THE KINGDOM SEALED
THE KINGDOM SEALED
Sunday, July 2, 2017, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
As Christians in the United States of America, we have much to rejoice and celebrate this July 4th. Our nation is established on Judeo/Christian truths of the Holy Bible. “The first American printing of the English Bible was in 1782 and became known as the Bible of the Revolution. W. P. Strickland, an early American historian, said of this Bible publication: ‘Who, in view of this fact, will call in question the assertion that this is a Bible nation? Who will charge the government with indifference to religion when the first Congress of the States assumed all rights and performed all the duties of a bible society long before such an institution had an existence in the world?’”
In 1836, Noah Webster expressed the purpose of schools was meant for the advancement of the Christian faith. In my view the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed…No truth is more evident in my mind that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”
The men and women who established this nation were in covenant with God and He placed His seal upon this nation. It is incumbent upon Christian believers to reaffirm and reclaim our Christian heritage with the same passion and commitment of the Founders. It begins with a willingness to become engaged in the battle.
2 Co. 1:19-22 used the terms “establish” and “seal” as a unit. When God establishes something, it cannot be disestablished. God expects His people to establish spiritual strongholds, literal beach-heads of faith in their lives and to advance from them while on earth (spiritual warfare).
(Anytime the world “establish” appears in Biblical terms, it can be substituted by the word “seal.”)
Universal history has always been subject to God’s “appointed time.” Sealed before the foundations of the world, many thrilling exchanges are set to happen with angels and man which are based on opening the seals of God.
Angels were and are affected by sealed dimensions. The angel in Genesis 18:14 addressed Sarah, Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you.
Historical events found in Genesis’ are predestined seals placed on the lives of its participants. Isaac, was not only the chosen vessel, he was the sealed vessel. God said, I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him (Gen. 17:19).
Abraham sealed his righteousness by establishing the faith affirmation, “aman” to God; and He justified him (counted it for righteousness). Modern men’s “amen” does not generally convey this sealing aspect (but it could if the Holy Spirit gives the witness).
Because Abram believed what God said, then God established a covenant with him, sealing him into the promises.
I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you…(Ex. 17: 5-7).
The faith of Abraham is the same faith of the founders of our nation; or those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham (Gal. 3: 7-9).
Herein is the beginning of the “Kingdom of God.” It is based on sealing the believer by faith into the kingdom. Christians are sealed into the Kingdom of God by receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior; being born-again, baptism of water, baptism of the Holy Ghost, baptism of fire, and the mind of Christ. It is this gospel of the Kingdom of God which must be preached to the whole world.
Also, sad events were recorded in Genesis’ brief summary of beginnings. Sin originated in the garden of God and quickly spread through the infamy of Cain.
Genesis 4:11: You are cursed from the earth.
Sadly with this seal, Cain “went out from the presence of the Lord.”
Curses, not blessings, came from the mouth of the Lord over His first creations. He cursed the serpent, the woman and Adam. He drove them out of the paradise of God and sealed the garden shut with His flaming sword (and protected the Eden Covenant).
God was obliged to seal out, so purity might be sealed in.
Adam and God had entered another agreement earlier (the Adamic covenant), which sealed the victory of His son, Jesus, and the day of the Lord.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. (Gen. 3:15).
Prior to this, man had only heard blessings and ministry from the Holiest of all. Every sealing of God became a Creation Seal, in which creatures, lands and light stayed where He placed them and in the manner He described.
Before these events were the infinitesimal wonders of before the foundations of the world. From this pinion, all predestined works were sealed and the hermetic seal of history locked into time, sealed until someone cries in the near future, Who is worthy to take the book and loose the seals. When the last seal is peeled away and infinity returned, those who bear His seal will reign with Him.
Jesus was sealed from heaven and manifested the seal of God throughout His ministry. The Gospels are filled with “Signs of His Sealing.”
John 6: 27-29: Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him. Then they said to Him, what shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He sent.
God the Father set His seal on Jesus, and then Jesus set His seal on His followers.
