From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention this morning are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, the first chapter, and the second half of the 13th verse, the second half of the 13th verse in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. In whom also after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

But perhaps I had better set this statement in its context by reminding you again of what we find from verse 11 to the end of verse 14. In whom also, we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, which first trusted in Christ.

In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also, after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased position, and to the praise of his glory. But I say we are to look this morning in particular at that statement at the end there of the 13th verse.

Now obviously, we are here face to face with another addition, yet another addition to this series of extraordinary and tremendous things which the Apostle has been telling us about our position and our inheritance in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have observed already how his formula for introducing some additional blessing is this expression, "in whom also."

We have it there, you see, at the beginning of verse 11. He had said in verse seven, "in whom we have redemption." Then he goes on to say, "in whom also we have obtained an inheritance." But here is something still further, "in whom also after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."

It is indeed astounding to notice the way in which in this great statement, running from the beginning of verse three to the end of verse 14, the Apostle seems to be piling one glory upon another, as he unfurls to us in this extraordinary summary, the blessings which are ours as the result of the riches of God's grace. He has indeed caused them to abound toward us.

And it is to show how they do abound that the Apostle gives us in this summary manner a list, as it were, of these remarkable blessings that come to us because of our position and because of our standing. He has already told us that we have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. We have been predestinated unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. We have obtained redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Not only that, he has made known unto us the mystery of his will, this glorious purpose which God has for us. And again, in Christ, we have obtained a share in this great inheritance.

Jews have had it, Gentiles have had it. We are together as fellow heirs, co-inheritors of these blessings. And they are all blessings which come to us in Christ. Everything is in Christ. We have paused to emphasize that, and we must go on doing so because the Apostle keeps on repeating that. If there was one thing he was concerned about more than anything else, it was just that: that there is no blessing whatsoever in the Christian life, except in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is of his fullness that we receive, and grace for grace. God deals with us in Christ, through him, and without him, there is nothing whatsoever. So that anything which calls itself Christianity, which does not make him absolutely central and essential and vital from beginning to end, is spurious, and is not the gospel. It is another gospel, which is not indeed a gospel at all.

Very well, the Apostle has told us all those things, but he says, "Wait a minute, there is still more. In whom also." There is something further. Well, what is this? Well, it is this, he tells us, that after we believed, we are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

Now then, I say here is a fresh subject, and a vitally important one. For one thing, it introduces to us in an explicit manner for the first time in this chapter, the Holy Spirit himself. Obviously, the Holy Spirit has been involved in everything we have had hitherto. We cannot be aware of our redemption, we cannot receive our redemption apart from the Holy Spirit. And as we saw last Sunday morning, we cannot believe apart from the operation of the Holy Spirit. But here he is mentioned explicitly.

The very name is introduced, and in a special manner we are brought face to face with certain vital aspects of the teaching, the New Testament teaching concerning the Holy Spirit and his work. So that it is, I say, a most important addition. And it is a pity in many ways that when men came to divide up this letter into verses, that they did not start a fresh verse at this point, because it is a new subject. It is introducing something which in a sense has not been said before, and therefore should be emphasized in that way. However, here it is.

But it is also important, and I believe of vital importance, from the experimental standpoint. And it emphasizes that in a very special way. The Apostle has been reminding us of all that is true of the gospel and all that there is for us in the gospel. But here now, he really does bring it right home to us.

And reminds us of the way in which we become certain of these things, and enjoy something of their glory and of their greatness, even while we are in this world of time. I say therefore that this subject is of paramount importance. Indeed, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion and forming the opinion that it is our failure to understand this precise statement and what it means, that accounts for so much of our lethargy and our failure as Christian people at the present time.

I am hoping to unfurl it to you and therefore shall be able to illustrate what I mean by it. At any rate, I can say this, that I would assert that any Christian who is not experiencing the joy of salvation, is in that condition very largely because of a failure to realize this particular truth.

Here we are held face to face with the way in which we can enter in to the fullness that there is for us in Christ. We are meant to rejoice in the Lord and to rejoice always in him. The Lord has done his work in order that we might come to that, and that is why the Apostle can exhort the Philippians and others to rejoice in that way. You remember how our Lord himself, just at the end of his life, said, "Not only my peace I give unto you, but my joy."

