Sealing of The Holy Spirit, Part 3

Introduction: The Holy Spirit and Susceptibility to Error

0:04 As we continue our studies in this first large paragraph of Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, a paragraph which is, in its basic elements, a great hymn of praise addressed to the triune God, particularly for the blessings of grace and of salvation. And once more, our attention is focused upon verses 13 and 14, the two verses which we might rightly call the third stanza in this great hymn of praise,

0:43 the first being the first few verses in which the Father is brought into special focus for His part in our great redemption, or for those parts which are exclusively His. And then the second stanza, which focuses upon those works of redemption which are in a special way the work of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And now in verses 13 and 14, our attention is directed in a special way to those works which are the work of the Holy Spirit. In whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,

1:27 in whom having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of His glory.

1:44 In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, as Paul is mentioning one of the reasons for which God has given special gifts to His church, gifts of pastors and teachers, he says that one of those reasons is that the people of God, being builders, built up by the exercise of those gifts, might no longer be children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, and by the slight of man, and by the craftiness or the wiliness of error. And perhaps there are few areas of truth more susceptible to error than truth related to the person and ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

2:29 Now we might go into, to some opinions as to why the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is more susceptible to error than other doctrines, but I think two things should be very obvious. First of all, it's because we're dealing with that aspect of salvation which is subjective and personal and experimental. You see, it's very difficult to produce a counterfeit of something that is a tangible physical object, but of that which has to do with the inward and the intangible, to the physical senses, it is in this realm that there is more latitude for error. And then perhaps secondly, the spirit of error works as a spirit.

3:12 The devil and the demonic powers do not come to us in physical form to display their goods in that way. And so because the Holy Spirit operates in the same realm where evil spirits can operate, it would seem that there is, an unusual measure of error and deception which occurs with relationship to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And so we're spending more time on these two verses proportionately than we have done with the previous verses because it is essential for the people of God, if they are to be grounded in the truth, if they are not to be as little children, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine,

3:56 it is, I say, essential that they have biblical perspective, regarding the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now we have seen in our two previous studies that in this matter of the work of the Spirit in our salvation, the Apostle Paul focuses on one particular aspect of the Spirit's ministry, that which he conveys to us under the figure of sealing. And so the main thrust of verses 13 and 14 is these words, In whom? In whom ye were sealed.

Review of Sealing: Universal, Attends Initial Response, Meaning

4:32 Everything else in the two verses is either a modification, an explanation, or qualification and amplification of this central truth, ye were sealed. Thus far in our studies we have seen that whatever the sealing is, it is the possession of all the people of God. The theme of this paragraph is introduced in verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. And so as he opens up some of those blessings in Christ, just as certainly as election unto holiness,

5:17 predestination unto sonship, acceptance in the Beloved, redemption through the blood of Christ, all of these other blessings are the possession of every child of God, so the seal, the sealing is the possession of every Christian. And then the second thing that is essential in our understanding of this matter of sealing is that it always attends an initial response to the gospel. We have this trilogy of events. Ye heard the word of truth, ye believed you were sealed.

5:51 Whenever there is hearing, believing, the sealing always follows. Then last week we began to, focus upon the precise meaning of this figure of sealing. And we saw from parallel passages of scripture that this concept of sealing, which was common currency in the thinking of that day, was brought over into the realm of the experience of the people of God. And there are three aspects of the seal which are prominent in the biblical thinking.

6:26 The seal is that by which God authenticates us, as the real thing. Secondly, the seal is that by which He identifies us as His own. And the seal is that by which He renders us secure until the accomplishment of His saving purposes. Now as we closed our study last week, we were just introducing some aspect of the work of the Spirit as a sealer, which is brought into focus in these words.

The Holy Spirit as the 'Spirit of Promise'

6:58 In whom, having also believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now a literal rendering of this phrase, as we find in the original, would be this. You were sealed with the Spirit of the promise, the Holy One. So the phrase of the promise, and the phrase the Holy One, are two modifiers of the Spirit, what is the Spirit, or who is the Spirit who seals us?

7:36 Well, Paul says He is the promised Spirit, He is the Holy One. So wherever He is present in His sealing work, He will always be present in terms of the promise, and in terms of being the Holy One. If I were to tell you, please go to the airport and meet my brother, and I would say, he will be the one who is, six feet three inches tall, and will be wearing a black coat. You know that any man who doesn't wear a black coat, and isn't six feet three, is not my brother.

