GOD'S SEAL AND THE BELIEVER'S SEAL
GOD’S SEAL AND THE BELIEVER’S SEAL
2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22; 2 Timothy 2: 19; John 3: 33
These scriptures treat of the idea of a seal. The first is that believers are sealed by God. Secondly that in His foundation there is a seal; the foundation of God has a seal. This does not allude to the foundation of the earth, but the present building of God. Then thirdly, that the believer has a seal himself and sets to it that God is true; that is, in all his matters he indicates that his principle, his belief, his fixity, is in the fact that God is true. I have in mind to speak of these three heads and the general subject of seal, scripturally understood.
In 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul is stressing his desire to be with the brethren in his affections and to carry them with him, so that he identifies himself much with the Corinthians, stressing that they were bound up in the same bundle of life which is a needful thought for every one who ministers, or professes to minister, the truth that he is primarily with the brethren, one of them. It is said that we are to know our measure, to think of ourselves not highly, not above what we ought to think, but as God has dealt to each a measure of faith. It is in virtue of this fact of measure that God gives to each that there is the possibility of mutual working, indeed of the truth of the body being developed among us, for the divine measure has in mind that everyone fits — otherwise there would be dislocation. If each is to fit according to his own estimate of himself, it is likely that all will be misfits, and we can have no body, we can have nothing of the body of Christ concretely save as there is the recognition of the divine measure; that is accurate. As the members of our bodies are measured by the Creator, so in the spiritual body, the body of [p. 305] Christ; we can only fit as we accept the divine measure, and we are to know it. “As God has dealt to each a measure of faith”. Whatever may develop practically in us will agree with that; it must agree with it. So that we are to be on our guard not to have too high an estimate of ourselves, otherwise we shall not fit and we shall damage our usefulness. Were we so many individuals, so many units, that would not be necessary, but in the organism which God has in mind, the most delicate of all in the universe, there must be measure. And so the ministers are to work and all of us are to work according to the measure of faith which God has apportioned to each.
So Paul, I believe, is aiming at this in this letter, that the brethren might understand that he is truly one of them, one that can sit down with his brethren. I have no doubt that he would be glad to listen to another speaking of Christ. He speaks indeed in this very chapter of himself and Silvanus and Timotheus preaching the Son of God in Corinth. Whether they preached in separate rooms at the same time or whether they preached one after another, I cannot say, but I have no doubt that if anyone such as Silvanus or Timotheus preached the Son of God and Paul were in the audience, Paul would be his best listener. He would sit down with his brethren, and join in with them. Indeed, he tells them that they could all speak one by one, the point being edification, not clericalism; his ministry abominates clericalism. His aim is to make the saints fit in and that he himself should fit in in the body. So that he says here, “He that establishes us with you in Christ” — the great apostle Paul is putting himself with the Corinthians”and has anointed us, is God, who also has sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”.
God did it for the least in Corinth, the least true christian in Corinth, as He had done it for the great [p. 306] apostle Paul. We are established by God in the anointing and in the sealing and in the earnest of the Spirit. So that, when Luke records that the brethren at Troas assembled to break bread, he says “we” — “We being assembled” — not ‘We and Paul’, but “we” including Paul. This enables us to see the fruitfulness and remarkable power of these words, “less than the least of all saints”, and “ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake”. Now that is what runs through this epistle, and he brings in great elements of the truth to support him, such as the new covenant and reconciliation and new creation. These things applied to him as they did to the least in the assembly at Corinth. “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. The apostle stresses that right through, and this statement comes in in the instruction, that is, that God has sealed us. God had sealed Paul with the Corinthians, meaning that anyone who saw Paul at any time would see that he belonged to another, that he was not his own; nor did he consider for himself in his ministry. Indeed, the rights that belonged to him as a minister of Christ he waives: he says so in the first epistle; so that he was a real practical christian as well as the great apostle, perhaps the greatest lover of Christ, too. In every gift he excelled. Perhaps his personal example as a christian stands out as much as any other feature of this servant of Christ — what he was, as he says, “my ways as they are in Christ”. He belonged to Another. His point was that he did belong to Another. He renounced selfishness and that is really how the seal is seen, for it is not a symbol worn on the breast or in the forehead or in the hand; the seal of God is moral. It is in one’s demeanour; it is in one’s walk and ways.
