The Seal of the Living God - 21

Revelation chapter 7. Let me read through verse 8. I heard a angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.

And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed. 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. Of the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Gad, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Asher, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Levi, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Issachar, 12,000 were sealed.

Of the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 were sealed. of the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 were sealed, of the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 were sealed. Well, as we come to chapter seven this evening, this chapter is the opposite of chapter six. Chapter six dealt with the enemies of God and what will happen to the enemies of God. Chapter seven reveals the people of God and what the people of God will be doing. Chapter six, the enemies of God, and they will suffer the wrath of God, the judgment of God. They will run and flee to the hills and call upon the rocks to hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Again, in contrast, chapter seven is dealing with the people of God, and where do we find the people of God?

We find the people of God standing before the throne of God and the Lamb of God, and they're engaged in praise and worship. That's the contrast between chapter six and chapter seven. Chapter six asks some questions that are answered in chapter seven. You remember the martyrs who were found under the altar of God, and they were crying out for vengeance upon the blood that had been shed. They cried with a loud voice, chapter six, verse 10, saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

And the answer to their question in this context, chapter six, was to wait. Wait until, again, verse 11. It was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were, were completed.

And we find in chapter seven that that number is completed and that their wait is over. Those who are the enemies of God conclude their cry with, who is able to stand? For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?

Obviously not them. They're running and fleeing in terror and judgment. I don't know if you've ever seen, probably portrayed in a movie, I think we all have, have seen terror fixed on the face of a person. But here is terror and dread upon men who are enemies of God.

Running from the face, says running from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. I can't imagine what that terror will be like. But I think it's good for us to get a mental image fixed in our mind of terror that people have shown and expressed in one way or another.

Because this terror and this dread is unprecedented because they are running in fear and terror from God Almighty, fearing His judgment. Yes, indeed. Well, let's take a look at what we see in these opening verses. John says, after these things I saw. Again, John is communicating the content of visions that he's privileged to see. And here he is in the spirit and he's seeing things and he's recording them for us. And as I said, there are a few times where he says, I saw this and then he tells us what it means.

But most of the time, he's just giving us a description of what he sees and that's what we see here. After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. What were they doing? He says, they were holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth or the sea or on any tree. These four angels have been given authority by Almighty God over the winds that blow on the earth and they're able to hold the destructive power of those winds in check. I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding the four winds of the earth that the wind, what?

Should not blow on the earth, on the sea or on any tree. So the picture is, here are messengers of God, powerful angels doing the bidding of God, set ready to dispense with another manifestation of judgment from Almighty God at his bidding. But they're holding back this judgment. And then John says, then I saw, verse two, another angel. Unlike the four angels, here's another angel that he sees ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea.

So here is another angel dispatched by Almighty God with a message and the message is for the four angels that are mentioned in verse one. He comes from the east. Jerusalem is, the temple is built toward the east.

The Magi, we're told, came from the east. The sun rises in the east. It's a place where there's light and there's hope and there's good news that comes.

And I think that's the idea here. This angel is coming with a message. And what is that message? It says, and he cried with a loud voice. And I think John is communicating that this is a message that all four of the angels need to hear. So he's crying with a voice loud enough for these four angels to hear. Cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea.

And what is the message that this angel has to the four angels? Here it is in verse three. Saying, do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

What do we have being taught here, communicated to us? Well, it's teaching us that while God gathers his people and God is gathering his people, God is calling the redeemed, the elective God from the four corners of the earth, God is gathering his people. And while God gathers his people, he suspends judgment until the last of the saints has been gathered and sealed.

Notice again, do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till, not we, not I, but we. So he's making reference to an army, a host of angels who have a task before them, and what is that? To seal the servants of our God on their foreheads. So judgment is going to be suspended until all the elect, all the people of God have been gathered in and sealed.

That's the message. Now, are we to take this reference, this message here, that the sealing will take place on, literally on people's foreheads? Most people who make reference to marks on the forehead are thinking of the mark of the beast. But the Bible tells us that there are those that God will mark belonging to him, and there'll be those who are marked who are belonging to the evil one, who are not committed, not surrendered to God Almighty, but are yielded to the beast and have cast their allegiance to him. So what's being communicated here is that all people will have a mark, will be sealed, and they'll bear the mark of one or the other.