8:10 Any dealings you have with my brother, when you meet him at the airport, you will have dealings with him, in terms of his being six feet three inches tall, and wearing a black overcoat. So the Apostle says, when the Holy Spirit seals us, when He authenticates, us as the real thing, when He identifies us as the people of God, when He secures us unto the day of redemption, He will always do so as the Spirit of the promise, and as the Spirit who is holy. And now I want this morning to open up those two phrases, and I trust it will be to our edification,

8:54 and lead us to praise God, for that sealing in the Spirit, the Spirit, the Spirit of promise, the Spirit of holiness. Now in what sense is the Holy Spirit who seals us, the Spirit of the promise? For the article is there in the original. He is the Spirit of the promise.

9:17 I would suggest that He is the Spirit of promise, along three lines. He is the Spirit of the promise, with reference to the Old Testament promise of the New Covenant. He is the Spirit of the promise, He is the Spirit of the promise with reference to John the Baptist's words about the office of Messiah, and He is the Spirit of the promise with regard to our Lord's promises of the gift of the Spirit. Now let's look at these three lines of biblical truth for the next few minutes.

The Spirit Promised in the Old Covenant, by John the Baptist, and by Christ

9:51 First of all, the Holy Spirit, or the gift of the Spirit, is promised as the crowning blessing of the New Covenant. Throughout the Old Testament, God, by type and shadow and by explicit statement, indicates to His people that the best is yet to come. What He instituted there upon Mount Sinai, when He gave to His covenant people Israel, the way of approach unto Him in sacrifice, the whole Levitical system, God made clear that this was not the final arrangement of things. And then, through the ministry of the Prophets,

10:33 there began to unfold this tremendous perspective that everything of which the Lamb and the bloody sacrifice and the altar and the temple, all of those things were but symbols of greater realities yet to come. Now as the promises began to gather momentum and expand and increase in their perspective, what is the thing that is promised as the crowning blessing of the New Covenant? What is the crowning blessing of the New Covenant that God is going to institute? My answer to that question is that the gift of the Holy Spirit is promised as the crowning blessing of the New Covenant.

11:18 Turn please to Ezekiel chapter 36.

11:22 And here in one of those New Covenant passages, a parallel passage of Jeremiah 31, 31 and following, here is the promise of the Holy Spirit. Here is God's promise to His people. Verse 24 of Ezekiel 36. For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land.

11:47 I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you. A new spirit, will I put within you.

12:07 And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. And I will give you a heart of flesh. Here God is saying, I'm going to renovate your basic nature. I'm going to do something in you that can be described in no lesser terms than having a new heart.

12:25 The heart being the seat of all human experience. Out of the heart are the issues of life. And God says your state by nature is like a heart of stone, adamant, inflexible, cold, unresponsive. And God says, I will give you a new heart.

12:43 I will give you a heart of flesh. I will give you a new spirit. But then He says, added to this, verse 27, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall...

13:03 I will keep mine ordinances and do them. Of all the things that God says He is going to do, you will notice that the crowning blessing in this series of promises is I will put my spirit within you. So then, when Paul says, in whom ye were sealed with the spirit of the promise, he's speaking of nothing other, nothing less, than the Holy Spirit who is the focus of this...

13:33 of this promise, promised as the crowning blessing of the new covenant. Then we turn to the ministry of John the Baptist who stood in a unique relationship to Jesus Christ. John chapter 1. He is called the forerunner of Christ.

13:51 The one who was to prepare a people for Christ. And there was a two-pronged emphasis in all of John's pronouncements about Christ. When they came to John and said, who are you? Are you the promised Messiah?

14:05 He said, uh-uh, you've got the wrong fellow. I'm just a voice crying. I'm crying about the one who's coming. And when he came, John's two-pronged announcement about him is found very beautifully tied together in John chapter 1, verses 29 through 34.

14:26 On the morrow he, speaking of John the Baptist, seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Behold the one in whom all the types and shadows of the Old Testament lambs have their fulfillment. Behold in this one, one who will not bear away in type the sins of men, as did those lambs and bullets under the Mosaic system, but this is God's Lamb who will actually carry away into the wilderness of eternal forgetfulness the sins of mankind.

