+I. The import of the salvation proclaimed in the Gospel.+--It is
deliverance from all the evils that have been brought on us by the
Fall. 1. From ignorance, not of science, but of God. 2. From guilt,
or the penalty which the law inflicts. 3. From the power of sin, of
which we are slaves. 4. From the sorrows and calamities of life,
which it does not remove, but alleviate and transform. 5. From the
power and fear of death. 6. From everlasting perdition.
+II. The persons to whom this view of the Gospel is specially
applicable.+--1. To the unconverted. It teaches them what they are.
2. To the awakened. It teaches them what they need. 3. To believers.
It awakens their gratitude, it reproves their lukewarmness, it
stimulates their charity.
+III. The reflections to which this view of the Gospel gives
rise.+--How precious in our estimation should be--1. the Gospel,
2. the Saviour, 3. the Saviour's work, 4. the Saviour's ordinances,
5. the Saviour's servants and people, 6. the Saviour's second
coming.--_G. Brooks._
_The Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion._
+I. It is reasonable to suppose that God should at some time or
season fully and clearly reveal unto men the truth concerning Himself
and concerning them as He and they stand related to each other,
concerning His nature and will, and concerning our state and
duty.+--Argued from 1. His goodness, 2. His wisdom, 3. His justice,
4. His Divine majesty.
+II. That no other revelation of that kind and importance has been
made, which can with good probability pretend to have thus proceeded
from God, so as by Him to have been designed for a general,
perpetual, complete instruction and obligation of
mankind.+--1. _Paganism_ did not proceed from Divine revelation, but
from human invention or diabolical suggestion. All the pagan
religions vanished, together with the countenance of secular
authority and power sustaining them. 2. _Mohammedanism_ an imposture.
3. _Judaism_ was defective. (1) This revelation was not general--not
directed, nor intended to instruct and oblige mankind. (2) As this
revelation was particular, so was it also partial--as God did not by
it speak His mind to all, so did He not therein speak out all His
mind. (3) It was not designed for perpetual obligation and use.
+Conclusion.+--No other religion, except Christianity, which has been
or is in being, can reasonably pretend to have proceeded from God as
a universal, complete, and final declaration of His mind and will to
mankind.--_Barrow._
Vers. 13, 14. _The Assurance of the Christian Inheritance._--By the
first act of faith the whole tendencies of man's life are reversed.
Until then the present has been his world and the earth his place of
rest; then, by the inspiration of the cross, a spiritual world draws
upon his view, that everlasting region becomes his home, and life
assumes the character of a pilgrimage. We need to have the deep
assurance of the immortal kingdom in order to live an earnest life in
a world like this.
+I. The nature of the assurance.+--The voices of promises in the
Christian's soul--the longings, aspirations, hopes, rising from the
Spirit of God within us--are more than promises; they are earnests,
_i.e._ most certain assurances of the inheritance to come. This
inheritance of spiritual life consists of three great elements--love,
power, blessedness.
+II. The necessity of the assurance.+--The inheritance is given, but
not reached. Between the gift and its attainment there lies a long
path of conflict in which the old struggle between the flesh and the
Spirit reveals itself in three forms: 1. Sense against the soul;
2. The present against the future; 3. Steadfast work against the
roving propensities of the heart.--_E. L. Hull._
_The Holy Spirit and the Earnest of the Inheritance._
+I. The character of the inheritance.+--The teaching of the passage
is that heaven is likest the selectest moments of devotion that a
Christian has on earth. Heaven is the perfecting of the life of the
Spirit begun here, and the loftiest attainments of that life here are
but the beginnings and infantile movements of immature beings.
+II. The grounds of certainty that we shall ultimately possess the
fulness of the inheritance.+--The true ground of certainty lies in
this, that you have the Spirit in your heart, operating His own
likeness and moulding you, sealing you, after His own stamp and
image. 1. The very fact of such a relation between man and God is
itself the great assurance of immortality and everlasting life.
2. The characteristics that are produced by this Holy Spirit's
indwelling, both in the perfectness and imperfection, are the great
guarantee of the inheritance being ours. 3. The Holy Spirit in a
man's heart makes him desire and believe in the
inheritance.--_A. Maclaren._
_The Faith of the Early Christians._
+I. The object of their faith.+--The Word of truth and the Gospel of
salvation. It is the Word of truth. It contains all that truth which
concerns our present duty and our future glory. It comes attended
with demonstrations of its own Divinity. It is the Gospel of our
salvation. It discovers to us our ruined, helpless condition, the
mercy of God to give us salvation, the way in which it is procured
for us, the terms on which we may become interested in it, the
evidences by which our title to it must be ascertained, and the glory
and happiness it comprehends.
+II. The forwardness and yet the reasonableness of their
faith.+--They trusted in Christ after they heard the Word. They acted
as honest and rational men: they did not trust before they heard it,
nor refused to trust after they heard it. They did not take the
Gospel on the credit of other men without examination; nor did they
reject it when they had an opportunity to examine it for themselves.