Now, where is John getting this language, this seal of God on their foreheads? Let me turn you to Ezekiel chapter nine, and we'll see very similar language. Ezekiel chapter nine, if I can get there here. Ezekiel nine. Ezekiel nine. Ezekiel says, then he called out in my hearing with a loud voice saying, let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.

And suddenly, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his battle ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer's ink horn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple, and he called to the man, clothed with linen, who had the writer's ink horn at his side. And the Lord said to him, go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. God was giving Ezekiel a vision for telling the judgment of Jerusalem.

Before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. The Jewish people had been guilty of idolatry, and God was marking out those who were not guilty, and God was going to preserve his people. All this idolatry, all this immorality, all of this sin, the true people of God were grieved by it, they were troubled by it, they were exercised in the spirit over it.

And if that were true in Ezekiel's day, how much true it ought to be in our day? How callous and different and unmoved we can be in the face of sin and immorality and God hating that we see all around us. We ought to be troubled by it. It ought to grieve us as it did these people, because that was the identifying mark. Those are the ones who were not complicit in the idolatry and the sin and the immorality, they were grieved by it.

And may God cause us to be grieved similarly in our day. There was a mark or a seal here that was put upon them. Now back to Revelation chapter seven. Do not harm the earth, the sea or the tree till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. Chapter 13 speaks of the mark of the beast. Chapter 14, look at chapter 14 verse one with me.

Again, John is speaking to us in language of vision. He says, then I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his father's name, what? Written on their foreheads.

Same 144,000 that John mentions in chapter seven. Here they are having his father's name written on their foreheads, what does that mean? Well, they're marked as identifying to almighty God, they belong to him, they bear that mark. So just as Ezekiel nine, those who bore the seal or mark will not be harmed by the calamities that will come upon the nation of Israel and Jerusalem as a result of their commitment to almighty God.

The same is true here. These who bear the mark, these who are sealed by God are protected from the wrath of almighty God. You remember again, how long they ask in chapter six, how long until you avenge our blood? And the answer was, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were, were completed.

So we're talking about God's protective care of his own. There's a day coming, a day of judgment that's gonna fall upon this earth. And God is going to pour that wrath out upon an unbelieving world when he comes. That will be again, the great day of his wrath, chapter six and verse 17. And it will be a manifestation of wrath unknown by man anytime in human history. It'll bring an end to this world order. There'll be the destruction of the earth as we know it. And there'll be a new heaven and an earth made in its place. So, does that mean, does this mean that God intends to insulate, to protect us from harm and persecution?

Well, there's some who would teach that. So if you have faith in God and you're his child, God will protect you from all harm and ills. And if you get sick, it won't be, God didn't bring that upon you. Your faith wasn't strong enough and they talk like this, but they don't understand the Bible. Remember what Jesus said to the church, the persecuted church of Smyrna, chapter two and verse 10.

Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation 10 days, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. So just for clarity purposes, I think we here at Beacon Baptist Church understand this, but I don't know who else is listening and who may not all understand this. We are not saved from life's calamities. We are saved through life's calamities.

There's a big difference. Acts chapter 14 and verse 22, Paul said this, we must through many tribulations, what? Enter the kingdom of God. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter two and verse 19, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having the seal, the Lord knows those who are His. Those who are His, having the seal. So let's talk a bit about what it means to be sealed. Let's not get lost in the speculation of whether this is a literal seal or whether this is simply symbolic.

I have an opinion, but I don't think that's really germane to the point here this evening. But seals, what purpose do they serve? Well, seals, number one, signify protection. You remember when Jesus was crucified and died, He was put in a tomb and they did what? They sealed the tomb with a stone, why? To protect it, to protect the body that was inside.

So seals protect. Seals are a statement of ownership. I think that's what's being communicated here in chapter seven and in chapter 14. The Father's name written on the forehead.

It's God making a statement, you belong to me. And then to authenticate, seals authenticate. You remember this series of seals that are broken began with the scroll in the right hand of God Almighty, the seven sealed scroll, and it was the Lamb who took the scroll and removed the seals, disclosing what was inside. So it authenticated, the seals authenticated that the scroll belonged to Almighty God.