15:12 Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water. And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit, descending as a dove out of heaven, and it abode upon him.

15:39 And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize in water, he said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding upon him, the same is he that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Now do you see, do you see what John says? He moves from this pronouncement about Christ being the Lamb who bears away sin to this announcement that He is the One who will baptize in or with the Holy Spirit.

16:21 And so the great promise of the crowning blessing of Messiah, according to John, is found in this promise that He shall baptize in the Spirit. So when Paul says, you Ephesians, having heard and believed, were sealed with the Spirit of the promise, he is not only referring to the promise of the crowning blessing of the new covenant as it came from the Old Testament, but he is referring to the gift of the Spirit promised as the crowning blessing of Messiah in the announcement of John. And then, and I think primarily, he has in mind the Holy Spirit,

17:05 as the promised blessing of Jesus Christ Himself. And will you turn please to John chapter 14, and we shall look very briefly at three or four passages in which we find our Lord in the presence of His disciples announcing to them that He is going to leave them. And what could be worse than to have this person with whom you've lived, in whose presence you've slept, and ate, and from whose lips you've dropped words of life, so that you've had to say, to whom else can we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

17:47 And you've found in Him the reality of forgiveness and the knowledge of eternal life and all that Christ meant to these disciples. And now He says, I'm going to leave you. And sadness fills their hearts. And our Lord recognizes that.

18:02 So He begins the 14th chapter by saying, let not your heart be troubled. Don't be disturbed. Yes, I must lay down my life. I must leave you.

18:11 But don't let this disturb you. And He first of all gives them confidence that though there is a temporary separation, there will be an eternal reunion. If I go, I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am there you may be also. And He says, in eternity there'll be no separation.

18:30 But then He comforts them along a second line. And He says, this earthly physical separation, will usher in something far better than My physical presence. And then He introduces this whole section on the Comforter, the coming of the Holy Spirit. And that's the context now where we pick up the reading at verse 15 of John 14.

18:53 If ye love Me, ye will keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give unto you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. Ye know Him, for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.

19:18 I will not leave you desolate. I come unto you. I'm leaving, but I'm coming. And My coming in the person of the Spirit will usher in something far better than what you now know with My physical presence.

19:35 Verses 25 and 6. The same chapter. These things have I spoken unto you while yet abiding with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said unto you.

19:54 Chapter 15 and verse 26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me. Chapter 16 and verse 7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth.

20:13 It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I go, I will send Him. Here's the promise. These disciples knew as certainly as they saw their Lord going up into heaven, shrouded in the clouds that bore Him out of sight, they could hang upon this Word, If I go, I will send Him.

20:40 Here was promise. And they were led to believe that the great blessing promised was nothing other than the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then turn back to Luke chapter 24 for one more word from our Lord. Luke 24 and verse 49.

21:01 And behold, I send forth the promise of My Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. Now, I trust that going through all of these scriptures has been sufficient to give as it were a brief panorama of why Paul says the Holy Spirit who sealed you Ephesians is the Spirit of the promise. Of the promise that was given through Ezekiel that the crowning blessing of the New Covenant would be God's putting His own Spirit within us.

21:39 He is the Spirit of the promise. The promise of John the Baptist who said He shall bear away the sins of the world. He shall baptize in the Holy Spirit. The promise of our Lord Jesus who said If I go, I will send the Comforter unto you.

21:56 So then, He is the promised Spirit. Everything that the people of God now enjoy of the person and ministry of the Spirit particularly as the seal of God not upon them. They enjoy because He is the promised Spirit. Now this has two very fundamental and essential implications.

Implications of the Spirit as the 'Spirit of Promise'

22:19 First is this. If we are sealed with the Spirit as the Spirit of promise then the sealing is all of grace. For in scripture the concept of promise and grace are strict parallels. Whatever is of promise is all of grace.

22:39 And not of worse. Look at that parallel in Romans chapter 9 where promise and election are almost used synonymously. Romans chapter 9 verses 8 through 11. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are the children of God that is the earthly descendants of Abraham but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed.

23:09 For this is a word of promise. According to this season will I come and Sarah will have a son. And not only so but Rebekah having conceived by one even by our father Isaac for the children being not yet born neither having done any good or bad that the purpose of God according to election might stand. It was said not of works but of him that calleth it was said unto her the elder shall serve the younger.

