Thankful to be Signed, Sealed, and Delivered (Eph. 1:1-14)
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Introduction
Introduction
Two men were talking about a mutual friend. One was very critical. The other said, “I am surprised to hear you say that. It was my impression that he had done many nice things for you.” Replied the other, “Yes, but he has not done anything lately.”
That is what many Christians have fallen into with their walk. They fail to remember the amazing grace and wonderful blessings God has for us. They fail to remain thankful to be signed, sealed, and delivered by the amazing grace and love of the Lord.
We see this amazing grace and love in:
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
In this passage we see an amazing display of the Trinity at work for us.We see Paul breaking out in doxological praise for each member of the Trinity. In verses 5-6 we see the Father in His amazing work for us and Paul giving Him great praise. In verses 10-12 we see Paul praising Christ and our inheritance through Him. And finally in verses 13-14 we see Paul praising the Holy Spirit in His work in sealing and guaranteeing our inheritance with the Father. Let us look first at...
The Father’s Work(1-6)
The Father’s Work(1-6)
What amazing love we see in these verses. We see that the Father has blessed all who are in Christ with amazing blessings.
All people who are in Christ are saints they are the elect in Christ they are the church and as such they are adopted into the family of God.
We are blessed beyond measure. We are blessed by the Father in this. He has made all blessings available to us. It is because of Him sending Christ why we have all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
This is what Paul was saying in 2 Tim. 1:7
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
This is the best gift next to our everlasting salvation we can have. It does not mean we have health, wealth, or prosperity here, that is false teaching and crap that has caused so many to deny Christianity or hate God because they have not received. Just to have those false teachers to say that those people who did not receive what they prayed for did not have enough faith or did not give them enough money.
Many people have walked away from the faith and hate God now because of those false teachers saying the blessings God has for us is wealth and prosperity. It is crap and it is a damnable heresy that those men and women out there are selling.
The blessings we have from God are that of heavenly blessings. Sitting at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus. This means that no matter where you are at in the world whether in a mansion or under an overpass you are already as well as seated with Christ in Glory.
That is true prosperity and the true message of God’s blessings to us. It is not monetary or worldly and anyone that tells you that is wrong and deceived.
The blessings are for us to be set apart and holy before the Lord not like the world. The prosperity gospel pushed by so many false teachers these days all of which are named and called out on American Gospel, is making us to be worldly again rather than heavenly. If we think blessings here is what God has called us out for we are wrong.
God has called us out to be holy and different than all others. We are holy and without blame before God the Father because of Christ. God gave us His everything in Christ. Christ became sin for us so we could become the righteousness of God.
2 Cor. 5:21 tells us
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Then we are blessed by the Father in Christ as children adopted by the Father. That is amazing and wonderful. Do you know how many children out there want nothing but to have a family that loves them. They do not care where or what they have otherwise, they just want a family.
With the Father and Christ we have that family. We have the greatest blessings imaginable. If we think the worldly desires pushed by Osteen, Copeland, White, and many others is what God has for us, we are severely wrong.
Our blessing is in having Him as our Father who loves us so much He sent His Son to be the sacrifice for us. That is blessed beyond anything this world can offer us. This world is nothing to us if we have Jesus. As Paul wrote in Phil. 3:7-8
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
That is our blessing and that is what the Father has done for us. He has delivered to us His Son for us to have these blessings. To be able to press on towards that goal.
We are His and we are signed into His book as His. He did this and He will keep us and that is amazing.
But involved with this amazing work of the Father we see
The Son’s Work (7-12)
The Son’s Work (7-12)
In Christ we have redemption–acquittal, also the state of being redeemed, through His sacrifice. He did it so we could be with Him.
Christ not only came into the world for us but He died for us. He suffered for us and because of His dying and shedding His blood, we have redemption through Him. By believing in Him all our sins and trespasses are washed away.
In full honesty because of what Christ did in His death, burial, and resurrection the world does not have a sin problem but a son problem. I have heard said a great theologian named Lewis Sperry Chafer was known to say:
“Because of Calvary, people no longer have a sin problem. Instead, they have a Son problem.”
“Because of Calvary, people no longer have a sin problem. Instead, they have a Son problem.”
This is the grace of God that we can be thankful for. This is the deliverance aspect of the title of this message.
Because of Christ we have been delivered from our iniquity and evilness. He did it all for us.
Just as we saw in the Christmas Eve message, God had a plan for this to all happen and He made good that plan by the sending of the Son.
Jesus came into this world to bring together all things that have been separated from the Lord. We are separated from the Lord if we are not in Christ.
God’s will is for all who believe to be saved eternally through the atoning work of Christ.
God desires all people to be saved and not have to suffer for their wrongdoings and their rejection of the Son.
Our inheritance is through the Lord Jesus Christ and not anything of this world. We celebrate Christmas by exchanging gifts in honor of the Lord because He gave us the greatest gift ever, Himself. Why do we think that seeking after worldly items is of any value or what God desires of us?
