All right, thank you very much for that, JP and girls, wherever you went off to. It's amazing how God works things out when our piano player is gone. The Wilcox's show up and everything works out, perfect. Well, you can turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter one. I feel like we're getting to the end of a book study here as we get to Ephesians 1.14 this morning and closing out this incredible introductory statement to the book. So no, we're not finishing a book. We're just finishing the opening statement, really. And it is an incredible opening statement, opening statement of praise, if you will, a eulogy that Paul is giving here. through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, praising God for God's incredible plan of salvation that he has instituted, has made available to all of mankind. And today we come to the Holy Spirit of promise, the last kind of the cherry on top of this plan of salvation that God has for us. if you will. So in our study we have seen that God, or Paul, is specifically praising God here in these opening verses, verses 3 through 14, all one sentence in the Greek language, unlike it appears in our English translations. It's all one sentence, And so a sentence has a main point always, even though it seems like we've covered about 53 main points here in these opening verses, there's really only one. And that's found in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the main point, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And so when we break down this complicated Sentence, we keep that in mind, that's the main point. That's what Paul is talking about. The fact that those who are in Christ have every spiritual blessing. Our bank accounts are full as Christians, as people who have trusted in Christ. We have everything we need, spiritually speaking. And God is worthy of praise because of this. We should praise Him because He has done everything for us and He has provided everything for us. Not only has He done all the work, but He's given us everything that we need. And really, the whole point of the letter is to show that God planned all of this ahead of time and that the church The body of believers, those who are in Christ, play an extremely important role in His plan for the universe, really, going forward. That's the whole point. And that should affect the way that we live our lives. What God has done for us should affect how we live our lives and the future. that God has in store for us. All of these things should motivate us to serve Him with our lives. So when we break down this very complicated sentence, we kind of come up with a three-point outline for it, and we see that the whole Trinity is playing a role in this giving of spiritual blessings, if you will. There is a roll from the Father, essentially verses 4 through 6. He planned it all. We'll get into more of these pieces here shortly. Blessings from the Son, verses 7 through 12. He purchased us with his shed blood. He revealed this mystery age that we're living in right now. It's a mystery that has been revealed, the fact that Jewish people who have trusted in Christ and Gentile people who have trusted in Christ are now one new body of people moving forward, playing a role in God's plan for the world. And as we saw last week and we'll see again this week, verses 13 and 14, the Holy Spirit plays a very vital role for us. He seals us. He is a down payment we're going to see on our future with God. So we have this very complicated picture in verses 3 through 14. A picture that can be summed up in verse 3, we have every spiritual blessing in Christ as those who have trusted in Christ, we have all spiritual blessings. However, there are some pieces to that because a lot of confusion is introduced from this passage by zeroing in on the pieces of the puzzle rather than seeing the big picture, the fact that God has a plan, a plan that he's made from eternity past to save people by faith in Christ and give them every spiritual blessing. That's the main point. And so when we break down the big picture into some pieces, here's what we've come up with. The number one piece of the puzzle to keep in mind when interpreting this one sentence is that these blessings are for those who are in Christ. Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, makes that statement about 10 times in this sentence. In Christ. In Him. In whom? In the Beloved. In Him. In Christ. 10 times he says that. These blessings are for those who are in Christ. And we see from Really the overwhelming testimony of this letter and the book of Acts and really the entire Bible is that those who are in Christ are in Christ by way of faith. They have trusted in Jesus Christ and what he's done for them and that puts us into his body. That's why in Acts chapter 9 Christ asked Paul on the Damascus Road as he is going to persecute believers in Jesus, why are you persecuting me? Because when a person, when Isis cuts off the head of a Christian, a person who's believed in Christ, Yes, they're killing that person, but they're persecuting Christ. That's what he says, because that person is in Christ. They are a member of the body of Christ. So these blessings are for those who are in Christ by way of faith. Number one thing to remember when studying this passage. This entire thing has to do with those who have believed in Christ, trusted in him. And so we saw In verse 4, throughout the entire passage, there are a lot of interpretive issues with the words that we find in our English Bibles. And there's a lot of preconceived ideas that go along