Foundational Truths of God’s Work

Transcript

GR 1792
11/30/2014
Foundational Truths of God's Work
2 Corinthians 1:20-22
Gil Rugh

We're going to go to 2 Corinthians in your Bibles and we'll see that much of what we've sung about this morning ties into the very things that Paul is talking about in his letter to the Corinthians. It's a different letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians in this second letter, and it starts out on a different note as well. We noted he began by talking about comfort and affliction and how God brings His comfort to us when we are going through various afflictions. Then he used himself as an example and talked about the terrible affliction he went through before he left Asia Minor and crossed over into Greece. He despaired of life but God was gracious and delivered him and used the prayers of these believers to accomplish much of that.

Then he moves into verse 12 to what is really the issue. That is the background for what he has been saying. Some in the church at Corinth have lost confidence in the Apostle Paul. Some in the church at Corinth have found, not reasons, but excuses to try to undermine confidence in his character and thus undermine the confidence in the truth that he taught. So he started in verse 12 by telling them he has a clear conscience, a good conscience before God; that he conducts himself as God would have him conduct himself. And he has conducted himself biblically and in a way that is pleasing to God in his dealings with them. And then he explains. The criticism has come. Some have said that Paul has spoken out of both sides of his mouth. He said he was going to leave Asia, come over, visit them in Corinth and go up into Macedonia, then come back to Corinth and then leave. So he would have two visits to Corinth. Things didn't work out that way, perhaps because of Paul's physical affliction that he talked about in verses 8-11. But he wasn't able to carry out those plans. So some said, you can't trust Paul. He said he was going to visit us twice on his way to Macedonia and on his way back. But he didn't do it. You just can't trust Paul, he is not reliable.

Verse 17, he asks the question, “I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I? Or what do I purpose? Do I purpose according to the flesh?” In other words as unsaved people would do, they are just not reliable so often. Is there with me “yes and no” at the same time? I mean, do I say two things? I'm not really sincere, not really earnest? But verse 18, “as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.” And then he uses the very thing that they know so true—he came and preached the Gospel to them along with Silvanus and Timothy in verse 19. And that's recorded in Acts 18. And they know that was truth, they believed the Word that he preached and they experienced the power of God's salvation. Paul uses that to support the fact that I am not a man who says one thing and then says another. We taught you clearly the Word of God.

In verse 20, “as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is our amen to the glory of God through us.” Our amen, in other words just as God's promises are settled and sure, God's work in and through him is a testimony of the fact. Our amen, we agree, that is sure, that is true.

It seems like Paul is belaboring a point that seems minor. Is the Corinthian church really making an issue over the change in his travel plans. It's amazing how trivial criticisms can become, but there is a serious issue tied here. Because if these people who are disgruntled can succeed in undermining people's confidence in Paul and his character, they will undermine confidence in the ability to trust him in what he teaches. And that's what he will have to deal with as this letter moves on. Some have infiltrated among the believers in the church at Corinth, and they are false teachers. And the bottom line of sowing this seed of doubt in Paul's reliability is ultimately to undermine confidence in the truth that God is communicating through Paul.

So that's why he brings them as a foundational point to the truth that he has preached. Stop and think, consider—Paul, Silvanus, Timothy taught us the truth that brought us God's salvation. These are men whose lives support the truth they preach.

You come to verse 21 and 22 together, he's going to bring them to theological truths that are foundational to God's work in their lives. There is stability, there is firmness because God has done a work with His Spirit in our hearts and lives, that it is an ongoing work. And that's the testimony of Paul's life and it is the testimony of these Corinthians if they are faithful to the truth.

