1. "In your own life, as you consider challenging situations that you're facing, if you will stop and consider what it is that you should be thanking God for, if you'll see His goodness in your situation, even the things that are not transparently good, that are difficult and hard, even that include suffering, you'll begin to understand them more clearly and more accurately."

2. "Friends, you are made by God in His image to know Him. Your sins have separated you from God because He is good. And because God is good, He will punish you eternally."

3. "The Holy Spirit is a seal to the believer that we belong to God. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives shows we've been born again by the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit seals us. He marks us out as believers."

4. "The Holy Spirit in our lives is a promise fulfilled. He is a promise also, though, of still more to come. And at the same time, He is a foretaste of that coming reality. Do you want to know what heaven's going to be like? Take those times of the Spirit's evident working in your life and work out from there."

5. "The new reality of divine love and adoption into His family has begun, but its fullest fruition, its consummation, is still to come. What separates what we've already obtained from that final day is the grave. And it's that grave that will on the last day be emptied out as we come to acquire full possession of our inheritance."

6. "Brothers and sisters, you realize that for the Christian, death is the doorway to life."

7. "My Christian brothers and sisters, how much larger would heaven's population be if everyone you shared the gospel with this last week actually came to Christ? Would there be a great expansion in the population of heaven? Or would its population be unchanged? Friends, how will people come to Christ if we don't tell them about Him?"

8. "If race or nationality or politics or class is what you really value and desire and work for and most enjoy, then you won't know unity in this church. But if what is most important to you is being saved through faith alone only in Christ, then this church will be a rich place of unity where you find a lot of people who have that in common with you."

9. "Righteousness and mercy, goodness and justice meet and kiss at the cross of Christ."

10. "When our capacities are increased and our time to study is unlimited, and our ability to appreciate has grown, and the purity of our moral perception is engaged, then do you see how our joy in God will be increased without end? Friends, would you not invite other people into that joy?"

Observation Questions

1. According to Ephesians 1:11, what have believers obtained, and on what basis has this been given to them?

2. In Ephesians 1:11, how does Paul describe God's activity and the scope of His sovereign work?

3. What phrase is repeated at the end of both verse 12 and verse 14, and what does Paul say is the purpose of believers who "were the first to hope in Christ"?

4. According to Ephesians 1:13, what two things did the Ephesian believers do when they encountered "the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation"?

5. In Ephesians 1:13-14, what role does the Holy Spirit play in the life of believers, and what three descriptions does Paul give of the Spirit in these verses?

6. According to Ephesians 1:14, what future event does the Holy Spirit guarantee, and what is the ultimate purpose of this guarantee?

Interpretation Questions

1. Paul says believers "have obtained an inheritance" (v. 11) yet also refers to a future time "until we acquire possession of it" (v. 14). How do these two statements fit together, and what does this teach us about the nature of salvation as both a present reality and a future hope?

2. What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is a "seal" on believers (v. 13), and why is this image significant for understanding our security and identity in Christ?

3. The sermon emphasized that the Spirit functions as a "guarantee" or "down payment" of our inheritance. How does this understanding of the Spirit's role provide assurance and shape how believers should live in the present?

4. Why does Paul repeatedly emphasize that salvation is "to the praise of His glory" (vv. 12, 14)? What does this reveal about God's ultimate purpose in redemption and how believers should understand their place in God's plan?

5. How does the involvement of all three persons of the Trinity—the Father purposing, the Son purchasing, and the Spirit sealing—deepen our understanding of God's character and the nature of salvation?

Application Questions

1. The sermon noted that beginning with praise for God's goodness clarifies rather than distorts our understanding of difficult situations. What challenging circumstance are you currently facing, and how might intentionally thanking God for His faithfulness change your perspective this week?

2. Paul emphasizes that the Ephesians came to faith by hearing the word of truth and believing. Who in your life needs to hear the gospel, and what specific step can you take this week to share the good news with them?

3. The sermon warned that if race, nationality, politics, or class is what we most value, we will not experience true unity in the church. What earthly identity or loyalty might be competing with your identity in Christ, and how can you actively cultivate deeper fellowship with believers who are different from you?

4. If the Holy Spirit's fruit in your life is evidence that you belong to God, how would you honestly assess the presence of that fruit right now? What one area of spiritual growth do you sense the Spirit prompting you to pursue?

