Ephesians (Stand Alone)
Tom Shrader focuses on Ephesians 1:13-14 within the long continuous sentence of verses 3-14, arguing that the entire passage is bookended by two truths: believers possess every spiritual blessing in Christ, and that possession is eternally secure. The Holy Spirit given as a pledge or down payment guarantees the full inheritance, meaning salvation is entirely God-initiated, God-sustained, and irrevocable. Drawing on John Piper, Max Lucado, and his own testimony, Shrader contrasts this grace-alone salvation with every religious system that places the burden of security on human effort or merit.
“Salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, God-originated. The gift is not from man to God, but God to man.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Standalone Teachings
Recorded: 2018 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 41 min
Themes: salvation, security, grace, holy spirit, inheritance, assurance, blessing, eternal life, doubting salvation, struggling with assurance, new believer, recovering from legalism, questioning faith, spiritually anxious, seeker, questioning God's faithfulness
Scripture: Ephesians 1:3-14, Ephesians 1:13-14, Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 2:4, Ephesians 4:1, Colossians 2:10, 2 Corinthians 4, 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, John 6:44, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 13:5
Theological Themes: eternal security, perseverance of the saints, pneumatology, holy spirit as seal, soteriology, grace alone, divine election, redemption
Full Transcript
Introduction: The Book of Ephesians
Good morning. It is great to see you. I have a specific assignment today: Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14. What I typically do when coming into a book is go back and revisit some of the introduction. I came across a quote from Dr. Kent Hughes, and I thought I would put it up there and just let your eyes drift across it. What he is saying is that the book of Ephesians is pretty special, pretty significant. All of scripture is obviously significant, but in some ways this book, and probably the book of Romans, represent the crown of Paul's writing.
I was doing an interview in the spring with a young man who is planting a church. He was asking the same questions they always ask — what mistakes did you make, what would you do differently — but this man had an interesting question. He said he would like to get their doctrine and their culture in the water, and he thought that was driven from the pulpit, so he asked what I would teach. I had not given that any thought, and what came out was this: I would teach Genesis chapter 3, because that is the fall, and it gives an opportunity to touch on creation. Then I would teach a gospel — probably Mark, for the sake of time, because it is quicker and I can hit most of the material. Then I would teach the book of Ephesians, and then the book of Ecclesiastes. I just think that gives you a beautiful picture of what scripture has to say, what God has to say about man.
The Structure of Ephesians
This is a significant work that divides easily into two sections. Chapters one through three are very doctrinal in nature. Then in chapter 4, verse 1, Paul says, "Therefore I, a prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called." He lays out these incredible truths and then says, because those things are true, he wants us to live a transformed life. He talks about the church and the body, about marriage, about children, and about spiritual warfare. Wherever there is doctrine, it is never just raced through to reach a cold conclusion — it always makes a practical application to our lives. Our lives have to be changed.
We have been looking at the first twelve verses of the book of Ephesians. Ray Stedman writes that verse 3 of chapter 1 is in many ways the theme of the letter: "In Christ." That is the key. Here is what Paul wrote in chapter 1, verse 3: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ." He has already said that these people are geographically in Ephesus but spiritually in Christ. We would say the same about ourselves — we are geographically in Gilbert, but spiritually in Christ. Paul extends to them a standard greeting: grace and peace to you, and that grace and peace are from God our Father and from the Lord. Paul will always couple those terms together, and he will never change the order. Grace and peace — unmerited favor, the work that God has done in your life — and the result of that is peace with God and the peace of God.
Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ
He says in verse 3 that he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Even if you do not know exactly what that means, it certainly sounds special. John MacArthur writes that Ephesians has been given such titles as "the believer's bank," "the Christian's checkbook," and "the treasure house of the Bible." This beautiful letter tells Christians of their great riches, inheritance, and fullness in Jesus Christ — it tells them what they possess. What Paul is saying in verse 3 is that you already have all of these spiritual blessings. Colossians chapter 2, verse 10 tells us we are complete in Him. These are things we have now.
Just looking from verse 3 down to verse 11, we see a few of them listed. We are blessed in Christ. He chose us. We will be holy and blameless. We are predestined. We have redemption. We have wisdom and insight. The mystery of His will has been made known to us. We have obtained an inheritance. The book of Ecclesiastes allows us to see and understand man in the world as he truly is, and these blessings stand in contrast to that picture.