John 6: 37, 39: All that the Father gives Me will come to Me…This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
Jesus brought His Disciples into the sealed life and into their sealed work. The first four writers of the New Testament reveal Jesus’ “seal” and ultimately their “own seal.”
In Matthew, Jesus is shown as One born from a “sealed lineage.” (Both Joseph and Mary came from the lineage of David through Zerubbabel; Joseph through Solomon and Mary through Nathan.)
Matthew also presented Jesus as “sealed through prophecy.”
Matthew 2:15: Out of Egypt I called My Son…
Matthew 2:23: He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Luke 2:34: Behold this child is destined…
Even the act of circumcision on the 8th day brought Jesus in line with the “the Seal of Abraham.”
Jesus’ ministry began with the heavenly seal of Baptism by water and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove. Over the protests of John the Baptist, Jesus did what all who are sealed must do. He was baptized that all righteousness might be fulfilled.
(Righteousness is the dominating characteristic of “The Sealed Ones.)
Jesus walked, talked and ministered through the authority of His Seal. Satan could not penetrate the seal. Religious hierarchy could not penetrate the Seal. Governments could not penetrate the seal. Jesus was sealed by God and neither man nor devil could touch Him.
John 10: 29-30: My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father are One.
Jesus’ ministry was ordered by the sealed plan of God. Not one healing, not one message, not one incident involving Him was outside that sealed plan on an exact time schedule.
Integral to the kingdom seal is the matter of binding and loosing. Twice in Matthew, Jesus taught about the power of the sealed ones to seal things both in earth and in heaven (Matthew 16 and 18). Jesus sealed many things by binding and loosing. He bound cities to judgment, Chorazin (Mt. 11:21); Capernaum (11:23); He bound persons (8:12; 13:11; 13:38); He bound nations(21:43); He bound the fig tree, waves and stones (21:19); He loosed loaves and fishes; He issued “woes,” and every “woe” had the power of the seal. He sealed destinies (Mt. 27:25).
In Matthew 16, a prime evidence of possessing the kingdom seal was found through “experiencing revelation.” Revelation was/is the basis for sealing on earth and in heaven. Jesus told Simon Peter that on the “Rock of Revelation,” He would build his Kingdom. Through revelation, we hold keys to binding and loosing which is a power of kingdom authority. Sealed ones, using the keys of the kingdom authority can seal or unseal anything.
Spiritual things have always been a matter of the seal. It was about the seal when the disciples went to the tomb, where the Sealed One broke the seal of man. It was so at the “appointed mountain,” in the Book of Acts where the great commission was given to those about to be “sealed” at Pentecost.
The Apostle Paul had the authority of the “seal.” Rom. 15:28: When I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
Jn. 6:27b: Whom the Father has sealed, means He has revealed and confirmed His son, Jesus Christ through His miracles. The Father has begotten Christ as His stamp, seal and image, preserving His exact likeness and identical divine nature.
Christian, we too have received this sealing.
Eph. 1:13: “In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Sprit of promises.”
Endurance to the end is a mark of the sealed life. Mt. 24:13: He who shall endure to the end shall be saved. Virgins with oil, ready and prepared, are examples of the sealed life (those who were unprepared were sealed out, the door was shut.
Being part of the arranged marriage of the lamb is indicative of the sealed life (the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son.
“Entering in” is a product of the seal (Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Mt. 25:34)
We will continue this study on Sunday morning until the conference.
The Book of revelation is filled with “seals.” Primarily these are in three categories: two upon persons and one upon history. Persons are either sealed “in” to the Messiah or sealed to a destiny apart from the Messiah. History’s seal is from the foundation of the world.” Only God orders and plans define its unsealing and final determinations.
Every writer in the Bible has based their work on these immutable seals which establish the underlying unity in Scripture.
God’s sealed saints always triumph alongside their sealed Savior. This union is sealed to righteousness, protection and power.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. I entered into the labors of Dr. C. R. Oliver, Sealed Unto His Coming, Zadok Publications, P. O. Box 132874, The Woodlands, Texas 77393. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Dr. Oliver.