Preached at Markham Baptist Church, May 6, 2001

"One can never be sure, you know." Her name was Jayne. We were in the same Inter-Varsity Bible study group and we were talking about salvation, our place in God's kingdom. Jayne expressed what many of us were feeling when it comes to salvation, "one can never be sure, you know."

Today I no longer agree with Jayne. I believe it is possible for us to be sure of our salvation; I believe that Scripture teaches that we can be sure of God's favour. I believe God wants us to have a blessed assurance of his grace and our life with him now and for eternity.

To be sure, we want to avoid any type of arrogance. We want to avoid that arrogance that often surrounds those who are so proudly sure of their eternal destiny that they become an embarrassment to Christians and a turn-off to non-Christians.

But, at the same time, God did not mean for us to live our Christian lives in uncertainty, always asking, "Am I saved, or am I not saved? Am I a part of God's family or am I not?"

No, God did not intend for us to live in uncertainty. He wants us to be sure in our relationship with him. This is one of the reasons that God has given us his word so that we may know that we have eternal life (I John 5:13).

Assurance is a gift from God, given to us so that we can steadfastly live the Christian life, so that we can boldly proclaim the love of him who died for us. Certainly it is a characteristic of the apostle Paul. He writes in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (NIV)

Does he go on to say that he sure hopes that God will now accept him - that he's not sure of his salvation? No. He goes on to say, "Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day." (2 Timothy 4:8) (NIV)

Why does God want you to know that you are secure in Him? Why does he want you to be sure of your salvation?

It is easy to reason that if I am uncertain of my standing before God I shall probably spend most of my time concentrating on myself. If I am uncertain about my place before God I will always be thinking: "My first priority is to get myself right with God. I cannot do anything else before I get right with God. I cannot serve in any way in the church; I cannot tell others of my faith; I cannot think of anything else, or do anything else, before I get right with God."

Can you see how debilitating that is? If in your prayer life and your study of Scripture you are always focusing on your basic relationship with God, your witness will be weak, your service to God will be weak, and your prayers for others will be weak. Scripture encourages us to press on to maturity (Hebrews 6:1). If we never know for sure that we are saved we will be distracted from pressing on to maturity.

In his book about life at Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor tells of a man who was saved twelve times between 1953 and 1961 in the Lutheran church, an all-time record. On one of these occasions Larry Sorenson came forward weeping buckets. He came forward and crumpled up at the communion rail, to the amazement of the minister, who had just delivered a dry sermon about stewardship, and who now had to put his arm around this limp soggy individual and pray with him and see if he had a ride home. Twelve times. Keillor writes that even we fundamentalists got tired of him. Granted, we are prone to sin, but twelve conversions is too many.

God didn't mean for us to feel guilt all of our lives. There comes a point when you should dry your tears and begin to live the life of a redeemed, forgiven, joyful Christian, with the full assurance of God's favour. You do not need to accept Christ as Saviour and Lord over and over again. If you've done it, it's done. Praise God, you are now one his children. If you haven't done it, you need to.

If today you are unsure, then make today the day. Say to God, today, "I am repenting of my sin. I am not going to trust in my own strength; I will seek to make you Lord, ruler, director over every aspect of my life." Then trust that it is done, God is paying attention.

But for those of us who are Christians - how can we have this assurance? How can you be sure that you are part of God's family? This morning I want us to discover that this assurance is part of the work of the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit.

I want us to discover that one of the blessings that God gives to us is the blessing of assurance of his favour, and our place in his Kingdom. We read about it in Ephesians 1:3-14, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." (Ephesians 1:3) (NIV)

This is how the section begins - and from here on in Paul shows how God, who lives in heavenly realms, has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. In the original Greek this section from verse 3 to 14 has no stops; there is no capitalization, no commas, no punctuation what-so-ever. It is one gush of praise for all that we have received from God. In verses 3 to 6 we have the blessings from God the Father.

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."
(Ephesians 1:4-6) (NIV)

In verses 7 through 12 we have the blessings that are ours in God the Son.

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory."
(Ephesians 1:7-12) (NIV)

Then, in verses 13 and 14, we have the blessings that are ours in God the Holy Spirit. It is upon these two verses that I want to reflect.

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory."
(Ephesians 1:13-14) (NIV)

Here we see the truth, that those who hear the good news of God's love, as expressed in Jesus Christ, and go on to believe in him as their Saviour and Lord, are SEALED with the promised Holy Spirit.

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit."
(Ephesians 1:13) (NIV)

Now that word, seal, is an interesting one because it points us to all the various aspects of assurance. How can we be sure of our salvation? We can be sure of it because God has given us the Holy Spirit to seal the deal. It means that God now owns us, that we are now securely in his family, and we are authentically one of his children.

That word, seal, speaks first of ownership. Ephesus was a port city and a major centre for the ancient logging industry. All these logs would come into the port and the different representatives of the logging companies would come and purchase their logs. After each log was purchased they would place their company seal on it - to identify ownership. It was a sign to everyone else that this log belonged to this particular company.

When you received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, God placed his seal - the promised Holy Spirit - on you, to show everyone that he now owns you. You are now one of his children.

Janet and I have three lovely children. They have been our children since birth and will be our children until they die. No one else can lay claim to them. They are ours by right of birth.

When you were born again - that's a good phrase meaning that when you received Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour you were born anew with new life, new hope, a new standing before God - when you were born again, you became a child of God; no one else can lay claim to you. He holds your birth certificate. He now owns you.

Now you may say, "Suppose I mess up?" Good question. But let me answer with a question, "Does your child stop being your child when he or she doesn't do what you ask?" No. Your children may bring you pain, and heartbreak, and even do damage to themselves, but they are no less one of your children. They are yours forever.

