of Ephesians chapter 4 in verse 30. When John Calvin had been gone for some time from Geneva, he came back and they wondered what he would preach on. And he picked right back up with his series in the next verse that he was on in the book of Romans in order to highlight and show his commitment to and his conviction that he had nothing to say, but what God had already said in his word. And as I come back today, I'm no John Calvin, but I feel sure I had the same conviction that he had. about the word, so verse 30 is where we left off. So we pick right back up in our series through the book of the Apostle Paul written to the Ephesians, chapter four, verse 30. And here he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let's pray together. Lord, we bow our heads to you and hopefully our hearts to ask. Very simply and surely for your help. We pray that our time together. Would truly be profitable for all of us. Lord, we think of everyone in the room and we know that every single person is important to you. And should be important to us and has a universe of thought and emotion and struggle. And problem and solution inside their chest. And when we think that you care about each and every single one Lord, we are encouraged to pray to you and to seek you and to ask for your help. For you've chosen. Moments like this to minister to us, and so we pray that you would. We pray that you would transform all our efforts and make them helpful, make them gracious, make them life-giving, faith-building and hope-causing. In Jesus' name, amen. So, continuing their project of making new versions of old classics, Disney continues Along and recently, while I was off, they added to that list, redoing a live version of Pinocchio starring Tom Hanks, which undoubtedly carried the whole entire thing. But so in other words, I had that on my mind coming back to this verse. So a specific aspect of that story stuck out to me this time. Excuse me. And that was that in one angle, you could say all of Pinocchio's problems, the problem that caused all the difficulties for him would be the fact that he refused to be led by He refused to follow. He refused to not grieve Jiminy Cricket. He wouldn't listen to him. And at times he downright even rejected his voice and his leadership. And so he found himself in the situations that he did. And in one way and at one angle, You could say that this has always been the problem that has caused all the difficulties of God's people down through the ages. Refusing to be led by, refusing to not quench, refusing to not even remember that the Christian life is not a life of a single individual, but always of two persons. Think of Isaiah 63, the way he puts it. Isaiah 63, if you look beginning at verse 10, verse seven to verse 10, what does he say here? He says, I shall make mention of the loving kindness of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us in the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has granted them according to his compassion. And according to the abundance of his loving kindness, for he said, surely they are not people's sons who will not deal falsely. So he became their savior. In all their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his mercy, he redeemed them and he lifted them and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Therefore, he turned himself to become their enemy. He fought against them. And this is the same epitaph that Stephen gives of God's people in his sermon. In the book of Acts, chapter seven, verse 51, we read, you men who are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. And then he adds, you are doing just as your fathers did. And it goes back prior to Israel. You remember Genesis chapter six, God had instructed humanity to procreate in a certain way and they did not. And in chapter six, verse three, we read, then the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Now, in contrast to this, therefore, when the Savior comes into the world, what do we see? In the Gospel of Luke, we see that Jesus was willing to be led by the Spirit through the wilderness in the way that Israel was not. Luke chapter 4, verse 1, Jesus full of the Holy Spirit. And I hope you know that full means like sails are full of wind being guided and directed in a certain way, a permissive spirit, a leadable spirit, being willing to be guided. That's what it means to be full, to have your will full, like the cells are full and your will's being pushed and being guided by him. He says, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. So he allowed himself, because the spirit wanted him to, to be led by the devil. Verse nine says, and he, the devil, led him to Jerusalem up on the pinnacle. And he allowed himself to be led by men. It says in verse 29, and they got up and drove him out of the city and led him to the brow of the hill. He continued to be led in humility by God the Father, Paul says, all the way to the point of death, even the death on the cross. In Hebrews chapter 10 makes it explicit that this was by the Spirit that he did this. Hebrews chapter 9, that is, verse 14, when it says, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish? to God. So Jesus's ministry from bookend to bookend, from beginning to end, was led by the Spirit all the way to the point of the cross. Indeed, this is what marked him out as the Messiah. You may remember the prophecy of Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. That's how he's marked out. John the Baptist, is recorded as saying this, the beginning of John's gospel. In chapter one, verse 33, John says, after saying in verse 32, John testified saying, I have seen the spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and resting upon him. I did not recognize him. But he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the spirit descending and remaining upon him. Remember the Old Testament, the spirit would come and leave and come and leave, descending and remaining upon him. This is the one. So the spirit marked out Jesus. And so Christians are those, Jesus teaches, in John 3, who have been born again, born from above. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And what is this about? Verse 5, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. There has to be the first birth and the second birth. Philippians 3 verse 3 tells us that Christians are described as people who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. That means when you find someone who stops saying they're a good person. And stops saying that's the reason God should love them and stops trusting in anything they could do. And they start boasting in Him and glorying in Him and trusting only in Him. And they're going to swing out into eternity holding only that one scarlet thread. Paul says it's by the Spirit of God that they do that. So even that in the Christian is you're born again by the Spirit. You worship in spirit and truth. You glory in Christ by the Spirit. Look how Paul puts the beginning and end and glory all on the spirit in first Corinthians. And in chapter two, after speaking about the gospel, after speaking about how foolish it is, and people have misinterpreted verse nine, that things which eyes not seen, ears not heard, nobody going out and looking at the moon and the stars can figure out that the creator would come flesh and die on a cross for His creation. That's what Paul's saying. He's not simply talking about, well, there are things in heaven and who knows what all we will see. No, he's saying no man ever conceived of the gospel. No eye, no ear. You will find it nowhere. You can't get it from natural revelation. And so people miss it. People miss it. And so why do you get it? If you're here today and you're a Christian, what do you ascribe your change to? Paul says, for to us, verse 10, God revealed this, the them is the this, the message through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God, no one knows except the Spirit of God. So you couldn't know God's plan. You couldn't know this was really God's way. Christopher Hitchens, the famed atheist, used to always say, how would you know something that I can't know about God? This is how, Christopher, because the Holy Spirit of God makes it known. It's not just by natural revelation, it's by this special revelation. Verse 12, now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit is from God, so that we may know. Look at that, the power of that. You would not even know what you currently know. Your brain would not even be thinking about certain subjects and content and ideas were it not for the Holy Spirit. So we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom. So what we're doing here today, this anything I share, any preacher ever, anytime the Bible is read, these are not just mere human words. and you just decide to, you just need to know the grammar and the rhetoric and you figure out the meaning. No, we read in the gospel of Luke, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. It's a supernatural book. So Paul says that's how it's understood. But a natural man, he does not accept the things of the spirit of God. And this is not just doctrine in general, this the things are the gospel things for their foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. And notice this, that he who is spiritual appraises all things. Yet he's well, let me point this out. Here's what I want to point out. The themes of the Spirit of God are foolishness to a natural man. Do you want to know how to see if you're preaching the gospel? Do lost people find your message foolishness? If you change your message somehow such that they now like it, you cannot be preaching the gospel to them. Because the gospel is always foolish to the natural man and the natural mind. But he says, we appraise all things who has known the mind of the Lord. We have his mind. We have the mind of Christ. That's how you become a Christian. Look how he puts it in Romans 8. role of the Spirit in the Christian life. For those who are according to the flesh, verse 5, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Paul divides up the entire human race as those who are of the flesh and those who are of the Spirit. And how do you know which one you are? The verbs here are indicative mood, not imperative, meaning this is no exhortation. to set your mind on the things of the Spirit, those are there. This is saying, Chance rolled out of bed today before he read his Bible, if he read his Bible today, already thinking of Christ and God and spiritual matters. They were already on his mind. And the Lord used that fact to convert Casey many years ago when he was praying. He said, I'll wake up in the morning and I'm thinking about you. I'll go to bed at night and I'm thinking about you. And bam, the gospel bullet hit Casey square in the heart. That's not a reality of her mind. Which means what? Well, you're just not a super Christian. No, it means you're not a Christian. Because this is just what Christians naturally think about. Their mind goes there like a rubber band. Look at verse 9. Take it from Paul. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. Verse 14. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Again, same as 1 Corinthians 2. You've not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by which you cry out, Abba, Father, when no one else is in the room, when no one else is there to observe your prayer, when you're in the closet and in secret, and there's no possibility of hypocrisy, you still cry out, Abba, Father. Why? Because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who has given you those desires. And when that happens, when it's flowing out from within, the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the children of God, because lost people do not do that. Verse 18 and following, he says, the Spirit is the one that causes us to groan for the new heavens and the new earth. Verse 26, the Spirit is the one who helps us to pray. Chapter 15, verse 13, he says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's by the power of the Spirit that someone abounds in hope. What did he say to the Galatians? Trying to give you a feel for just how saturated this teaching is that the Christian life is no individual life. It's not just you out here grinding it out to do your best. And when you and I are talking, it's not just two persons here talking. It's not an individual life. Galatians 5 verse 5. For we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness." If you're waiting for the hope of righteousness, that's been through the Spirit, if you're doing it by faith. Why would it do well to follow the Spirit? Look at verse 16, but I say, walk by the Spirit and you won't carry out the desire of the flesh. In other words, he leads in the direction opposite of that. Or you want to get a feel for it. Verse 23, the end of the fruits of the spirit, he says against such things, there is no law. There's no law that says thou shalt not have joy and peace and patience and love. and gentleness. You better not have gentleness. If you are led by the Spirit, you will find no divine law crossing your will. You're in a realm of freedom and liberty, and your heart is actually doing the will of God from the heart. Okay, he puts it in verse 25. If we live by the Spirit, and we do, let us also walk by the Spirit. We've seen it in Ephesians already. You're right there by it in the next book. Chapter one, verse 17, he's praying that God would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Chapter three, verse 16, he's praying that you would be strengthened with power through his spirit and the inner man that you may know the love of Christ. Listen to how Jesus He puts it in the Gospel of John chapter seven. You know, one time he stood up and he cried out with a loud voice. He didn't just kind of say, he screamed it out. He cried out on the last day of the feast where they had the water and he cried out, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being, will flow rivers of living water from deep within your personality to whatever is in you that is you, the core of you. Christianity is flowing out of it. Desires for God are flowing out from within. But this he spoke of the spirit and those who believed in him were to receive. He goes on to speak about the spirit in the Christian life throughout the gospel of John. Chapter 14, verse 16, I will ask the father and he will give you another helper. So he's going to be similar to Christ. He's going to be a person that he may be with you forever. That is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. Same teaching as Paul in both places, but it does not see because it does not see him or know him, but you know him. because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Verse 25. These things I've spoken to you while abiding with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things. Do you see that? There's not just a human teacher here teaching. He will teach you. all things, and bring to your remembrance even, times when you're not even reading the Bible, all that I said to you. Chapter 16, verse 5, But now I'm going to Him who sent me. And none of you asked, where are you going? But because I've said these things to you, sorrows filled your heart. Well, Christ is not here and we're lonely. No, but I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. You have God with you. And he goes on to say, you'll teach you will glorify me. Same thing he says in the book of 1 John. Life is hard. False teaching is everywhere. You see it as a minister of the gospel, constantly trying to help people avoid it. Look at how John puts it in 1 John 2.18. It's the last hour. There's many antichrists out there. People are falling away. They went out from us. They're not of us. They would have remained. Well, how are you going to stay a Christian at the last hour with false teaching everywhere? Verse 20, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know. John says, I didn't write this book to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it. Look at verse 27. As for you, the anointing which you receive from him abides in you and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, just as it is taught you, you abide in him. This is called the theological sniffer. Sometimes you can't put your finger on it, but a teaching is not right. You know it's not right. That's being led by the Spirit. Go the way that you're being, he said, abide in that and you will never fall away. I mean, look how clearly John puts it in 324. We know by this that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us. Look at 413. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. It could not be more plainly said that the Christian life is not an individual life. There are always two persons present. You even see John on the island of Patmos, he says in Revelation 1 verse 9. And then what does he say in verse 10? And I was in the spirit on the Lord's day. He was not alone, even though he was on an island. And so as we look at Ephesians 4, verse 30, as the apostle Paul is trying to teach us and remind us on how to live the Christian life, what he essentially is doing here is reminding us of the role of the spirit, reminding us that it's not the Christian life is not an individual life, but it is a life being led by the spirit. And essentially what he says in this verse could be put in the form of one compound statement, one argument really, and that is be guided by the Spirit because you've been sealed by the Spirit. In other words, Paul is reasoning with us. He is arguing with us. He is trying to get us towards a certain response for a certain reason. So to fully see this verse, we need to see both these parts. First, Paul says, be guided by the Spirit. He says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And the implied subject is you, plural, all of us. And what we're told to do is a negation. And we're told to not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Right away. You see something that just hit me yesterday. So astounding that Paul's view of the Christian life is so radically different than what we're used to. And we fall into thinking, just think about it. Here is a context where he's talking about our relationships amongst one another. He's saying, hey, don't steal from your brother. Don't use corrupting talk. to your brother. Don't sin against your brother with your anger. Don't grieve your brother. Don't be mean to your brother. Don't sin against him by stealing or your talk or lying. Tell the truth to each other. Don't lie. So, I mean, you almost would expect him to say, do not grieve your brother or your sister. Because this is what we're talking about, human relationship. And then shockingly, in the middle of it, like two people are arguing, you say, well, you hurt me. And Paul would say, no, you hurt the spirit. In this room where there's just humans present, the apostle Paul's theology is the principal person sinned against is not even seen. The person who sinned against and offended and grieved and hurt and sorrowing the most is God. If someone ever sins against you, realize John MacArthur puts it this way, they sinned against God far more than they ever sinned against you. They offended God more than you. They grieved Him more than you. This is something Joseph understood when he said, how can I do this thing and sin against God? David, think of it. How could he pray the way he did? He sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and the nation and everyone. And when he bares his heart, he says against you and shockingly, you alone have I sinned. And we see the prodigal son coming back balanced, saying, Father, I've sinned against heaven and in Your sight. Peter knew it. He was the leader of the disciples. He sinned against them all in his leadership. But it was only when Jesus turned and looked at him that he went away grieving. He went away, I'm going fishing. He was bothered by the fact that he sinned against his Lord. Think of some of these verses we just pass over. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? They lied. I mean, Peter could have quoted the Ninth Commandment, could have said, Thou shalt not lie or lie. What did he do? His mind is on the spirit, though. It's a difference, not simply in the New Testament. The Christian life we're trying to get across is not primarily thought about as living by a list of rules. But by grieving and quenching a person, he says, you lied. to the Spirit. He lied to God. Or take Paul's example. He's going to go to the Corinthians that are going to the prostitutes. There are many verses he could have quoted, many laws, thou shalt nots, and this and the other. Amazingly, he never quotes one. But he says, do you not know you're the temple of the Holy Spirit? You see, he's directing them toward the spirit. In Paul's mind, the law is there and follow the law, but that's not the flavor of just a book outside of me. The flavor is grieving a person, quenching a person. Put it this way, the positive and negative commandments are almost swallowed up for Paul in the two double commands of don't grieve the spirit and don't quench the spirit. When you're positively motivated and propelled and you have an impulse to do something godly, what would Paul say to the Thessalonians? He said, may God cause you to increase and abound and may he fulfill every desire for goodness. That is what in you. Whatever desire comes in you for goodness, for the gospel, to be kind to people. He says, follow that. Don't quench that. Be led. When the wind hits your sail, don't stop. Be led around in this wilderness by that. And also negatively, the do nots are now, don't quench, don't grieve the Spirit. This word grieve, I mean, it's this real idea of sorrow. It means heaviness. It comes from gravitas. Heavy. Where you're sorrow and you're bent over and you're bowed down and you're made heavy because of something. This is a hard thing for us to realize that the Spirit, someone we can't see, is fully personal. Because all our life, the people we've met who are persons have had flesh. They've been humans. And so we tend to think of the spirit as like a force, gravity or energy or something. And we even have people who speak of them that way. Oh, it was a great move of the spirit. Just because people kind of acted like they were under the influence of a jolt of electricity. or something. But the evidence of this, have you ever been around a person where this person's ways and their attitude and everything, they just sort of influenced you and put you in a