SEALED UNTO HIS GLORY
SEALED UNTO HIS GLORY
Sunday, 7/29/17, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The focus this year for our annual conference is “Sealed Unto His Glory.” The past few weeks, I have preached and we have pursued some of God’s seals through the Holy Word which include the seals of the Word of God, the seals of Jesus Christ, and the seals of the Holy Spirit.
The presence of the glory of God throughout the Bible is where He abides---in the garden, Temples, Tabernacles, Christ, the saints, and New Jerusalem.
Rev. 21:3: I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Jn. 14:23: If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with Him… The "Our" and the "We" include the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The "abode" of God is His Tabernacle. We, who are filled with the Spirit, have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior; and have the abode of the Father within us are sealed in his glory.
When Jesus initiated and cut His Blood Covenant with us. He gave us His Sword, His Name, His wealth, His Kingdom, His Garment, His Life, His Father’s House, His Peace, His Joy, His Righteousness, His Kingdom, delivered us from sin into eternal life, defends us against all enemies; and made us partakers of the inheritance of light, life and love. There are only two conditions to this glorious life on earth as it is in Heaven, We must abide in Jesus’ love, love one another, and keep His commandments.
1 Jn. 4:12: …If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God. We have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear; because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.
Col. 1:12: Giving thanks unto the Father, who has made us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
Throughout the Gospel of John and his letters, the apostle continues to reveal Jesus as being “In the Father” and the “Father in Him” Jesus’ manifests His glory by the miracles which He performs, the declarations of who He is; and what is written about Him in the Scriptures. John reveals to us that Jesus is the testator of His Father’s House, and all the blessings and authority of that house.
Jn. 15:7-10: If you abide in me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you; abide you in my love. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.
God’s love is the Word made flesh, the Son of God, Bread of Life, Light of the World, Door of the sheepfold, Good Shepherd, Lamb of God, Resurrection and Life, Way, Truth and Life, and Testator of the New Covenant. The Father gives us the Holy Spirit with the promise of the Father and Son’s abiding love that we may ask whatever we will in Jesus’ NAME.
Lord Jesus teach us to abide in your love and to love one another, not for our lusts and idols but that our lives will glorify the Father.
15: 11-13: These things I have spoken to you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Earlier in this message to his disciples, he told them he was giving them His peace. (14:27). Now he is giving them the fullness of joy, His joy. He has cleansed them by the washing of the Word. This is the Kingdom of God, Joy, Peace and Righteousness in the Holy Ghost. The Kingdom of God is the Glory of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
1 John 1:3b-4: Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write you that your joy may be full. (VS. 7) If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin.
In the knowledge of Jesus and the fellowship He had with the Father, John declared that we, too, simply enter into Their intimacy. Entering the fellowship of the Father and the Son was the criteria for fellowshipping with them. Within this fellowship, unforgiveness, hatred, the spirit of antichrist, unrighteousness, and a closed heart are not allowed.
In this heavenly adoption, we are made partakers of a new name and a new nature. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds, after the image of Him. It is esteemed a great thing among men to descend from some affluent family, whose father is prominent in the history or business. But all such distinctions cannot compare with the privilege of being a Son of God
Nothing in the natural mind of man can perceive the depths of this privilege. Communion at this level is not bread and wine. It is to entwine one’s life with another. The righteous who are “in Christ” and the Father in us are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life forever. Born from above, the royal blood of heaven runs through my veins. I have no need to envy anyone. I am joint-heir with him who is heir of all things. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.
This is sealed unto His Glory.
1 Jn. 3:16: By this we know love because He laid down His life for us. We also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Does this mean physical death for the brethren? It could. Many have died for the gospel. For us, during this time and season, at least the church in the United States is still dying to the flesh. There are many like Diotrephes’ who wants the pre-eminence when the church gathers. Offense is the root of pride and usually the result of ego. Authority often tries to seek power over those who truly walking, living and having their being in Christ Jesus.
Such “fellowship” has the perfect love which passes understanding. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. This love is humble, intuitive, responsive, caring, abiding and continuous.
1 Jn. 2:6: He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Doing the will of God and walking in one’s anointing leads to a type of camaraderie of respect free of competition and ambition. We will truly prefer one another with kindly affection, honoring others above ourselves.
2 Jn. 9b: …He who abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son.
The privilege of being able to live in the fellowship enjoyed by Jesus and His Father is through the cleansing blood of Jesus. His blood continues to open this door. All of our striving, preaching, teaching, operating in the gifts, etc. will not be the “key” to open the door. Receiving the witness of the three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water and the blood; and these three agree as one.
1 Jo. 5:6-8: This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. It is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; these three agree in one.
The blessings of the Word/Gospel are frequently compared to water in the Scriptures.
These verses bring together the witness of heaven and earth and all agree in one. Jesus came from heaven to earth that we might be raised from earth to heaven. This agreement of the three witnesses has the power to catch away even the newest of believers and carry them into the promised fellowship of the Father and the Son.
This fellowship is not an elitist honor, but a purchased privilege at the cost of love.
The glory of this fellowship in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to abide in the Church age because of Jesus prayer in John 17, I do not pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. That they all may be one; as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory which you gave me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.
The past few years, to all appearances, it would seem the Church universal has not been experiencing the power of the Glory. “Sealed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, the “upper roomers” knew that Jesus had transferred to them the “Promise of the Father.”
Jesus synchronized His teaching through the Holy Spirit. He taught the Disciples how to recognize, receive instruction and minister by the voice of the Spirit. The Kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit are inseparable. It is the Holy Spirit who seals us unto the day of redemption and His enduement of power is through His gifts.
The great “power package” of Acts 1: 7-8 contained two seals. First, was the seal on “times and seasons’ which is totally under the authority of God. This first seal acknowledged events are carefully chartered and known by God. Second there was the “power seal” itself which was relegated to the saints and which could only be obtained by the authority of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8: You shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Through the internet, the Church is fulfilling this commission to witness to the uttermost part of the earth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the knowledge of the glory of God.
Hab. 2:14: The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
2 Co. 4:6: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Co. 6: 16-17: I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God and they shall be My people.
The test for inclusion in the “fellowship” is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
2 Jo. 1:9: Whosoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, does not have God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son.
This is pure Gospel. This excludes all religions which do not receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and His Gospel. This also deals with churches who are presenting another Jesus (something other than the doctrine of Jesus Christ).
The “key” to being sealed unto glory is “love.” The love of Christ and of the Father passes knowledge, whose length, breadth, depth and height are immeasurable, and which will be to saints and angels forever, the great theme of our contemplations, sermons, songs, hope and faith.
That we may enter into that realm of love whereby the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit abide in each one of us; but also that we are abiding in their love. In Their abiding, there is the abode of God.
God became as one of us, partaking of our nature, with all its wants and woes. Oh mighty mystery! That He who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person; that He to whom all the powers and principalities of heaven owe their being and their blessedness invites me to share in His glory and sealed it with His Blood.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Sealed Unto His Coming by Dr. C. R. Oliver. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.