In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
When Peter fixed his gaze on Christ, he was able to walk on any storm calmly. When he took his eyes off our Lord, he was filled with fear and tension. The reason we get so shaken, tense, upset, confused, and filled with grief and bitterness is that we are over-focused on ourselves and this world. God’s great desire and will for His people is that we be focused on Him and His unchangeable blessings, so we feel completely secure in Him. Even if the whole world seems to be shaking, God wants us to be unshakable in Him.
Everything else in life may be unstable—our health, our family, our job, our society, our world. You may feel as if you are in a building on the 100th floor and there is a big earthquake, and you are falling down, down, not knowing what will happen next. You feel yourself losing balance and falling, and everywhere you try to keep your feet, you slip and fall down; every brick you grab comes out of the wall, and you feel yourself falling down without control. Even then, God wants His children not to fear and to feel 100% secure in God, like the Psalmist in Psalm 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.”
Apostle Paul lived such a fearless life in God. He summarizes his life in Christ in 2 Corinthians 11:25-28, “Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches.” How can such a man, instead of dying from tension, a nervous breakdown, or a heart attack, be so stable and powerful in his soul? How can he plant and strengthen many churches, write letters that will change world history, and, while jailed for preaching the gospel and knowing his head may be cut off at any moment, still dream of going to Spain to spread the gospel if released? The unshakable stability, determination, and assurance of the apostle Paul came from one great discovery: even if the whole world shakes, we can be unshakable in God. God’s will is that we feel so fully secure and assured in Him. That is what God wants us to feel today in verses 13 and 14.
In verse 13, the key word is “sealed,” and in verse 14, the key word is “guarantee.” Both words are used to give unshakable, infallible assurance in our hearts of God’s grace. But you may say, “Pastor, that is how I want to feel about God’s eternal love and security, but there are some verses of warning or some messages you give that seem to shake that assurance.” There are many warning verses in the Bible, and some tell us to self-examine. It would be wrong to avoid those texts; the way to have biblical assurance is not to avoid them. It is a misunderstanding to think those verses take away our assurance. In fact, they are given as a warning not to feel secure in anything other than God. This is because our default mode is to base assurance on worldly things. If you find security in your feelings, devotion, pride, self-righteousness, good works, circumstances, family, job, or money, those texts are given to make us turn away from those things and feel 100% secure only in God and His grace.
So today, we come to verses 13-14. Paul concludes his praise—he praised the Father for election and predestination and the Son for redemption and administration. Now he finally moves to the work of the Holy Spirit. The key phrase is “sealed with the Holy Spirit.” We will cover three headings: 1. The meaning of sealing, 2. The means of sealing, and 3. The goals of sealing.
The Meaning of Sealing
“Sealing” was a common word in those days, and Paul takes this common word to show us what a glorious work the Holy Spirit does in us. A seal in biblical times was used for three things.
1. A Sign of Ownership: Something marked a slave or an animal to show “this is mine; this is my purchased property.” In the old days, we would engrave a seal on steel. Today, companies put a patented trademark on a product to show ownership.
2. Authenticity and Authority: Kings would seal a letter with their signet ring to place their authenticity and authority behind the message. If someone says, “We have a letter from the King,” how do we know the message is not false? Because the seal confirms its originality and his authority. In our currency, the only difference between a counterfeit note and an original is the seal.
3. Security and Protection: This involves keeping something valuable safe and inviolable. Revelation 7:3 mentions the seal of God put on the forehead of God’s servants both to show His ownership and to protect them from the wrath coming upon the world. In Matthew 27:66, the tomb of Jesus was secured by a seal of protection. Anyone who broke that seal would face the wrath of the Roman government. Even books were sealed to protect them so no one should violate the message.
These are the three basic uses of a seal: ownership, originality, and protection. So when Paul says you were sealed, he means three things. By giving the Holy Spirit to you, firstly, God marked His ownership on you. You belong to God, bearing the mark of God’s own possession. You are His trademark, and He is working in you; you are His product. God says, “Hands off, this is my property.”
Secondly, out of millions of Satan’s counterfeits claiming to be God’s people, God has taken His royal signet ring and marked you as His original. There is a true work of God in our lives; the Holy Spirit’s seal is God’s patented mark.