And it is the heritage of a Christian. Christian people should be full of joy and of peace and of happiness. And not only that, if we feel that we are very ineffective as Christians, if we feel that our usefulness is not very evident. Well, then I would suggest that it is again due to this selfsame thing, a failure to realize what is meant by this statement about our being sealed by the Holy Spirit whom God has given to us.

Very well then, it is indeed a central and a most important doctrine. I am not sure that it is not one of the most vital of all the New Testament doctrines as we think in terms of the need of revival and of reawakening in the Christian church. Well now then, let us try to approach it like this. It is a subject that has often caused a good deal of controversy. It is not an easy subject therefore. And yet here it is, and we must trace it.

And perhaps the best way in which we can face it is to look at it in this way. Let us have a look at the terms first. What is meant by this term "sealing?" "In whom also after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Why does he use the term to seal? What does it connote? What does it represent?

Well, first of all, let us take its ordinary meaning. I mean by that, let us look at it in its ordinary customary usage amongst men. And as we do that, I think you will agree that it has three main meanings. First and foremost, a seal is that which authenticates, or that which conveys authority.

Two men may draw up an agreement. It may be to sell a house, or to arrange a business, a partnership, or something like that. They have agreed about the terms, and the terms have been written, but as we know, that is not really valid, and neither man is going to be content with that written statement, unless and except it is signed and sealed. You need the seal, even in addition to a signature. It makes it more authentic, it makes it more absolute. Signed and sealed. A seal therefore is that which conveys authority.

It establishes the authenticity, the validity, the truth of a document or of a statement. Now that is a meaning of the word seal that is in current usage and always has been throughout the centuries, and you find it constantly and repeatedly in the Bible itself. Very well, let us bear that in mind.

But there is another meaning also to sealing. And that is that it is a mark of ownership. This is done in the case of animals. The owner, or a man who buys animals, puts his mark or his seal upon them to indicate that they belong to him. And again, it is done on property, it is done again on documents and so on. It is to indicate that something, whatever it is, belongs to and is the property of the person who owns that particular seal. The seal has got a particular image on it which belongs to that man alone. Therefore, if you see that seal with that image, well, you know that it is the property and the possession of that particular person.

It is a mark and a sign of ownership. And arising out of that in a sense, a seal traditionally is always therefore something that is used for the purpose of security. You know, you take a parcel and you want it to go carefully, and you therefore not only tie it up, but you melt some sealing wax onto the knots and then you stamp that with a seal.

And if there is any infringement with that, or if that in any way is broken or marred, it is an indication that somebody has been tampering with the parcel. In order to make a thing secure, you seal it. You seal it in that way with wax and with the impress of a seal upon it. And so it tends to secure that this will not be damaged or not be stolen in transit. It is customary therefore to use a seal for purposes of security.

There is a great instance of that, you remember, in the New Testament itself. You remember how when our Lord was buried, the Roman authorities and the Jews were somewhat concerned as to what his followers might do with our Lord's body. So you remember, we are told that they rolled the stone over the mouth of the grave and then sealed it to make it secure. That was their object and their intention.

Very well. So that we have these three main meanings to this term sealing: authenticity, authority, ownership, and security and safety. And all those will help us to understand what exactly is meant by this term here, in which we are told that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. But we have got something still more helpful.

to understand this term. And that is the scriptural usage of the term. And obviously, this is superior to the other because you will find that terms generally carry the same meaning and connotation in all parts of the Scripture. It is a very good principle that when we come across any term, well, let us find the scriptural usage. What other examples have we got of the usage of this word in this kind of context? Well, fortunately, we have two very important ones. Here is one.

You read in the third chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John, in the 33rd verse, something to this effect: "He that has received his testimony, has set to his seal that God is true."

Now that is just another way of saying that when a man believes the gospel and accepts it, he is, as it were, setting his seal that this is indeed the truth of God, and that what God says is true. It is a very bold statement, a very bold image to use, but there it is in John 3:33. That when a man, anyone like yourself or myself, believes the gospel, what we are doing, as it were, is, "All right," we say, "this is absolutely true. I will put my seal upon it. I am authenticating that this is the word of God, that God is true."