23:36 See what Paul does? He mixes the terms the sovereignty of grace in election and the promise of God as to the person upon whom blessing should terminate. And so when Paul says to the Ephesians you were sealed with the spirit of the promise he is underscoring the gracious sovereignty of that act of sealing. They did not deserve this sealing because of any inherent merit in them.

24:08 They did not earn this sealing meeting sixteen hundred different conditions. No, no. It was the sealing of grace another one of those blessings which he mentioned in verse three of the same chapter that was freely bestowed upon the people of God in Christ Jesus. And therefore any view of the work of the spirit that brings in human merit even so called spiritual conditions is moving us out of the orbit of grace and putting us into the orbit of law.

24:44 We must look upon the work of God's spirit in sealing us as the spirit of promise as a holy gracious work one to which we ascribe honor and praise for which we ascribe honor and praise to God and to God alone. And the second implication is this if we are sealed with the spirit as the spirit of promise then the sealing will accomplish what the promise is predicted. Is he coming to the people of God as the spirit of promise? Yes.

25:20 Well what was he promised to do? Was he promised to give them great exotic spiritual experiences? Did Ezekiel say in promising the crowning gift of the new covenant I will put my spirit within you and he shall give you tingles and thrills and you will be able to handle snakes and see the...

25:43 No, no, what did he say? And he will cause you to walk in my statutes and to keep my judgments. You see the spirit of the promise was promised as a spirit who would enable the people of God to walk in the light of the law of God. He would enable them to be holy.

26:06 So if we are sealed with the spirit of the promise we are sealed unto a life of obedience unto a life of holiness. What was the focus of our Lord's promise? He said when the spirit is come he'll reveal me unto you. He'll make real your union with me in that day.

26:27 Ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in me and I in you. What does the spirit make real? He doesn't make real ecstasies and all kinds of peculiar ways and weird things that are supposed to be symbols of spirituality. He makes real the glory of Christ to the heart of the Christian and the wonder of the Christian's union with Christ.

26:52 Then he says he'll not only enable you to know something of the reality of your union with me he'll enable you to speak powerfully of me to others. That's why he said I send the promise of my Father upon you. Ye shall receive power the Holy Spirit coming upon you. Ye shall be witnesses unto me.

27:11 Not witnesses of exotic experiences in the Holy Ghost. No, no. When he has come as the spirit of promise he comes to enable the people of God to bear witness to Christ to be like Christ. He has come to make Christ precious and to make Christ real.

27:33 If I say to you I have a wealthy friend and when he comes he will bring with him sufficient wealth to pay all your debts and to send you on the three month holiday. Why then you know if my wealthy friend has come according to my promise all your debts will be paid and you're on your way for a three month holiday. If it's the friend that I promised he will come in terms of the promise that I made. So when the Holy Spirit comes to seal us as the spirit of the promise he will accomplish precisely what the promises said he would accomplish.

28:13 Namely enabling us to walk in God's precepts making Christ real to us enabling us to bear witness to Christ enabling us to be like Christ. I think you see the negative warning that flows out of this. Beware of any and all teaching on the person and work of the spirit which moves away from these two foci these two points of biblical emphasis he's the spirit of promise therefore his work is all of grace he's the spirit of promise his work will accomplish what the promises predicted.

The Holy Spirit as the 'Holy One'

28:55 Well then the second thing said about him is that he is the spirit the Holy One. The agent who seals us is specifically called the Holy One. Now first of all what does that term mean and then secondly what does it imply. Well the term holy here means exactly what it means wherever we find that term used with reference to God.

29:26 May I say reverently that the foundational attribute of the Godhead is holiness. You remember in the sixth chapter of Isaiah very familiar passage to most of us. Isaiah said in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord high and lifted up seated upon the throne and his train filled the temple and then he saw in this vision for this was not a corporal physical thing he couldn't reach out and touch them it was a prophetic vision and he said in that vision I saw these seraphim six winged creatures two wings they covered face two wings covered their feet two wings they flew.