So, dear brethren, that is the first thought that I [p. 307] would seek to impress, the divine seal, the seal of God on the christian. The point is that it is God who has done it. In Ephesians he says, “In whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”. His point here is that God did it. God has stamped the believer for, as I said, it included everyone in Corinth as well as the apostle. He has stamped the believer with His seal and that implies right of ownership, not only that others must not take me on and use me, or misuse me, but that God alone has a right to the christian, and He is very jealous as to him. He is very jealous as to any disregard of His rights either by the person who is sealed or by others who may take the sealed person for their use. It is a very incongruous thing to see a person who is sealed by the seal of God in the employ of another, in the sense of being owned by another. “Ye are not your own”, he says elsewhere, “for ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body”. So that there is jealousy on the part of God, the rightful Owner of the christian, the seal testifying to it. If the person himself misuses himself, denying the rights of God in him, or if another does, if he allows another to do it, if he allows another to subjugate him to his will, as it says of Satan, “who are taken by him, for his will”, God is jealous. In fact, it is one of His names and it has to be therefore observed. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? Any disregard of His right challenges His ownership and arouses His jealousy. And although we may find many reasons to our satisfaction for selling ourselves to others or yielding ourselves to others instead of to God, God will one day raise the question with us. He has long patience, but He will one day raise the question with every one of us as to His rights. The epistle to the Romans is the great doctrinal book as to this, and it begins with our members and finishes [p. 308] with our bodies, with the whole thought — bodies they are presented a living sacrifice. The fact that they are living involves the seal. The seal involves life, for in Revelation the seal is the seal of the living God. It is the stamp of life in the midst of death — death morally. Moral death is prevailing; the world was never more marked by it since Pentecost than now. The book of Revelation is full of the thought of moral death under the figure of blood, the blood of dead men. Very gruesome thought! And so, one would urge this, perhaps dwelling a little on it because we are drawing near to the end and the enemy works on the principle of urgency because his time is short. We are told in Revelation that he understands his time is short. It seems that according to his nature he must go on; he never desists; he never withdraws his hand. He will come to something according to his infernal desires and if his time is short he will urge it more. So that things are moving very rapidly; no one can fail to see it, and the world is turned upside down. The rich are not oppressing now: it is rather those who are in the place of the poor. The sea is the figure; he who is coming rises out of the sea. It is ability to control the masses, and that is the antichristian element. It is prophetically so, and it is so now. It is not great statesmanship or great military ability. We have had that; but that day is past. It is ability to control the masses. Satan is moving on those lines and moving very rapidly, and we have to challenge ourselves whether we are in the current of that or against the current of it. We shall have a rough time as against the current of that, but that is the testimony; that is what is involved in the position. God puts in His claim. It would seem that God is acting as a man that is asleep, but He is not, as in the Psalms. He is ever active according to the Spirit in an outwardly small way but in a very real way, and producing very real products, too,
[p. 309] representative products, and we want to be among them. So that, ownership by another must be repudiated for God will take you up, you may be sure.
We read in Revelation of the rise of the antichrist, but he is not active today. Let nobody deceive him self. He is not working today. People are quick to name things, but we are in preliminary times. God is showing us how quickly things can happen. This powerful man will have his number, his own number. It will not be a divinely apportioned number or measure. It will be his. I suppose he will value himself, and I have no doubt he will be received at his own valuation, and Satan will support him, and men will see what they never have seen in this world, and partisan ownership is the principle, supremacy over the masses. That is the principle and that goes on. It seems that God lets it go on; but as it goes on the reality of God’s work will show itself and some will take it up — there is no doubt about that — and will suffer, and they are highly honoured according to the book of Revelation: “And the souls of those beheaded on account of the testimony of Jesus, and on account of the word of God” in that day will stand amongst the most honourable of God’s people in heaven but, as I say, God will allow the current of things to go on and His work will show itself; and presently He takes direct issue with the current and pronounces the most terrible woes on all those who have the number and the mark of the beast. Make no mistake about that: God will take account of that.
