We are going to look at a few more ministries of the Holy Spirit over the next couple broadcasts. These are going to overlap somewhat with our discussion of salvation because these are salvation issues. These are things the Holy Spirit does for us at the moment of salvation. These are not things that we necessarily feel or experience in that way. These are truths of things that happen in your life when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. At the moment of conversion, certain things happen in your life, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that are wonderful and radically changes us, but we don’t necessarily experience them in the sense of emotions or even cognitive in some ways, but they are there, and we take that from the Word of God.
One of those ministries is what we call the sealing ministries. Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” It speaks of the sealing. In Ephesians 4:30 it says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Twice here it mentions this ministry. What is this sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit? According to the two passages, it is a ministry that guarantees our salvation. It is God’s pledge to us that once we have come to Christ for salvation, at that moment, once you have believed, you are sealed. It is a done deal, and nothing is ever going to change that. It says, “who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.” This is sort of like a down payment. The down payment is of the nature that God has given us the Holy Spirit to absolutely guarantee that you and I, if we are saved, will never lose that salvation. It is to the redemption of God’s own possession.
The picture here is that God takes us, unsaved people, at the moment of conversion and places us in Christ. To help pain this picture, think of an envelope. He places us in Christ, and He has us in Christ in that envelope of Christ. Then He closes the flap on that envelope and then He seals us. He puts that wax seal that we all are familiar with, especially in ancient times. He puts that seal over that envelope. That seal is the Holy Spirit. He mails that envelope, so to speak, back to Himself for the day of redemption. Then on the day of our redemption when we stand before Him, we arrive safe and sound and nothing can break that seal because that seal is the Holy Spirit Himself. He is the guarantee, it’s God’s promise that there is nothing in heaven or earth, there is nothing inside of us, there is no demonic power, there is absolutely nothing that can break the seal of God once you are in Christ Jesus. It is a guarantee of our inheritance and our salvation. That is a glorious truth, isn’t it? We thank the Lord for that . . .