5. The sermon challenged that our joy in God will increase eternally as we appreciate His glory more fully. What practical habit—such as Scripture reading, corporate worship, or prayer—could you strengthen this week to deepen your appreciation of God's glory and prepare your heart for eternity?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Romans 8:14-30 — This passage expands on the themes of adoption, the Spirit's witness, and the certainty of glorification for those whom God has predestined and called.

2. 2 Corinthians 1:18-22 — Paul describes God's faithfulness and the Spirit as a seal and guarantee in believers' hearts, reinforcing the assurance taught in Ephesians 1.

3. Acts 19:1-10 — This passage provides the historical background for how the Ephesians first heard and believed the gospel through Paul's ministry.

4. Isaiah 43:1-7 — God declares that He created His people for His glory, connecting to Paul's emphasis that salvation exists "to the praise of His glory."

5. Ezekiel 36:24-28 — God promises to put His Spirit within His people, showing the Old Testament foundation for the "promised Holy Spirit" mentioned in Ephesians 1:13.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Joy of Gifts: From Earthly to Eternal

II. What Have We Been Given? An Inheritance

III. How Have We Been Given It? Through Christ

IV. Why Have We Been Given It? For God's Glory

V. Celebrating Our Inheritance at the Lord's Table

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Well, friends, we've just gone through the season of gift giving.

One of the best things about gifts is how they are anticipated and how they are received. From eyes filled with wonder as they consider what a wrapped box could contain, to squeals of confirmed joy that they did get that toy that's all the rage this year. Children are some of our best reminders of the joys of gift giving.

Now other gifts don't bring great anticipation or even joy in their reception. These gifts are the kind of underrated gifts that might seem no big deal at the time but turn out to be a lot better than you thought. Huh. Nose hair clippers. How good could that be?

I can think of a couple of gifts which seemed okay at the time, but it proved to be great over the years. In college, my roommate's mother gave me for graduation, this is in 1982, a book embosser that is a stamper. That I still use on every book I purchase.

Perhaps more importantly, an older woman at church who was retired gave me a book for my high school graduation. That's in 1978. That I appreciated, but I set it aside for a few years. But then I started to read it, and it became a gateway. It was Spurgeon's Morning and Evening.

I was led to Spurgeon by an older woman in our church, whose gift I even ignored for a few years.

Well, for more important gifts, There are many things we consider far more important than nose hair clippers or book embossers or even spurgeon. Was the gift that Paul is talking about to the Ephesians in the passage that we're considering today. The story is told in Acts 19, if you want the background, of how Paul had told these Ephesians about Jesus for months and about how many of them had started to believe. Years later, probably in 60 or 61 A.D., Paul wrote them this letter that we're studying this year as God makes us able to meet. And Paul begins the letter in this wonderful section of praising God and encouraging the Ephesian believers by reminding them of what God had given them in the gospel.

We thought last week about the first ten verses. Now we come to Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 11 to 14. Listen as I read the text. Paul continues to write about God's plan and His gift. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. That's our brief text. Let me just walk through it again with you, making sure we're clear on the pronouns. The hymns, the yous, and the wees. All right?

So verse 11, In Him, that's Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him, Christ, You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, believed in Him, Christ, and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. So those are the hes and hymns. I think it's also helpful to understand the argument of these few verses to be clear on who the hes and yous are.

So when Paul there in verse 11 says, In Him we have obtained an inheritance, I think he means just Christians in general, like the we's that he's been using in the first... in verses 4 to 10. We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. So that... and now here, Paul says we again, but he's narrowing the focus.

He has a particular subset of the we's, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory in Him you also. Who is this you? Well, it's a subset of the earlier we, all Christians. But this is the you, the Ephesian believers. You, the Ephesian believers.

Also, when you heard the word of truth, and Paul could remember when many of them heard the word of truth, because he told it to them. When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, and that our is now the encompassing all of us again who are Christians until we, Christians, all of us acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. Well, I think that hopefully, I hope, makes a little bit clearer what Paul is saying here as we explore those pronouns. Paul begins his letter here with thanksgiving, which we'll switch over into his prayer for them as he recounts that starting in verse 15, which Lord willing will be the subject of our next study. Paul beginning to consider the important matters of the church and unity, relationships, all of these important things, he begins with praise.

