The Holy Spirit always saves Us - Timothy Keller Sermons

tonight's scripture is from Ephesians 1: 3-10 praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the Heavenly Realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love he predestined us for adoption to sunship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious Grace which he has freely given us in the one he loves in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness

of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment to bring Unity to all things in heaven and on Earth under Christ the word of the Lord so these weeks in the past also the weeks coming forward going forward we've been looking at the basic beliefs of the Christian faith and we've been using the uh the

outline of the Apostles Creed uh the oldest summary of IAL Doctrine uh to do it now when you get to our subject our topic for uh today salvation you know it says uh we I believe in the Forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body the life Everlasting that's salvation where do you go in the Bible to talk about salvation where where do you go it seems like the Bible's all about salvation and so what I've decided to do is take this text which by the way in the original Greek was one sentence this is

one long sentence when Paul got rolling he got rolling and it's actually I think the the the single greatest most panoramic view of all that Christian salvation entails in one place it's kind of a nosebleed sort of text uh you know if you if you fly in to New York and see it from the you know uh the breathtaking view especially at night of New York when you're flying in or if you if you're in a city near a mountain and you go to the top of the mountain and look down on the city a

panoramic view of the city is not necessarily uh well certainly it's not the only way to get to know the city and and frankly I'd say it's not the best way to get to know a city but the arrow view is an Irreplaceable way to see a city it's a perspective you get no other way and therefore what I'm going to do here is is do a survey of all that the Bible says about salvation in Jesus Christ which is right here in this text it doesn't go into any detail at all and therefore I

won't go into much detail uh will simply in a sense give you the panoramic view in some ways it can even be a little briefer than usual but you say well it doesn't say the word salvation anywhere what what makes you say this about salvation well it says praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the Heavenly Realms with every spiritual blessing every spiritual blessing see and then Paul goes on to talk about every spiritual blessing that's salvation Salvation is is multi-dimensional Christian salvation there all sorts

of blessings in there and one of the most astounding things is the very very first sentences I just read it it probably went by pretty quickly it says he has blessed us who's us Christians he has blessed us that's past tense every spiritual blessing you've already got when you become a Christian wa what about resurrection of the body and life Everlasting it's the salvation of Christ is so profound and so powerful that when you receive it you have at least in seed form in nent form absolutely everything is in there uh so let's take a

look at every spiritual blessing let's take a look at this powerful salvation and the way to do it like I said is to survey we're going to learn here how we get every spiritual blessing what those spiritual blessings are why we can have those spiritual blessings and how to know whether you have them see how we get them what they are why we can get them and how to know if you have them first uh how do we get them how do these all how does every spiritual blessing come and the answer is said so

often in this text some people would say it's the main theme of this passage it comes in him look at how often it's said in verse three it says we get every spiritual blessing in Christ then in verse four he chose us in him then down in verse 6 it's in verse 7 uh it says in him we have redemption in him we have Redemption verse six by the way it says uh the praise of his grace which he has given to us in the one so we get Grace in him we get redemption in

him we get every spiritual blessing in him if you have Jesus you have every spiritual blessing if you don't have Jesus you don't have anything it comes in him in other words to become a Christian is to be United to Jesus Christ you're United to him and all the blessings come with him all of them once you have him you have everything now the the best example of this when people say well what in the world is a uh what does it mean to be United with Christ well the theologians say we're United legally and

vitally and the best illustration we've got of this is marriage first of all legally uh now by the way I want you to know not only am I don't have anybody in mind here but I don't have anybody in this this room in mind either but okay here's the here's how the illustration goes here's two people they're not married but they're thinking about it and one of them is poor one of them's had a pretty messed up life one of them has nothing and the other one has done everything right every every made every right

move has worked really really incredibly hard and is Rich so you get one person who's rich and one person who's poor and if they get married and this has been the case for for centuries and centuries across all the various cultures if they get married a rich person marries a poor person they share the wealth the poor person may not have deserved any of it the rich person has worked hard to earn it all but when they get married they share that wealth so the poor spouse receives with the the rich spouse The Riches of

the spouse and the Bible simply says this everything that Jesus Christ has when you're United with him by faith when you believe in him when you give yourself to him when you are united with him by faith everything he has comes to you you're United with him legally now you know you can break this down a little bit to be United with him legally uh uh Romans 6 says we're United with him in his death and in his resurrection what does that mean to be United with him in his death and in his resurrection well

