets do that the destruction the judgment of the lord is not where he leaves his people that there is certainly going to be a time of restoration that comes for the people of god when and the Lord will undo those things that have been done, where he will receive and recover his people. And so Joel talks about the restoration that the Lord will bring about for his people. And this is important because immediately on the heels of that promise of restoration comes the promise of the Holy Spirit. So this is what is said in Joel chapter 2, 25 to 28. The Lord says, I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And we move forward to that great day of Pentecost and when Peter is preaching to the people and the people are asking the question, what do all these things mean? Peter says, this is what Joel had prophesied about. This is the outpouring of the Spirit that comes after the restoration of Israel. Christ has restored his people. And so his Spirit is being poured out. And this has a particularly important message for Gentile Christians. Because Joel does not say, in that time I will pour out my spirit on Israel. That's not the word of the Lord he brings. The word of the Lord he brings is that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. See, this is part of Paul's way of reminding that the promise of the Holy Spirit was not just to Israel. It certainly was to Israel. But it was not to Israel alone. That great promise is that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all flesh. And we can look also to the promise that Jesus made concerning the Holy Spirit. When he was ascending into heaven, we're told in Acts 1, verse 8, Jesus says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. You see, that was a promise as well, that the Holy Spirit would empower the Word of God not just to go forth to God's particular people in a particular place. It will certainly begin there, but it will go out from there. It will go out into Samaria. It will go out into the ends of the earth. But that is the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit's effect in the world. He will be poured out on all flesh and He will empower messengers to go out and to bring that word of God to the ends of the earth. And so what Paul is saying in a wonderful way when he talks about the promised Holy Spirit, he wants them to be clear that the promise was to them as much as it was to anyone else. And that's so comforting because it's a reminder to us tonight that the promise of the Holy Spirit was to us as much as it was to anyone else. That this promise comes to us. But that is the great word of truth that the Bible has, that this promise was to come to all people, not just to God's particular people. It did come to them first, but it passed on into the world. And Paul's saying that was the first thing. The Holy Spirit was promised, but the Holy Spirit also empowers that proclamation. That that great word of truth goes out into the world. That the Holy Spirit raised up ministers and appointed apostles to bring that gospel out into the world, to establish churches, to appoint ministers who in their turn would bring the gospel to the world, who would proclaim that gospel in the world. And Paul in a particular way says, I was appointed to be a messenger to the Gentiles. That is what I was particularly set apart to do. Paul says in Ephesians 3 verse 8, To me, though I am the very least of the saints, This grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Paul says, in a particular way, I have had the pleasure of being the apostle who brought the word of God, who proclaimed the word of God to the Gentile world. I had the privilege of bringing that word to the ends of the earth. And that is indeed what we hope to see the church do, to bring the word of God to the ends of the earth. And it's as true today as it's always been that the Holy Spirit empowers the proclamation of the gospel into all the world. But that is what he raises up ministers and evangelists, missionaries, to do to bring that gospel into the world. But of course we also recognize that every member of the church has the power to bring the message of the gospel to the world. Not in the same way that it goes forth from the pulpit. But we all have that opportunity to bring that message of salvation. That is the great work of the church. That we even as members, wherever we're located, have that opportunity to bring the word of God. The word of truth about who God is and what he's done. And we need to be praying for those opportunities. We need to be able to pray not just to have the opportunity, but to have the boldness when the opportunity presents itself to share the word of God. to continue that proclamation. To know that there is no one in this world who God says to us that there's a way we can tell that they're out and other people are in. As we've been looking through the canons of Dort, Reverend Voss has helped us see that's why we talk about the gospel being proclaimed promiscuously to everyone, because you never know where the fertile ground is where the seed might fall. And so we want to be those who continue to bring that message to the ends of the earth, to wherever we are. And we need to pray for boldness. Pray that the Lord would help us proclaim that word. Paul says, that word of truth which you heard. So we've talked about the words of truth. We also want to talk about the work of faith. The work of faith that the Holy Spirit does because that's also what Paul is praising God for, that the Holy Spirit has done his work to create belief. We understand that it's our responsibility to proclaim the word of truth. And what is the word of truth? If you're going to think about sharing the gospel to someone who's around you, what is the message that you would share? What is it that they need to hear? I've been trying to prepare for my candidacy exam, and there's been a lot of things I've been studying and trying to get right so that I have it in my mind when my time of testing. But it's also been impressed upon me how simple the basic message is. The basic message is simple. We all know what the basic message is. And it's this. You're a sinner. You need a Savior. And you show your gratitude to your Savior by living a life that's pleasing to Him. That's a message we learn at a very young age. If you grow up in the church or what the catechism is and how it's organized. It's guilt, grace, and gratitude. It's sin, salvation, and