30:10 They cried one to another and what was their cry? Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory or as the margin has it the earth is the fullness of his glory the outshining of the perfections of God was such that being close to his throne these peculiar creatures called seraphim they cry holy, holy, holy holiness being his foundational attribute and that perspective has not changed in the New Testament for when we turn all the way to the last book of the New Testament the book of the Revelation and we find in chapter four

30:53 the four and twenty elders about the throne representative of the church of Christ of all ages what do they see and what do they say? they cry as well Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty in chapter fifteen verses three and four we have a picture of the redeemed and it says they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb and the dominant note in that song is this only thou art holy so God who is love God who is justice God who is omnipotence he is holy love he is holy justice he is holy omnipotence

31:37 and therefore the Holy Spirit shares in that foundational attribute he's the gracious spirit he's the powerful spirit he's the all wise spirit he's the patient spirit he's the loving spirit but the one attribute that is taken out and brought into focus and the spotlight shines upon it Paul says ye were sealed with the spirit of the promise dash the holy the holy one underscoring this attribute of God as holy now what does this say to us in a practical way well it says this

32:21 that if he is sent as a divine seal and in being sent he comes as the Holy Spirit his work of sealing will be directly related to what he is of himself so his seal upon us by his indwelling will be productive of holiness he it is who stamps the image of God upon our hearts it is he who causes us to love the law of God it is he who enables us to live a life unto the praise of God a life of holiness

33:04 therefore the scripture which teaches us that this sealing occurred when they heard and believed teaches in other passages wherever the word is heard and believed there is the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit 2 Thessalonians 2.13 is a pivotal text God be thanked that he hath chosen you from the beginning to salvation how? through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth so having heard and believed they were sealed with the spirit the Holy One who by his own indwelling

33:47 set them apart from a life of sin unto a life of holiness and godliness and if you and I as believers understand that and believe it it should cause us to stand in a manger to stand in amazement at the kind of grace that would have infinite holiness come to infinite vileness and take up residence that's exactly what he's done for the sealing is nothing less than his own indwelling his own person coming to make us his temples and even though the spirit applying the blood of Christ

34:32 can be said to quote the words of Acts 15 to purify our hearts by faith oh how much pollution and corruption yet remains and yet this Holy One dwells within us that's why Paul knew that this thought would be a most penetrating one to the Ephesians when he said later on in this book grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption and what is the context? it's the context of telling people don't get fussed up with one another don't hold grudges against one another don't speak angry words of one another look at the context of Ephesians 4.30

35:14 before and after he's giving exhortations on the avoidance of the petty sins that so easily mar the peace of the domestic sphere what is the greatest cause of disruption in the average Christian home? well it's not infidelity it's not downright brutality a husband who beats up a wife no no that's rare in a Christian home but what causes that spirit of dampening to come over the household isn't it this where there's some question about absolute transparency between a husband and wife

35:58 or between children and parents where there is unjust anger where there's indifference to one another's rights and properties where there is bitterness or clamor railing where there is lack of forgiveness are not these the things that mar the presence of Christ in the domestic sphere? aren't these the things that mar the presence of Christ in the body of God's people? and it's those things that he's speaking about put away falsehoods speak truth be angry and sin not let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, railing be put away from you and in the midst of that he says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God for everything tolerated that is contrary to his own nature

36:42 is a source of grief to him and so on the one hand we have grounds to be amazed that this holy one should dwell in vessels so unholy and also we have grounds to be careful that we do not grieve him by tolerating anything else that we do not grieve him by tolerating anything that is offensive to his holy being well so much then for the agent by whom we are sealed we are sealed by the spirit who is the promised one who is the holy one now we have time just to introduce the next large area of thought in Paul's words namely the sphere in which we are sealed

The Sphere of Sealing: Union with Christ

37:25 we've looked at the meaning of the sealing to be stamped as authentic to be identified as God's own to be rendered secure we've looked at the agent in the sealing he was sealed with the Holy Spirit two things about that agent he is the promised spirit he is the Holy Spirit now having considered the meaning of the sealing the agent in the sealing the third division of thought in these two verses is the sphere in which the sealing takes place if someone were to say in Uncle Sam's army you are shorn of all your hair

38:07 you are issued baggy clothes and you are given a poor diet of food what he's saying is that shorn head, baggy clothes and poor diet becomes your experience when you get in the sphere of Uncle Sam's army we'd all understand him to speak that way well notice that this is what the Apostle Paul does in Ephesians 1 what is the sphere in which this sealing occurs verse 13 in whom ye also having heard the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation unless you lost my train of thought Paul says

