Hoping and trusting in Christ (Quality: Good)

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[9:34] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS ADVANCE I'll direct your attention to the words you will find in the epistle of the Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 12 to 14 that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy sphere of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory

[10:42] Ephesians chapter 1 verses 12 to 14 how the grace of God was so wonderfully demonstrated in the church at Ephesus when we consider what we read in the Acts of the Apostles the condition of things at Ephesus the idolatry that abounded there and the force of it and then to realise that Paul could write as he did of these great and precious truths that accompany salvation to this church and according to the Acts of the Apostles we understand there were in the first place about a dozen about twelve people who made up this church at Ephesus and it was in the midst of much idolatry we read how they cried for hours on end great is Diana of the Ephesians but such was the wonderful power of God's grace in salvation and through the ministry of the gospel there were those who were graciously wrought upon in such a remarkable way so that

[12:12] Paul could write as he does in this epistle to them of great and precious truths no doubt as we read together this first chapter the thought may have arisen in your heart what great things Paul could speak of as he wrote to these Ephesians and with that confidence that they had been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ that they were amongst God's chosen ones those who had been chosen from before the foundation of the world and had been predestinated unto the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of his will and you'll notice how the apostle he comes to this point again and again to render unto God as the God of all grace that glory that was due unto his holy name and in this twelfth verse he says that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ and then in the 14th verse he concludes unto the praise of his glory and everything that pertains to the salvation of poor sinners redounds to the glory of God in Christ Jesus and dear friends it is a mercy if we have a a persuasion with regard to this truly if the Lord is being pleased to deal with us in some little measure in his grace it is to the glory of his name it brings us to consider those words in the psalm doesn't it and not unto us

[14:16] O Lord not unto us but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake any who glory in the flesh are out of the secret there is no room for glorying in the flesh how Paul had to learn this didn't he when the Lord was pleased to deal with him and call him by grace as Saul of Tarsus he gloried much in his religion of much zeal and profession as a religious man but he had to renounce all that and treat it as worthless and he tells us how he suffered the loss of all things and all his former religion he had to dispense with as it were and be brought down and then to be lifted yes and raised up as he was to be a faithful and such a useful minister of the gospel especially to the Gentiles and so Paul could indeed speak very feelingly with regard to this and he includes himself as he says that we should be to the praise of his glory we who have been blessed with these spiritual blessings in Christ

[15:49] Jesus we who have been chosen in him and that to the praise of the glory of his grace we who have been made accepted in the beloved you see these are great truths aren't they these are high things really and it may well be in some sense you have to say it is high I cannot attain to it but now as we come to these these verses there is much to consider Paul speaks about trusting in Christ and the marginal rendering of that I think is where there's a margin in the Bible I think you'll find it is hope it is this trust is described as hope we who first hoped in Christ and then he goes on in whom ye also trusted that is hoped after that ye heard the word of truth and friends it is a mercy to be the subject of that hope

[17:02] I know there are those in religious circles who almost despise those who dwell much upon hope and suggest that they should seek to reach much farther than a hope and profess much joy and assurance and yet as we read the word of God we see that the Lord was pleased to deal with his people in such a way that this hope was a very precious hope and you see here in this word before us trusting we have faith and hope linked together as it were blessed graces of the spirit and hope is not to be despised it is a precious grace yea Paul in one epistle he said we're saved by hope that is of course in the experience of the child of

[18:11] God by grace he's saved there's no contradiction but you see in the experience of a pilgrim journeying on saved by hope that is an experience he hopes on he hopes against hope sometimes hope is dim but God revives that hope and as it were hope conveys him along the pathway it is not to be despised far better it is to seek as we may be helped to search out the foundation of our hope I know there are false hopes there are false confidences and God in his great mercy delivers each one of us from such things but there's a well grounded hope hope the word of God speaks of it as a good hope through grace or it is not to be despised

[19:22] I believe where the Lord has been pleased to create that hope and raise up in the heart at times it will be something very precious I believe I can look back to the time when God first raised a hope in my heart and it was to me at that time although I was quite young in years in early teens but it was very sweet to my soul I could not easily describe these circumstances but it was very sweet to the soul yes who can tell a sweet hope raised up in the heart now I was not a total stranger to the things that accompany salvation but how we do have to prove don't we as we journey on that hope is tried yes you're caught through many phases of life's experience when hope is sorely tried but it remains it is raised up again well now may the lord help us then to just look at this word a little this afternoon as we may be helped in a simple way and I desire it to be so

