Ephesians 1:12 “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.”

Ephesians 1:13 “ 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 Spirit of promise,”

Ephesians 1:14 “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Hello readers, a follow up blog to my last one. Previously we talked about the phrase “ye also” from Ephesians, and how the gospel of Jesus Christ is for you too. And you too. And you too. Some people at Jerusalem trusted in Christ, then more did, and next thing you know the gospel spread throughout Europe and Asia, like in Ephesus… where there more did too… too!

Because the gospel is for everybody, there is good news for every single person who is alive right now… God can and will save you through Christ… but the gospel must be individually believed by everybody for themselves. And the “ye also” phrase teaches us that the Bible and Jesus Christ isn’t just for those who lived at the time, it’s not just for a special group, and it’s not for somebody else out there… it’s for YOU too. And hopefully this is the day that you also believe, and take God’s word for truth that it is. It is the truth regardless of what you did with it, it’s just a matter of whether you personally receive it as that.

After I had posted my blog, I immediately had a thought further to all this… which is that “you might not believe, but someone else will”. Because there are a lot who will not be in the “ye also”. That’s just a fact. Because there are people around the world and through time who have believed the gospel of Jesus Christ… but there are many who have not. There are people who have gotten saved and who have gone to heaven or will go to heaven, and there are many who will not.

And while it is true that you may not believe, and may not trust, and may doubt and dispute to your dying day… and you are free to do so… that doesn’t mean someone else won’t. And that’s why we tell everyone the gospel, and are not put off by the first negative response. Because yeah, there are people out there who will not, but there are those that will. Someone else will believe. Those that believe receive… but those that doubt are on the out.

And with this thought of “you might not believe, but someone else will”… did you know this has already happened? We have an example in a guy called Noah in the Bible. There were a lot who did not believe, err like a whole world… but someone did. And we know the Noah’s ark story and a whole world washed away bar one man and his family… but it’s easy to forget that salvation wasn’t just for him, anybody else could have gotten saved as well.

If you doubt this, just think about it… why did God give the people of Noah’s day so much time? Why did he draw time out for them? A hundred and twenty years is a long time to put off judgment, it’s four of my life times. Why the hold up? Is it because the ark couldn’t be made quicker? Is it because God couldn’t bring destruction any sooner? Or is it because as the Bible says, after referencing Noah’s flood, that God “is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Because we don’t need to guess… because we are told why God gave them so much time, because God was being longsuffering to the end that people would repent of their sins and call on the name of God. He wasn’t being longsuffering so he could kill them, he was being longsuffering so he could save them. And we know that people had and could repent of their sin and call upon the name of the Lord before Noah’s flood, because before the story of the flood, we see a verse in Genesis 4 that says “… then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.” And they didn’t just have a knowledge of God, they also had Noah, a preacher of righteousness… he told them God’s word so they could get right and be right, so they could be saved too. The you too gospel!but they disobeyed the preaching of God’s word.

The Bible says of this generation in 1 Peter 3:20 “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” Notice that God was waiting. Why was he waiting? He wasn’t waiting for a chance to destroy them, because he could’ve done that whenever. What was God waiting for? The same reason God is waiting on you. His longsuffering is waiting on all of us, because he would rather save you than destroy you.

God’s grace is incredibly on display in the flood story when we reflect on it, particularly through the New Testament writers. Because consider that for all the corruption, violence, and wickedness of that old world… God gave them time, he waited on them, he waited on them because they also could have been saved and spared as Noah was. We just take for granted that God is ready and willing to forgive and save… but bear in mind, he doesn’t have to! But he does. Shouldn’t his grace be something to break us, rather than use it as an excuse and cloak to our sin?

But we know how the story ends. We know that “you might not believe, but someone else will”, because that “someone else will” was Noah. He lived that. Everyone else he knew did not, but he did. He trusted God. That’s why he built the ark, because he trusted what God had said. He took God’s word as truth. God told him how to be saved, and he was saved through simple obedience. See, God doesn’t require much, he only asks that you take him at this word. Trust isn’t beyond you, we all trust liars easily, we give our trust out to the most untrustworthy sources… so why not trust God who cannot lie easily?

Notice the phrase “who first trusted in Christ”… guess what, you can be a first. You may know no other Christians, or true Christians… but you can be the first. There may be no believers in your family, but someone can be the first. Someone’s gotta to be the first in each family, in each place, in each generation, in each society, in each culture, in each people group. How about be the first to trust Christ? Why not? There’s no need to wait for others, and you shouldn’t wait for others, because they might never get there. Instead of you following, how about you be the one they follow? Being the first to trust in Christ is something we can all do.

To keep with this train of thought of “you might not believe, but someone else will”, why on earth would you want to be the one that misses out? Why voluntarily miss out on something you are entitled to by God’s grace? Because others are not going to miss out. Don’t hate on them when you do, it’s not their fault you’re smarter than your own salvation. Regardless of what you do, there are going to be plenty of people out there who trusted and received the redemption and inheritance that God has promised them in Christ Jesus. So the only person you really damage is yourself in the end, you don’t spite God or others, you just cost yourself.

Because you may go to hell… but just because you are going there, doesn’t mean everyone else will too.  Because there are people who are not. When you miss out because you reject Christ, and you literally are on the “outs” in outer darkness, there will be others who do not miss out. And it’s all on you. Trusting God is something you can do. God made it pretty darn easy. If you miss out, God’s grace hasn’t failed you, you’ve failed of God’s grace… that’s how people today go to hell.

Think about it, they had one hundred and twenty years in Noah’s day… that’s a long time where they felt pretty justified in the way they were living. Year after year went by, hey Noah where is your God? Hey Noah, you still believe in that imaginary sky wizard? It can take a long time for the scales of truth and justice to balance out… but they will. And for days, months, years, decades, this was over a century… while God’s longsuffering waited on them, they chose to disobey the gospel. Don’t mistake God’s longsuffering for God’s permissiveness, indifference or lack of existence.

So when this blog is about “you might not believe, but someone else will”… it has already happened. Because Noah did believe… even while others did not. Noah believed, received and inherited… even if others chose not to. Take responsibility for yourself, it’s your salvation, it’s your life. You will answer for what you have done. Why end up as a “wash”? Those that refused to trust and obey ended up a wash, quite literally in the flood. So don’t let your life be a wash, which it will be if you don’t personally trust the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sins. And even if you don’t, even if you refuse God… know that someone else out there is trusting God, because though it is for you, and it could be you, it doesn’t have to be you… but be sure it will be for someone else.

Colossians 1:5 “For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;”

Colossians 1:6 “Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:”

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