Join us this week on Expository Truths as Dr. John Kyle takes us deep into the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, focusing on the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Kyle expounds on how the Spirit resides within believers, acting as a seal of assurance for our eternal inheritance, and provides profound insights into living a faith-filled life. Discover the role of the Spirit in convicting, empowering, and sanctifying the believer, ensuring we carry forward our journey with God’s grace.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 01 :
Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 through 14. Ephesians 1, 13 through 14. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We now find ourselves in the doctrinal section of this book that’s found in chapters 1 through 3. It’s very interesting because this doctrinal section begins with one single sentence that In the original language, the Greek, a sentence that consists of 202 words and a sentence that’s 12 verses long, verses 3 through 14. Some say that this is actually a song of praise, a hymn, which might have been the case, but more than anything else, this is an attempt to use a whole lot of words to praise God for what He’s so graciously done for us as children. Up to this point, Paul has praised God for choosing us for Himself, for predestining us to adoption, for making us acceptable in the Beloved, for redeeming us, for forgiving us of all our sin, for showering us with undeserved grace. for ensuring for us our eternal inheritance, for God’s sovereign care over us, and then for giving us a purpose and a reason for living His glory, which is indeed our greatest honor and our greatest privilege. And all these are some wonderful, some excellent reasons to praise God. But there’s more. Verses 13 and 14, let’s look. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. So again, this one sentence shows us many great reasons that we can and should bless our amazing God. And here we see yet another reason to do that. This, because in Christ we have salvation. The second reason from these verses and the last reason from this 12-verse sentence that we can bless and praise our amazing God is because when we became Christians, the Holy Spirit indwelt us. Look, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. So look, for all who believe… The Holy Spirit seals them. More on that in a second, but how does He do that? Well, He first comes and resides in every true believer, and the Word of God is very clear about that truth. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6.19, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, talking to Christians, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? That’s truly amazing. God, the Spirit, lives in you, the believer. So what does He do? Well, in Acts 1.8, Jesus tells the disciples that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. And that’s what the Spirit gives to believers. Dunamis in the Greek, from which we get the English word dynamite, talking about… Divine power. Power to what? Power to live for the glory of God. Power to honor God. Power to bear witness for God. To fight sin. To be bold. To be strong. Power to arrive safely home in glory. There’s no way we could do that without His divine power. But with Him and with His divine power working in us, man, we can turn the world upside down, which the apostles did. After the Spirit came and indwelt them. Only after then. And look, every Christian has the same spirit of God living inside of them. Picture it like this. An army is sitting down before a rock fort and they intend to bash it down. So we might ask, how? They point to the cannonball. But there’s no power in a cannonball. I mean, it’s heavy. It’s really heavy. And even if all the men in the army hurled that cannonball against the fort, it would do no damage. They say, no, look at the cannon. There’s no power in the cannon, though. A child can play on it. A bird can sit on it. I mean, it’s a machine and nothing more. But look at the powder, they say. But again, there’s no power in the powder. I mean, you can spill it. You can get it all over yourself and it won’t really matter. I mean, you just wash that powder off. But think about this. This powerless powder and the powerless ball, they’re put in a powerless cannon, and look, one spark of fire enters it, and then that powder is a flash of lightning, and then that ball is a thunderbolt that crashes into that rock fort and brings it down to the ground. So it is with the church, with us, the people of God. We are powerless. But the Spirit in us is the fire that ignites us and gives us power for effective ministry, for overcoming, for enduring to the end, for honoring Christ with our fading lives. Power. Divine power. We certainly need it. Back in John 14, when Jesus was talking about what the Holy Spirit would do for believers, he calls the Holy Spirit the helper. Interestingly, in John 14, 15, Jesus says, if you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. Immediately after that is when Jesus says, I’m going to pray for the Father and he’s going to give you another helper. in other words once jesus leaves the holy spirit will come and fill that vacancy doing for his disciples all that he had done for them while he was with them on the earth but even more the holy spirit will minister from within the christian as christ ministered from without which is even better but look why do you think jesus talks about the holy spirit immediately after telling the disciples to keep his commandments