One Continuous Sentence: Past, Present, and Future
The assignment I have is verses 13 and 14. Tim has been hammering home that verses 3 through 14 are one continuous sentence — an ongoing, running sentence. It is as though Paul starts this sentence and he cannot stop. Think of a five-year-old who comes home from a party. You ask what they did, and they just want to talk, jumping from one thing to the next, because their mind is all over it. That is how Paul writes here. John MacArthur notes that in the Greek, verses 3 through 14 comprise one sentence encompassing the past, present, and future of God's eternal purpose for the church.
In Paul's outline of God's master plan for salvation, verses 3 through 6a show us the past — the election. He chose you before the foundations of the earth. In verses 6b through 11, we are shown the present — He is redeeming you and restoring you. In verses 12 through 14, we are shown the future aspects, the inheritance, within God's master plan. Salvation belongs to every believer who has trusted or ever will trust in God and be saved. It is sometimes expressed this way: history is simply the outpouring of His story.
The Great Run-On Sentence
Which has already been planned and pre-written in eternity. Paul begins in verse 3 and it is as though he just takes off, then catches his breath and comes back down and begins to unpack what he has been saying.
So we look at it in its simplest form here. In chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your trespasses and sin, in which you formerly walked." That is all past tense. If you are a Christian, if you just took communion and declare yourself a follower of Christ, that is what you were.
"You walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of air, of the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of the flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath." That is who you are — not just you, every person.
The Perfect Baby
Every night I follow about the same routine once I get in bed. I turn on the electric blanket and then put a blanket over it about an hour before I go to bed, so I am like a Pop-Tart sliding right in there — the happiest little guy in the world. Then I get my phone, check what is coming tomorrow, may pray about a thing or two, and then I always check Facebook.
I have never posted anything on Facebook — there were some things that popped up with my name, somebody hacked it or I pushed a button, I am not sure. But I have never posted. I am a Facebook voyeur. I love to read what people are doing.
Well, there was one the other day — a picture of a baby, all tucked in, two or three days old, and the grandmother was posting it. And if you are here today, ma'am, this is not meant to offend you, though it could. The word used was that the baby is perfect. Really? It looked like something of a cross between Churchill and Gandhi, not very attractive, and I presume it does not know anything. Perfect? Seriously? You have stepped over the line at that point.
By nature, we are children of wrath. We are lost. We all need to be found. We need to be redeemed. That is the whole point Paul is making.
A Mind Racing with Grace
This sentence — verses 3 through 14 — is long and complicated, not because it is especially well-reasoned and logical, but because Paul is thinking of the gifts he has been given. Speaking humanly, his mind is racing. I was lost, now I am found. I have been chosen and delivered. And so that pen just gets carried away.
My assignment is verses 13 and 14. I read them over and over again, and I cannot get out of my head the reality that this is one continuous sentence. And all of a sudden, I had this incredible insight — I saw something.
Midweek, I ran into somebody, and they said they had heard my church was teaching at Gilbert on Sunday. I said that was true. They asked if I had a point, and I said I did. I shared it, and they said "oh" and walked away. I thought, well, maybe this is not the earth-shattering point I thought I saw.
But here is what happened. I read verses 3 through 14 over and over again, in all different translations. I want to use the New American Standard and The Message to show you what I saw, and hopefully it is a wow for you too.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Verse 3: "Blessed be God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ." Then he goes through all that material we have already talked about — Tim has talked about it, broken it apart, put it back together.
Then verse 13, picking up the same idea from verse 3: "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who has given us a pledge of our inheritance, with a view of the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory."
Now The Message is a paraphrase, but it helps us get the point. "How blessed is God? What a blessing He is. He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him." And then verse 13: "It's in Christ that you once heard the truth and believed this message of salvation — found yourself home free, signed, sealed, delivered by the Holy Spirit. The signet of God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us."
Here is what I saw all of a sudden. You have every spiritual blessing, and you cannot and will not ever lose it. It is a done deal.
God Is the Actor, You Are the Bit Player
The simple theme of this whole passage is that God is at work. It is so easy to read this and say, "I have every spiritual blessing — what are those blessings I have?" and all of a sudden elevate yourself to best supporting actor, or best lead actor in the drama.
I am one of those annoying people who, when a movie is over, likes to sit and watch the credits. In the old Turner Movie Classics, you often get the cast listed at the front — and you go through and see Walter Brennan when he was fifteen, all the bit players. This is not meant to hurt your feelings in any way, but this whole thing is about God. You are just a bit player. This is not about how terrific you are. He chose you in spite of you. He brought you into His family.
Ray Steadman writes that before the world was made, we were in the mind and heart of God, and He called us and destined us to be His children. We would never come to Him apart from that. John chapter 6, verse 44: "No man can come to the Father except my Father draws him."
