The book of Ephesians, chapter number 4, must stand to our feet as we look at the Scriptures. A single verse again this morning, Ephesians chapter number 4, And verse number 30 says, "...and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Father, I thank you for such a command and such a promise. For Lord, your commands are not grievous to us, but a blessing. And certainly the promise that is given to us is a promise of joy, not one of fear. So I pray that you would help us as we look at this verse, not only to grow in our assurance of our faith, but that should there be someone among us that is unconverted, that they would be warned, and that they would become fearful about the state of their soul, and that you would awaken them, and that you would impart eternal life to them by that gracious hand. I pray now that you would bless my preaching, that it would not be a distraction in the way that I would speak or a cough or anything that would take away from the words being spoken, but that Your Word would go forth as You have designed it and You would be glorified through it. Thank You for this congregation that has made a determination on this Lord's Day to assemble that they are not here just for show, but they are here because they intend to hear from Your Word. Now I pray that You would bless us in Jesus' name. Amen. And you may be seated. Look at chapter 4, starting with verse 25. Paul gives us some specific instructions that we might know how to walk worthily of our calling. Very important. Verse 25, we're not supposed to speak falsely. In fact, we're supposed to speak only the truth. And he's given us this explicitly. Verse 26, we're told we are to be angry, but yet we're not to sin in our anger. We're told in verse 27 that we're not to give a foothold to the devil. He is not to have any inroads into our life. Verse number 28, we are told that we're to work. We're not to be someone who would steal, but we're to be people who were known by our labor, the fact that we were honest in our labor. We're not to use... Uncharitable words, corrupt communication as the scriptures say, something that would rotten or injure someone. Our words are supposed to have decorum. They're supposed to fit the situation appropriately in verse 29. And then we're not to deal with each other in bitterness or wrath or anger in verse 31. Verse 32, reminding us to be kind one to another. to be followers of God as dear children in verse 1 of chapter 5. And in the midst of all these exhortations, verse 30 kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. He tells us, "...and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Why would He put that there? Why would that particular verse be there? What does it really mean and how does it relate to the rest of all of these verses? Well, let me start by saying that unless you have repented of your sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, grieving the Holy Spirit probably does not concern you too much. You probably in fact haven't thought about the fact of grieving the Holy Spirit as an unconverted person. Now, the fact that you are not worried about grieving the Holy Spirit ought to now worry you. It ought to now worry you because it means by all accounts you're most likely unconverted. So if you're sitting here and you say, the pastor has just said that unconverted people probably don't spend their days worrying too much about grieving the Holy Spirit. And I've never worried about grieving the Holy Spirit. In fact, I could care less if the Spirit is grieved with my actions. He says by all accounts, there's probably a pretty good chance I'm unconverted. He's just judged me. Well, no, I'm just saying that the fruit of your life would be an indicator to you that there is a real good chance the Spirit of God does not dwell within you. And if He doesn't, then you are in fact unconverted. For that I would be fearful. That I would be very concerned about. If you say, I know I'm saved, Brother Daniel. I know I'm a Christian, but it's never concerned me that I might grieve the Holy Spirit. Let's chalk that up to the fact that maybe you've not been taught. You haven't been faithful to study the Scriptures. You haven't asked the question, what would please my Lord and Savior? What is it that God requires of me? These things may be something that you haven't entertained because you're immature in your faith. So I would encourage you to become an ardent student of the Word and to listen closely to this message. Because in fact, we are told by command to grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption. Our lack of concern about grieving or even pleasing the Holy Spirit is a telltale sign of our standing before the Lord. A spouse said to another spouse one time, do you not care how I feel about this particular subject that we were discussing. And listening, when you listen to two people having a conversation in front of you, it's an amazing thing. They get so into it, sometimes it's like they forgot you're there. Do you not care how this makes me feel? Do you think it doesn't bother me when you do this? Do you have any concern or love for me? Where's your consideration for me? Do I mean anything to you? What value do I have in your life? Is there really a place for me any longer in your life? Because everything about you says I don't exist. You do whatever you want to do to please you without any concern for me. Now that exchange between two people, you would almost think there's a relationship about to dissolve. And then you have a verse here in the Bible that says, "...grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption." And when we think of grief a lot of times, we think of grief only associated to a loss. But this is talking about something