Thirdly, God not only marked you as His own and authenticated your originality, but this seal secures you now and for all eternity. This seal makes you an indestructible, protective seal. In Revelation, there are billions of cruel, torturing demons in the world who want to enter and control us and destroy us, with millions of false teachings, but the Holy Spirit as a seal is protection against all those evil forces. No demons would dare to enter a person bearing the mark of God’s own possession. In a way, demons come rushing, but they see this mark and stand back, thinking, “This person is sealed with the Holy Spirit.” That is why you are daily protected in this world. The seal makes you off-limits to evil forces.
There are millions of temptations to sin that we could easily fall into every minute and perish eternally, but the Holy Spirit will not allow us to continually go on sinning and apostatize and perish. The reason you have not fallen and you persevere, and the reason you continue to this day in His truth and you came to church today is this seal. This seal will protect us until He completes His full work of redemption in us. So the next topic of Paul’s praise is God sealing us with the Holy Spirit as His own, original, and protected treasures.
Paul uses a particular aspect of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to give us assurance. The word “seal” is used because God wants us to feel an unconditional guarantee, secure and safe in His love and power. “Don’t worry about anything, I have sealed you.” This should provide a solid foundation for peace and safety.
Last week, in my teaching about assurance, I taught that infallible assurance rests on three pillars. The first comes objectively from the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel. The two other pillars are the inward evidence of the graces of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit’s work in us that gives us that unshakable, infallible, certain assurance in our experience that we are truly saved, our sins are forgiven, we are justified, and we are adopted. Do you see what a blessing the sealing of the Holy Spirit is? Oh, may He give that assurance today for every child of God.
Notice He is called the Holy Spirit of promise. Why? The gift of the Spirit was a great promise of the New Covenant (Ezekiel 36:27, Joel 2:28-29, and Jesus’s own promise in Acts 1:4-5). We have seen earlier that the giving of the Holy Spirit is the crowning blessing of redemption promised in the Old Testament. Christ could have come, died, risen, and gone to heaven, but if He didn’t send His Holy Spirit and we were not sealed with the Holy Spirit, none of the work of Christ could be applied to us. We would not experience any of those blessings. All the blessings stored up in Christ are conveyed as an experiential reality inwardly by the Spirit. Everything we enjoy right now in salvation is because of the Holy Spirit. He brings into our experience all the promises of God: the joy of forgiveness, the peace of justification, the acceptance, the witness of our adoption, and the assurance of our inheritance.
So as you go home, and your week becomes dull, when you are washing dishes, working at a low-paying job, or struggling, meditate on this blessing from God. God has put His original seal on you. You are His own; you are His original product in the midst of 101 counterfeits. Anyone who teaches you touches the apple of God’s eye. You are protected. “Blessed be God, I am sealed by the Holy Spirit.”
To those of you who are not sealed with the Holy Spirit, do you not want to be? There is no greater gift in the universe than the sealing of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful, invaluable gift the Holy Spirit is. It was promised by the Father to Christ in an eternal covenant as a reward for His great work. Christ did all His work of redemption to purchase this gift for us. Christ said He would be “better than me.” All the rich blessings and inheritance I have purchased for you—my peace I leave you, my joy in fullness, my power, my glory, my love, my grace, my eternal life, benefits flowing from my sacrifice, resurrection, ascension, and session—He will make them an experiential reality for you, indwelling you in a way I couldn’t, so it is better. He is the Spirit of all gifts; He will give you gifts to serve, enlighten you, sanctify you, make you wise, and give you boldness and the right words to make you a powerful witness. The Holy Spirit is Christ’s greatest legacy wealth He left for us as believers. The Holy Spirit was sent to apply all the blessings Christ purchased for us in our lives. What an incredible promise. All should desire this sealing.
Revelation shows that there are only two groups of people in the world: those who have the seal of God and those who have the mark of the beast. The seal is put on the forehead and hand, indicating that you love to think of God’s word and you have a desire to obey God’s word. Those of you who do not have the mark of God are also sealed by the devil, with the mark of the beast on your head. You are always thinking of the world—the lust of the world, covetousness, anger, and bitterness—and that mark is also on your hand. According to the mark on your forehead, everything you do is against God; you disobey Him. Revelation 14:9 says, “If anyone receives a mark of a beast, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night.” This is the future of whoever receives the mark of the beast. I fear some of you are receiving that mark. Wake up before it becomes a permanent mark. Now, the great question is, how can anyone be sealed with the mark of God?