But all these blessings, this relationship, this restoration that takes place between God and
The Gospel: A Work Performed by God
The amazing grace you sang about is entirely a work performed by God. He did it. He continues it. He continues to restore you. Paul uses the phrase in 2 Corinthians 4, "being renewed day by day." No one can come on their own — that phrase speaks to ability. On my own, I don't have the power to come, but God intervened. God disrupts your rebellion against Him and turns you from a sinner into a saint and changes your destination from hell to heaven.
It was so interesting to listen to people talk about Billy Graham's passing and how Billy Graham is in the presence of his Savior. I was part of — and it was a privilege to be part of — a group here for a memorial service on Friday, and to say Laura's in heaven. Why? Because God guaranteed it. God did the work. That was my aha moment: you got all this and you can never lose it.
The Word and the Spirit
Back to Ephesians 1:13 — "in him, after you've listened to the word of truth, the gospel, and you believed it." When Paul writes this, notice two things which are emphasized here, and always found together in Scripture: the Word of God and the Spirit of God. The Word of God becomes this extraordinary tool when the Spirit of God applies it to the heart and mind of a man or woman, boy or girl. Both of these are essential — the Word and the Spirit. There is no salvation without both of them.
You listen. Why do you listen? You couldn't until they opened your ears, and then all of a sudden the gospel made sense. I'll share a story about that. A couple invited Susan and me to their house for dinner, and his wife called and asked what I would like. I said meatloaf, and she made meatloaf, mashed potatoes with the skin still on, salad, and corn. He was talking about how I was a sinner. I figured, well, anybody who knows me knows that, so I just asked him to pass the corn.
He was launching into it, and apparently I was not listening — I was eating. He got up and offered dessert, brownies and ice cream, and Susan said we were leaving. We got in the car and she explained what he had been saying, and I suppose I was appropriately offended at that point. But there was the Word of God without the power of the Spirit of God.
Then one day in my life, the Spirit of God applied the Word of God, and I heard — here's the phrase — "the gospel of your salvation." You hear this good news, and everything changes. You are redeemed. You are sealed. It is a done deal.
The Gospel Defined
Let me take you through this. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is laying out the gospel. He said, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand." He is saying you were saved by it — that word "saved" means rescued or delivered. From what? From an empty life, from a godless life, from a life of endless pursuit of love and joy and peace apart from God, which is impossible. You are rescued from it.
He breaks it down in verse 3: "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." This was God's plan from the very beginning. Jesus didn't just die — He died for our sin. Then He was buried, and then He was raised again. So often when we read this section, I think we stop there and miss something important, because at that point all we have is Christ who died and was buried and an empty tomb. An empty tomb doesn't prove anything to us on its own.
Then Paul gets into it in verse 5: "and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now." Go ask them, Paul says. And then, "last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also." He appeared to me. That is the gospel message.
Hearing and Believing
Back to the verse — you heard it, and you believed it. It is not just enough to hear it. It is not even enough to say, "Yeah, I get that." You have to believe it, to place your faith and trust in Christ. And if you believe it, it will change your life. One author writes this: "We must believe it, and to believe it, we must accept it as truth, and act accordingly." You have never truly believed something unless it is changing your experience. Your life begins to be transformed. You think differently. You act differently.
The Seal of the Holy Spirit
He began all that, and you were sealed. It is a word we may not be that familiar with, but it carries four ideas with it. It communicates security, authenticity, ownership, and authority. They would use a signet ring, press it into hot wax, and that was the mark. I am His. I am a child of the King, and I will be forever. Because He began that good work — I did not. He initiated it, and He sustains it.
This Holy Spirit was given as a pledge. The Old Testament idea is that of a down payment. In our context that illustration loses a little, because anyone who has been involved in a real estate deal knows there is earnest money in escrow, and sometimes the deal does not close. But what we are saying in essence is this: the Holy Spirit is the first payment that guarantees all the other payments — that what happened to you will continue. This is the security of the believer.
Why Will You Wake Up a Christian?
Last night, going through some articles, things I had read and clipped, I found a really interesting twist on this idea. It is three paragraphs written by John Piper, and the title is "Why Will You Wake Up a Christian?" He writes this: if you go to bed tonight as a believer in Christ, why do you think you will wake up a Christian tomorrow? The fact that you have been a Christian for a long time, your own willpower, you feel confident that you are strong enough to keep loving God? If these reasons are enough to stem your fears, you probably have not considered your circumstances closely enough.
We have a powerful enemy whose entire campaign is to destroy our faith. You still have sin that lives in you and seeks to eat away your hope. You live in a body that goes bad, and every night's sleep brings you closer to a day when your mind might lose its traction, and with it your rock-solid hold of God and the gospel.