[20:51] I desire to be helped to be helped to be helpful that we may be helped to speak the truth now we do need the Holy Spirit to unfold the heavenly truths don't we that one may be given words of truth and soberness in the beginning then Paul as it were he identifies himself with these Ephesians and he says that we should be to the praise of his glory yes he was able to view these things as they did redound to the praise of his glory Paul speaks of this glory doesn't he even glory in tribulation he says and in his infirmities the power of Christ might rest upon him the great point was this that there should be that glory to the

[21:55] Lord through the Lord Jesus Christ and to the praise of his glory not self praise no but to the praise of his glory and he puts it this way he says who first trusted in Christ he goes back you see to his beginnings in grace who first trusted in Christ Christ and while we have to realise that Paul as Saul of Tarsus was dealt with in a very definite unmistakable way God dealt with him he could look back to that day when he was struck down and arrested as it were by the truth and by the spirit of God it was then he lost all his former religion it was then he was laid low and what a helpless spectacle he was wasn't he he'd set out to

[23:05] Damascus as a great zealous religious man and in his zeal persecuting the church blind zeal indeed but how different when he was struck down when that light shined from heaven above the brightness of the midday sun and when he cried out who art thou Lord and then again what wilt thou have me to do the Lord Jesus Christ was dealing with him and what an almighty power oh the power of God's grace to be seen in the apostle Paul and you see he he he he he he he he he he who first trusted in Christ no the Lord was pleased in such a definite outstanding way to bring Paul off all his former religion and to trust in Christ the one who he who he who he persecuted yeah

[24:24] Jesus said to him in the vision didn't he I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest and while he persecuted the Christians he was persecuting Christ and there was that hatred yes and in such a terrible degree hailing men and women to prison and to death but now he speaks about trusting in Christ all the power of God's grace and here was his trust and it was his trust his hope to the end of the journey and as Paul was establishing the truth so he was establishing this truth that Jesus Christ was all in all I want to particularly consider the 13th verse a little while as we may be helped which reads thus in whom ye also trusted after that he heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation now let us try and take notice of these words

[25:34] Paul was persuaded that such was their standing such was their case their character they were those who had been wrought upon by the grace of God to trust in Christ to hope in him and he says in whom ye also trusted after that he heard the word of truth notice here how the Lord was pleased to use those means he had to bring them into a knowledge of the truth through the word of truth and the word of truth described here as the gospel of salvation and in a personal way the gospel of your salvation it may well be there is that that rise up in your heart sometimes in desire with respect to the gospel we may be under the sound of the gospel often salvation yes for many years but oh to know it like this the gospel of your salvation it comes down to a very personal matter doesn't it not the gospel in general sense but the gospel particularly known as the gospel of your salvation salvation and you see the Lord used those means to bring them to trust in

[27:16] Christ and to hope in him he says after that he heard the word of truth what a wonderful mercy dear friends to be under the word of truth yes to be under the gospel of salvation salvation but let us take note what Paul says here after that he heard the word of truth the time came then when they heard the word of truth not that they were just in the vicinity where the truth was proclaimed but they heard it and they heard it for themselves I feel we have here the character of those as described by the Lord Jesus Christ in the parable these good ground hearers good ground hearers they've been ground prepared here hearts prepared and the

[28:20] Lord so blessed the minister the word to them that it was made a blessing to them and the gospel of their salvation but after he heard the word of truth first we notice this the hearing of the word of truth and that is a great mercy to rightly hear something more than just being under the sound of the sound of the word the sound of the gospel but to hear to hear to purpose to profit to hear as an individual to hear with a soul concern yes to hear as one with an open heart you know Lydia she heard the word didn't she she heard the gospel preached by the apostle Paul

[29:20] Philippi and why was it she could hear then it was because God opened her heart heart the Lord opened that she attended that is she heard the things spoken of Paul that they reached her heart because God had opened her heart and when God opens the heart he opens the ear as it were and that is the way in which these Ephesians heard the word of truth and no friends what a mercy if we come within the compass of that sentence after that she heard the word of truth or most of us I suppose have been under the sound of the truth all our lives right from our youngest days but what was it in those unregenerate days it was nothing to us often have been an irksome task to have to sit through a service it seemed a long wearisome business as it were to have to sit in the chapel but how different when the