Now as to the seal: anything that disputes the rights of God in the christian either as to what he is morally or physically must be refused, the ownership is God’s. He is bought with a price; he belongs to God; he is to glorify God in his body. That links with 2 Timothy where we have the foundation. We are told elsewhere in Scripture that if the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do? The foundation [p. 310] is not destroyed but it is surrendered, it is ignored in the general mass of the christian profession. What is going on is not on this foundation. The great operations in the public body are not on this foundation, but the foundation is not destroyed, dear friends; it exists, and hence the righteous can do something, thank God. There is a way made for the righteous. Perhaps nothing in Scripture is more emphasised than righteousness from the outset. The Psalms are full of the thought, how God regards the righteous. There is a way made for the righteous by God according to this epistle. It is really the way for the righteous. If I am a righteous man I follow it; so that it is the leader in this epistle — follow righteousness. There is a way made for you to do it. It may involve suffering and I am afraid it will, but the way is made, and what underlies that is the foundation of God stands. It stands. It is immovable.
The seal on this foundation has two sides as we have often remarked. I speak of it now because of the idea of a seal. You look at it. You look at the foundation of any human religious organisation on the earth; take the Jewish system, the Romish system, and others; go over all of them one by one they may claim to be on this foundation but they are not. Each one of them has its own foundation, its own peculiarities, its own tenets; these are stamped upon it. The seal of God is not stamped upon it. The foundation of God has a seal and every one who is of God understands it. The scriptural idea is understood by reading the seal. The first one is that “the Lord knows those that are His”. If I love the saints I am comforted by that. However few there may be at a given time that part of the seal is readable by everyone there. I am not literalising the thing, dear brethren; it is a question of what is spiritual. In any city or town, sitting down with the brethren who know this foundation, you say, ‘I think of this one and that one’; it may be a relative, a parent, a child, a son or daughter or neighbour; ‘I am sorry they are not here’. We are not really christians practically if we do not make a remark like that. We miss our brethren. We only know a few that are absent. In speaking to the Lord at any time with a few of the saints, at His supper, we find liberty in telling the Lord that there are a good many in the town that are absent; the Lord would say, ‘I know’. The Lord feels it and He loves us to feel it, too. He would say, ‘They are indelibly on My breastplate’. He does not forget one, He would say, “Were not the ten cleansed? but the nine, where are they?” Perhaps there are those here who have benefited from the death of Christ according to the gospel and who have never responded to His love. “Where are the nine?” “Were not the ten cleansed?” But then, there is one who has returned to glorify God. The Lord loves us to think with Him, and that is one of the sides of the seal on the foundation. The more of this there is the more one is assured that it is the foundation of God.
Then the other side is, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. Well, those present have done that. “All Israel that were present”, to use the Old Testament phrase, have done that. All those in this town who meet on the Lord’s day to answer to His request are amongst those who have withdrawn from iniquity. It may be that there are those here who have not done that. The Lord has a voice for you. “Let every one who names the name of the Lord ...”. That is a matter of consistency. You may name the name of the Lord — no doubt you do — every christian does; you may do it amongst christians but perhaps not amongst the ungodly. It is amongst the ungodly you must do it. It is a strong tower and as naming it, if you stay here, that is, amongst the ungodly, you will say, ‘I cannot [p. 312] stay here any more; there are those here who do not name that name’. So that you are missing this side of the seal. You are covered in the first, that the Lord knows you; He knows where you are; He knows your down-sitting and your uprising. He is knocking at your door. He has knocked at your door. It may be that you have heard Him knocking, but you have not heard His voice. It is not simply to hear the knocking but to hear His voice and open to Him, and He comes in and sups with you. Are you doing that? I do not believe there is one of the Lord’s people on earth that has not had a knock from Christ. We may have heard the knock but perhaps not heard the voice; you have not heard His voice in it. It is the voice in it that tells us it is the Lord. Shall I let Him remain outside and His locks be wet with the dew of the night, or shall I open to Him? “If any one hear my voice and open the door, I will come in unto him and sup with him, and he with me”. And when you are supping with Him you have left iniquity. He will not allow you into His realm if you have not left iniquity in your heart. He may come in and sup with you in order to touch your heart, and then vanish as He did at Emmaus, all to get you out of those circumstances in which His name is dishonoured. He says to the church at Philadelphia, “Thou ... hast not denied my name”. And so, as He sups with you, and you see something of Him in His consideration for you, you say, ‘Well, I think I will move’. Heaven is deeply concerned when a real Christian begins to move in answer to the knock, in answer to His voice. It is the voice of Christ. It is the voice of my beloved One that speaks. You say, ‘I cannot stay here; He cannot stay here’. Why did He vanish from Emmaus? It was not His place. He wanted them back. He wants you; He wants us. It is the hearing of His voice, so that as coming to where He sups, to where you may sup with Him, you find this seal, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. It is a divine seal and it marks the immovable foundation of God; thank God for it! All the enemy’s ways, within these latter years particularly, have not moved that foundation one iota. It stands. “He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever”. It cannot be moved, so that there is a way for the righteous. That way is to be among those who are doing according to the Lord’s desire where, “I will ... sup with him, and he with me”. The Lord would have us to understand what it is to sup with Him. It is not that I am here to speak to unbelievers or lukewarm Christians — of course, if there are any, I hope you will hear the Lord’s voice, that the Lord is saying to you that He wants you to sup with Him. He is waiting for it.