Now you have the opposite of that. You do not have the word seal used exactly, but it helps us to fix the meaning. In the first Epistle of John, in the fifth chapter, and in the 10th verse, we read this: "He that believes not God, has made him a liar because he has not believed the record that God gave of his Son."

You see, there is the negative of it. To believe the gospel is to put your seal on it and say it is true. If you do not do that, says John, in that first Epistle, in the fifth chapter, in the 10th verse, you are virtually saying that God is a liar. You are making God, he says, a liar, because he believes not the record that God gave of his Son.

Now then there again is a usage which is of great value to us. We set our seal upon the gospel. We are, as it were, authenticating it and saying that we want us to establish its truth. But there is yet a still more important use of this word. And this you find in the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John, in the 27th verse.

Now you remember that in that sixth chapter of John's Gospel, we are given an account of our Lord feeding the 5,000. And then, having done that, he put his disciples into a boat, and told them to cross the sea, and went up into a mountain to pray. And later on, he joined them, and they arrived at the other side. And a number of other people had taken to boats, and they had crossed over also, and they came crowding after our Lord.

And our Lord turns to them and says this, the 27th verse, "Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him has God the Father sealed." Now this is a tremendous statement.

"Labor not for that meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give you. For him has God the Father sealed." Now what does this mean? You see, it is a statement by our blessed Lord himself, to the effect that God the Father had sealed him.

And obviously, if you read the whole context, and it well repays careful study, our Lord is telling these people that they should listen to him. They do not understand this. They say, "Well now, what do you mean by this? What are these works of God that we must do?" And our Lord replies saying, "This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent." "Well now," they said, "if you say that God has sent you, what sign do you give us? What proof have you got of the fact that you are indeed the Son of God, and the Savior, and the Messiah?"

They said, "For Moses, after all, when he was leading our nation and our people, he gave us a sign because he gave us manna. He gave us bread from heaven. What are you giving?" Now our Lord in a sense has already answered the question, by saying to them that he has been sealed by God. What does he mean? Well, he means this. He says, "I have been authenticated by God." That is the meaning. He says, "God has made it plain and clear that I am his Son. I, the Son of Man, am the Son of God. Can't you see that God has sealed me? God has given me authority. God has authenticated my claims. He has established my ministry. He has anointed me as the Messiah. Him has God the Father sealed."

Now, how has he done so? Well, surely the answer is to be found everywhere in the Scriptures, in these Gospels.

God has sealed his Son at his baptism. He sealed him by sending the Holy Ghost upon him. The Holy Ghost, you remember, descended upon him in the form of a dove. And as we are reminded again in the third chapter of this Gospel according to Saint John, he gives not the Holy Spirit by measure unto him. The Holy Ghost was sent upon him in all his fullness.

Now it is a profound doctrine, of course. It is an essential part of the whole doctrine of the Incarnation. Though he is the Son of God eternal and equal and co-equal with God, he has limited himself. He has come in the form of a servant. And before he can do his work as the Son of Man and as the Savior, he needs the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit was given to him not in measure, but in all his fullness.

He gives not the spirit by measure unto him. No, no, in all his fullness. And thereby he sets his seal upon him. But not only that, you remember a voice came from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." That voice spoke three times, authenticating him, sealing him, saying, "Here is my Son. Here is the Messiah. Here is the Deliverer."

And that in turn, of course, led to this. It was because he was thus empowered by God through the Spirit that our blessed Lord was able to speak as he did. He says, you remember the words that I speak, I speak not of myself. But the Father that sees me and sends me, he gives me the words. And again, he says about the works, he is only doing the works that the Father has given him to do. But what works, what words?

If you want to know my authentication, says the Lord, here they are. Listen to what I am saying. Listen to him expounding the Scriptures, though he has never had any training. Listen to his authority. Never men speak like this man. What is it? Well, he is speaking in all the fullness of the power of the Spirit.