you're not going to lose, but it yet grieves. And the Holy Spirit This third person of the Trinity, we are told, can be grieved. Now this is a mystery to me that I can't figure out. I can only explain it through scholarly theological reasonings that others have formulated. Pastor Michael doesn't think obviously like some other folks think, where they use their brains. And so I'm dependent upon people much wiser than me oftentimes. But it's just an amazing thought to think that we could grieve the Holy Spirit of God that literally has sealed us unto the day of redemption. So why would this verse appear here in this passage of Scripture? I kind of would have expected it maybe to be at the end of all of this. After he's warned you about all these things, he says, you know, so don't breathe the Spirit of God by doing this. But instead there's a word there at the very beginning of the verse, the word and, which is the Greek word chi, and it specifically relates back to the previous verse or previous thought. And verse 29 is that previous thought. Corrupt communication, proceeding out of your mouth, and communication that ministers grace to the hearers. And he says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit. So it's apparently a mark that the sin of speaking with corrupt communication is something that does grieve the Holy Spirit. If it's unwholesome, if it is rotten, if it's unedifying, it would specifically grieve the Holy Spirit. Now that connection may seem a little strange at first, but the more you think about who the Holy Spirit is, as far as the Trinity is concerned, the more it becomes appropriate to understand this about Him. The Holy Spirit, being a member of the Trinity, is the one that we see in Scripture, we are told, is inspiring the Scripture. He spoke through the prophets. Therefore, He cares about words, especially that they glorify the Son, because that is, we are told, by the Lord Jesus, the Spirit's ultimate purpose is to bring glory to the Son. So you have the Spirit who is known for inspiring the prophets, speaking through them. We have the Spirit which is known for glorifying the Son. The Holy Spirit is the one that we say is really God with us. He dwells with us, God, by His Holy Spirit. And so we're thankful that we're promised that we would never lose His presence. You remember King David when he was saying in Psalm 51 verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. All of the references of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament tend to relate to the Holy Spirit coming up on people and lifting off of people. And in the New Testament we find a better covenant. We find better everything. And in the New Covenant we see the Spirit indwelling believers. And not only indwelling, but sealing them. Sealing them like we would seal a letter. And then He is promised to be with us until the end. So the Holy Spirit is that member of the Trinity who not only speaks through the prophets, inspired the Scripture, glorifies the Son, the One who is with us and within us, but He is also the member of the Trinity that imparts the spiritual gifts that Christ won upon His resurrection. It's in Romans 15, 19 that the Apostle Paul is making the statement, through mighty signs and wonders by what? The power of the Spirit of God And he says, so that from Jerusalem and round about I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. So he says the reason that I had these gifts as an apostle was it was because of the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God himself. So he is the one who imparted these wonderful apostolic gifts. So we can expect him to care a little bit about words. In fact, we could expect Him to care a lot about them. The Holy Spirit is also that member of the Trinity, as I said, whose purpose was to glorify the Son but also to reveal Him. And He is, as we understand Him, as the Logos or the Word. So He is going to be particularly concerned with words. So here's the ground of grieving the Holy Spirit then. Because He is holy, Any sin would be an affront to God. Any sin would be an affront to Jesus Christ. Any sin would be an affront to the Holy Spirit. So sin committed is evidently something that would grieve the Spirit of God, but also sin contemplated. It is not just the sin committed, but the sin contemplated. Why? Because the Spirit of God dwells within us. He is not some outside entity. He's the person that dwells within the believer according to the Scripture. He has immediate and intimate access to our hearts. He is the person of the Trinity that we say God is always with us. He dwells with us. He is among us. And when we neglect something good, I can understand grief. And when we sin, I can understand grief. And even if we were to contemplate sin, I can understand grief. But I think particularly the Holy Spirit is grieved, as I said, by unwholesome speech coming out of the mouths of believers. Now we saw last week in verse 29 that corrupt Communication comes from a word which has to do with rottenness. It's like when meat or fruit has gone bad and it has a horrible odor. It's when clothes are tattered and torn and they have lost their strength to be held together. You've seen clothing that you can't patch anymore because they've fallen apart, as we said last week. And so that's an idea of the word there when we see corrupt communication. It comes from a Greek word, sapros. It is a word that would make the hearer sick instead of nourishing him. And it would also mean it's not covering decently. It has the wrong decorum. It's at the wrong time. So corrupt speech covers a lot of areas. It's when we speak offhandedly. It is when we speak in a way that is not an appropriate moment to speak. It's when we're making light of things