And take your Bibles and open to Ephesians chapter one. That was just a slice of heaven. As the people of God are gathered to sing about the holiness of God. Continue to lift up Pastor Jim in your prayers. The update I received was a little bit better as he is suffering with bronchitis, I believe. So this was dropped on me on Thursday morning. But as Peter says, always be ready to give an answer. Gary Chapman authored a book titled The Five Love Languages. In the book, he outlined the five primary ways in which people receive love. Some of you might be familiar with this. Those of you that are dating or engaged, I would really encourage you to pay attention. The five love languages that Chapman outlines are words of affirmation, quality time, receiving of gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Now, most of us primarily have one or a primary love language and maybe a secondary love language. For example, if you know me, I am a person of quality time. And then second would be physical touch, but you don't have to come up and give me lots of hugs. As I was working through my undergrad and I was taking my counseling courses, I was exposed to Chapman and his material in my marriage counseling classes. And I remember going through this stuff, and I thought, you know, this isn't good for me to take this class by myself. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go home, and I'm gonna do this with Caitlin, because I think this would be good. We had been married for about two or three years, and I remember talking with her about just, you know, the marriage stuff that I was learning, about Chapman and the five love languages, and I explained them all to her. And she looks at me, and this is no word of a lie, stone-faced, she says, John, I have all five. Now, you would think, okay, well, this is easy. I can express it. No, no, no, no, no. It's not that one of the five. What she was saying is that I need to show my love to her by doing all five for her. I asked her if I was able to share that. She said, yes, but as long as you tell people those are still my five love languages. Another time, I won't mention any names, but I was over at my parents' house with some others there. And I was talking about the different love languages. And somebody in the home speaks up and says, I only know of three, Italian, French, and Latin. No, no, no, no, no. No. And German, right? If that didn't give it away. I tell you this because the way that we like to show love the way that we like to receive love is oftentimes the way we like to show love. For example, if you are a words of affirmation person and you like receiving words of affirmation, your tendency is to show or give words of affirmation. And when you think about these love languages, I want you to think, well, you know, the Apostle John would say that God is love, but I want you to think about God as a gift giver. God as a gift giver. One of the primary ways in which God shows his love to us is through gifts. And this morning, I would like for us to consider four gifts that God has given us in Christ. With that being said, you've turned in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter one. Please stand for the reading of God's word. It would not be proper to begin midway through a sentence, so the text for our consideration will be verses 11 through 14 of Ephesians 1, but to understand Paul's logic and flow here, let us pick it up in verse three. 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. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will. according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 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, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory, 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, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. Let us pray. Father, I pray that you would bless the teaching and the preaching of your word. May it minister to us by the Holy Spirit. We would walk out of here changed with a greater appreciation, hunger, and desire for the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray this in his name, amen. Please be seated. As I had said here, that Paul in this section, verses 11 through 14, he is continuing on, as I had brought to you last week. This is one continuous sentence in the original language. In verses 11 through 14, as we'll consider, is the second or about two-thirds of the way through the sentence here. And what Paul is doing here is this is just a continuation of the spiritual blessings that he begins to unpack. In verse 3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And so we had considered the four of them last week. There are three or four here in this text as well. So we are really picking up with the same line of thinking from last week. If you weren't here last week, I won't give you a review. Go online and listen to the sermon. But the title of this morning's message is Spiritual Blessings Without Distinction. And the main idea that I would like for you to take away here this morning is that God is to be praised and glorified for the spiritual blessings that he has poured out upon his people without distinction. And so let's just get into it right here in verse 11. I want us to consider the first spiritual blessing or really the fifth in Paul's list here. And it is a promised possession. In him, we have obtained an inheritance. This is a promised possession. Now, I must admit to you that this is a tricky phrase here in verse 11. It is only used by Paul one time in the entire New Testament, and no other New Testament author even uses this phrase. If