What Is It to be Sealed With the Spirit?

Ephesians 1:9-14; Romans 10:14-17

The child of God is blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ.  It doesn't matter whether the child of God feels or understand the blessings or not, Christ hath blessed us V3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."  Its something that Christ has done and we don't do it.  We are blessed in mind-blowing ways, in that we have been chosen in Christ from before the created order, we are blessed in that we are chosen to be holy and blameless before God.  In that we are adopted as God's beloved children and we are blessed in that it has been predestinated that we would inherit the inheritance of Christ.  We are blessed in that by grace we have been made acceptable in the presence of God, in that we have been bought by the blood of Jesus, all our sins are forgiven.  What blessings.  To do these things for us, God has abounded in his mercy and grace.  And more than that God has illuminated the saved, revealed his will to us and also the true believer has true unity in Christ presently.  One in Christ.  The body of believers is united.  We have been predestinated to bring God praise and glory.  

Another blessing is after we believed:  the sealing of the Holy Spirit.  Christ's people are sealed with the Holy Spirit.  V12-14 "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."
 
You trusted when you heard the gospel, you were sealed after you believed, and what is it to be saved by the Holy Spirit?



You trusted when you heard:  V13 "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed......" What did you hear?  you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  You  heard it and then you trusted.   The word of truth was heard and after that you trusted in Christ.  Please notice it does not say "in whom ye trusted after you saw with your eyes"  it doesn't say "in whom you trusted after you saw the drama or the sketch, or after you watched a performance", it doesn't say that.  It says you trusted in the word of your salvation.  The word of truth.  The word is not something that is visible, it is audible because it is spoken.  Faith comes by hearing, not seeing.  The bible says that faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God.  Romans 10:13-15, 17 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  How then 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?  And how shall they  preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! ...So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." 
 
 In our picture-ridden society, we have churches copying the world and neglecting the spoken word, the audible word.  But you don't trust through pictures, or through drama, you trust in Christ through words according to the bible.  There is good reason for that.  Information that you gather through your eyes goes primarily to the emotional memory part of your brain.  It tends to remember shapes and colors more and is largely short-term.  But the audible memory, that goes through  your ears, it is channeled not to the emotional part of your brain but to the habits and skills part of your brain and to the long-term part of your brain.    Information that is audible is harder to get in, it is easier to watch a thing.  But when audible information is in, it is stored longer.  Faith comes by hearing, hearing God's word.  It is a comprehension of truth stored in the long-term memory part of the brain.  Not shapes and pictures that do not last, but hearing the word of God.  The best way for you to retain your memories is by using your brain.   Technological crutches have been invented that make it unnecessary to use our brain.   We are now brain-lazy and memory slips quicker if you don't use it.  But what about the deaf person?  in deaf people their eyes become their ears as do ours when we read the bible and hear the words of God in our minds.  Sign language forms words, not pictures in the mind.  In that area God is sovereign and he will save all his people.  Anyone who thinks you should build a method of evangelism on visual presentation, that  is unbiblical.  Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God no matter what modernists say.

You were sealed with the Holy Spirit.  V13 "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.." You were sealed.  What does that mean?  It means according to the Greek word, stamped.  A seal is used to secure and preserve something.  You were sealed with the spirit.  A seal is a sign of ownership, approval, authority, and security.  The old merchant ships had lots of crates on board and each merchant cargo crate had its own distinctive seal.  Every thing that belonged to that merchant carried that mark.  It couldn't be opened.  It would be unloaded at the right port.  Believer, you have been sealed after you believed with the Holy Spirit.  God's stamp, God's mark of ownership is upon you, you are secure, sealed as God's goods.  What is the seal?  Some people say that the seal is something that the Holy Spirit does to believers but that is not right, it is not something that the holy spirit does to us, the verse says that we are sealed not by the spirit, but with him.  He, the Holy Spirit is the seal of God's approval and God's ownership.  He comes and lives in believers and that is the seal that God owns you.  Those who do not have the seal are not God's own.  The Holy Spirit in the believer's life is the undeniable proof of God's work in that person.  Because the seal is the Holy Spirit in us, we are sealed with the Spirit, therefore there is no Christian who is not sealed.  None.  The ultimate proof that you are God's is that God the Holy Spirit lives in you.  Eph 4:30 "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."  He who is your seal can be grieved because he is a person, if it was something that he did, you can't grieve a thing.  God's mark of approval and ownership was put on Christ in Matt 3:16-17  "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."   John 6:27 "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth until everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed."  This sealing, the Holy Spirit descending, was the Holy Spirit himself descending upon Christ and was the seal of God resting upon Christ as a person and on his ministry.  After you believed Christian, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit.

What it is to be sealed by Holy Spirit.  V14 "Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."  The word "earnest" means guarantee, pledge or down payment.  "unto" means until the time.  "redemption" means the full deliverance of sin, the taking of the thing purchased.  The Holy Spirit is the guarantee, the pledge of God until the time when you will experience full deliverance as God has purchased.  He is God's pledge until you will inherit all things, God's guarantee that you will inherit all things.  

Does God the Holy Spirit live in you? Do you believe the truth about Jesus Christ, about who he is and what he has done?  Do you love other believers?  Do you love God's demands as found in God's word?  This is doctrinal, social and moral.   Tongues does not prove the Spirit to be present as there are plenty of people who follow other gods who exercise that gift.  Nor are elated feelings a sign because you can get similar feelings from certain drugs.  The Holy Spirit brings about what no one can counterfeit, he brings about a spiritual change for which God gets the glory.  Are you changed?  Is he in you? If he is in you, then you trusted when you heard, you were sealed by the Spirit and God has put down the pledge that you are his.  And it shows in your life.  Eph 5:8-10 "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord."  does your life prove what is acceptable to God? that is the sign of the Holy spirit's sealing.

If you are not a believer, why don't you come to Christ.  Come now and receive all these blessings.  Trust Christ and receive eternity.
___________________________________
The notes above were made by myself from the sermon by Paul Dowling of Whiteabbey Congregational (Reformed) at Sermon Audio.

http://www.sermonaudio.com/playpopup.asp?SID=114071731480