He begins with praise, to put everything in the context of the goodness of God and of His blessing to us. And, friend, when Paul does that, he's not distorting the situation. He's clarifying it.

So in your own life, as you consider challenging situations that you're facing, if you will stop and consider what it is that you should be thanking God for. If you'll see His goodness in your situation, even the things that are not transparently good, that are difficult and hard, even that include suffering, you'll begin to understand them more clearly and more accurately.

So if you have some challenging talk coming up or some difficult situation, Pray that God would show you clearly His goodness. Pray that you would be mindful of that. Pray that will affect your heart. Pray that it will still your worries. Remind yourself of God's long, unbroken track record of faithfulness in showing His true, good, promise-making and promise-keeping self.

Our whole passage for consideration, just like last week again, is an encouraging passage in which Paul is describing the most amazing gift all Christians have ever been given. And so for our time together tonight, I have three simple questions I want us to answer. What have we been given? How have we been given it? Why have we been given it?

Can't get much simpler than that. What have we been given? How have we been given it? Why have we been given it? I pray that as we work through these questions, God will be praised and you will be strengthened and encouraged.

So let's dive in. First question, what have we been given? Well, the answer is, according to Paul very clearly, an inheritance. You look there in verse 11, We have obtained an inheritance. This inheritance is our adoption.

It's the adoption that we have been predestined and elected to. Up in verse 5, it is the redemption we've been provided in verse 7. We could summarize this inheritance as our being bought and saved by God our salvation. Friends, this is a big deal. If you are here and you're not a Christian, you're very welcome to gather with us.

You're always welcome when we gather. There's no gathering we'd rather you be a part of than gathering with us when we meet like this. But friends, this is the best news you'll ever hear: better than a raise, better than vaccines, better than a good health report. Friends, you are made by God in His image to know Him. Your sins have separated you from God because He is good.

And because God is good, He will punish you eternally. I know this about you because the Bible says this is true of all of us. Your only hope has been established by God in Christ, that sinners like you and me would have a hope at all is amazing. But He has established His hope by sending His own Son to live a perfectly good life and then to die as a sacrifice, as a substitute for all of us who would turn and trust in Him. God literally raised Jesus from the dead.

He emptied out that tomb, and He was raised to life, and He ascended to heaven and presented His sacrifice to His heavenly Father who accepted it and who calls all of us now to repent of our sins. And to trust in Christ. And so be forgiven, be adopted, be redeemed, be saved. All this rich image of salvation that Paul uses here in these first verses to the Ephesians, that's the inheritance of all of us who trust in Christ alone for our salvation. Friend, why would you not do that today?

If you want to know more about what that means, talk to the people around you. Talk to me. I'll be at the door you came in afterwards for a little while. Pursue that. Well, this fits with what Paul we see is talking about, what he's saying about the Holy Spirit in our verses.

Paul is describing something that they are already, these Ephesian Christians are already in possession of. Look down at verse 13. See that last phrase there? Paul is saying that what is true of all Christians from verse 11, that is that we've obtained this inheritance, is clearly true of the Ephesians as well. Look at that last phrase, verse 13, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Later on, if you turn over and you look at chapter 4, verse 30, when Paul is wanting to warn them about corrupting talk, He exhorts them not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And then he writes, By whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. This idea of sealing has been variously understood, but it's pretty simple in context. This idea of sealing is not so much one of protecting, like you seal something to protect it from the weather. It's not that kind of sealing.

Now, this sealing here is an authorizing. It's a verifying that something is official or real. So in Paul's day, legal documents were authorized by a seal, an imprint in wax. That seal would show the document to be authentic. Or you can read Matthew's Gospel where they sealed the stone that was rolled over in front of the tomb of Christ once his body was placed inside.

They sealed it not to prevent anyone physically from being able to open the tomb, but to show and demonstrate and prove that the stone had been closed up and the tomb sealed in that sense. So the Holy Spirit is a seal to the believer that we belong to God. Paul had written to the Corinthians also about this in 2 Corinthians 1:22. 2 Corinthians 1:22, God has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our heart as a guarantee. So the Holy Spirit is the seal that we belong to God, that we have obtained an inheritance.

What does that look like in our lives? It looks like His fruit. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives shows we've been born again by the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit seals us. He marks us out as believers.

