Sealing of The Holy Spirit, Part 5

Introduction: The Sealing of the Spirit in Christ

0:02 Good morning to Ephesians chapter 1, for what will be our concluding study in verse 13 of this great hymn of praise to the triune God for that great salvation which he has treasured up for us in Jesus Christ.

0:24 The theme of that salvation, of course, announced in verse 3 of this paragraph that we've been studying for some months now. Now, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And then having announced the theme of his praise, the apostle then begins to open up and overlaying one great concept upon another, sets before us this sweeping statement of that great salvation which the Father has purposed for his people. And so, he praises the Father particularly for his work in election and predestination, praises the Son for his work of redemption, the wisdom that comes to us in his name through the gospel, for the heritage that he has given to us. And then he praises the Father for the work of the Spirit, that work which he pinpoints in these words, in whom ye were sealed. And in our previous studies, in verse 13, verses 13 and 14, we have noted that everything in these two verses clusters around the concept, ye were sealed.

1:43 The dominant work of the Spirit for which the apostle praises the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is his work of sealing. So we've looked at the meaning of sealing. We have seen that it brings together at least three main strands of thought. The seal is God's, stamp of authentication.

2:04 He marks us as the real product. It's his seal of identification and his seal of preservation. And we saw in this text that the agent in the sealing was the Spirit, in whom, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Spirit. And then, two things about the seal.

2:31 About the Spirit. He is the Spirit of the promise. He is the Spirit, the Holy One. And so the agent by whom we are sealed is none other than the third person of the Triune Godhead, the Holy Spirit himself, who seals us in keeping with the promise, and who seals us as the Holy One.

2:56 And now, for a couple of weeks, we've been looking at this third area of thought, in the Apostle's words, and it's what we are calling the sphere in which the sealing takes place. The Apostle is so anxious that we keep this thought dominant in our own minds, that he begins by saying, in whom, and then it's parenthetical, having heard the gospel of your salvation, in whom, having believed, ye were sealed. So that he does not want us to regard the sealing as something, something distinct from the blessings that are given to us in Christ, but in keeping with verse 3, the announced theme of the paragraph, he wants us to view the sealing as that which comes to us in this sphere, and in this sphere alone, union with Jesus Christ. And so the fact that he denotes the sphere as being in Christ, there is both an inclusive and an exclusive perspective. Everyone who is incorporated into Christ is sealed. Only those who are in Christ are sealed.

The Gift of the Spirit as a Divine Seal: A Proposition

4:10 As we've been developing this thought of Christ being the sphere in which we are sealed, I laid before you a proposition last week, and began to demonstrate the truth of it from the epistles, and I want to carry on and show it from the Acts of the Apostles this morning, and the statement was this, that the gift of the Spirit, is given as a divine seal, whenever and wherever the gospel of forgiveness of sins, through Jesus Christ, is preached and believed. How did the Ephesians come into this sphere of union with Christ? Paul tells us in this very text, in whom, having heard and having believed, ye were sealed. So they were brought into vital union with Jesus Christ, by the effectual call of the Father. God is faithful, 1 Corinthians 1.9, by whom ye were called unto or into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

5:14 And how does the Father call us into union with Christ? By bringing the gospel to us, and by disposing our hearts to believe that gospel, or as Luke writes in the book of Acts, concerning those who believed through grace, and in the gracious and powerful operations of God by the Spirit. We are brought to faith, and being brought to faith, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of promise, as the Holy One. And so we must never think of the gift of the Spirit, as something distinct from faith in Jesus Christ, as the one who brings us unto God.

