Ephesians 1:1-14b

All that was ever written, all that was ever lost, has now been thrown in to be brought back down. So the full purpose of creation will be accomplished. And much more, because we will have it brought in.

That's the end of the lecture. There's not only a field of persons and a treasure in the field, there's also a pearl of great price. Meaning, he has a claim on this earth, it will be accomplished through the nation, but as well there will be something added that creation never anticipated itself.

And that is the prize, the pearl of great price. All of that will be swirled and brought together, culminated in that age itself. The soul that is presently a reality in the heavenlies, in Christ, translates, communicates to earth in that fullness of time.

Maybe that's the revelation of the... There's a revelation of the Son of God in Romans chapter 8. Now just move with that, we've gone on to the future, but we suddenly come back to what we now possess, positionally. In that one who will be the one that will head up everything, and culminate all God's purpose for earth, and things in heaven, and things in earth, all will be brought together in him, in his glory. In him, we obtain a paradise.

All our inheritance is linked with him. All the greatness of the earth. Okay, this is a little left, I'm running the needle here, but I think you have to understand, those who first trust in Christ, Paul, if he's writing this after Acts 28, he's still going back to those to whom the gospel went first, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles.

The we right down to this point is all believers. The we at this point, he seems to define it now, as those who first trust in Christ, who are the Jews. We Jews have not lost anything in Christ.

We have the full inheritance in him. And so I take it that that is the point that is here, being predestinated to this, speaking of God's purpose, and who is working all things. Richard, you would say that as Jewish believers, they've lost any inheritance as far as the nation is concerned.

But their inheritance is in God's hands. And in fact, just with that, reminding us of Peter's first official, Blessed be the God and Father of all human beings, there's an inheritance there, future, incorruptible. It is not a waste.

But what we're looking at here is a present inheritance, and it's ours. We're going to suffer the loss of all things. So any physical inheritance, any national identity, we lost it all.

You say Paul? No, that's a philosophical question. No, it's supposed to serve the truth. That's what God wants people to accept.

What's interesting, too, is that Bill is a producer. He includes himself. And then he refers to the other Jews.

And then before he finishes, he talks about our inheritance. So just coming back, just hold on for a moment here. We've got to get there.

We have 15 minutes left to go from there. But that we should be to the praise of the Lord. So these Jews have been brought into this great blessing to be to the praise of the Lord.

All of that has been accomplished by the redemption that is in Christ. But now, as you're saying, I'm going to change this, because you notice the word trusted is in Italian. And maybe there's some difference here.

But I wonder if Paul is not saying, in whom he also, having heard the word of the truth, doth for this domination have trusted. So I think that what Paul means here is, in whom we, and now he, the Gentile, have received this inheritance. It's actually reflexive, going back to the inheritance.

Yes, the Jews have been brought into this promised inheritance. In a unique sense, in Christ. But the Gentiles have likewise been brought into this very same inheritance.

In whom he also. As in whom we were predestinated unto this. You also.

And how did that happen? Well, they first trusted. But we heard the gospel. We, Gentiles and others, we heard the gospel.

And you also trusted. And having trusted, you receive the Holy Spirit of promise. We, it's not the Jewish nation, it's the Jewish disciples, that we first trusted.

Just make that distinction a little bit. Well, verse 5 is the destiny of the Son of Christ. The Son of Christ also involves the destiny of the inheritance.

Yes, you can't separate the Son of Mary from the inheritance. If you're without chastisement, you're not a son. Right? So then you have no inheritance.

You're a son. If you're a son, you have an inheritance. So the great desire for the Lord Jesus is for unity.

And there's some question in John 17, that in one of his last requests to the Father in relation to the saints, in the letter of verse 12, he speaks like this, in verse 11, he asks the Father to keep him. Verse 12, he shall keep him. And then, and he wants him to be one, even as we are one.

The great desire for the Lord Jesus is for unity among his people. Here we have it, the Trinity and the Gentiles. In the body we want to see unity, as a continuing thing.

The saints' greatest, greatest of tasks, and the things of God, is the trinity among the people of God. That divinity, of course, is going to be dealt with in chapter 2, and we'll find in chapter 4, that it has been accomplished, and our responsibility as a temple fellowship is to reflect that. Just coming back to what we were saying.

I want to know how long after I believe, I receive my Holy Spirit. There's no time. No time.

If you hadn't believed, you would see it. So, the authorized translation is after that, which, in this case, you see. And it is the promised Holy Spirit.

So, in other words, he's saying that the Spirit that I promised to you, is the one who actually sealed you, at the moment of your conversion. What does it mean to be sealed? I have a question. I just want to comment.

There's two ways to take that Holy Spirit of promise. The Holy Spirit related to the promise for us, or the Holy Spirit related to the promise that was given by the Father that he would come. Personally, I'd take the first one.

Well, I mentioned it first, but I'd take one, and maybe not have the other. But I don't see any problem with that either way. It's a matter of interpretation, and we'll leave it there.

Thank God, yes, this unique promise relative to the Holy Spirit, we now enjoy. And, thank God, that this Spirit is taking us onward, that it will fill us with the promise of God, that's for us. The Holy Spirit doesn't need promises.

What do you think about that? What do you think? It sounds real to what you're saying. It's hard to anticipate the future. I think it's real to us now.

Come on, I don't intend to feel bad. I mean, that's basically what you're agreeing about. The long-term thing, I would say, is his deity, his Holy Spirit.

That's what he is in himself. We are the Holy Spirit. We are looking at three persons of the Godhead into which we have been brought by an intimate, inseparable relationship.

The Spirit of God dwells in us. We are one with Christ and accepted with all his acceptability. We have been placed as sons by the Father, and have been brought into this.