with some of these words that are used in our English translations that aren't really completely accurate. And so we saw in verse 4 that this term, just as he chose us in him, it says there, ek lego mai, really every other place that that word is used, chose or chosen in the Bible, it has something to do with picking a person to fulfill a role, to do something. such as the nation of Israel in the Old Testament. They're God's chosen people. Same idea. They're not just randomly chosen because they're so great. They're chosen to do something, to fulfill a role for God upon this earth. They were to be a light for the world to come to salvation through faith in Christ. Of course, they failed at that endeavor. But nevertheless, they are still God's chosen People, the apostles were chosen by Jesus Christ not just to be chosen, to be put on a pedestal somewhere. They were chosen to do something, to be his apostles, to be his messengers. So that same idea should come into our understanding here in verse four. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. chosen to do something, to be something. Those who are in Christ by way of faith. They are appointed to be holy, that means separate or separated for God, and blameless. That's righteousness. So when we place our faith in Christ, we are therefore appointed to be separate for Him, to be used by Him, and we're given His righteousness. That's all done in love, of course. He predestined us to adoption, it says in verse 5. Really a better understanding of that term predestined. Proorizo in the Greek is preordained. This is going back to the fact that God is planning this ahead of time in His plan before the foundation of the world. God determined that all those who are in Christ by way of faith will be adopted into God's family. That's what verses 5 and 6 have to tell us. We have redemption in Christ, verse 7, another piece of the puzzle. Those who are in Christ have this as a present reality, a present tense reality. If you are in Christ, if you have trusted in Christ, you have redemption right now. The forgiveness of your sins, 100% assurance of your sins. You can know that today. If you have believed in Christ, trusted in his sacrifice for your sins on the cross, You have, according to verse 7, in him, we have, present tense, redemption through his blood. What is redemption? Well, that's the forgiveness of our sins. It tells us He purchased us with His shed blood. He paid the required penalty, and we can now have the forgiveness of our sins. He made known to us the mystery of His will. We talked about that. Jews and Gentiles now, one new body, one new element, if you will, the church, a previously unrevealed truth. Verse 10, the church age looks forward to the eternal state we saw. Verse 10 says, with a view to an administration or a dispensation suitable to the fullness of times, the fullness of times when God through Jesus Christ will bring to a conclusion, bring to this world to its appropriate conclusion. And that appropriate conclusion is going to be when we as created human beings can live in perfect fellowship and harmony with God forever. Revelation 21 and 22. Verses 11 and 12, we have been made His possession. that passive verb being used there in verse 11 translated in the New American Standard Bible as we have obtained an inheritance, a better way of seeing that is that we have been made His Possession. So God in eternity past determined that all those who are in Christ will be made his. The moment you trust in Christ, you become his possession. He purchased you with his shed blood. The price has been paid. You trust in what he's done. He takes you as his own. And then he seals you with the Holy Spirit. It says in verse 13, a very clear presentation of the order of salvation, if you will. And we studied that last week. We saw that a person must listen to the word of truth, it says in verse 13 in him. You also, after listening to the word of truth is better than message the word of truth. After listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed. So we saw last time that we can put an order to this whole thing based on really the grammar of what is presented. The main verb in the sentence, present, active, indicative verb, those are your main verbs in a sentence, active, indicative verbs. Well, you have to go all the way to verse seven to see that, right in the middle of the passage. in him we have redemption that's the the main verb in the sentence and so that's in the present tense so now we can look at the rest of the verbs in this sentence and based on their tense we can see where they're falling out in order It's a little bit more complicated in Greek than it is in English. They're typically not really too concerned with this. It's some order of events and the tense is presented a little bit differently in Greek than it is in English. But sometimes you can really nail down what the author or the speaker is trying to tell you in terms of when things happen. Well, here it is that believers, those who are in Christ, have redemption right now. Well, how did they get that? Verses 13 and 14 tell us. First, they had to listen. Before they could have redemption, they had to listen to hear the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation. The fact that the good news is that we are sinners, Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, came to the earth, lived and died on the cross, paying the penalty for your sins. And you can have forgiveness by trusting in what he has done for you. Each portion of that is very critical in the presentation