Their faith stood not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
+III. The happy consequence of their faith.+--They were "sealed with
the Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance." They
became partakers of such a Divine influence as sanctified them to a
meetness for heaven, and thus evidenced their title to it.
1. _The sealing of the Spirit._--Sealing literally signifies the
impression of the image or likeness of one thing upon another. A seal
impressed on wax leaves there its own image. Instruction is said to
be sealed when it is so impressed on the heart as to have an abiding
influence. So, the sealing of believers is their receiving on their
hearts the Divine image and character by the sanctifying power of the
Holy Spirit. The Word of truth is here considered as the seal, the
believing heart as the subject, the Holy Spirit as the agent or
sealer, and the effect produced as a Divine likeness. By a like
metaphor Christians are represented as cast in the mould of the
Gospel. The same idea is conveyed by the metaphor of writing the Word
on the heart.
2. _The earnest of the Spirit._--The Spirit, having sealed believers
or sanctified them after God's image, becomes an earnest of their
inheritance. The firstfruits were pledges of the ensuing harvest;
earnest-money in a contract is a pledge of the fulfilment of it. So,
the graces and comforts of religion are to Christians the
anticipations and foretastes of the happiness which awaits them in
heaven. (1) The virtues of the Christian temper, which are the fruits
of the Spirit, are to believers an earnest of their inheritance
because they are in part a fulfilment of the promise which conveys
the inheritance. (2) They are an earnest as they are preparatives for
it. (3) The sealing and sanctifying influence of the Spirit is
especially called an earnest of the inheritance because it is a part
of the inheritance given beforehand. It is the earnest till the
redemption of the purchased possession. When we actually possess the
inheritance the earnest will be no longer needed.
+Lessons.+--1. _All the operations of the Spirit on the minds of men
are of a holy nature and tendency._ 2. _We are strongly encouraged to
apply to God for the needful influences of His grace._ 3. _We can
have no conclusive evidence of a title to heaven without the
experience of a holy temper._ 4. _Christians are under indispensable
obligations to universal holiness.--Lathrop._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-18.
_Prayer for Higher Spiritual Knowledge_--
+I. Thankfully acknowledges the grace already possessed+ (vers. 15,
16).--The possession of some grace prompts the prayer for more. The
apostle recognises the faith of the Ephesians in the person and work
of Christ and the love they displayed towards the saints. Knowing the
source of that grace and that the supply was unlimited, he thanks God
and is encouraged to pray for its increase. How slow we are to see
the good in others and to thank God for any good found in ourselves!
Ingratitude dulls our sensibilities and chills the breath of prayer.
If we were more thankful, we should be more prayerful. The way to
excite gratitude is to interest ourselves in the highest welfare of
others.
+II. Invokes the impartation of additional spiritual insight+ (vers.
17, 18).--The apostle prays, not for temporal good or for prosperity
in outward things, or even for the cessation of trouble or
persecution, but for an accession of mental and spiritual blessings.
He prays for the opening of the eye of the mind that the vision of
spiritual realities may be more clear and reliable, and that the soul
may be possessed with a fuller knowledge of Christ. The highest
wisdom is gained by a more accurate conception of Him "in whom are
hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Sin enters the heart
through the avenue of the senses and passions, grace through a
spiritually enlightened understanding. Pride, prejudice, and error
are expelled from the mind not so much by the repression of evil
tendencies as by the entrance and maintenance of superior moral
truths. The revelation of the Spirit in the Word will not suffice
unless the light of the same Spirit shines through every faculty and
power of the inquiring soul. "Man's knowledge is not perfect within
the domain of creation, still less can he know the things of the
invisible world. Only by living in a sphere does he gather knowledge
of what is found there: knowledge comes from experience of
occurrences. Without a disposition of the heart the sense of the
understanding is not enlarged and sharpened. Sensible, mental,
spiritual knowledge refers to life spheres in which he who knows must
move. Only the believing, loving, longing one knows and grows in
knowledge unto knowledge." We need, therefore, continually to pray
for the Spirit of wisdom--a keener spiritual insight.
+III. Unveils the grandeur of the Divine inheritance in
believers.+--"That ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and
what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (ver.
18). The increase of spiritual knowledge is an ever-widening
revelation of the value and splendour of Divine blessings already
possessed and in prospect of possession. Faith enjoys the inheritance
now, and hope anticipates an ampler revelation and richer experience
of its unspeakable blessedness. The phrase "the riches of the glory
of His inheritance" indicates how utterly inadequate human language
is to describe its boundless spiritual wealth. It is an inheritance
implying union to Him who only hath immortality and is eternal. Rust
cannot corrupt it, nor decay consume, nor death destroy. We have not
only an inheritance in Christ, but He has also an inheritance in us.
He finds more in us than we find ourselves, and we should never know
it was there but for the revelation of Himself within us.
+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer and thanksgiving go together._ 2. _The soul
needs a daily revelation of truth._ 3. _The highest spiritual truths
are made known to the soul that prays._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._