signed, Sealed, Delivered We're God's

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

HBO: God sealed us like a precious letter, perfect in every way.

Verses: Song of Songs 8:6; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; Hebrews 11

Point 2-Sealed, when a letter is sealed it protects the document as is. When we believe, we are washed clean of our sins, and we are Sealed in that state by the Holy Spirit

Point 3-Delivered Just like a letter, we are eventually sent off when we die and are delivered before God. This is our deliverance! In the moment, God looks at the seal that binds us, and the seal that authenticated us, and looks to the one who sent us, Jesus, who confirms that we are his.

Illustrations- Canned food, Sealed with air-ruined, properly sealed is good

Introduction-

In 1970, Stevie Wonder wrote an incredible song that is still on the Rolling Stones top 500. The song described his experience losing a girlfriend and realizing his mistake and like a package being sent, he is Signed, Sealed, Delivered, he was hers. This song became so popular because it related to a lot of people. There have been many who have lost a love and regretted it. The interesting thing in this song is the tag line, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours. The song claims that he is entirely for this girl. Now, interestingly, there is a connection in this song to an important idea throughout scripture. Song of Solomon contains similar ideas to Stevie Wonders song. Solomon speaks about his love for the woman he wishes to be with, even through the trials of their relationship. Even though the book is clearly speaking about a love between a man and a woman, the idea of true love, and the connection to Jesus is very evident throughout. Today we are going to talk about the idea of being sealed by the Holy Spirit. Today as we dive into the book of Ephesians, Hebrews, and Song of Solomon, we will be looking at how through the Holy Spirit we are Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

Let’s turn together to Song of Solomon chapter 8:6 and 7. The book of Song of Solomon is between three perspectives, The Lover who we believe is Solomon, the Beloved who is one of King Solomon’s wives, and a group of friends who act almost as a narrator for the love song. Throughout the book there are struggles the couple goes through from courting through to their eventual marriage and struggles with Solomon failing the Beloved. However, in the end they both make up and we get this beautiful message from the beloved.

Read Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Song of Solomon 8:6–7 CSB

Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death; jealousy is as unrelenting as Sheol. Love’s flames are fiery flames— an almighty flame! A huge torrent cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Signed- Point 1- In ancient times when a document that was being sent a far distance would often have two wax seals attached to it, one very small and one medium sized. These seals were a form of security, often used to hold a letter closed, so that it could not be opened or tampered with until delivered to the intended recipient. Wax seals were also attached to the bottom of documents on a ribbon that would indicate who had sent the message. If either one of the seals was broken, the recipient would know that the letter had been tampered with.

To start we will look at the fact that we are signed by God. The second seal placed upon the bottom of the letter was a symbol that marked the letter as coming from someone special. When the beloved in Song of Solomon asks him to place her like a seal on his heart, like a seal on his arm, she is asking him to show that he is hers. The seal on his heart is like the seal that closes a letter off and protects it, the seal on his arm would be similar to how we would end a letter now. A visible signature that marked him.

As believers, we too are signed by God as his own. A signature that cannot be removed unless we do not believe!

In 2 Corinthians 1:21–22 we read, “Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed us. He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.”

God made us, put time and work into us. One of the more popular modern worship songs right now is a song called, Canvas and the Clay. The song talks about how God lovingly put us together, as Jeremiah 1:4–5 confirms when it tells us “The word of the Lord came to me: I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” ,

On top of that Psalm 139:13–16 tells us, “For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.”

God put us together with care and compassion and when he did, he figuratively signed his name on us by creating us in his image. That is what Genesis 1:27 tells us. When people look at us, in many ways they should see the creator. Through our love, our kindness, our compassion, and mercy, and so many more ways. This is how God marked us as his own. Like a seal that marked a signature on a letter, So God marked us by making us in his image. However, that wasn’t the only way that God sealed us!

Sealed: Point 2- We are signed by being made in God’s image and by being marked by the seal that claims us as his own. But we are also sealed as a protective measure. When we send a package to someone, we don’t throw our items in and then disregard it. No, we take a piece of tape and make sure to seal it tightly so that nothing falls out. In the ancient days, when a letter was sent, they would seal it with a wax seal. Typically, it was fairly beautiful and had a symbol that would tell the person who sent it immediately. With the seal, and the signature seal, the person receiving the letter would have no doubts who sent it.