service. That's the message the world needs to hear. Now, there are a lot of details that come up. Trust me, I've been studying them. But it's also a very simple core message. And one of the things I think that can keep us from doing evangelism is we're worried that we'll say something stupid, that we'll say something foolish, or we'll get a question that we don't have a really good answer to. And the wonderful truth of Scripture is if it sounds reasonable to someone, you're probably not explaining it right. Because Paul said, wherever I took it, people regarded it as foolishness. You know, people assumed the apostles were drunk, demon-possessed, crazy. There were any number of things they thought about them. Not many times did you hear people say, boy, that's a really sharp guy saying some really sharp things. Because Paul understands that the word of truth, even though it's true, sounds like foolishness to people. If you say someone was executed by the Roman government, was dead and buried, and he came back to life, that sounds like foolishness to people. No one has ever known someone who has died and come back. It sounds like foolishness. It's true, but it sounds like foolishness. it's the word of truth and you see the interesting thing that Paul goes on to say is you heard the word of truth and you believe the gospel of your salvation you see that's what he praises God for he knows acutely he knows intensely he understands how foolish this message is and the miraculous thing is people heard him and they believed that when this foolishness came to these people they said that's the truth that's the gospel of my salvation that's what I needed to hear you see sometimes we talk about these things so much we forget what a miracle it is when faith happens because we know that as much as it's our responsibility to share this wonderful message we can't make people believe it what paul is praising god for is he said i brought this message this word of truth that's that's foolishness that i've seen so many people here and it's had no effect. They've turned away. They haven't regarded it at all. And Paul said, I brought it here. And the word of truth came and you believed the gospel of your salvation. It became for you, your salvation, you understood it was a gospel for you. Many people hear it and walk away. It has no effect. Paul's praising God because the gospel became theirs. It became the gospel of their salvation. It's a thing we look to in the catechism that rightly explains that true faith is a deep-rooted assurance created in me that not only others, but I too. You see, that's when the gospel has a personal effect. Paul was talking to people, sharing that word of truth, and the Holy Spirit spoke to them. And they said, I'm a sinner. I need a Savior. When they talked to them about Jesus Christ, they said, I now understand that He died for me. That when He came in this world to live that life, He had me in mind. That when He went to the cross and was suffering there, it was because He loved me. Not a general humanity, but He had me in mind. He loved me, and that's why He went to the cross. He went to the cross for me. Paul's saying, that's the beautiful thing that's happened among you. You've heard the word of truth, and you've believed it. And it's become to you the good news of your salvation. And so it's no wonder that Paul can praise God for that. And say, and I know it's true because you've been marked with the Holy Spirit. You've been sealed with the Holy Spirit. What does Paul mean by that when he says, Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. The scripture talks of seals in different ways. You may think of the scroll with the seven seals in Revelation. And it's keeping that scroll shut until the seals are broken. The scroll can't be opened. I don't think that's what Paul has in mind here when he talks about seals. I think he's talking more about a mark of identification. A mark of identification. When I graduated from seminary, I got a diploma, and on that diploma was a gold seal. That seal was marked with the name of the seminary, indicating that it was official, it belonged to the seminary. See, that's the kind of seal that Paul is talking about. There's a mark that's put on believers. There's an identification that identifies you as the Lord's. And what is that mark? What is that identification? Well, Paul says, having believed, you were sealed. That faith is the mark of identification. And you see again why that is so important for these Gentile Christians to hear. They are not second-class citizens. There's not something different going on amongst the Gentiles than what's going on amongst the sons and daughters of Israel. There's only one mark. That's the mark of faith. It's a point that Hebrews 11 makes. Everyone had faith. That's what set them apart. That's what made them different in this world. That's what set them apart as belonging to the Lord. that's why Paul starts by saying in him you also believed it's belief that sets us apart it's belief that is the mark of God that's why Paul can say you see that marks you as a Christian the same way it marked those of us who first believed the same way it marks anyone who ever believes because you have faith there are no second class citizens in the kingdom of heaven there's people who have the mark and there's people that don't There's people who believe and there's people who don't. And Paul says, I rejoice because you're the ones who believed. You bear the mark. I can see that you believe. I know to whom you belong and it's because you believe. That's what sets you apart. And he says, and I know that can't happen unless the Holy Spirit's done the marking. Unless he's the one that's worked faith in your hearts. We all share that mark. We all share that mark that God owns us. And if you want to know whether you bear that mark, whether you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, all you have to do is ask yourself, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your only hope? Do you understand that you're a sinner and that He's the Savior and He is the only way to attain favor with the Father? If you understand that, you bear the mark. You can be assured. You can have that deep-rooted assurance that the Catechism talks about, that it talks about being created in you by the Holy Spirit through the gospel. If you've heard the gospel of your salvation, you can have confidence that you belong to the