Ron Dunn Podcast - Sealed With The Spirit

Episode Date: November 9, 2022

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series "Holy Spirit In Ephesians"

And I'm going to read a verse that many of us are familiar with. This verse really sounds the key note of the entire epistle. It is the theme of all that this great, majestic letter is about. Ephesians chapter 1, the third verse. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. A leading word in the epistle,

and perhaps the key word in that verse, is the word spiritual. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now, the word spiritual, or spirit, occurs 13 times in this epistle. And in this verse, when Paul describes these blessings as spiritual, he is not using the word spiritual as a contrast to physical. He's not saying that God has blessed us with spiritual blessings as opposed to physical blessings, but rather he is using the word spiritual in the sense that all of these blessings proceed from the Spirit. He's not speaking simply of the nature as being opposed to physical, material blessings,

but he is speaking of their source, of the source of these blessings, that God has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings, the blessings that proceed from the Holy Spirit. And as a matter of fact, that verse could be properly translated, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all the blessings of the Spirit in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places. And some do translate that verse that way.

But whether you translate it that way or as it appears in the authorized version, it is basically the same in meaning, that God has blessed us with every blessing that proceeds from the Holy Spirit. Now, there are two important facts about that statement. Number one, of course, as we have labored before, is that god has blessed us with all of them that he withholds nothing from them that up walk uprightly with the lord and that god opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living creature and much more so those who are new creatures in christ jesus that he has blessed us with every with with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. But the other important fact that this verse reveals is

that the Holy Spirit is the means by which God communicates to us these blessings. Someone asked at one time, why is it that we make so much of the Holy Spirit? I don't want us to ever have the reputation of making so much of the Holy Spirit that we don't make much more of Christ, because the Holy Spirit makes much of Christ. But Christ had a great deal to say about the Holy Spirit because he wanted us to understand that all that he, Jesus, is and all that Jesus wants to be to us, in us, and through us

must be communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. And so he said that he will take of mine and show it unto you. And simply Jesus was saying that the Holy Spirit will take what is of Jesus, what belongs of Jesus, what is of Jesus, and will transfer it to us. And so Paul is saying that God has blessed us with every blessing of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the channel through which Jesus Christ is communicated to us, through which he becomes real. And so what I propose to do tonight and in the following Wednesday night is to bring you a series of studies on the ministry of the Holy Spirit as found in the book of Ephesians.

The book of Ephesians is one of my favorite books. And as one writer described it years ago, it is the Grand Canyon of Scripture. The first time I saw the Grand Canyon in person, it took my breath away. I couldn't believe it. I have 200 slides of the Grand Canyon. And if you want to come over some night, I'll be glad to show them to you. And it was just so awesome. And you know, I thought maybe I may never get back here this way. And maybe my camera won't work right. I'd better take a bunch of them. I'd seen pictures before. But when I first saw that thing, it was,

it just took my breath away. I couldn't believe it. And you know, the more I gaze into the book of Ephesians and the Holy Spirit opens my eyes to where I see it really in person rather than just through the eyes of some teacher or preacher, and I see it in person as the Holy Spirit reveals it to me, it begins to just take my breath away because it is, I think, aptly described as the Grand Canyon of Scripture. And in every chapter, there is mentioned the Holy Spirit in his ministry towards the believer. And so I want to bring you about six studies on the Holy Spirit's ministry to the believer

as found in the book of Ephesians. And the first one that I want to share with you tonight is found in verse, beginning with verse 12 and reading through verse 14 of the first chapter. Chapter 1, verses 12 through 14. The apostle says that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted. And you'll notice the word trusted there is in italics, which indicates to you that that word does not occur in the Greek text, that the translators put it there just so the verse would read easier, but it obscures the meaning in this verse. So let's start again with verse 13 and leave the italicized word out. In whom, talking about Jesus, you also, after that you heard the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Now, he has there three steps in the process of salvation. First of all, he says you heard the word of truth,

the gospel of your salvation. Secondly, after you heard it, you believed. And then when you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory. The first real ministry that Paul reveals to us about the Holy Spirit

is his ministry of sealing us. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Now, this is evidently a very important facet of the Christian faith because in 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 21-22, Paul mentions it as he describes what God has done in the life of the believer. He says, Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

And then in chapter 4 of this same epistle of Ephesians, in verse 30, he says that we are to grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby we are sealed under the day of redemption. And so this matter of the sealing of the Holy Spirit is evidently a very important facet in salvation. And as Paul reveals here, it is one of the first things that happens after a person believes upon the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, you hear the word of truth, you believe it, and upon believing it, the Holy Spirit seals you. Now, what does this seal mean?

First of all, it is a seal of proof. It is a seal of proof. The seal was meant to authenticate something, to mark it as genuine. It signified a finished transaction. Now, the sealing of the Holy Spirit proves to us that that experience we had was real and genuine. And the way that God authenticates us, the way that God points us out as being real in our salvation is by giving to us the Holy Spirit of God.

