Thank you for that. Let's open
our Bibles to Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter number 7. Let me begin reading with the
first verse and read the first four verses to you. Revelation chapter 7. And we'll begin at the first
verse. And after these things, I saw
four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, north,
south, east, and west. They were holding the four winds
of the earth. The wind should not blow on the
earth. nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel, a special
angel. Not a created angel, but this
is the angel who created all things. This is the angel of
the covenant. This is our Lord Jesus Himself. I saw another angel ascending
from the east. He who died arose. He is the, the scripture says,
he is the son of righteousness who has risen with healing in
his wings. And this other angel, he had
the seal of the living God. Nobody could have that but one
who is with God. One who is God. And he cried
with a loud voice to the four angels, to the other angels to
whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea. And this is
what he said, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees,
for we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. He gives this announcement, he
gives this command. Don't hurt the earth. In other
words, judgment cannot fall yet. There's only one who has the
authority to hold back the judgment of God, and that's one who's
equal with God. That's the Son of God. He says
don't sin the judgment yet. Not until the servants of our
God, to the people of our God, this multitude which John sees
a little later in this vision, down in verse 9, a multitude
which no man can number. He says, don't hurt the earth,
no judgment. Until this multitude of people
have been sealed in their foreheads, in their minds, in their understanding. That is, in their innermost being,
they've got to come to a knowledge of the gospel. That's what he's
saying. So this world's in such a mess
now and sin, iniquity abounds. Why doesn't God judge this world?
Why doesn't God unleash all manner of a wrath on this world and
devour it by fire? that He has renovated with fire. Why didn't He do that? For this
reason, all of God's servants, all of God's people, this multitude
which no man can number, all of them have not been brought
into the fold of salvation as of yet. Judgment, you see, this
world is destined for judgment. There's no question about that.
You know that and I know that from the Word of God. But judgment
is not going to come upon this whole world until all of God's
people have learned the Gospel. It may be that some of God's
people haven't even been born yet. They're still God's people. They've been God's people from
old eternity, ever since God loved them in the covenant of
grace and gave them in electing love unto His Son. They've always
been the Lord's people, but they've got to come to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because understand this, nobody's
going to heaven except those who believe on Christ. Now that's
just a fact. If you die in unbelief, you're
going to perish in your sins. Don't you believe in the election
preacher? Yes, sir. And I believe that the same God
who elected a people unto salvation ordained the way that they'd
be reconciled to Him. That's through the death of Christ
Jesus. As to the bloody sacrifice of
the Son of God, we're reconciled to Christ Jesus, or to God by
the death of Christ Jesus. God ordained that. And God also
ordained that all those He chose in covenant election, all those
in whose stead Christ Jesus died, they'll all have to be confronted
with the gospel of His grace and come to believe this Word
by the power of the Spirit of grace. That's why judgment doesn't fall.
A little later in the book of Revelation, we're going to see
seven trumpet judgments. And I'll already give you a little
inkling about what that's about. Those are individual judgments
that God sends upon this world. Maybe earthquakes. Maybe catastrophic
diseases. Things that kill a lot of people. All of those trumpet judgments
are just warnings of a bigger judgment. The biggest judgment
is yet to come. God sends little judgments. That's
why I call the seven trumpet judgments. What does a trumpet
do? It gets your attention. I've
got several people in here who have played or do now play the
trumpet. I'll tell you, you hear a note
on a trumpet, it gets your attention in a hurry. Well, all of these
individual judgments that God sends, they ought to get our
attention. They ought to remind us there's
the biggest judgment of all yet to come out there. Am I ready
for that? These temporal judgments, they
warn us. of judgments that are to come.
But the big judgment, the great white throne judgment, it is
not going to come until every one of the sheep have been sought
and found and picked up by the shepherd and put on his shoulders
for him to carry them safely back to the fold of salvation
and back to the Father Himself. Look at verse 4. Alright, now. And I heard the number of them
that were sealed. They were sealed and 144,000
of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Now we will get into
that maybe at the end of this message, maybe tonight because
This morning's message is going to kind of spill over into tonight
because I want to cover this entire seventh chapter today
if the Lord would enable me to do that. But this morning I want
us to focus on a sealed multitude that is a sealed people. There
is a people, there is a multitude of people that God says they've
got to be sealed. Now, first of all, and the word
sealed of course is found in verse 3. It is found in verse
4, and then it goes on down 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, the word sealed. Definition time. We need a definition
of sealed. It means kept. It has several
meanings. It means kept safe. It means
kept secret, preserved, It also means, this word sealed means
to authenticate. It's a mark of ownership. It's a mark upon that which is
genuine. It is an emblem of security. It's used several times in the
Word of God and of course we don't have the time to go through
all of the uses of this word in the Bible. I'll just give
you a couple of illustrations real quick. Do you remember when
Daniel was cast into the den of lions? King Darius didn't
want to do it, but he had written a law. The law had to be obeyed. The law of the Medes and the
Persians. And they cast Daniel into the
den of lions. And they rolled a stone in front
of the den. And they put some kind of piece
of some kind of clay that they made up between the rock, the
stone that was rolled, and the den of the lion. And the king's
signet was sealed in it. That made it tamper resistant. Nobody better mess with this.