of the gospel. Jesus can't be just a great guy who lived. He can't be just your favorite prophet or theologian who lived. He's just a really good guy. He can't just be that. He has to be God in human flesh. He can't just be God. He has to be God and man, both of them. together and there's all kinds of colts and false doctrines that are based on the person of Jesus Christ in our fall short in one of those areas either he's God and not man either he's man and not God or some iteration of that but he is God and he is man in one person and he paid the penalty for your sins on the cross and So you have to have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you also have to have believed the word of truth. It says there in verse 13, having also believed. Then that is an active tense verb indicating to us that this is something we must actively do. This isn't something that is given to us. It's not something that we are made to do. It would be in a passive voice if that were the case. Instead, it is an active action that the person must do in order to be in Christ, in order to have redemption. They have to have heard the Word of Truth, and they have to have believed in the Word of Truth. Trust in it. Believe and trust are synonymous terms. They mean the same thing. In other words, I have to trust in what Christ has done for me on the cross in His death and resurrection as a payment for sins. And then we are sealed, it says in verse 13. After listening, to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him." the Holy Spirit of truth. So at the moment that you place your trust in Christ, not at some future time, not after some difficulty in your life, not after some great conflict, do you receive a second work of grace? That is not at all what is presented here in this passage. Hear the word of truth. Believe the word of truth. Be sealed. in the Holy Spirit of promise. So, we have the Holy Spirit when we are born again. We are born again by believing in Jesus Christ. And so now, in verse 14, we get more into what the Holy Spirit of promise is and what he's doing for us. So we have the pledge, the possession, and the praise having to do with this Holy Spirit of promise. So we begin with the pledge. Ephesians 1.14, speaking of this Holy Spirit of promise. The New American Standard Bible says, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory. You wonder why I think this is number 24, probably about our 20th sermon, I think, maybe on this passage. There's so much contained in just Verse 14, it'll be a miracle if we get through all of this. New American Standard Version says, who is given as a pledge? Well, the word given is a verb and it's not in the sentence. That's why if you have a New American Standard Bible, oh boy, it's not even in italics. I misrepresented it. That's very unusual for the New American Standard to not have words that are not in the sentence not be in italics, there is a little note that goes along with it that says that it's a down payment. Who is a down payment? And that's exactly what the term is actually describing. So it is true that the Holy Spirit is given to us as believers, but that's not what this sentence is actually describing. Saying he's just stating something about the Holy Spirit in his in his role in fulfilling God's plan of Salvation the King James Version is pretty good here It says which the Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest in earnest being a down payment so How do we get all of that? Well, this Greek term that's translated in the NASB as given as the pledge is actually just one term. It's the Greek term Erebon and it means payment of part of a purchase price ahead of time. So when you're buying a Christmas gift and it costs $1,000 but you don't want to pay the whole $1,000 at the time, perhaps you could put down $100 on it. Or you buy a new car and you put 10% down on your new car. That is securing for you the vehicle, possession of the vehicle, or the ability to use the vehicle anyway, but you're going to continue to make payments on it moving into the future. Well, that's exactly what is going on here. You can see a good use of this same idea in Genesis 38. It's not really a good story, but it's a good example of a pledge being given. Judah and Tamar, we won't go into the details of that. You can read about that. Later, Judah gave Tamar a pledge as a promise to give her something more in the future. Perhaps even something of greater value, if you will. That's exactly what the Holy Spirit is here. He's given as a pledge, as a down payment of a promise of more to come in the future. And this promise, the promise of the promise or the promise of the pledge being given is a promise that has been delivered. Jesus talked about this in the upper room discourse. He talked about the giving of the Holy Spirit to believers. In that case, in the upper room specifically, the Holy Spirit being given to the apostles. John 14 and verse 16, I will ask the father, Jesus says, and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever. That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you. There's a lot going on in there. We could preach probably a couple sermons on just those couple of verses there. But Christ there in the upper room saying that one day he's going to give them the Holy Spirit. That's who the Helper is. He's the Spirit of Truth. The world can't receive it. Why? Because they don't know who Jesus Christ is. They don't know Christ. But you apostles, you do know Christ. I'm right here with you. He abides with you and will be in you. At one point in