5:58 We must never look upon the gift of the Spirit, as some part of an advanced Christian truth, or advanced Christian experience. The gift of the Spirit is inseparably bound up, with the threshold experience of the grace of God. When men hear, and men believe, men are sealed, and this is the inseparable trilogy of spiritual experience. And so we then went to the epistles, passages in Romans, and passages in Galatians, and Titus, to show that in every place, where there is any treatment of the gift of the Spirit, it is shown to be in conjunction with faith in the gospel of divine forgiveness. Not faith in some doctrine of a separate, special, distinct work of the Spirit, but the Spirit is given as divine seal, when the gospel of forgiveness through Christ is preached, and is believed. Now, we're not going to go back over all those passages. If you are not here, and wish to examine them, you may take my notes afterwards, you may see Mr. Rogers,

Interpreting the Book of Acts: Challenges and Principles

7:07 and get a tape. But now, what I wish to do this morning, is to show from the book of the Acts, that this is the same teaching that comes to us historically in Acts, as we find didactically, or taught explicitly in the epistles. Now, there are peculiar problems, with trying to interpret the book of the Acts. And we must not be indifferent to, or ignorant of, those problems.

7:37 Now, the problems arise basically because the book of the Acts takes place in a time when God is tearing down the scaffolding of the old economy, and bringing in the structure of the new in its fullest expression. We do not believe that the Bible teaches with the dispensationalists, that God's dealings are in terms of hard, fixed, vertical categories, and that there is no sustaining dealings of God with His people. We believe that the people of God are basically one in every period of human history. Romans chapter, I mean Ephesians chapter 2, shows that new truth has come with regard to the unity of God's people. But Hebrews 11 and 12 states, that that essential unity is a precious thing, and that we are come unto that general assembly of the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. And though we do not have sympathy with that kind of teaching, that chops up the word of God into hard, fast, vertical categories, we do recognize that the Bible speaks of the old that is passing, and the new that has come. It speaks of the old covenant, and it speaks of the new covenant, and the whole thrust of the book of Hebrews

9:01 is to show that certain things are falling away as certain things emerge in their permanent structure. And this is why the book of the Acts is a difficult book to interpret, because it is a record of God's dealings in which the scaffolding is being torn down and the permanent building is emerging. And so there are times when you say, well, that happened, Luke tells us it happened, but is that part of the scaffolding? Is that part of the thing that we should look upon as past?

9:35 Or should we seek to reproduce that by God's grace, or call upon God to reproduce it in us? And this is why interpreting the book of the Acts is a difficult thing. And therefore, when someone who is still very wet behind the ears spiritually comes up to you, as I had one chap do in this Pentecostal Bible Institute where I was preaching a few weeks ago, and tries to convince me that I ought to seek a specific baptism in the Spirit with speaking in tongues on the basis of a few poorly quoted texts out of the book of Acts, it's merely the height of ignorance. The Lord gave me compassion on him, and I didn't tell him he was ignorant, but his ignorance was just oozing out of every pore when he thought that issues could be so easily resolved, particularly by some poorly quoted texts, out of context in the book of Acts. Now, this is not the kind of stuff that gets you shouting happy. I acknowledge that. But since my task is to seek to rightly divide, cut a straight course in the word of truth, I feel I must give that prefacing remark.

10:41 But, giving full allowance to the difficulties, giving full allowance to the fact that I will not answer all of your questions relative to the passages that I'm going to deal with, let alone the passages I'm not going to deal with, I believe this principle will not work. This principle will be seen very clearly this morning in the book of the Acts, that the gift of the Spirit as a divine seal is given when the gospel of forgiveness is preached and believed. That is the full gospel. The gift of the Spirit is not given in conjunction with some extra message or with some kind of teaching concerning the Holy Spirit.

Demonstration from Acts 2: Pentecostal Converts

11:21 The gift of the Spirit is given in conjunction with the gospel of forgiveness preached and believed, just as we saw taught in the epistles, we shall see demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles. I refer you very, very briefly to Acts chapter 2, since we looked at this a couple of weeks ago, and I don't want to weary you with going over the same ground twice, but just for the benefit of those who are not with us, and for those of you who would not naturally see the connection, in terms of today's study, in Acts chapter 2, you remember Peter is explaining to the people what has happened. They think they are drunk with new wine. Peter explains, no, this is a fulfillment of the promise of Joel that the Spirit would be poured out. God is introducing this new age based upon the accomplishment of Christ's redemptive work that the Spirit is now poured forth. When they hear this, verse 37 of Acts 2, they are pricked in the heart, and they say to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? 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, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

12:42 Now notice, no condition is placed between their saving response to the gospel of forgiveness and reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit. No condition is placed between their saving response to the Gospel of forgiveness and reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Conditions are placed between saving response to the gospel of forgiveness and reception of the Holy Spirit.

