For I believe we're sinners more
Than sands upon the ocean's shore. Thou hath for all our sins unpaid,
For all the full have come to pay. Now, go back with me to the Revelation
chapter 7. Read verse 3 with me again. The Lord said to the angel, Hurt
not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God in their foreheads. Much in this book is a mystery
and will remain so until the Lord returns. And then we will know all the
mystery. And yet the Scripture does say
to His people, God's people, the secret things belong unto
the Lord, our God, but those things which are revealed belong
unto us and our children. So the Lord reveals the mystery, the mystery of the
gospel it's called. And I've already revealed the
whole secret of this message. Already. What is this seal in the forehead? He said, all of the people of
God will be sealed in their forehead. They have a mark. You know, a lot is cast into
the lap, but the Lord, it's all of the Lord. And I chose to deal
with this because I was reading it and was blessed by it. I began
to study it. It's not my desire to try to
be new or original or bring something clever or that you might be in
awe of something mysterious. That's not it at all. Because
you already know these things. We're not going to look at anything
new. Seeing you already know these things, you know the answer. You know what this seal is in
the forehead. You already know. We've not only
looked at this years ago together, but every message we bring, you know. What is this seal in
the forehead of God's people? Well, Revelation 13 talks about
the mark of the beast in some people's forehead. And like that
sign or seal or mark, it's not literal. It's not an outward
mark. It would be very obvious, wouldn't
it? Very obvious. That's how foolish
and naive some people are. Just talking to a woman about
that in Revelation 13, 666, you know. She said, everybody knows
that. That's the mark of the beast,
you know. People who have this big 666 on their head. Yeah,
right. Wouldn't that really be easy?
Wouldn't that be easy to spot? Satan's not a fool. Well, you know, people are foolish
and naive. It's like Spurgeon. You remember
that story of Spurgeon? He said, I do believe the only
elect will be saved. And the fellow said, why don't
you just preach to them? He said, I would if they had
an E on their head. I would. Well, they do. They do have a mark in their
forehead. They do have a seal. The foundation
of God stands assured having this seal. The Lord knoweth them
that are healed. They're sealed. They have a mark
in their forehead. What is it? Look at verse 2 first. I saw an angel, John saw an angel,
another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the
living God. This one great angel had the
seal of the living God. And then the Lord said, until
we have sealed. But this one angel had this seal
which he would seal the servants of God. Alright, 1 Corinthians
2. Go over there. several verses of Scripture in
1 Corinthians and then Ephesians and Colossians. Brother John
Davis was sitting in the study a little while ago, and we started
talking about this. Well, he did. I told him what
we were preaching on, and he preached my message immediately.
He said, well, if you go over to Ephesians 1, and he started
quoting, I said, that's it. You know it. You know? So we're going to look at several
verses in 1 Corinthians 2 and Ephesians 1, Colossians. Then
we'll go to Revelation 7 and stay there, okay, and look at
these verses. But look at 1 Corinthians 2. What is this seal, this mysterious,
seemingly mysterious mark in the forehead of God's people? It's no mystery. to God's people. Chapter 2, verse 7, Paul says,
We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. It is hidden to most. God hath
hidden it from the wise and approved it. Right? But He revealed it
to some. Read on. Which God ordained,
this mystery God purposed to ordain before the world unto
higher glory, which none of the princes Wise men, mighty, noble
of the world knew, had they known it, they wouldn't have crucified
the Lord of glory. Oh, hold on here, we're talking
about glory. We're talking about a crucified person. You already
know what this is. Verse 9, As it is written, I
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us, God's people. That's who he's writing to, the
elect. How? By his Holy Spirit. See that? For the Spirit, read
on. You've got to stay with me. Alright,
we're building a case here. Verse 10, the Holy Spirit searcheth
all things. Here are the deep things of God.
What man knoweth the things of a man, say the spirit of the
man which is in him? In other words, you don't know
what I'm thinking. If I keep it to myself, you don't
know what I'm thinking. Unless I reveal it to you. Even
so, verse 11, the things of God knoweth no man. but the Holy
Spirit of God. Now, we have received, not the
spirit of the world, not the wisdom, not what the world says,
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak,
not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost
teacheth. Comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. Scripture with Scripture. The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Holy Spirit of
God. There is foolishness unto him,
neither can he, because they are spiritually discerned. Are
you reading it? Verse 15. He that is spiritual
judges or understands all things, Yep. Yet he himself is understood
of no man. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord that he may instruct him? We have a seal in our void. A stamp. What is it? What is it? The mind of Christ. That's what it is. This seal
in the forehead. I'll go ahead and tell you. And
you already know. Like the disciples said, Lord,
we don't know the way. He said, you do. You do know
the way. All mysteries have been revealed
to you. They that are spiritual discern all things. What is this
seal, this stamp, this sign, this mark in the forehead that
the angel of God, the Spirit of God, sent by God to seal up
His servant is in every one of their foreheads. What is it?