on the one hand why did he die on the cross he died on the cross for sin he died to pay the penalty for sin you know what this means this means well here would say this way if in your town wherever it is or in New York or what B I don't know what the rules are but if there's a stop sign law you got to stop at the stop sign and you go through the stop sign and now you're guilty you got to pay the the fine and if the fine whatever that fine

is when you pay the fine the law has no more claim over you none right to be United with Jesus Christ and his death means that you are as free from guilt and condemnation as if you died for the sin if You' done something wrong if you've done something really wrong but you're United with Christ you are as free from condemnation as if you died for that it's all been paid and then it says we're with him in his resurrection ah well what is his resurrection how can we be United with him in his resurrection

we're still moral here well see what that means is Jesus resurrection was his reward it was reward for his service it was reward for his for all that he did it was his Vindication it was his Triumph and what this means is that all the things that Jesus Christ deserves for everything that he's done all his honors when you're United with him they're yours God treats you as if you deserve all the things that he has achieved you know my there there's that my one of my favorite illustrations of this is that it was a

it was an episode in a in a a cop show some years ago I I watched it was just a TV episode but it was about a it was fiction by the way this is a fiction uh but there was an old 80-year-old man kind of broken down and he was wanted for a crime he was wanted and he was being uh hunted by uh Navy military police because it had to do with he' been in the Navy he's being hunted by Navy police you know MPS and they find him well it turns out though

this 80-year-old man had been World War II and in World War II he had done something very heroic and he'd been given the Congressional Medal of Honor and when those those snarling MPS go at go for him somebody next to him pulls aside his tie and there underneath it is the Congressional Medal of Honor and when those MPS see that congression of Honor in spite of the fact this guy's guilty in spite of the fact that they're after him when they see that they snap to attention and salute they're saluting the metal they're saluting what

it what it refers to what what what stands for when you become a Christian no matter who you are or what you are in yourself no matter what your record is all of Jesus awards are pinned to your chest and the whole world salutes and the father loves you and accepts you and honors you and see that's just that's just what it means to be United with him legally what does it mean to be United with him vitally what that means of course is the very spirit of God comes into your life the very Spirit

of the father and the son the father and the son come actually next week if you're here there'll be a sermon on John chapter 14 where it talks about how the the father and the son come and reside in you through the presence of the Holy Spirit second Peter verse chapter 1 veres 3 and 4 have one of the most amazing statements in the entire Bible it says that we have everything we need for life and godliness because we've been made partakers of the divine nature partakers of the divine nature it means that when you

become a Christian you're United with Christ you're United to him not just legally but but his Spirit comes into you and that means the very as it were the genetic material spiritually speaking if you can of God comes into you and all the rest of your life just like you're physical life is basically just the outworking of the physical DNA the biological DNA that's put into you at the beginning so the rest of your spiritual life is the outworking of this new genetic material has been put into you the very lifeblood of God as it

were the divine nature to say to say that when you become a Christian you're United to not only him legally but United to him vitally and you have his Spirit you have divine nature in you that's the most I don't know convicting and comforting possible statement it's the most convicting because you got no excuse you've got everything you need to live like you should but here's what how comforting it is God's very spirit in you his nature in you there is no wound in you that can't be healed there is no Brokenness that can't be

repaired and there's not a single binding habit from which you cannot be liberated in other words when you're United with Christ all spiritual blessings are yours either in embryonic nent form or in full-blown form it's all yours and this is the reason why uh Dr David Martin L Jones you know one of my heroes when it comes to being a preacher and a pastor he had a diagnostic question he would if he was meeting somebody one-on-one pastorally he would ask them a diagnostic question very simple you'd say are you a Christian okay but he found

the answers were extremely enlightening because one of the answers he usually got was well I'm trying or I hope so I'm trying and when he heard that he would say well I'm not sure you understand what a Christian is because you see you either have every spiritual blessing because you're United to Christ or you don't have any spiritual blessing because you're not and when someone says I'm trying to be a Christian what they seem to think what they seem to mean is that spiritual blessings come over your life as you work hard to acrew them