38:50 in whom having believed ye were sealed what then is the sphere of this sealing it is a sphere described by the words in whom now those words you ought to be familiar with this is the 11th time we've come across them in these 14 verses the key phrase we meet in the very first verse of this book the faithful in Christ Jesus we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ we are chosen in Christ that phrase

39:34 in him, in whom, in Christ and we have seen again and again it simply means it profoundly means in union with Christ in connection with Christ so then the sphere in which this sealing of the spirit takes place is union with Jesus Christ like all the blessings they are only given in union with Christ he's just opening up another facet of verse 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 and so this blessing

40:19 like all the others comes to us in one sphere and in one sphere alone union with Jesus Christ with Jesus Christ our Savior and our Lord now that being true it has two very fundamental implications one exclusive one inclusive no one is sealed who is out of union with Christ and the Christ is the Christ of Christian theology when Paul says in whom he has in mind nothing less than the historic Christ of Christian theology Jesus of Nazareth born of the virgin

41:04 Jesus of the cross Jesus of the open tomb our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high and he says unless there is vital union with this Christ there is no sealing of the spirit there is no blessing from God the Father so it has a variation an exclusive reference but thank God it has an inclusive one everyone who is in Christ is sealed with the spirit of the promise the Holy One no one sealed out of Christ all sealed who are in Christ

41:49 for he hath blessed us all believers with every spiritual blessing in Christ and there is not one believer who is not blessed with the blessing of sealing in Jesus Christ now establishing or having established the meaning of the words in whom explaining the sphere it brings us to a very simple and yet I've wrestled with this thing literally for hours and hours to try to synthesize it and get it as simply as possible it brings us to this question how is this union established with Christ leading to the sealing if the sealing only occurs in Christ

How Union with Christ is Established for Sealing

42:30 how is that union with Christ established by which we are sealed and the answer is threefold and we won't have time to get to all of them wherever we quit this morning the Lord willing we'll pick up next week first of all we may say that union was established graciously and sovereignly in eternity secondly it was established personally and experientially when we were effectually called by the Father to repentance and faith thirdly it was established symbolically and sacramentally in baptism first of all then it was established

43:14 graciously and sovereignly in eternity verse four I'm not going to expound it we did that months ago but here he says even as he chose us in him in him and our union with Christ goes back to that period before time when we had no actual being when God graciously designed to save a multitude whom no man can number but it's not this aspect of our union which formed the sphere of the sealing this aspect of our union formed the basis of the seal if we had not been chosen in Christ we would never have been sealed in Christ but it's this second aspect of the union

Union Established Experientially Through the Gospel

43:59 which is paramount in the thinking of Paul here this union is established personally and experientially through the effectual call of the Father 1 Corinthians 1.9 is the most helpful commentary on this fact God is faithful Paul says by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord that's why Paul puts between the two references to in Christ these words verse 13 in whom ye also having heard the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation

44:42 in whom having believed ye were sealed he says the union with Christ which brought about your sealing was inseparably connected with your effectual call when you were brought to hear and you were brought to believe therefore the union with Christ which puts us into the sphere of the sealing is that which God brings to pass when he calls us out of darkness into light through the preaching of the gospel now notice what truth was preached he says you heard the word of the truth that's what it was what it was objectively

45:27 and what was its subject matter the gospel of your salvation well what was the content of that gospel well you go back to Acts 20 and Paul tells us he has the Ephesian elders before him and he says now you remember for the space of three years day and night I was with you I was in your homes out in the market places and this is what I preached testifying to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ verse 24 of the same chapter he says I testify the gospel of the grace of God now follow closely I know it means you've got to think but this has just been opened up a whole new panorama

46:12 of truth to me in recent days when they were brought into that sphere where the sealing occurs they were brought there not by the so called full gospel of Pentecostalism which says now look you've repented and believed and you've trusted Christ and some way you've got the spirit but now listen to our full gospel and get the full measure of the spirit no no Paul says look when you heard the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation the truth about Christ the truth about God the truth about repentance the truth about salvation the truth about God the truth about repentance the truth about salvation the truth about faith then you were sealed