The Means of Sealing
How is one marked with the ownership, originality, and protective divine seal of God? Oh, this is a great question for the ages. What should we do? Should we climb a mountain, do ten years of penance, or perform 101 rituals? Pentecostals say we have to fast for 40 days, wait for the Holy Spirit’s baptism, fully surrender to God, do this and that, and then you get a spirit that will make you jump for joy and speak gibberish. That is wrong because the Holy Spirit is not given for anything we do but is given as a gift of Christ’s ascension. How were the Ephesians sealed? Notice Paul mentions two steps in verse 13: hearing and believing. “In him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
The first step is hearing. What did they hear? The world spends all their time hearing useless things. The Ephesians heard useless things all their lives, but one day they heard something. No one in the universe can be sealed without hearing this. What did the Ephesians hear that led to sealing? Paul uses two phrases: “the word of truth” and “the gospel of salvation.” These are not two different things; each phrase explains and supports the other.
“Word” means a verbal message. What message? The message of truth. Truth is the proclamation of ultimate reality. Then, the gospel of salvation is the good news of deliverance from sin and all its consequences. Why does he say “the word of truth”? It’s not a myth, a philosophy, or men’s opinion, but God’s absolute, unchanging truth about humanity’s condition (sin) and God’s provided salvation (Christ). The world never hears the truth because they always live with the devil’s lie that there is no one absolute truth. When we tell them the truth, they keep asking Pilate’s question, “What is truth?” They think there is no absolute truth. They think whatever one thinks or feels is truth, their tradition, circumstances, surroundings, troubles in life, or felt needs is truth. Paul says no, beyond all that, there is ultimate reality. Not only is there ultimate truth, but that truth can be intelligently expressed or spoken in human words. That is why he uses the phrase “the word of truth.” Some people would say, “Yes, there is absolute truth, but it’s somewhere up there and no one knows it or can tell us.” Paul says, “I told you the absolute one truth.” Paul also affirms that truth can be intelligently understood. He doesn’t say you felt or experienced it, but you “heard and understood.” Our blessed God has stooped to reveal truth in human words in such a way that they can be expressed and understood. People say, “Oh, you have to experience the truth; I cannot explain it.” No, no. Ultimate truth can be expressed and understood.
Then he uses the phrase “gospel of salvation.” The truth that can be spoken and understood through words is focused on the gospel of salvation: the good news of salvation. “Gospel” means joyous tidings, and “salvation” is deliverance from sin and all its consequences. What is the content of the gospel of salvation? He summarizes it for the same Ephesians church in Acts 20:27 as the “whole counsel of God.” It comes from God by revelation; it tells us how holy God is, and how sinful man is, and what God has done through His Son, Jesus Christ, for us. In Acts 20:21, he gives a summary of that gospel command: “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Here is the substance of his gospel.
The gospel not only tells us that God is our creator, provider, and judge and how we destroyed that relationship with our fall and sin, but it tells us that the relationship can be restored by two things: repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. This is faith in who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for sinners. His unique person and unique work are the only hope for sinners. We must fully believe in Him, forsake all other ways to God, leave our arrogance and pride, and humbly come as you are. You don’t have to achieve anything or do anything; just cast yourself upon Him as He is revealed in the gospel. When you do, you will be sealed with the Holy Spirit. This is the word of truth, the good news of salvation that the Ephesians heard through Paul. And what did they do? Unlike a few of you, you hear and don’t even give a proper response, but they believed it as the very word of God, as the ultimate truth.
