Name Change - Part 3 - Sealed

2 Timothy 2:19

Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: 

“The Lord knows those who are His,” and, 

“Everyone who calls on The Name of The Lord

 must turn away from iniquity.”

Revelation 22:4

They will see His face, and His Name will be on their foreheads. 

Revelation 3:12

The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will never again leave it. Upon him I will write The Name of My God, and the name of the city of My God (the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven from My God), and My New Name.

    In 2 Timothy 2:19 we are sealed with a great seal, a seal bearing two inscriptions: The Lord Knows Who Belongs To Him and Everyone Who Calls On The Name of The Lord Must Turn Away From Iniquity. Two very important statements in being called a Christian. [Matthew 7:22, 23; John 10:14, 27]

    The first part of the great seal states that The Lord Knows Who Belongs To Him. Just because someone says they're a Christian doesn't mean they're a Christian. Their actions belie their words. Even actions done 'in Christ's Name' does not make a person a Christian. It is the second part of the seal that defines Christianity. 

    How does The Lord know who belongs to Him? God knows our hearts and our thoughts. Therefore, He can see our intents and our motives before ever we take action on them. [1 Samuel 16:7; Jeremiah 17:10]. Since we know this to be true, we must guard our hearts and fill our thoughts with those things that honor God. [Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:8]. 

THE LORD KNOWS WHO BELONGS TO HIM

    Many are the passages of Scripture that define workers of iniquity. The Book of Proverbs is filled with the wisdom and knowledge of who these workers are and how to avoid being one of them. Workers of iniquity are unrepentant sinners. They are comfortable in their sin and see no reason for changing their ways. [Psalm 5:5; 1 John 3:4; 1 John 2:4; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Matthew 25]. 

    Too many will have attended one church or another, becoming a member of the church denomination, giving their tithes and offerings, serving on the board or teaching in the classrooms. But never giving their hearts and lives to Christ Jesus. Never surrendering fully to God, nor giving Him the honor and glory due Him because He is God. Church attendance does not make us known to God. 

    The Lord is sifting the church, bringing judgment upon the sleepers, who will be chaff in the wind, kindle in the fire. Their 'faith' will dissolve and they will complain to God that they did this or did that in His Name, but He will inform them that He never knew them. Be wheat, not chaff. Be watchful, not sleeping. Know the times in which we live and be ever ready to give a testimony of the gospel and why you believe on The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. [Matthew 3:12; Matthew 25:1-13; Romans 13:11; 2 Timothy 1:8; 1 Peter 3:15].

TURN AWAY FROM INIQUITY

    We guard our hearts when we disallow vain philosophies to enter in. We have set a watch over our hearts when we listen to God's Holy Spirit, Who leads us away from temptations and brings us closer to God, when we maintain a full study life in Christ. We read our Holy Bibles, praying over The Word that God would reveal to us in the passage(s) we are reading, not only Himself, but what He would have us to know. 

    Think: consider, regard, take into account. Now, if we are taking something or someone into account, we are putting some serious thought into what we will do with that something or someone. It is applying deliberate attention to every detail, even the most minute, or what appears to be an irrelevant or obscure detail, and fully laying it out before we make a decision regarding that something or someone. This is how we think on God's Word. 

    What is iniquity? Iniquity is sin. It is disobedience to God's Word and God's Will for us. It is lawlessness. It is evil and wickedness. Iniquity is immorality. It is wrongdoing, misconduct, dishonesty. Iniquity is trespassing. It is corruption. 

    Iniquity takes up residence in both the heart and the mind from birth, through the nature of sin that we are born with. When we reach the age of accountability--knowing what is right and what is wrong and why these things are right and wrong, recognizing truth as truth and lying as lying--then we become accountable to God for how we think and what we believe. 

    When we turn from iniquity, we must turn our hearts and our minds elsewhere. And just where is this 'elsewhere'? In Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of God's Love to us. He is Truth. He is Righteousness. He is The Right Hand of God. He is Love. He is Light. He is Savior. He is Redeemer. He is The Glory of God and so much more. He is The Good Shepherd Who Knows His Sheep. 

    That's how we are known. That's how we are recognized. When Jesus Christ is our Savior, He becomes our Shepherd and we become His fellow workers of righteousness and His sheep. We are His own. We belong to Him now, for we have turned our backs on iniquity. No more are we workers of iniquity, no more are we living lives of sin and immoralities: we are His sheep: we are Christians because we are following our Shepherd now in this new Life He has given us in Himself, instead of following the main worker of iniquity, of lawlessness, Satan. 

    We are sealed with this great seal, a dual seal of Being Known By God and Belonging To Jesus Christ. We are Christians, Light-Bearers in an ever darkening world, and we are here to tell you about the saving grace of God through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. "For there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved." [Acts 4:12]. 

    Where the blood of God's Lamb Who Takes Away The Sins of The World has been applied, and where the fire of God's Holy Spirit is evident, the seal has been branded on that person. Are you sealed? 