Not even the king. Another illustration, when our
Lord Jesus died, died for our sins, died that God might be
just and justify the ungodly. Died because God's righteous,
God's holy, God must punish sin. And all the sins of all, of the
elect, of all ages were made to meet upon the scapegoat, upon
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And our Savior died. He gave
up the ghost. I encourage you to read, well,
read the bulletin in full every Lord's Day, but I wrote an article
for today on the voluntariness of the Lord's death. He laid
down His life for the sheep. He died. And then He was buried. And when the Sanhedrin, members
of the Sanhedrin went before Pilate, they said, we remember
what that deceiver said. That's what they called him,
that deceiver. We remember what that deceiver said. three days
I'll be raised again." He said, now let's put a seal to that
grave, that tomb and you had a stone, roll a stone in front
of it. And that was typical, that was
nothing unusual. They did that to keep the wild
animals out, that sort of thing. But he said, I want you to seal
seal it, lest His disciples come and steal His body away." And
then they'd wind up and say, well, yeah, He did arise, as
He said. So that nobody would be able
to get in there, so as to keep it safe, to preserve that grave,
that tomb, seal it. And He did. This is the meaning
of the word seal. They sealed the tomb. That seal
of Pontius Pilate indicated that which was authentic. It was genuine. It was official. Preserve the tomb from being
tampered with. Now, in the Word of God, I want
you to go to a few Scriptures with me. First of all, John chapter
6. In the Word of God, we see this
word sealed. Sealed is used several times. First of all, what I want to
show you first of all is John chapter 6. Look at John chapter
6. Here is the sealed Savior. The Savior is sealed. John chapter
6 and look at verse 27. This is after the day before
the Lord had fed 5,000 men plus women and children. This is the
next day. A crowd of people, if they followed
Him, looking for another free meal. And He says to these people
in John 6, 27, "...labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
the Son of Man shall give unto you. For Him hath God the Father..."
What has He done to Him? He sealed Him. In what way is
the Son of God sealed? Well, He's been sealed. His genuineness
has been authenticated by the Father. How did the Father attest
to the genuineness of Jesus of Nazareth as being His Son? He gave Him the ability to do
signs and wonders and miracles. Acts chapter 2 verse 22 says
that. And I'll tell you something else,
our Lord Jesus has been, He Himself has been sealed in this sense. You know, that which is sealed,
what's on the inside is hidden. Like if I have a letter, I put
it in an envelope and I seal it. What's inside is hidden from
your view. You can't see it. Well, our Lord
Jesus is Himself the Son of God. But He's been sealed and there
is a sense in which that sealing means we can't see Him for who
He is without revelation. Without revelation. In other
words, God the Spirit's got to show us who He is. We know Jesus
of Nazareth. We know His true identity is
the Son of God. He is God manifest in the flesh. But that is absolutely hidden
from the eyes of the natural man. We can't know Him apart
from revelation. He is sealed. He is sealed by
the Father. The Father has authenticated
who He is. Back in John chapter 5, our Lord
Jesus said, the works that I do, they give evidence, undeniable,
undisputed evidence that the Father has sent Me. It authenticated
Him. All those works authenticated
who He was. but hidden from the eyes of the
flesh was the fact that he was the Son of God, the Son of God. Matthew 11 says this, Thou hast
hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in Thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father neither knoweth any man. The Father saved the Son, and
He to whom the Son will reveal Him. You see, the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He's always been the second person of the
Trinity. He's the Creator of all things. He's the Preserver
of all things. He's the only Savior of sinners
and the Father has sealed Him. The Father has authenticated
His ministry by those miracles that He did. The Father has authenticated
the work that He did as being the successful work of salvation
in that the Father raised Him from the dead. Read Romans chapter
1 verses 1-4. God raised Him from dead. What
does that say? That testifies that God the Father
is well satisfied with the work that the Lord Jesus did. And
Romans chapter 1 verse 4 says, He has been declared to be the
Son of God by the resurrection of the dead. How did the Father
authenticate His Son? How did the Father seal His Son? Not only by the works that He
did, But by His resurrection, His resurrection showed Jesus
of Nazareth is indeed the very Son of God who saved His people