And look at his works. He was able to say a little later on and did say, "Though you believe not me," he says, "believe the works." He says, "Can't you see it? Don't you recognize it? If you do not believe my words, look at what I am doing. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and the dead are raised." Those are the works. "And the gospel is preached unto the poor." They what the prophet had said the Messiah would do, here is the sealing. I am doing them in the power of the Spirit.

So that this therefore is a very crucial statement. "Him has God the Father sealed." Now Bishop Westcott, I think, sums it up very well by putting it like this. It means, he says, "solemnly set apart for the fulfillment of a charge, and authenticated by intelligible signs." That is it.

The Father had authenticated the Son by intelligible signs. The miracles, the works, the words, the person, everything about him. Having been given the Spirit in all his fullness, he has been sealed, he has been authenticated.

Now this is surely therefore very helpful to us as we come to consider the meaning of this term with respect to ourselves. It obviously carries the same meaning, and therefore we must say at this preliminary stage, that it obviously must mean with us what it meant with the Lord himself. It means that in this way we have been authenticated. We have been established by intelligible signs that we are indeed the children of God and heirs of God, and joint heirs with our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Now then, that is in general the meaning of the term, as you find it in common usage, and as you find it in the Scripture. And you notice that they come together.

In the case of our Lord, we are told that in this way a declaration has been made that he belongs to God. "This is my beloved Son." And not only the voice, but the works and the words, ownership, yes, and authentication, and this kind of security, that whatever men may do to him, he is the Son of God and the Savior. And though hell be let loose against him, God's purpose is to be carried out in him and through him. "Him has God the Father sealed."

But in order still further to get at the meaning of this term, and this morning we can do nothing beyond establishing the terms and discovering in general what it means, let us for a moment look at this. When does this sealing take place?

Where exactly does the sealing come in in the life and experience of the Christian? And here we have a most interesting question, which is to many people a problem. You notice that the authorized version which I read in this pulpit puts it like this: "In whom also after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." The revised version and the revised standard version and the others put it like this: "in whom also having believed, having believed."

And therefore the question arises, is this authorized translation correct? When does this sealing with the Holy Spirit take place?

Does it take place at the same moment as one believes, or is it something that is subsequent to belief? Now the authorized translation definitely is not only a translation, but it is also an exposition, clearly indicates that it is something that follows believing. That it is not the same as believing, but that it is different from, separated from, distinct from believing and not a part of believing.

Now that is the question. Is this sealing with the Holy Spirit a distinct and a separate experience in the Christian life, or is it something that happens inevitably to all who are Christians and that you cannot be a Christian at all apart from this sealing?

Now I think I am right when I say that the prevailing teaching at the present time is the second. It is a teaching which says that the sealing with the Spirit is something that happens immediately, inevitably, inexorably to all who believe. That is something which you will find stated very frequently in the teaching concerning this matter belonging to this present century.

And yet I want to suggest to you that that is not the real meaning of this Scripture. For myself, I cannot accept it. But I rather want to put to you the teaching which is so clearly stated by the great Puritan Thomas Goodwin, and to a lesser extent by his contemporary John Owen.

The teaching also of Dr. Charles Hodge of Princeton fame in the last century. The teaching also of Charles Simeon of Cambridge at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. For these draw a sharp distinction between believing, the act of faith, and the sealing with the Spirit.

And in this sense, that they teach and assert that the Scripture teaches that while it is absolutely right and true to say that no man can believe without the Holy Spirit, that that is not nevertheless the sealing with the Spirit. And that the sealing with the Spirit does not always follow immediately when a man believes.

That it may not follow, that there may be a great interval, and that it is possible for one to be a believer and therefore to have the Holy Spirit, and still not know the sealing of the Spirit. Now it is obvious that the good men who translated this authorized version held that view, because they have deliberately put it, "after that he believed," you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

And indeed, everybody has to agree that it is a reference to something that has happened in the past. It does not say, "in whom also believing you are sealed with the Holy Spirit." No, no. It is in the past. It is at the very least having believed.

You see, the Revised has to put it like that. That is putting it in the past, having believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And I would suggest that even the phrase "having believed" in and of itself should suggest that these two things are not identical, and that the sealing with the Spirit does not immediately follow any act of belief.

