I remember as a boy, hearing a story of a man found starved to death in an alley somewhere in New York City. He had been without family, homeless and apparently friendless. When authorities were able to identify the corpse however, it was discovered that the man had unknowingly inherited in excess of one million dollars, which had been put into a trust in a local bank, until he could be found.
Unfortunately, never knowing that the wealth was available to him, the man had wasted away slowly, day by day living off the squalor of the New York streets and alleys until they could sustain him no longer.
The New Testament epistles tell us that through His atoning sacrifice on Calvary’s Cross, Christ has purchased our salvation. He has put to our account, right standing before God and Eternal life in His presence; it is there for us to appropriate to ourselves through faith.
It is sad that there are so many who have entered into eternity, and are doing so even today, who never appropriated that wealth made available to them, because they never heard, or refused to believe the news when it reached them. They continue to scrape by from day to day on the putrid morsels of philosophy, man-made religion and self, until their withered souls give up the futile struggle and enter eternity as they lived...alone.
This does not have to be.
Turn to Ephesians chapter 1 and read with me. (vs 11-14)
There is much to teach from these verses; the total of which could not be done effectively without starting at verse 3.
I want us to focus only on the truth expressed in the last half of vs 13 and through vs 14.
“...having also believed, you (we) were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Paul is telling the Ephesians here, that the Holy Spirit was given to them as a pledge...a promise of a greater inheritance.
Now this does not diminish the work or worth of the Holy Spirit, saying that He is given as a pledge. He is a person, not an “it”; He is God, just as the Father and the Son are God. One God, three persons.
It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives life to our mortal bodies. Keep your place in Ephesians, but turn for a moment to Romans chapter 8, vss 9-11. (read)
In Ephesians 1, when Paul calls the gift of the Holy Spirit a “pledge”, that does not make the Holy Spirit just a token.
What Paul is telling us, is that the Holy Spirit’s indwelling us; revealing to us the things of Christ; opening our eyes to spiritual truth; sanctifying us day by day, serves as a constant reminder in the face of all the doubt and lies and worldliness of this life, that we have a greater inheritance, which includes all of Heaven.
This is not the only place Paul teaches this. Let me read a couple of verses to you:
I Cor 1:21,22 “Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”
Romans 8:16,17 “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ...”
Galatians 4:6,7 “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
So we see that this idea of the Holy Spirit’s presence with and in us being a pledge of the completeness of our inheritance in Christ was an important thing for us to grasp, in the thinking of the Apostle Paul.
I think the reason Paul stressed this truth, was because he was very much aware of the difficulty of keeping our minds focused on the eternal, when the cares of the world so relentlessly press down on us.
I watched a movie years ago about the days of the Civil war, and the emancipation of slaves. One scene stands out in my mind toward the end of that movie. After the emancipation proclamation was issued, a white woman, whose husband had been a slave owner, took one of their slaves, a young black man, out to the front of the plantation house and pointed down a long dirt road lined with eucalyptus trees.
She handed him a piece of paper and explained that the paper was his proof that he had been set free. She then pointed down the road and told him he could leave.
The young man started down the road a few steps, a fearful expression crossed his face and he turned back to her and asked, “Where will I go?” The woman smiled, held out her hands and said “Anywhere you want”.
After a long pause, he looked back down the road, then began to walk, slowly at first, then faster, then finally he broke into a run and was gone.
I may not remember the scene perfectly, but it has stayed in my mind more than any other scene from that movie because it was so powerfully played. The young man’s expressions communicated to the viewer, fear, excitement, doubt, anticipation.
He made the viewer realize that he had absolutely no clue as to what awaited him out there, but he had a piece of paper that was a token of his freedom; and “out there somewhere” was the freedom represented by what he held in his hand. The actual freedom was much bigger, grander, than the token, but the token was a thing to cling to as a promise that it was indeed out there.
If a man you had never seen before approached you, identifying himself as an accountant who had been given the errand of passing on an inheritance, and handed you a check for ten thousand dollars and a bank book, you would be thrilled.
You might immediately begin thinking of the things you could do with that ten thousand dollars. I know it would be a lot of money to me. I could pay my cell-phone bill with that!
But then let’s say you open the bank book and discover that the sum of your inheritance in savings is in excess of ten BILLION dollars!
You and I cannot begin to conceive of that amount of money. You and generations after you could live well on that amount of money, if it is not squandered or poorly invested...and even squandering and poorly investing, it would take a loooong time to go through that amount.
That original ten thousand would be mere pocket change if compared to such an amount!
But the check in your hand would be an assurance to you that the larger amount really is there, in that account.
We have the bank book, so to speak, in God’s Word. It has much to say about our inheritance in Christ, and the things to come. In fact, it promises that “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered the mind of man, what God has planned for those who love Him”.
But the indwelling, witnessing Holy Spirit, is like that check. An actual “down payment” of our inheritance in Him; a token of what he future holds.