46:56 with the spirit of the promise he says sure I preach the full gospel but all fullness is in Christ you don't start with Christ and then go on to the Holy Ghost you start with Christ and in Him you have all fullness and then you begin to draw upon Him for time and for eternity and so the apostle says you were brought into that sphere where the spirit of healing occurred when you were called out of darkness into marvelous light through the preaching may I say it of the simple gospel God is God and we are His creatures God is holy and we are sinners God is just and deserves to punish us for our sins

47:40 God is love and sent His Son to a rebel race of sinners that Son lived the sins of sinners and sent His Son to a rebel race of sinners that Son lived the sins of sinners that Son lived a sinless life that Son died that Son burst the bands of death He ascended to the right hand of the Father salvation is offered in His name repent of your sins believe the gospel that's what Paul preached and he says when you heard that and you believed that you were sealed with the spirit of promise so then here in Ephesians as in every other place in scripture

48:24 the gift of the spirit is always given when there is a saving response to the simple gospel and I want to demonstrate that from a couple of passages and then just have to close one page short of termination Acts chapter 2 please Acts chapter 2 120 have come down from the upper room it's been noised abroad that something unusual has happened Peter preaches

49:09 Christ and having preached about an exalted Christ these people are pricked in their hearts and they cry out Acts 2 37 brethren what shall we do now notice carefully verses 38 and 39 and Peter said unto them repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins repent ye and receive submit to the confessional ordinance all of which he says have reference to what the most fundamental blessing of the gospel he says

49:53 forgiveness of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for to you is the promise what promise the promise of the new covenant that promise is to you the gift of the spirit given in connection with what forgiveness of sins that promise is to you and he says to your children and to all that are afar off well who among them all of my children just because they happen to be my offspring all of the people in the world simply because they happen to live afar

50:37 as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him whenever God effectually calls a sinner what does he do he gives forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost and the same God who gives forgiveness gives the gift of his spirit as many as the Lord shall call and with many other words he testified and exhorted saying save yourselves from this crooked generation then they that received his word were baptized

51:22 and there were added unto them in that day three thousand about three thousand souls now notice the absence of any record that they received the spirit with tongues with unusual manifestations what does the Holy Ghost say about the spirit in terms of the promise did the spirit come to do to cause people to walk in God's statutes to testify of the truth so what do we read they continued steadfastly in the apostles teaching

52:06 and fellowship in the Holy Ghost with two thousand nine hundred ninety nine other Jews they continued in fellowship the ability to subject their minds to objective authority the apostles doctrine having that spirit and it's for novelty and creature pride that would invent its own doctrines slain by the power of the Holy Ghost so their minds was dark fellowship breaking of

52:50 bread and the prayers well time is gone and there's so many other passages but I feel this principle has been so revolutionary in my own thinking and is so necessary that I shall take the liberty next week to just pick up where we left off and enlarge upon it effectually calls a sinner out of darkness into his marvelous light and we're going to see that the reason that this is true but I just got to mention it is because the gift of the Spirit is not something

53:33 we earn by our tallying and by our meeting of a hundred conditions but the gift of the Spirit is something Christ earned by his sufferings unto death and he being by the right hand of God exalted he having received the promise of the Spirit hath shed forth this and it's in loving attachment to an obedient suffering glorified Savior that the Spirit is initially given and he is continually given in ever increasing measures as our confidence is fixed in the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ

54:17 and in him alone oh may God fill our hearts with such a vision of Christ the mediator of the new covenant who not only brings the blessing of complete forgiveness but as the mediator of that covenant sends forth his Spirit into our hearts enabling us to cry Abba that is Father what is the sphere in which we are sealed the sphere is union with Christ and I say to any amongst us this morning if you're not vitally joined to Jesus Christ if you've not repented and believed the gospel my friend God doesn't own you as his own oh you're his creature and he has rights with reference to your life

55:00 but he doesn't own you as his child he hasn't marked you as one who is redeemed property and you have no assurance that you will stand in that awful day clothed in the righteousness of Christ you will stand in that awful day clothed in the righteousness of Christ you must be sealed by God if you're to be accepted by him in that day but you can't be sealed until you believe the gospel of his dear son and I would entreat you as we close this morning to take seriously the word of God and its message of grace and the Savior who is set before you and repent and believe the gospel and come to know this great blessing of being sealed

55:44 in union with Jesus Christ let us pray