because they can’t keep his commandments without the spirit The word helper is a Greek word, parakletos. The word literally means to call beside. And it’s the Holy Spirit who’s the one who comes beside us in our time of need. And basically, His role is to empower us, there’s that word, and to help us passionately live out the Christian life until we make it safely home to glory. Biblically, the Holy Spirit is central in salvation. He convicts the unbeliever of sin. In 1 Corinthians 12, 3, it says that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So without the Spirit, no one is saved. Titus 3, 5 says that the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerated us. Literally, He’s the one who gave us new birth. Our verses for today tell us that the Holy Spirit seals the believer. In other words, when you were saved, the Holy Spirit sealed your salvation and He guaranteed your eternal inheritance, your safe arrival in glory. Also, we find that the Holy Spirit baptizes us, uniting us with Christ and then living in us until we arrive in glory. He also teaches us and gives us understanding, 1 Corinthians 2.12. So he helps us see spiritual realities, spiritual truths that we didn’t understand before he came and resided in us. And then we find that the Spirit is the one who sanctifies Christians. He’s the one who helps us grow in our personal holiness for the glory of God, 1 Peter 1, 2. You think he’s important? What would you do without God the Spirit living inside of you? One pastor said, the Holy Spirit was given to live inside those who believe in Jesus in order to produce God’s character in the life of the believer. That’s right. Biblically, believers are upheld by the Spirit. They’re strengthened by the Spirit. They’re given boldness by the Spirit. They’re helped in prayer by the Spirit. They’re aided and comforted in various and amazing ways because of the Holy Spirit in them. Now, the struggle with most Christians lies in the fact that we don’t really know what it would be like to be without the help of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I mean, I think it’s easy for us to become accustomed to Him in our lives. We get used to Him in our lives. But, hey, take Him away for a moment and you would know immediately, but none of us would want that. But please note that just because you may not feel the Holy Spirit always at work inside of you, that doesn’t mean that He’s not there working mightily. And He’s okay with that. He’s still doing His work in you. Galatians 5 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit, the proof that the Spirit of God is living and thriving in you is what? Love. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And when we see a Christian growing in those areas, then we are seeing the reality of the Spirit of God working in his or her life. Now please note that there is a distinction between the baptism of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit. See, the baptism of the Holy Spirit happens to all believers when they are saved, where the Holy Spirit places you into the body of Christ and resides inside of you until you arrive in glory. Normatively, the Holy Spirit is a gift given to all believers in Christ without exception, and no conditions are placed upon this gift. Also note that normatively, the Holy Spirit is given at the moment of salvation. And while that wasn’t the case in parts of the book of Acts, please remember that the book of Acts is transitionary, and so what happened in Acts isn’t always the norm for what happens to people today. What’s normative now is that the moment people are saved, that’s when the Holy Spirit baptizes them and permanently indwells them. This is in contrast to the filling of the Spirit. See, the baptism is positional. Filling is practical. Baptism grants the power. Filling turns it on. Look, the filling of the Holy Spirit is a matter of yielding to the already present Spirit so that He totally controls your life. Every Christian already possesses the Holy Spirit, and now it’s a question of whether you yield to His power or not. So for the Christian, the question isn’t, have I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Yes, you have if you’ve been saved. The real question for the Christian now is, am I experiencing the filling of the Spirit who’s already in me? Now, note that the word filled is talking about something that overpowers everything else. So when you’re filled with the Spirit of God, it means that you have yielded to the total dominance of the Spirit in your life. In Ephesians 5.18, the Apostle Paul says to literally be being kept filled with the Spirit. And so, this is something that we’re called to do. It’s something that we’re called to cultivate. It’s something that can ebb and flow with sin or with obedience in your life, with hardness or with yieldedness to Him. Note that in a parallel passage in Ephesians 5.18, it’s Colossians 3.16. But look… In Ephesians 5, it says that if you’re filled with the Spirit, then you’ll do this and this and this. But in Colossians 3, it gives the exact same list, except it doesn’t say if you’re filled with the Spirit, but it says if the Word of Christ dwells in you richly. And so we find that to be filled with the Spirit means that you’re going to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. What does that mean? It means to be saturated in the Word with His truth that’s powerful, living, and active. So question, can you be truly filled with the Spirit and be weak in the Word of God? Say it. No. Good answer. Why? Because the