That's not all. Not only is the Spirit a seal saying this is real, He's also, we see there in verse 13, promised. The promised Spirit. And of course the promised Spirit has been given. And that reminds us that God is faithful.

God had promised that He would send His Spirit through Isaiah, chapter 44, I will pour My Spirit upon your offspring. Or through Ezekiel, I will put My Spirit within you.

Peter reminded them on the day of Pentecost, he quoted Joel, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, foreshadowing the Gentiles coming in. And of course Jesus had taught this. He taught them in the end of John's Gospel, He would send His Spirit. And we read at the end of Luke, in Luke 24:49, Jesus said, I am sending the promise of My Father upon you. He could refer to the Spirit as the promise of My Father.

But now stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. So friends, the Holy Spirit is a seal. He shows that we really have been born again. But He's also a fulfillment, a promise fulfilled. In that sense He's an encouragement to us.

And while we're here, let me mention a third function that the Spirit fulfills that Paul alludes to in our brief passage. Not only does the Spirit testify to the truth, not only does the Spirit fulfill a promise, but He acts as a guarantee of our inheritance. You see that in verse 14. So the Spirit is not simply the fulfillment of a promise and a seal saying it's real, but He's also a deposit saying, Hey, there's more to come.

In this sense, His work and presence in our lives acts as a down payment. He's like the down payment on your house. It says, Here's some, and you'll be getting more later, finally up to the full amount. So the Holy Spirit acts as a pledge of eternal life now and to come. His presence in us now suggests that all the other promises God has made to us will be fulfilled as well.

In that sense, the Holy Spirit in our lives is a promise fulfilled. He is a promise also, though, of still more to come. And at the same time, He is a foretaste of that coming reality. Do you want to know what heaven's going to be like? Take those times of the Spirit's evident working in your life and work out from there.

Perhaps a good illustration of this would be an engagement ring.

It's a promise itself. It changes our status now because of something future that we hope and plan to see come. And that something still to come, marriage, is even better than engagement. That's how the Holy Spirit is acting in our lives now. So the Holy Spirit and His sanctifying fruit producing presence and power in our lives as individuals and together as a local church gives us a the sense of what heaven will be like.

He is guaranteeing that God will finish what He's begun. The new reality of divine love and adoption into His family has begun, but its fullest fruition, its consummation, is still to come. That's why Paul can write of our having obtained an inheritance. You see that in verse 11? And yet in verse 14 he sees it as a point in the future until we acquire possession of it.

How do you put those together? We have obtained it, verse 11, and yet, verse 14, he refers to until we acquire full possession of it. Paul wrote in Romans 8:23, We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly wait for the adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. So what we experience now is a taste of the total change to come in the future. It is at the final resurrection that we will obtain all that our adoption entails.

What separates what we've already obtained, verse 11, from that final day acquire possession, verse 14, is the grave. And it's that grave that will on the last day be emptied out as we come to acquire full possession of our inheritance. Brothers and sisters, you realize that for the Christian, death is the doorway to life. So, what had Paul been given? What did Paul say the Ephesians had been given?

What did Paul say Christians had been given?

An inheritance. What is that inheritance? It's salvation. What have the Ephesian Christians been given? That same inheritance, salvation.

If you're here as a Christian, you've obtained that same inheritance. That's the what. That's the what. Now to question number two: How? How have we been given it?

How have we been given this inheritance? Well, the answer is through Christ. You see that our verses are really in two halves: 11 and 12, and 13-14. I don't know if you could tell that when you read it.

But you see that 11 begins in Him, and then 13 begins in Him. I remember Paul had told us this up in the verses we studied last week. You remember how prominent Christ is in those verses 3 to 10. And then in our passage here, both halves begin with this in Him. There's in Him we, verse 11, and in Him you, verse 13.

Paul characterizes himself here in verse 12, We who were the first to hope in Christ. And this hope is not a hope that is a wishing, but it's a believing, it's a confident certainty, it's a relying. So to hope in this sense is to place your hope, and it is to place it to hope in Him, in Christ. And this is the same one we see in verse 13 that the Ephesians had placed their hope in Him. And Paul then recalls to their minds a particular point in time when someone preached the word of truth, that is, the gospel of Christ to them, and they evidently listened.