from their sins by His substitutionary death upon the cross. Here's
the sealed Savior. Go to Isaiah chapter 29. Let
me move rather quickly. Isaiah chapter 29, here's the
sealed vision. Here is the sealed vision. First
of all, here we have the sealed Savior. Secondly, we have the
sealed vision. Isaiah chapter 29. Look at verse
9. Isaiah chapter 29 and verse 9. Stay yourselves and wonder. He says, cry ye out. Cry ye out and cry. They that
are drunken, but not with wine. They stagger, but not with strong
drink. What's happened? The Lord hath
poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed
your eyes. The prophets and your rulers
and all the seers he hath covered. The vision of all is become unto
you as the words of a book that is sealed. Sealed. which men delivered to one that
is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he says, I can't,
because it's sealed. And the book is delivered to
him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee. And he
says, I'm not learned. In what way is the book of God?
Here's the book of God. Here's the vision of God. That's
the book that he's talking about. Here's a sealed vision. The Word
of God. 66 books in one. And yet this
is, to the natural man, a sealed book. It's absolutely closed. We don't know the contents of
it. And we'll never know the contents of it apart from Revelation. Because it's sealed. Now, is
it authentic? Oh yes. Oh yes, it's stamped
as the Word of God. It's read as the genuine thing.
But it's also shut and it's sealed. And I'll tell you this, you'll
never understand the message of this book apart from divine
revelation. It's got to be revealed to you.
What is the message of the book? Salvation for sinners. God's
salvation for sinners. by the substitutionary death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message is, how can God,
God Almighty, who's just and holy and righteous, how can God
be as He is and yet deal in mercy with sinful souls like you and
me? How can we be accepted with God?
How can we be righteous with God? That's what Job asked, how
can man be righteous with God? And the message is in the book. This is the message of the book.
But guess what? It's sealed to us. It's shut. It's sealed. And the contents,
the message of the book is hidden from our eyes and we'll never
know the answer apart from the Spirit of Revelation. And so we read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, the natural man receiveth not He received not the things
of the Spirit of God. Neither indeed can he know them.
Why not? They're spiritually discerned.
The vision is sealed. It's hidden. Our Lord Jesus is
the message of the Bible. This is His story. We know that
from the very beginning of Genesis all the way to the end of Revelation,
from Genesis 1 to Revelation chapter 22, it's the message
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The sacrifice of our Lord Jesus. He's the sin offering. He's the
sin offering that God offered Himself. God in His infinite
wisdom found the only way whereby He could satisfy His own law
and justice which demanded death for sin. How can the sinner who
deserves to die, who must die, how can he live and still God's
law and justice be honored and satisfied? What a dilemma! Only God could come up with the
answer. Substitution. There had to be a suitable substitute,
somebody to step in for us. But He's got to be like us because
man got us in this mess. It's got to be a perfect man,
but there is no perfect man. There is no one qualified. There
is no one who can stand the wrath of God. The wrath of God crushes
every man who faces it. But it's got to be a man. But
it's got to be a perfect man. It's got to be an almighty man.
Who can that be? It's got to be the God-man. It's
got to be God manifest in the flesh. It has to be the Son of
God who joined Himself to humanity in an everlasting union. A union
of which there will never be a divorce. And this is the man. This is the man. who is revealed
in this book. Every sacrifice of the Old Testament
pointed to Jesus Christ. Every offering, everything about
the tabernacle, everything about the temple, either pictured the
Lord Jesus, His person, or some aspect of His work, or the result
of His work, all the way through the Old Testament, until our
Lord Jesus came. And then we see Him in the four
Gospels on earth, living in conformity to God's law, and then dying
under the wrath of God as the sin offering to satisfy God. And then from the book of Acts
all the way through the end of the book of Revelation, we see
Him ruling and reigning. He has ascended on high. He ever
lives to make intercession for His people. We know from the
book of Revelation, chapter 5, He took that book out of the
hand of God, and He's executing the counsel of God. What's the
Lord Jesus doing today? He's seated on His throne ruling
and reigning in heaven, earth, and under the earth. All things
answer to King Jesus. That's what He's doing today.