13:06 Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise. What promise? The promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit.

13:26 The true great works of Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. The two focal points of John the Baptist preaching about him, the one who is coming, bears away sin, he baptizes in the Spirit. Peter preaching says, to you is the promise. Forgiveness, the gift of the Spirit.

13:50 And to your children, and to all that are afar off, and then he qualifies. Who of their children? Children, who of those that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. Whenever God calls in his effectual call, whenever he calls men unto himself, what will happen?

14:15 The promise is fulfilled. There is forgiveness through the redemptive work of Christ. There is the gift of the Spirit given on the basis of the redemptive work of Christ. And so as Luke then carries on the narrative, he says, with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation.

14:37 Then they that received his word were baptized, and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread and the prayers. Luke does not need to say, they that received his word, were baptized and were sealed with the Spirit.

15:02 Peter's declaration of the absolute inseparability of these things, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Spirit, they are so inseparable in the thinking of Luke, that he doesn't need to record all of those things. When one is truly enacted, everything else is enacted with it. That's why sometimes in Scripture, only repentance is mentioned, because faith is assumed. Only faith is mentioned, because repentance is assumed.

15:31 Sometimes only baptism is mentioned, and faith and repentance are assumed. Sometimes only the gift of the Spirit is mentioned, but repentance, faith, and the confessional ordinance is assumed. So that Luke doesn't even say, they received the Spirit. He doesn't need to.

15:49 What he does do is describe the evidence of the divine seal. They were authenticated as God's people. They were identified as God's people. They were being preserved as God's people, because the gift of the Spirit had been given to them.

16:06 And how do we know he was given? Not because they spoke in tongues. Not because they had great ecstatic spiritual experiences. Not because they could describe in glowing terms visions and trances.

16:20 But because of these things. They continued steadfastly in the apostles' teaching. And, fellow readers, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. And so the passage sets before us this simple but fundamental principle that the gift of the Spirit was given to those initial Pentecostal converts when the gospel of forgiveness through Jesus Christ was heard and was believed.

16:51 Not some subsequent thing. With ten hundred or ten or three other conditions, repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus unto the remission of sins, ye shall receive the gift of the Spirit.

17:07 So we see Ephesians 1.13 was their experience. In whom, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of their salvation, in whom, having also believed, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now then, turn to Acts chapter 10 and pray.

Demonstration from Acts 10-11: Cornelius's Household

17:30 Personally, I have found this passage to be one of the most helpful. Time will not permit a reading of the entire chapter. Let me give a brief summary. And remind you, what we're trying to discover in these passages in Acts is that simple principle, the gift of the Spirit given when the message of forgiveness is preached and believed.

17:50 In the first 33 verses, we have a record of how God got a reluctant apostle into the presence of somebody, some Gentile dogs, for whom he had gracious purposes of salvation. If you were to summarize the first 33 verses, that's it in a nutshell. God's dealings to get a reluctant, nationally prejudiced apostle into the presence of some Gentile dogs whom God was purposing to save. And so he gets them together.

18:24 Now, when they are together, what happens? Well, verse 34 is the answer. And Peter opened his mouth and said, now he begins to preach, of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons. And he begins to proclaim the gospel of divine forgiveness based upon the once for all redemptive acts of Jesus Christ.

18:51 And we pick up the thread of thought now in verse 42. And he charged us to preach unto the people and to testify that this is he who is ordained of God to be judge of the living and the dead, to him bear all the prophets witness that through his name, now follow closely, every one that believeth on him shall receive remission of sin.

19:20 While Peter yet spews words. What words? Well, it could refer to the words in general, but I think the immediate context puts the favor, in terms of these words concerning forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ to be received by faith while he spake these words the Holy Spirit on them that heard the word. And they that were of the circumcision that believed were amazed, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.