when things ought to be serious. It's when we are very serious and we refuse to rejoice with others that are rejoicing. Do you understand there's also that failure? It's when others are rejoicing and we want to be the center of attention by our own sorrow and sadness. And we refuse to rejoice with others. So we want to be particularly careful about our relation to the Spirit of God, for He is always with us. Here are some examples of some rotten words that may have a profound effect on the third person of the Trinity. It would include words that are not true or lying. We've already seen that in our previous verses. I think it's just as bad when we fudge the truth, when we refuse to tell the truth because it is a spin to our own advantage. to gain something. A Christian spin doctor, as the modern term is used, would grieve the spirit again when the truth is spoken, but it is not spoken in love. We know that to be evident and hurtful. Truth is an extremely powerful thing, but it can be a weapon for harm as well, as somebody wants to wield it at the most inappropriate times to simply injure somebody. I knew that truth would hurt them. And I knew that would get them. In counseling, you have to constantly watch when there's a couple sitting in front of you that's angry with one another. If something is said that hurts the other person, they immediately bring up past sins and begin to spank the other person with those sins. You fooled around on me 25 years ago and one time you said my mother was this..." And they just start bringing up all of these past sins and just laying them on this individual, though those particular indiscretions had supposedly been forgiven. They'd been passed over. The Christian is breaking 1 Corinthians 13 where we're told love doesn't keep a record. It doesn't keep an account. and they bring these things back up. So truth is very powerful, even when it's wielded for evil. And I think that all of this is obvious, but what about empty words? What about words that don't really have any use? Are we bringing honor and glory to the Lord when our speech is vain? Turn over to Matthew chapter 12. We'll be coming back to our text verse, but Matthew chapter number 12. Look what is said here. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking, Matthew chapter number 12 and verse number 36, the statement is made, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. So, what about those empty words? What about the words that we just say offhandedly or we think nothing about? What about the speech that has no value? Because we don't have anything to say, we don't know what to say, so we talk just to fill a space. Have you ever been with someone and there's uncomfortable silence? And so you just yap about something because you're uncomfortable with the silence? And how about the people that you're with that you can enjoy silence And you don't feel like you have to be talking all the time because you both have just that common understanding. This is good that we're just here together and we don't have to say anything. I've gone fishing with people in the past and you'd be sitting in a boat with them or on the bank with them and you don't say anything for an hour, but you've had the best time of your life. And you know, you just maybe comment, hand me the worms, you know. That was your big speech for the hour and you're just there. You just enjoyed one another's company. It was good to be there. And by the same token, you've been somewhere and you're in a vehicle with somebody driving and you're driving, you're just like, the silence was deafening because nothing was being said and you're both... And so you start uttering things that are so vain and useless. Hey, did you hear this joke? You know, and you don't know what to say. Jesus said, be careful about this because an idle word is an empty word. One commentator says, it is words that are thrown upon the wind and anything that is wasted has not been used as a good steward ought. We're only given so many days in this world and so many minutes in this world to communicate good things. And so if we waste them, if we throw these words just idly around and we're not using them, we're not good stewards of what the Lord has given us and He's given us the gift of language. So make sure that we use it to the very best of our abilities for the glory of God. So all these forms of speech, what they have in common is that they're words. True or not, they tear down or they build up the body of Christ because they misrepresent Christ or they speak the truth of Christ. Maybe we've missed an opportunity to give Him glory that is rightly His. And this can grieve the Spirit. I think about, a member was telling me about the Cooke's Natural Museum or Nature Museum or something that's a little south and east of us and they were talking about it and how they were going to make it a bigger museum and how they were going to incorporate more Bible verses and things like that because they were wanting to show the glory of God and his creation. which is rare for a museum. Usually they want to show the glory of man and talk about millions and millions of years. And so it's very interesting what this museum is trying to do. And they're wanting to capture everything for the glory of God. So when you look at a raccoon in its natural habitat or something, you're getting the explanation that here's how God is glorified by His creation rather than Either nothing being said or just the bare facts about the raccoon given. And when you stop and think about our conversation like that, there's so many opportunities that we can glorify God. There are so many times that you and I can say and do things that God is truly glorified in and we keep our mouths shut. Somebody