Living Hope

Guest (Male): Friends, in Christ Jesus, we are all inheritors. In Christ Jesus, we all belong to the Father. In Christ Jesus, we are all sealed by the Holy Spirit. And friends, the Spirit has sealed you for inheritance. Sealed you for inheritance. You have been branded as God's very own.

Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy. In Ephesians 1, we've learned and seen how believers were chosen by God and redeemed by the Son. But Pastor Philip, I'm so excited about this. When we talk about the third member of the Trinity, what is the Spirit's role in our salvation?

Philip Miller: Here in Ephesians chapter 1, we're going to get two images. The first one is a brand, like a cattle brand, where God is literally putting his name on us through the Spirit. We are his beloved, adopted children. We bear the name of our Father. That's brilliant.

Secondly, he's going to use the image of a down payment. There is an inheritance coming as children of God, and the Spirit is the down payment, the guarantee of all the inheritance that is yet to come. And so the Spirit is the one who gives us confidence in the glories that are coming our way.

Larry McCarthy: Well, let's go now to the pulpit of the Moody Church to find out what it means to be sealed by the Spirit. We're in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14.

Guest (Male): Jesus is the summation of the cosmic story, not just the Jewish story and the Gentile story, but the cosmic story. In Jesus, sin is conquered. In Jesus, death is defeated. In Jesus, Satan is vanquished. And every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And in Christ, all things shall be made new. The whole universe will be set to rights and made beautiful again in the person of Jesus Christ. And now this mystery that was hidden for ages is now freely available. We can see it. We didn't know who would be Messiah.

We didn't know who would be Lord of the nations. We didn't know who would be King of the cosmos. But now we do. Jesus has revealed it all. The Father has made known the mystery of his will to unite all things in Christ.

And it's already begun with you and me. By grace through faith in Christ's substitutionary death and resurrection on our behalf, friends, you have been united in Christ. Christ is in you, and you are in Christ. You have been immersed into his life and you are now alive in union with Christ.

The Son has redeemed you for union. God's plan all along was that you and I might be united with Christ, that his life might become our own, that we might come alive in him. How else are you going to be holy and blameless in his sight?

How else would you be a son and heir of the God of the universe? How else could you be beloved in him? How else? But if Galatians 2:20 is correct, that we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us, and the life we now live by faith we live in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself up for us.

Then our lives are actually hidden in Christ, according to Colossians 3:3. And Christ is in us, which is our hope of glory, according to Colossians 1:27. To be united in Christ means we are in Christ and Christ is in us. Now what does that mean? Give me a picture to anchor to.

I can understand like if I have a cup and I put water in the cup. I understand Christ in me. And then I can imagine that cup if I dropped it in a bucket. I can imagine the cup in the bucket, in the water. I can imagine my life in Christ, but how do I put those together?

Well, plunge it all the way down until there's water in the cup and you are completely immersed in the life and love of Christ. This is the picture. You are filled to the brim with the life of Christ and your life is hidden in Christ. You are submerged and tethered to and filled by the life of Christ in union with him now and forever.

Chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, now finally sealed by the Spirit. Sealed by the Spirit, verse 11. In him, this is Christ, in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. That's the Father.

So in Christ we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of the Father who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So remember, friends, the Father chose us for adoption as his sons, and sons are heirs and heirs get an inheritance, right?

Paul says you and I in Christ, we have received a windfall inheritance. Not because somebody died and just happened to put us in their will, but because the Father's purpose was set before the beginning of time that you and I should share in his eternal estate. Everything is going according to plan, Paul says.

The Father is working all things according to the counsel of his will. His predestined purposes are unfolding right on schedule. Verse 12, "so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory." Now something funny happens here in verses 12 and 13, because in this verse Paul makes a shift.

When he says "we who were first to hope in Christ," he is now referring to the Jewish people who have come to trust in Jesus as Messiah, in Christ. Remember back in Acts chapter 19, the very first people to trust in Jesus in Ephesus were the Jewish people. And so these Jewish believers were the first to hope in Christ to the praise of his glory.

But Paul doesn't stop there. Look at verse 13. "In him you also," now he's talking to the Gentiles, "when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit." When you Gentiles, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Remember they turned from all their pagan practices? They burned their books, the magic, and all the things they were living in. They threw down their idols to grab ahold of Jesus. That's who he's talking to now. He says you have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Sealed.

The seal, it's like a word for a brand, like you would brand cattle, or some of you stamp in your books and you say this is from my library, or you monogram your clothing, this belongs to me. That's the idea. It's a brand, a mark of ownership. It's a symbol or an image of the owner that demonstrates that this thing belongs to the owner.

And friends, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, is God's brand on your life. It is his name that is on you. You belong to him forever. So here you have Jewish believers who have come into an inheritance as sons of God and are coming into that inheritance alongside Gentile believers who have also been sealed by the same Holy Spirit.

Verse 14, "who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory." Friends, who would have ever thought that Jews and Gentiles would inherit the blessings of God together? Who would have ever thought?