It was His, He sealed it, it bore His mark. Now according to Paul, the seal that you and I bear as believers in Jesus Christ is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Notice these words in Ephesians chapter one. Paul says, in Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. The Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we're told here, He guarantees the fullness of the salvation that we have been given.

We've only entered into it, we've only received a down payment, we only have the guarantee of our inheritance, but it's to guarantee that we will one day enter into the full measure of that which has been secured for us by our Savior on the cross. So a seal, a seal identifies, a true believer is identified, not by an outward profession of faith, not by signing a card, not by walking an aisle, but he is identified by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the transforming effects that the Holy Spirit of God produces in that life. A seal identifies, you remember the words of Jesus, you will know a tree, how? How will you know a tree?

You will know a tree by its fruit. You will know a true believer in Jesus Christ by the fruit of their life, the evidence of the work of the Spirit of God in that person's life. So the Holy Spirit authenticates to the Christian that the word of God is true and that all the promises of God are trustworthy. The Holy Spirit protects our faith onto salvation, he preserves us in the faith. And we must be careful not to grieve the Spirit of God. A believer who is out of fellowship with God, if he has a true assessment, a true awareness, he will lack an assurance of his salvation.

Why is that? Because God will not encourage a believer to continue on in unbroken fellowship. The Spirit of God is grieved, the Spirit of God is withdrawn, a true believer will sense that distance, that breaking of fellowship and in the Spirit of God will use that to draw him back into fellowship. I'm always concerned when I'm talking to somebody who is violating the word of God and walking in open rebellion and say, well, I know one thing, I know I'm a Christian.

Really? On what basis? And usually the basis is something they did.

Something they did one time in their life. The basis isn't the evidence of the Spirit of God, the fruit that he's producing in the life, because a person walking in disobedience to God is not bearing the fruit of the Spirit, he's bearing the fruit of the flesh. That's why Paul would say in Galatians, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The implication is, if you're not walking in the Spirit, you'll be producing the deeds of the flesh.

That's the way it works. So this begs a question. How do I know? How do you know that you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God? How do you know that you have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit? That's a very good question.

We don't want to be deceived by this critical question. You remember the discussion that Jesus had with Nicodemus the Pharisee recorded in John chapter three. Jesus in that context was talking to him about the work of the Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus said this, the Holy Spirit is like the wind. What did he mean by that? Well, he went on to say, you can't see the wind, but you can see its effects.

You can see what the wind produces. And then he says, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So what he's saying is that the Holy Spirit affects change in the lives of those who are truly born again. Not just some, not just a few, but everyone who's born of the Spirit of God has the evidence and the mark of the work of the Spirit of God.

I think one of the greatest books written to help us with this question was written by arguably the greatest American theologian of our time, and that would be Jonathan Edwards. And he wrote this book in the middle of the Great Awakening. And there was a need to write this book or address this question because there was an awful lot of strange phenomena that was being associated with the work of the Spirit, but a discerning person really was wondering, now wait a minute, the Bible tells us that where the Spirit of God is at work, this is what he produces. And there were a lot of odd, crazy phenomena that were being pointed to as the evidence of the Spirit of God, barking like a dog and all kinds of strange things. You remember, perhaps you do, this goes back 20, 25 years or so ago, the Toronto blessing. This was marketed, portrayed as a work of the Spirit of God among charismatic church in Toronto, the Vineyard Movement. And the Toronto blessing was associated with initially holy laughter, that if you had the Spirit of God come upon you, the Toronto blessing was laughing uncontrollably.

And we're told that the traffic in the Toronto airport was the highest traffic of any airport in the country, because people were going to Toronto to get the Toronto blessing. And it really begs the question, are people that undiscerning, are people that gullible, that this is the evidence of the Spirit of God, holy laughter, but that's what was going on. So back to Jonathan Edwards, he wrote a book, and the title of the book was The Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God.

And he wrote it to address the counterfeits in his day and to bring clarity to the question. What are the distinguishing marks of the work of the Spirit of God? In his theme verse was 1 John 4 and verse 1. And this is the verse. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Yes, indeed. So let me just give you a summary of what Edwards was trying to communicate by giving you five distinguishing marks of the presence of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jonathan Edwards says, and I believe that it squares with Scripture.