Now this is obviously therefore a very important question. And as I have already indicated, I would even go so far as to suggest that the poverty of spiritual experience today is very largely to be attributed to the fact that people have not drawn this distinction. It is just here, I say, that the error comes in.

Because the teaching is that the sealing with the Spirit is the same thing as the baptism with the Spirit, and that that is something that every Christian of necessity must have experienced, that it is not something that enters into the consciousness or into the realm of experience. It is something that happens to us all unconsciously.

And therefore it is something that people do not seek, and because they do not seek it, they do not experience it. And the result is that we live on a kind of believe-ism, saying to ourselves, "Well, that we must have had it," and therefore we have it, and therefore we go on like this without experiencing what I hope to show you so clearly was the case with these New Testament Christians, and has been the case with so many Christians in the subsequent centuries of the Christian church.

Very well then, let me lay it down as a proposition, that this sealing with the Spirit is something subsequent to believing, something additional to believing. And let me suggest to you this morning before I close some supporting statements in the Scripture.

Now for the first, I go back to that 14th chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John, a portion of which we have read at the beginning. There our Lord is addressing his disciples and followers as believers. He is drawing a sharp distinction between them and the world. And what he tells them is this, that the Holy Spirit is going to be given to them as another Comforter because they are his people.

He says, "The world is not going to receive him, but you are going to receive him." You see, it is the distinction between believers and unbelievers. And what he promises his own, the believer is, that he is going to receive the Holy Spirit as another Comforter. He goes on to say later that it is expedient for them that he is going, "because if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you." There is this great blessing that they must look forward to. They should even be glad, he says, that he is going to the Father because this is going to come.

He is talking to believers, but he tells them that they are going to receive this additional something. "He is with you, he shall be in you." But then go on to the first two chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

And the thing is still more plain. Our Lord, you remember, is addressing these men. He has already breathed upon them the Holy Spirit and said to them, "Receive you the Holy Ghost." And yet you remember what he tells them here.

He says, "And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which," says he, "you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence." They have already believed in him fully. He has even breathed the Spirit upon them. Yes, he says, "It is all right, but wait, something still bigger is going to happen to you. This promise of the Father. This thing about which I spoke to you, the thing that John the Baptist taught you before even I began, it is coming."

And in the second chapter, you have an account of how it came. The very thing our Lord there promised them 10 days later, happened to them. Now they were believers before this. It is monstrous to suggest that the disciples were not believers before the day of Pentecost. Of course, they were. They were full believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He had even expounded the doctrine of the atonement to them, and they had understood it after his resurrection, had breathed the Spirit upon them. They knew he was the Son of God. Even Thomas had made his confession, "My Lord and my God." Yet they still have not received this. It was there they were sealed. It was there the authentication was given to them. And it is there their glorious ministry begins.

Now this is therefore a most important matter. Hurry on to the eighth chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. And there you will find that Philip went down and evangelized the Samaritans, you remember. And as the result of the preaching of Philip, these Samaritans believed the gospel. We are told that quite explicitly, that having heard this message, they believed it. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and Philip was satisfied that they had, and therefore he baptized them.

But in the 16th verse, I read this, "For as yet he, the Holy Ghost, was fallen upon none of them."

"Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." You remember that Peter and John went down from Jerusalem, who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For as yet he was fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.

They were already believers. They had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and they could not have done that apart from the Holy Spirit working within them and opening their hearts. Yes, they had done that. But still the seal had not come. There was an interval. You see how wrong it is to say that immediately a man believes, he is sealed by the Spirit. That did not happen to these Samaritans, as it had not happened to the disciples themselves.

You go on to the ninth chapter, you will have the account of the conversion of Paul, and in exactly the same way it happens to him. He believes on the Lord Jesus Christ as the result of what he saw on the road to Damascus. But it was only three days later that he received and was filled with the Holy Ghost as the result of the ministry of Ananias. Same thing again.

And then you go on to chapter 15 of the book of Acts and you have the same thing. You will find that the Apostle Peter, defending himself for having received Cornelius and his family into the Christian church and having baptized them, puts it like this. "And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the Gospel and believe."