Now, no analogy from the physical world of spiritual things can be perfect, but that should help you get a picture.
Now in reference to this word “sealed” “...having also believed, you sere SEALED in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise...”
Paul uses this term again in chapter 4 verse 30, where he says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were SEALED for the day of redemption.
The word used by Paul can mean to PUT A SEAL on, or to SEAL UP...to close up tight. Either way, it denotes ownership, protection, preservation.
When Pilate put a seal over the tomb in which Jesus’ body was laid, it had a stamp on it which indicated that the seal had been placed with all the authority of the Roman government behind it, and no one could break that seal but someone authorized by that government, under threat of prosecution. Although the seal meant nothing to God, in the minds of men, anyone attempting to break that seal without permission would be incurring the wrath of Roman law.
When my mother used to make jam, I would watch her pour wax over the top of the preserves until it was at the brim of the jar. She would then carefully wipe some wax around the rim itself, and place the rubber lined lid on tight. The wax and the vacuum caused by the cooling preserves would seal that jar so tight that it could have sat on a basement shelf for years, and the jam would have been good when finally opened. Sealed, preserved, protected.
In our house, the dust didn’t have time to gather on those jars; but they could have lasted a long time if necessary.
Paul, under the inspiration of this same Holy Spirit of God, has written to us that after listening to the message of truth, the good news of our salvation - HAVING ALSO BELIEVED, we were sealed in Him (Christ) by the Holy Spirit of promise”.
A seal of God’ ownership was placed over our lives, and unlike Pilate’s seal, no power in Heaven or earth can break that seal...a seal that DOES mean a great deal to God. He shut us up tightly. We are set aside for His use...for His eternal fellowship. Preserved, protected until the day of the redemption of our bodies (or glorification).
Turn with me now to the book of Revelation, chapter 21. (Read vs 1-5)
John, son of Zebedee and author of the fourth Gospel, had been exiled to the Isle of Patmos for his Christian beliefs and preaching. Bible scholars believe this was probably around A.D. 95.
While there (and he tells us himself in chapter 1 vs 9,10) he was given a vision (or perhaps a series of visions) of prophecies of the last days. So the Holy Spirit Himself, the One who was given to us as a pledge; the One by whom we are sealed for the day of redemption, has also given us glimpses of what is in store for us.
These also, are “earnests” “pledges” of our inheritance in Christ.
Do you see the connection I’m making here? These are not just the dreams of an aging, lonely Jew in exile on a barren island; these things come to us from God, who before the foundation of the world predetermined our course and set as our final destination, a place with Him.
A place where He, who was and is and is to come, will reign in Peace and Justice and Mercy. A place where there will no longer be “any death; there shall no longer by any mourning, or crying, or pain”
A place where He is “...making all things new”...and He has already begun that work; we know, for Paul tells us that “if any man be in Christ he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new”.
So my message to you is really a simple one today, believer.
The cares and trials of this life so often seem so real to us; so oppressive. They threaten to crush us, to overwhelm us, to drive us down to the dust and keep us there.
But the reality is that the moment you believed, God set His seal on you. He shut you up unto Himself, for the praise of His Glory, and He will not fail to keep you for that day when He will redeem even your aging, frail, sin-affected body and make it brand new, glorious, unfailing, eternal.
He has given you the Holy Spirit as a down payment. Every time you sense His presence with you; whether it be comfort in time of grief, assurance in time of doubt, or conviction in a moment of sin,...every time you sense His presence, it is a reminder that you belong to God, and all of these promises are yours.
“Write,” He told John, “...for these words are faithful and true”.
Paul understood this; not just with his mind, but in his heart. It sustained him through hardship and loneliness and imprisonment and torture and finally through death’s shadow; because he looked, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal (temporary) but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Seek to get these truths into your heart, Christian. Through prayer and study, ask the Holy Spirit to bless you with the convictions that have sustained the great men and women of the faith during their sojourn on this earth.
Ask Him to teach you these things over and over until you can honestly say with Paul:
“...WE ARE AFFLICTED IN EVERY WAY, BUT NOT CRUSHED; PERPLEXED, BUT NOT DESPAIRING; PERSECUTED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN; STRUCK DOWN, BUT NOT DESTROYED; ALWAYS CARRYING ABOUT IN THE BODY THE DYING OF JESUS, THAT THE LIFE OF JESUS ALSO MAY BE MANIFESTED IN OUR BODY...” and again, “BUT HAVING THE SAME SPIRIT OF FAITH, ACCORDING TO WHAT IS WRITTEN, ‘I BELIEVED, THEREFORE I SPOKE,’ WE ALSO BELIEVE, THEREFORE ALSO WE SPEAK, KNOWING THAT HE WHO RAISED THE LORD JESUS WILL RAISE US ALSO WITH JESUS AND WILL PRESENT US WITH YOU.”
I also believe, therefore I speak. I preach, for these things are faithful and true.
AMEN