And that's what the Bible is all about. The Bible is not about
Israel. Oh, it tells you about national
Israel, but it's not a book about Israel. This is not a science
book, though it has some things about science And it's not a
book about morality, though it sets forth some morals indeed,
morality. It's a book about salvation,
God's salvation for sinners through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that
is absolutely sealed to the natural man. That's the reason you just
turn on your television any Sunday morning. And you listen to these
fellows, sometimes gals, you listen to them preach. And you
wonder, why don't they hit the message of the gospel? Why don't
they tell people how God is holy and righteous and how we're vile
sinners and the necessity of the of the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the successfulness of His death, that He saved His
people from their sins. Why don't those men, why don't
they set forth the Gospel of the Word of God? I'll tell you
why. The vision is sealed to them. Just like it was sealed to you
until God opened it up to you. And then when God opened it up
to you, you said, It's been there all along, I
just didn't see it. A message of grace. The message
of sovereign mercy. It's been here all along. The
message of Christ and Him crucified. I didn't see it. No, and you
never will. Apart from Revelation. Revelation. And then go back to the book
of Revelation. Speak of Revelation chapter 5
and I'll just touch on this, the sealed book. We have the
sealed Savior, we have the sealed vision, we have the sealed book. Revelation chapter 5 verse 1,
I saw in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne a book
that within, without, on the backside, sealed with seven seals. This is a book of God's eternal
purpose. It represents everything that
God intends to do, everything that God designed to do, everything
that God desired to do, especially during this gospel age, this
age between the first and the... second appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ. It represents everything that's
going to happen. It's all in the book. It's written
within and without and on the backside. It's full. Nothing
can be added to it. But it's also sealed. Which means you can't know what's
in it unless somebody is pleased to
open it. And whoever is pleased to open
it is going to have to have the authority of God Himself. And
nobody was worthy to open the book but the Lamb of God who
was slaughtered for poor sinners. This book tells us that God is
the God of determination. He's the God of sovereignty.
He's the God who executes His purposes. And you talk to folks
about the sovereignty of God, the absolute authority of God
in creation, providence, and salvation. And they resist that. You know
why? It's hidden from them. It's hidden
from them. Why do men and women readily
embrace salvation by works? Why do they readily embrace salvation
by man exercising his so-called free will? It's because God's
everlasting purpose is sealed. It's hidden from them. But it's
the authentic thing. It's the real thing. It's the
real thing. God has to reveal it. And then
let me show you something else. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. Here's
the sealed vengeance of God. The sealed vengeance of God. We have the sealed Savior. We
have the sealed vision. We have the sealed book of God's
eternal purpose. Here we have the sealed judgment
or vengeance of God. Deuteronomy chapter 32. And let
me begin at verse 29. Oh, that they were wise! Deuteronomy
32, 29, Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, that
they would consider their latter end. How should one chase a thousand,
and two put ten thousand to flight, except their rock had sold them,
and the Lord had shut them up? For their rock is not as our
rock even our enemy's. themselves being judges, for
their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall,
their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons
and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store
with me and sealed up among my treasures?" God said, there's
something sealed up just like my treasures. What are God's
treasures? The riches of His grace. But
those are sealed. The riches of God's mercy. But
those are sealed. And you can't find out about
them. You are not going to get them unless He gives them to
you. Because they are sealed. But also among these treasures,
God says in verse 35, to me belong vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due
time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste. For the Lord shall judge his
people and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that
their power is gone, and there is none shut up or left." God
says this matter of vengeance or judgment is sealed. It's preserved. It will be revealed
someday. But for right now, it's hidden.