[30:44] Lord begins a work when there's a gracious concern wrought within because it is then you hear in such a different way or rather it is then you begin to hear and you come into the experience expressed by the psalmist I would hear or rather desire I would hear what God the Lord would speak and it is then that one is concerned to hear to profit if so be there might be a word yes a word of hope for your poor soul feeling your unworthiness your helplessness your guiltiness as a sinner now there are varying degrees of experience in that we have to realise that but I'm sure of this that where there's a real concern to hear the word of truth there's been some work there of conviction of sin in some measure not all to great depth of some but there will be that you see to be concerned to hear means to be in such a case as to need that which the word proclaims which the gospel proclaims to hear the needy sinner the word of after that he heard the word of truth and there's a great mercy to be considered here that in the order of God's providence you see the word of truth came to this area it came to

[32:35] Ephesus it might be well sometimes to meditate upon this and how through the order of God's providence that you come under the sound of the truth with some it has been in a very outstanding way in a thing to do with the area one lives in but with others well God's great mercy has so awarded it that many have been born to godly parents and brought up in a godly atmosphere and in that sense and through those circumstances the time came when you heard the word of truth but you see in each case it is this it is the Lord's work it is the

[33:36] Lord's work man has no ear for the word of truth by nature no and religious man really he has no ear for the word of truth although he may profess to but there are certain things with regard to the word of truth that cut right across those who have just an empty profession the word of truth is a piercing word it is like a sword yes it divides doesn't it it pierces divides asunder it goes deep but there is a hearing of that word you see there is the word of truth to be considered in a convincing way and the Holy Spirit uses the word of truth to convince poor sinners of their guilty condition and it is a great mercy to hear the word of truth in that way although it convinces you of sin it brings you in guilty before

[34:51] God's holy law and yet to fall under the truth of it to be able to say from the heart it is truth not to stumble at the word disobedient that Peter speaks about those who stumble at the word being disobedient and many have stumbled at the word of truth that as it were describes man in his fallen condition they will not accept the truth that man is a fallen sinner but they hug some idea that man is not totally fallen there is still something in man which is capable of receiving God's favour and capable of receiving God's truth if he will exercise it but the word of truth as the word of truth so plainly declares to us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of

[35:54] God and if the witness of that is within your heart then you'll hear the word of truth and receive it although it is a solemn word but then there is the other aspect of it after she heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation oh the gospel of salvation is a wondrous gospel to poor sinners poor sinners convinced of their sin poor sinners who have to learn they've got no help or hope in themselves because the gospel comes right down to these poor guilty helpless sinners and how good it is when the word is heard like that yes and it is then it is the gospel of salvation and it will come to pass in due season that you'll realise it is the gospel of your salvation and indeed when you think of it are right you have to realise this as we read in the

[37:09] Acts of the Apostles neither is there salvation in any other take the gospel away and where are you nothing nothing the gospel of Jesus Christ if that was taken away it takes the Lord Jesus Christ away as it were I know that's an impossibility but where would you be without the gospel oh one has said the gospel bears my spirit's heart and the word of truth the gospel of your salvation is a precious gospel it is a glorious gospel it is a gospel that comes right down to the need of the poor sin in his lowest condition it speaks of the mercy of God yes flowing so freely through the

[38:09] Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work or the gospel of Jesus Christ Paul learned the preciousness of it didn't he he was helped to preach it in an outstanding way as God gave him ability yes the gospel of your salvation and you see it brings a poor sinner here doesn't it to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and to hope in him for Paul says here in this verse in whom ye also trusted ye also can we come in here where is our hope where is our trust what is our confidence what a mercy dear friends if I look away from everything else yes all that is outward there will be outward things of course there is the outward evidence of an inward working of God's grace but not to look at outward things merely there may be some

[39:29] I fear there are those who look to their attendance upon the means of grace to be found in a chapel and that is their religion especially something must be known and felt something must be wrought within and what a mercy when a poor sinner is delivered from the external things merely but that which is real that which is wrought within for there to be what Job could speak of when he said the root of the matter is found in me and you know if we have heard the word of truth the gospel of salvation there's a root of the matter yes there's a as it were the seed sown which takes root downward and it is rooted where Paul says rooted in

