The Spiritual Silver Spoon
Introduction
What does the phrase, “born with a silver spoon in your mouth,” actually mean? It is meant to describe someone who is born into a family that has so much money that the child will be rich without ever lifting a finger to earn his or her income. Many wealthy people left all they obtained to their children, who immediately wasted it and ruined their lives in the process. Some of the very rich people in our day, like investment guru Warren Buffet, have arranged to leave very little to their relatives when they die.
Can Christians be described as being born-again with silver spoons in his mouths? I think we can safely say that we have. When a person comes to Christ, a new birth takes place and the redeemed individual is placed in God's family. At that point, the new believer has received eternal life at no cost to himself, since Jesus paid the full price to make it possible. Our redemption is not of works or personal effort on our part but the result of accepting the price that Jesus paid for our forgiveness and inclusion into God's family. When I became a Christian, I was born into the family of God with all the benefits that are described in the Bible as part of my spiritual inheritance. Now, that is a real "silver spoon" experience!
Let me tell you a true story about a woman who had a "silver spoon" life but did not know how to enjoy it. Her name was Nenrietta Howland "Hetty" Green. She became an American businesswoman and was nicknamed "The Witch of Wall Street." She was wealthy beyond our modern understanding, yet she was a miser. Born in 1834, she inherited money over time from her family (the proverial silver spoon), which at our current equivalent would be worth about one-hundred million dollars ($100,000,000.00). Wow! When she died in 1916, she left behind an estate revealing that she had been one of the richest women in the world!
Now, listen to this. When she was living, she was so stingy that she would not even turn on the electricity or heat in her house. She disenfranchised every one of her family members and when she married, she made her husband sign a document renouncing any rights to a single dollar of her estate. She had a son named Ned, and one day he broke his leg. She was so frugal that she tried to have him admitted to a to a clinic for the poor so she wouldn't have to pay to have his leg placed in a cast! She kept looking for a cheaper doctor so long that his leg never healed properly, and later the boy had to have the leg amputated!
Does that story bother you? It is a true story. Some Christians live like Hetty Green. God wants to live in the joy, power and love He paid for at Calvary. We are to share His love with others. We are to stop whining and live in the joy of all that is ours because we are part of the family of God.
I want us to think about this today and to become reacquainted with what this means to each of us. Look at our text today, found in Ephesians 1:1-14:
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both[a] which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 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.”
In this passage we see that through Christ all who are saved have received the spiritual riches of His estate and are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. But how many really live like they are of heavenly, royal blood? Sadly, many Christians live defeated, unhappy lives simply because they lack the understanding, appreciation and full appropriation of all that is ours in Christ. We must not settle for less that the best in our position as children of God.
I am reminded at this point of the parable of the Prodigal Son. An interesting person in that parable is the elder brother mentioned in Luke 15:31. The elder brother had everything that the father owned, but he was not enjoying it. He stayed at home with the father, he worked hard, but he had no joy in who he was and what he had been given. Many Christians are like that. When his younger brother, who had wasted his portion of the family inheritance came home, the elder brother was irate that the father had a party for the wayward child. What the Jesus was revealing is the possibility of being in God's family and not realizing how blessed we are. When some sinner comes to the Lord, and joy fills the house, we wonder why there was not the same joy over those who have been at the house working. Jesus pointed out to the older son that the joy taking place for the boy who came back to the family was always available to the boy who stayed home. Listen to me, child of God, all the joy of God is available to all His children right now, right where we are. If we are not enjoying the Father's House, it is our own fault! All He has is ours because we are in the family of God.
We need to be stirred to know who we are, what we have, how we got it and what we should be doing about it. Gypsy Smith told of a back-country preacher who said, "First I am going to splanify the text, second I am going to argufy the truth and lastly I hopes you all come to the roustification!" Indeed, we need to get to the roustification of the Christian life in our day. We need to be roused up, awakened and fully employing all that Jesus bought for us at the cross.
Let’s look at something today that has the potential to arouse our lethargical natures. First, let us recall that the author of Ephesians is the Apostle Paul. He had been in Ephesus twice. The first time he visited there he established a church and the second time he remained three years and worked among them. Ten years passed, and Paul was in prison when he wrote a letter back to these dear people. We are ever in his debt for being so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that he wrote this letter, for in this correspondence we behold the glory of Christ and the blessings of the believers. In our text today we see several things.
