Still, here, brethren, all come,
the children of God's kingdom. All right, Revelation chapter
7, Revelation 7. Let's read one verse here in
Revelation 7, and then we'll turn to chapter 9.
Read one verse there. I hope you have a Bible, because
we're going to look at the Scriptures, and it's needful. All right, Revelation 7, verse
3. This is the text and the title. The Lord said, Hurt not the earth,
neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants
of our God in their foreheads. Now look at chapter 9, verse
4. Again, the commandment comes
to the angel who commanded them that they should not hurt the
grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree,
but only those men which have not the seal of God in their
foreheads. in their forehead. God uses this word seal many
times in Scripture, many times, several times in his Word. Very simply, a seal, a seal is
a stamped impression on something. If you have gone, if you've had
anything notarized, gone to the courthouse or notary public. You've had them seal
a document. Have you noticed that they've
taken a little thing, a little device, and clamped down on that
document, and it makes an impression? That's a seal. All right? A seal. Stamped impression. That's
what seal means. impression. All right? Seal also means, whenever, years
ago people used to seal things. A letter, you remember a wax
seal on a letter, they wrote a letter, they almost always
sealed it like that with their stamp in wax. Well, red wax usually. That's a mark of privacy, a mark
of ownership that says, this belongs to me. Put a stamp, a
seal on something, you say, this belongs to me. This is mine. Seal up whatever, put your seal
on. And also, it means this, and we're going to see all of
these terms. As a bird, when you seal something, Have any
of you ever, everyone in here has mailed a package of some
sort, and what you do is you seal it up, you shut it up, you
prevent it from opening. You bind it up is what you do,
you seal it, you stamp it for security and for preservation. Seal up the package. All right,
the text says that God's people have been sealed and have a seal
in their foreheads. Now, I look out here and I don't
see one mark in anybody's forehead. As a matter of fact, I've never
seen a mark on anybody's forehead, except these. Well, go see some
of these monsters today, and they'll have tattoos all over
them. But the seal must be something other
than what we think it is here. All right? All right, now listen
to this verse of Scripture. Listen very carefully as I read
2 Timothy 2, verse 19. Listen. If you're taking notes,
2 Timothy 2, 19 says, of God, standeth sure. The work of salvation, the foundation
of God, the purpose of God, standeth sure. It won't fail. It's absolutely
sealed. Having this seal, the foundation
of God, the Church is one foundation, the foundation of God standeth
sure. Having this The Lord knoweth
them that are his." Now, that is nothing other than,
no doubt, election, God making a choice of certain persons to
have mercy on them, their vessels of mercy, Romans 9 to be gracious
to whom he said, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, to
say, to make his children, the Lord knoweth them that are hid.
He sealed them. They have a seal on their, in
their forehead. All right? Foundation stands
sure, the Lord knoweth them that are hid, because he sealed them
and had the seal. All right? Now, you remember
the story of Charles Spurgeon. One time, a fellow said to him,
Mr. Spurgeon, you believe in election,
don't you? Well, Spurgeon said, I don't believe in a doctrine.
I believe in the God who elects people, yes. There's a difference. We don't worship doctrine, but
we do believe God chose a people before the foundation of elect
from every nation. It's woven throughout the scripture,
the election. God has indeed elected a people. Well, Spurgeon said, yes, I do. And the fellow said, well, if
you believe, you believe only the elect shall be saved, don't
you? Spurgeon said, why, yes, I do. Well, then the fellow said,
well, then why don't you just preach to the elect? Why do you
preach to everyone? He said, well, if I could see
a big E on them, I would. Then I don't see it hidden from
me. I don't know who the elect are.
So he said, go into all the world and preach to every creature.