you have other translations of the Bible, maybe an NIV or something like that, your translation might read, in him we were also chosen. Or, we were claimed by God as His portion. And I want to give you a reason why you might see variation in translation here. It is not entirely clear how to translate this phrase. The verb here used is in the passive tense and it leads to a lack of interpretive consensus here. It can be read and understood that in him we are his inheritance. This would be faithful with the testimony of scripture. This has very much Old Testament themes of Deuteronomy chapter four, that Israel was God's inheritance. This is a theologically accurate statement. When you think about Jesus Christ, he says that all that the Father has given me, right, as Christ's inheritance. So thinking in the sense that we are Christ's inheritance is an absolutely true statement. The other way that we can understand this and the text can allow for this, with the form and the syntax, is that as it is rendered here, we have obtained an inheritance. Now while both of those statements are true, it doesn't mean both. We don't determine the meaning of Scripture. Paul, by the Holy Spirit, determined the meaning of this passage. It is our job the interpreter's job to discover what Paul meant here. Meaning is controlled by the author, not the reader. And so while both statements are biblically true, only one is true concerning this text. And my understanding is the way we have it in the English Standard Version, the Authorized Version, the King James Version, that we have obtained an inheritance, we have received something, seems to be the most faithful rendering of this passage. A few reasons why, in the sense that we have come to a possession of something. This is consistent with Paul's explaining of the spiritual blessings. As you would look and see, it is all things that God has done for us. and to us. Also we have been, as you would look here, verses 3, this whole context, we have been chosen out of the world, we have been predestined to adoption, we have been redeemed by Christ, we have received revelation through grace, and now we have been given an inheritance. Now you're not a heretic if you see it in another way. But it is most faithful with Paul's logic here that we would see that we have obtained an inheritance. So when we talk about an inheritance, what does that mean? What is an inheritance? It is something of value that is received by an heir at the death of the previous holder. Another definition of inheritance would be that it is the practice of passing on private property. titles, entitlements, privileges, and rights upon the death of an individual. That's why it's so stunning when the prodigal asks his father for his inheritance. What is he really asking him? He's saying, dad, would you hurry up and die? Because you don't get your inheritance until the death occurs. So this inheritance here that Paul speaks of has come to us through the death of Christ. When Christ died for us, when we were redeemed through sacrifice, we were given an inheritance, a promised possession. Brothers and sisters, this is good news. Romans 8, verse 17 tells us, and if children, then heirs, heirs to God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. We have been promised an inheritance from God through Christ, but we have not yet received it in full. Those of you that are familiar with the office buildings and everything across the street, if you were to walk through the front doors, bypass the main office, go through those doors, you know where the bathrooms are, and if you would just make a straight line drive all the way back, there's a room back there. that you open this door and there are books that line this whole room. Let me tell you a secret. That's my inheritance. There are these great books, old, new, very valuable. I couldn't put a price tag on the value there, at least not yet. I haven't started counting. But this is something that has been promised. This has been something that has been promised from a father to a son. But it is my inheritance, my father's library, for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about now, but it's not mine yet. Though I have access to it. I have, and I have, I'm slowly getting some of it into my office. And every now and then the knock on the door, Hey, where's my ba-ba-ba-ba-ba? Oh yeah, here you go. Gotta give it back. Until, but when does the, when do we receive the inheritance? When would I receive the inheritance? When he dies. In my prayers, that is a long, long time from now. Brothers and sisters, what we have promised to us by the Father through the Son is greater, is a greater inheritance than any of us can ever imagine. You cannot actually describe the fullness of the inheritance that we have received from God through Christ. Let's try. The biblical authors couldn't. 1 Peter 1.3, God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance. And how does Peter describe it? It is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. What about what Paul says to the Corinthians? What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him. Books will fade and wither. As Gene was even sharing earlier, worms eat paper, right? They just, it disintegrates. Money will be used up. Houses, properties, estates. All of it is temporal, brothers and sisters. What we are after, what we desire, what we have been given is something eternal. It's what I want. It's what I desire and it's what God has promised us. Our inheritance is heaven. It is in heaven and it is heaven. where moth and rust cannot destroy, where it cannot be