Listen, this is nothing ordinary. This is beyond anything we've grasped. This intimate relationship with the Godhead.

We have moved into the highest society among all of Christ. Accepted in that highest society. Two quick questions.

Three quick questions. As a believer, have I been sealed by the Spirit of God as an individual? Yes. As a believer, have I been forgiven of my sins as an individual? Yes.

As a believer, have I been selected children of God as an individual? Yes. These are all coming to us personally and individually. Coming to this, this sealing.

You asked what does this mean. They sealed the stone. Roman authority says you can't break this seal.

You can't break the stone. All the power of Roman authority is invested in that. All the power of heaven is invested in it.

Then the seal belongs to Jesus Christ. That's security, isn't it? Well, there's in 2nd Timothy it's a seal of property. And then it's linked with authority in the book of Esther.

There's quite a bit. Actually, the first mention of the seal, the last mention of the seal of the stone and Satan is bound with a seal for thousands of years. There's a thought of power, there's a thought of authority that's involved.

Here we have the spirit of God as he himself doesn't seal us, he is the seal. The fact that we are enveloped by the spirit of God is heaven's message. They belong to me.

Nothing is going to take them away from my purpose for them. It has permanence. It has permanence involved in it.

I think that's almost like branding cattle. You can't take the brand off of a cattle. It's a permanent marker.

And I think it's not only with authority and so on, but it's I'm going all the way through the finish line with the spirit of God. Sealed with all the power of God. The seal of God can be broken.

That's right. That's what 2nd Timothy 2, it mentions in 2nd Timothy. I don't know if they have the same verse in mind.

The firm foundation of God's standards is sealed. The Lord knoweth them that are his. So it's his seal.

It's the Lord that's doing it. Now he knows them. I know my sheep and I know not mine.

In the church of God there may be those who should not be devil, but in the body, knowledge is his. There are only that which is genuine. Never the false.

And he is protecting and holding. I give unto my sheep eternal life. And it says, They shall never, never perish.

That's what promise did. This was promised by the Father. He was promised by the Father.

And then he was promised again in John's gospel by the Lord himself. He was promised by the Father. 1st Timothy 9.24. So they say that the sealing is not something of God's, but it's his presence.

So it's the earnest of the entirety of God. The illustration of that, I think, is equivalent to the three that are brought out into the wilderness. Before they were ever in it, they couldn't enjoy the fruits of the vine.

We have the first fruit of the Spirit in Romans chapter 8. That is an anticipation of the fullness of what God is going to accomplish out of His creation. Here, the first fruit of all the fruits of blessings heaven and earth all brought together. It is the down payment that says this is what you have now, and I'm going to finish the payment.

No question. It will fully be accomplished. It will be in your brain.

So, Mark, let's play with the riches of the servant. Thank you very much for bringing me back to that, because that's what I see here. You know, my son, my master's son, has all his wealth, all the wealth he can.

And what they talk about down the road, I don't know, but I think a lot of it is just about Isaac and about the riches of Isaac. We have now the first fruit, the earnest, the earnest fruit of all the redemption. So, living in the heavenlies is a wonderful thing, but there's actually more wonders beyond that.

Is that what I understand from the inheritance? In other words, there are limitations to my enjoyment today. No distinction to what I have. But my enjoyment actually is going to be increased in that way.

But as the Spirit of God has His way with me, the greater my instruction of how that will be. In order that, with the praise of His glory. It's all based off of this.

What is God going to get out of me? The more I enjoy the work of the Spirit of God, the more I will gain glory. But even if I don't, He will have eternal glory from this earnest that He has given to us. The seal indicates that there's a guarantee that this inheritance is kept for us.

When it comes to the earnest, that's the guarantee that the inheritance is kept for us. So it will be kept for you. That's the seal.

It will be kept for us. So you have the picture of finally the servant, Tim, my magic self, here he is. She laid down the camel for me, and one day he took it.

He took all of it from her. He devised a plan. He gave it to her.

She hopes not to find so much that all his possessions will prevent him. And I can imagine she would say, tell me about it. Somebody would like to know something about it.

And I think she would say, say, tell me about the day he was on the altar. That's what I would think too. Tell me about the day that he was on the altar.

We're taken up with Christ. And all that he's done, not just the blessings of the Lord himself, but the earth and the air was unto that redemption day. The whole outcome for us of that redemption.

It's sad, it's sad that outside the assembly of God there are a large number of dear believers in the Lord Jesus who are living sad lives. Because they have been taught and under this misunderstanding that they can lose the salvation that we've been speaking about. Now that's a gloat person of the Lord Jesus.

It's saying that he's not capable of doing what he's promised. They've never read Ephesians 1. And if there's any here who have the least doubt as to the security of their salvation, listen to what the brethren have been said. Read the word of God.

It's not in me, it's in Christ. And my dependence is not in me at all, it's in the work that he has done on the cross and solely in heaven. Because I am like John 14, ye shall live also.

He's alive, let the rival live in hell. David, we can read the spirit of God, just to follow this. We can read the spirit of God, we can touch the spirit of God, we will never have to pray what David prayed for him.

Take not that holy spirit. He's a seal. A pure mark of authority.

So, will you allow me to bring in the marriage couple of the last year, the redemption of the clergy's possession. And we'll be presented to Christ. And maybe even coming up from that in all the fullness of the manifestation of the liberty of the Son of God, at the end of the middle of Revelation chapter 19, the glory of the Church of God and all of its splendor.

So, would you say, brother, that there is a right sense in which a believer cannot be too heavenly minded? Absolutely. That's not a very good thing to say. I mean, not heavenly minded.

We can lose the sense of reality, but that doesn't mean we have a soul. Absolutely. The more heavenly minded we are, the more we enter into these wondrous truths.

The more we reflect upon them. Thank you all very much for your help.