But they do have an E on them. The man doesn't see it, but God
does. They have blood on them, but
I can't see it. Well, God sees it. Christ said,
My sheep, you see there are many wolves dressed in sheep clothing, and there's some sheep that look
like wolves. He said, My sheep, I know them,
I know them, and they'll follow me. Preach. I know who they are. You just
You just shoot a bow at a venture, young man. How? How does it hit
the mark of the one who has the mark? So they do have a mark, and it
says here they have a seal in their forehead. All right, we've
already determined that it's not outward. There's not one
in here who has a mark on your forehead. Some of us have huge
foreheads. And if there's a mark there,
they'd see it, wouldn't they? Some of us have huge foreheads.
That's all this is but our foreheads grown. Well, look at Romans chapter
4. Romans chapter 4 with me. What
kind of mark or seal did God put upon his people in Old Testament
time? Testament believers, God's people
have a mark on them, a seal, some kind of distinguishing mark? Yeah, it sure did. What was it?
Well, the Jews are. I'll give you a hint. It was
the Jews, the Israelites that had this mark, circumcision. All right? All right, look at
Romans 4, Romans 4, verse 11. It says that Abraham received
the sign of circumcision, a seal. of righteousness, the righteousness
of faith. But he had this. Look, John,
you see, he had it before he was circumcised. It was even true circumcision.
There were a lot of men who were circumcised, but they weren't
of the circumcision. They weren't God's people. That's
how you account for the Israelite not going in the promised land,
although God promised it to his people. That's how you account
for many of them, if not most, not going in. Circumcision is
not outward. Just because a person has an
outward mark doesn't mean they are. Let's look at chapter 2,
Romans chapter 2, and Paul had already said this, and that's
what he's talking about, those things. Romans chapter two, verse
twenty-eight, he's not a Jew which is one outwardly, because
he looks like one, or born there, or dresses like one. Neither
is circumcision which is outward, in the flesh. He's a Jew which
one, what, inwardly, worships God in spirit. And circumcision
is out of the heart, in the spirits. Not in the letter, not in the
outward, so all right, so circumcision even. was not an act, although
it was an outward mark, not the true circumcision. That was a
symbol. And so this seal in the forehead
is not an actual seal. You're never going to see it.
Just like 666 is not going to be on anybody's head. What fool
would allow somebody to put Even now, people that give out,
you know, 9-1-1 new addresses, they've given out new addresses
with the people who have been designated mailbox addresses,
like 666 Maple Avenue. And the people,
oh, don't give me that! Oh, no, no, don't give me that,
don't give me that. going to allow somebody to tattoo
666 on their head. That's not outward either, the
number of a man. This isn't outward. Abraham was circumcised, but
he hadn't had his flesh cut yet. But he was sealed. All right. You get the picture? It's not visible, not something
visible. This seal, this mark, is not
outward. You'll never see anybody with
this seal on their head. You'll never see somebody else
with 666 on their head. You'll never see it. And let me put this in common
terms here. God's people now don't look much
different than Anybody except, you know, you know, if you go
up in the middle of New York City or I saw a guy the other
day, he had, you know, these mohawks. And it was and it was
purple, purple. And he had a ring everywhere.
There could be a ring in his body. You know, he had tattoos
over his neck. It's hideous. It was at the grocery
store and people were standing around like I saw women literally,
oh, about to gag. God's people don't, you know.
Except for those extreme examples, God's people don't look much
different. They dress, they wear a dress. Back then, the Jews
didn't dress much different than the Hivites and the Hittites
and so forth. It's not in the dress. appearance. Christ, when Christ came, he
looked like a common man. That's what drew so many people
for it. He's just a man. Look at him.
He just looks like this man. That man looks like a common
man. Just like the tabernacle in the
wilderness looked like a regular old tent. What's so beautiful
about that tent? We've seen many badger-skin tents on the inside. Well, it's something that sets
us apart, though. It's something that sets God's
people. It's a seal in the forehead. You know that Christ had it?