What does “believe” mean? It is saving faith. Some have said that saving faith is self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of His person and in all the perfection of His work as they are so freely and fully offered to us in the gospel. They believed He lived the sinless life we can never live and died the death for our sins and drank the wrath of God for our guilt, and that He died, was buried, and rose again and ascended to the Father. Now, He is the only priest, king, and prophet through whom I can come to God. When this message came, they didn’t reject this message in arrogance, pride, false religion, or love of sin. They believed. They left all their false religion and ideas and believed the truth as the ultimate truth, transcending their problems, situation, and wrong religion. They didn’t wait for any experience or feeling to come to prove this message, nor did they wait until they became better to earn this salvation. No, they believed. They heard, they believed, and so as a result of that, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit.
The only means of sealing with the Holy Spirit is hearing and believing the gospel. Anywhere you see this in the New Testament, whether in Acts 3 on Pentecost, or 10 when the gospel went to the Gentiles, or in the epistles, it is always when the gospel is preached, when people hear and believe, that they are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17). If you read Acts properly with context, you will not see any foolish ideas of a second blessing, a second experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, or waiting for the Holy Spirit to be given only to advanced, committed Christians. No, when common people heard the gospel and believed, they received the Holy Spirit. This is because the Holy Spirit is not given based on our commitment and godliness as if we earn it, but it is the purchased possession of the ascended Christ and is given as the highest gift of the ascended Lord. Yes, there is an aspect of the Holy Spirit’s filling that depends on our obedience and walk with Him, and not grieving the Holy Spirit, but the gift of the Holy Spirit has nothing to do with our commitment and obedience. He is given freely and graciously as a promise of the gospel if you hear, believe, and repent.
Notice the phrase “we are sealed with what? the Holy Spirit of promise.” He is mentioned as the Holy Spirit of promise. There is so much confusion about the works of the Holy Spirit, and so many demonic activities happen in the name of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in His work of sealing, seals as the promised Holy Spirit. What does this mean? Whatever the Holy Spirit does in His work of sealing, He does it in complete consistency with all that is promised about Him. In Ezekiel 36:27, He is promised as someone who will cleanse us, take away our heart of stone, give us a new heart of flesh, and make us walk in God’s laws. In John 14, Jesus Christ promised, “When I go away, I will send the promised Holy Spirit.” What will He do? When He comes, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He is the Spirit of truth; He will lead you into all truth, remind you of all I taught, and He will come to glorify me.
You can completely go wrong into all kinds of demonic counterfeits if you don’t realize what the promised works of the Holy Spirit are. He was not promised to make us giggle, laugh, or jump, or to make us speak gibberish, unlike the actual understandable foreign tongue. People from different nations understood what was spoken. No nation, no country in the world will understand the gibberish of these strange blabberings. He came to reveal and glorify Christ, to apply Christ’s redemption, and to make us like Christ. As His name itself suggests, He comes as the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t come to make us put on a show in church, pushing ladies, screaming, shouting, or acting like disorderly demons, and then secretly robbing money in the church and having wrong relationships with women. No, He comes to make us holy.
The Goals of Sealing
There are two goals for sealing: one is related to us, and the other is related to God.
Goal of Sealing for Us
Verse 14 says, “…who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” “Guarantee” can also be translated as “earnest,” “pledge,” or “down payment.” It is the price given as a part of the guarantee for the whole payment in due time. We go to a car showroom, and how does the salesperson know we are serious about buying and not just window shopping? We will pay a down payment. That down payment gives the salesperson the assurance that I will come back and make the full payment. In the same way, notice that the Holy Spirit’s sealing is a down payment. A guarantee of what? Of our glorious inheritance. Is God serious about making me an heir of His glorious kingdom? Is there a truly imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance waiting for me? God says, “Here is My guarantee.” It’s amazing to see how much God wants to make us feel 100% assured. Not only is it a predestined inheritance, not only is God working all things according to the counsel of His will to accomplish that—all these objective assurances—but He goes beyond that to give a subjective, experiential assurance of our inheritance as a guarantee. He sends and seals us with the Holy Spirit. The sealing of the Holy Spirit is actually a foretaste of our eternal inheritance.
