He's going to be conformed to the image of my Son.
He's going to inherit all things in Christ.
He's going to be brought nigh unto Israel and so forth and so on.
That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.
Now verse 13 is a powerful verse.
It's a great salvation verse.
In fact, so much doctrine is packed into this verse.
You know, you could pretty much win somebody the Lord with this verse.
This verse is packed with salvation doctrine.
This is a great salvation verse, Ephesians 1-13.
Another thing I like about verse 13 is that it helps us define what the word believe means
in regard to salvation.
Some people will try to twist what believe means and say, believe means you're going
to do works.
That doesn't make any sense because the Bible says you're saved by believing and not of
works.
But look what it says.
It says, in whom also ye trusted.
That's a key word right there.
You trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in
whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
Now there's a lot in this verse.
One of the key things is that you'll notice that the words trusted and believed are used
interchangeably because he says, in whom also ye trusted after that ye heard the word
of truth.
So there's a sequence of events here.
First you heard the word of truth, right?
Step one, you heard the word of God.
Step two, you trusted in Christ.
Then it says, in whom also after that you believed, and the after you believed is referring
back to when you trusted.
You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So it's a three-step process, right?
You heard the word of God, you trusted or believed in the gospel of your salvation that
you heard through the word of God, and then number three, you received or you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So when you hear the word of God, you have the choice to believe it or not believe it.
If you hear the word of God and you trust in the Lord as your Savior, then boom, you're
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
So believe means to trust.
So it's not enough to say, well, I believe the facts about Jesus in the sense that I
believe there was a man named Jesus who died on a cross and was buried and rose again.
You have to trust Jesus to get you to heaven.
And what do I mean by that?
You can't trust in your deeds or your works.
So if somebody says, well, I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to heaven because I'm a good
person, that's not the biblical believing in Jesus.
When the Bible says believe in Jesus, that doesn't compute because believing in Jesus
is trusting in Jesus.
So that means that if I say I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to heaven because I'm such a
good person, my trust is in myself.
I'm actually believing in myself.
Whereas if I say, well, I'm a sinner, I deserve hell, but I believe that Jesus died on the
cross and was buried and rose again, and I'm trusting him to get me to heaven, his death,
his burial, his resurrection, that's saving faith right there.
Trusting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, not trusting in our own deeds
or our own works.
And that's why Jesus said, many will say to him in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name and in thy name of cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works.
And then while I profess in them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, you that work iniquity.
Any saved person who's sitting in this church right now, if they were standing before God,
would never say to God, whoa, God, what about all the wonderful works I did?
No one would say.
And what's funny is people who believe in work salvation, they're so blinded.
They will literally turn you to Matthew 7 to teach that you can lose your salvation.
When it says, I never knew you.
How is that losing your salvation if he never knew you?
And then they'll use it to say, see, you got to do works and you're like, what?
These people are saying they did works and that's why they're not going.
Because if you or I were ever to stand before God and he were to ask us, why should I let
you in heaven?
We wouldn't say, well, let's see, I've prophesied in your name.
I've cast out devils.
I've done many more.
No one in this room would say that.
That's why anyone who would try to pin that verse on us is being ridiculous because anyone
in this room would say, well, because I believed on Christ.
And you said that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
You said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
You said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in
thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved and I've done that.
That's why.
That's what anybody in this room who is saved would say.
You know who would say that, that thing in Matthew 7, a bunch of Pentecostals would say
that.
Oh, we've cast out devils.
We've prophesied in your name.
We've done many wonderful works.
Okay.
And you know what?
Many will say that and there are many Pentecostals.
How many people go to Phoenix First Assembly, 10,000 or something?
It's a huge church.
And right in their statement of faith, it says you can lose your salvation.
Why?
Because they're trusting in their deeds and works.
That's why.
If it's all based on the finished work of Christ, how could you lose it?
If I was never good enough to be saved in the first place, how could I be bad enough
where He'll take it away from me if it's all by grace?
If once we're saved, we have eternal life and we're sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise
and we're sealed unto the day of redemption, the Bible says elsewhere, and that He which
has begun a good work in us will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
But these people who believe you can lose your salvation, Pentecostals believe that,
they don't understand the Gospel.
They think they have to maintain it.
They think that God put down the down payment and they have to make the payments every month
or salvation is going to be repoed.
They think their salvation is going to be repoed if they miss a payment.
And they're like, well, there's a little grace period.
You know, if I miss a payment, I can catch that up a little bit as long as I send them
a little money every month.
You know, as long as I say I'm sorry and ask forgiveness and kind of try to go to church,
you know, then it'll keep the bank from repoing my vehicle.
It's like a repoed salvation is what they believe in.
They believe in some predatory lender as a God.
Like God's this used car dealer that's going to come and repo their, no, no, it's a free
gift.
It's a free gift.
Look, if somebody gives you a free gift, you don't have to make payments.
Hence the word free that we looked at in Romans five earlier, the free gift that came upon
all men.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So this is a great verse.