John, chapter 6. Look at John, chapter 6. Christ
had this distinguishing seal or mark, proving that he was
indeed the Son of God. John, chapter 6. You got it? John 6, verse 27. John 6, 27, "...labor not for
the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father sealed." Look back at John 3. I prepared you to look at the
Scriptures. John three, look at verse thirty-three. All right, here's the answer. He, verse thirty-three, John
three, he that hath received his testimony, whose testimony? Christ's testimony, the gospel
of Christ, the truth, hath set to his seal that God is true. has said, or confirmed, that
he has this seal. All right? This is twofold, Brother
Sam. He that receives his word sets
to Christ's seal, that he's true. We believe and are sure, Peter
said. Peter had this seal. Listen to
him. We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. You're not John the Baptist.
You're not just Elijah. You're not this and that. You're
a prophet. You're that prophet. You're that
Christ. You're the Son of God. Thomas
said it even more succinctly. You're my Lord and my God. So we set to our seal, this is
proof we have the seal, that he is sealed. We confirm that
he is indeed who he is, that God is true. All right, so here's
the seal. if you didn't hear that. Here's
the seal in the forehead. That seal in the forehead is
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, and it's believing, receiving. People, this is where it goes
first. This is where it comes in first. The word comes in the
ear. Hear it and believe it and love
it. Believing faith in Christ is
believing, listen, and receiving his testimony, his gospel. It's a mind which knows, believes,
understands, is persuaded of the truth. Paul said, I know
whom I have believed and am persuaded. It's having an absolute, indelible
impression stamped upon your mind, so that you have the mind
of Christ. Everything you think of, you
think of Christ. Christ on the mind and in the
heart. Think on things above. All God's people believe the
truth. Now listen to me now. They believe
the truth. This thing goes a little deeper
than just believing he died and buried in a rose garden. Everybody believes that. The
devil believes that and trembles. It goes deeper than believing
there's one God, one Lord, one... the blood of the blood and the
blessed hope. It goes deeper than that. All right, all of God's people have
this faith, this belief, this trust in Christ, this belief,
they believe the truth, they believe, listen, they believe
the truth. And all that God said makes up
the truth. You can't believe part of what
God says and believe the truth. All that he said makes up the
truth. And here's a summary of all that God said. God said,
and all the way through the Old Testament, Isaiah and so forth,
he said, I am God, there's none else. Through the Psalms, by God reigneth,
by God reigneth. Start in Psalm 97 and just keep
reading the first verses. By God reigneth, by God reigneth. Hear, O Israel, by God reigneth. The people of God, God's people,
have this firmly, indelibly impressed upon their minds. It cannot be
erased. God is God. God reigneth. There's no question about it
in their minds. And it goes deeper. They love
it to have it so. They have it in their heart.
Thy God reigneth. Now, in this generation that
does not have this stamped impression on their mind, they say this,
you make him Lord. Now, wait a minute. My God reigneth. I don't ever make him Lord. There's not ever a point in time
when he hadn't been Lord, even if I don't acknowledge it. My
God, Renan! It's impressed on my mind. And
what about all the evil and all that? My God, Renan! Worked at
all things after the counsel of his own will. Isaiah 45, 7. I, the Lord, do all these things. I kill, I make alive, I wound,
I heal, I cast down, I raise up. By God reigneth! There's not one person on this
earth who believes in a God who doesn't reign, who's a believer.
All God's people have this seal on their forehead, and they're
going to be shouting it through all eternity, And there's not a believer on
the earth who doesn't believe that. It's not wishy-yay, nay,
fence-straddling stuff on God wants to. God wants to what?
Bear God rated! Let God, let God what? Bear God rated! Job, they came in and said, everybody
in your house is dead, your house is blown down, everything's gone,
the devil must be... No, Job said, it's the Lord! That's right there. But look at this, but look at
that, you can't change the mind of a believer. He's got a seal. It's stamped in his mind and
his head. And anybody that doesn't believe
that God's absolutely reigning. I'm not talking about just making
it thunder and lightning and rain and a few things here and
there. And then there's other things
he's out of his control, especially man's salvation. That's not the
God of the Bible. My God reigns. Am I shouting
too much? We're going to shout it to all
eternity. We've been reading the revelation.