the future, the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit will be in you. John 15, 26, he says the same kind of thing. John 16, 5-15, he reiterates it again in case they didn't get it. The other two times he tells them again in the same discourse, I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. I'm going to have to go away from you. But it's actually to your benefit because when I go away, I will give you the Holy Spirit and he's going to help you in your role as apostles going forward. Jesus is telling them in the upper room. Acts 1, verses 4-8. Again, Jesus reiterates after the Supper Room Discourse is before he goes to the cross. Then he does. He goes to the cross, he dies, he's buried, showing yes, he's literally dead. And then he rose again, showing yes, he's literally God in human flesh. He's a person who has been raised from the dead. He's God. He's fulfilling everything that he said he was going to do. And then in Acts 1, after he's resurrected, shortly before he returns to heaven, he has this to say. to his apostles, Acts 1, 4-8. Gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised. Which he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know the times or epics which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. This event takes place, Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes and dwells the believers. Peter explains this to the crowd, why this has happened, Acts 2.33. Peter, who had been at each one of these events in the upper room with Christ after he was raised, Now he's explaining to the Jewish people what has just taken place, Acts 2.33. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear. Why is Peter able to speak in the language of all of these people who come from various places around in the world so that they can understand? the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, it's a miracle. The Holy Spirit has come. He has given us this power to be able to do this, and this is a promise that God has made and delivered on. we have the same Holy Spirit within us. 2 Corinthians 5 verses 1-5 Paul says to Gentile people, For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, And as much as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, in this life, now we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now he who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge." same Greek term here, Erebon, this pledge has been given to us of something that we have in the future. And it's very important to see in an overall understanding of the Bible that this very same promise was made to the nation of Israel. Israel, a literal nation, will be taken one day by God, put in their land, and given the Holy Spirit so that they can live in obedience to Him. In the meantime, we as believers in Jesus Christ are given the Holy Spirit so that we can live in obedience to Him and be His people, be ambassadors for this coming future time when Christ will literally rule upon the earth over his kingdom. So the church age now, this mystery age that Paul is referring to here in these opening verses and really throughout the entire book of Ephesians, The church is foreshadowing this kingdom to come. The church is not the kingdom. Otherwise, these several promises from the Old Testament aren't true when they speak of God giving his spirit to the nation of Israel. You can kind of try to get away with it by saying, well, now the church is Israel. There's some real linguistic gymnastics that you have to do to make that work because God specifically makes this promise to the nation of Israel, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Just one example. Ezekiel 36. And verse 23, God speaking says, I will vindicate the holiness of my great name which has been profaned among the nations which you, audience of this speech is Israel, which you have profaned in their midst. The nation of Israel has profaned the name of God in the midst of the nations. in contradistinction to what their very purpose was. They were to bring glory to the name of God in the midst of the nations. They blew it completely in the time of Ezekiel, long before AD 70. We're talking before they're put back in the land and the second temple is made. They've already blown it. However, I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God. When will they know this? When I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations." Israel. Gather you, Israel, from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful. to observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave your forefathers, so you will be my people and I will be your God." That has never happened in the history of the world. Nobody could possibly make that claim that those verses have been fulfilled. Ezekiel 36, 23, and 28. You cannot possibly say that The church has now been put into the land that I gave your forefathers. What does that even mean? The church has never been promised a piece of land. Our forefathers, I guess that could be the apostles. I'm not really sure. They most certainly weren't promised any land. They were promised tribulation, torture, death. No health and prosperity found there in the Gospels or Acts about promises made to the apostles. So it's impossible if we take the Bible with any sort of seriousness to say that these verses have been fulfilled. It must be a future. And so while they are talking about similar things happening, the Holy Spirit being given to us as believers in Christ, the Holy Spirit being given to the nation of Israel, they are not talking about the same event. It