SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/8/2015
9:43 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Saints
Sealed
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
7:2-3
Message of the
verses: “2 And I saw another angel
ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he
cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm
the earth and the sea, 3 saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the
trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their
foreheads."”
I want to begin by saying how much I am enjoying this
study of the book of Revelation, and as I said before I truly believe that this
is in the will of God for me to be looking at this book at this time. I have also mentioned that hours after
accepting the Lord as my Savior and Lord I began to read through this
book. My earlier years being a believer
I also spent much time looking at the book of Revelation and then in 2005 I
also took a year to study this book again.
However as I go through this book at this time with the help of John
MacArthur’s sermons and commentary I am learning many things that I did not
realize were in this book. As we
continue to study chapter seven there are some things in the section that we
are first studying (vv. 1-8), that have always caught my attention, and that is
something we will probably go over in our next SD which speaks of where these
144,000 Jewish evangelists came from. In
today’s SD we will look at how these saints were sealed by the Lord and this is
quite interesting too.
First let’s look at what I wrote on the 19th
of May, 2005: “These two verses speak of
God sealing His people for a specific job that He has for them, and because
they are sealed by God this could very well mean that they will be protected
from the plagues that are about to come upon the earth.
“In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul speaks of the believers being
sealed by the Holy Spirit when they are born into the family of God, and this
sealing means that they will go to heaven when their work on this earth is
done. “In Him,
you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your
salvation—having also believed, you were
sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge
of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to
the praise of His glory.”
“Being sealed by the Holy Spirit means ownership, ownership by God
because Christ paid the price to redeem all who believe in Him for their
salvation.”
Now we are in a temporary quiet period between the last
seal judgment which brings about the trumpet judgments so that God can seal
these men and then John will also speak about some of the Tribulation saints at
the end of chapter seven. Now remember
what we learned yesterday that there were four angels holding back the winds
from each corner of the earth, something that we do not need to take lightly as
these winds were ready to continue to blow and with them the next set of
judgments. God’s plan was to seal these
men from the twelve tribes of Israel, and so we will look at more of what this
means in today’s SD.
We read that John sees another angel from verse two and
some have speculated that this could be the Lord Jesus Christ but as MacArthur
writes: “but that is unlikely because allos (another) means another in
numerical sequence, another of the same kind as the first four angels.” We have mentioned that Jesus Christ was seen
in the OT as “the Angel of the Lord” in different places, but this is not
believed to be Him in verse two.
John sees the angel ascending from the raising of the sun
and that would be the East and if John were on Patmos then to his East would be
Jerusalem where salvation was paid for when Christ died on the cross outside
the walls of Jerusalem, and this too is where the twelve tribes of Israel had
come from, those who would be eventually sealed for this purpose.
John MacArthur writes about the word seal: “Sphragis
(seal) often referred to a signet ring.
Kings or other officials would use such rings to stamp into wax on
documents or other items, thereby affirming their authenticity and guaranteeing
their security.” Joseph received the
signet ring of Pharaoh to care for the affairs of Egypt when he became second
in command there. MacArthur goes on “A
seal thus denoted ownership and protection.”
Every one of these men would surely need God protection to go through
the Tribulation doing what they were about to do, that is tell others of the
Gospel and what was going on and what would happen during this terrible time on
earth.
What the angel would seal these men with is the seal of the living God, which is
used in many different parts of Scripture such as Rev. 4:9-10 “9 And when the living creatures give glory and
honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and
ever, 10 the twenty-four elders will
fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever,
and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying.” Let us look at one from the OT book of Psalms
42:2 “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” I looked this phrase “the living God” up and
found 56 times it is seen in the entire NASB.
John said it this way so that no one would be confused as to who was
sealing these men, for it surely was not some kind of idol. It will be during this time of the
Tribulation period when antichrist will have those who follow him to also be
sealed.
In our study of Exodus we saw that God marked the
children of Israel with actually blood from a lamb that was made on the door
posts, and this actually made a sign of a cross. He did this so that the death angel would not
kill anyone who was protected by the blood of the lamb, certainly a picture of
our Lord Jesus Christ’s blood which protects all that are His. John MacArthur
in his commentary sights a portion of Scripture from Ezekiel 9:3-6 which also
speaks of marking of people, and those who have followed our study of Ezekiel
may have seen this: “3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up
from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in
linen at whose loins was the writing case. 4 The LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, even
through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who
sigh and groan over all the abominations which are being committed in its
midst." 5 But to the others He said in my hearing, "Go through
the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare.
6 "Utterly slay old men, young men,
maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall
start from My sanctuary." So they started with the elders who were before
the temple.” Men were to be marked if
they were saddened over the idolatry that was going on in the temple of
God. We learn from this and other passages
that it is very special to have the seal of God, and the men who receive this
mark during the Tribulation period will actually go through that time being
protected by the Lord and go right into the Millennial Kingdom alive which they
will also be leaders in that promised Kingdom of God and Christ.
We see from verse three that the cry of the angel was an
urgent cry to hold things up, things that will continue to bring judgment upon
the earth, to stop them until these men were sealed, for these men will be a
huge part in the evangelism of planet earth during the Tribulation Period.
Let us look ahead to Revelation 14:1-5 to see what has
happened to these men: “1 Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount
Zion, and with Him
one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father
written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the
sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I
heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living
creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one
hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. 4
These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept
themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These
have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. 5
And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have a new
appreciation for what is seen in Ephesians 1:13-14 “13 In Him, you also, after
listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation-having also
believed, you were sealed
in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with
a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” It was on Jan. 26, 1974 when this happened to
me and this seal means that one day I will be with the Lord in heaven, which is
a precious promise from the Lord that I am thankful for.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I desire to love the Lord with all of my
heart, soul, mind, and strength and also it is my desire to live in His wonderful
love this day.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Anna” (Luke 2:21-22).
Today’s Bible
question: “How many of Christ’s
disciples were named James?”
Answer in our next SD.
4/8/2015 10:39 AM
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