stolen, taken away, or even squandered by us. It is a place where there is no more sin, there is no more sorrow, there is no more strife, there is no more disunity, there is no more pain. Most importantly, when we think about the inheritance that God has given us, it is Him. It is Him. that we would live in the presence of God and worship Him and worship the Savior as He ought to be worshiped? This is imperfect worship right now, even now. We sing these songs, we sing holy, holy, holy, but we live an unholy life. even last night, even this morning. But there will be a blessed day, brothers and sisters, where we will be before the Lamb, spotless in His robes and made right, and we will sing and we will worship with the absolute purity of heart. I long for that day. This is my inheritance where I won't be tainted by sin. Brothers and sisters, listen, this is reason to rejoice right now. Though this is a promised possession that we have not yet come into full, that we have not yet fully received, we have every reason to rejoice now. There are so many droopy, miserable Christians that spend their days like this. Think on your inheritance. Think upon the goodness of God, what he has blessed you with, what he has gifted you with. There is no reason to have a frown. There is no reason to walk through this life miserable without joy. Yeah, we're not always gonna be happy all the time, but joy is not a feeling. Joy abides. The reason why so many Christians live a life of misery and a constant cycle of misery is because their whole focus is horizontal. It's either horizontal relationships that aren't working out or it's that all their hopes and expectations are in people, things, circumstances. Remember guys, circumstances don't define your character, they only reveal it. And so we have so much that goes on and we're so horizontal What does Paul say to the Colossians? Set your minds on things that are above. Focus on your inheritance that God has promised you. And I guarantee if you are thinking this way, you will have far less to complain about in the day-to-day life. And while you're at it, I would encourage you just to turn the 24-7 news off as well. So many Christians sound more like Tucker than they do Jesus. In Him, in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, which God has promised and is keeping for us until that day. Consider here in verse 11, also as Paul would unpack this. Paul would say that we have obtained this inheritance because you can't earn this inheritance. It's not because we earned it in any way, but it is because we have, as you would see in verse 11, having been predestined. This is a repeat from verse five. Don't you see an inheritance and adoption are tied together? The inheritance is for the heir, for those that have been adopted into the family of God. God doesn't just adopt you into his family, give you his name, and then leave you to yourself. He says, I even have an inheritance laid up for you. I'm gonna care for you from beginning to end. A consequence of adoption is inheritance. And we will receive as children of God the full inheritance that God has for us. There are no second-class citizens of heaven. There are no tiers of God's eternal blessings. This is a result of being predestined. Consider also now in verse 11. All of this, all of this inheritance, all of this is according to the perfect plan and wisdom of God. According to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. What is Paul saying here? Your inheritance, you've been predestined according to the secret counsel of God. Brothers and sisters, God has not answered every why question that we will ever ask. And we must understand that some things in this life are left up to the secret counsel of God's will. Run from somebody that has all the answers about God. Because if the finite could wrap their mind around the infinite, neither one of those terms are accurate. So ask the question why. Why have we obtained this inheritance? Why have we been predestined? Paul answers this one too in verse 12. why we have received this promised possession, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ, here it is guys, might be to the praise of his glory. A phrase that Paul would repeat again in verse 14. So what is the proper response? What is the proper response? It's not, wow, look at all the treasure I have in Jesus, but it is glory in the God who gives these gracious gifts to us. What is our proper response to God's sovereign blessings upon our life? It is to do what we were naturally created to do. What is the chief end of man? What is the whole purpose for being alive? Fundamental question, philosophical question, why am I here? To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. It is not to glorify God and live a life of misery. It is to glorify God and find your enjoyment in him, your joy. Brothers and sisters, God is a gift giver and the gift is great, but the gift is the expression of the love of the giver. Okay? Love the gift, love what God has done for you and give glory to the giver. So in verse 11, this gift we have received is our promised possession. Consider a second spiritual blessing or gift that God has given us and that is in verse 13. It is a present possession. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed. What Paul's talking about here is the gift of saving faith. It would be wise for us to zoom out quickly just on the whole of this passage. Paul has been moving in and out of different spheres of time and space and places. In verses 3 through 6, Paul is in eternity past, before the foundation of the world. Paul is talking about, according to the decree, And the choosing of God, the predestining of people, this is before the foundations of the world, before time began. So Paul is in eternity past in verses three through six, and then in verse seven, Paul enters into historical past. As he would say, in him we have redemption. He's talking about the redemption through Christ. Christ in historical past, the redemption came at the death of Christ, which was accomplished 2000 Years ago, so he goes from eternity past to the historical past and then in verse 11 Paul jumps into the already but not yet Meaning that we have this inheritance, but we have not yet received it in fullness. Paul is in future into eternity Okay, so eternity past historical past future into eternity and then in verse 13 he finally lands on the present and He lands himself squarely in the present. And this is a present possession. Paul goes into the spiritual blessings by which all others are realized. Understand this point. Saving faith is the spiritual blessing by which all other blessings are realized. It's not that election and predestination, redemption and inheritance occur because of saving faith. It is through saving faith that these blessings are actualized or realized in the life of a Christian. It might even take some Christians many years of deprogramming from bad theology before they realize these blessings. It is like coming to the table of the king, and we first are saved. We don't really know all these things, and that's okay. We know that Christ has died for me, and my sins are forgiven, and it's like you have a seat at the table, but you're just eating the crumbs, and the feast is before you. And as we come to actualize and realize these great spiritual blessings that God has given us, we are beholding the Feast of the King, and we get to partake. So in the present, verse 13, consider here in this verse three verbs that Paul uses. He says, heard, believed, and were sealed. In Him, you also, When you heard. In the present, heard what? What is Paul getting at here? What did you hear? He would describe what these Ephesians heard. He would say the word of truth. But then he would also modify that. He wouldn't just stay there with the word of truth. That is sufficient in his explanation, but he wants to just add another layer. Not that there's confusion, but he can't help himself. It is the word of truth. What word of truth is it? It is the gospel of your salvation. Notice here the definite article. It is the word of truth. It is the gospel of your salvation. It is not a word of truth, and it is not a gospel of your salvation. It is exclusive. It is definite. It is only. There aren't multiple truths. There aren't multiple gospels. There aren't multiple religions that get you to heaven. There aren't multiple things in which you would believe in order to get there. It's like, well, you believe this and I believe that. We live in this culture today of this relativism. Nobody's got a spine anymore. Everybody's jellyfish about what they believe. And if it's good for you and it's good for you, what is true? What is the truth? Truth is not relative. And what Paul says here is that the gospel is the truth. That's the hill to die on. And I will gladly die on that hill. That there is one gospel, there is one truth. And that all must enter through one gate. And walk one narrow path. It's interesting. There are two meetings that as a pastor and elder that I absolutely love to have. Those are baptism meetings and those are membership meetings. And as of lately, we've had a good amount of those, which I am thankful for. I love baptism interviews. You get to, hey, you know, usually lately it's been some teens and, you know, they're They're wanting to step forward in faith, in obedience to Christ. They want to identify themselves with the church, that they are one of you, that they belong to the covenant community of God. And so they've got their thing written, and oftentimes there's a little bit of nerves. Lately, the past few, they haven't been that nervous. I've been quite surprised. But one of the questions I ask as I sit through those interviews, I ask them, what is the gospel? You have 60 seconds, go. If you're in a baptism interview because you want to stand before the church of Jesus Christ and tell them that you belong to them and that Christ is gonna work in you, you need to know what the gospel is. And you don't need to say, uh, well, if you don't know what the gospel is, this meeting's over. and I will help you work through this, but it's not something that you, listen, my name is Jonathan Edward Soul. I know who my family is, and next to that, I know what the gospel is, because I am banking eternity on this. I can't fumble through this message. There's other things I might fumble through, but if you are going all in, and if you are trusting in Jesus Christ, the gospel in 60 seconds, you should leave 30 more seconds of silence. You know this, you can be concise. What is the gospel? Many would respond, it's the good news. Brothers and sisters, that's not the answer. The question is not what, the question is what is the gospel, not what the word gospel means. I know the word gospel means good news. So let's just go to the, what is the good news? You would be so surprised, not at the baptism interviews. They've been trained pretty well. But when you ask that question, the response is that you will hear, it's to treat others kindly. No, it's not. It's to follow Jesus. No, no, actually it's not. To live a good life. No, it's quite the opposite. It's by faith we go to heaven when we die. No, that's a benefit. That's not the gospel. You