must be a future. So the church clearly has received the Holy Spirit. We are foreshadowing what will happen to the nation of Israel, literally, in the future. And in case you haven't noticed, we're not a perfect picture of this. We're not a perfect picture of living in constant obedience to the Lord, but that's what we should be doing. That's what we have available to us by walking by faith in the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. It is possible for us to do that. That is our goal as God's representatives on this earth now. That's what we should be striving towards. That's what Paul was striving towards and even he admitted that he wasn't there yet, but that's his goal. That's what he strives towards because he can strive towards that perfection because we've been given every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1.3 So we have this pledge, we have this promise that's given to us. Well, what is it a promise of? Well, it's a promise of a possession that we do have as believers. So I just did this this morning, lined through a part of the Bible. It's a translation of the Bible, so if that offends you, I'm sorry. A better understanding of Ephesians 1.14 from the original is, the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance NASB says, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession. And we're going to get into all of those words there. There's a lot of extra words in this. This could be stated a lot more clearly. But first of all, this pledge, the Holy Spirit of promise, a down payment that we have. It's a down payment for what? What does that implies? A down payment implies it's for something. You don't just have a pledge. The pledge has got to be for something else. Well, the something else is our inheritance or our possession. Kleronomia is the Greek term there for inheritance. Like we've talked about before, our kind of Western idea of inheritance is, well, my dad has some piece of property. When he dies, it's going to be mine. And that's a little bit of an incomplete understanding of kleironomia here as it's used in the Greek, because in the Bible, an inheritance is sometimes used as something that we'll get when somebody dies, but more Usually it is used to just describe a possession that we actually have, something that is ours. In this case, it is describing something that is ours that we will come into possession of or be able to physically have at a point in the future, but it is something that we do have. right now. And if you are keeping up with all of these Greek words, you'll know that we've already seen kleronomia, or a variation of the term. This is the noun form of the word that we saw in verse 11. Also, where it says, also we have obtained an inheritance. Inheritance being the verb form. We have obtained an inheritance. And we saw there that in the passive voice, that is saying we have been made his possession. We are his possession. So here, in verse 14, the Holy Spirit of promise is a pledge of our possession. Luke 20 in verse 14, a good place to go to see that this kleronomia means possession, not our idea of inheritance. Acts 20.32, same idea Paul says to the Ephesian elders appropriately enough. And now, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance, the kliranomia, among all those who are sanctified. I commend you to God and the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the possession among all those who are sanctified. Colossians 3.23 as well uses the same term, kleronomia, inheritance or possession. Paul writing to the Colossians. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance or the reward of the possession. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. So if you keep those sort of concepts in mind, this idea that we're that Paul, like in Colossians here, work now, do your work as if you're doing it for the Lord, because in the future you have a reward. of a possession waiting for you. Same idea that Paul is getting at here. This idea of a down payment, an initial installment has been paid for something. The connotation is that in the future, you're going to receive something else. It has to be a reception of something greater in the future by what Paul is saying here. And the ESV actually does a good job of presenting this. It says, of the Holy Spirit of promise in verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it. Great job of describing exactly what is being communicated here. NASB says, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession gets really, really wordy there. All of that with a view is based on one Greek term, ais. And that can be rendered as until, like it is in the ESV, makes it much more clear to understand. The Holy Spirit is the down payment on our future with God. We have the Holy Spirit now until we enter into this redemption at some point in the future. And this redemption, eis apolytrosis, Redemption. Until redemption is a good way of looking at it. Until the redemption of the possession. And we've seen this term before as well, apolytrosis. Redemption. We saw it in verse 7. We talked about it earlier. We have it right now as believers in Jesus Christ. We have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. We have it right now. Well, now verse 14 is saying that we have some sort of redemption in the future also. We have to remember that our salvation, every time we talk about salvation, it doesn't necessarily mean we have forgiveness of our sins so we're going to heaven. There's more than just that idea wrapped up in salvation. We oftentimes kind of divide