It is that Holy Spirit’s sealing that gave us the salvation experience. He made us see our sin and hate sin, gave us the joy of forgiveness, and witnessed that we are children of God. It is the Holy Spirit who gave us the desire to read His word, makes us understand things that even great people cannot understand, and fills us with divine joy when we grasp some truth. It is that Holy Spirit who is sanctifying us, making us more like Christ. It is through the Holy Spirit that we will experience more glorious joys as we grow in Christ in the coming days. All that experience is an installment and will make us yearn and be restless for the full payment. We have some of the Spirit’s joy and peace, but we want more. God says this is a foretaste and a guarantee, but much more is yet to come. This is the first fruit; the harvest is coming. God says, “I am not playing with you. I am dead serious about giving you the inheritance with all its eternal rich blessings. The Holy Spirit’s sealing is My guarantee.” So the goal of sealing for us is the guarantee of our inheritance. Verse 14 goes on to talk about the goal of sealing for God.
Goal of Sealing for God
The second goal of sealing for God is the praise of His glory. When does God get His full praise of His glory? When we obtain our final inheritance and experience our full redemption, that is when God receives the full praise of His glory. This will happen, as the verse says, “until the redemption of the purchased possession.” Ephesians 4:30 says, “Sealed with the Spirit unto the day of redemption.” The day of redemption is Christ’s second coming. At that time, we will experience our full payment of the inheritance. We will be completely redeemed from every last effect of the curse and the fall, perfected in holiness with resurrected bodies, sinless souls, a new heaven and a new earth, and we will reach a state of glorification.
Yes, God has purchased us as His own and sealed us with the Holy Spirit. But God’s goal for sealing is that we become His purchased possession in such a way that it is to the praise of His glory. What did He purchase us to be? A people such as we now are? Loving Him feebly, serving Him so poorly, sometimes being downright disobedient, bringing reproach to Him, and other times wondering if indeed we are even His own by the way we act? Is that what He purchased to have? A people in this divided, poor, stumbling state? No, no. He died to have a people who would be so completely redeemed that the whole universe will praise Him.
So the sealing of the Spirit, with the first fruits of His working, gives us a hunger for holiness, makes us realize how sinful we are, gives us a desire for His truth, and helps us little by little to overcome sin and grow in truth and holiness. You may sit dissatisfied today, wondering, “Where is all this taking us?” A day will come when we will be so pure, spotless, and holy—purified and presented without spot and without wrinkle. We will be to the praise of His glory for all eternity!
Will that really happen? Now, all the Holy Spirit’s experience inside you, transforming you, is God’s guarantee that it will definitely happen. The Holy Spirit’s experience is God’s guarantee that the complete redemption will be realized. And if God had no intention of completing it, He never would have given the first installment. So the ultimate intention in the sealing of the Spirit is this pledge of certainty that the redemption will be completed. Paul says we’ll receive it as God’s special possession, and it will result in the praise of God’s glory.
The glory of God is the outshining of His attributes. What is praise? It is a conscious, adoring recognition with thanksgiving of those attributes. So the ultimate purpose for which God has sealed us is that God Himself might be adored and praised and honored for all the outshining of His perfections in the great blessings of salvation. The whole universe will praise His love, wisdom, power, and grace in saving and transforming such dead lepers to such a height of glory that they become God’s purchased possession for all eternity. This is the outshining of the perfections of God’s character through us, and seeing that, the universe will acknowledge it, perceive it, and then praise Him for it. So we see the meaning, means, and two goals of sealing.
Application
This should make us bless God in the assurance He gives. God gives us a sealed guarantee. You may not have an easy life or a happy life; through many tribulations, you must enter the kingdom. Everything in the world may seem shaky. God says you can find complete joy and feel secure in Him. Fix your eyes on Him.
Behold, not only have I chosen you, predestined you to sonship, and redeemed you by my son, and his administration of summing up all things in him is working for your good, and I have given a glorious future predestined inheritance and am working all things according to the counsel to grant this to you. I am not just stating all this objectively; I went a step ahead, and to make you feel this assurance, to give you subjective, experiential assurance, I have sent my own spirit, the third person of the Trinity, into your hearts, not temporarily, but permanently sealed you as my own original, secured possession, never to be taken away. I have done this as a down payment for your future inheritance, giving you infallible assurance here on earth. We don’t wait until we reach heaven to enjoy all those blessings. The Holy Spirit is a foretaste of all those blessings. Then I have tied your inheritance to my eternal glory. As determined as I am to glorify myself, so determined I am to bless you with my inheritance. This is the greatest way to love you. Therefore, rejoice in this assurance. You are not only elected and redeemed, but sealed!