20:00 Then answered Peter, Peter, can any man forbid the water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days. Now I know what you want me to do.

20:18 I want me to explain the significance of tongues in this passage, but I'm not going to do it. Not because I don't believe I can do it, but because it's not pertinent to the development of thought that I want you to see this morning. What I want you to see is that we have exactly the same elements here as we had in those passages in the epistles that we had in Acts 2. What's the message being preached?

20:40 Is it some message of, quote, a full gospel? Is Peter preaching to these people saying, now you people are saved and you're justified and you're regenerate, but you're just little shriveled up mamby-pamby Christians because you haven't gone on to get a second work of grace? Is he preaching the so-called full gospel of a distinct, distinct second reception of the Holy Spirit? No, no.

21:03 He's preaching the message that all the prophets said would be preached, that in the name of Jesus forgiveness of sin is tendered to men and those who believe shall receive forgiveness and the Holy Spirit comes as divine seal to indwell these people in the context of the preaching of forgiveness through the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ. Not in any other context, but that alone. Now Peter says, well, since they have received the Spirit and the message of forgiveness, reception of that message, baptism, reception of the Spirit, since all these things are one bundle, can any man forbid the water?

21:49 Why, of course they've received the Spirit. How can we forbid the water? That external, that sacramental, that symbolic declaration, of the spiritual experience. Can we forbid this, who have received the Spirit?

22:06 Now those are the facts of what happened. Now in chapter 11, we have Peter reporting those facts and giving some interpretation and this is most significant. Because when the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the Word of God, this got them uptight a little bit. So Peter comes with the companions who were with him there in Cornelius' household and he explains, explains the whole business.

22:32 And in the first few verses of chapter 11, he gives a summary of what we read in the first 32 verses of chapter 10. He says, this is what God had to do to get me down to a Gentile house to preach the gospel. Now, verse 12, And the Spirit bade me go with them, making no distinction. And these six brethren also accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house, and he told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and fetch Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall speak unto thee words whereby thou shalt be saved and all thy house.

23:15 Now notice this significant thing.

23:18 The angel said to Cornelius, Get Peter, who is going to speak words of salvation unto you. Words of salvation. Keep that in mind. Verse 15, And as I began, to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning.

23:38 And I remember the word of the Lord. How that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit. If then God gave unto them the like gift as he did also unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus, Christ, who was I that I could withstand God? And when they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also hath God granted repentance unto light.

24:17 Now do you see the same strands of thought? As Peter interprets what happened at Cornelius' household, he says this,

24:27 Cornelius was told that I would come to preach a message of salvation, not a message of how to get the baptism with the Spirit, and speak in tongues, come with the so-called full gospel of Pentecostalism. He came with a message of salvation through Jesus Christ the Lord, salvation that brought forgiveness of sins to all who would believe. And then, as Peter was preaching that, he says the Holy Spirit was given in what context? Verse 17, He gave them the like gift as unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was the condition we met to receive? Exactly the same condition they met. And what was it? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

25:20 Faith directed to a Savior who accomplished all that was necessary to procure the salvation of men, and who went back to the right hand of the Father, and now forgiveness of sins is preached in His name. We receive the Spirit upon faith in the Lord Jesus. They receive. They receive the Spirit on the same basis.

25:43 Now, I know I haven't answered a lot of questions. I'm not intending to answer all the questions. But I am intending to underscore this basic principle that the gift of the Spirit was given to the household of Cornelius not in the context of an elaborate measure of instruction on the Holy Spirit, but in terms of simple proclamation concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was given not on the basis of a whole list of internal conditions which had to be met in terms of so many days of fasting or so many weeks of complete and total victory over quote known sin and all the other conditions that are set up as prerequisites to get some great second experience in the Holy Ghost. The condition was what? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

26:39 And that was precisely Peter's understanding of it. And the others got the message because listen to their interpretation. And when they heard these things, and this always baffles me, they held their peace and glorified God's saying. So there must have been a period of deathly silence.

26:56 They held their peace. And they were thinking, how should we interpret this? What do we make of all of this? And then apparently they came to one mind in their understanding of Peter's report and this is it.