but no not if you understand you're saved by grace you're saved by Christ you're not saved by what you do you don't you don't work hard and try to be a Christian and some of those blessings come if you earn them no no they all come by faith because you're saved by grace now you may not look it takes there can be a process by which you cross that line and you may not even be sure when you cross that line uh C ever coup who was the Attorney General of the United States for a

while Serge General excuse me thought I say attorney a Surgeon General of the United States he was uh he was a great surgeon at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and he tells how he became a Christian his wife used to drag him to the evening services at 10th Presbyterian Church in downtown Philadelphia to listen to Donald greay vinous preach and he remembers that over about an 18mon period when he first went there he thought 90% of what this guy said was stupid and about halfway through the 18 months he decided that about half of what the

guy said was stupid and about 18 months into his uh his regular attendance he realized he believed it he believed it but he wasn't quite sure where he crossed that line so and yet but there's a line see just because it's not dramatic just because you're not sure where you cross the line you either have the you're either United to Christ or you're not you either have given your life to him or you haven't and therefore you either have all the spiritual blessings or you don't and let me just tell you this oh how can

Paul be so confident considering his past it's because of this you say what do you mean his past he killed people he was a murderer he he probably spent the rest of his life sitting in Christian assemblies with people whose relatives maybe family members certainly friends he had put to death when he was a fire breathing fanatical church and Christianity hater how do you live with yourself I mean 2002 a movie called Heaven starring Kate Blanchet not a very well-known movie but like most things she does great she's she's a great actress but the point

is it's all she's she plays a school teacher in a in a poor kind of uh Urban neighborhood and she sees this drug dealer um uh you know just hurting her children her kids and she decides to do a very radical thing a very a very breathtaking thing she decides she's going to kill that guy by putting but the drug dealer by by putting a a creating a bomb and putting it into his office and killing him but it goes wrong it goes off in the wrong place and a lot of innocent people are killed

and the whole story is basically about her psychological and spiritual collapse after that her absolute shame her guilt her her regret and and she cannot get over it and it just it literally eats her up and destroys her why isn't Paul like that I'll tell you why cuz Paul says in myself I'm nothing in him I'm everything in myself I'm a sinner in him I'm righteous in myself I'm ugly in him I'm beautiful in him in him so that's how they come and in some ways it's the most important thing I want to get across

but here are the other things we learn what are some of those blessings well here we go Panorama Ara but he mentions three of them let's just talk about what those three of them are there's certainly more every spiritual blessing there are many aspects to salvation but here's three one of them is up here in verse 5 adoption one of them is down in verse 7 Redemption and one of them is at the very end verse 10 consummation let me explain first of all number five adoption what does that mean well in ancient times when

Paul was writing people generally didn't adopt little children to raise them the way we do today when you hear adoption you're thinking of something probably a little different than than what Paul was talking about when he used the term adoption uh generally people adopted children because not because they wanted to raise children but because they wanted an heir see a man who was a lord of an estate did not have an heir and his estate he was no one to it to inherit it so he would adopt someone maybe a child but but more often

an adult actually and that person would be uh now the heir what's so radical about what Paul is saying he's looking at Christians and he's saying we us who's that men and women see in back in those days women were never adopted they weren't chosen to be heirs only men were chosen to be heirs and yet here's what God here's what Paul is saying in Christ in Christ you see see in Christ men and women slave and free Jew and Gentile are all equal Heirs of every spiritual blessing and of course to be adopted means

now the person who adopts you is no longer your boss but your father which is access intimacy and it's a security you don't get fired by your father so there's security and there's access and there's inheritance and all that yeah and and also a name identity when you're adopted you get a new name that's who you are you might thought you were this you're that doesn't matter this is your name now you might have had a dishonorable name now you have an honorable name so that's adoption and then next Redemption now what do you think