He's going to use four participles here, and I'm going to tell them to you and then we'll go back and look at them. Participles, we usually think of them in English as words that usually have “ing” on the end, verbs in that form—having, doing, words like that. We have four participles here. Now the tense is important so we're going to stress that. One of them is in the present tense, three of them are in the past tense. The first participle is ‘establishes;’ the second one is at the end of verse 21, ‘anointed;’ the third one in verse 22 is ‘sealed;’ and the fourth one is ‘gave.’ We'll elaborate on them. The tenses will be important because it tells what God is doing in an ongoing way as a result of the work that He has accomplished in us as believers in the past. And you'll note, this is another one of those passages where the work of the triune God is brought together. We sometimes look for passages that reveal the deity not only of God the Father, but of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And in some of these things it just permeates the Word of God, and this is one of those passages where the work of God the Father, the One who establishes us is God, referring to the Father. He establishes us in Christ, that's God the Son and He gave us the Spirit, that's God the Holy Spirit. All three persons, one God eternally existing in three persons. Not manifesting Himself in three different ways, but there is one God eternally existing in three separate and distinct persons—God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All working in the accomplishing, carrying out and guaranteeing our salvation.

The first participle here is translated establishes. That is a present tense participle. So you could translate it now He who is establishing us with you, or to carry out the emphasis of that, who is continually establishing us with you in Christ. It is an ongoing work and ministry of God the Father. His God at the end of that indicates it is God the Father who is doing this. He is establishing us with you in Christ, us referring to Paul for sure and perhaps also Silvanus and Timothy who are mentioned in verse 19, who were those who brought the Word of God to the Corinthians in the first place. He who establishes us with you. This is something He is doing not only in the life of Paul and those associated with him in ministry, but with other believers—the church at Corinth. He is establishing us with you, along with you in Christ. Because those who placed their faith in Christ now reside in Christ. They are in Him, they belong to Him. That's part of the salvation. So he is talking about believers.

God is establishing. That word translated establish means to confirm, make sure, make firm, make good. He is confirming and strengthening them. This is an ongoing work of God the Father, confirming us, establishing us, strengthening us in Christ along with other believers so that our stability and our ongoing strength is dependent upon God. We are saved by grace, we are kept by grace. He has established us.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 1, Paul talked about this in his first letter to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1, and note the context here at the beginning of this first letter to the Corinthians as we have it. Verse 4, “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.” We're established with these other believers in Christ. The grace of God was given us in Christ. That's how these Corinthians were saved. The Gospel was preached to them and they believed in the finished work of the Son of God. God's grace was brought to them, brought them to salvation and now continues to sustain them. “In everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed.” That's the same word that is translated established in 2 Corinthians, the verse we are looking at in 2 Corinthians 1:21. Was confirmed in you, established in you, “so that you are not lacking in any gift, waiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who will also confirm,” there is our word, “you to the end blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This work of confirming us, establishing us, keeping us firm, keeping us established is an ongoing work of God to assure that we will arrive at the appointed end, “blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Remember Paul wrote to the Ephesians that there will come a time when we will be presented before God the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach. It is God who is confirming and establishing the believer. That guarantees our sure completion and arrival at the appointed goal, glory in His presence.

Come over to Philippians 1:6. He doesn't use the word establish or confirm here but you see the same point. “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” What God has begun in a believer, He brought him to salvation, He will continue to accomplish His work, bringing us to completion, to perfection the day of Christ Jesus.