27:09 Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted what? A great...

27:14 ...interpreted the gift of the Spirit as being an inseparable pendant when salvation was granted.

27:32 And so it brings us back to the basic premise that I've been developing now for two weeks. That the gift of the Spirit is given wherever and whenever the gospel of divine forgiveness is believed, heard, and believed as God by the Spirit draws men to His Son. So, Ephesians 1.13, is before us again.

27:54 In whom the household of Cornelius, in whom having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of their salvation, in whom also having believed, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise. And so the pattern of Ephesians 1 is demonstrated there in Acts 10. Now we could turn to Acts 8, and Acts 19, and Acts 9. Three other very pivotal passages often marshaled in defense of the position of our Pentecostal friends, many of whom I regard as my dear and esteemed brothers.

Demonstration from Acts 19: Disciples at Ephesus

28:30 I am not attacking Pentecostalism. My grandmother, who was instrumental in my own conversion, was a godly Swedish Pentecostal. I have dear Pentecostal friends. Don't anyone please interpret this as just unsheathing the sword and flaying away at Pentecostals.

28:48 No, we're dealing with principles of truth, dear ones. Not with personalities, not with brothers, not with sisters and sisters whom we may love in Christ, but we're dealing with these basic things related to our salvation. And we could show in these passages as well. Well, let's just very quickly look at the Acts 19 passages.

29:07 And I don't want to dwell on it because I do want to round this out by answering the question, why is the Spirit given in conjunction with the message of forgiveness? When Paul comes to Ephesus and asks the question, did you receive the Spirit when you believed? He assumes that this is the normal thing, that when men believe, the Holy Spirit is given. And they said, no, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given.

29:35 Well, he said, if you haven't heard that Jesus Christ died and rose and on the basis of His death and resurrection, the Father has granted to Him the promised Spirit and He has shed forth the Spirit. What message did you hear? It couldn't have been the Christian message. It couldn't have been the full-blown message of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and exalted, and that was the message preached at Pentecost, as we'll see in a little bit.

29:58 He being by the right hand of God exalted and having obtained the promised Spirit has shed forth this which you see in here. He says, well, then, into what were you baptized? Well, it said into John's baptism. He said, well,

30:12 John baptized with the baptism of repentance saying the people should believe on Him that should come after Him, that is, on Jesus. And when they heard this, the message about Jesus, they were baptized, in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands upon Him, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied. When was the Holy Spirit given?

30:35 Not when Paul gave them some detailed instruction about the Holy Spirit and then said, now, here's a list of conditions and if in three weeks you meet them, maybe God will give to one or two of you the gift of the Spirit. No. He preached unto them the full-blown Christian message which focuses in Christ and receiving that, the Holy Spirit was then given as a divine seal. And so the pattern is the same in this passage and we could show the same principle in the others.

31:03 But time will not permit that. I hope this has been sufficient in a broad overview of these passages to demonstrate this simple principle in the epistles and in the book of the Acts, the gift of the Spirit is given as a divine seal whenever the gospel of Christ is preached and is believed. So that reading through the New Testament we find, and these things are always tied up together, the message of the gospel, faith and repentance, forgiveness, baptism, and the gift of the Spirit. You say, well, you bother me that you stick baptism in there.

31:38 Well, I can't help it because I see it in the book of the Acts and in the epistles. Now, I'm not dealing with the precise relationship of baptism to the gift of the Spirit. That's another whole subject. But we see these things always meeting on the threshold of Christian experience.

31:54 The message of forgiveness through Christ, faith, repentance, forgiveness, baptism, and the gift of the Spirit. Sometimes one or two are mentioned. Sometimes the order is inverted. But in almost every instance we find all of these things present explicitly or implicitly.

Why the Spirit is Given with the Gospel: Christ's Purchased Blessing

32:13 Now, in the remaining time I want to address myself to this question. Why is it so? Why should it be so that Paul could write to the Ephesians and say, In whom, having heard, having believed, ye were sealed. Why was it so?