And to a certain degree, to the natural man, the judgment of
God is hidden. He can't see it. Oh, this is
the thinking of a natural man. God's judgment is for the really,
really Really bad people. I mean, people that do just horrible
things. The Hitlers of the world. That's
who God's judgment is for. Those awful terrorists who strap
bombs to themselves and walk into a crowded room or whatever
and blow themselves up. That's what judgment's for. But no, it's not for me because
I'm a good person. Oh, I know I've made some mistakes. Who hadn't made a few mistakes
along life's way? But judgment is for the bad people
of the world. And you see, the judgment of
God against all wrath is hidden from the eyes of the natural
man. But it is among God's treasures
that He has sealed. He has sealed. And one of these
days, this wrath is going to be uncovered. It's going to be
made known. Indeed, it is made known in His
Word. Throughout the Word of God, you
read in Genesis, beginning in chapter 6 and going through the
next 3 or 4 chapters, you read about the flood. God unleashed
the waters from heaven. Waters under the earth. You read
about the fires that fell the day that hell came from heaven
and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. You read about those three Hebrews,
the three Levites, who were Korah and Dathan and Abiram, who got
250 of the big wheels in Israel to go along with them. And they
went to Moses and said, you and Aaron take too much upon yourselves. We need to burn incense. And
Moses said, you guys take too much among yourselves. And Moses
said, tomorrow you bring your censors out here and we'll find
out who's supposed to burn incense to God. We'll find out who's
supposed to intercede for Israel. These men were trying to take
over the position of Christ Jesus, pictured by Aaron and Moses.
And the next day they brought their censors Scripture says God's glory came
out to the door of the tavern at Shekinah glory Come out and
appeared right at the door of the tavern a bright light and
all Israel turned out And God said to Moses You tell
all the people of Israel You better get away from Korah and
Dathan Abiram and these other people who are with them, because
something is going to happen to them. And Moses said, y'all
better back off these people, better get away. Moses said,
and I'll tell you, if these men die as a result of something
that's ordinary, just a common death, okay, you don't have to
believe me, you don't have to believe God. But if God kills
them in an extraordinary way, in a way that He's never killed
anybody before, that'd be a sign to you, this is of God. And all
of a sudden, God split the earth. It opened up. And Korah and Dathan
and Abiram and everything that appertained to them went down
into the pit alive. And then the earth come back
just like that. Just like that. We know God's going to judge
sin. We know He's going to judge sin. And then those 250 big wheels
in Israel who stood behind Him, God set fire to the Lord. There
He is, the Shekinah Glory. And He just struck out at them
and burned them all to cinders just in a second. The whole bunch of them went
to hell. We know judgment's coming. There have been indications in
the Word of God. God has revealed that He's going
to judge sin, and the biggest revelation of all is at the cross. If you wonder if God's going
to judge sin, look at that one innocent and blameless in and
of Himself, the Lamb of God, pure and spotless. See Him dying
on the cross? Why does He die? Because He bears
the sins of His people. You see, this is the judgment
of God. It's among God. He says it's
sealed up among His treasures. God will, God must punish sin. The sealed judgment of God. And
let me give you one more and then I'm going to go back to
our text real quick. Go to Job chapter 14. Job chapter 14. Job makes some unusual statements
down through here. Job chapter 14, he asks five
questions. We'll get down to verse 14. This
is the fifth question. He says in Job chapter 14, verse
14, Job 14, 14, If a man dies, shall he live again? All the
days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou
shalt call and I will answer thee. Thou wilt have a desire
to the work of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps. Dost thou not watch over my sin? Does thou not watch over my sin? Does God see my sin? That's what
Job said. Lord, are you looking at my sin? And then he says, my transgression
is sealed up in a bag. You've sewed up my iniquity. Back in these days, and perhaps
still done today, I know when sailors died at sea, But mariners
back in this day that put them in a bag, put a weight in the
bag, sew it up, seal it, cast it overboard, sink to the
bottom, never to be seen again. What has God done with the sins
of His people? Through the death of the Lord
Jesus, and Job saw this by faith. In verse 16 he says, do you watch
over my sin? Do you see my sin? The answer
is no. No. For in verse 17, you put my transgression
in a bag and sealed it up. You've sealed it up. You've sewed
up my iniquity. How did God do that? Through the death of Jesus Christ.
And what's sealed, that which is behind the seal is hidden.
Hidden from whose view? God's view. That's why God says,
Your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. He says
in Micah chapter 7, I've cast your sins, your iniquities into
the depths of the deepest sea. God put them in a bag. He sealed
it. He sewed it up. He cast it overboard. He did that through the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Does God watch over my sin? Does God see my sin? The answer
is no. God sees my Savior. He sees my
Savior. Our sins have sealed up. They're
sealed up in a bag. And then go to Revelation chapter
7 and we'll have to, as I said, bleed over into the night on
this. But here's the sealed people,
a sealed multitude. Here's the angel of the covenant.
I've read this to you. He said, my servants, they've
got to be sealed. They've got to be sealed. John
chapter 6 says, they shall all be taught of God. Does God have
any elect people? Well, if you read the Bible,
you'd know it's true. God's got a chosen people. The
Lord said to His disciples, you didn't choose Me, I chose you.