Turn over to Philippians 2:13. This doesn't mean we just sit passively because here we are instructed at the end of verse 12, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” With all of our being we want to be committed to obedience to Him, to serving Him. But in all of this the honor and glory goes to God because He is the One at work in our lives. Why should I as a fallen, hell-deserving sinner be desirous of pleasing God? It is His grace that impacted my heart, made me new and now continues the work that only He can do to accomplish His purposes. Well, He is doing it, what do I have to do? I have to work out my salvation with fear and trembling, that reverence and fear of Him. And I don't want to do anything to displease Him. He has changed my will, changed my desire, and He is working in me. This is what Paul is talking about as he writes to the Corinthians.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. This is God's work, salvation is God's work from beginning to end. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not as a result of works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works,” Ephesians 2:8-9. It is God's work. And when salvation truly occurs a life is changed on the inside. So now we live differently because we live to please Him. He is working in us to shape and mold us into conformity with His character. We are not working to earn salvation. We are not working to maintain salvation. We are working by the grace of God at work in us to be pleasing to Him and manifest more fully and clearly the beauty of His character being developed in us. So He establishes us in an ongoing way. The guarantee for believers, we are being established, confirmed, made firm with these other believers, as Paul writes to the Corinthians, in Christ. This only applies to those who are in Christ. And Paul is confident the Corinthians, those making up the church for the most part, are believers. He is concerned. He realizes some false teachers have infiltrated and influenced the church. He will encourage them at the end of this letter to “examine yourselves to see if you are really in the faith.” For the most part he writes and addresses those as God's people. They are being established with Paul and others in Christ.

Now that is what God is doing presently in an ongoing way. Now the other three of these participles, they are in the aorist tense. And for our purposes and what we are dealing with here we just say that is the past tense. That's the tense normally used to refer to the past, something that happened in the past. So you have the present participle, he is establishing us continually, that's an ongoing work of God. And He has anointed us. So now he'll talk about three things that happened to us in the past, at the time of our salvation, if you will. They are all works of the Holy Spirit that happen at the same time, as we'll see, but they are different facets of His work. The first is He anointed us. God anointed us. Now there is a play on words here that we may not pick up in English. We could pick it up if we read it like this, now He who establishes us with you in the anointed one. That's what Christ, Christos, means—the anointed one. So if we translated it we would have He establishes us with you in the anointed one and anointed us. So we have this connection. Christ is the anointed One.

Come back to Isaiah 61, we'll see this in the Gospels but I wanted you to see it here because of a break in the passage. We see in Isaiah 61 a prophecy of the coming Messiah. Messiah here is said to be saying, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me.” So the Spirit comes to enable and empower for a ministry. “Anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted, sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” This is a work of the Messiah in connection with His first coming. And you ought to draw a line or a mark under that first statement in verse 2, “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” because verse 1 and that first line in verse 2 relate to the first coming of Christ when He came and proclaimed salvation and validated Himself as the anointed One in His ministry. But from the second line in verse 2 and on, here are events that will happen in connection with the Second Coming of Christ. So between that first line in verse 2 and that second line there are some 2,000 years because verse 1 and the first line happened in connection with the first coming of Christ. The events picking up with the second line, “the day of vengeance of our God” is yet future. Because we talk about the Old Testament does not see that period of time in which we are living called the church age, from Acts 2 down until the rapture of the church.

Come over to Luke 4. And Jesus is in His hometown of Nazareth according to verse 16, and He went into the synagogue. Recognized rabbi, He is there and can speak. And He stood up to read. So they pass Him the scroll of the book of Isaiah. In the book of Isaiah or “the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. He opened the book, found the place where it was written.” That's Isaiah 61 as we have it, just what we read. And you'll note what He reads. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.” The anointing with the Spirit. The Spirit of God is upon Me because the Father has anointed Me, and He anointed me for a ministry—“to preach the Gospel to the poor, sent me to proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” That's that first line in Isaiah 61:2, as we have it. “And He closed the book.” Why didn't He keep reading? Because the rest of that has to do with events regarding His Second Coming. What does He say then in verse21? “He began to say to them, today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” You see how clear the Scripture is. He was anointed and then makes the distinction that Christ does. He doesn't say that all of Isaiah 61 is fulfilled in your hearing today, but that first verse and the first line of the second verse as we have it is fulfilled. The following verses will be fulfilled in connection with My Second Coming. They don't know about that yet. But obviously He does. So he makes it clear. So he is anointed to preach the Gospel.

