THE SEAL

KEY PASSAGE: EPHESIANS 1:13-14 (NASB)

Welcome

We welcome you to our Sunday morning worship service, including our first-time visitors. First-time visitors, please stand so we can see you and recognize you, and let us welcome our online viewers. We are glad to have you with us today.

Tithe and Offering

Giving is a big part of our Sunday worship experience, and we give to God to demonstrate our gratitude (thanks) for sending His Son Jesus to die for our sins. We also give to God to help this church minister the work of God in our community because many people today are hurting and searching for answers to life problems. So, I want to encourage you to give to God cheerfully and do it with your whole heart. Ushers, please pass around the offering plates so we can collect our tithe and offerings. For those who will be giving online, by mail, and through the church mobile payment service, please follow the directions on the screen on how to give.

Announcement

Please look up on the screen as we make our announcement. Every Wednesday is our church's weekly Bible Study at 7:00 p.m. Our new member class is on Saturday, March 2nd, at 10:00 a.m.; if you are interested in joining the church, we have a sign-up at the back of the church, so please be sure to sign up for the new member class. We also have your annual giving statement at the back of the church for pickup. Please be sure to pick up your annual giving statement and again.

Declaration of Faith in God

Let us stand and say together the Declaration of Faith in God.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Let’s pray.

Almighty God, you are the Maker of heaven and Earth. You are the giver of all good gifts. Everything comes from You and comes back to You. We are blessed to be Your children and to have received all that we are and all we have from You. Remind us once more of how we might respond to Your grace. To Your name be all the glory and honor. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

Every believer who has trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. The Bible says the Spirit is the Spirit of God, and He is also called the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit has been placed as a permanent occupier in the life of every believer. The Holy Spirit is also responsible for doing the work in and for you, according to Roman chapter 8, verses 9 to 11. When Jesus Christ was on earth, He limited His deity's (that is, His divine and holy being's) activity to His humanity's location. Now that Christ has risen and gone to heaven, His presence can be everywhere simultaneously through the Holy Spirit. Believers in Christ have the Holy Spirit of God with them all the time, anywhere.

SERMON EXPOSITION

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 to 14, reminds us that we are sealed in the Holy Spirit. And today I want to talk to you today about the name of the Holy Spirit – The Seal. In Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, we read these words of the Apostle Paul: “13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Please notice that verse 13 calls the Holy Spirit the Seal, our word, theme, and subject for today’s sermon. So, before I begin my message, let me remind everyone that we should praise God because He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit. The entire process of salvation is given in verse 13. This verse tells us how a sinner becomes a saint. First, a sinner hears the gospel of salvation; this is the good news that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

There are three concepts that I want to share with you that are tied (connected) to the sealing presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. The first concept is that the Holy Spirit guarantees (ensures) security. The Holy Spirit establishes ownership, and three, the Holy Spirit is reflective of authority. If you don’t remember anything I said today in this sermon, I want you to remember these three words: Security, Ownership, and Authority. These are the three benefits of the sealing presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

So remember now, as a believer, you have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), not just a price but a very high price; you belong to God. When Jesus saved you and gave you the Holy Spirit, Jesus gave you divine authorization to use the Holy Spirit on your behalf in accordance with God’s Word and for His glory.

We will look at this later, but Ephesians chapter 4, verse 30 says, “You were sealed for the day of redemption.” In other words, the seal cannot be broken until Redemption has occurred. So, there is a permanency (longevity) to the seal. In other words, you can't lose your salvation. Once you have accepted Jesus Christ, you have been birthed in the family of God. God has linked you to the union of Christ and union with the family of God, and it is a seal that cannot be broken.

Let’s talk about family for a moment. When a person is born into a family, there is a biological connection, and it can never be undone (reversed) because it is a birth issue. When you are born again, that spiritual connection can never be reversed.

The Ephesians heard the gospel and discovered it was for them – “your salvation” in verse 13. The Holy Bible teaches about election, but the same Bible also announces, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” according to Mark 16:15. The Ephesians believed the Word of God. It is this faith in the Word that brought them salvation.