Piper then comes back to close the thought. Christians should have steel-strong confidence they will remain Christians until the day they die, but it is precisely not because of your strength, not because of your willpower, not because of your determination. Rather, it is because God Himself has sealed us with His Spirit. The only way a Christian can wake up without faith is if God withdraws the down payment, which He will never do.
The Promise That Cannot Fail
It is God's promise in Hebrews 13:5: "I'll never desert you, I'll never forsake you." It cannot be any more clear to me than Philippians 1:6, where Paul says, "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began the good work — that is, pre-chose, predestined, adopted, brought you into this relationship — will continue it."
Now, we love promises, but a promise is only as good as the one who makes it. If I buy a set of Ginsu knives with a lifetime warranty and three weeks later Joe Ginsu is out of business, the warranty is no good. If somebody says to you — and you have all experienced it — "I promise I will be there, I promise I will do it," but the person either maliciously or simply forgets, they did not have the power to pull it off.
This long, complicated sentence in Ephesians is bookended with the idea that I have every spiritual blessing, and I will never lose Him. I cannot forfeit Him, I cannot give Him away. He began the relationship, so He is the one who will continue it.
Salvation Is God's Work, Not Ours
Let me close with one of my favorite passages from Max Lucado. He writes this — and note that salvation is exactly what Paul is talking about in verses 13 and 14, where we heard the message of truth, we believed the message of truth, and we have the gospel of salvation. Salvation is God-given, God-driven, God-empowered, God-originated. The gift is not from man to God, but from God to man.
Grace is created by God and given to man. On the basis of that point alone, Christianity is set apart from every other religion in the world. Every other approach to God is a bartering system: if I do this, God will do that. You are either saved by works — what you do — emotion — what you experience — or knowledge — what you know. That is religion.
Here is the distinction between biblical Christianity and everything else: everything else has you doing something. I was born and raised Catholic — Catholic grade school, high school, college. This would be a busy time of year for us: Lent. We would go to Mass every morning at 6:45. My dad would wake me up, take us to Mass, we would come back and get a little breakfast, and we had a special section during school — and we did all of this without candy. It was religion. I was going to work at it. And when we hit Easter, we had a candy sugar high you could not imagine — eggs, chocolate eggs, those yellow marshmallow birds, all of these different things.
But I honestly believed that I had to be good. Christ died — I understood that, He did His part — but I was a limited partner. I needed to do mine. I needed to be good enough. I somehow thought that God had this giant system keeping track of everybody. He stacked up your good on a scale with your bad, and when you died, if there was more good than bad, you went to heaven; more bad than good, you went to hell.
By my sophomore year of college, I had that bad stack up there so high that I did not think we were ever going to catch up. So I figured, well, let us see how high we can get this bad stack, because I had no chance. And that is exactly right — I had no chance. But God. I was a child of wrath. What Paul writes in Ephesians 2:4: "But God, being rich in His mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive." That is biblical Christianity. That is salvation.
Sealed Forever
As astounding as that is, there is the verse 14 part: it is forever. It is done. It is guaranteed. You are not going to out-sin His grace. You are not going to outlast His mercy. He does not tell you that so you will say, "If it is done, I can do whatever I want — sin away." No. He tells you that to overwhelm you with God's love for you.
Closing out Lucado's thought: by contrast, Christianity has no — and this is a great word — whiff of negotiation. Man is not the negotiator. Indeed, man has no grounds from which to negotiate. This whole section that we have been looking at since we started our study in the book of Ephesians is about all the blessings that God has poured on you, His children. Forever. Unbreakable.
An Invitation
It occurs to me that there could be people here who did not participate in communion, who would not say that this describes them. I want you to hear this message of hope and love today. You might be here by accident — maybe a friend said, "We are going to the movies, let us stop at church first." And yet this message is for you.
A Life Restored
You may not know why you are here, but what you just heard is the truth. In your life, you have been searching for something. You have been searching to see the world put back together again. It is not, but Jesus will put you together again and restore the relationship that you have with Him.
In this, you are not on probation. This is not Jesus one day saying, "If I had known that about you, I would have never chosen you." No, He knows everything you have ever done, everything you have ever said, everything you will ever do. And in spite of that, He says, "You are My child, and I love you — forever and ever." That is amazing.
Closing Prayer
Father, this is about You — Your grace, Your mercy, Your love. God, thank You that You saved us, and thank You that You sealed us, that You guaranteed the deal, that You closed it, that we are Yours forever. Father, let us live a life that is grateful and thankful for what You have done. Let us spend our lives not trying to repay You, but to glorify You. God, use us, let us glorify You. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.