But as Paul writes in Galatians 3:28, "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Friends, in Christ Jesus, we are all inheritors. In Christ Jesus, we all belong to the Father. In Christ Jesus, we are all sealed by the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit has sealed you for inheritance. You have been branded as God's very own. You bear his image and likeness. You are adopted as his son, an heir. You are sealed by the Spirit, and that Holy Spirit is your guarantee. He is a deposit, a down payment, a pledge, a first installment and foretaste of the glories that are ours to come.

The Spirit is a fractional deposit of your great future endowment. And we shall take full possession of it one day as God takes full possession of us. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father, Jesus says. And the sons of God will be revealed, as Paul writes in Romans chapter 8.

And it is all to the praise of his glory. Three times Paul has said this: verse 6, verse 12, verse 14. He says it is all to the praise of his glory. I'm reminded of Isaiah 43 verses 20 and 21 where God speaks and he says, "This is my chosen people, the people I have formed for myself that they might declare my praise."

And friends, here's your takeaway: our salvation is to the praise of his glory. All of God's saving work is for our good and it is for his glory. Before time, God knew you and loved you and chose you and he set his affections upon you and purposed that you would be his child, that you would be with him and be holy and blameless in his sight.

That's why he sent you Jesus as your substitute, your redeemer, your savior, your Lord and your king. It is why he sealed you with the Holy Spirit so that you might be his very own possession. He gave you a guarantee of all the glory that will come to you in the end, so that in the end he might share all that he is and all that he has with you. The procurement of your good is to the praise of his glory. Amen? Amen.

That is quite a sentence, don't you think? It's amazing, the word of God. Doesn't it seize your mind and stir your heart? Let's go live it out, friends. This is who we are in Christ. He alone is worthy. Let's pray.

Larry McCarthy: Wow. This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy and we're so glad you've joined us today as we explore the sealing of the Holy Spirit and this issue of our future inheritance. Pastor Philip, I just have to jump right in here. You talk about the sealing of the Holy Spirit and sealed for an inheritance. When most people think of an inheritance, it is something in the future, and certainly there's that element, but there's so much more to this inheritance, isn't there?

Philip Miller: Oh yeah. If I were to say to my son, who is eight years old, "Son, I bought a Corvette." I would never do this, by the way. But let's say I bought him a Corvette, right? And here are the keys, but you can't drive it until you're 16. It's just sort of an annoyance. It's like, it is cool, but I have to wait for it and it doesn't do me any good in the present. In the meantime I have to just play video games or something, right?

What we have in the Holy Spirit is not just a gift that guarantees the glories that are coming one day in the future that we have to wait for. It is also that the Holy Spirit is personally present. It's empowering. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is alive in me, is working in me, is redeeming me.

He is reminding me that I'm a child of God. He's leading me and guiding me and I can walk with the Spirit. So in other words, it is a gift I get to use. It is a fractional deposit of the full inheritance that's coming, all the glories that await, and yet it itself is a usable inheritance. It is a blessing that I get to operationally live in every day, all the day.

And here is the thing: if I know I have got that part of it, I have got the Spirit alive and at work in my life, then I have a guarantee. I know what is coming because it's just a piece of all that God has promised. And my confidence lies in the fact that God will deliver on what he's promised, and my experience of the Holy Spirit in my life is that guarantee. I can rest with confidence knowing everything else is coming.

Larry McCarthy: Pastor Philip, that's powerful. But let me ask you this. If the Holy Spirit seals us, then I really don't have to do anything, right? I can just sit back and he's going to take control and I'm on cruise control, right?

Philip Miller: Well, so you might think that, but here's the reality: we don't go passive. We don't go limp. The idea that God's work in our life, his sovereign choosing and saving and all of that, in no way diminishes our responsibility to respond, to collaborate in this process. We respond. We're living, active, breathing beings.

And so the language that Paul will use is "walk with the Spirit." So he is leading, and we would never go without his leadership and his initiative. By ourselves we're dead in our trespasses and sin. We're never going to respond. But by the grace of God through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, his power in our life, he's going to lead, but our job is to follow along with him, to keep in step with the Spirit. Not to run ahead, not to lag behind, but to keep in step with the Spirit.

So we're talking about a proactive dependency. Not where I'm running ahead and I take too much ownership and think I have to save myself, sanctify myself, redeem myself, I have to make my holiness happen. That is not going to happen unless he does it. So I'm dependent. But at the same time I'm not passive, I'm proactive. I'm engaged in the process.

I'm seeing the gaps in my life. I see where he's calling me to holiness. I'm making plans to walk in obedience, to try to conform my life to the image of Christ by his power that is working within me. Paul says, "I strain with all his energy that works so powerfully in me." So it is his work, but my efforts as I go along.

Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. So I never earn anything, but I'm collaboratively working as I walk with the Spirit. I'm making choices, I'm making decisions, but it is his power that is at work. I would never choose this if it weren't for him. It is by grace every step of the way, but I'm burning grace like a 747 on takeoff. I need that in my life and so I keep in step with the Spirit.

