SEALED BY PROMISE

1. Genesis 1:26 was a firm PROMISE to make Man in the IMAGE and LIKENESS of God, “So God CREATED MAN IN HIS OWN IMAGE, in the IMAGE OF GOD CREATED HE HIM; male and female created he them” [Genesis 1:27] We were created in God’s IMAGE, His LIKENESS was reserved that it might be the BLESSING of OBEDIENCE. In Abraham, the PROMISE was formalized with BLESSING when God said, “That in BLESSING I WILL BLESS THEE, ... And IN THY SEED SHALL ALL THE NATIONS of the earth be BLESSED because thou hast OBEYED MY VOICE” [Genesis 22:17-18] Fulfilment of the PROMISE was God manifest in Jesus Christ, the fulness of the Godhead and express IMAGE of His Person [Colossians 2:9, Hebrews 1:3] In Jesus Christ, God became like us that we might be like Him, “That the BLESSING OF ABRAHAM might come on the GENTILES THROUGH JESUS CHRIST; that we might RECEIVE the PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT THROUGH FAITH” [Galatians 3:14] LIFE of God is His SPIRT, the PROMISE was to replicate His SPIRIT in us, giving us ETERNAL LIFE by GRACE through FAITH in Jesus Christ, “And we know that the SON OF GOD IS COME, and hath given us an UNDERSTANDING, that we may know him that is true, and we are in HIM THAT IS TRUE, even in his Son JESUS CHRIST. This is the TRUE GOD, and ETERNAL LIFE” [1 John 5:20] 

2. Validity of a PROMISE is commensurate with willingness and ability of the PROMISOR; who is as God ALMIGHTY, able to fulfil His PROMISE? “Declaring the END FROM THE BEGINNING, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I WILL DO ALL MY PLEASURE” [Isaiah 46:10] Nothing will stop God but ourselves, notwithstanding He is FAITHFUL to His PROMISE. Whereas we receive treasures of His PROMISE in this weak and beggarly bag of flesh and bones and in constant danger of losing it to present instabilities and hardships of this world, God is FAITHFUL to His WORD, “But we have this TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS, that the EXCELLENCY OF THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD, and not of us. We are TROUBLED on every side, yet not DISTRESSED; we are PERPLEXED, but NOT IN DESPAIR” [2 Corinthians 4:7] Well aware of our limitations, we have absolute TRUST in the EXCELLENCY of God’s POWER to make us tamperproof, “In whom YE ALSO TRUSTED, after that ye heard the WORD OF TRUTH, the GOSPEL of your SALVATION: in whom also after that YE BELIEVED, ye were SEALED with that HOLY SPIRIT of PROMISE” [Ephesians 1:13] The PROMISE comes with firm assurances of HOPE in the appearance of Jesus Christ by which we are SEALED till we shall be revealed in His LIKENESS, “Beloved, now are we the SONS OF GOD, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but WE KNOW that, WHEN HE SHALL APPEARS, WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM; for we shall see him as he is” [1 John 3:2]

3. Permit me to illustrate with SARDINES SEALED in a can. The SARDINES once swam freely  until they were caught in the net and so once were we in the world, swimming in the ocean of SIN, “Again, the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE UNTO A NET, that was cast into the sea, and GATHERED OF EVERY KING: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and GATHERED THE GOOD into vessels, but CAST THE BAD AWAY” [Matthew 13:47-48] The NET is the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ, bringing in many kinds including “SARDINES”; the catch is sorted and separated to be SEALED. Separation is according to HEARING; SARDINES are those who HEARED both MESSAGE and MESSENGER and can respectfully say to the Preacher, “... Now WE BELIEVE, not because of thy saying: for WE HAVE HEARD HIM OURSELVES, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD” [John 4:42] Expectedly, SARDINES to be SEALED are washed, fins and tails removed to fit into the can; so must we be washed and cut in the IMAGE of the Lord by His WORD for us to abide in Him and He in us, “Now ye are CLEAN THROUGH THE WORD which I have spoken unto you. ABIDE IN ME, AND I IN YOU. ...” [John 15:3-4] We are SEALED not because we go to Church but by PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP of Christ in YOU and you in HIM, “MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE, and I KNOW THEM, and THEY FOLLOW ME: And I GIVE UNTO THEM ETERNAL LIFE they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” [John 10:27-28]

4. We are SEALED BY PROMISE, “Now he which STABLISHETH US with you in Christ, and hath ANOINTED US, is God; Who hath also SEALED US, and given the EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT in our hearts” [2 Corinthians 1:21-22] Though we are in the world, we WALK not after the manner of the world but conduct ourselves in the WISDOM of God, as in James 3:17;  REDEEMING THE TIME, free of offences, “WALK IN WISDOM toward them that are without, REDEEMING THE TIME. Let your speech be ALWAY WITH GRACE, seasoned with salt, that ye may know HOW YE OUGT TO ANSWER EVERY MAN” [Colossians 4:5-6] As OIL preserve SARDINES in the can, we are preserved WITHIN by the OIL of UNDERSTANDING, our minds transformed both to KNOW and DO what is GOOD and PLEASING to God, “For it is GOD WHICH WORKETH IN YOU both TO WILL and TO DO of HIS GOOD PLEASURE” [Philippians 2:13] The times are hard yet our FAITH is unshaken in God  to deliver on His PROMISE; we are in Him and He, working in us to PLEASE Him, as He did in Enoch, “BY FAITH Enoch was TRANSLATED that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this TESTIMONY, that HE PLEASED GOD” [Hebrews 11:5]