Come over to Acts 10. I was going to take you back to the account of the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, but most of you are familiar enough with that. Remember when John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the waters of the Jordan? John said, “I saw the Spirit descending on him like a dove.” That has assured me that this indeed is the Messiah because God had told John, the prophet John the Baptist, that the One on whom he saw the Spirit descending as a dove would be the appointed Messiah. That's when Christ was anointed with the Spirit, to carry on His Messianic ministry. That's why for the first 30 years of Christ's life we have very little information. We have information around the virgin birth of Christ and events surrounding His birth. Then we pick up one incident when He is 12 years of age. Other than that everything is quiet. Why? His Messianic ministry had not yet begun, it begins when He is anointed. It doesn't mean in His person He is not, but He does not begin His ministry as the Messiah of Israel until He is anointed with the Spirit on that occasion when He was baptized by John. That's His entering into His public ministry as the Messiah of Israel. He has been anointed to carry out the ministry that He was born to have.

So in Acts 10 Peter is at the house of Cornelius, a Gentile. Going to tell him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as he unfolds the Gospel, come down to the end of verse 38, he connects the starting of Jesus' ministry, “starting from Galilee after the baptism of John, proclaiming.” So the connection with that baptism, it began after He was anointed with the Spirit in connection with the baptism of John. Verse 38, “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power.” That anointing with the Holy Spirit was to empower Him to carry out His ministry as the Messiah of Israel. Now He is the Son of God, fully God, fully man and in carrying out His Messianic ministry, He does it in the power of the Spirit as the Son of man, which is His favorite title for Himself, Son of Man. He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, so He went about doing all these things which testify to the reality of His being the Messiah.

Now He is the anointed One as we mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1:21, “He who establishes you with us in the anointed one,” in Christ, “and anointed us is God.” And just as Christ is the Son of God, through faith in Him we have become sons of God. We haven't become deity but we've been brought into this new relationship. Just as the Messiah is the Anointed One, we as believers in Him have also been anointed by the Spirit of God.

In Acts 1:8, Jesus met with His disciples as He prepares for the ascension to heaven. And they as Him, “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He says, you don't need to know when that will happen, that's in the Father's hands. You see, the disciples still did not understand. They are still seeing all these events of the Old Testament, the coming of the Messiah, now they understand a little more. For 40 days Christ has been explaining to them after His resurrection how He had to suffer and die. Great, now we understand the Messiah had to suffer and die and be raised from the dead so He could be the Savior. Now we can have the kingdom. So are you here meeting with us now because we are ready to establish the kingdom? Jesus' answer in effect is no, that's not what we are here to talk about. That will happen but you don't need to know when. What He does say in Acts 1:8, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be My witnesses.” Same thing that happened to Christ in that sense. Right? The Holy Spirit came upon Him and He was anointed to preach the Gospel, He was anointed to carry out the Messianic ministry with power.

So anointing is usually associated with ministry, enablement. And that is what has happened—the Holy Spirit has come upon us to enable us. We are anointed ones. Remember what Jesus said? “As the Father has sent Me, so send I you.” And you are anointed with the Spirit of power. Now we are not the Messiah. We do go out as His representatives, though, anointed with the same Spirit of enabling power to carry out what God would have us do.

Come over to 1 John 2, and in John's text here John is writing about false teachers and error and he says in verse 19, “They went out from us but they were not really of us. If they had been of us they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown they are not all of us.” Those who had professed faith in Christ, who had fellowship with the body of believers but have now turned and abandoned the truth concerning Christ, abandoned their fellowship with believer are revealing that they never were believers at all. They went out from us because they are not really of us. He's not talking about believers who went to another Bible-believing church, we're talking about those who have turned away from the truth. The conflicts and battles that come, Paul wrote to the Corinthians in another place and said there must be divisions among you so that those who are approved may become evident. What some of these battles and conflicts over doctrine do is distinguish and root out unbelievers. That's what Paul is doing in 2 Corinthians. They serve a good purpose, painful as it is. They revealed they were not really part of us. Then note what he says in the next verse, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know.” What he is saying there is you know the truth, you have an anointing from God the Holy Spirit who enables you to know the truth. These others never did understand the truth, they never did know it.

