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I. NOTICE SOME OF THOSE PERNICIOUS WINDS WHERE WITH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS INFESTED WHILE HERE IN A MILITANT STATE.

1. There is the wind of open violence, persecution, and bloodshed.

2. Sometimes, and very frequently, the hurtful wind of error in doctrine is suffered to blow in the barn or field of the visible Church.

3. Another hurtful wind is the wind of strong delusions as to everlasting soul concerns; and this is consequential unto the former.

4. There is the wind of temptation that blows in the visible Church. This was a wind that blew hard on the glorious Head and Captain of our salvation (Matthew 4.).

5. Another hurtful wind is the wind of profanity and open ungodliness.

6. All these winds are commonly followed with the winds of desolating judgments, such as sword, famine, and pestilence, whereby the wicked are turned off the stage of time into a miserable eternity.

II. INQUIRE WHO ARE THOSE SERVANTS OF GOD FOR WHOSE SAKE THE HURTFUL WINDS ARE RESTRAINED, THAT PROVISION MAY BE MADE FOE THEIR SAFETY WHEN THEY DO ACTUALLY BLOW.

1. The servants of God are such as "keep the commandments of God," i.e. —

(1) They are holy persons; the "sanctified and preserved in Christ Jesus." Or —

(2) As Durham observes, they "keep the commandments of God," it is to be understood of a keeping the laws, ordinances, and institutions of Christ, in opposition to a set of men in the Antichristian Church, who, through their traditions, were making void the commandments of God.

2. The faithful servants of God are said to be such as "have the testimony of Jesus." By the testimony of Jesus we are to understand the gospel of Christ, or the doctrine of faith in its purity, which only is "the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16).

III. SPEAK A LITTLE OF THE SEAL THAT IS SET UPON THE SERVANTS OF GOD.

1. Who is He that seals them? It is Christ, the Great Angel that hath the seal of the living God.

2. What is implied in the sealing them?

(1) That He is their great owner and proprietor; for a man seals his own goods, that it may be known they are his.

(2) A seal is for distinction, to distinguish one man's goods from another.

(3) A seal is for confirmation. The king's seal appended unto a charter establishes and confirms it.

(4) A seal is sometimes for secrecy. We read of a book (Revelation 5:1) which was sealed with seven seals because of the great secrets and hid mysteries contained in it. And so it may import that God's people are His hidden ones, and that His secrets are imparted to them, and not to others.

(5) A seal is a badge of honour, love, and esteem. And so it implies that His servants are honourable persons, precious in His sight (Isaiah 43:4).

(6) A seal is for custody and preservation. So the saints and servants of God, they are "the preserved in Christ Jesus, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."

3. When and how are they sealed?

(1) From all eternity they were sealed with His electing and everlasting love.

(2) In their conversion and effectual calling they are sealed in their own persons with the image of the second Adam.

(3) They have a seal of blood set upon them in their redemption and justification; for, as you see (ver. 14 of this chapter), "they have their garments washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb."(4) They have the seal of the Spirit of promise set upon them (Ephesians 1:13).

4. But why are they said to be sealed in their foreheads? This may import two things.

(1) Their visible profession of Christ and their open owning of the Lord, and His way and cause in the time of the greatest opposition, when error and delusion and persecution was most rampant in the visible Church.

(2) Their being marked or sealed in the forehead implies that, in the time of common calamity, God will make such a visible difference between His own faithful servants and others, that he that runs may read, according to that (Malachi 3:18).

IV. INQUIRE INTO THE REASONS WHY CHRIST, THE ANGEL OF THE COVENANT, WILL HAVE HIS SERVANTS MARKED IN THEIR FOREHEADS WHEN THE WINDS ARE TO BE LET BLOW?

1. In so many words He will have them sealed, because they are His Father's gift, "Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me," and for the Father's sake that gave them, He will have them sealed.

2. Because He hath bought them at a dear rate, even with the price of His precious blood, not with silver, or gold, or such corruptible things, etc.

3. He seals them because they believe in Him (Ephesians 1:18). "After that ye believed, ye were sealed," etc.

4. He seals them because they love Him, so as to mourn for injury done Him (Ezekiel 9:4).

5. He seals them because they are His faithful witnesses, that confess Him when others deny Him.

6. He seals them that they may not suffer hurt by the destroying winds that blow in the visible Church. They keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus; and therefore He will keep them in the hour of temptation, according to the promise (Psalm 91:8, 7).

(E. Erskine, D. D.)

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KJV: And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

WEB: After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.