It says they shouted with the top of their lungs. It says that
every one, four and twenty elders and all the people, which no
make a number, cried with a loud voice. By God Reina, they have this
truth. impressed upon their mind, God
is God. We don't make him God, we don't
let him be God, we don't…he is God. You know the difference
between true religion and the false? True religion says God
is God. False religion says he just wants
to be. And you have to let him have
his way. I absolutely repudiate that and
disdain and hate it. I hate it. It's heresy. Ninety-nine
percent of this world, that's what they're preaching. God loves
you. But yet some people he can't
save. Some people he loves he can't
save. Because they won't let his love be effectual. They can
have that peanut God. My God reigneth, and he has set
on me his everlasting love, ordered in all things, and sure. He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness
I'm going to draw you. You're mine, I'll not let you
go. My God reigneth. Don't you like that? I may not
get off this subject right here. I love this. We love the truth. That's the truth. You know, God
is God whether men acknowledge it or not. That's the truth.
That is the truth. Why does he keep saying, I'm
the Lord, there's none else. I'm the Lord, there's none else.
Because ignorant human beings don't even know that. That God
means God. God doesn't mean wants to be.
God means God. All right. And we believe that
God's Son is Lord Christ, true, truly. His name means what it
means. Call His name Jesus. Why? Did
God just like the sound of the name? Let's see, what shall I
call him? Let's see. Jesus, that's a good
ring to it. I'll tell you what it means.
The angels proclaimed it from the heavens itself and said,
Call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. not if they let him. He shall save his people from
their sins. Call his name Jesus. That's what
it means. God shall save. That's what it means. Call his
name Jesus. He shall save. Christ. Christ means, oh. It means Messiah,
it means Mediator, it means Intercessor, it means Substitute, it means
Representative, it means Baisman, it means Advocate, it means Son
of Righteousness, it means the Holy One of Israel, it means
the Righteousness, the Lord our Righteousness, on and on you
go. When Jesus Christ came down to
earth, he came down here with a work to do, given to him of
the Father to do, that is, to accomplish salvation of his people. God chose them, and God gave
them all to Jesus Christ. Gave every one of them to Jesus
Christ to save them, and buddy, he got the job done. His name is Christ. He wouldn't
be Christ if he didn't do the job of Christ. All right? He
came down here and he said, All that the Father giveth me. Didn't
he? All A-double-L that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. He said, My Father giveth me
a sheep. I know them. He gave me their
name. I know them, and they shall follow
me. And he didn't come around begging,
asking, pleading anybody to do anything. He went on the trail
of his sheep. Saw one up a tree and said, Come
down. I'm coming to your house." Went
to a whale sitting, waiting on the whale, waiting on one of
his sheep. She's going to come, buddy, no doubt about it. Why? He's the Christ. He's the Christ. And this is all my hope. It's
indelibly printed on my mind that all my salvation is in the
hands of this One who is the Christ. He shed his precious blood, and
God promised, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you, and
if Christ died for me, buddy, I'm saved. The mark, the line that's drawn
in the sand for all eternity, for all eternity, from the first
man, Adam, to the last one. The line that's been drawn in
the sand, the issue is this, either on one side or another. The question is this, what think
ye of Christ? You know those Pharisees and
Sadducees and scribes, they asked him many questions. They had
all sorts of questions they needed answering and all that. And Christ
asked one question, and they quit asking questions. What think
you of Christ? Who's son is it? Well, they say, well, he's the
son of David. He said, then why did David call
him Lord? What think ye of Christ? What
think ye of Jesus? Well, he's the son of God. Why
did Thomas call him Lord? Why did God call him God? The line that's drawn in the
sand now is, what do you think of Jesus Christ that came here?
Did He come here just to try something? Did He come here to try to get
people to accept Him? Did He come here to make a down
payment on salvation, you know? Pay most of the payment, and
you've got to pay the rest? Do most of the work, and you
finish the work? young on that cross, and he said,
It's finished. It's finished. We read that in Isaiah 8, and
he shall say, Behold, I am the children that thou hast given
me. Now, this is the testimony. This
is the word, and this is the testimony, that if men do not
speak according to Isaiah to the law and to the testimony,
if they speak not according to my word, this word, there is
no light in them. They are yet in darkness. There is no seal on their forehead.