The Holy Spirit is a down payment from God. Some buyers may give a down payment and then lie and not pay in full and escape. Our God is a God who cannot lie, faithful even to keep His word; how much more to His down payment? Some men give a down payment and then die and may not make the full payment. But our God is an eternal God. He binds His eternal glory to our inheritance. How sure! Oh, if we can feel this certainty of full redemption and assurance no matter the circumstance, you will jump for joy and praise God like Paul in prison! How horrible is unbelief if we don’t believe His word. It is a lack of this assurance and doubt that spoils joyful praise in our life.
Romans 8:31-39: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
The idea is that if God overcame the greatest difficulties and enemies to save us and give us a down payment, it should give us assurance that He will certainly overcome every difficulty so we might receive the full redemption. Think of the chain of the redemption story. Redemption had to be accomplished, applied, and completed fully. Think of the things God did to accomplish our redemption. What were the great hindrances? On one side, our oceans of sin had to be atoned for to purchase a perfect righteousness for us. How did God accomplish it? The difficulty of our sin in God’s justice seemed insurmountable and impassable that it caused the enfleshment of His Son, a mysterious fusion of God and man. He lived for our righteousness and died for our sins. Redemption was accomplished.
Then the story is not over; redemption had to be applied. What are the hindrances? We were not weak or sleeping, but dead in our sins. We were, in the opposite direction, so alive to sins, so perverted in our sinful minds that we loved the very things that would damn us and hated the very things that would bring us blessing. But what did God do? By the power of His own Spirit and His effectual call, using the same power to raise Jesus Christ from the dead, He gave us new birth. He opened our blinded eyes and deaf ears, enlightening our minds, renewing our wills, taking away our hearts of stone, and giving us hearts of flesh. He made us feel and see our sin and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He brought us out of spiritual death into spiritual life.
If God overcame all those impossible difficulties to accomplish and apply your redemption, how much more will He overcome any difficulties to complete that redemption? Oh, may the Holy Spirit make us feel the assurance and certainty of our inheritance. There is a song, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God.” Tell me why we should not be extremely happy in God.
I am not asking you to be happy in yourself, your family, or your job; that is when the problem comes, and God warns us. Although everything may be falling apart and shaking, your hope in God is steadfast. As we endure life’s shaking, we can be assured and happy in God. Shout for joy! His ultimate salvation is absolutely certain. Our inheritance is certain because of the down payment from God, who never lies or dies. No power in the universe will stop the full payment. The Holy Spirit’s witness inside us is a constant monument that God has committed Himself to the full payment. You can sing with us, “When peace like a river attendeth your way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever your lot—I have taught you to say, ‘It is well, it is well, with your soul.'”
Warning to False Believers
While I want to give assurance to God’s children, I want to remove false assurance from others so you can experience true assurance. This happens through self-examination. The Holy Spirit’s fruits are a down payment of a future inheritance. The down payment is given now as a foretaste. Heaven completes the work of grace begun now. If you don’t have any signs of the seal, do not live in false hope. Without the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you should not deceive yourself. I have taught the signs of salvation: love and a desire to learn God’s word, obedience to His commands, love for the people of God, not continuing in sin, and perseverance in all of these. These are signs of the Holy Spirit’s fruits. Galatians 5:22 lists the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Is the quality of your life, not perfectly, but at least to some measure, showing this? Are you growing like this? Are you the same as you were five years ago, with no growth in love at all, always bitter and hateful? Do you have no joy, always grumbling? No peace, always restless? Do you lack patience and self-control, always bursting in anger? Are you never satisfied or grateful, with an uneasiness of spirit? Do you control yourself? Are you never content, always wanting something more, a new device or some novelty? Are you dreadfully scared of disease and death, of leaving this world? I do not want to give you false hope. These are not foretastes of your inheritance; they are a few sparks of that eternal fire, a foretaste of hell, not heaven.