it into three parts or three tenses or three phases of our salvation to be able to make that distinction very clear among those three. We have redemption now. In the future, according to this, the Holy Spirit has been given to us so that we will have a redemption in the future also. We have the forgiveness of our sins right now, positionally. We have, according to verse 7, a perfect standing with God because Christ has paid the penalty for our sins. Here, this is saying, in verse 14, that we are going to physically have redemption, a physical acquiring of a possession, some sort of possession here. Spiritual truth, positionally, now we are perfect in God's eyes because Christ paid the penalty for our sins and we receive it by faith. Another redemption coming in the future that we refer to as glorification. Verse 7 is speaking of justification, deliverance from the penalty of sin. Verse 14, redemption, future tense, speaking of our deliverance from the very presence of sin. We call that glorification. Sometimes God has given us the Holy Spirit now as a promise that one day in the future, we are going to have physical glorification, physical redemption, physically delivered from the presence of sin in a physical body. that is fit to live with Him for eternity. A body that is fit to live with Him when He brings to its appropriate conclusion this world like it talks about in verse 10. You can read all about that in 1 Corinthians 15 verses 50 through 7. The point in time where God will give us physical redemption, essentially. A new body fit to live with Him for eternity. Now it is spiritual. Now we have a spiritual redemption. Then it will be a physical redemption. And here are those three tenses of our salvation. It's so important to understand the distinction between The deliverance from the penalty of sin, the Bible is very, very clear that this is by one thing. This is verses 3 through 14, right here. The three tenses of our salvation, or the fact that God planned all of this in eternity past. That's what verses 3 through 14 are all about. The incredible blessing of salvation. God made this plan in eternity past before a human existed. He determined that this is how it's going to happen. He knows all things. When I create man and he blows it, I'm going to save him. if he will trust in me, if he will trust in my provision for sin, justification, deliverance from the penalty of sin. Verse seven, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins. Chapters four through six of Ephesians, sanctification. present tense deliverance from the power of sin in our daily lives. How do you do that? We'll get there. Hang in there. Walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, who's given to us as a pledge of our future with God. Glorification. The Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession. The redemption of the possession is right here. Glorification. Deliverance from the very presence of sin. That will happen in an instant, in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, according to 1 Corinthians 15. For us as believers in Jesus Christ, that's when it will happen. We will receive a body fit for eternity. We will be taken back to the Father's house according to John 14 and we will be with Christ forever. Where Christ is, we will be with Him. Where is Christ now? He is in heaven. He comes in the air to receive us to Him, 1 Thessalonians 4. take us back to the Father's house to be with him. When Christ comes to the earth again, we will be where Christ is. We will be with him. We will come back to the earth and be with him while Christ is on the earth. Believers have a place with God in the future. You can read about kind of how you can prepare yourself for that future with God in Luke chapter 19. Jesus talked about that he talked about in a reward for obedience to him and living with living in obedience to him while he's gone that's what Luke 19 11 through 27 is about couldn't possibly be any more clear reference to that revelation 5 9-10, Revelation 5 is a scene in heaven where it says, and they sang a new song saying, worthy are you, Jesus Christ, to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, that's us. You have made them, who? The people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, to be a kingdom of priests to our God, and they will, future tense, reign upon the earth. This is our future with God that is secured for us with a down payment, who is the Holy Spirit of promise. 1 Peter 1, 3-5. Very much along the same lines. Our scripture reading this morning. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why? to obtain an inheritance, kliranomia, possession, which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." Exactly the same thing. that Paul is talking about here. In verse 14, this salvation ready to be revealed in the last time is is glorification is our future with God, living with Christ where he is, we will be also reigning with him upon the earth that is our possession. as well. That's a part of our possession. We have eternity to look forward, living with God. This has all been planned by God in eternity past. The Holy Spirit who lives in you and me as believers in Christ is the down payment, the promise that this will take place in the future. And I think God deserves some praise because of that. Lo and behold, so does Paul, so does the Holy Spirit. I didn't just make that up. It says it right there in verse 14, to the praise of His glory. We've seen this phrase before two other times. Interestingly enough, at verse 6, if you remember our three-part