kingdom of God, just as much as any saint at any time in the Bible belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith, bearing that mark. We understand that it's the work of the Holy Spirit alone that makes that mark. So Paul praises the Spirit for his words of truth. He praises the Spirit for the work of faith. And he praises the Holy Spirit for the guarantee of glory. He goes on to say in verse 14, The deposit, guaranteeing. What does Paul mean by this? What kind of guarantee is being provided to the people of God? Well, I think it's best to think of it as a down payment. When you buy a house, you have to make a down payment. It's money up front that buys you a small ownership in that house and oftentimes is necessary if you want to borrow the rest. And when you make that down payment, you own a small percentage of that house. The bank loaning you the money, they own the rest. There is a part of it you've actually purchased that actually becomes yours. It's a small part. And, of course, your hope is that if you make your payments over time eventually, It will become wholly yours. It will belong to you and to no one else. I think that's how Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit here. That the Holy Spirit is a guarantee. The Holy Spirit is a down payment of what is coming. It's not yet fully yours. But in a sense, it's already partially yours. Maybe only in a small part. That can be hard to see at times. But it's really yours. Of course, Paul's not talking about a house. He's talking about an inheritance that's already partly yours through the work of the Holy Spirit. It's a down payment on something that will one day surely be ours. It's interesting. He's a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession. There's that wonderful word, until. That might not seem like a wonderful word. We use it all the time. Why is this a wonderful word here? Well, you boys and girls can think about it this way. The sermon goes on until the preacher says amen. Sometimes it seems like it takes a long time before you get there. And it's coming pretty soon. But until that happens, the sermon goes on. So you know that until I say amen, we're not done. But it's coming. I promise you it's coming. We're not going to be here forever. And see, that's the effect that until has. It's not yet, but it's coming. I haven't yet said amen, but it will come pretty soon. You see, that's what Paul is saying to the church. It hasn't come yet. The possession isn't yet. And we have the Holy Spirit until. But it is coming. It won't be forever. We have a wonderful deposit of what will one day be, but we don't have the whole thing. But what we have now is real. It is a portion. And it's something that we need to think about. It's a glorious truth that the Holy Spirit is with us, that Christ has not left us as orphans. That was the great promise. Surely I will be with you to the very end of the age. He is with us by His Spirit, but that's not our hope. he's with us by his spirit until he comes again in person we desire to be with him in person the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of that glory that will one day come he's with us now in spirit he will be with us one day in glory physically with us we're being renewed day by day by the work of the Holy Spirit That's a wonderful truth. It's a wonderful truth that God is making us new every day by the work of his Spirit. But we don't want to be simply being made new every day. We want to eventually be new. That's the wonderful promise, that one day the renewing will come to an end and we will be new, body and soul. It's a wonderful truth now that we are freed from the condemnation of sin, but we know that we're not free from its effects. There are all kinds of things about sin in this world that still affect us. That we still struggle with sin. That we fall into sin. We suffer from sickness and disease and death and all those things that are a result of being in a sinful world. It's a glorious thing to be freed from the condemnation of that sin. But we'd love to be freed from its effects. And that's what's coming when Christ comes again to heal all sicknesses to put an end to all death to dry every tear there will be no more mourning no more weeping you see the Holy Spirit is a deposit but it's not the whole inheritance we're being conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ now and we see him by the eyes of faith but we desire that day when we will see him face to face that day when we will be fully conformed to his image and we will be like him. That's the wonderful hope. What Paul is praising the Holy Spirit for is he is a guarantee that that day is coming. He is a guarantee that we will one day achieve that goal. That that glory is coming. That plan that God set into motion before the foundations of the world were laid are going to be brought to fulfillment when Jesus Christ comes again in glory. And until that day, the Spirit will hold us as a guarantee. But the day is coming. It won't be forever. The Holy Spirit is working. And we, with Paul, have to praise God for the work that the Spirit is doing among us. The way he was doing it among the Gentiles. The way he has always been doing it amongst those who have turned to him in faith and belief. And that should be our burden, to bring the gospel into the world so that everyone might share in that wonderful hope that they might hear the words of truth that the Holy Spirit might work faith in their hearts and that they might have him as a guarantee of the glory that will one day come. May the Lord Jesus come quickly. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful word that the Apostle Paul has left for us under the inspiration of the Spirit. We thank You that the Spirit still speaks to us today, that we still hear His words and can see Jesus Christ through the eyes of faith. We thank You that You have been pleased to open our eyes to see Jesus Christ, that the word of truth has been heard and that by Your grace You have opened eyes to see. And if there are eyes that are still closed and people to whom this still sounds like foolishness, we pray you would send your spirit to open eyes, to soften hearts, that the spirit might be for them a guarantee of that glory that will one day come. Might we all bear that mark of belief so that when Christ returns, you will see those who believe in him and receive all the glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.