Verse 26, “These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you,” concerning those who will try to infiltrate with false doctrine. “As for you the anointing which you received from Him abides in you.” That anointing of the Holy Spirit does not leave a believer. “You have no need for anyone to teach you, but as His anointing teaches you about all things and is true and not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you do abide in Him.” That doesn't mean we don't have teachers, that's talked about as well. Paul talks about the gift of teaching and so on. But what he is saying is the ultimate teacher is not that man, the Holy Spirit is the teacher. I cannot teach you in the way of the Holy Spirit. I can communicate to you the truth of God and in that sense teach you. But if your heart is closed to it, nothing happens. This is important because this is what Paul is going to be dealing with in the next section that we talk about in his letter to the Corinthians. He will not take responsibility for their condition. He has a concern for it, he's like a parent who is going to want to bring them along and nurture them.

I remember my dad when I was getting married as a 20-year-old; he made clear to me. I am not taking responsibility for your decisions. You're not going to put the blame on me for what you do. You are responsible. He didn't stop being concerned for me, but he made clear that I am responsible and accountable. In our day of endless parenting we need to keep that in mind.

That's what Paul is doing. That's what John is writing about. Ultimately only the Holy Spirit can teach you, make the Word of God clear to your heart and mind. Some of these sat under the teaching of the Word of God for an extended period of time, enough to be accepted in the fellowship of believers, but they never really understood the truth. That became clear when they began to deny or reject significant matters of the truth. Like we have in the evangelical church today. Some who deny substitutionary atonement but still claim they should be accepted as true believers. That's not so. They are denying Jesus Christ and His salvation work. Those who have the Spirit know the truth; those who don't have the Spirit know a lot about the truth, can talk a lot about the truth, but it has never come to their heart and mind in a way that they truly understand and grasp and hold for themselves.

But the anointing of the Holy Spirit is an enablement, an enablement to understand the truth. Paul deals with this in his letter to the Corinthians. It's those who have the Spirit who can understand the things of God; those without the Spirit are clueless, no matter how many facts and how much information they have. Important area. We have the Holy Spirit, we have been anointed by God with the Spirit.

Come back to 2 Corinthians. So He continues His work of establishing, confirming us; the us being those of us who have been anointed by the Spirit, which is every true believer because Romans 8 says if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So there are only two kinds of people in this auditorium—those who have the Spirit and those who do not. Those that have the Spirit are truly children of God, have experienced His saving grace and understand the truth. And the others do not have the Spirit. They can sit here….I've had people who sat under my ministry for years but they never really understood the truth. I don't take responsibility for that. I'm accountable to present the truth as clearly as I can. I am not accountable for your response to the truth. And that's true in our ministry to one another. That doesn't mean we're not burdened, we don't have a concern and care and want to pour out our lives for the good of others, but I will not be responsible for you or you for me in that sense. We give an account for our ministry to one another, but you are responsible for your handling of the truth. I'm responsible for my response to the truth.

So that anointing brings an enabling power to understand the truth and to function in an effective ministry. That's what the gifts of the Spirit are, they are manifestations of the Spirit's presence in our lives, 1 Corinthians 12, an evidence of His work in us. And that's what enables us to serve Him in that self-sacrificing way in the exercising of our spiritual gifts, which enables the body to function as a body. Come back to 2 Corinthians 1. That's the first past event—God is continually establishing and confirming and making firm those who have been anointed by God with the Spirit.

He is the One who has also sealed us, verse 22. Sealed us, another aorist participle, past tense. Having sealed us, the seal. The ideas here are ownership and security. That's what a seal was, ownership and security. The seal was special, it indicated that that possession came from that individual, it was security.