Spirit uses the means of the Word of God to do His mighty work in us. So how then can I be continually filled with the Spirit who lives in me? Well, sin less. Repent quickly when you do sin, which means you’re going to repent a lot, but do it. Immerse yourself in the Word of God and obey what it says, more and more and more. That then will be a vessel that the Spirit will fill to the brim and use mightily and powerfully for His glory. Another way to say it is to simply yield to the Spirit, to constantly be yielding to the Spirit. How? Stay in the Word. Pray much. Battle sin moment by moment. Repent continually. Keep going for His glory. Be here. Immerse yourself with other Christians, with the Word of God, with worship of God, with other Christians who can encourage you as well. And keep going, for the Holy Spirit loves to fill vessels like that. Now look, while He, the Holy Spirit, dwells within every believer, He can be grieved and His activity within us can be quenched. And that’s when we don’t experience the fullness of the Spirit’s working and His full power in us and through us. And that’s where I think many Christians reside, sad to say. We harbor sin. And we don’t give it over to God. We just quench the Spirit. We don’t feast on the Word of God. We just quench the spirit. We dwell in mediocrity. No wonder we’re so powerless. We tell the Spirit by our actions that we don’t truly want His power or His help. See, sin, any harbored sin, unforgiveness, anger, greed, lust, pride, lying, laziness, any old sin will hinder the filling of the Holy Spirit. But obedience to God is how the filling of the Spirit is maintained. And look, to obey Him, you have to know what He says. To obey Him, you have to be reminded of what He says regularly, daily, moment by moment. To obey Him, you have to be rebuked by Him regularly to get back on track. And that all comes by the Word of God. So filling comes when we’re immersed in the word and when we do it more and more and more for his glory. And it’s a daily battle that we must never stop pursuing. And so when you mess up and you’re going to mess up, when you sin, what do you do? You be sure to immediately confess it to God, lay it at his feet, and then renew your commitment to being spirit-filled and spirit-led. And never quit in that. Never quit. Never be content with being half-filled. Never stop… pursuing being a spirit-filled man or woman until you die and go to glory. So stay in the word, be here, repent much, pray much, and battle on. See? So it’s not about speaking in tongues, which was a unique gifting for the early church. No, it’s about glorifying God and bearing his fruit through your life until glory. And it’s all very practical. And our call is to yield to him so he can powerfully move in us and through us more and more and more. What else about the Spirit? He seals us. This means that the Holy Spirit is God’s seal on his people, that the Holy Spirit is his claim on us as his very own. The word for seal in the Greek denotes ownership. The word was originally used as a business term that referred to sealing a building shut. See, in order to guarantee property against theft, a seal was placed on it, a special mark, a sort of brand, like branding livestock. Also, when a merchant bought a sack of grain, a seal would be placed on the sack until the full payment was made. That seal was a guarantee of coming payment. Later the seal became a mark of royalty. Any communication from the crown was sealed by the king. After dabbing hot wax on any official document, the king would seal it by pressing his ring into the wax. Before long, the engraving ring was called a seal. So seals were used to make something secure. to serve as a guarantee of the correctness of its contents, to indicate authenticity, and to indicate ownership. And here, Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is God’s seal on you, on us, his people, guaranteeing what is to come for us. In other words, the gift of the Spirit to believers is a down payment to our heavenly inheritance. All true Christians have the Spirit of God living in them, and therefore, all true Christians will arrive in glory and receive their eternal inheritance. That’s a given. That’s a fact. So you say, John, does this mean that we believe in the doctrine of eternal security? That when a believer is saved, that he can’t lose that salvation? John, is that what you’re saying? Yes! Because that’s what it says here. Very clearly… Question, how long is eternal life? Eternal, right? How can eternal life not be eternal? John 3.15 states that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. But if you believe in Jesus today and have eternal life, but lose it tomorrow, then it was never eternal at all. Therefore, if you lose your salvation, the promise of eternal life in the Bible would be an error, and it’s certainly not an error. Now, note that we’re talking about those who truly are saved, and that’s where many people get mixed up, right? That’s where we get mixed up. They say salvation can be lost because I’ve known people, right? I’ve known people who were once Christians and they aren’t anymore, so salvation can be lost. But those who say that are basing things by what they observe rather than on what God’s word says. And so for those who seem to have lost their salvation, well, they were never truly saved to begin with. They just seemed like it. Because look, when a person is truly saved, that person then gets indwelt by God’s spirit who seals us, who marks us as his own, and who guarantees our future inheritance. And guess