It's the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ. There it
is. In case I collapse, that's it. Well, look at a few other scriptures.
Ephesians 1. Brother John knew this and you
do too. Ephesians chapter 1. It's a mystery
to most, but God hath revealed this unto us by His Spirit. Ephesians 1, look at verse 8. It says, God, you have it? Oh, I was tempted to read the
whole chapter. He's talking about God choosing
a people and putting them in Christ and Christ being their
Oh, and the Redeemer says, verse 8, wherein, that is, in this
gospel of Christ, God hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of His will, His purpose,
which He purposed in Himself. What is it? Christ. To gather
everything in Christ. What for? To the praise of the
glory of His grace. Look at verse 9, or read on.
He's made known unto us this mystery, verse 10, that gather
all things in Christ, even in Christ, verse 11, in whom we
have this inheritance, been predestinated according to God's purpose. Verse
12, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ. Verse 13, in whom you also, you
trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation. In whom, that is in Christ, after
you believed, you were sealed. The Spirit of promise, the angel
of God came with this seal. He plants it right there, like
a stamp. Firmly planted. The seal in the
forehead is Christ in and on the minds of His people. They all know and understand
with their minds and believe with their heart. With the heart
man believe it. But you do understand, you do
know whom you have believed, and what, and why. It's Christ. Colossians 1. Go over to Colossians
1. Colossians chapter 1. I was tempted to read this whole
chapter. I did in private. And chapter 2. Oh, these blessed,
blessed books. Brother Mac read Colossians 3
Wednesday night and it just made me want to preach it. It's all
about Him. Christ. In Him. In Him. Colossians 1, verse 26 and 27.
He says, Paul says, the mystery, even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages, from generations, but is now made manifest, clear
to his saint, to whom God would make known what is the riches
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is
Christ in you. on your mind, in your heart,
by faith. That's your hope of glory. You've
got a stamp. You've got a seal on you. Chapter 2, look at this. One
more and then we'll go back to the Revelation. Chapter 2 says,
verse 2 and 3, He said, my hope and desire is
that their hearts, God's people, the heart will be comforted,
knit together in love and unto all riches, remember this, of
the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid
all. All the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. So, go back to our text. Now, so this seal in the forehead
of all of God's people is they all know, they all understand
with their mind, believe with their heart that Christ is all. See, I don't have anything new.
He's all. And that's, you know, Colossians.
Christ is all and in all. In all of His people. He's in
all their hearts and in their minds. He's on their minds. He's
in their hearts. Christ in you. It's your hope
of glory. It's His seal. Christ, He's all. How is He all? He's Creator of
all. Without Him was not anything
made. It was made. He is Lord. over all. God hath given all
things into his hands. He hath power over all. All authority is given unto me.
He said, I have overcome the world. All power. He is the all
and in all of his people. He's all their salvation. They
all know. They all know. And you can't
convince them otherwise that Christ is all their salvation. He's all their wisdom. What do
you know? What do you know about the millennium? What do you know about the millennium?
Is it pre, post, or after? Anybody? Well, let me just ask
you this. Who reigns? That's what all that
talk about the millennium is. The reign of Christ. Who reigns?
Christ does. Wisdom. Wisdom. What is the shortest
verse in the Bible? What's the central verse in the
Bible? Huh? How many verses are there in
the Bible? A lot of people know those things. That doesn't matter. By a hill of beans, it really
doesn't. Let me ask every one of you,
what is the Bible? It's Christ. He's the Word. Wisdom. He's made unto us wisdom. What do you know? I know this,
I know whom I have believed. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify me." Wisdom. He's made under wisdom. Righteousness. Righteousness. How do you get
to God? God's holy. He will by no means
clear the guilty. He will by no means clear the
guilty. It shall be perfect to be accepted.
Well, then how? Somebody, anybody. Christ made
unto us righteousness. Ask them to a man, to a woman. Ask them anything. Their answer
will be Christ is all. Sanctification. Redemption. No
man can, by any means, redeem his own soul. We're not redeemed
with corruptible... Everybody will know this. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold. I told you about that Catholic
woman, you know. A lot of people believe that.