These are the marks of the beast, not the mark of God. In the same passage, Galatians 5:19-21 says, “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
My heart breaks when I see some of you who live like this, because we can never say you have not heard the gospel. You have heard it again and again. God alone knows the number and has noted it in His judgment book to increase your punishment in hell, thousands or hundreds of thousands of times. You have sat here and heard not just my ideas, myths, or experiences, but the authoritative word of the living God. The word of the truth has come to you week after week, month after month, year after year, yet you do not have a single sign of any of the blessings of the sealing of the Spirit. There is still pride, anger, and covetousness. There is no self-control in your mouth or your life. Why do some joyfully enjoy the message and live with joy every week, with their lives changing, but it does nothing to you? Why? It is the same message, I am the same preacher, in the same place.
Why? Because although you have heard it many times, you have never once believed. All your relatives and friends may have an excuse on judgment day that they haven’t heard the word of truth; you cannot say that. You cannot blame God that He didn’t save you; no, God blames you. You know in your conscience that the reason you don’t believe the gospel is because of your love for the world, your love for sin, your arrogance, and the perversity and stubbornness of your heart. You are fearful of having to give up your covetousness and your love for these animal pleasures. It’s your love of sin that keeps you from believing.
As we saw, you have to truly not only understand the word of truth but believe it—believe it as God’s word. What I am saying is not my gospel; God’s authority is behind it. Only when you believe it as God’s word can you be sealed. See the grace of God; you don’t have to do anything. All that you need to do is believe the gospel. He calls upon you to repent and to believe the gospel. You’ll never know anything of the blessings of the sealing of the Spirit unless you hear and believe the word of the truth. You can go out blaming God that He is not saving you or fall prostrate before God like the blind beggar and beg, “Son of David, have mercy on me,” until He saves you.
You will be sealed and experience the Holy Spirit’s work inside you and deliverance from your sins. Otherwise, like a leper, in a few years, you will not be able to live with yourself or bear to see how horrible you are. May God open your eyes.
Important Lessons for Gospel Ministry
This should teach us important lessons for gospel ministry: a full zeal to preserve the purity of the gospel’s content and a full zeal to proclaim that message to all people. Our forefathers persevered in the purity of the gospel and proclaimed it, even to the point of death. If we truly want to do God’s work, not just satisfy our conscience that we are doing some gospel work and feel good about ourselves, we must have a zeal to preserve the purity of the gospel’s content.
Since the sealing of the Holy Spirit is closely connected with clearly hearing and believing the word of truth, we must be careful. Today, people tell us, “Don’t be so careful about the truth; just pressure them to believe somehow. Say something that will appeal to their needs and make a decision.” But true doctrine is the gateway into a true experience. The sealing of the Holy Spirit is an authentic Christian experience. If you don’t preach the truth, you are giving people a false experience. The gate for a true experience is the truth, the gospel of salvation. When someone tampers with the gate, Paul says, “let the curse of God fall upon them.” In Galatians 1:8-9, he says, “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be eternally condemned!” In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul says that they all might be damned who believe a lie. They have faith, but faith in the wrong thing, and he says that brings damnation.
That’s why he again and again repeats the basics of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, the irreducible elements of it: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried. He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” And he says it is by that gospel you are saved if you hold it fast. If you leave that, you believe a lie, and you are damned. The gate for a true Holy Spirit experience is truth and theology. Don’t shut that and make people believe a lie and send them to hell.
The Bible calls the true church the pillar of truth. In this day, which is full of apostasy, we must stand and persevere in the truth of the gospel. Since the sealing of the Spirit comes by means of the truth preached and heard, we should be zealous in proclaiming that truth. We all have to be actively engaged in sharing this gospel because no one else is doing it. They are all telling lies. There are hundreds of churches in our city with no truth or gospel, but they say they experience the sealing of the Holy Spirit. We must be suspicious of anything that claims to be the work of the Spirit in which the word of the truth is not loved. God should open our eyes to see people who are without the sealing of the Holy Spirit. People in traditional churches say, “Oh, they go to church and are happy. So what?” See? They may have religion, they may have morality, and some degree of ethical respectability, but if they do not have the Spirit, they are deceiving themselves and going to hell.
God will not automatically save. Romans 10:11, “For whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But “how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” If they are to believe, they must hear. If they are to hear, there must be a proclaimer, someone who comes with the word of the truth.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 