Larry McCarthy: Thank you so much for that. So I've heard you say it several times that we don't go on our feelings, that feelings aren't fact. It sure feels good to be saved, but what word would you have for our listeners today who are saying, "I don't feel saved. I just don't feel that I belong to God"?

Philip Miller: There is a doubt that all of us experience. It is sort of like, "Okay, all these promises, and yet sometimes I don't feel it. Am I really saved? Am I really loved? Do I really belong to the Lord God?" And I think there is a whole bunch of reasons why we have those doubts. The world's a hard place and we've never been loved like this before, not this purely, not this good. And so I think a lot of times we're like, "Man, I don't know if it's real. I don't know if I'm," that sort of self-doubt.

So I think in these moments, we've got to remember the promises of God are true whether I feel it or not. Feelings aren't facts. So the truth of God's word, his promises, which he's never disappointed us, he's never lied, so we can take his promises to the bank. And when he says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, that is a promise. That is a truth and I can cling to that. "You said this, God, I'm trusting you."

The other thing is to listen to the witness of the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 8, Paul says the Spirit is bearing witness with our spirit that we are indeed children of God. He is crying out "Abba Father." There is a witness of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes I can silence that with my own thinking. I can—he can say, "You're a child of God," and I go, "Yeah, but I messed up. Yeah, but I'm not worthy. Yeah, but..."

And what we've got to do is diminish our own self-doubt and let his voice of truth ring out loud in our hearts and minds so that we actually dare to start believing it. And I think that takes work because we talk to ourselves a lot and our thoughts are usually not God's thoughts. And so we have to learn to let his truth override some of our instinctive thoughts.

And so there's a reorientation that we have got to remember. The reality is we also have to recognize we all have sin in our lives. We all have areas of our life that are not submitted to the lordship of Christ. And so the Spirit's going to be grieving those areas in our life, and we're going to feel conviction and we're going to feel dirty and we're going to feel shame.

And that is his trying us. He wants all of us in deep fellowship so that we can experience all the love of God. God wants to give us all of himself, and we're the ones that are polluting the filter and it doesn't all get through because we've junked it up. And so I think the Spirit is also calling us to lay down our lives, to confess our sins, to surrender, to stop holding out.

And I think the more we listen to the Spirit, the more we're going to experience the assurance of the love of God and we're going to learn to live in that more and more. And so I would just say, if you've trusted Jesus Christ, learn to listen to the voice of truth, the promises of God, the witness of the Spirit. Respond as much as you can with confession and repentance, get as clean as you can before the Lord.

And I think you're going to start to experience—ask him for it. Say, "Father, I need to know that you love me. Would you show that to me in a way that I will know and I'll know it's you? And that'll give me a confidence to move out into life." I think he always answers that prayer.

Larry McCarthy: Amen. I think you gave us something really practical. Even the prompting and the conviction is from the Holy Spirit. So when people are looking for having a conscience now and feeling bad about behavior, certainly I think our listeners could say there was a time when I didn't.

Philip Miller: Yeah, and even the fact that you may be worried about losing your salvation is itself a reflection of the fact that God's in your life. You would not want salvation, worry about losing it, unless the Lord was in your life and the Holy Spirit was bringing conviction and cultivating those desires in your heart. So the fact that you're even worried about it makes me not worried about it. And so I think that gives us great and deep assurance.

Larry McCarthy: So you're saying the Holy Spirit reminds us of who we really are.

Philip Miller: Yeah, that's right. That's his primary role in our lives in addition to sanctification, he's reminding us who we are. And as a matter of fact, that's where Paul's going next in Ephesians. He has got this beautiful prayer coming where he reminds us of our true selves.

Larry McCarthy: Well, we're going to talk more about that next time on Living Hope. As Pastor Philip and I explored with you today, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is a profound gospel truth. It's God's personal guarantee that we are his and that our inheritance is secure in him. This sealing isn't just a theological concept, it's a living reality that transforms how we live and worship.

Dr. George Sweeting's book, *How to Begin the Christian Life*, is an excellent resource for anyone looking to understand the Holy Spirit's role in their life more deeply. In fact, chapter 3 is all about you and the Holy Spirit. Dr. Sweeting reminds us that the Christian life isn't just about following rules, it's about cultivating a relationship with God.

This book offers practical guidance on how to live a life that reflects the assurance and joy of being sealed by the Spirit. It covers essential topics of assurance of salvation, the power of prayer, and how to cultivate a vibrant relationship with God. And for a limited time, we're offering *How to Begin the Christian Life* for a donation of any amount.

Now to request your copy, maybe you want to get one for a friend or a loved one, just go to livinghopeoffer.com or call us at 1-800-215-5001. That is livinghopeoffer.com, 1-800-215-5001. You can also write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Thanks for joining us for Living Hope, where you'll always find the gospel truth for the journey of a lifetime. Living Hope is a production of Moody Church Media and is sponsored by the Moody Church.