"And God which knows the hearts, bore them witness," authenticated them if you like, "giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us." God bore them witness. God established the fact that they were truly his by giving them the Holy Ghost. He sealed them.

And that brings me to the last great example of this, which is of course in the 19th chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, in the second verse. And that is why I read it to you at the beginning because of its crucial importance. Paul arrives at Ephesus, and finding certain disciples he said unto them, and here I am reading the authorized version, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" But the revised and the revised standard and all the others do not agree with that translation, and they say it should be this: "Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?"

And there is no doubt at all but that the translation of the revised version, et cetera, is correct at this point. "Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?" Now then, they say that settles the whole matter. They say it is a pity that the authorized ever went wrong there and said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" They said that translation has led everybody astray.

And it has made people think that you can believe and afterwards, since, you can receive the Holy Spirit. They said if it had only been the right translation, people would have seen it at once. "Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?" But surely that does not solve the problem, it does not answer the question. Indeed, I want to try to show you that far from supporting the idea that receiving the Holy Ghost always follows immediately upon believing, this correct translation of Acts 19:2 does the exact opposite.

But as I do it, let me make a confession. I once fell into that trap myself, and I am afraid it is in print. A little booklet under my name and signature called "Christ Our Sanctification" repeats that argument: that if only we took the revised translation instead of the authorized, we would see that there was no difference between these two things. I withdraw it, I apologize, I confess my error.

And I personally fell into the error in this way. I was concerned to show that sanctification is not a subsequent experience to be received after justification, and I still assert that. But when I said that this is equally true, I was going too far because let me show you.

Observe what the Apostle says to these men. He says, "Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?" Surely the implication is obvious. A man may believe without receiving the Holy Ghost. If the two things happened inevitably together, it is an unnecessary question. And the Apostle would simply ask him, "Are you really believers?" But he does not ask that. What he asks is this, "Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed?"

In other words, when he spoke to these men, he saw at once that they had not got the seal. They had not got the signs of the Holy Ghost. And he says, "Now look here, you call yourselves believers. Did you receive the Holy Ghost when you believed? Have you received him at all, you who claim to be believers?" I suggest therefore that even that translation indicates quite clearly that there is a distinction between the two things.

We can believe, and of course, we only believe as the result of the operation of the Spirit, but still we may not have received the seal of the Spirit. And as I think you will agree with me if you read it again, the subsequent events in Ephesus prove this very thing. The Apostle begins to examine them. He says, "To what were you baptized?" They say, "Unto John's baptism." Then said Paul, "John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus." When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And Paul would never baptize a man unless he believed, so they believed at that point.

Hearing the Apostle's preaching of the Lord Jesus, they believed it and accepted it and were baptized. They are now believers. But listen. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. They had believed, but they had not had the sealing of the Spirit. And that only happened when Paul laid his hands upon them.

Surely the translators of the authorized version were absolutely right historically, as proved by the 19th chapter of Acts, when they said, "In whom also, after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." There was an interval between their believing and their sealing, as there was in the case of Paul himself, as there was in the case of the Samaritans, as there was in the case of the Apostles themselves, as there always is.

But let us be clear about this as I close. Though I am emphasizing that there is a distinction between these two things, and that there is always an interval, that sealing does not immediately and automatically follow believing, I would not have anybody understand me as saying that there must always be a long interval, not at all. It may be a very short interval, but there is always an interval. Believing first, then sealing.

It is only believers who are to be sealed, nobody else. And you can be a believer without inevitably being sealed. There is this interval. It may be short, it may be long. The two things are not identical.

It is believing that makes us children of God, that joins us to Christ. It is the sealing with the Holy Ghost that authenticates that fact. It does not determine the fact, but it authenticates it. Like a seal always does.

And next Sunday, God willing, I hope to go on to consider some of the ways in which, to use the phrase again, the terms of Bishop Westcott. I hope to show some of the ways in which the Holy Spirit authenticates by intelligible signs the fact that we are the children of God and heirs of God, and joint heirs with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In whom also after that he believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Amen.