Well now, finally, there is this seal that every Christian has; that is, those that have received the testimony. These words, I apprehend, are the words of John the baptist. In these verses in chapter 3 of John’s gospel, John is speaking about Christ, and he is outstanding in his ability to speak about the glory of Christ. In the gospel of John he is brought forward as a model for us, and he is speaking about Christ here. He says, “He who comes from above is above all. He who has his origin in the earth is of the earth ... . He who comes out of heaven is above all, and what he has seen and has heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony”. “Above all” does not mean that He is exalted in heaven, but he is speaking of Jesus here below; He is above all. That is a great thing to get into our souls. It delivers us from men. It is a question of His personal greatness as down here, as come down from heaven. John saw that, and he says further, “What he has seen and has heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony. He that has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true”. We shall come back to more of these words of John the baptist. In 2 Corinthians God seals us: it is a question of who does it. In 2 Timothy it is God’s foundation. In this passage in John it is God is true and I set that to my seal.
To be illustrative, it is as if I were to put it on my business documents, all my letterheads, all my business letters, on everything that represents me; on everything that I own or that I do it is manifest that my principle is, among many other things, that God is true; and, dear brethren, that is not any advanced truth, as we say; it is the gospel. It is introduced in the gospel. In the epistle to the Romans, the teaching epistle, it says, “Let God be true, and every man false”. Even if I have to be branded in that way, let God be true. If anything comes up in my history among the brethren, “Let God be true, and every man false; according as it is written, So that thou shouldest be justified in thy words, and shouldest overcome when thou art in judgment”. That is set out in Romans, so that the believer in the gospel begins with that: “Let God be true”. And then, let us seal our things that way. Everybody that comes into my house — my seal there is, “God is true”; in my business, “God is true”; in all my relations, in all my manner of life, “God is true”. That man represents God. The writer’s point here is, “He that has received his testimony” — that is, the testimony of the Man that is here from heaven, the testimony of Jesus — that man sets to his seal that God is true. That is what God requires at this time, that we commit ourselves to that, and it is the antidote to lying. One said, “All men are liars”, and in truth it is so. It is remarkable how naturally we are disposed to lying, to deceive even in a small way. If anyone discredits us we deny it. But there is the seal, “God is true”. I have set to my seal that God is true. I do not want to be different from God. If I [p. 315] am different from God I am not representative of God, and one is representative of God if one is truthful. That is so essential now because the enemy is working on the principle of lying; men think nothing of deception. We read of statesmen in the future speaking lies at one table. Men think nothing now of speaking lies. There used to be some honour but now it seems to be disappearing, and of course, it works down so that we are insensible to the discredit of the business application of untruthfulness or deception. We have stressed in John’s writings, “He that practises the truth”. He is not only saying the truth, he is doing it. “He that practises the truth comes to the light”. He comes to the light. You need not be afraid. If I am doing the truth I love the light. “Every one that does evil hates the light” for it is that which makes manifest. As doing evil I hate it; it exposes me; but God is in the light. Let us walk in the light as God is in the light. If we do we have fellowship one with the other. Well, I am speaking now about doing truth; I come into the light; my deeds are made manifest that they are wrought in God. God loves that. God would cause the light to shine on every one who is doing the truth. It is a question of the testimony: he has the seal that God is true, and the new man is created in righteousness and holiness and truth. That is all I had to say, and I commend it to you, these three points, and in a practical way the seal that God is true.