The Lord says in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, But we're bound to
give thanks to God always, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God had chosen you unto salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. The Lord has chosen a people. He's given us to Christ Jesus.
We're His sealed people. His sealed people. Chosen by
the Father. Let me give you three quick references. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And
I'll have to be hasty here. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at
verse number 20. 2 Corinthians 1.20. For all the promises of God in
Christ are yea, and in Him, Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
Now verse 21. Now He which establisheth us
with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God. who also has sealed us. God has
sealed us to make us tamper-resistant, to preserve us. And He's given
to us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Now, when did
God the Father seal us? When did He preserve us in Jesus
Christ? When did He make us tamper-resistant? He did that in electing grace
before the world began. That's what the Father did. And
really, we have been untouchable, sealed by the purpose of God
Himself, of the purpose of God the Father who chose us unto
salvation. And we're sealed by the work
of Christ Jesus. Go to Song of Solomon chapter
4. Song of Solomon chapter 4. Look
at verses 12 through 14. The Song of Solomon. It's Psalm, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Song of Solomon. It's the book Song of Solomon
just before you get to Isaiah. Song of Solomon chapter 4. The
book of Song of Solomon is about what? The love of the bridegroom
for the bride. The love of Christ Jesus for
His church. That's what this book is about.
And here we see in the Song of Solomon chapter 4 verse number
12, he uses a couple of illustrations to describe his people. A garden
enclosed. Where a garden enclosed is my
sister. We're akin to it. My spouse. Christ is the bridegroom. We're
the church. He says a spring shut up a fountain
that is sealed. A fountain that is sealed. We're His fountain. We're His
fountain. You know who we're for? We're
for Him. He chose us for Himself. He redeemed
us. He bought us for Himself. He
set a seal upon us. We're His. We're His. We're hidden in Christ Jesus. We're sealed under the day of
redemption. We're preserved in Him. We're
kept safe in Him. And then one other reference,
Ephesians chapter 1, and I apologize for going through this so quickly,
but you can read these verses yourself a little later. Ephesians
chapter 1. We are sealed by the Father in
covenant election. We are sealed by the Son of God
who shed His blood for us, preserves us, And we're sealed with the
Holy Spirit of promise. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
13. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. You're preserved, you're kept
from going back. We were kept from going bad by
the Father when He chose us in grace. Kept from going bad when
the Son of God redeemed us by His blood. And the Spirit of
God preserves us. He has sealed us. He keeps us
from spoilage. Like some of you, you'll be canning
tomatoes before long, canning your green beans perhaps. I know Nancy and Susanna used
to make lots of apple butter. We had seven apple trees in the
yard where we lived in Michigan. They'd make apple butter and
put that apple butter, after they had got it just right, put
it in those mason jars and put those seals on them and screw
down the lid and set them up on the counter and step aside. And every once in a while, you
hear, there's a pop. There's one. There's another
pop. And that's what you listen for.
They're sealed. You know what that means? They're
protected. They're preserved. They're secure. They're kept
from spoilage. They're not going to go bad.
That's us. We're not going to go bad. We're
not going to spoil. We're not going to spoil. We
came because we're sealed by the Father in covenant grace.
We're sealed by the Son of God, our Redeemer, whose blood has
been shed for us. And we're sealed by the Holy
Spirit of promise. who's been given to us. I'll
give you one other reference, Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
30. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption. He seals us unto the day of redemption. Therefore, don't grieve the Holy
Spirit. Do you know who grieves the Holy
Spirit? Not the lost, but the saved. Not unbelievers, but believers. How do we grieve the Spirit?
The Spirit of God was given to us to show us Christ Jesus. When we take our eyes, the eyes
of our hearts, the eyes of faith, when we take our eyes off Christ
Jesus, we greed the Holy Spirit. That's when we lose that precious
communion with the Father. We don't lose salvation, of course. But we start looking at the treasures
of the world, or we start looking at life's difficulties. There
are any number of things that distract us. They would distract
us, and they will if they can distract us from Christ Jesus. And when that happens, we have
grieved the Holy Spirit who preserves us, who keeps us tamper-proof. He's the one, you see, who revealed,
who uncovered to us Jesus Christ and His Gospel. We're a sealed
people. No wonder we read in 1 Peter,
we're kept by the power of God through faith. Through faith,
which is in Christ Jesus. Well, we'll kind of finish this
and see if we can get through the end of the chapter tonight.