In Song of Solomon, the beloved asks for the lover to set her as a seal over his heart, and on his arm. This pointed towards the beloved asking for the lover to put a seal on his will and intelligence represented by his heart, and his physical strength which was his arm.

This again points towards us being sealed by the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1:13–14 says, “In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

And in Ephesians 4:30 says, “And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”

Followed by a list of things to avoid that includes Rage, slander, and all forms of malice. In both of these Ephesians passages we see that the Holy Spirit was set as a seal upon us. This was promised by Jesus in Acts 1:4–5 “While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father’s promise. “Which,” he said, “you have heard me speak about; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.””

The Holy Spirit was promised to come upon the Apostles, and it did in an amazing way. Acts 2 tells us about the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the Disciples, and they went out and preached the word of God. The Holy Spirit is seal upon each of hearts from the moment we believe and it seals us for the time that we reach glory. In that moment we will stand before God in judgement and God will look at the seal, recognize that we His, and then will see that we accepted Christ which is what the seal protects in us!

In that moment, God will deliver us and allow us to enter into glory. Into an everlasting life with him. All of this happens when we first believe, we are justified, Christ claims us clean, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and all of that is seen when enter into judgement before God.

This seal is similar to the process of canning something. Now, I’m sure many of you here can tell you more about the canning process than I can, but I know one thing. Once that seal is locked in place, that item is protected from the outside air that could spoil it. That seal allows us to know that the canned item is fresh and unspoiled.

Delivered: Point 3- With us being sealed by God’s signature and being Sealed in the moment that we believe; we are ready to be sent out. As Christians, God intended us to introduce others to himself. One of the last things that Jesus said to his disciples was for them to go out into “Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” The idea being that you start close to your community and move out telling other the good news of Jesus Christ.

But the question then comes, what is that good news? What is the gospel of Christ. John 3:16 ties in to the remainder of Song of Solomon 8: 6-7. In John 3:16–17 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” we read,

And Song of Solomon 8:6–7

Song of Solomon 8:6–7 CSB

Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death; jealousy is as unrelenting as Sheol. Love’s flames are fiery flames— an almighty flame! A huge torrent cannot extinguish love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Love is like a fire! God loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us. When we understand this beautiful truth, it is as if a flame is lit inside of our heart.

Fire doubles every 30 seconds!

Song of Solomon describes a beautiful true love. It is properly jealous, it is fierce, it is like fire, it cannot be quenched, and it cannot be purchased. We see these similar thoughts come through in 1 Corinthians 13 where love is described. True love is parient, kind, not envious, not arrogant, does not insist on its own way, not irritable, enjoys truth, it believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things, it never ends. Love is incredibly power, and it is because of God’s great love for us that we have access to heaven, that we can pray directly to our God. With God’s seal on us, that love that God freely gave to us allows us to stand before Him in glory. He looks at his signature, looks at the seal of the Holy Spirit that keeps us in that perfect moment of belief, and he accepts us, delivered from our sin. He accepts us as perfect because of the perfect work of Christ and the seal of God in our lives.

Conclusion/practical application- So, as we go out from here this Sunday, we should remember that God has set his Holy Spirit on our hearts and we are signed, Sealed, delivered to God. In light of that, we should be wholly God’s. How do we give ourselves to God? Well, we can love Him in return. We can follow Him and give Him our lives. When we considering giving God our lives, we should think about the idea of tithing. In the bible, and in tradition, the idea is to give 10% of what we earn back to God. What if we thought outside of money on this idea? What is we gave 10% of our time? During a 24-hour day that would be 2 hours and 20 minutes, every day! Between prayer, speaking to people about God, reading our Bible, taking some silent time for God, and anything else that honors him, do we give 10% of our time? If we are fully God’s, we should be willing to give not only of our finances but of everything we are! God loved us so much to send the Holy Spirit as a seal, the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead as Romans 8:11 tells us. This Spirit, it allows us direct access to God, and it seals us with a great, jealous love that wants us to love God in return. So, let’s go out today and love God knowing that we can stand before Him in glory, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and perfect in His sight.