It is because we still struggle with worldly problems and we have worldly desires even though we are in Christ. Some have crept in unknown and have begun deceiving many making them think that God’s will is for them to have all kinds of worldly things and that the everlasting life and the promises of eternity with the Lord is not the blessings He has for us.
Our inheritance and glory is in Christ and with the Father. Christ told us to Matt. 6:20-21
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Look at it as an inheritance that is for you but you must reach a certain age before you can use it. God has this amazing treasure laying in wait for us if we focus on Him and not the world. He will deliver far more for us in the future than we can ever think of here now.
Sadly, I have heard one well known proponent of the false teaching of the prosperity gospel say that we say this and have taken our magic pencil and wrote that we must wait until then to get it. This same man says that we can tap into that now for this world.
I believe the text in Matthew says differently and I believe we see differently here too. Matthew says in heaven.
Here we see that our inheritance is Christ and the blessings of the heavenly places not earthly wealth.
We have hoped in Christ and not the world. Why would we want to turn to the world for anything else?
I think that we should stay focused on the deliverance Christ has brought to us and for us through what He has done for us. Let us stay thankful for the deliverance He has for us the adoption we have in Him.
Just like adoption here, the one adopting chose to adopt and God chose to adopt us that is an amazing blessing. We have an adoption that is most glorious and blessed with amazing blessings. Why do we want to convolute that message and blessing with something that is not there.
That is what is so amazing about this blessing and gift of God, we do nothing but believe for it. God Himself did all the work and we only believe, that is it. We receive the greatest gift of all just like a child being adopted. They did nothing to receive the adoption but be there and were chosen by a family. That is the greatest blessing.
They are then locked into an inheritance they did not have before. Nothing else is promised them but a family and that inheritance. Sure God may bless them more along the way, but the adoption and the inheritance of that family is enough because before they had nothing and that is us with God before we were adopted and redeemed by Christ.
Along with the adoption of the Lord the work of Christ for us, we see
The Spirit’s Work (13-14)
The Spirit’s Work (13-14)
The Spirit seals us into the family of God. We are locked in and cannot lose this no matter what.
We see this in the aspect of the inheritance through Christ and the fact that we are already seated in the heavenly places by the Father.
Those do make it clear but we have right here in these last two verses that we are sealed by the Spirit and are guaranteed of our inheritance by Him.
Whats more we see in the last verse the word acquire, this is the same Greek word as we saw with redemption. This word is speaking of us being God’s now that we it is for a redemption, through which you become God’s property.
The word guarantee is a payment of part of a purchase price in advance, first installment, deposit, down payment, pledge, which secures a legal claim to the article in question, or makes a contract valid in any case. It is a payment that obligates the contracting party to make further payments.
This simply means that we are God’s because of what He has done and we are sealed by His earnest payment of the Spirit.
This is where we are sealed and guaranteed our salvation forever. It is the work of the Spirit that we all receive when we believe.
Paul has written elsewhere 1 Cor. 12:13
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Just as Peter also said in his defense of preaching to the Gentiles in Acts 11:15
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
We all receive the Spirit and by that are sealed until the day of redemption. That is what acquire the possession of it means. That is the greatest gift we could ever receive. Why do we struggle here and try and have more and more?
Why do we think that God desires us all to have health and wealth? We are worldly still and have been deceived by the world and many false teachers who say this is exactly what God wants.
That is wrong and this passage clearly teaches that it is. We are blessed in spiritual blessings and have our inheritance through Christ and we are sealed until the day of redemption. We are as the song goes, “Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours (You got my future in your hands) You got my future in your hands, hey hey I've done a lot of foolish things.”
Aren’t you glad God has your future in His hands and that you are signed, sealed, delivered as His?
I know that I am. I am thankful that my blessings are from Him and through Him because of what Christmas means. What Christ did. I am thankful that if monetary and worldly blessings don’t come my way, that my true blessing is in Heaven beside the Father.
That is true Joy to The World. That is true prosperity. That is something to be thankful for.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Socrates once asked, “How can you call a man free when his pleasures rule over him?”
The answer is he is not. He is bound by the legalism of getting more and more when all he will ever need is before him in Christ who has given all for all of us. If you are seeking God for what He can do for you or for a good feeling in your gut, that is leading you down a path of your own pleasures. I will tell you now that God has an offer that far outweighs anything this world can offer for you. It is life in Christ that cannot be lost. He came for you and He wants you to believe in Him for that salvation.
That is what God has for you and that is what He will give you. This is filled with much blessings and joy that you are His and have all spiritual blessings.
I have lived long enough to be convinced that the value of spiritual matters far outweighs the value of material things. From youth through the middle years of life, the temptation is to place emphasis on material values: making money, having what money will buy, and enjoying physical things. Those who become addicted to this life-style may find themselves trapped in it even through life’s declining years. Whether or not they admit it, they will find they have settled for an empty and lesser goal. The true and lasting values are spiritual in nature. (Hobbs, “True and Lasting Values”, My Favorite Illustrations, 216).
I pray that today you will rest in the lasting values and not the transient values of this world.