would be so surprised how many church members would struggle to answer this question. Jesus is the gospel. Jesus is the good news. Look what Paul says here. He says the word of truth, he modifies that and explains that, it says the gospel of your salvation, and he says, and believed in him. Paul does not say that you believed in it. He does not say that you heard the word of truth, the gospel, your salvation, and believed in it as though the gospel is a story or a retelling of facts that we choose to believe or not. Yes, in the gospel is the story of Christ, but it isn't about believing a story, brothers and sisters. There are thousands of people who believe the story that are in hell right now. There are some of you in this room right now that believe the story, but you do not have saving faith. The old saying that there is 18 inches between heaven and hell, between what you know in your head and what's in your heart. You see, Paul equates the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation with a person. So the simple answer to what is the gospel, it is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Finished. Now you can explain that in greater detail. And you could talk about the holiness of God and the depravity of man. That explains the need for the gospel. You could talk about the benefits, the inheritance. This is the outcome of the gospel. But simply put, what is the gospel? For a moment here, let's explain what saving faith actually is. There are three main components to saving faith. When you talk about saving faith, you have to first know something. You will never believe what you don't know, simply put. There has to be some sort of knowledge. After knowledge, there has to be a belief. So we have to have the knowledge of God. We have to tell people of Christ that they might know something. But then you have to come to grips with, do you believe this? Do you believe the facts? Do you believe what has been told to you to be true? So you know. You believe this, you say, okay, I accept this to be true, that there's one God, there's one Christ, all these things, but even there, that's not saving faith. At that point, according to James 2, you are on the same level as the devil and his angels. Satan believes that there is one God. The demons shudder. So we can know something. Satan knows about the gospel. He's been there. So we know something, we believe something, and here is the essence of saving faith, is that we must trust. We, as they heard, the Ephesians heard, and they believed, they believed in. They were trusting in Christ. So many people know the story. They grew up in Sunday school. They could talk to you about, from Genesis onward, all the stories of Noah and Moses and Samson. They could talk to you about Jesus. But it's made no impact in their lives. Because all they do is know it. And may they believe it to be true. But when you are trusting in Christ, it is making a difference. It makes a difference. Knowledge, belief, trust are the three elements of saving faith. So we talk about the gospel, the person and work of Jesus Christ. Quickly, in a snapshot, God is a holy and righteous God. We have sung about the holiness of God. And God being holy cannot stand in the presence of sinful people. Sinful people before a holy God, it is not compatible. And man through Adam fell. And as Adam ate the fruit, his whole posterity, every person of the human race is born a sinner. You are guilty by original sin and by your own acts of volition. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We need divine intervention. We need somebody to do what we cannot do. Even if I try moral reform, even if it was possible, which it's not, for me to live the rest of my life from here on forward without sinning, I am still a guilty sinner before God because I can't undo what's already been done. There's already blemishes on my record. And if we were to stand before God on the day of judgment and he was to open the book on our lives, he would open the book, he could get to the first page and he would close the book. He doesn't need to read anything else, for we are guilty. So what do guilty sinful people, what can we do? The answer is nothing. We need someone greater than us. We need somebody stronger than us. We need somebody bigger than us. We need somebody that can bear the weight of sin and still live. Though He died three days, He rose bearing the penalty for our sin. That Jesus stands in our place, bears the wrath of God, takes our sin upon Him. When He went to the cross, He took names with Him. He died for sin so that we might be forgiven. I know this. I believe this. And brothers and sisters, if you are a Christian, you are trusting in Him. It is not my righteousness. It is not my record. It is nothing I can cling, but only to Christ. And so that I know apart from Jesus, I'm nothing. But in Christ, I have the perfect righteousness that God has given to me by faith. And so this drives my life. This drives my thinking. This drives my worldview. This is the only reason why I'm standing right here right now. Because I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior. And the world needs to know, are you trusting in Jesus Christ, the God-man who bore your sin, died on the cross, was buried three days later, rose from the dead? The person, the God-man, the perfect life and the work, his redemption. That is the gospel. To believe in him, in verse 13, is to cast yourself upon him, to go all in, to put all your chips in, not leaving one behind. I'm either all in for Christ or I'm all out. It is an emptying of yourself for all that he is. And even this