None of God's people do. They all know their redemption
is in the precious blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all their hope. How
do you hope to get to heaven, Vicki Patton? How? Come on, I'm
giving a woman permission to say something. It's all our hope in Him. All
our hope! Not me and Him. I hope I make
it. I hope I do. I hope I... I hope
I anything. Christ is my hope. Because He
lives. Right? Planet. Hope. Hope. Peace. Peace. We don't have any
peace. We never have any peace when
we look within, when we look without, when we look to anybody
or anything. The only time when we have any
peace is when we hear about Christ, our peace-doer. How He made peace
by the blood of His cross. The only time we have any real,
real peace is knowing that Jesus Christ is not a figurehead. He
really is Lord. He really is Lord. And you're
in His hands. And He's doing everything concerning
you according to His will. And you trust Him. That's the
only time you have any peace is when you can really rest in
Him. That means you're resting in
peace. That there's no condemnation
to them in Christ. Peace. He is our peace. And I could go on and on, can't
I? He's all in all. I said I wanted
to preach Colossians 3.11. I am. He's all. But this is the thing
I'm trying to show us, is that God Almighty impresses that,
impresses that, like a seal, a signet. That's what this was
back then. Whoever the owner of something
was had a seal, a signet with his mark on it, and would press
it on something. And this is what God Almighty
does, the Spirit of God in the minds of His people, a big C. Right there. They all have it.
You can't see it. You can't see it. But after a
while, it does show. It does show. Well, and we're
complete in Him. The seal and the forehead. I
look at Revelation 7. Go there with me. Revelation
7. Look at these verses. And I was going to have you go
over to John 6, and there's so much we could look at. John the
Baptist said, him hath the Father sealed. Christ said that in John
6 of Himself. Christ said that in John 6. The
Father has sealed me, He said. I'm the accepted one, the approved
one. His seal of approval is on me.
and all the people of God, John said, that receive him set to
their seal. They make it known that they've
been sealed. I was going to have you turn
there, but I'll quote it for you anyway. And the Holy Spirit,
he quoted it in John 16, the Holy Spirit is this angel who
takes the things of Christ and shows them to God's people. He's
the one. He's the angel here, spoken of,
who takes the things of Christ and impresses. He leads and guides
into all truth. Yeah. Because it's all in one
person. Our Lord said that He'll take
the things of mine and show them to you. Why? Because they're
all mine. And He'll show them to you. And
He's talking to His people. And so they have the mind of Christ,
they have the seed. All right, Revelation 7, verses
1 and 2. on the earth or in the sea or
on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending
from the east, having the seal of the living God, who cried
with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to
hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth. Leave the
sea or the trees until we've sealed them. Servants of God. People of God. Now, we need to
know this. And we do. You do notice that. That God Almighty has His angels,
and they're real. They're servants of God. We can't
see them. They're ministering angels. They're
people that minister to His people. Every one of us had them. It's
amazing. And he has his archangel, Michael,
and Gabriel, and others, much of which is still a mystery.
But somehow, the elements Well, we know this, the elements
of God, the winds and the weather and all that, we know that they're
absolutely under the sovereign control of our Lord and our God. And He sends them for whatever
purpose of it, wherever, whenever, to whoever, for whatever. Weather
is not random. These four winds, we do know
that there are four prevailing winds. And he says, my angels,
I've given them charge over this thing to let loose when I say
so. And they do. There is no mother
nature. You know that. There's a father. His Creator and His Son who operate
and reign and rule and control all things. In verse 3, He gave
the command, destroy not, hurt not the earth or the sea or the
trees. There's going to be a time when
God Almighty destroys this world. He's going to send His angels
to do so. And he said, don't do it, do not, until we have
sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Until all
the elect of God are saved. That's what that's talking about.
Verses 4 through 8, we'll not read these, for the Patriarch
already read them. The tribes of Israel. And in
each tribe, all 12 tribes, are mentioned 12,000 sealed. Okay? Now, I don't believe this is
a literal number, like the Scriptures so often uses numbers to represent
something spiritual, like 7 or 5 or 10,000 times 10,000 and
thousands and thousands, 144,000, 12 times 1, 12,000 in each tribe. I believe it's symbolic and it's
mysterious. I'm not going to attempt to tell
you, because no man really knows. But I do believe this. I believe
God has literally chosen a people out of every literal tribe of
Israel. Zebulun, and Naphtalon, and Dan,
and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah. I believe that. I believe God has a literal people
from the literal tribes of Israel. But verse 9 says that there is
a great multitude which no man can number out of all nations. and kindreds and tribe. Brother Gabe and I loved when
Brother Mahan opened that up to us for the first time, talking
about every kindred. That's every family. Every single
family on the earth. This is how merciful God is.