32:29 And the answer to that question is this. Because the gift of the Spirit is the purchased blessing of an exalted Lord and is given graciously whenever He is embraced as a Savior and a Sovereign. Why is the gift of the Spirit given in conjunction with the proclamation of and faith in? Why is it so?

32:56 Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so?

32:56 Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so?

32:57 Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so?

32:57 Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so? Why is it so?

32:57 Preach through Christ's name because the gift of the Spirit is the purchased blessing of Jesus Christ. There are two or three pivotal texts which teach this. First of all, John chapter 7. Perhaps no more crucial text in the Gospels than this.

33:18 Crucial that is to understanding the work of the Spirit in conjunction with Christ's work.

33:26 Verse 37. Now on that last day the great, day of the feast jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me as the scripture hath said from within him shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the spirit which they that believed on him were to receive for the spirit was not yet given because jesus was not yet glorified question number one what did it mean he was not yet glorified and if you look at passages like john 12 16 john 12 23 24 john 13 31 and 32 or john 17 1 in john's gospel the concept of being glorified means the accomplishment of his saving work father the hour is coming glorify thy son and that glorification was to be the glorification through death burial resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the father so john says the holy spirit

34:40 the spirit as the spirit of the glorified christ was not yet given because jesus was not yet glorified indicating that when he shall be glorified the spirit shall be given and he shall be glorified and he shall be glorified and he shall be glorified and he shall And all who believe on Him, and that's the condition, notice, not all who believe in the Spirit, all who seek the Spirit, he that believeth on Me, rivers of living water shall flow out of him. Why? Because the Spirit who is the source of that river will be given on the basis of the work of a glorified Christ.

35:18 And so we turn then to Acts 2 and we see the fulfillment of John 7. Acts 2 and verse 32 and 3. This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we are all witnesses, being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He hath poured forth this which ye see and hear. Peter views this gift of the Spirit as the purchased blessing of an exalted Lord.

35:54 He being exalted, he has received the promise and he has shed it forth sovereignly, graciously upon unworthy recipients.

36:07 Why did he do this? Well, it was God's purpose in the very scheme of redemption and I turn you now to the third pivotal passage, Galatians chapter 3.

36:18 Some of you perhaps, if you are acquainted with this passage, wonder why I didn't touch on it last week while I was holding it off till this morning because it's the crowning passage. In this whole area, why is the Spirit given when men believe the gospel of divine forgiveness?

36:36 Galatians 3, 13 and 14. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham, where? In Christ Jesus, that we might receive, the promise of the Spirit through faith.

37:04 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law and his bearing the curse of that law has made it possible for the gift of the Spirit to be given to the believing child of God. And so then, the gift of the Spirit is given not because we come to the Spirit in absolute obedience and earnestly, but because the Lord Jesus by his absolute obedience has purchased that gift for us and is given to us graciously, not when we come as those who've attained some great measure of self-purification and can say we've met the conditions for the baptism of the Spirit, but we've come in the words of the hymn, Nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross, I cling, foul I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, ere I die, and embracing a crucified and exalted Lord as sinners, having heard and believed, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given to us graciously, not on the basis of our obedience, but on the basis of the obedience unto death of our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ.

38:32 Now that does not mean that there is no relationship between my subsequent obedience to the Spirit speaking in Scripture and the measure to which the Holy Spirit uses me and the measure to which the Holy Spirit will reveal Christ to me and the measure to which the Holy Spirit will empower me as a witness. I'm not negating all of the rest of that Scripture teaching concerning the relationship between an ungrieved Spirit and the usefulness and the joy and the power in the life of a believer. When we're in those areas, I hope I'm faithful in preaching them. But we're in Ephesians 1 in which Paul is saying that of the blessings that are stored up in Christ, the blessing of divine sealing came when they heard and believed as sinners, not as people who met a thousand conditions in order to obtain this gift, but who came in their sinful state in repentance and faith and having heard and believed were sealed by the Spirit of promise.