says, boy, it's a beautiful day out today. Well, I don't want to be one of those religious nuts. They always say, yeah, thankful the Lord gave us this day. Oh, here it comes. So what kind of nut do you want to be? You want to be the secular nut? The one that goes, yeah, it's been hot, global warming, millions of years, it's really getting bad. No, I want to give glory to God in all that I'm saying. Somebody brings up the weather, to me that's an opportunity to talk about the good things of the Lord. Man, the price of gas is going up. Don't worry, Jesus is coming. You know, remind them, hey, calm down. You know, scare them to death. But give glory to God. Thank Him for the things that are happening around you when people are commenting on things instead of just idle conversation. Some weather we're having, yes, weather. Well, it could be some rain, it could be some sun. That was a useless statement. Some weather we're having. We're always having weather, haven't you figured that out? It's happening no matter what. But your opportunity to glorify the Lord is now. Right now, it's on the tip of your tongue. Here is your chance. This person may not hear something positive spoken about God for the rest of the day, maybe for the rest of the week, depending on who they accompany, who their lifestyle is with. I mean, they may hang out with folks that are profane, and your word is going to be the only word that is dropped that week that is not corrupt, that doesn't tear them down. It's the word that builds them up. Those of you that have opportunity to have grandchildren, nieces and nephews into your home from time to time, or you get to go there, make sure you're that relative that that child remembers as the one that loved the Lord. That's where they heard their first hymn. That's where they heard their first psalm. You were singing it. That's where they saw somebody bow their head and pray for the first time. Because it was important to you to glorify the Lord in your speech. So let that be absolutely the backbone of what you're trying to do with your speech. So what's the gravity, then, of grieving the Spirit? And, you know, a staggering and even a sobering fact is the fact that we can grieve the Spirit of God. And in such a mystery, I don't want you to be misled by the much misunderstood doctrine of something called divine impassibility. I'm sure you're sitting there thinking, I know the other day I was sitting on the couch thinking, man, that doctrine of divine impassibility, I'm totally just confused over that. Most people don't think about the doctrine of divine impassibility, if they've ever even heard of it. But it's sometimes interpreted to mean that God has no feelings whatsoever. God has no feelings at all. Now next Thursday night, this coming Thursday night in Bible College, I intend to do a full two-hour study on the impassibility of God. Because we're talking about various doctrines and in the past 100 years or so, the doctrine of impassibility has become so convoluted that it has allowed the ugly head of a couple of heresies that were put down centuries ago to raise their head again. It is true that unlike us, God is not subject to passions. He is not subject to passions. We cannot injure God, as it were, or make Him to have a sudden, knee-jerk response to an injured heart. That He has some passionate moment and He does something that He later regrets. Or He's thrust into a position of grief that He can't control. like you and I are. Don't tell me you're not because we all have it. We can be brought to tears by a television commercial. You know, the right music starts playing in the movie and we go... And we're pathetic. You know, I mean, we're driving down the road one day and this cat is running across the road. Why, I don't want you all in the car with us. And man, it was a busy four-lane of traffic. Woo! Oh, a cat got hit. And Anna witnessed it all. And her first response, oh, cat, dead. You think that's what she did? No, she was just, oh! Oh! You know, and she just melted right there. I was on the phone with Brother Ronnie. And Brother Ronnie has taken courses in insensitivity. And he's mastered it. He's got a doctorate in it. And he goes, what happened? Because he heard it in the background. Of course, he's raising a bunch of little boys. I said, well, a cat just got run over and it looks like it broke its back. I guess it was a cat or a bunny rabbit. I don't know what it was. And he goes, you tell my dear sister that God has so designed that creature that he can't even feel things like that. His motor functions are so primitive that it's no big deal. Of course, there's animals in the road flopping around and everything. He looks like he's feeling something. Anna didn't believe Brother Ronnie. But Brother Ronnie was doing his best to send a message to her. It's okay. It'll be alright. You know, I think many times we take advantage of things like that only to hurt people. Instead of trying to calm them, let's go back and look at him. Let's back over him. We're insensitive to even the most primitive things, the most base things. We're just insensitive. We can injure people in such ways that we don't even think about. Especially our little children. When there's things that are precious to them and we negate them, something that they're excited about, look at this little flower, mommy. Oh, honey, that's nice, that's nice. Put it away. Put that thing away. It is getting all over you. Look at you. You are muddy. You know, the flowers wilts right there in front of them. There are so many things that we can do to injure people around us, even as grown folks. We'll come up to one another sometimes in a situation, hey, did you hear about so and so? No, I didn't hear about that. And what you just said