Redemption means obvious you see we're we're flying here we're flying uh I'll just tell you what the what the root the root meaning of the word redemption in the Bible what it means uh but I can give it to you through an illustration that some years ago uh when this Westside congregation was meeting in the morning at uh ethical culture Society down in 65th you know in Central Park West um good number of years ago I drove my car over to the West Side parked it nearby and uh uh and preached the sermon in the

morning service and I came out after preaching the sermon and my car had been towed and you want to say I was preaching a sermon is nothing sacred anymore so anyway but but I knew I'm a New Yorker I've lived here a long time I know where to go to get the car after been tow you go up to that place on the west the West Side Highway so I went there but that day I was particularly struck because when I went there I walked in the door to sit there you know the place where

you have to get your car out and I did hadn't seen it before maybe it was new but the name of the place was the Redemption Center and that when and when and when I paid my three or 400 ridiculous dollars in order to get my car they stamped the bill redeemed and and they are being absolutely uh aligned with the biblical definition because redemption in the Bible means to be bought out of captivity I was buying my car out of its captivity but what does that mean see adoption is one thing Redemption is another

thing and Redemption means that we're all slaves how are we all slaves well look uh you have to live for something don't you you have to live for something say I don't know if I believe in God well you're living for something there's something that makes your life meaningful I'm living for my children I'm living for my career I'm living to make a difference fine but I want you to realize that whatever you're living for is your master and the only master that doesn't enslave you according to the Bible is God you see the Lord

the Lord the only master that dies for your sins your career will not die for your sins and your children won't die for your sins you better not make them you see anything else that you live for is going to drive you it's going to enslave you you got to be careful like I'm a minister okay so I'm doing Ministry I'm preaching H you notice I'm preaching why am I preaching well I'm preaching to serve God and to help you right or I could be preaching so I can feel that I'm a worthwhile person so

I can feel successful so I can say look at all the people that I'm helping in that case my preaching becomes a master and I'm serving the preaching and the preaching is not serving you and that means anything even even stuff like preaching anything can become a master and if God's not the absolute Center of your life and if he's not the the root of your salvation or put it another way if you have any identity other than that you're his child see until you're adopted you're enslaved because your name your identity is coming from

something and whatever that is is going to drive you it's going to enslave you but when I'm adopted and my name is I'm the child of the king okay not a successful this not not not a not a parent with great children see whatever your name is you say the reason I feel good about myself my children are all fine what happened when they go wrong when they go when they go off the rails uh I'm successful what happens if you lose your money you see all those other names are that's a ball and chain

unless you are redeemed and so adoption and because of adoption Redemption and finally Resurrection or look at the end or you could also call it consummation in fact it's more than Resurrection to be put into effect verse 10 when the times have reached their fulfillment to bring Unity to all things in heaven and on Earth under Jesus Christ The Promise is that eventually God's going to put it in to all suffering and evil he's going to make the world new and he's going to get rid of death when it says to bring Unity what he

means is everything's falling apart huh Things Fall Apart the center cannot hold M Anarchy is loosed upon the world that's true at every level law of thermodynamics things are falling apart what is death your body things that were we cohering fall apart what is war what is racism what is poverty things that should be together are being split apart and yet God is going to end all of that because he's going to end death itself and you know you say well how how we haven't received that yet we're going to die and I'm going to

be raised from the dead I guess if you're a Christian but I mean I'm going to die well put it this way if you've got every spiritual blessing here's a wonderful thought the minute that the Holy Spirit comes into your life and you sense the love of God in your life through Jesus Christ that will never end never ever end the worst thing that can happen to you if you if you die is Will flood you with more love more Glory Jesus Christ says my sheep know me and they come to me and nothing can

pluck them out of my hand you will go from life to life to life you will go from love to love to love so those are the blessings and how do we receive them in Christ what are the blessings there few why do we have them this is the shortest of the points because we're going to be spending so much time on this especially after Christmas but it tells you in verse 7 we have Redemption what in his blood here's why we can have the spiritual blessings when Jesus Christ went to the Cross he died

in our place what does that mean you know every time Jesus Christ ever addressed God he called him father unless except he was on the cross he said my God my God why hast Thou forsaken me it's almost like Jesus Christ lost his sunship so you and I can be adopted and brought in Jesus Christ was bound and nailed so that we could be redeemed and liberated Jesus Christ was put to death so we could have life Everlasting through the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ all of these things can be yours so how Union with