spiritual blessing from God, this faith, is a gift that God has graciously given us. God appoints the beginning, God appoints the end, and God appoints the means to that end. You would look over in the very next chapter of Ephesians, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is a gift from God. You can't even claim, well, I believed, I put my trust, that's a work, no. God has given you faith. And when saving faith is exercised in the life of a believer, it is our present possession. and we are sealed with the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. In the same way that Noah, as his family, enters into the ark, that door's too big for his family to close, what happens? God shuts them in. When we, by faith, exercise saving faith, we are shut in, we are sealed in Christ. The ark is a picture of Christ that endured the wrath of God and kept the people safe. Look now here at a third gift or spiritual blessing. This is a permanent possession, verses 13 and 14. As those who have exercised saving faith in Jesus Christ, we have been sealed or marked off by the Holy Spirit. The way this is written, it is speaking of a past event that has occurred once for all. Being sealed with the Holy Spirit is a permanent possession. When you think about seals, they're not really, I'm not talking about the animal, but when we talk about being sealed, that's not really something that's going on in our modern culture today. Seals have been used throughout the centuries, millennia, as means of communication, identification, Authentication, thousands of years, communication, identification, and authentication. Oftentimes somebody in authority would have their own seal or signet as a ring. They would imprint their signet into a piece of wax or clay to seal a document or to put this sign on goods. One commentator speaking about seals notes that seals were attached to goods in transit to indicate the ownership and to ensure protection. Another commentator writes that the image of God's sealing his people combines all of these meanings, authenticity, ownership, mystery, worthiness, and preservation. God's people God's people who are marked off by a seal are protected. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul says, it is God who establishes us with you in Christ. He has anointed us and he has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. This is a permanent possession to be sealed. It is like when we think about a seal in a modern context, it is your signature. That is our seal. We write our signature to authenticate this is my document. I wrote this. You can't cash a check for me unless I sign it. The Spirit given to us, the Holy Spirit, is like a signature. We were sealed. This is a gracious and very blessed promise. with the Holy Spirit. Who is this Holy Spirit? Well, much confusion today exists, certainly, but the Holy Spirit is the co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. He is the third member of the Holy Trinity. And he has been given to us as a sign and seal of our belonging to God. There is not a Christian, a true Christian, that is not indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit resides in us. Romans 8, 16, we are told that the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. John 14, 26, Jesus says, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. This is the work of the Holy Spirit inside the believer. The Holy Spirit guides us, convicts us, and points us to Christ. He glorifies the Son. One of also the most important works of the Holy Spirit that is often missed is that He is the source of all of our material. He is the divine author of Scripture. Oh, so many people want to receive a word from the Spirit. I can give you thousands of words from the Spirit. Open your Bibles. Read it. I think it's Piper who says, you want to hear God speak? Read your Bible out loud. The Spirit is the down payment as we would see here. The guarantee, the surety that there's a promise that there's more to come. So let me ask you, is this a reality in your life? Does the Spirit assure you of your future promises? When reading the Bible and you read the promises of God, are you sure that those are for you? Remember, all spiritual blessings really is all the promises of God will be fulfilled. Ask the question, are you living A life marked by conviction and conformity to the image of Christ. These are tangible markers and evidences of the Spirit at work within us. I ask the question, who should be the most Christ-like people in the church? Is it not the people that have walked with Christ the longest? Is it not those who have claimed to be the Christian 30, 40, 50, 60 years, who have been sealed with the Spirit for this long. Brothers and sisters, those of you who have walked with Christ 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, you are to be the spiritual fathers and mothers in the church. You are to be the most effective disciple makers. in the church. You are to be the fountain of wisdom for those that are coming in the next generation, coming after you. You who have been a Christian for a short period of time, do you see the evidences of the Spirit at work in your life? Ask the question, do you have a growing love for God? Do you have a growing love for the Word of God, for the people of God? Do you have a growing hatred for sin? Or are you just always the same week after week after week? Listen, there's no stagnant Christian walk. You're going backwards or forwards. Are you growing in Christ's likeness? These are our gifts that God has given to us for our good and for his glory. I pray that you are encouraged