And I think it's something that we need to hear and be armed with and equipped with. We might speak perhaps to others who are deceived. He said the first mark of the Holy Spirit's presence is an elevation of esteem in Jesus Christ as Son of God and Savior. He's saying we're not to be looking for phenomena or bizarre experiences.

We're not to be looking for feelings. We're looking for when the Spirit of God is present in the life, there will be a work of the Spirit of God to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, to make much of Him, to elevate Him, to esteem Him. There will be a preoccupation and a desire for the glory and the esteem and the exaltation of Jesus Christ revealed in the Scriptures.

And unfortunately, we have to qualify that in our day when we say to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to say that is the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in Scripture, not the Lord Jesus of the Jehovah Witnesses or some other false religion. He said that's the first mark of the Holy Spirit's presence. Jesus said this in John chapter 12, or I'm sorry, John chapter 16.

Again, I want you to know that these marks aren't just coming out of a brilliant mind, but coming out of the Word of God. Jesus said this in John chapter 16. Jesus said to the disciples, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak of His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you.

All things that the Father has are mine, therefore I said that He will take of mine and declare it to you. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, He will glorify me. He won't draw attention to Himself.

He'll draw attention to me. And any so-called working of the Spirit of God that draws attention to phenomena and signs and wonders is off base, because the work of the Spirit is to point and deflect the attention from the Spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first mark of the Holy Spirit's presence. Number two, the presence of the Holy Spirit is opposed to the reign of Satan and it causes us to turn from sin. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of holiness. That's the work of the Spirit. He is the Holy Spirit.

His purpose, His design, His desire is to lead us in holy living. Tony Honeycutt spoke at our Tri-State Particular Baptist Fellowship and he said, it probably doesn't surprise you that every man that comes to the mission, they've all been saved. Oh yes, I've been saved.

So Tony has a series of questions he begins to ask the men. One of the questions is, so you've been saved, huh? Yeah, I've been saved. He said, what have you been saved from? He said, usually they don't have an answer to the question. He said, well, I'm asking you. If you're saved, what do you save from?

And then he used this illustration. He says, if you were drowning and somebody threw you a life preserver and pulled you out, what did they save you from? Well, they saved me from drowning. If God has saved you, what has He saved you from? You see, the Spirit of God saves us.

He releases us from the grip of Satan, but He saves us from sin, a life of sin. And where there's the presence of habitual sin, enslaving sin, the question has got to be, is that the evidence of the Spirit of God? No, that's the absence, that's the evidence of the absence of the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God is committed to making us holy, changing us, freeing us from the very power of sin. Edwards went on to say, the presence of the Holy Spirit will be seen in an increased interest in the Word of God. He said there will be an increased appetite for the Word of God, in personal devotion and in corporate gatherings.

There'll be a sincere milk of the Word. There'll be a hungering for the truth of God. Unfortunately, in our day, in many churches, there's a moving away from the centrality of the Word of God. Church growth gurus say, hey, people don't want preach to. The days of expository preaching are for a bygone day.

They're not popular today. People won't come and listen to long-winded preachers. But where is that coming from? Well, it's coming from the premise that we're asking the lost man, what is it that you would want if you were to come to church? So we cater to that. We build a church. We have a program that's designed to meet the carnal needs of lost men. So when they come in, they feel good about church all of a sudden. Really? That's, we're gonna take our cues from the world?

No. Edwards said, one of the evidences of the work of the Spirit of God is to create a hungering and a thirsting and a longing for the Word of God. I know that was true in my life. I hadn't read the Bible much, but when God saved me, I was working 11 to seven. 11 at night till seven in the morning, I would come home. Carly was teaching school. She would leave for school.

I would take a shower and I would have the radio on and I'd be sitting on the floor in the dining area or in the den with my notebook and my Bible open and listening to sermons, drinking in the Word. I couldn't get enough of it. Say, well, weren't you tired? Well, yes, I was tired. I'd worked all night, but that's when the program came on. I had an interest in the Word of God. Where did that come from? The Spirit of God at work.

Many of you can attest to the same thing. You had no interest in the Word of God. You had no interest in church or a church that made the Word of God central.