to me was really unimportant because there's other things happening. Texting is one of the easiest ways to show somebody you really don't care what they've got to say. Do you realize that a text can be put on hold indefinitely? If you're texting, it's not like someone was listening to every click on your phone and you're texting them. And somebody comes up to you face-to-face and they want to communicate and commune with you face-to-face in fellowship. And your phone goes... And you start looking at it. I remember one time I answered the door for a young man that was coming to my house to talk to me about something. I opened the door and I go, how are you? He goes, oh, doing great. His phone goes... He goes, just a minute, I need to check this text. And he stood there and so I thought, I'm not going to say anything. And he stood there and I said, now I'm going to shut the door. And so I just pushed the door to him. He was standing right on the doorstep. He was like, he knocked. I said, hey, how are you doing? He goes, oh, what happened? I said, I just was going to wait until you were ready to visit. I mean, this is rude. And it's insensitive and we do it all the time to one another. We've got this rule at our house. We turn our phones upside down on the table so we don't answer text. And we'll go doo-doo and every one of us will go... You know the whole time you're like, I want to look. It just beeped. You don't understand. I am chained to this thing. We really do well to edify and build up one another instead of tear one another down. I was talking about the impassibility of God actually. And God is not subject to like passions as we are. And it is in His personality something that corresponds to our emotions. Like Brother Ronnie was trying to say something to encourage Anna. He was like off the cuff. The motor skills of this animal are as low, don't worry. He's not feeling pain like you feel pain. He was trying to think of something. God's not impassionate to our hurts. He doesn't say, oh, my creatures are so far below me, so what? When we are injured. And so there's this mystery, and in desperation, groups like the Gnostics years ago would try to make God more human. So they would attempt to apply emotions to God in the identical way that they affect sinful man. And say, well, this is how God feels about this thing, and that's an error. God loves. He cares. He responds to our love. He tells us how He responds to our love. And the way we treat His children. He tells us, this is something that matters to me. How you treat my children. If you offend a little one, this is what it would be better for you to have happen. A millstone tied about your neck and tossed in the river. It'd be better for that to happen because that's how important these things are. So he's not without any kind of compassion. So don't try to attach as God being this stoic sober God that isn't affected by anything and yet don't try to make him so human that he reacts just like we do every time something happens. He doesn't cry at every television commercial or sad spot in a movie. The way we take serious His commands is something that will give Him great pleasure. He tells us in the book of Psalms over and over. He takes pleasure in certain things. John Calvin. The great reformer of the past said this, he said, Endeavor that the Holy Spirit may dwell cheerfully with you as in a pleasant and a joyful dwelling, and give him no occasion for grief. It was in a correspondence that John Calvin wrote to someone one time. He was talking about a house that was lightened by the countenance of someone. He didn't mean made lighter in weight, but it was made brighter just because of the countenance of somebody when they came into the room. You could see that they were filled with joy. And so his comment was, endeavor that the Holy Spirit dwells with you cheerfully, not that He's grieved with you. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a great Baptist preacher in the 1800s said, We learn that sins of the flesh, filthiness, and evil speakings of every sort are grievous to him, based on this verse. They're grievous to God. So he tells us, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. He said, in Noah's day, the dove was released and found no place for the sole of its foot, even with all of the carcasses floating in the waste. And even so, the heavenly dove, the Spirit, finds no repose in the dead and corrupt things of the flesh." So the Spirit of God doesn't find peace and satisfaction in our filthiness, in our filthy talking, in our corrupt communications. So Spurgeon was saying, why would He want to rest His feet there upon that? It grieves Him. And we don't want to forget the converse of all this, as John Calvin was pointing us to. If we grieve the Spirit, we can also delight Him and please Him. And to the extent that we love God, we're going to want to please Him. The more we love Him, the more we understand His character, the more we will want to please God. It was Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones that said it was called the differentia of Christian ethics. In other words, he said our ethics are not based on rules alone. They're not based just on rules alone, but we have them as a guide and they are useful as such, but they're based also on a relationship. So we've got our ethics of why we do something because of who we are. You know, a child will take a command from his mother and father in a different way than he would take it from an absolute stranger. A child would take his commands from his mother and father more joyfully or more sorrowfully than he would an absolute stranger. Because he's receiving it from the one that he loves and the one that he counts as his supreme source of authority. And