In verse 13, Paul unfolds how it is that the Ephesians had come to have this inheritance through Christ. Look there in verse 13.

Paul writes, You also, when you heard the word of truth, friends, that word of truth is the gospel of Christ. You remember Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Well, when they heard the word of truth, at least many of them had, when Paul had told them, which you can read about in Acts 19, when Paul wrote to the Galatians, he reminded them that they had received the Spirit by hearing with faith. When he wrote to the Christians in Rome, Paul had written that faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. So to be most clear, Paul restates what he means by the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation.

And then Paul restates again in verse 13, and believed in Him. There it is put essentially and simply, you believed in Him. That's when they were sealed. With the promised Holy Spirit. When are you indwelt with God's Spirit?

When you believe. That's what it means to be born again, to be born from above, to be born by the Spirit. That is how God gave and still gives the gift of Himself and our believing savingly upon Him. The way God gives saving faith in Christ is through our hearing the message about Jesus Christ. So we should hear messages like this one, where God's Word is unfolded and Christ is held out to you for you to believe.

So friends, come to church. It doesn't matter if you have to drive a little extra distance. Come to church. Listen carefully to the sermons. And in your own week, make sure that you are telling others this good news about Jesus.

My Christian brothers and sisters, how much larger would heaven's population be if everyone you shared the gospel with this last week actually came to Christ, would there be a great expansion in the population of heaven? Or would its population be unchanged? Friends, how will people come to Christ if we don't tell them about Him?

My non-Christian friend, nothing in this world will complete you. By placing you in a relationship with God, the God that you were made to believe in, but believing in Jesus. There's no other way for us to be adopted, to be forgiven, to be redeemed, to be saved, only by believing in Jesus Christ. That means that all of us who are members of this church, all of us who have been saved, all of us have come the same way. We have this in common.

There's no other way into the church. Than being saved by believing in Jesus. You see the importance of this unity? The fact that there is only one way in? I guess our unity is only as important as saving faith in Christ is the most important thing to us.

Brothers and sisters, if race or nationality or politics or class is what you really value and desire and work for and most enjoy then you won't know unity in this church. But if what is most important to you is being saved through faith alone only in Christ, then this church will be a rich place of unity where you find a lot of people who have that in common with you. We've been adopted. We've all been given this same inheritance. And as Paul reasons in Roman 8, if children, then coheirs.

That's what we Christians are. We are coheirs. We're heirs together of this same incredible blessing.

Young people, many of you have been brought up in this church, which may have seemed unchanging until about a year ago, when we didn't meet for a while and then we went on our road trip as a church. We've been at Franconia and we've been at Del Ray. We've been at Anacostia and now we're here at Riverdale. But through all these changes have you noticed that we keep saying the same thing?

Not only that, but you've heard it from many different people.

Many of you have heard the good news about Jesus Christ your whole life.

Friend, if you are 14 or 12 or 9, maybe today is the day You stop just hearing it and you decide to lean in and really believe it. You can talk to mom or dad about what that means for you to believe in Jesus. It's not just adults who can believe in Jesus. Children and young people can believe in Jesus. You can talk to other friends you know here at church.

You can even talk to me about it. I'll be standing at that door at the back for a while afterwards. I would love to talk to you.

Let me know if you'd like to talk to me or one of the other pastors here about believing in Christ. My friend, I gave my life to Christ when I was a young teenager, and I have not regretted it one hour since. Let me encourage you, while your life is young, Give it to Christ. Trust in Him with all you have.

Friends, all of us who have been given this gift of salvation, our inheritance, have been given it in the same way through believing in Jesus Christ. That was true of Paul, that was true of the Ephesians, that's true of us here tonight. Paul and the Ephesians and us were all given it the same way, through faith in in Christ. That's how. Now on to our final question: why?

Why have we been given this great gift, the inheritance of salvation for God's glory? In the short compass of these four verses we see the drama of redemption stretched from the unending ages of eternity past in verse 11 all the way to the unending glory of eternity future in verse 14.

And in both of these taken together we see the reason for God acting toward us guilty sinners as He has. You see that phrase there again and again. Or as He says first in verse 11, We have been predestined according to the purpose of Him. And then we have this further description of God who works all things according to the counsel of His will. Remember what Paul said to the Romans in Romans chapter 8, We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose, for those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

And those whom He predestined, He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified, and those whom He justified, He also glorified. In his sermon at the Day of Pentecost, Peter had described Jesus as delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. So back to our passage here in Ephesians 1. When Paul mentions God's will in verse 11, he doesn't simply mean the kind of will of God we heard about from Proverbs, as Amber read to it a few minutes ago. God's taught preceptive will.

