Pastor David shares the significance of the seal of God on the forehead of the 144,000.

<p>Pastor David shares the significance of the seal of God on the forehead of the 144,000.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside O’Malley SDA Church

David Shin

The Sealing

The Sealing: Who Are the 144,000

The Sealing: The Signature of God

The Sealing: Probation Closed


On the screen I have a photograph of the most famous painting in all the world, the Mona Lisa. It resides at the Louvre in Paris, France. And the former director of the Louvre said that in 2014, there were 9 million visitors that year to the Louvre. And he estimated that 80% of them came to just get a glimpse of the Mona Lisa. This photograph of the painting has filled people with just wonder at the question of whether she's actually smiling or not, because it's a mysterious slight smile.

This painting was created by the quintessential Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci. And for a number of years, it was thought that this painting was never signed. Until in 2011, Silvano Venato, President of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage, examined the Mona Lisa more carefully under a magnifying glass. And as he took his magnifying glass and examined the right eye and more specifically the pupil of the Mona Lisa there were in black paint the letters LV which many assumed to be the initials of Leonardo da Vinci. He had, according to many specialists, they believe that he did sign his masterpiece of a painting called the Mona Lisa.

Did you know that all of us will bear God's signature? And I want to invite you to open your Bibles to the last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter 22 and verse 4. This is after we are restored to Eden, We are standing before God glorified. After all of the things have come to pass and all things are made new, in Revelation chapter 22 It describes the tree of life flowing through, from the throne of God through the city. And in 22 verse 4, the Bible makes this declaration about God's people.

They shall see his face. And his what? And his name shall be on their forehead. The Bible tells us that God's name will be written on our forehead, God's signature at the prefrontal cortex, the place where our conscience, our character, resides. And you'll notice that there is a relationship between seeing God and having His Father's name written on our forehead.

Remember in Eden, Adam and Eve were able to have open communion with God. They had the image of God. They were created in His image. But after sin, This was no longer possible. And in Exodus chapter 33, you remember Moses was there on Mount Sinai, and you remember he made the request of God, can I see your face?

And what did God say? No man can see my face and live. He said, but you can see my back. And so he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, that's where we get that song, and as he was passing by he put his hand there and let his hand reveal his back. He was only allowed to see the back of God.

But here we see, when Eden is restored, we are able to see the face of God because the Father's name is written on our foreheads. Very quickly, on the screen, I have a picture of a bird's eye view of the sanctuary and this really shows the plan of salvation in kindergarten elementary illustrative form. This is where Adam and Eve were in Edenic perfection. Open communion with God, a conversation with God, face to face, eyeball to eyeball. After sin, this was no longer possible.

The entire human race was placed outside and we can spend an entire presentation on this, but the plan of salvation and the story of redemption and the story of the Bible, I would add, is showing us the path back to the throne of God. So he brings us into the courtyard, into the holy place, into the most holy place. In Revelation chapter 22, you see that God has completed his work, the Father's name is written on our foreheads. And we are able to see God face to face. A beautiful summary of this is found in the book Education, page 125.

The central theme of the Bible, the theme about which every other in the whole book clusters is the redemption plan. The restoration. Notice the language here. The restoration. In the human soul of the image of God.

They shall see his face and his name shall be in their forehead. The burden of every book and the passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme. So God's plan is to bring us back. It's not only to restore Eden, the place, but it's also to restore the people, to bring us back, to restore in man the image of God. And this is God's plan.

This is God's signature, and this is not a literal stamping of God's name on our forehead. This is not saying that when we get to heaven, God is going to come down and stamp his signature on our forehead. The name of God is referring to the character of God, and the reason why it's on our forehead is this is where the character resides. The prefrontal cortex, reason, conscience, personality, this is where it's at. And so, the Bible is telling us that when Eden is restored, the people that inhabit Eden will also be restored as well.

We will be like God. His Father's name, our Father's name, will be written on our forehead. Now last week we talked about the 144, 000 and there's another characteristic of the 144, 000 and it's found in Revelation chapter 14 verse 1, then I looked and there before me was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion and with Him the hundred and forty-four thousand who had His name and His Father's name written on their forehead. The Bible tells us that this group called the 144, 000, which is a symbolic number, and if you missed last week's presentation, I wanna encourage you to get it. It's a symbolic number talking about God's people who are alive when he comes.

They're translated without seeing death. And the Bible tells us that they will have the Father's name written on their forehead. Now open your Bibles to last week's study, Revelation chapter 7, verse 3 and 4, and you'll see that the 144, 000 are described as having something else on their forehead that is related to the name of God. Revelation chapter 7, and let's pick up in verses 1 to 4. Revelation chapter 7, verses 1 through 4, after these things I saw 4 angels standing at the 4 corners of the earth holding the 4 winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth on the sea or on any tree.

Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the 4 angels to whom it was granted to not harm the earth and the sea, saying, do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their where? On their forehead. Now this is the picture that the Bible is painting, and this is the picture that is emerging out of this verse, there are 4 angels. They're holding the winds of strife.

By the way, God is not waiting for world events, according to this verse. God is waiting for the sealing. So these angels are holding the winds, and a fifth angel comes, and he says, "'Keep holding them until we have sealed "'the servants of our God on their forehead. You'll notice that in Revelation chapter 14, the 144, 000 have the Father's name on their forehead. Here the Bible tells us that they have the seal of God on their forehead.

They're really referring to the same thing. In ancient times, there was a way that you authenticated a document. This is an archeological discovery of a seal from the first century. When these officials would write a document, the way that they would authenticate it, the way that they would sign it, would they would take this seal, dip it into wax, and then impress the seal upon the scroll, indicating that the creator of the document had signed it. This was the way that they signed documents.

This is what a seal was. So the New Testament individual that would read the words of Revelation and see the notion of a seal knew that it was synonymous with a signature. Now here's the question I have for you. When you compose a document, when you create a document, At what point do you sign it? Do you sign the document before you've ever created it?

No, I would argue that the last thing that you do After you have composed a document, after you have edited the document, after you have drafted the document, after it's finalized, the last thing that you do to authenticate it is to sign it. The same way with paintings. When an artist paints a painting, the last thing that he or she does is sign it. It is the signature indicating who the Creator was. Now in the Bible, God creates the earth in 6 days, day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day 6, and the Bible tells us that on day 7, He stamped it with his signature.

Do you believe that? Amen? He did not stamp it in time. I should say, he did not stamp it in a place. He stamped it in time.

I'm so glad that he didn't make it a place. Amen? That every 7 days we have to make a pilgrimage to somewhere in the Middle East? That would be just logistically difficult. But he put his signature of creation in time so that no matter where you are in the world that sacred signature in time comes over us like a holy wave beautiful every 7 days that sacred signature comes over us and we are now worshipping in this time.

Here's the signature. And on the seventh day, God, what? What did He do? He ended it. He ended His masterpiece.

He finished His creation. And He said, I'm going to sign it. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, which literally means to make it holy, because in it he rested from his work which God had created and made." So here we have it. God creates the earth in 6 days. On the seventh day, he signs it.

He places his stamp upon it, not in a place, but it's a sanctuary in time. And the Bible indicates that in Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 12, also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us so that they would know that the Lord made them holy. What the Bible is telling us is that every time we keep the Sabbath, it is not only a signature of creation, but every time we keep the Sabbath, It is a signature of salvation. Because God takes the earth without form and void, turbulence, he forms it, he fills it, then he signs it. God takes us, we're a mess, right?

Just the way we are. He says, look, I'm going to make you a new creation. Forms us, fills us, and he signs us. And every time we keep the Sabbath, it is a recognition that all of us are a work in progress. Amen?

God's workmanship in progress. And by the way, some people say, oh, you Seventh-day Adventists, you're a bunch of legalists because you keep the Sabbath. Quite the contrary. It is far from legalism. It is actually saying that, look, we can't make ourselves holy.

We need to rest in the assurance that it is God who makes us holy. Amen? So every Sabbath, when we come together, it's not only a recognition of the signature of creation, but it's also a personal recognition that there's nothing that I can do that can make myself holy, that I'm a work in progress. It's an acknowledgment of His workmanship, that He takes us, He forms us, He fills us, and the Sabbath is a recognition that God is working in our lives. It is His signature and we need to not work, we need to rest in that reality, in that assurance.

That is the beauty of the Sabbath. And so we have this beautiful signature. God creates, God restores his masterpiece. And I like to use this analogy of the painter. God is the painter, we are his canvas, the painting is his character.

This is really what the sealing is all about. God takes us and says, you know what? I'm gonna restore in you the image of God. And just like He can speak and there is light, He speaks. And from nothing there is created the semblance and the reflection of the character of God.

There's this quotation that is quite a lightning rod in many circles. It's from Christ Object Lessons, page 69. Perhaps you've heard of this quotation before. It's from Ellen White's writings, Christ Object Lessons, page 69. Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of himself in his church.

When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in his people, then he will come to claim them as his own. Have you heard of this statement before? When the character of Christ is perfectly reproduced in his people, then he will come to claim them as his own. And I have been in some circles where this portion has been grossly misinterpreted. They take it to say when veganism is perfectly reproduced, then Christ will come to take them as his own.

