Welcome

[00:00:03] Hey, and welcome back to our final lesson in the gospel course, where we're learning what the gospel is and why it matters. Today, we look at perhaps my favorite aspect of the gospel, and that is the security that we have in the gospel, where we get to ask the question, " Am I really safe? Am I really saved?

[00:00:24] How long does the gospel last?" So today, we're gonna look at Ephesians chapter one in verses thirteen and fourteen, and we're gonna learn that our security in the gospel is based on three things. First, it's based on God's Word. It's not based upon my feeling or my circumstances or, as we learned in our last lesson, even any actions that I take as far as doing good works or bad works.

Foundation of God’s Word

[00:00:53] It's simply based upon my faith. So Ephesians one thirteen, it says in verse thirteen, " After that you heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation." So we're just gonna go back to what does God's Word say about how you got saved in the first place, or how do we get saved? We first have to hear the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Hearing Then Believing

[00:01:17] And so hearing is that first step of believing. So we can maybe have some check marks in our mind. Did I hear the saving message? When did I hear that Jesus died for me? Because we may have heard things about it, but when did I have, as Jesus would say, ears to hear? I fully understood and believed that for myself.

[00:01:40] Romans ten seventeen says that, " Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." So when was that time for you? When did you hear that good news? And then after that, when did you choose to believe the good news? In verse 13 it says, " Ye also trusted, and ye believed."

[00:02:03] So these words really help us gain some confidence and security in our decision to follow Him. That's exactly what trust is, actually. Trust is to place confidence in something.

Trust vs. Knowledge

[00:02:17] If you have a trusted relationship, you know you can rely upon that person. If you have a vehicle that's reliable, it's trustworthy, you know it's not gonna break down on you. So trusting God with the gospel means it's not on you. You're trusting in something that isn't you, because you're not always going to be reliable.

[00:02:41] And when we trust something like that, that's when we put our belief in it, and belief is a persuasion of the truth. It means I'm fully convinced that this is true, that Jesus really did rise from the dead, that He is who He says He is. And belief is a little different than knowledge. To... I can know a lot of things, AI, ChatGPT, the Internet.

[00:03:07] They can help you know some things about who Jesus is, but what do you really believe? When do I put my reliance upon that? You see, belief in the gospel is really all that's required. It doesn't have anything to do with your works. It is simply your faith. Jesus says in John, chapter three that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Saved By Faith Alone

[00:03:36] It is all about your belief. And when we do that, when we've heard clearly the gospel message, we choose to put our belief and our reliance and our trust in what Jesus did on the cross, then we are actually saved. It says in verse 13, " The gospel of your salvation." Meaning that the gospel really does save you.

[00:04:00] And remember that word salvation or saved is to be rescued from danger. That I'm no longer at the consequence of my sin. I no longer have to worry about eternity. My eternity is secure 'cause Jesus gives me eternal life.

[00:04:17] So you hear, you believe, and then when you call on Him, He saves you. As we saw last week in Ephesians, "For by grace are you saved through faith."

[00:04:29] When that happens, when you believe, He gives you the security of knowing Him in a personal and intimate way by receiving His Holy Spirit. Verse 13 says, " Ye are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." And I am so thankful for this, that when we're saved, God gives us, Romans 8 says, a witness that is inside of us, that He places His Holy Spirit in us.

Sealed By the Spirit

[00:04:57] And He uses this word here. He says that, "Ye are sealed." That word means to seal something up, to enclose it within. it is a sense in which it's been made secure. It's protected from tampering. That nothing else, no other spirits are gonna get in you. Whenever you believe the gospel and He gives you His Holy Spirit, He seals you up.

[00:05:21] The Holy Spirit is also here called the Holy Spirit of Promise. So you can know that God has made a promise to you based on his word that if you hear and believe, you have this promise living in yourself. That is the Spirit of God. And you know what a promise is, right?

Promise of Eternal Life

[00:05:43] When someone makes a promise, you believe they're good for their word. And that is so true of God because you see, God keeps all of his promises. He is not able to lie because in him is the truth. There is no lie in him. And he's promised you the Spirit. And 1 John also says that he has promised us eternal life.

[00:06:10] So when you hear and believe, you receive the Holy Spirit of God, and he has promised you eternal life. And that means that you have a future. You are secure in the gospel because you have a future. In verse 14 of this chapter, it says, "Which is the earnest of our inheritance," talking about the Holy Spirit, "until the redemption of the purchased possession."

God’s Down Payment

[00:06:39] So maybe you haven't thought of it quite this way, but the Bible says whenever you believe the gospel, there's a transaction made. God takes all of your sin and places it on Christ on the cross, and he takes his righteousness and gives it to you. And in that transaction, the Bible says that we are purchased 1 Corinthians says we are bought with a price.

[00:07:04] And Acts 20 says that Jesus purchased us with his blood. And that's the kind of purchase that you wanna be, that Jesus bought me, he paid everything so that he could have a relationship with me. And what we learn here about the Holy Spirit in verse 14 is that God gave you a down payment. He's called here the earnest of our inheritance.

[00:07:33] So we have a future inheritance, we have a future with God, but for right now, he's given us the earnest. And the earnest is something which is in advance. It gives a promise of something that's yet to come, and that is the Spirit of God. We are saved when we believe, and God gives us the Spirit. But there is a sense in which there is more yet to come, because we're gonna live forever.

Hope of Redemption

[00:08:01] It says here in verse 14, " Until the redemption of the purchased possession." So there is coming a time that we will be fully redeemed.

[00:08:12] We will, as 1 John says, " We will be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." And we Christians can anticipate this day confidently knowing that our salvation's not based upon our works. It's based upon what He says and the Holy Spirit that He's given to us.

[00:08:35] And 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that, " This mortal must put on immortality." So I got good news for you. You're going to live forever. You may not fully realize all of that now, but eternal life begins the day in which you choose to hear and believe the gospel, when God gives you His Spirit, and He promises, "You're mine, and you will see me face-to-face and live forever with me one day."

Next Steps

[00:09:05] I don't know about you, but that gives me great peace, great security to know that I'm saved based on God's Word and what He's done in my life and not based on what I have done or what I'm doing. This is the final video in the gospel course, and I just want to encourage you. If you've made a decision to follow Jesus as a result of these videos, please reach out.

[00:09:29] I want to rejoice with you. I will pray for you. I will be so ecstatic for you. And if you're local here to Portland, Oregon, please come and see us at church. Make sure you drop us a line, see us in the face. We would love to be an encouragement to you. If you're from far away, we'd also love to know as well.

[00:09:46] I hope that you'll choose to follow Jesus. The gospel is the good news and the best news that you'll ever hear, and it'll radically transform and change your life like nothing else. We'll see you later.