Like the Ephesian believers, once you come to Jesus Christ, you can live with the assurance and the security of the seal you have been sealed into the family of God. And nobody, not even you nor the devil, can break the seal because God is the one who sealed you, and if God tightens the cap, nobody can unscrew (remove) that. You have been vacuumed, packed, and sealed. God has secured your salvation until your redemption.

That ought to give you the reason to praise God and to glorify Him. Sealing is also designed to keep contamination. You seal something so air or bacteria can’t get in and spoil it. Guess what? God has sealed your new nature through the Holy Spirit so that the world, the flesh, or the devil cannot destroy it.

With this seal comes ownership. For example, in Jeremiah chapter 32, verses 9 and 10, Jeremiah bought a piece of property from his cousin, and God told him to put a seal on it. Jeremiah established ownership of the property when he put a seal on it. This is my property.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION ONE

Official documents were sealed in antiquity, implying that protection and ownership had been established. Today, many documents we deal with have seals to establish legitimacy (authenticity). We established that it belongs to us if we buy a new car or house. In other words, the seal establishes ownership, exactly what God said in First Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20. Paul tells us you are not your own. You have been bought with a price; therefore, glorify the Lord with your body.

Watch this: The sealing of the Holy Spirit establishes that you have been owned by someone else. You are no longer self-owning. The problem that we have today is that many Christians still think they own stuff. If truth be told, you owe nothing. That is why the Bible called you and me a steward. We get to use that which God provides, but you have been purchased, and the ownership of all Mighty God has sealed you.

And so God has secured you, and God now owns you. This is critical for every believer because if you insist on owning yourself, you will be in conflict with the owner, with the One who redeemed, saved, and gave you eternal life.

God has secured you, and now He wants to own you. And the question before us is, have you given up ownership of yourself to the Lord so that the spirit of God can do what He wants to do in your life? The Holy Spirit represents God the Father and Jesus the Son to do His work in your life, but you can't own yourself. That is why He has placed a seal on you. But not only that the seal established the authority of God over your life.

SERMON ILLUSTRATION TWO

When you get a certified letter in the mail, the only person authorized to open it is the person to whom the letter was sent because it was certified. So the sender can open it if it is sent back to the sender, or the receiver can open it, but only the person whose name is on it because it has been authorized. You see, authority has been given but only to the person whose name is on the envelope. When Jesus Christ saved you and gave you the Holy Spirit. Jesus has given you divine authorization to utilize the Spirit on your behalf. Other folks can’t use the Holy Spirit because they have not been sealed with it, but you have the seal as a believer in Christ.

This seal shows up many times in Scripture. When Jesus was crucified, Pilate authorized that the tomb be sealed. In other words, this was a governmental seal; you better not tamper or mess with it. In the Book of Esther, chapter 8, verse 8, the king put down a seal so that nothing could change. In Daniel chapter 6, verse 17, the king put down a seal so there could be no change. In other words, it was based on authority.

According to Revelation chapter 5, verses 1 through 3, only God has the authority to break the seal of the Holy Spirit. Only God can unseal this seal. So that you are secure, you are owned, and you are authorized. You bear the authority of the one who has sealed you. No man can reverse it, and nobody can steal it because God has divinely authorized you.

According to verse 13 of Ephesians chapter 1, if you have listened to the message of the Gospel, you have heard the good news about the forgiveness of sins that comes by faith in Christ. If you believe you trust Christ to forgive your sins and have received the gift of eternal life, he says, you are sealed.

So, you don't have to go holy ghost hunting or Holy Ghost looking; you are sealed by receiving Christ because the Holy Spirit is Christ in you. So, based on sealing letters, documents, and property, the Holy Spirit is described as a seal on God’s people’s lives, affirming our Christian character, marking us as belonging to God, and guarding us against the world and the devil.