by them, challenged by them, thankful for them. But there's also one final thing quickly that I would like to point out to you. And what Paul's getting at here, even more so in this passage, verses 11 through 14. And you must zoom out to see this. And consider the structure of this passage. This is a very important point. And this is why the title of this sermon are Spiritual Blessings Without Distinction. You see in verse 11, he says, in him we, And then you will notice here in verse 13, he says, in him you also. Paul creates a distinction here. Paul makes a distinction. And so we must determine who are the we. Paul would explain who the we are in verse 12, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, that's who the we are. We who were first to hope in Christ. And so what Paul is doing here, he's referring to the Jews. We who were the first, because as Romans 1, 16 and 17, right? For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greeks. So we who were first to hope in Christ, the Jews, were to the praise of his glory. Then you will see in verse 13, he says, in him you also. Now he's talking to the Gentiles, the Ephesian Gentiles here. And he would end this statement in 13 the same way he ended it in 12, to the praise of his glory. And so what Paul is getting at here, and this is very important, and this is very relevant for our world today, is that there is one church, there is one people of God, and Paul is telling these believers that you share in all the same inheritance and spiritual blessings and promises that Israel does. There is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. This is the whole point of the book of Romans, is how do these people get together in one church? This is going on, this is, I mean, Acts 15, what do we do with Gentiles that believe? Do they have to become Jews and then become Christians? They're wrestling with this in the first century, and Paul's saying, listen, there is one people of God, Galatians 3, seven through nine. Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. Here is one of the greatest spiritual blessings that we receive. It is unity. It is God's unity. There's one people in Christ, there is no distinction. So what can we learn from this? That the gospel creates unity where there is disunity. And you don't have to look out your windows very far to see that, do you? The gospel is the solution to ethnic division. This is why we wholesale reject critical race theory, any type of woke ideology. I'm not talking about in the culture, I'm talking about in the church. Because of the imago Dei, or the image of God, we must understand this. We are one race. We are the human race, created in the image of God. And this is what God did in Christ. Look over just quickly in chapter 2, verse 14. talking about Christ. For he himself is our peace. I don't want to get ahead of myself because we'll get to preaching this soon. For he himself is our peace who made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. How did he do this? By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two. And so, making peace. Brothers and sisters, our world today is full of division. They postulate race. Race is an ethnic construct created to make division. We don't need some leftist Marxist ideology postulated by brilliant fools. Remember, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. I don't care how smart you are. If you are an atheist, you are a fool. By Christ is our peace. And so you need to understand you aren't narrow when you say that only the gospel is the solution. You're biblical. You're trusting that God can do what God can do, what God has been doing for a long time. If you try to add to the gospel for reconciliation, you are looking at God and saying your plan is not sufficient. So what does this mean? This means that no matter what you look like, the color of your skin, the practice of your culture, you are welcomed in the church of Jesus Christ. And you are welcome here. For we are one church, we are one bride of Christ, and we all Jew, Gentile, African, African American, European, European American, North American, South American, Australian, Asian, Antarctican, We are all given the same inheritance, the same faith, the same Holy Spirit. So brothers and sisters, what about us? Are you living mindful of these blessings and these gifts that God has given to you? You might be suffering with many trials. I would encourage you through the trials and tribulations, look beyond the immediate. and look up to the inheritance, to the eternal. Your struggle is real, but so is your inheritance in the saints. Are you struggling in faith? Maybe even having a crisis of faith? Remember Philippians 1.6, that he who started good work in you will bring it to completion. I can think of the times in my own life when I have struggled in the faith. Those have been the times in which God has built my faith the most. Don't be afraid to tell people you're doubting or you're struggling. Charles Spurgeon says, doubt the man who has never doubted. And through the gospel, we are one people. Remember that. You don't have to listen to everything you hear. Half of what you hear is garbage. The other half, they just need something to fill the program. We are one people without distinction and without division. And remember this, that a divisive Christian that does not contribute to the unity of the body of Christ is nothing more than an oxymoron. We are the most exclusive and inclusive people in this world. As we close here, Revelation chapter nine, or chapter seven, verse nine. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. Amen.