Sealed unto the Day of Redemption
Ephesians 1:13-14
NLT “And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised ago. 14-The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”
(My notes…God wants us to praise him and glorify him for what he has done for us. He doesn’t need us to praise him…he wants us…to show our appreciation for all he has given us and for all he does for us) I am remembering the fig tree –the one that Jesus came across in the book of Mark 11:12-14 and was hungry, but the fig tree was not producing any fruit yet it was full of leaves and Jesus spoke directly to it, “No man eat the fruit of thee hereafter forever.” I saw this as a metaphor for us. God has sealed us with his Holy Spirit but are we producing any fruit? Are we waiting for a certain season as the fig tree, when the word of God said to be ready in season and out of season…2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.” I am going to add in vs.3-5 “For the time will come when they (who…the world) will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4-And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and be turned unto fables. 5-But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the works of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
Church Family and Friends this is why we have been sealed. This is what we have been called and chosen to do. This is how we give God praise and glorify him by doing the work and making full proof of the Good News that leads to salvation. This is how we put God First…
Let’s examine the words…Earnest…Inheritance…Seal …Redemption…