So, you are owned, and you are sealed. And the Holy Spirit has infiltrated your human spirit, giving you new data to your soul as you grow in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

So, you are owned, and you are sealed. God in Christ is in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. Don’t miss that. The Holy Spirit is the One who is to do the work of God inside of you to make you into the person that God wants you to be.

To guide you in the way God wants you to go, to help you with the support that you need from God, so when you call on God, that gets translated to the work of the Holy Spirit, who is locked up inside you securely and eternally.

That is not all because verse 14 says: “Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.” Other versions call this a deposit and installment. Let me explain what this means. A pledge or a deposit is a down payment, meaning you are committed to the purchase, but there is more to come.

He says, watch this: the Holy Spirit is sealed inside you. The Holy Spirit is your deposit. The Holy Spirit is the first installment of a layaway plan tied to your redemption. What He has done is that He has given every believer an engagement ring. Like an engagement ring, the Holy Spirit is the first installment of an eternal commitment. The Holy Spirit is a heavenly down payment in anticipation of eternal life.

Faith Appeal and Call to Action (Conclusion)

God is the One who seals, Christ is the sphere in which the seal is done, and the Holy Spirit is the instrument of the seal. What God has done is that He is going to bring you to an ultimate conclusion and consummation of your great salvation. So, you have the Holy Spirit, and God promises it to every believer who trusts in Jesus Christ. God is going to take you to glory. He says with a view to redemption when we are in His presence. When we are with Him, and the more you have this perspective, the more the deposit will mean to you.

So, what does God want the Holy Spirit to do in your human spirit? This is deep. God wants the Holy Spirit to inform your human spirit so that your human Spirit grows and is magnified in the wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of Him. In other words, God wants you to experience more of God’s reality. But there is a problem: our spiritual eyes are darkened, and we don’t see things spiritually. So, all we do is react to the physical, which is why you need the revelation, wisdom, and manifestation of the knowledge of God.

You need the revelation and the information, but you want the wisdom because wisdom is the ability to apply revelation to perceive things and apply God’s truth to the things you see from God’s perspective. Because if what you see is all you see, then you do not see all there is to be seen if all you see is the physical. You can never look behind the physical to ascertain what God is doing to perceive how you should negotiate a situation because you are hearing from inner guidance by the Holy Spirit and not just outward information from humankind.

You have God inside of you, and you have been sealed. The Holy Spirit wants to work in your life to unfold and take the blinders off your eyes so you will see until we decide to no longer live by human wisdom, which is man's approach, and to utilize the indwelling seal. Because the Holy Spirit is already there, locked up, tied up, and bound up inside of you, me, and us who believe in Christ. Until we decide to utilize that, we will be just like everybody else, floundering (struggling) around and trying to do the best we can like everybody else without any Supernatural Heavenly insight. I want to close by saying that you have the Spirit of God. You are no longer to be dependent upon your human ingenuity.

Far too many Christians today are pit bulls in their heads. We have big heads. That is, we think we know more than we know. Our heads are too big because they are full of human wisdom. What people think, what scholars think, we want to know what everybody else thinks, and you know what, we don’t even want to know what God says and thinks. You belong to Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is sealed within you. God desires to unfold knowledge of Himself to you, but only as you walk in dependency on the spirit that you already have.

Altar Call

And if you don’t have the Spirit, the Bible says if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him if you want to experience a down payment and an engagement ring—a down payment on eternal life. Jesus will give you the down payment now because He will give you the Spirit now. And how do you get it? You don’t have to buy it; it is free. Jesus has given the Spirit away if you will come to Jesus Christ right now for the forgiveness of your sins. If you come to Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation. If you go to the cross right now and say, Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. I need a Savior, and I trust You to come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and give me the eternal life You promised.

If you believe in Jesus for that right now, He will save you and deposit the Holy Spirit within you so that you will get a little bit of heaven now as a down payment of a lot of heaven later. Will you come to Christ right now?

Let’s pray.

Benediction

Our God and Father, You see our hearts, and our desires are not hidden from You. We are encouraged by our wonderful worship experience. I pray this church will grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! In the name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you, and we are dismissed.