I. Who I am in Christ
"To the saints"... verse 1.
I am a saint! I know what you are thinking, "Preacher, you are many things, but a saint is not one of them." I beg your pardon. Who am I to believe, you or God?I am who God says I am. I am who Jesus saved me to be. I think I will believe God and He says I am a saint.
Someone once said that there are only two kinds of people, "saints" and “aints”. A saint is simply a person that has been saved through the blood of God's Son, placed in the kingdom and made a member of God's family. Now this is important. Many are not living like saints because they do not know that the Lord calls them saints. We think we are just poor old sinners wandering around here till God calls us home. The Bible never says that about you. The Bible calls you a SAINT!
There is a story I read somewhere years ago about a prince who was carried away by marauders when he was a child. Years later his father found him and brought him home. The boy was a young man, living in poverty when his father located him. Once his father found him, he dressed him in the finest robes available, and the young man immediately held his head up and walked with a different air. Why? The young man discovered who he really was and to whom he belonged.
Every born again Christian is a child of the King! We must know that this is true if we are to have the victory God meant for us to have. Who do you think is the most afraid of dirt, a man in greasy work clothes or a man in fresh, white suit? Who is the most careful, a woman in a sweat suit doing exercise or a bride in a wedding gown? A believer who knows He is a saint is much more likely to want to live like one.
I read a humorous ad the other day for a fictitious church that ran an ad in the local newspaper. It read as follows:
“Visit us soon. We are the church of the 7.5% tithe, the 15 minute sermon, the 45 minute service, 8 commandments - your choice, and everything you ever wanted in a church and less!”
It sad thing to admit, but many churches and Christians live just like that ad. We are never to settle for less that Jesus paid for us at Calvary. We must not lower our standards to that of the world!
Now let’s look at another important issue…
II. How I became what I am in Christ
If I am a Christian, I am a saint, so the question follows as to how this happened to me?
A. The Plan of the Father 3-6
He Chose us - none excluded
1 Timothy 2:3-6: "3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time..."
You are chosen to be saved, and if you have never trusted Christ to be your redeemer, you can do so today. Listen to His voice and trust Him. Turn from you sin and believe upon Him as Lord and Savior. You see, God desires that "all" be saved! Are some predestined to Hell? No. The elect are the who-so-ever wills, and the non-elect are the who-so-ever will nots. Those of us who are saved have simply heard His call and turned in faith to accept Him as our Lord.
He Loves Us
God's passion is His love for sinners like us. He loves you so much that He gave His only Son to redeem you. It is not His will to judge but it is His will to redeem. Now, listen closely, if you perish and go to hell when you die, it will be because you chose to reject God's love and God's Son. If you are sick with a disease, and the doctor offers you the means of being made well, you are the one who chooses to live or die. If you decide to reject the cure, you can't blame the doctor! God loves you. I am saved today because God loved me, called to His Son, and I turned in faith and accepted Him. He is my Lord, not because of who I am but because of His love for me!
He redeems through His Son
The love of God is shown in the gift of His Son on the cross. Many times we think of salvation as the gift. Remember John 3:16, which states, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” The gift is His Son, and the attachment with that gift is eternal life. He loved us even when we were sinners and gave His Son so that we might be forgiven.
You see, sin requires death. No amount of good works can remove the sins I’ve committed. Being good cannot remove the evil I have done. Jesus came as the perfect Lamb of God and took my sin and yours to the cross and died in our place. He rose from the dead and is ready to save all who will turn to Him in repentance and faith.
B. The Purchase of the Son 7-10
What exactly did Jesus purchase through His death on the cross?
Redemption of our debt
We owe God a perfect life, and only Jesus had a perfect life to give for us! Not one person in this room has lived or can live a perfect life. Yet, that is what God demands of us. He made the first Adam perfect, but Adam sinner and passed that sin down to us. Jesus came into the world, was tempted in all points just like you and I, yet He did not sin. When Jesus went to the cross, He gave that perfect life to me and to you, and took our sin. He died in my place and yours. Since sin passed to us all in the first Adam, redemption can pass to us all through the Second Adam, Jesus. Yet, you can't have that perfect life without coming to Christ in repentance and faith.