children, as you think about your parents, you can please them and grieve them based on your words and your actions. and your earthly father being a reflection of the heavenly father. Think about that. When you live in such a way or you talk in such a way that your earthly father is grieved by your actions, do you not think that this also grieves the Holy Spirit of God? So when mom and dad are displeased over something and they are passionate about it, understand God is affected likewise, but Because of the doctrine of impassibility, we understand you're not forcing him into some corner where he's going to throw a fit. He's going to react in accordance with his character and his divine predisposition, what he has determined already to do. You see, God has told us there are certain actions that he intends to take when it comes to sin. And so when we sin and we are chastised, don't be surprised. Don't think God got angry and did this. No, God is responding perfectly as He has told you His character is. This is what I do always. I'm consistent. And I don't react with human passion. Rules absolutely have their place in the Christian life. They are what gives us focus. They are what keeps us at the proper speed. Rules tell us when we are to stop. We see a stop sign. We're thankful for rules like that. We're thankful for yield signs that warn us there may be crossing traffic. We're thankful for signs that say, bridge out. But when it comes to Christianity, we don't want rules. We don't want laws warning us that the bridge is out or that this particular action could lead to serious consequences. No, we don't need laws like that. We just need to love. Like I told you last week, or excuse me, Wednesday night. Why do you obey the police officer when he tells you to pull over? It's because I love him. Really, the policeman pulls up behind you with lights and the things that are coming out of your mouth is because you love him? Well, I really can't believe he's going to rob me a ticket. I was only going 20 over. Rob him in a hurry. But I love the officer. I'll obey him. Now, the reason that you're going to obey him is because you're scared of what he can do with his lethal force. You're scared he's going to put handcuffs on you and take you to jail. Yes, officer. Of course, officer. That's why you do that. So don't tell me your obedience to God is strictly out of love. I know the truth. God knows the truth. And we obey Him. Likewise, because we fear Him. He is our God. He is our Sovereign. He is the Lord that at the end of days men will beg for rocks to cover them so that they don't have to stand in His gaze. This is the God we serve. So let our focus not just be on the fact that I have a relationship with Him, therefore I don't want to grieve Him, but God has given instructions. He's given clear commands and He expects us to obey them. For in not doing, we grieve Him. Never forget that how we use our tongue and our life is an opportunity to grieve or to praise the Holy Spirit. So we need to walk worthy. My last point here, there is one personal argument which is used in the text to forbid grieving the Spirit, and I love this portion of it. It says, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption. The same Spirit that you can grieve, don't forget, does the act of sealing. All the things we talked about that the Holy Spirit's involved in and things we didn't even talk about, yes, they exist, but one of the aspects that the Spirit does is He seals us. And there's a lot of different meanings assigned by commentators to it and lots of great examples. But we know that a seal is something that is set upon something to authenticate it. A seal is put on something that shows authority. We saw this past week, we got to go down, as I said, to the Confederate White House and in the Confederate White House, under this glass case, was the seal of the Confederate States and it was the official one that they had used and it indicated the authority and the finality of something that would be said or done. That seal said, what comes forth from this podium, if it was on the front of a podium, is the official stand of the Confederacy. And so that seal carries with it weight in the fact that it says authority and authenticity exist here under this seal. Also, though, the seal is used for preserving Like when we seal fruit. We can fruit. And you can something and you hear the jar pop and that seal is set on it. What do you know? It's going to be fresh till the day that I open it and start to consume it. It's waiting on me now, ready in the state that I put it in there in and it's going to be prepared. One thing about sealing things is sometimes they get even more flavor the longer they're sealed and that's a picture of sanctification but that's for another sermon. Many times envelopes are sealed with wax. We lick them and stick them now but years ago people would pour wax on them and as the wax began to dry they would take a signet ring or a stamp that would have their family crest on it and they would press it into the wax and then when you looked at this letter you could flip it, it might just have your name on it. You flip it over to the back and you would look at the seal and you would say, oh that's the house of so-and-so. They sent this and they sealed it. And so to break that seal would mean the only person that can break that seal is the one to whom that was addressed to. And they are allowed to break that seal. And so we are sealed with the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption. We belong to God and we've been sealed by God. And therefore we are expressly His possession. And a seal also offers security. I remember working for a company one time and we'd get a truck in and there would be