Practical Implications: Receiving Christ and the Spirit

39:42 Well then, this being true, what are some of the practical implications? And I hope to take the next few minutes now to just bear down on some very practical matters. First of all, we should be led to understand that the way to receive the Spirit is to receive Christ as He's offered, as He's offered in the Gospel. You and I must have first-hand dealings with Christ and He who fulfilled all that was necessary to satisfy divine justice and to purchase every gift of grace for us will grant us the Spirit as a divine seal to witness to our sonship.

40:23 Jesus said to the woman at the well, and I quote now from John 4, 13 and 14, Everyone that drinketh of this water shall find the Spirit and thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall become in him, what? A little trickle so that you're just saved?

40:46 No, no, a well of water springing up into eternal life. He says, you come to me and water is given that satisfies. John 7, the passage we looked at earlier, Jesus said, if any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me out of him will flow a little, little trickle because he just is saved.

41:08 He just believes on me. But if he wants to have a river, why then he's got to go on to some advanced teaching and meet some advanced conditions and he's got to have some peculiar instruction about the Holy Spirit and then when he's rightly taught about the Spirit and how to seek the Spirit and how to be baptized in the Spirit, then he'll have a river. That's the teaching of Pentecostalism. They say the problem with the church is people are just saved.

41:31 They're just saved. They're just saved. They're just saved. They're just saved.

41:32 They're just saved. They're just saved. They're just saved. They're just saved.

41:32 They've believed on Christ. But now if only they'd go on the next step and they would then look to Christ to give them the Spirit. Oh no, Jesus said, He that believeth on me out of him shall flow rivers of living water. Isn't that His Word?

41:47 And this spake He of the Spirit. In the case of the disciples, because we're in that transition period, the Spirit was not yet given as the Spirit of the glorified Christ. So they had to tarry until in the divine purpose the time schedule was met. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, God sends forth His Spirit.

42:07 But from that time on, no evidence is found in the apostolic record that they ever commanded people who believed, now go the second step and get the Spirit. No, in that first Pentecostal sermon, Peter assumes that if they receive the message of forgiveness preached in the name of an exalted Christ, they shall receive the gift of the Spirit. And from that time on, when the gospel, the gospel of divine forgiveness is preached in the name of Christ who was crucified, buried, and is now exalted, men having first-hand dealings with Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And what is true at the threshold is true continually.

42:52 How are you to know ever-increasing measures of the Spirit's power and grace have ever-increasing dealings with Jesus Christ? As you know, ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord. So walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Colossians 2.6 In Him ye are made full. Have first-hand dealings with Christ. Learn what it is to abide in Christ. To seek from Christ every necessary gift and grace for life and service.

43:28 To have dealings with Christ is the way to have experience in the Holy Spirit. And the moment that's reversed and people say you must have dealings with the Spirit directly in order to have experience of Christ, they are outside of the biblical perspective.

43:49 The Holy Spirit was never more active in human history than in the book of the Acts. But Christ is central because the Spirit had come to magnify Him. So when they preached full forgiveness through faith in His name, it's as though the Holy Ghost said I'm so glad that you've got the focus where it ought to be and He falls upon a whole household.

44:12 But He fell not when the attention was upon Him looking for Him, seeking Him, but when the attention was upon Christ. And so He has come in every subsequent visitation in the history of the church when Christ in the glory of His person and in the perfection of His work has been loved and preached and heralded abroad. The Holy Ghost has come with power and if we have longings for a visitation, a visitation of grace and mercy to our generation, let us not be mischanneled in our longings and think the answer will come if we begin to devote our attention to the Spirit and we begin to focus upon Him and seek Him without reference to Jesus Christ. No, let us try that Christ may be preached from men and women and boys and girls whose lives evidence the reality of Christ and that the Holy Spirit will bear power and be a powerful witness to the Savior. And so that is one of the very basic implications that comes out of our study last week and this morning. To receive the Spirit is to receive Christ as He is offered in the Gospel. Second principle, the Spirit does not need to be mentioned to be received.

Practical Implications: The Spirit Does Not Need to Be Mentioned

45:25 When Paul is summarizing the Gospel he preached which was the vehicle of the Ephesians receiving the Spirit, he tells them in Acts 20.21 what the message was. Repentance toward God faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It is when they heard that word and believed that they were sealed.