Rather, He's referring here to God's secret decreed will, that is, what He has said will happen on the pages of history. Jesus taught about that frequently, as you read about how He describes the disciples whom the Father had given Him to the cup that the Father had given Him.

You'll notice also that final phrase in verses 12 and 14 that's repeated, so that we might be to the praise of His glory. To the praise of His glory. In Isaiah, God says that God created His people for His own glory. Isaiah 43:7, Whom I created for My glory. So that's the idea that Paul is drawing on here.

And then in verse 14 he concludes with that same phrase, To the praise of His glory. This, friends, is the supreme purpose of our salvation, our redemption, our adoption. As His own. This is the purpose that He will work all things according to His will to achieve. We see in verse 11, God is God-centered.

As John Piper has put it, this is good news if you're a God-centered person and love God's commitment to make Himself the central reality in the universe. Where he is enjoyed forever and ever with ever increasing joy. But friends, if 2021 finds you really more about Republican politics or progressive politics or all about white culture and how it's been wrongly attacked or black culture and how it's been wrongly dealt with, If your life's center is your nationality, or your family, or your business, or your school, or your neighborhood, well listen, if your God is anything other than the true God, if your center is anything other than this, then you will find this news disappointing. And phrases like this will be a constant stumbling block for you in the Bible. As Piper continues, We humans are not absolute.

We are not ultimate. God is absolute. God is ultimate. God is central. Has been, is now, always will be.

This is the purpose God has in saving Paul and saving the Ephesians, his own glory, as the one who was always good and the one who was always just, as the same God who revealed himself at Sinai to be merciful and yet not forgetting sins.

He's always just. He is the God ultimately, as closely as we see it resolved in the Bible, of the cross.

Is it not right that the Creator should be centered on Himself and central in His own creation? Brothers and sisters, I ask you, what is threatening to decenter God in your own heart today? What has threatened to eclipse the hope of this inheritance that Paul is talking about?

If you want to re-center your hopes on this inheritance, spend some time getting to know your fellow church members. Maybe some that you don't have some earthly characteristics in common with, but with whom you have in common this hope. Ask them questions. Listen to their answers. And as you see this common shared inheritance treasured, be prepared to be staggered by looking at the work that God has done in His church.

How could saving us and giving His people this gift through Christ be to God's praise and glory? Friends, the whole Godhead is involved in our redemption. Have you noticed that here? The Father purposing, the Son purchasing, Paul had mentioned up in verse 7, the redemption through His blood, believing in Christ here in our passage, and now here in our passage, the Spirit sealing and being the guarantee.

Because God's work in our salvation demonstrates and accentuates, it illustrates and manifests, it displays and proclaims God's very nature as being both good and just and right and fair and holy and merciful and gracious and loving and kind and self-giving. And do you know the other major religions of the world that present God like this?

None. None. We're not in a close race with some other religion to present this truth about God. Friends, this is what people need to know. This is what you've got locked up in your brain that you need to open your mouth and share for God's praise and their good.

Righteousness and mercy, goodness and justice meet and kiss at the cross of Christ.

How wonderful is that?

When you and I come to believe that, and to believe in Jesus Christ. We see and value and love what God has done. And that reflects on who He is.

And then that's seen by still other creatures. And that reflection will continue through time and down the ages and through all eternity when our capacities are increased and our time to study is unlimited. And our ability to appreciate has grown, and the purity of our moral perception is engaged, then do you see how our joy in God will be increased without end?

Friends, would you not invite other people into that joy?

To begin it even now, even here, even below, even today, as we inherit the fullness of our salvation by His glorious grace freely bestowed on all of His adopted sons and daughters.

In fact, that's what we're just about to celebrate again, as we remember who God has saved. And how God has saved us and why all of that is remembered by means of this supper. Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for your kindness to us in Christ. We thank you for making your holiness clear. And your love accomplishing its purposes. Be honored as we remember your love and justice at the cross in Christ's sacrifice. Even now, we ask in his name.

Amen.