[40:31] Christ and so it brings us to this word here in whom you also trust in yes here is the trust here is the hope here is the confidence alone in him and in no other yes not to trust in self and it means not to trust in frames and feelings but to trust in Christ and really one of the effects of the gospel is to bring poor sinners to consider him he was the substance of the gospel the Lord Jesus Christ in whom ye also trust in for it is a mercy to be brought to that point to be delivered from all other trusts and in whom you also hoped and to be delivered and brought off all other hopes all false confidences and to seek to be grounded in the truth as the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that she believed you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise you see there's a hearing and believing these are linked together in the word of

[42:03] God yea we have a text that declares this that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and what a mercy where there's a living faith in gracious exercise in the heart and there will be as it were the hearing of faith it is by faith that poor sinners are taught to believe and it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so we see here in this text faith and hope precious graces of the spirit wrought within by the spirit of God yes a good hope through grace faith living faith God given faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we may have to confess sometimes our faith is very feeble but a mercy if it is it is good it is that faith which is the faith of

[43:14] God's elect that precious gift that the Lord is pleased to bestow and to implant in the hearts of poor sinners faith to believe we see faith next to side don't we in the gospels when the Lord Jesus Christ went about doing good there were those who were blessed with faith in him and what a blessing it proved to be to them didn't it that they believed although we see in certain instances where that was sorely tried but faith is indestructible and it was brought into gracious exercise and there was a believing yes and you see faith to believe is something deeper than just as it were asserting the truth in a formal way but to fail it yes have something wrought within whereby you are assured of the truth of these things and the truth as in

[44:34] Jesus Christ oh dear friends what a mercy to have right views of the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus put that question in what thank you of Christ and we do well to ask ourselves the question as to what we think of Christ who is he what is he to us is he indeed our only hope of salvation and what a mercy when there's in some measure by the spirit of God the things of Jesus revealed to a poor sinner through the gospel and as it were faith lays hold upon this yes so it was with these Ephesians in whom also after she believed the time was when they didn't believe the time was when they were totally ignorant of the word of truth and the gospel of salvation but now the time had come and the order of

[45:38] God's providence and his dealings and the purposes of his grace toward these dear saints in Ephesus that they should come to a knowledge of the truth in whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise here the apostle speaks about sealing yes and how good it is when there is some sweet token yes and in those ways whereby you set to your seal that God is true and as the word says here sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise seals were used very much in the Bible days they were quite important these seals and with the stamp on the seal there in the signature it was sealed now in a spiritual sense what a sweet thing to consider yes sealed with that

[46:48] Holy Spirit of promise the gracious work of the Holy Spirit and as a spirit of promise and yes sealed upon the heart and Paul puts it like this he said which is the earnest of our inheritance yes you see such a sealed yet of the day of redemption the earnest of our inheritance there is an inheritance that have in store for these sinners called by God's grace it is an inheritance that Peter describes as incorruptible and undefiled and that faded not away you see everything here fades away doesn't it but that inheritance in heaven is something that faded not away and it is reserved in heaven says the apostle

[47:52] Peter yes reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith ready to be revealed in the last time you are sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession here the apostle Paul anticipates the consummation of all these things in the gathering together of the whole election of grace yes until the redemption of the purchased possession you see the Lord Jesus Christ purchased the church unto himself he did this as he paid that tremendous price for redemption of all his dear people as a purchased possession it belongs to him and every true believer these poor sinners are taught to trust in him belong to him they are part of that purchased possession and the time comes when there will be the redemption of the purchased possession the consummation of all this in the purposes of

[49:16] God to bring all his dear people safely to that promised inheritance and it gathers in the complete issue as it were even gathering in as it were the glorious resurrection day yes when there will be the resurrection of the just yes until the redemption of the purchased possession you see even the dust that is laid in the body that is laid in the grave consigned to the dust is precious in the sight of God and at that last great day the dust will be raised yes bodies will be raised incorruptible and what a glorious morning that will be to those who have been taught by his grace to trust in him and it will redound indeed to the praise of his glory that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in

[50:27] Christ in whom he also trusted after that he heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that he believed he were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory amen amen amen amen amen Feast by his cross as Jesus made The church is everlasting

[51:27] For heaven unseen as victory was And with a shout to glory God In number 925 Amen He heard he'd have Searching it away CHOIR SINGS

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[55:41] The End The End The End The End The End The End The End May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit rest upon us and abide with us and with the people of God everywhere, now and forever.

[56:49] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[57:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[57:32] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.