September 04 2025

Thursday September 04

Believing and Trusting

Ephesians 1:13-14

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Welcome to Pastor's Chat today. Again, I thank you for your prayers for yesterday as we traveled to Roanoke, (and it's obvious I pre-recorded this before I went to Roanoke on Wednesday morning, and this is our Thursday morning chat). Today I will be seeing the heart surgeon that is going to give me the report on my echo stress test from last week, and this afternoon I'll also be stopping by to see Brandi Manning there at the Duke University Hospital on my way back to Sneads Ferry. Friday morning, I'll let you know the results of our echo stress test and what the surgeon tells me about my heart, and also about Brandi. So far, I understand that her surgery went well and she is doing ok through recovery. But, please keep on praying. We are so blessed with Christian friends that care and love and pray and always are asking about these things. I'll do my best to update you tomorrow.

Today we will continue to look at Ephesians 1:13-14. We are talking about God the Holy Spirit and the blessings that He gives us. We've talked about God the Father and His blessings from eternity past in the first verses (vs. 2-6). In verses 7-12, we see the past history of Jesus Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, and the blessings that we have in Christ. Now, in verse 13-14, we not only find out about the blessings of the Holy Spirit we have in “the present”, but we find out exactly how we can be saved. We hear “the word of truth”, which is “the gospel of our salvation”, then we “believe” and put our “trust” totally in Jesus Christ, and we then experience the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 10:13-15 makes this really clear: “For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!". These are powerful verses.

Paul points out here in Ephesians 1:13, “in whom you also trusted”. Of course, the “whom” is Jesus Christ that you trusted. You not only need to hear about Christ and have an intellectual understanding that He is the Son of God, and believe that He is who He said He is, and that He is not just a historical figure, but you believe that He came to save us and set us free from our sins. And you believe not just with your head, but with your heart. This doesn't mean you just actually intellectually ascent to the fact He died and was buried and rose again the third day. But that you trusted in Him for your eternal salvation. You realized there was no other way of salvation. There was no hope for you, no future for you, no eternity for you. And you believed and trusted in Him, just like Paul on the road to Damascus trusted in Him and his life totally and completely changed.

My friend, when you sincerely, honestly, and genuinely trust in Christ, you know it because something takes place in your life, a miracle takes place. You become a new creation. “Old things pass away, and all things become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Only the gospel makes this possible as Paul points out here in this verse. “After you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”.

Now, that's powerful because the very moment, and I mean, the very moment that you trusted in Christ and you called on His name, as Romans 10:13 says here, that very moment you experienced eternal salvation, not only did Christ came to live in you, but you were baptized into the body of Christ (Romans 6:3), and your body also became the temple of the Holy Spirit. Read this in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.”

When the Holy Spirit came in you, Ephesians 1:13 tells us something else takes place: "Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Tomorrow, we are going to be talking about what that means, “being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” The Holy Spirit guarantees our eternal salvation. He's the guarantee. And we'll look at what that means tomorrow.

My friend, our salvation is such a fantastic, powerful, miraculous, mysterious experience. And it's for anyone and everyone who calls on His name. God wants you to be saved because He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Today, have you ever really believed and put your trust in Jesus alone?

God bless!