all these seals on the back and there would be several of them and you would cut them off but as you cut these seals off you had to write down the numbers on the seal. We were back in the day of pencils and pads. Now you can scan them, they've got barcodes on them and it's done. But we would have to write all the numbers down. And then we'd have to keep the seals, which is so aggravating, all the stuff you have to do. But what were we doing? We were verifying that nobody had gone in that truck from the time it left to where it was at to the time it got to us, unless there was a manifest that said it was opened here and this was put in and this was taken out. And we could check it and know everything was there. It was secure. So a seal has a lot of different meanings. And all of them can be easily applied to being sealed by the Holy Spirit. Now, that seal is a credential that you and I are truly born again. Our life is hid in Christ. We belong to Him. And whether the day of redemption is in your mind the day of your death, or the day when all believers are resurrected, here's the concluding thought on that. If it means the day of our death, then the seal will be broken when I see my Savior face to face because I am His possession. I belong to Him. If it means the general resurrection when our bodies are changed and we have perfect bodies no longer bound by the limitations we now face, we will see Him face to face and we will be His. And we will rejoice in the fact that we have belonged to Him and He sealed us and saved us for that day. Either way, let us be mindful of grieving the One that keeps us and protects us for that great day of redemption. It is amazing. We use the phrase, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Now that comes from just the understanding that you're taking care of an animal and it bites you and you're thinking to yourself, here I am being so kind to you but you're a dumb animal. You're ignorant. You don't understand that if you bite me, I will be reticent to come back to you and give you what you need. And so we apply that many times to our own children, maybe to employees who are unconcerned about the success of the particular company they work for. Or maybe to a business owner who's forgetting that customers make up the base of how he lives. And his care for them will mean something. And we say, oh, don't bite the hand that feeds you. And children, let me remind you, your parents have taken a solemn oath before God. They have covenanted to raise you for the glory of God and to care for you, to feed you, to clothe you, and to house you, and to not charge you. When you're seven years old, your parents don't come and say, look, your rent for the month is $48, you've eaten $25 worth of food, and you've enjoyed $17 worth of entertainment. They don't do that to you. They give of themselves and pour themselves out to protect you and make sure that you are prepared for the day that they release you. And the day they release you, you become unsealed in the physical sense to do that thing that you've been called to do. Young ladies, the picture is much stronger for you as the daddy gives you away. He hands you over to your husband. So the sealing is important, and understanding this, let us not grieve the One who has sealed us. He sealed us because He loves us and cares for us. Now, I will tell you this about speech, and this is my final thought. If a man doesn't stumble in what he says once in a while, James says he's a perfect man. If he doesn't misuse his tongue, he's a perfect man. And there aren't any perfect men on this earth. There was one perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ. But you and I are going to stumble. We're going to falter. Also, if we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So don't think there's no hope for you even though you're an imperfect man. You have been sealed by the Spirit until the day of redemption. Therefore, let us labor to be perfect." That's our call. We're to labor to be perfect. We're to labor to not misuse our speech. We're to labor to not misuse our time and our resources and our gifts. But use them for the glory of God because guess what? We are told not to grieve the Holy Spirit. We've been redeemed and He has sealed us until that moment. As believers, we should take heavy weight in this and consideration and say, this is how I want to be. I want to make sure that as I live my life, I am not a grief to my Heavenly Father, I'm not a grief to my Redeemer, and I do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. But opposite of that. that I would be a cause for great joy and rejoicing in all that I do." Is that really the mainstay of your life? Can you honestly say that about your life? Is that how you children think of your parents as you dwell under their tutelage? Well, let us make sure that that is key. And if you are not born again, then I can assure you, you're not concerned about grieving the Holy Spirit, but there will be a day of reckoning for the unconverted. And all of these types of sermons will come back to your ears with blazing ferocity. So I pray for your repentance. Let's stand to our feet. Father, we do thank You for Your kindness and how You have carefully watched over us and been gracious to us even through this time of preaching. I pray that the hearers would be duly affected by the preaching of Thy Word. I pray that the truth that has been spoken here would have inroad and have an eternal effect. I pray that anything amiss or false that has been spoken here by oversight would be washed away and would not be a stumbling block to anyone who has heard it. I pray now that you would save souls in accordance with your holy will. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.