better mindset and put you in a different thought and a different hope and a different joy. And you imitate this person and kind of get caught up in their way. I mean, it's not a jolt of electricity and you fall on the floor. That's the fruit of love and joy and peace. This is what it is to be under the influence of the spirit because he's a person. Only persons are grieved. So this is a primary proof of his personhood. Something we should try to recover. I was thinking of Frozen II, because I'm always thinking of Frozen II. They have a character there on the making of Frozen. The directors talked about the difficulty because a lot of the characters are unseen in this film. And one of them is the wind spirit called Gale. And so they were grappling with like trying to communicate personality. So they put in there that scene where she blows through their clothes and kind of twirls their hair. And you get some sense of a personality even though you don't see it. And then Olaf gives a name, I think I'll call you Gale, and you sort of begin to get a sense of the personhood. That's something like what we need to recover. Let me put it this way. Just as you and I can hurt our brother with our sin, hurt his conscience, Romans 14. You can sin with your meat or drink or whatever and hurt your brother, Paul says. In the same way, you can cause heaviness and sorrow for the Holy Spirit with your sin. Just as Jiminy Cricket was grieved at Pinocchio, the Spirit can be grieved at you, because although he's God, he says the Holy Spirit of God, he's a person and he's a holy person. Paul is not just slinging words here. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. The prophets tell us his eyes are too pure to behold evil. So what are the things he values? The things in this book, unity, peace, love. He's grieved with divisiveness and slander and sin and breakage and sorrow, death and misery. So we are never to think of ourselves as simply, I'm just out here an individual trying to live the Christian life. a million miles from the teaching of Scripture. There's always two. There's always you and the guide. And Paul sums up Pinocchio his way and says, always let the Spirit be your guide. Be guided by the Spirit. Don't grieve. Don't quench. Be led by this person. That always is to be the case. And that always and that never takes us to the reason he gives. Look at the reason he gives. He says, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So I want you to think about this. What could be a motivation for us? For you, think of it yourself. How could I be motivated to do this? OK, remember, there's the spirit. Remember, it's two of us and be guided and led and not quench and see the centrality of the spirit in the Christian life. What exactly could motivate me to do that? Well, I could think of some ways you could do it. You might threaten people that you're going to ruin your life. Like Pinocchio, look at all the trouble, look at all the ruin. That would be true. And that's not the worst motive in the world, I guess, but that's not the one Paul uses. You might think a threat of losing your salvation would work. You better be careful. You're going to grieve the spirit. He might get aggravated with you and say, that's enough. And so you better be on pins and needles and follow everything and not sin and be just kind of deliriously fearful lest he abandon you and get aggravated with you, tired of putting up with you. Well, that would be false and terrible, but you could imagine people using it that way. Thank goodness it's not that, he says. You might think even closer to Reformed theology, a thread of proving you never were a Christian would work like, hey, you better be following the Spirit. So you better, you know, obey enough impulses and not grieving enough to prove that you're real or else, you know, maybe you're not. And so now you've got to get your, instead of your Texas instruments calculator out, your spirit led calculator, you always calculated, am I following enough impulses or not? And you're thrown back into works again. And it now becomes, if you're led by the spirit 51% of the time, then you're in. Amazingly, he doesn't do that. You may think of some twisted thread of blaspheming the Spirit. You might blaspheme the Spirit by not leading and following and sinning against. Just this idea, this satanic idea. That is the blasphemy of the Spirit. That the Spirit would abandon you by tired of putting up with you. That is to blaspheme the Spirit. And that is Satan's message about God. It's false. It's not what Paul uses, a delirious fear. What does he use to motivate us? He says simply this. You've been sealed by the Spirit. That should motivate you. So what does this mean? The way we can get the motive in our heart. You were sealed, passive verb, something done to you. The way a farmer puts a brand on a cow. Cow doesn't brand itself. It's branded, it's put on. And Paul says, something was done to you. in the pew that day, something was done to you in the car that day, something was done to you when you were reading that book and were convicted of sin, or listening to that sermon, or wherever it was when it happened, you were sealed. Something outside of you came upon you and put a mark on you. It's in the past tense, sealed. So this was done to you way back when, whenever your conversion began, that's when you were sealed. A mark, an impression, a sign, a symbol was pressed upon you, was put upon you to mark you out. In this verse, we're all we had. We might picture the seal as distinct from the spirit. And maybe picture the spirit that's holding the bar and putting the seal on you because