Now I support health reform, but I have been around nice vegans and not so nice vegans. We're missing the point. This is talking about character. Amen? It says, the character of Christ.

We can't miss this because I have been in circles where people have taken this quotation completely out of context and said, you know what, you have to adopt the same lifestyle as me. You have to eat 12 almonds a day, just like me. You have to eat this way, you have to dress this way. Now, there is a lifestyle change, but that's not what this is talking about. This is talking about a character transformation in God's people.

And what is the character of God? Amen? John chapter 13, verse 34, the words of Jesus, "'Love 1 another as I have loved you, "'that you also love 1 another. "'By this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for 1 another." In other words, it is not just preaching about the love of God, it is demonstrating the love of God in our hearts. This is from Desire of Ages, page 641.

Love 1 another as I have loved you, John chapter 15, verse 12. When we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven, for we have heaven in our hearts." When we love the world as Christ loved the world, then His mission for us is accomplished. And we quote this text all the time. Why isn't Jesus coming?

Because the gospel hasn't preached in all the world. Have you heard that? Matthew 24, verse 13, and this gospel, the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall the end come. Notice the Bible says it shall be preached in all the world as a witness. Now I would say that this includes the proclamation of the love of God in speech.

But I believe that it is fundamentally more than that. It is not just the proclamation of the love of God in what we say, but it is the demonstration of the love of God in who we are. God is not looking for more proclamation, friends. He is looking for more demonstration. And this is the irony.

Sometimes, we can get so caught up in proclaiming the love of God in a nasty way. I mean, this is the irony. God is love. Pull out our theological swords, ready to fight in an un-Christian, un-godly, unsanctified, venomous way. We've just defeated the whole notion of what the proclamation of the love of God really is.

And I have a sentiment that crossed my mind not too long ago. Do you know that there's going to be people in heaven that don't have their theology all put together nicely. There are. There are going to be people in heaven that when they get there, and I would put myself in the same category, I get up there and say, Lord, I'm sorry. I got that 1 wrong.

That 1 was a huge mistake. Please forgive me. Martin Luther, Calvin, oh, thank you, Lord, for grace. I got that theology. You know, these other ones, there's gonna be a lot of people.

They're gonna have a tremendous awakening theologically in heaven. I plan on getting multiple doctorates when I get there for 1, 000 years, sprucing up and getting my ducks in order. But do you know that there's going to be no 1 in heaven that is not willing to be made like Jesus? No 1 that is not willing to be made like Jesus. Now please don't misunderstand me.

I'm not minimizing theology. But the Bible says, they that worship me will worship me in spirit and in truth. There's a whole lot of people out there that have the truth. They don't have the Spirit. God says we need both.

Both the proclamation and the demonstration. And the issue is not so much theology. The issue is Pastor Shin is a thick-skulled, stubborn man, That when God takes out his paintbrush and says, look, I want to paint a masterpiece, I'm like, No, thank you. Take the paintbrush. I'm going to paint something of my own.

That's the real issue here. And God is wanting to create His masterpiece in you And in me, and He wants to sign it. It's time that we let Him. Amen? It's time that we let Him.

Minister of Healing, page 470, the strongest argument in favor of the gospel is a loving and lovable Christian. Not so much proclamation, demonstration, A loving and lovable Christian. How does God complete this work in us? Second Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, but we all with unveiled face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed. I love the NASB because it gets the Greek tense right.

It's not just a one-time deal. Are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, in other words, from character to character, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." How does God do this? Well, we contemplate. What we think about, we become. God's amazing grace as we close page 301.

By beholding, we are to become changed. As we meditate upon the perfections of the divine model, we shall desire to become wholly transformed and renewed in the image of His purity. It is by faith in the Son of God that transformation takes place in the character, and the child of wrath becomes the child of God. How many of you, you don't have to raise your hand, have things in your life that you wish But you wish you didn't have character flaws, defects, addictions, personality traits that are simply ungodly. The Bible says there's hope.

He is the master artist. And if we let Him, He will take us and create a masterpiece and put His signature on us. Let us pray. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come to you today asking you as the master artist to reproduce your character in our lives.

Lord, we recognize that this is an impossibility, but we thank you that with God all things are possible. We pray that you would create in us a new heart and renew a right spirit within us. Lord, make us more like Jesus. We surrender to the Creator and the author and the finisher of our faith. For we ask these things in Jesus' name.

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The Sealing

The Sealing: The Signature of God

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Other Teachings in Series

The Sealing: Who Are the 144,000

29m

The Sealing: The Signature of God

28m

The Sealing: Probation Closed

30m

Sound Doctrine