When I worked at a food store we unloaded tractor trailers. And when we would get a trailer of merchandise in, we would have received an invoice and it had a number on it, the back of the trailer had a seal on it. The first thing we had to do was check and make sure the number on the seal was the same as on the invoice and that it has not been tampered with. That guaranteed the security of the contents. Nobody had gotten in there. That's what a seal has been down through history—ownership and security.

Come over to Ephesians 1:13, “In Him you also after listening to the message of the truth, the Gospel of your salvation.” See the order here, you heard the Gospel, “having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.” So you hear the Gospel, you believe it, the Holy Spirit comes upon you, dwells within you now as a believer. Paul writes to the Corinthians and says, “do you not know your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit?” That shapes all you do. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That guarantees our security. We belong to God and we are secure in that relationship as His possession.

Come over to Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” That sealing secures us until we arrive at the appointed goal. The example I used, the truck, it was loaded in a far distant place. The seal was to guarantee the security of its contents until it arrived at its appointed destination. That's the picture. We were sealed for the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, don't grieve Him. How do we grieve Him? Verse 31, “Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, malice,” things that are contrary to the character of God, what He desires to see manifested in His children. Rather we are to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as Christ has forgiven you.” Understand the seriousness of this. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, He has sealed us for the day of redemption. He is not going anywhere. We truly belong to God, we are His children. The Holy Spirit is there. Keep that in mind. He is grieved when we sin. We think because we hide from other believers we are all right. Understand, the Holy Spirit doesn't leave. You don't leave Him at the door, you don't whisper these bitter things or divisive things, but He is listening. They grieve Him. So understanding this truth shapes the way we are to live.

Come over to 2 Timothy 2:19, and this is in the context of false teacher, Hymenaeus and Philetus, and he says false teaching spread like gangrene. Once it gets a hold there it spread. “Men who have gone astray from the truth, saying the resurrection has already taken place, they upset the faith of some.” These false teachers have been effective in confusing some of the believers. “Nevertheless the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, the Lord knows those who are His.” So you see the seal guarantees ownership and security. And that means everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. We are to manifest His character, manifest His work in our lives. The Lord knows those who are His, He can make the sorting out and the division. Sometimes we are confused, the Lord is never confused. An unbeliever is an unbeliever, no matter how much they dress up like a believer; and a believer is a believer even when he stumbles. But if a life doesn't manifest the evidence of the presence of the Spirit in the work of God, you question because that's a follow through. Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness. The Lord knows those who are His. We live in a way that demonstrates that.

We are sealed, we belong to Him and we are secure in Him.

Come back to 2 Corinthians, the final participle. He is presently confirming, establishing, keeping us firm; He has anointed us with His Spirit; He has sealed us with His Spirit; and He has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge. You have it in the margin, a down payment. The word here is a word that you would use for a down payment given to guarantee the future follow through. When you buy a house you give earnest money, the down payment, and you'll follow through on the transaction. You do that in other fields. You have to have a certain amount down to guarantee that you will fulfill your obligations in completing the process. The Holy Spirit is God's down payment to us. The very fact that He has come and taken up residence in your life is God's guarantee to you that He will complete the process. Philippians 1:6, “He who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus.” He will continue to perfect you, bring you to all He intends you to be. It's God's work from beginning to end. From beginning to end and everything in between is God's work. Why else would I as a believer stay reasonably on track? Why would you? We would be all over the place in a world of hurt and confusion. But God takes hold of us and He gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge, a guarantee.

Come over to 2 Corinthians 5. Here he is talking about our future destiny as God's children and when we will realize the glorification of this body and the transformation that is promised. Verse 5, “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God who gave us the Spirit as a pledge.” How do you know the Spirit is within me? There is a certain subjective aspect to its realization, but be careful, it is not based on feeling. A person may say, I know I'm a believer, I know I'm a believer. Well, what is the evidence? I feel it. You read an obituary in the paper, you have somebody who has departed to be with their Lord and Savior that they loved and served. And the service will be held at . . . And it's in a pagan place that denies the very foundational truths of the Gospel. They may have had great feelings, but they weren't saved.