it says by whom you are sealed. But that's not the only verse we have in this book about this. You may already be remembering chapter one, verse 13. We were told 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 promise. The Holy Spirit himself is the mark. Just as John was told, you want to know who the Christ is, the anointed is, the christened one is, the one the oil is dumped on the head of, which is the spirit and analogy of the spirit. He said, John, you won't know until you see the spirit come down upon it and remain on. That's the one you want to know who a Christian is. Look for the spirit. You want to know who God has not approved and received? Look for the absence of the Spirit. Who has the Spirit come upon? They're one. They're one. They're one. Who has He not come upon? They're not one. They're not one. They're not one. The Spirit is the acid test. Remember, we saw this in Acts. Remember, Jesus told them at the beginning to wait for the promise of the Spirit. Do you remember how the church began? They were all together and the Spirit came and filled them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. And then you remember how it spread, they were all Jews. But then in chapter 10, we see Cornelius, a Gentile, and Gentiles with him. And then we read in verse 44 of chapter 10 this, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Gospel, the Holy Spirit fell upon those who were listening to the message. And all the circumcised believers that came with Peter were amazed that they had a woody buzz moment. Strange things were happening. Andy is written on the foot of this other toy. He's marked out what is happening. They said they were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. And so Peter says, surely, verse 47, no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit, just as we did. Can he? And yet people do it all the time. Oh, I see he has the spirit, but he doesn't have his doctrine of education worked out yet, so stiff arm for him. Oh, I see he's got the spirit, but there's a little bit of feminism left over I'm uncomfortable with, so stiff arm for him. How do we act? There's only one thing to know. Do you have the spirit? Whatever's lacking after that is not really, in a sense, my business. But God's, and if He wants to include me in it, if God has received you and put His chest up against you by giving you His Spirit, am I to stiff-arm you? It requires me to think I must be holy, holy, holy, holy. It happens again in Acts 11. Peter recounts this story. Look at verse 15. Listen to how they're talking here. He says, And as I began to speak, he's telling other Jewish Christians, he says, y'all, the spirit fell upon them. just as He did upon us. You see the equality here? And I remembered, Peter says, when it happened, isn't this amazing? The way you say the Spirit is going to bring to your remembrance what I said, it's fulfilled right here in Acts. I remembered the Word of the Lord, how He used to say, John baptized with water, that you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if God gave them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? Who was I that I would stand in God's way?" When they heard this, what did they say? Well, we still want to stiff-arm people based on our peculiarities. No. They quieted down and glorified God, saying, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also their penance that leads to life. That's what you and I should say. Find some Christian who differs with you on something you deeply care about and say, well, then God has granted the Spirit to these fools. And so I will receive them. Nothing else to ask. We saw this shift, this Jew to Gentile. And right after that, by the way, it says, They all came to Antioch and they were like, what do we call ourselves? Do you ever see the simplicity of this? This amazed me this morning. We get into conversations about assurance and I don't know. And how do I know if I'm a Christian? The very term itself tells you. Right after this occurrence in Acts 11, they get together at Antioch, they're like, we got Jews here, we got Gentiles here, and they both got the spirit. What do we call ourselves? And it says they were first called Christians. Do you see the logic? They're like, well, the thing we have in common is the spirit. That's what marks you out. That's how you know that God has saved you. So you're like, I don't know if I'm a Christian. It's like the word means christened. It means you have the Spirit, so that's how you know. You see if you have the Spirit. And you're like, I haven't prayed enough or whatever. It's so amazing how we miss the simplicity of it. But this shift from Jew to Gentile and then the centrality of the Spirit is mentioned by this we and you language. And Paul, remember in chapter one of Ephesians, where he says, we have obtained an inheritance in verse 12 to the end that we who were the first to open Christ. And then in verse 13, in him, you. That's the Gentiles. So it's the same dynamic. We have received the spirit and then you have received the spirit. The Gentiles are included, and that means the spirit is the mark. But there's an extra meaning to the seal that he has on his mind here. He's not just saying be guided by the Spirit because it's the common mark. That's not what he's saying. Think with me about all the possible meanings he could have in mind for a seal. What could he be thinking of? When you think of a seal, what does a seal mean? What does it convey? Ownership? Like the brand on a cow? Security, maybe like the stone at the grave of Christ, put a seal on it so no one will touch it. What are some