Sealed Servants of God

Rev 7:2  And I saw another 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 given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Eze 9:4  And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

Sealed servants of God.

Before our Savior returns, before the time of trouble-  Dan. 12:1  '...and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time',  God's servants will be SEALED.

Remember Abraham asking God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were only 10 people that were God's in the cities?  None were worthy of sealing and ONLY Lot and his wife, along with two virgin daughters were spared- and then his wife turned back to Sodom. 

Before God destroys He will SEAL those that are His. He spares those that are His. God doesn't call for the destruction of the good along with the evil in the final judgment. Those that are God's will be sealed before the time of trouble hits. Does this mean they won't suffer? Absolutely NOT! It means they are God's and Satan can no longer touch their eternal life.

We know the time of trouble is coming, we've been watching all the signs, we've been praying for our Savior to return. We know that it will come to pass. Belonging to God is EVERYTHING!

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

We've been discussing the book 'Cost of Discipleship' by Bonhoeffer.  So far we have been shown over and over that we are expected to obey even after we've received the grace of our Savior.  Reading this verse here about the Lord knowing them that are his- THOSE WHO DEPART FROM INIQUITY, we are again being shown that we much SHUN evil, shun sin, shun all iniquity.  We cannot be complacent with our besetting sins!

We cannot say, 'Oh well, that's how I am and I'm not changing.'  If we say that or anything like that then we are not departing from iniquity at all! We are stating that we are sinners involved in a besetting sin and we aren't going to stop committing that sin it has too great a hold over us. We are giving in to SATAN and his claim that God is not just!  Our God is JUST and our God WILL give us victory but He'd not going to take away our power of choice to do so.  You cannot give up your power of choice, but must daily choose to follow Christ. Daily, hourly, minutely CHOOSE to follow Christ. 

Whenever we are confronted by the choice to sin or not sin  (because it is always a choice) we have to ask ourselves if we are choosing Satan or Christ.  We KNOW if we choose to sin we are choosing Satan. 

We don't WANT to ask ourselves this question though. We'd much rather not even think about the question. We don't even want to think about the choice because we are accountable then- but so to are we accountable for NOT wanting to think about the choice.

Satan would have us be his and he'll stop at nothing to that end.

'Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.'

This is BIBLICAL! This isn't me speaking those words!

We must depart from iniquity and we depart from iniquity when we obey the moral law of our GOD!

Do we long to be sealed as Christ's?

Then we must BE CHRIST'S!

All by HIS GRACE!