Christ what we just had a few adoption Redemption consummation Resurrection we didn't even talk about justification sanctification glorification you didn't even talk about all those things but then how I mean why it can come to you because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for your sins so that when you accept what he has done and rest in what he has done and ask God the Father to accept you because of what he has done you're United and they all come now let's just end this way how do you know you have received

these how do you know you had every spiritual blessing I think the answer is that Grace becomes glorious to you do you notice verse 6 all of this is to the praise of his glorious Grace is that the theme of your life come on be honest is that the ground note of your daily life come on be honest do you find Grace glorious what do I mean by Grace glorious well first of all Grace Dr Lloyd Jones used to say that when he asked his diagnostic question are you Christian one answer was well I'm trying

and then of course he would explain no no being a Christian means to be in Christ you either have the you're either a Christian or you're not but he said there was another sometimes it would be another answer and if you say are you a Christian they might say well I'm trying but sometimes he would say are you a Christian and they would say of course I'm a Christian and the doctor used to say that was a very bad sign because you see if you believe you're sa Saved By Grace Grace becomes the most wonderful

thing and it and it and it just it it the sense that you're saved by grace permeates everything and it gets rid of any sense of of course see when you say of course I'm a Christian so I'm a good person I go to church why would you even ask such a thing no no no if if Grace was glorious to you you'd be saying yeah I'm a Christian what a joke me it's amazing it's astounding it makes me laugh but it's true you see Grace it's all Grace not of course I'm what do you

mean of course it's a miracle it's especially a miracle that you a Christian you know I know about all these other people these people look like you know but me a Christian if you don't think it's an absolute miracle if there's any like well of course I'm a Christian Grace isn't glorious to you it's not a good sign do you understand Grace but also glorious means beautiful beautiful uh it means you know if you uh if you find something beautiful you just can't get enough of it if a part if you find a certain kind

of music glorious you play it over and over and over again until your family's sick of it but but but it's it's it touches your aesthetic center and so you listen to it or it could be a painting or it could be a book or it could be a passage of something but here's the thing once you realize Jesus Christ died for you he gave his life for you to save you and my favorite Potter book is the first one and I know some of you are going to say of course it's the shortest but

no because I love the fact that at the very end when the nasty guy who's in you know when the nasty guy tries to kill him tries to grab him and it burns he can't touch him and then afterwards Harry Potter says to his mentor he says um why couldn't the evil man touch me and his mentor says because your mother died for you your your mother gave her life to save you and when someone experiences love like that it puts a power on you that no evil can deal with and you read that and

you go listen if Jesus Christ if if Grace is glorious to you it lifts you up it touches your aesthetic center because everywhere you see substitutionary atonement it's the most beautiful thought in the world is it to you is this the ground note of your life the glory of Grace it does it give you this eternal sense of humor about yourself so you can never take yourself that seriously again because you know you're saved by grace there's no of course about you anymore that's a sign that you have every spiritual blessing given to you in

Jesus Christ let's pray our father thank you for uh showing us how uh multifarious Rich astonishing our Salvation is every spiritual blessing how we we ask that you would give us that sense of richness that sense of joy and even the sense of humor not taking ourselves very seriously ever again that should all come from understanding our Salvation please Lord please uh let us live into our Redemption so we're not bound by anxieties and Fears let us live into your grace so that we find Our Lives sweetened by the knowledge of that let us live

into our adoption let us live into these things let us let us live in the hope of the Resurrection so we don't fear death anymore so father we pray that you would uh help us to appropriate uh the greatness of life that should come from knowing our Salvation as it is in Jesus Christ it's in Jesus name we ask it amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] h [Music] [Applause] [Music] h oh [Music] in the I we dance with a spark and the Chance magic night your

heart in my sight electric makes a heart Stars we dwell in this magic [Music] spelling Shadows we chasing the nice woman brace Whisper Soft like a breeze stilling secrets with the electric L SP makes her heart on the Stars we dwell in this magic SP and the glow of our dreams he the echo of them to the rhy we cling in this mystical swing from the dust to the dawn as the magic is drawn by the potion with sway which you love Le away underneath the silver stream whispered promise whispered dream one sick but stay

so div electric love [Music] forever electric makes our heart this mag forever in the Erse of glow Visions are forever flow the ring is so clear love back comers all fear electric love forever very in this magic our soul be f w dreams the electric com [Music] in the Embers of grow Visions are forever FL after ringing so clear a love conquers all fear in the glow or rather inwi in this magic our souls we find weing dreams beneath the moon's Light Electric love burning ever so bright [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] now [Music] [Laughter]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] [Applause] now [Laughter]