others? Authenticity. First Timothy says that the firm foundation of God stands sure having this seal. You may think of like this organic seal, USDA organic, this authentic Some kind of seal or government seal on a document. This is this is a real authentic transcript from a university. Or a seal of approval, some kind of sign of approval, like with the buzz thing and Andy being written. You know, there's another meaning, though, a seal. Could stand for this, a purpose of coming back to redeem. Putting a sign on someone, a mark on something could be, yes, I've approved this, yes, I own this, or yes, this is mine, yes, the security, and I'm coming back to get it. I put the seal to mark it and make it safe until I come back to get it. So which one is meant here? Well, certainly all of them are true. But I think you have to say chiefly the last is what's in Paul's mind because of this prepositional phrase. He says you are sealed for the day. So there's a there's a it's connected with a purpose in the future. And this day is then described as of redemption. You are sealed for redemption day. So there's the sealing, and then there's a final future purpose event day connected to the sealing. So you're marked out for this. You're marked out and you can know that you're His, and then He's gonna come back to fully redeem you on that day. One of my favorite dog, probably the best dog I ever had was a black lamb. Her name was Fresca. And she was like the best one. And she came out of the newspaper. I had other dogs that had all the bloodline and everything. She wound up being the best one. And she was just a newspaper dog. She was a Gentile. But I remember when I went to go get her, I had saved up my money and everything, I'd go, and they had to have a down payment. And the lady who had the puppy, she was like, she had these collars over here. And she was like, here, just, she handed me a purple collar because she wanted a female. She said, just pick out whichever one and put your collar on her, and I'll write your name. Yours is the one with the purple collar. And then in two weeks, when they're fully weaned or whatever, come back, pick them up. I came once to pick it out, mark it, put the collar, and then a second time to get her and take her home. And you know the Bible pictures salvation like that or salvation like that as a two-phased thing. He comes the first time and does one work, and then he comes the second time and finishes it. He comes the first time and marks you out as his. And then the purpose of that is for this future day to fully take you home. Listen right there, right here at the end. Listen to these verses. Second Corinthians chapter five. For we know that if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed, in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, and as much as we having put it on will not be found naked. For indeed, while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life." This is the hope of the resurrection and the future, right? The second stage. Verse 5, now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Which means you and I are to think of the work of the Spirit in our life, initially causing us to believe the Gospel and continuing the work in our life, as not only the mark that gives it away that I'm in, that I'm included, that I'm a Christian, but as a constant communication to me that this is for future redemption. I am coming and I am coming for you. I elected you and I died for you and you're my sheep and you are marked and I'm not taking the mark off of you until I come all the way back to get you. It's a pledge of that future inheritance. And so Paul puts it this way to the Romans in Romans 8. He says in verse 23, and not only this, but also, we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit. You see, the Spirit is viewed again as indicating something future, not just the present assurance. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our body. Very same teaching of 2 Corinthians 5. And notice how it matches what he says in Ephesians 1, verse 13 and 14. Verse 14, after saying the Holy Spirit of promise, he says, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance? With a view. Do you get the idea? I put that collar on that dog, not just to say, oh, you can have assurance your mind. No, but with a view to this future day where I come back and get you fully. And Paul is saying the redemption of our body. God doesn't just save the soul. He saves the body. And he who begins a good work finishes it. If he wasn't going to raise you from the dead, he would have never given you faith. Is the point when he does a thing, he does it all and he does it completely. And so he says, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession. from the lost and found, from the market. You were taken by Satan, by sin. And he bought you. You were already his by virtue of creation. And he found you in the pawn shop. And he bought you. So the spirit is the mark that you're his and that he's coming back to get you. Now, how would that function as a motive for you to be willing to be guided by him more? Seems counterintuitive, you might say. And plus, I remember, Jeffrey, the Isaiah 63 verse you read at the beginning. I saw what it said. And they rebelled. I have rebelled. And they grieved the Spirit. I know I have grieved the Spirit. And He turned against them and became their enemy. Yeah, if I were perfect and I hadn't sinned and I hadn't done this, it could be a good message. But you see, I've already not been guided by the Spirit. And I see what happened to them, and I guess that's an example. But remember the contrast between the Old and New Covenants Justin was speaking to us about recently, teaching us? In Hebrews 8, 9, in the verses he read to us, It says it will not be like the covenant mentioned in Isaiah 63 that he made with Israel, my covenant, which they broke. And I did not care for them. You see that? They broke it and I did not care for them. He didn't go after. Y'all broke it by. And look at Jeremiah 32 at the new covenant. This is the glory of the new covenant. Look at this. Jeremiah 31, he's talking about the new covenant. He goes on. Jeremiah 32, he says, And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me always for the good of them and for the good of their children after them. Look at verse 40 of Jeremiah 32. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. You and I get to live in the new covenant which means Isaiah 63.10 works differently now. Yes, there's a spot where, and they rebelled, and they grieved the Holy Spirit, but then it no longer is the case that, and He turned against them and did not care for them. But now it is, and He continued to pursue them. And He would not turn away from them to do them good. And then look, He goes on to say, In verse 41, I will rejoice over them. Even though you grieve him, he will then find purpose in his heart and he will rejoice over you even when you grieve him. And he will faithfully, we were just singing of his faithfulness. He says, I will faithfully plant them in this land. I will make sure they're in and they're down and they're bolted and they're secure and you make it all the way. And he says, with all my heart and with all my soul. Think of people, you know, maybe an athlete or somebody that was just into something. into some activity and you just think that person, they just gave it their all. I mean, they gave it all. They left it all out there on the court, you might say. What is it like if you would ever come to actually believe this, that God Almighty has not only purpose for you to go to heaven and purpose for you to make it to glory, but he said, I'm going to employ all my heart and all my soul that Josh Terry gets all the way to the end, planted in this land. You know what he would say? What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who could be against us? So how does that function as a motive to be guided? I know of no other way than to say this, what Paul is essentially saying is your story is like Frodo and Sam. When I was saying it's not just an individual life, it's not just your Frodo in the life you're enduring to the end, but it's not just you. You've been given a Sam. It's you and Sam, it's you and the spirit. And it's not you and Sam. You remember Frodo grieved Sam. He said, go home, Sam. Poor, sweet Sam. And he said, you don't mean it. And he said, go. Do you know you and I have done that to the Holy Spirit? We do this thing where we say, oh, well, it's accidental sins. No, you've sinned on purpose, with full knowledge and with full intent, directly against the Holy Spirit who was leading you and convicting you. But you know what this Bible says? Do you remember what Gandalf told Sam? Don't you leave him, wise Gamgee. And he said, I don't. I don't mean to. That's why you're still a Christian. And that's why you make it all the way to the end. I was singing the song, had he not loved me first, I would refuse him still. So what Paul is saying is, You say, well, if you tell people that if you tell people the Holy Spirit, no matter what they do in this new covenant, we'll just keep pursuing them and keep then they'll just live in sin. Let those people live in sin. They're lost. Not a true Christian. A true Christian hears that God has given me the spirit as a Sam. who in my weakest moments is going to say, I'm not here to carry the ring, but I can carry you. And I'm going to bring it will increase the amount of leading that he gets in my life. I will want to be motivated to be guided by him. I will say, how could it be? And can it be that I should gain This kind of relationship with the Holy Spirit of God. You see, free love will always motivate the Christian. Fear mongering. Actually, the only people that will motivate is lost people, and then it'll just depress Christians. May you do that, drop that, and let the lost people take advantage of it and leave. Let the saints rejoice. Let the peoples be glad in this beautiful message. So, what has Paul said to us? The Spirit is your Sam. You've been given a Sam in the Spirit. Don't grieve your Sam. Not because if you do, he will leave you, but because you've been That motivates you. That He doesn't mean to leave you. Let that melt your heart that God loves you that much. And let that cause you to be guided by Him. So hear the argument now in its simplistic form one more time. And take it in. Paul says in Ephesians 4 verse 30 this, Be guided by the Spirit. And he says it for this reason, for this motive in your heart. because you've been sealed by the Spirit for the day of redemption. What a warm, precious exhortation and reminder this is. Well, let's sing in closing. We'll go ahead and do the Lord's Supper before the song. So one very easy way to segue into this is not hard at all, is that the spirit we just talked about is the gift of the new covenant. So as you take the Lord's Supper today and you think about it today, let your mind think about that, that this is the new covenant in his blood and the new covenant is this promise of the spirit to give you this helper to guide you all the way. So if you're a believer, no matter who you are, where you're at, this is for you. So please come in my faith alone. Enjoy the Lord's Supper. And then this closing song with us.