But now you can't think of going to church to a place where that isn't true. Again, evidence of the work of the Spirit. What else did he say? There were five marks that he had in this book. Number four, he said there will be an understanding and a zeal for the doctrines of the Bible. An understanding of and a zeal for the doctrines of the Bible.

What does he mean by that? Well, you've heard us say this over and over again here that salvation is a mighty big subject, a large subject, that there are so many things that are scripturally addressed under that big topic. There is adoption and propitiation and justification and progressive sanctification and all kinds of doctrines. But ask the average Christian, tell me what you believe about justification and get ready for a blank stare back. Okay, well, what do you believe about the doctrine of propitiation?

What does the Bible say about the doctrine of adoption? Well, unfortunately, in our day, people have a shallow understanding of the gospel and they're satisfied with that. A mark of the Spirit of God is an interest in and a zeal for the doctrines of the Bible. We want to understand the Bible. We want to understand the rich doctrines of the Bible. And number five, he said the evidence of the Spirit of God is the spirit of love where the spirit of love is manifest.

Let me quote Edwards. He says, if the spirit at work among a people operates as a spirit of love to God and to love of man, that is the sign of the Spirit of God. We have a love for the brethren.

And it's just not a feeling. It's we're willing to do, we're willing to care, we're willing to minister, we're willing to bear one another's burdens, we're willing to pray for one another, we're willing to extend ourselves, deny ourselves for the sake of our brothers. That's something that spirit wrought.

It's an evidence of the Spirit of God. Now, all of that is certainly we're striving in those areas. We haven't arrived at perfection. Where our love for these things can wane. We are praying often, Lord, stir me up.

Lord, help me not to become lukewarm. So, but this is, these are the areas that the Spirit of God has a concentrated interest in. And he's exercising the spirit of, he's exercising the hearts of the people of God in these areas. So back to Revelation chapter seven.

Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. Well folks, it's a wonderful thing to be possessed by God, to have a sense that God has reached into my life and has saved me. God has changed me. God has moved me from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. Translated me out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of his dear son. And the Spirit of God is working in me. He worked in me. He is continuing to work in me, both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.

And when we see the evidence of that, it's cause for rejoicing. That will put a song in your hearts. That will cause you to want to lift your voice in praise and worship to God when we gather as a church. It'll motivate you to want to live for him, to cooperate with the Spirit of God, to be walking circumspectly in this world, not as a fool, not as an unwise person. That's what the Spirit of God does. Well, I anticipated that we probably wouldn't get much further than that in verse three, because I really felt a compulsion to deal with this issue of being sealed by God, and what does that mean for us?

So when we come back together, we'll be considering the 144,000. There's a lot of things there that are worth spending some time and thinking through and weighing that we might understand the Word of God aright. So again, thank you for your interest in the Word of God.

Thank you for the evidence of the Spirit of God at work in you. We're not interested in just doing church. We're not interested in just a formality.

We're not interested in just going through the motions. We're interested in being yielded to the Spirit of God, God who is active and working with an end in mind. He's preparing us for heavenly habitation. He's changing us from one degree of glory to the next. He is working to conform us more and more into the image of His dear Son. And all of that is praiseworthy.

The world knows nothing of this. You won't get this any other place, but in a healthy growing church, a place where we open the Word of God and study the Word of God and see what the Word of God is saying to us. So again, thank you for your interest tonight. And let us conclude with prayer. Father, how we thank you for the operation of the Spirit of God. How we thank you for your electing love, Father. And Lord Jesus, thank you for your willingness to come and take the place of hell-deserving sinners on the cross and bear their punishment, bear their sin, pay their sin debt, and live a life of perfection, that that life of perfection might be transferred to our account, that we might be seen by God the Father and His court of judgment as free, free of condemnation. But Holy Spirit of God, thank you for your work of regeneration, your work of convicting, your work of renewing and transforming us from the inside out. Holy Spirit of God, thank you. Thank you for your work. Thank you for what you are doing. Thank you for what you will do by taking the Word of God that's been preached tonight and applying it to the lives of those whom have been converted. And we as a church long for that day when we will be in that company, that innumerable multitude, and we will join our voices, and we will say amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever, amen.