     

    

The Riches of His Glory

 

Ephesians 3:16

God grant you, 

according to the riches of His glory,

to be strengthened with might

by His Spirit

in your inner being.

THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY

Colossians 1:27

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

Romans 9:23, 24 In order to make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory—including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

Ephesians 1:18-21

I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. 

These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

2 Corinthians 4:6

For God, Who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His Light shine in our hearts to give us the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

John 1:1-3, 14

In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was Life; and the Life was the Light of men. ... And The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of The Only Begotten of The Father,) full of grace and truth. 

    In Christ Alone our hope is found [2 Corinthians 5:19]. There is No Other Name given under heaven by which we must be saved [Acts 4:12]. (amazing choir) 

Christ Our Hope In Life or Death is the riches of God's glory. This is our treasure which we take with us when we leave these bodies behind. It is not the only treasure we can lay up in heaven, though.

    We can bring other vessels of mercy to heaven with us, or send them on ahead of us. We pray for their salvation. We pray for their walk with The Spirit. We pray for their journey in Jesus Christ, which will prepare them for an eternity in the heavenly realm. 

    We pray that our families, our friends, our acquaintances, the strangers among us and our enemies (they who come against in for the name of Christ on us) would know Romans 8:38, 39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

No Other Name

Acts 4:11, 12

 This Jesus is ‘The Stone you builders rejected, which has become The Cornerstone.’ Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

 There is no other way to get into God's eternal holy presence, unless we come through the blood of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ first. As The Word reveals to us here, "there is NO OTHER NAME than The Name of JESUS CHRIST" by which we can be saved from eternal damnation and punishment for our sins. 

It is only through belief in His Name, which is The NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES, that saves our souls. And this belief on His Name is a choice, a conscious decision, that must be made on this side of eternity while we still draw breath. 

No other god can replicate what Jesus Christ did on the cross and in the garden after He rose from the dead. No religious dogma, nor doctrine, can save us. Only Jesus Christ. God loves us and wants us to love Him in return, willingly and wholeheartedly. But we have to make that decision in our lifetime: it cannot be made after we die. 

ONLY JESUS by Casting Crowns

The Lord Is Faithful and True

 

REVELATION 19:11

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He does judge and make war.

    HIS FAITHFULNESS

He Keeps His Promises

Psalm 96:12-13

Let the fields exult, and all that is in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the LORD, for He is coming—He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

2 Timothy 2:13

if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

    HIS TRUTH

He speaks Truth because He IS Truth

John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am The Way, The Truth and The Life: no man comes to The Father, but by Me.

John 1:14

 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of The Only Begotten of The Father,) full of Grace and Truth.

Numbers 23:19 (Balaam's response to Balak) 

God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

    Every promise of God will be fulfilled. Whether to bless the faithful or judge the faithless. There are over 400 prophecies in The Old Testament concerning The One Whom God would send to deliver His people and reign as King. Just as the prophecies are several years apart, so, too, are the promises of God. It hasn't even been 2000 years since Christ, but we're getting close. Still His Name is proclaimed to the nations. Still He saves the sinner seeking His grace and mercy. Still The Holy Spirit is poured out upon they whom The Lord God has chosen to receive Him. 

    The promises of God are many and ALL will be fulfilled at some point in time. When King Jesus returns, according to the detail available in this verse, His Authority will be evident (the white horse - purity). He is not coming for a party, but for war. War against the people who chose not to follow Him and who remain after the event in which His people had been "caught up in the air" (1 Thessalonians 4:17); and after the dead in Christ have risen (1 Thessalonians 4:16). 

    His Name is Faithful (unwavering adherence to the truth, steadfast {committed,  unswerving, unyielding}) and True (in accordance with fact, reality; verifiable, accurate). He is Judge and Jury, for He will war against the unfaithful with His Righteousness: the divine approval of God. 

    So very thankful that this Righteousness covers me. See, it's nothing that I accomplished. But it's through my faith on, my belief in, The Only Name Under Heaven by Which We Must Be Saved, through JESUS CHRIST The Only Begotten Son of God, that I am made approved by God to be God's child. 

    His Righteousness is the spiritual garment I wear. I clothed myself in His Righteousness when I repented of my sins and turned away from a living a sinful life to living a holy life. It's not a perfect life, but a lifetime of small achievements in grace which make me holy. In His Righteousness is where I live. I became a  child of God through God's grace ( Galatians 3:25-27; John 1:12). 

    If you are not already in His Righteousness, it's not too late. As long as you have breath in your body, there's still time to place your faith in Christ Jesus. For the day is fast approaching when the decision to choose wisely will no longer be yours to make; for death will have snatched your soul and the opportunity to choose Christ will be gone from you for ever. 

SPEAK LIFE - TobyMac

JESUS HAVE IT ALL - Jeremy Riddle

NO OTHER NAME BUT JESUS - Victory House Worship