The subjective ministry of the Holy Spirit is inseparably joined to the objective ministry of the Word of God. Remember what the Spirit of God is doing, He is teaching us the truth. We saw in 1 John 2 that He is the ultimate teacher. That truth that is proclaimed in the songs that are sung, in the teaching of the Word and the study of the Word and the reading of the Word, He is taking it and doing that work as 2 Corinthians 3:18 we'll see is transforming us into conformity to the image of Christ. And if that's not happening, I don't care what feelings you have. You are not truly saved. This is a foundational matter. I mean, it's God who does the establishing and confirming, making firm. He's the One who has anointed the believer with the Spirit. He's the One who has sealed the believer with the Spirit. He's the One who has given the Spirit as the down payment, guaranteeing we'll get to the end.

Come over to Ephesians 1. This idea that just because someone parades around and says, I'm a believer, those that I mentioned in a certain branch of the evangelical church, although they are outside it truly, want to deny the substitutionary atonement. There is no room for those who deny the substitutionary atonement within the true church. You cannot be saved without believing in the substitutionary atonement of Christ. I don't care how much you know about the Bible, how much . . . On it goes. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of truth and the truth of the Word of God is clear to the believer. That doesn't mean every passage, we understand it without study. But in the true believer there is a response to truth. I think this is what is happening in the evangelical church, a lot of people who have filled the church are not truly believers. And error comes along and is taught and they just jump into the boat. And the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth is teaching the heart of a true believer.

Ephesians 1, we read verse 13, “You were sealed with Him in the Spirit of promise.” Verse 14, “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.” The Spirit is given as God's down payment. Here is the guarantee that someday you, redeemed believer, will stand in the glory of His presence and be declared holy and blameless and without spot. That is just as secure as if it were already done. God cannot lie. I know as surely, more sure as I'm grabbing onto this lectern that someday I will stand in a glorified body in the presence of the Lord of glory. How do I know? I have the Spirit. I see His work in my life. I realize it is not yet perfect as Paul said in Philippians 3 in his own testimony, I have not yet arrived. I am not yet perfect but I am relentlessly in pursuit of that goal. And that's where we are as believers. Other verses—Romans 8:23, 1 Peter 3:5, what God has prepared for us, our heavenly inheritance. All guaranteed by the Spirit.

Now this is to shape the way we live. The Corinthians have wandered off the path. You know sometimes, like immature kids, you take them down to walk on the sidewalk. They keep wanting to get off the sidewalk. Why do you want to walk in the mud? Why do you want to walk out there? You say, get on the sidewalk. Sometimes Christians are like that, they just want to wander out here. Get on the sidewalk. Walk in the light. Stay on the path. God is constantly strengthening those that He has anointed with the Spirit, that He has sealed with the Spirit, that He has given the Spirit to as a guarantee. You see His ongoing work in your life, in my life, and in our lives together. Paul wants the Corinthians to understand this is foundational. The disagreements that we are having, the accusations that are being made need to be resolved on the foundational level. Not papered over superficially. God is at work and for those who are true believers He is at work in your life, He is at work in my life, and He is at work in our lives together and He will continue that until He brings it to completion in the glory of His presence.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your salvation, riches in glory and blessing beyond what we at this point in our walk with You can fully comprehend. What an awesome destiny we have, a destiny that is settled and secure, that nothing, no one, no thing, no events can separate us from Your love for what You have done for us in Christ, what You continue to do for us and what You will ultimately do on the day of final redemption. Lord, I pray for any who are here today who do not know the salvation that is found in Christ, do not know the joy and blessing of having the Spirit of the living God live within them to open their eyes, to enable them and empower them to live for You. Lord, may in Your grace they turn from their sin and place their faith in Christ and experience the miracle of saving grace. We ask that we who have believed will live that out in a way that our testimony is clear, the evidence of Your gracious work in our lives is very evident until Christ comes. We pray in His name, amen.