And once I believed in Jesus Christ, God at that moment sealed me with His Spirit and that seal proved to me that is the inner witness that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Over in the book of Romans chapter 8, you have the same thought worded a little differently. He says in verse 15, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit

that we are the children of God. In Galatians, he says the same thing. In Galatians chapter 4, verse 6, And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Listen to 1 John 3, 24, And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him

and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us. Chapter 4 verse 13 of that same epistle. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit. Chapter 5, verse 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. Now, there is an outer witness, of course, the witness of our life, the witness of our profession that demonstrates to the world that we are saved, but there is an inner witness that demonstrates to the believer

that he belongs to Jesus, and that is the witness of the Holy Spirit. And the seal of the Spirit is a seal of proof, and it proves to me that my experience I had was real. And that's important, because you know a lot of people have a lot of experiences that aren't real. And the test of whether or not that experience you had was salvation experience is not how you felt. And it's not even that you received it with joy. And it's not even that you went out and did some great things right at the start. Because Jesus in Matthew 13 said that there are those who receive the word with joy and immediately there springs up somewhat of a harvest.

But after a while, it dies out. And you know, there are a lot of initial reactions and responses that people have, and we call it salvation, but it may not be genuine. God must authenticate that to your own heart. And how do you know that that experience you had was real? When I was in California last week, a woman came to me and she had had an experience. She was praying one night for a particular matter, and all of a sudden she heard a voice. And this voice gave her a message. And she said, now, was that of God or what? She was afraid to say who the other source might be. But she said, now, was that of God? I said, if it was

of God, then it will have been confirmed to your heart by the Word of God and by the peaceful witness of the Holy Spirit. But I said, if you're receiving that message and abiding by it has caused you anxiety and unrest and disturbance, then that thing was not from God. See? The Holy Spirit witnesses and authenticates an experience and He always is the spirit of peace and rest

and assurance and confidence. And any experience that causes unrest and trouble and anxiety and depression and oppression

is not of God. And so He is the seal of proof. By the way, how does the Holy Spirit prove that we are saved, that our experience was genuine? In 1 Corinthians chapter 12

and verse 3 it says, No one speaking by the Holy Spirit calleth Jesus accursed. And no one can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. Do you know how the Holy Spirit authenticates that experience? Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord.

And I tell you that if your experience, whatever it was, did not issue and did not result in the confession, not only by lips but also by life, that Jesus is Lord, it was not of the Holy Spirit. And the way the Holy Spirit authenticates and proves the experience is genuine and of God is that it crowns Jesus as Lord. And if that experience does not enthrone Jesus Christ, it's not of the Holy Spirit. All right? Not only is it a seal of proof, it is a seal of possession. a seal of possession. The use of the seal was to display

ownership. It was a kind of a brand that proved to us and to others that we were the property of someone else. And when you saw a certain seal on a certain letter or a certain article you recognize that seal as being the seal of a certain king or a certain prince and immediately you realize that that thing upon which you were gazing was the property was the possession of that person whose seal was affixed to it and God when he saves us we believe, he seals us with his Holy Spirit. And that seal is God's mark of possession. It is a seal of possession. Now, the Holy Spirit's primary ministry in the life of a believer,

as far as I can understand it in the Word of God, is to take the purchased possession, God's possession, to stamp me with his image, to stamp me with his image, and then bit by bit, degree by degree, gradually, gradually, to transform my life into that image. Really, this may be another way of saying this proves a person is genuine. If a fellow has had salvation for 20-something years and he's no more like Jesus than he was when he started, I have a right to doubt he's genuine. Because, you see, once you're saved,

you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And that is a seal of possession. And His image, the image of Jesus, is stamped upon you. And bit by bit, day after day, year after year, He is going to stamp that image all over you. You say, well, I'm not going to let Him do that to me. Oh, you don't have any choice. You know, I find that the Lord has two methods of doing this. He has one called the, I like to call the medicine, and the other the surgical.

Or you can call it this way, the word of rebuke and then the strap of chastisement. You know, the Lord will come to me and rebuke me and convict me, make me miserable and say, now listen, you need to shape up in this area of your life. You need to get rid of this thing. You need to turn from this thing. You need to stop loving this material thing so much because that is unlike Jesus. And I want you to be weaned from everything that's not like Jesus.

But you know, I can refuse to take the message and I can refuse to listen to the word of rebuke, and God says, okay, all you're doing is forcing me to resort to more severe methods. And then he puts me through the valley of the shadow of death. Then he puts me in the midst of trouble. Then he puts me in the midst of suffering. And through that suffering, he is purifying my life. I want you to know he's going to make you like Jesus if it kills you.

And some of us sometimes think it is. But the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to show you to be his possession and to stamp his image upon your life. And we are being conformed under the image of God's Son, and he'll use anything in order to make that confirmation, that transformation. All right, in the third place, it is a seal of protection. A seal of protection. When something was sealed, it was made secure. Now, I like this. This is the part I really like. Notice it says that we are sealed where?