I absolutely One hundred percent. But what's the sense of. But what. Salvation of the Lord. Christ is all you have that stamped
on your mind that if you the reason you were From the very beginning, when
you had no interest in the gospel, no interest in God, no interest
in truth, because He came and called you. Was that it? He called you by our gospel.
Was that it? Deborah, Vicki, Pollock, Dan, was that it? Did you love God and love this
gospel and know the truth? Not at all. But He came in the person of
the gospel, calling you, and you heard. Right? Then you believe. Why?
That's the gift of God, too. Christ gave that, too, according
to the measure of the gift of Christ. He gives that, too. Salvations of the Lord. You don't give your heart to
Jesus, you see. He said, I'll give them a new
heart. I'll give them a new heart. Are you convinced in your mind
that this is the gospel and there's none else? That Jesus Christ
is absolutely 100% your salvation. It has nothing to do with you.
And I'm not going to stop and clarify that or explain it. I
just said it. Is Christ all your hope? I mean,
all your hope of salvation? Do you have that firmly impressed
in your mind? beyond a shadow of a doubt that
the reason you're saved, because he called you, the reason you're
saved, because he died for you, and the reason you'll be saved
for eternity, because he kept you? Huh, John? Do you believe that? Beyond a
shadow of a doubt? Sealed! Sealed! That is sealed. They receive the word, all I've
done is just paraphrase God's word all the time. I haven't
shared it. If you believe this, you ought
to share it with that. Now, unbelievers, when you start preaching
the truth, you can see their brow. Believers, their brows
go like this. They lighten up, I think. Unbelievers, they start... furrows get in the middle here,
you know. Harden their neck. That's what they harden their
neck on. They get all huffed up like this. I don't believe
that. Believers. I believe that with all my head. And I love it with all my heart.
You can convince a man from scripture. You can convince him, too, in
his head. But 2 Thessalonians 2 talks about
receiving the love of the truth. And they're inseparably connected,
isn't it? I'm out of time. And I want you
to look at this in closing. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. Look at this in closing. You
know, Romans 1 talks about people who have a reprobate mind. Reprobate mind. It says they
hold the truth. They've got the same Bible that
we have. They read the same script. Well, let me say this. No, most of the Bibles that people
have now are perversions of the original scripture. These Charlie's
translations have literally translated away the truth. Nevertheless,
many still contain, or many still have close translations of the
original. But they hold it, Romans 1 says,
hold the truth in unrighteousness. They hold preachers at away.
Preachers stand up with a copy of Romans 9 in their hands and
literally, vehemently deny God's sovereign election. That's holding the truth in unrighteousness,
for wicked means. Have a form of godliness, Peter
said. They look real good and sound
good, but deny the power of God. And Paul said in Romans 1, he
said they do not glorify, listen to it, listen very carefully.
He said they did not glorify God as God. All they say is God. It's all
near where they live. They say He's God, but they don't
believe He's God. Because there's some things you
can't do. Read on. Listen to this. In Romans
1, he said, and they became vain in their imaginations. Listen
to this. They made up all sorts of notions of God. Oh, God is
like Coke. God's love is like a mother's
love. No, it's not. You don't compare God to a depraved
creature. If she has any love at all, it
might be like God's a little bit. You don't compare God to
man. in their imagination. Listen
to this, Romans 1. It says they worship the creature
more than the Creator. If that's not what's going on
today, they're worshiping man more than God. Man's will, they've
got it on the top of their church building. You want idolatry at
its worst? Put man's will on the top of
your church and say, we've got a free will. That's exactly what
Satan said in the beginning. I will, I will. That's exactly
what Eve said. We will, we will. And that's
what they're saying now. Free will, free will. When God
says, I will, and God's people say, not my will, thy will be
done. Romans 1 goes on as they worship
the creature more than the Creator. They've got the Creator in the
creature's hands. What will you do with Jesus?
