A MARKED PEOPLE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.

Ephesians 1:13-14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

I have a confession to make.

When it comes to making out a dark blue suit from a black one, I really struggle. Maybe you suffer from the same issue.

This has gotten so bad that I have had to mark each suit as to its color to remove any doubt from the selection process. The mark helps me identify one suit from the other.

Now, you’re probably wondering how this has anything to do with a message intended to share a Christian truth but as we see in today’s passage from the first chapter of Ephesians, this matter of marking things to distinguish one thing from another has spiritual as well as physical application. Look again at the words of Paul here:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.  Ephesians 1:13-14

When one looks to the core of the new covenant that God established with mankind, we find a shift to complete inclusiveness. Salvation was open and available to whosoever believed in Jesus as Savior. Such a decision would move a person from eternal damnation and torment to eternal life. It would also lead to God marking the Christ believer with His Holy Spirit.

Paul wanted the believers in Ephesus to know that when they heard the Gospel of their salvation and chose to place their faith and trust in Christ, they joined the family of God, children who were included in Christ. Through their belief in Jesus, God marked them with a spiritual seal, one that distinguished them from those who chose to reject His Son. This seal, the promised Holy Spirit, set the Ephesian believers apart and guaranteed their inheritance in Heaven, God’s Kingdom. They belonged to Him, not just for the present, but forevermore.

A day was ahead when Jesus would return to earth to redeem those who were of God’s possession, those who had committed to His Son and the salvation He brought. On that day, the Christians of Ephesus and every other person who placed their belief in Jesus would find themselves on the right side of a final sorting, one we read about from our Savior Himself in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.”

Then the righteous will answer Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?”

The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.”

Then He will say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.”

They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help You?”

He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.”

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. Matthew 25:31-46

Here we see the final outcome for a marked people. Those who believed in Jesus, the sheep, will be placed on the right with their destiny eternal life. Those who passed on believing in Jesus, the goats, would be grouped on the left, ticketed for eternal punishment and let’s not let that truth get glossed over here. An unsaved person isn’t just going to die, go into the ground, and decompose without any other consequence. Rather, their body might go into the grave but their soul, the spiritual lifeblood of that person, will go onto eternal damnation.

The bottom line is that the choice whether or not to believe in Jesus as Savior carries with it eternal ramifications. My prayer today is that you will opt to accept Christ as your Savior, be sealed and marked by the Holy Spirit, and gain your assured inheritance of everlasting life with the God who loves you and His Son who died to bring you salvation.

Be a sheep, not a goat.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com