what? That is ironclad. Note how the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of promise. This tells us that that which has been promised will most certainly be fulfilled for those to whom it’s been promised. What’s been promised? Our future eternal inheritance. Boom. Guaranteed for all us, God’s children. Verse 14. Having believed… You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who, look, is a guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. This tells us that the Holy Spirit is given to believers as the first installment to assure us that our future inheritance as children of God will indeed be delivered. It means that God grants to us His Holy Spirit as the ironclad pledge that we are His forever and shall be saved in the last day. See, God finishes what He starts. He didn’t just choose you and then die to save you only to lose you later on. No, He sees it through. And His promises to us are sure and they are certain. Look, the Holy Spirit… is a deposit guaranteeing the redemption that’s to come. This deposit is similar to a down payment on a house that secures your position as a buyer, or the first fruits of a crop that indicate that the rest of the harvest is coming. In like manner, the Holy Spirit is the first evidence or proof of the full grandeur of God’s complete purposes in our lives. Look, he chose you. Paul tells us that. He died to save you. He redeemed you and paid the asking price for your soul. And he’s given you his Holy Spirit to live inside of you as your divine helper. And the Spirit will see you through to the very end. That’s a guarantee. And it’s God’s good pleasure to do all this for us. Our call? Get on with giving him the glory in your life. It’s amazing stuff. It’s amazing stuff. How do I know that he lives in me? This, you’re saved. You believe the gospel. Look, the gospel says that you’re a sinner and Jesus, the Lord of all, the Lamb of God, died for your sin. The world doesn’t believe that. The gospel says that even when you are faithless, the faithful God has forgiven your past, has a claim on your life, has secured your future. The world doesn’t believe that. The gospel says that though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, Christ died for you, rose from the dead as victor over your sins, giving purpose to your life now, and that he’s coming to claim you for all eternity. The world can’t believe that. Not until the Holy Spirit comes and supernaturally changes a heart can anyone believe the truths of the Gospel. And look, your believing is the evidence that the Holy Spirit is in you. Okay, alright, but what else? Love. Right? Love. Love for God and love for others. That’s great proof that the Spirit is alive and well and working in your life. They’ll know we are Christians by our love. We’re going to talk about that next week. Or this, heartfelt obedience to God. A desire to glorify God. A growing hatred of sin and a battle against it. Or this, persevering in the faith through trials and through hardship. See, trials and hardships often weed out the fakers. But a person who endures and stays and continues on in the midst of hardship, pain, trials, and worldly attacks, that person is proving his or her faith to be the real deal. So we’re talking about faith that’s lived out. A faith that’s lived out in the midst of hardship is even better. We all face hardship. And the fact that you’re still here… Loving God, worshiping God, fighting for His glory in your life, continuing on after all that you’ve been through. Hey man, that’s very encouraging. And it’s great proof that the Spirit is alive and well and working in your life. Still not sure? Then go to God right now. Cry out to God right now. Lord, I believe, save me, and He will. If it’s real, He will. You might have been in a church your whole life, but now you realize that you’ve been playing a game. Well, game time is over. God has revealed this to you today, and it’s a great day to cry out to Him in true saving faith, and you can do that right now. Right now. And that’s another great reason to praise and bless our amazing God. He doesn’t give up on us. Anybody grateful for that? Right? Hey, for us, the best really is yet to come. We belong to Him. And he loves us with passion. And he will never leave us nor forsake us. And he will see us through to the very end. And look, the blessing of the Spirit’s presence in our hearts is a foretaste of the greater blessings that we will enjoy when we, his bride, the church, his people, are eternally united with our bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s waiting for us, guaranteed. Until then, keep on. Never quit. Keep pursuing. Keep loving Him and loving others for His glory. Forgive like He forgave you. Pursue holiness. Stay in prayer. Stay in the Word. Battle stand. Stay faithful. Stay focused. Obey from the heart and glorify Him with passion until glory. Lord, help us. Grateful? We should be. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we love You so very much and we thank You. Thank You, Lord, for saving us when we least deserved it. Thank You for the good news, the Gospel, for Christ and what He did. And thank You, Lord, for the Spirit. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for living in us, helping us, guiding us, convicting us. Continue to work in us, Lord. Continue to work in us. Help us to battle sin. to yield and repent much, and to be powerful for your glory. Bless us now in Jesus’ name. Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor, and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