Man, that's a warped mind if you ask me. That's a reprobate
mind, a mind bored of judgment. How can the Creator be in the
hands of a puny creature? How? How can a Lord seated on
a throne reigning and ruling do what I determined he does. That's a reprobate mind, you
see, a mind totally bored of understanding in darkness. And
so that's what Romans 1 says, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, to do all manner of things, evil things, and they become
homosexual. That's the reason homosexuals
are preachers and priests. Why? Might as well be. We have the mind of Christ, the
Scriptures say. Romans 1, that's where it starts,
with the absolute depravity of reprobative man. And it gets
in chapter 2, it talks about religion. They're no different.
They're no better. And it talks about how man is
justified. It goes all the way through,
salvations of the Lord. Well, Ephesians 1, people, this
may be the last sermon I ever preach. I'm not, I'm going to
go on, okay? I'm enjoying this. Ephesians
1, do you have the seal? All right, we're looking at,
everybody in here, I want you to look in the mirror and see
if you've got the seal on your forehead. George Cummings, he's going to
destroy this planet, everybody that doesn't have the seal on
their forehead. And we're going to look in the
mirror. We're going to examine ourselves and see. Am I seeing? God's seeing. And what mirror
is it we look at? Right here. And look in this Word. Face answers
to face. Face to face? I see two faces in here. I see
my black disfigured, sinful face, but
I see another face looking back at me. We'll look here at Ephesians
1, all right? Do you love Ephesians 1? Is it
your favorite portion? Ephesians 1, verse 13 says, "...in
whom you also trusted, in Christ you trusted, after you heard
the word of truth." The word of truth, that God is God. Man
is dead, and Christ is your only hope. The gospel, the good news
of your salvation, in whom also after you believed, you were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And this seal is like, it's the
understanding. When Christ said, I'll send my
Holy Spirit, and he'll take the things of mine and show them
unto you. to remembrance all that I said,
all that I am. I'll put my mind, I'll be on
your mind. And that gospel here in Ephesians
1, all things, verse 1, about the will of God, verse 2 is It's
by the grace and peace that comes from God, from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 3, all the blessings of
God are in Jesus Christ. Verse 4, according as He chose
us in Christ before the foundation of the world to make us holy.
Verse 5, predestined us to be. his children to himself, because
he decided to do so according to his will, his will, verse
6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. He's made us accepted,
not in what we do, but in the beloved, verse 7, in whom we
have, not shall have, but do have redemption through his blood,
forgiveness of sin. He's abounded toward us in all
wisdom and prudence. Make known unto us, verse 9,
this mystery of his His will, according to his good pleasure,
he hath purpose. He hath purpose that in the dispensation
of the fulness of time, the reason for it all is to gather everything
in Christ. Verse 11, who worketh all things
unto the counsel of his own will. Why? That we should be the praise
of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, in whom he trusted,
After you heard the gospel of your salvation, you will see
it. Can you believe all that, Brother
Henry? I'll be yonder shadowed with
doubt. You just say, that's the truth,
and I won't have one deviation from it. Not one subtraction
or one addition to it. If you can't see the seal, buddy,
I can. That's the seal in the forehead. It's not outward. Oh, you know, it does display
itself outwardly. Like I said, it delights. The
countenance changes. The forehead changes. Did you find out that number?
Huh? There's a hymn that I had on
mine that, uh... Well, that's good. What was the
other one? 17? All right. Come up here,
Sharon. beside one of the other for you. That's good. Verse number 17. Let's sing then. We've got to sing the last verse.
Hymn number 17. Let's stand. Sing the first and last verse,
all right? Hymn number 17. Come Thou Pant of every blessing,
Turn my heart to sing Thy great strings of mercy. never ceasing,
all for songs of gladdest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by claiming tongues of old. Raise them now high, fix them
on it, mount them by redeeming love." Last verse. Oh, to grace
how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. But by goodness,
life got better, heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to
heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to
heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to
heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to
heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart
to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to heart to from the name of God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and
seal it, seal it full of my thoughts of love.