outline of this passage, verses 4 through 6, the Father's role in salvation. Why did the Father determine ahead of time, before the foundation of the world, to appoint all those who are in Christ to be holy and blameless? Why did He preordain that everyone who trusts in Christ will be adopted into His family? Verse 6 tells us, to the praise of His glory, of His grace. Not because we're so great, not to show how What a great website we can have and how with it we are and all the you know We wear cool clothes or whatever and it doesn't have anything to do with how cool we are or think we are it has to do With the praise of the glory of God's grace. It is for his glory the father's glory Why did Christ? purchase us with his shed blood? Why did he reveal this mystery to Paul and the other apostles so that we can know about the church? Why is he summing up all things, bringing everything to its appropriate conclusion? Is it for us? Is it so that we can get greater recognition? No. The Son did all of these things, verse 12 to the end, that we who are the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. It is for God's glory, the Son's glory. Why is the Holy Spirit given as a down payment to us? Showing us that we have a future with God and it's guaranteed because we have the Holy Spirit within us, not because we're so great, not to bring glory to us, it is to bring glory to God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all of this is done to bring them glory, to the praise of their glory. This isn't all about us. It's not all about us. We don't read ourselves into scripture and take our name and put it in the place of whoever the Bible character is. That's all. the word foolishness comes to mind. It is for God's glory. Scripture is God-centered, not man-centered. Even salvation. Salvation isn't, it's not really for us. Believe it or not, it's for God. It is to demonstrate His glory, most certainly not our glory. Kind of this whole idea of exegesis versus eisegesis that we even got into a little bit in Sunday school this morning. Exegesis, bringing out the meaning of The passage, eisegesis, is kind of having your own idea of what the passage means and then making it all fit. When we put ourselves in there and try to make it all fit, we see, oh, God saved us. Aren't we great? very unfortunate misreading of scripture. This is all for His glory, not for our glory. So one of the wonderful things about verse-by-verse teaching is that you don't get to hear my favorite topics every week. And so while this is the third time we've seen this in these short verses, Well, God is trying to tell us something. He's trying to get our attention. And sometimes we have to be hit over the head by it a couple times to get the point. This whole plan of salvation is God's plan. It's for His glory. He is the one doing it. So when we go through this verse by verse, we get to emphasize what God wants to be emphasize, not what we want to emphasize. Salvation is God-centered. It's for His glory. After all, He did it all. We don't do anything. In fact, we stop doing things. That's the whole point of the good news. We have to stop doing things in order to receive it. That's what belief is. That's what trust is. A lot of times we have in our minds kind of our, I mean, we can't help but be self-centered. After all, we are, we're people. We're selves, if you will. So it's very difficult to not be self-centered. And so, the idea of salvation is that we have to not be self-centered. We have to not think that we have to do something. We have to not think that, oh, this thing that I've done is so terrible, God can never forgive it. Well, who's God? Is He the creator of the universe? Is He perfectly righteous? Is his shed blood enough to forgive that sin? Well, if you think that it's not, you don't have a proper understanding of who Christ is. He's God in human flesh. His blood is perfect. It's righteous. It paid the penalty for every possible sin. If we're thinking, well, yeah, Jesus, he did a lot on the cross. He's God in human flesh, but I've still got to do something. I've got to make a commitment, right? I've got to keep living in obedience to his word. Otherwise, I'm going to lose it. Otherwise, I never had it. That's not biblical salvation. That's not what is presented in the Scriptures. salvation is all of God. He did it all. We simply rest in what he's done. Does he want us to live in obedience? Well, yeah, that's what the overwhelming majority of the Bible is about. There are verses about how to receive salvation about 200 or so by faith alone in Christ. And essentially, the rest of the Bible is about how to live in obedience to Him, the consequences of not living in obedience to Him, how God is solving the problem of us not living in obedience to Him. The overwhelming majority of the Bible is about that. So if you take away from our messages that we're teaching and how we really don't care about works, That's kind of ridiculous. That's the whole reason why we're here, to learn more about Him so that we live in obedience to Him. But to receive the salvation, you've got to understand He did it all. We receive it by resting in what He's done for us. And when we do that, He seals us with the Holy Spirit, gives us this Holy Spirit of promise, this down payment. Why? Because we have a future with Him, and He has guaranteed that for us, the Holy Spirit of promise. He's a down payment of the possession that we have with Him in the future, and we should praise Him because of that. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word that we have.