And so our relationship with God. He has saved us and made us new creations, and we are now forever one of his children. He has placed his seal within us, upon us.

And we can be sure that when we mess up, the Holy Spirit will be at work convicting us of our sin, and moving us to confession so that we can be more like our Lord. And even before we mess up, you can be sure that he will be seeking to keep you clean by showing you the way out of the temptation. He is God's seal of ownership, who seeks to make us into the image of his Son.

Not only ownership, but there is also the idea of security in this word. You will remember the story of Daniel and how he was thrown into the lion's den that was then closed by a great stone. King Darius and his nobles then placed their seals on the stone. Those seals were official markings that had to be obeyed.

And you will remember the Easter story, and how Jesus' tomb had a Roman seal placed over the rock. It was an official mark that legally prohibited people from entering the tomb; that seal was not to be broken. It was the "no trespassing" sign of the day, but with infinitely greater power.

The Holy Spirit, then, is God's seal that locks us into God's family. There is a sign on your heart that says, "No trespassing; this is the property of God the Father, purchased by the shed blood of Christ the Son, and inhabited by God the Holy Spirit."

Have you ever tried to open a jar but couldn't because it was sealed so tightly? Of course you have. In order to open that jar you need to be stronger than the one, or the machine, that sealed it.

Well, when you were saved, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, and if anyone wants to break that seal, they must be stronger than God himself who sealed you. You are now securely part of God's family.

Tied into this idea of security, we read in verse 14 that the Holy Spirit is also, "a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory." (Ephesians 1:14) (NIV)

We ask how can we be sure of our place in heaven? And Scripture replies, we can be sure because God has given a down-payment guaranteeing our inheritance. He has put the money down, so to speak, for our eternal life. We have received it now but there is much more to follow. The Holy Spirit is God's down-payment, guaranteeing the life you will have in eternity.

That's security.

But there is one more idea associated here with sealing, not only ownership, not only security, but also authenticity. In modern day ad-campaigns we are often encouraged to look for the seal on a package that makes the product authentic. If you want a good tasting cereal, you want to look for the Kellogg's seal on the package. If it doesn't say Kellogg's on the box, it's not Kellogg's in the box. The stylized Kellogg's logo authenticates the product.

So the Holy Spirit, alive and at work in you, is a seal that makes you an authentic Christian.

Now, you may be saying, "This is all well and good pastor, but what if I don't feel that I have this assurance? How do I get that internal sense of security that God loves me and will never let me go?"

We have to walk carefully here because we are entering the area of feelings. And feelings can be fickle; they can give us mixed signals. We must remember that we are secure in God's family, not because of our feelings, but because of the finished work of Christ on the Cross. We have learned that the Holy Spirit will always seek to advertise, promote Christ. Why? One of the reasons is because that is where we gain our assurance of salvation. We do not experience peace, we do not experience security, we do not have a sense of assurance of God's favour, by looking inside at our feelings, but only by looking to Christ. Our assurance is gained as we look to the sinless life of Christ, who died on the cross bearing our guilt and our sin, and realizing that he said as he hung there, "It is finished." It's a done deal.

So the assurance of our salvation does not depend on our feelings, but on the cross of Christ. But at the same time, we read in Romans 8:16 that, "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children." (NIV) So obviously, while assurance, for us to read about, and trust God for, is also something we can feel. Our spirit should be able to agree with the Holy Spirit that we are God's children.

What can keep this feeling from being a reality in our lives?

Ephesians 4:30, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (NIV)

My friends, we can have the Holy Spirit living in us but make him very sad. And, if the Spirit in you is sad, it will reflect in your character. The joy that is supposed to be yours won' t be there; the peace that is promised you just won't be a reality in your life. All because you have made the Holy Spirit sad. He is grieved by sin. He won't let you rest, he won't let you alone, until that sin is confessed and put right.

Sin can rob us of our sense of security. But there is also what we were studying last week, and that is the enthronement of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is a truth that you have all of the Holy Spirit, but the question is, does the Holy Spirit have all of you? He is abiding in you. Are you abiding in Christ? See, you can lose the internal validation and enjoyment of your security when you are not developing an intimate walk with Jesus Christ.

And then we may not feel that sense of assurance because we are treating our brothers and sisters in Christ in an unloving way.

I John 4:12-13, "No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." (NRSV)

If you are unloving, unforgiving, full of pride and selfishness, the Spirit will not validate his presence in you. The Spirit has made you part of the family of God, and He will make His presence felt when you are loving the members of His family the way he loves the members of his family.

One of the early heroes and martyrs of the Christian church was Justin Martyr who lived in Palestine. He was a philosopher, a lover of wisdom and his heart was captured by Christ. He became a preacher of the gospel for thirty-five years, until he was caught and imprisoned for his belief in Christ in Rome. At his trial, the judge asked him: "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes I am a Christian".

Then said the judge: "Listen, you who are called learned and think that you know the truth! If you are scourged and beheaded, do you suppose that you will go to heaven?"

"I not only suppose it," replied Justin, "I know it."

This assurance can be ours today. We can know that we are saved because of Christ's work on the cross. We can know that we are saved because he has placed his seal of ownership upon us, securing us, making us authentically his, the promised Holy Spirit.

May we all have that confidence. If you have it, praise God for it and seek to walk humbly before him. If you don't have a sense of it, then find out why. Are you grieving the Spirit? Have you made him Lord? Are you harbouring some bitterness?

Assurance is a gift God intends for you to have. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. May he enable us all to say, "I not only suppose I have God's favour, I know it."