In Him. We are sealed in Him. In verse 13. In whom also after that you believed, you were sealed. We were sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit until the redemption of the purchased

possession. Where are we sealed? We are sealed not in the church. I don't really get worried at all when people talk about the church failing, disintegrating, and one of these days the church will no longer be. I want you to know I'm not sealed in the church. I'm sealed in Jesus. I'll tell you something else. The church is not a body of believers. It's a body of Christ. And you can take a body of believers and disintegrate them, but you can't disintegrate the body of Christ. And the church isn't the body of believers. The church is the body of Christ. And I am sealed, not in the church. I am sealed in Christ. And in Colossians chapter 3, it says that I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God. That word hid is the Greek word from which we get our word, crypt.

You've been laid away in Jesus and sealed. It's a word that many times is translated as vault or safe or safe deposit. And Jesus Christ is the vault in which God has deposited me. And my life is hid in Christ. Hid in Christ. And Christ is the vault in which God has deposited me, and my life is hid in Christ, hid in Christ, and Christ is in God. And this seal of the Holy Spirit is a seal of protection, and it signifies my security. And how long am I sealed? Until I sin.

You'll read my article, I hope, this week, and I talk about a few things in there. But one thing I mention in the article is that there's a fellow in the southwest area who's always claiming to have visions of Jesus. And not long ago he said that Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him, you can be saved and lost again.

Well, that wasn't Jesus that told him that. That wasn't Jesus that told him that. Of course, you know there's a very real danger, as I say in the article, of putting this new revelation above God's revelation. And the Bible says that I am sealed until, when I sin, until the day of redemption. When is that? That's when Jesus comes back. He says in verse 14 that we are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,

which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of His glory. When Jesus died on the cross, God was using the blood of Jesus to purchase me and I belong to Him and He sealed me and made me secure and that seal will be secure until I rest safely in the bosom of my heavenly Father in glory. It is a seal of protection.

You know, this is beautifully illustrated in Revelation. Let me just take a moment. In Revelation chapter 7, he's talking about the great tribulations that are going to come upon the earth. And verse 3, he says, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our god in their foreheads and i heard the number of them which were sealed

and there were sealed and 144 000 of all the tribes of the children of israel in chapter 7 they were sealed 144 000 of them now lotus in chapter chapter 9 he opens the bottomless pit or gives the key to the devil and he opens the bottomless pit and the reserves come out and start to war but notice God limits them God holds them in check

and says and it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth neither any green thing neither any tree but only those men which have not the seal of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Security, protection. God says you can only hurt those, afflict those who do not have the seal of God. Now, in chapter 7, they were sealed. In chapter

8, they were made secure. Now, I want you to notice something in chapter 14. And I looked. It's all over now, folks. You see, it's all over. And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder.

And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps. And they sung, as it were, a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders. And no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth.

I tell you, there's only one place to learn that song, and that's when you've been sealed by God. And the beautiful thing is that in chapter 7, at the beginning of all of those problems and woes, God sealed 144,000. And you read it, you read what they went through in chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, but in chapter 14, he hasn't lost a single one of them.

And they stand with the Lamb of God on Mount Zion. Every 144,000 of them have been sealed. I want you to know when God seals somebody, they stay sealed. And if the Spirit of God has sealed you and you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit, God can march you through hell and you'll come out in glory. It's a seal of protection. Then one last thing, and it's the seal of promise. He says that this seal of the Holy Spirit is the earnest,

is the earnest of our inheritance. That word earnest is the word that the modern Greeks use for engagement ring. Isn't that beautiful? Engagement ring. Do you know the Bible says someday there's going to be a big wedding feast? That's when the church is going to be really united in person with the Lord Jesus Christ. You say, well, I don't know if I'll ever make it.

Oh, yeah, He's given you the engagement ring. You are betrothed to Jesus. You know what that engagement ring is? That's the Holy Spirit that indwells you. That's the Holy Spirit that indwells you. He is what? He is the promise. that indwells. That's the Holy Spirit that indwells. He is what? He is the promise. He is the pledge.

He is the down payment. He is the first fruits of that which is to come. As a mother, an expectant mother, begins to feel within the first movements of life, what is that? That's just the promise of the life that is to come. And you know, there are times when you and I, as we walk through this life, maybe it's through a veil of tears, maybe it's through the valley of the shadow, maybe it's through hard times, maybe it's on our knees. Maybe it's reading the Word. But something inside us leaps. There's a stirring. You know what that is? That's the Holy Spirit saying

there's more to come. There's more to come. The best is yet to be. That's the Holy Spirit promising. No matter how good it is now, no matter how real the presence of the Lord now, no matter how abundant the blessings of the Lord are now, that's just a down payment. That's just a token. It's a promise that there's more to come. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. We have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss our next video. including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.