45:42 This idea that the reason the Holy Spirit is not active and powerful is because He is not mentioned and the more we mention Him the more we will experience Him does not stand up to the test of Scripture. The Spirit does not need to be mentioned to be received.

45:57 Christ must be preached. The sufficiency of His merit and His work must be proclaimed and when Christ is proclaimed through men who conscious of their own weakness are dependent upon the Spirit then the Spirit will be active according to His own sovereign purpose. And then I close with the warning beware of the teaching which divides what God has joined. Beware of teaching that says you can get Christ but not have the Spirit.

Warning Against Dividing What God Has Joined & Future Study

46:31 That you can be saved and cleansed and forgiven and still not be indwelt. By the Spirit of Christ God has inseparably joined these things and what God has joined together let not man put asunder. And so we come around full circle to where we began in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 13 In whom having heard the word of the truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. What is the spirit in which the divine sealing takes place?

47:10 That seer is union with Jesus Christ. And men are united to Christ vitally and personally experimentally when they are effectually called through the gospel. And when that gospel is preached and believed by the faith which God Himself creates in the heart of a sinner the Spirit is given as gift as divine seal authenticating that man as a child of God identifying him as a child of God preserving him unto the day of redemption. The Lord willing in our next study we'll look at verse 14 what we might call the further implications of the sealing where Paul says this divine sealing which has come to us in Christ by the Spirit of promise the Holy One is an earnest a down payment the Arabon unto the redemption of the purchased possession and here we see the Holy Spirit here he enlarges on the concept of the divine seal and its to use the technical term its eschatological implications that is its implications not for now but for out there for though we think and rightly so that we are greatly blessed because we are presently sealed with the Spirit we're able to say in the words of Galatians 4 Abba Father the Spirit of His Son in our hearts enabling us to call Him Father against whom we are against whom we are against whom we so previously sinned and whose wrath

48:39 we so sorely provoked we say well what greater blessing could there be than to call Him Father the Spirit bearing witness to our sonship the Spirit helping us in our infirmity the Spirit revealing Christ the Spirit taking the Word and enabling us to know ourselves and to know the Savior and Paul says well all that you now have is but as a five dollar bill compared to a million dollar inheritance it is not it's of the same kind but it's just the down payment the best is yet to come and the fact that the Spirit is now present as a seal is both pledge and surety that all the rest will come and the Lord willing we'll look then at verse 14 the further implications of this great work of God in sealing us unto the day of redemption well I've labored not to be too heavy in dealing with this very vital subject we've moved very slowly I think more slowly through verse 13 than any other verse in the text but in the light of the great importance of the issues I trust that this will be helpful that it will not only be instructive but it will also be preventative so that when anyone comes telling us there's something beyond Christ and some experience in the Spirit beyond detached from separate from that which comes to us

50:06 in saving faith that God will bring to remembrance all of these passages and you say well I'd love to believe what you're saying but until you can exegete these passages and show me that they teach it I'm not going to buy your I'm not going to buy your goods may the Lord help us and if you go down that road and end up in spiritual shipwreck it'll be because you were either willfully ignorant or willfully forgetful may the Lord keep us from both and to you who are here this morning strangers to the world with the Spirit how can you know His work have dealings with Christ flee to Christ cast yourself upon Christ and the forgiveness that is proclaimed in His worthy name now it would be a great grief to me as I believe it would to our Lord if the teaching we've covered in the past three weeks should ever be used as an excuse to be indifferent to the work of the Spirit to say oh well I got all that I could ever have of the Spirit's working when I was saved no no I never said that the Bible doesn't what I am saying is all the further work and ministry and experience in the Holy Spirit is based upon and derived from that which God established at the threshold and from there we must go on and know what the Scripture means when it says grieve not the Spirit quench not the Spirit walk in the Spirit be filled

51:34 with the Spirit and in due time I trust we shall come to those exhortations and we shall but if you have believed you have been sealed with the Spirit who is the earnest of your inheritance let us pray