And how true to His Word. Every family on the earth has
had somebody die. Many people died. A lot of babies. Hadn't it? Every kindred. He has a people. An elect. He has an elect. Well, out of every nation. Now here's a description of them. This seal in their poetry. Verse
9. Verse 9. After this, he says,
I beheld, and lo, a great multitude which no man could number. of
all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before
the throne. This is the saved of God. These are those with the seal
on their forehead, the mark in their forehead, Christ in them. They all stand before the throne
and before the Lamb. Before the Lamb, that's who's
on the throne, and they all see him as a lamb as it had been
slain, don't they? They all see him when they get
there, and they saw him before they got there. This was the
will of the Father. Everyone that seeth the Son,
how do they see the Son? Reigning. In Revelation 5, before
a lamb is ever mentioned in Revelation, he's called a lion. the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
reigning and ruling. And from thereafter, he's called
the Lamb. Everyone who God Almighty reveals
Christ to, he first reveals the Lion of the tribe of Judah, reigning,
ruling, the sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords. And
then, every one of those, he bows their knee and causes them
to confess with their mouth and their tongue, he's the Lamb. He's the Lamb. And they see Him
as a Lamb that had been slain. A reigning, ruling Lamb. They
all are before the throne and before the Lamb. That's why they're
before Him. Because there was a Lamb's life.
They all had a Lamb. And they're clothed with white
robes. I believe perhaps we will literally be clothed with white
robes. But John tells us before what these robes are, doesn't
he? Huh? Does anybody know? Yes, you do. Of course you do. They're the
righteousness of saints. It's the righteousness of Christ.
Where did they get these robes? Well, all of them were prodigals.
All of them were prodigals. And the Father brought them home
and said, bring the best robe. Christ and clothed them in His
spotless righteousness. They've got palms in their hands,
palms of victory. And they all cry with a loud
voice, saying, what's their cry? To a man, to a woman, every one
of them. They all cry with a loud voice,
salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne and the Lamb." That's what they cry now, and
that's what they cry then. Every one of them, they know
that salvation belongeth to our God. The salvations of the Lord. They all know this. They all
believe this. And that's their heart's cry.
That's the salvation to the Lord. In verse 11, read on. It says,
"...the angels stood around about the throne, the elders and four
beasts, fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped
God, saying, Amen." Amen. That's what they all say when
you tell them the truth that God reigns and rules. The salvation
is of the Lord. that Christ is all in all. They
all say, this is what they say, amen. Like that Syrophoenician
woman, when the Lord told her the truth, she said, truth! Amen means, that's it! Amen means,
that's the way it is. Amen means, barely, barely. Amen means, so be it. Amen means,
that's the way I'd have it. Amen! It's a good word. You know, back in Ezra, it said
all the people, man and woman, were supposed to say it. Deuteronomy
and Ezra. Everybody could say this. It's not speaking. It's
just saying amen. Amen. They all say it. Amen when
they hear the truth. There are no cavaliers. There
are no backtalkers. There are no gainsayers. They
all, when they hear who reigns and who rules and who gets the
glory and salvation, they all, every one of them, This is the
seal. This is the mark. They all say,
Amen. Here's what they say, Blessing. Blessing. If you're going to
be blessed, it's going to be in Christ. Him. Glory. How much glory? All glory. This is all to the
praise of the glory of His grace. His name. Who's getting the glory? They all say to a man, to a woman,
glory to the Lord. All glory. No glory to man. Wisdom. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. We give thanks
unto God for all things. Honor. Honor. Our Lord said men like to honor
themselves, like to honor one another. God's people give Him
all the honor and glory. And power. What's power mean? Power. There's no power, there's
no authority but of God. And might. What's that? Strength. That means ability. Our God is
able. Our God does as He will. They
asked David, where is your God? And what can he do? Well, David
said, My God, our God is in the heavens, sitteth on the circle
of the earth. And what can he do? I'll tell
you what he does. He hath done. He doth do, and
shall ever do, whatsoever he hath pleased." That's our God. All might. Men like to talk about
what God can do, if you let Him. Now, all might, all power, all
authority are given unto them. Read on, it says, and all these
things belong unto our God forever and ever. If you'd like to hear
these things right now, if you believe these things now, I believe you're one of the sealed. I believe you're one of these
that have that sign, that signet, in your forehead, in your mind.
And you're one of the amen. You know, that signet, I wanted
to bring this out, that sign seal. Have you ever received
an official package and it was sealed? You know, the United
States government always puts a seal on their packages and
things they send you and that means it's owned by the government
and that ensures its security not to be opened by anyone save
the one to whom it's sent. And it also ensures that it will
arrive at its destination. Did you hear all that? Okay. Our Lord said to His angel, the
Holy Spirit, you go down there, I have an elect people, and you
put this sign, this seal, this mark of ownership, I own, they're
mine, I know mine. And I'll be known. And you put
it on. Which is Christ in them, on them,
in them, on them. Full of them. Christ. And this
will ensure that they make it all the way home. They have this
blood on them and this faith in them. This will ensure that
they make it all the way home. It's a mark of approval, a mark
of ownership, a mark of security, a mark of salvation. It's a seal. A seal.