Righteousness in Him
He not only redeems us when we turn to Him in repentance and faith, He gives us His righteousness. This is hard for us to comprehend, but it is true. Through Christ, I am righteous. Amazing! Certainly we ought to know who we are in Christ and live like it.
Now, in this message I am speaking to those who are already saved, and I am speaking to those who need to be saved. To those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord, we are to live up to the family name. For those who have never received Him, today is the day for you to come into the family of God and receive that which Jesus purchased for you at the cross.
Revelation of His Truth
When Christ ascended to heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit, His presence for believers in this present world, so that we can understand the mystery of the gospel. The Word of God becomes alive to us and we have the ability to hear the Lord and follow Him. Through prayer, and His Word, by the Holy Spirit He shows us His will.
I was reading a book by a famous atheist the other day and it saddened me to see how he viewed Christ and Christians. It was so easy to see that he lacked the Holy Spirit and, therefore, he had no true insight into the truth God gives. The believer does not walk alone. God is with you, in you and is working through you.
My wife and I saw a young teenager and his dad walking into a store the other day. We remarked how the two looked identical. The shape of their bodies, the slope of their shoulders, the manner in which they strode toward the door was amazing. We remarked about it and actually laughed to see how the nature of the father was undeniable in the lad. How I pray that it might be true of us, that the nature of God may be seen in us. How wonderful it would be if we walked and talked like Jesus! We can, because His nature (His Spirit) dwells in every believer. We are part of His family by birth and adoption. Too many of us are like rebellious teenagers who do everything they can not to be seen with their parents, and certainly they don't want to look in any way like their parents. They may be okay for a teenager seeking to grow into his or her own person, but the child of God is to rejoice in the likeness that God can reproduce in His children.
C. The Protection of the Spirit 11-14
I’m not going to deal with the protection and eternal security we have in the presence of the Holy Spirit because it is a message that I need to share in more detail at another time. Suffice it to say that the Holy Spirit protects us from losing our redemption. What God secured, no one can steal! What God seals cannot be unsealed by the world. I do not keep my salvation, rather the Lord keeps it for me.
A man handed the son of a co-worker twenty dollars. "Here, son, put this in your piggy bank." The little boys eyes grew large and he took the bill from the man. "What do you say to him?" the father asked. The little boy happily said, "Thanks!" Then the father said, "Here, son, give me that money. I'll keep it till you get home, otherwise you will lose it before we get there." God gave me eternal life, but it is not held by me. My salvation is anchored in heaven and held by the hand of Christ. Christ is in the hand of the Father. That represents double indemnity. Someone trying to steal my salvation must go through the Son and the Father! All of us who are saved are saved for keeps!
We come to another thought found in this passage…
III. What I have in Christ
“…every spiritual blessing"...
In Christ we obtain the entire spiritual estate of God! When the prodigal son came home from his sinful ways, he asked to be a servant and merely live in the servant’s quarters. The father, who is a picture of God the Father, would hear none of it. He put the ring on his son, and the robe of authority on him. Then he ordered that a meal be prepared to honor the homecoming of the lad. Jesus told that story to reveal to us that we are His children and that we don’t live in a bunk house far from the father's table. We are rich in God’s grace. We are to live like that as children of God!
Do you need more love, more faith, more peace, or more power? It is already yours - you simply act upon it! He gave you everything in Christ.
Conclusion
Listen, every Christian in this service today is to live like the family to which you belong. You are in the family of God and you are to walk like it, talk like it, give like it, witness like it, worship like it and to be what God made you to be.
But, there is someone listening to me right now who is not in the family of God. You have never trusted Christ as your Savior. Maybe you have religion but you have never truly trusted the Redeemer to save you. Yes, God loves you but you are not in His family until you come His way, and that way is by repenting of your sin and trusting Jesus as your Savior. You can do that right now. Listen to His voice down in your heart – He is calling you – He is knocking on the door of your heart. Open the door and allow Him to come in.
There are Christians here today who are downhearted and depressed. You may well have reason to be, for this world is filled with many sorrows. But, you need to rise to be who Christ saved you to be. Lay aside your garments of weeping and put on the robe of joy. Don’t look at your circumstances, but look at who you are in Christ.