No. 45 - REMOVING SPOTS AND BLEMISHES By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, May 01, 2004 We often hear the expression removing every spot and every blemish of the bride of Christ. Of course, that is taken from Ephesians chapter 5, so I want to start in Ephesians chapter 5. We are going to discuss removing spots and blemishes today. It is a good time because this is still in the spring holy day season, and we are trying to bear fruit for God. We want to have a clear understanding of what it means to get ready as the bride of Christ. THE DIVINE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE Turn, if you would, to Ephesians 5. We realize this is the discussion of marriage and family here, but it is also where the bride is spoken of. We will start in Ephesians 5:22. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.” This is the verse where we get the words removing every spot and blemish. Continue in verse 28: “So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Recently we had a sermon called “The Divine Institution of Marriage” where we looked at this in depth of why physical marriage is a wonderful and divine institution. We looked at the body of Christ as being the body that marries Christ and each of us are brothers and sister, mothers and daughters, so to speak, of the church. We are part of this bride, this one body. It is a great mystery, and it is awesome to comprehend that we can be a part of this great mystery. The point here is that Christ loves His bride. That is why we are told, “Husbands love your wives,” brethren love one another. Christ really does love His bride. His goal is to present her to Himself without spot or blemish, a perfect bride! We often talk about removing every spot and blemish. What is it we are talking about and why? Just what does it mean to be part of this bride and to marry Jesus Christ to be part of this Church? I want to look at a few different places in the Bible and bring things together. Turn, if you would, to a book we seldom look at, and that would be Song of Solomon. We do not usually read commentary, and we usually just go straight to God’s word. This time I want to read a little bit of the commentary that is in my Bible as a prelude to the Book of Song of Solomon. This is what is written here. “The Song of Solomon is a love song written by Solomon and abounding in metaphors and oriental imagery. Historically, it depicts the wooing and the wedding of a shepherdess by King Solomon and the joys and heartaches of wedded love. Allegorically, it pictures Israel as God’s betrothed bride and the Church as the bride of Christ. As human life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of man and woman, so spiritual life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of God for His people and Christ for His Church.” I thought that was quite well put actually, and it corresponds exactly with what we just read in Ephesians chapter 5. Ancient Israel was called God’s betrothed, His bride, and we know what happened there. There were a lot of problems in that marriage. The problems did not come from Christ. They came from the bride. Looking at the spiritual Church today, we see the same sort of thing. The Church, the bride, is causing Christ grief at this time. But He loves His bride. He wants to present her to Himself without spot and blemish. The Father is going to have a wonderful wedding for His Son. This Church that we are a part of, this bride of Christ and this divine institution of marriage is how He is doing it. It is composed of different people that have been called and drawn to Jesus Christ to get ready as the bride of Christ. What does it mean then to be without spot or blemish? Let’s read a little bit of this love song. Turn to Song of Solomon chapter 4 and read verse 1 for a start, and then we will drop down into the chapter. It is Christ talking to His bride. “Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove’s eyes behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats, going down from Mount Gilead.” We do not exactly talk like this today, but we do have a bride behind a veil. She looks beautiful and very fair. I do not know how often we have heard that a woman on her wedding day looks the most beautiful in her life. They are radiant with their white gown and their veil on. It is just a beautiful sight for the husband to behold, and this is what Christ is saying here. Drop down to Song of Solomon 4:6. “Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you. Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.” With the understanding we have now of what God is trying to do with physical creation to help us comprehend spiritual things He is creating, we understand that until Christ returns (the dawn will break), the shadows are what we dwell under. Until those shadows flee away and are gone (Satan and his demons are gone and removed), Christ has to withdraw for a little while from His bride. But He is looking forward to the day when He can approach her without spot and we can become His spouse. Continue in verse 8: “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.” We have been dwelling where the lion persecutes us and tries to destroy the bride. Christ is trying to express how He feels about His bride. Song of Solomon 4, verse 9: “You have ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; you have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace. How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes than all spices! Your lips, O my spouse, drip as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.” As we are removing the spots and blemishes and Christ looks on us, we look absolutely gorgeous to Him. What is on our tongue is beautiful. Why? Because when we preach the truth to the world, when we bring them hope and joy and when we have beautiful feet that bring the good news of the gospel of the kingdom, we have honey on our lips, He says. You are so wonderful! You speak the truth. Verse 12: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” Before I go any further I want to comment on “my sister, my spouse.” Remember He had said you are all My mothers, My brothers, My sisters. Because we are a body we are His sisters as well as going to be His spouse. This is scripturally very accurate. We are part of the bride of Christ and part of the body of Christ. A GARDEN FOR GOD We also understand the concept of us being a garden for God. We will reread verse 12: “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” We know Christ is living water. We are the springs when He dwells in us. The water spills forth. We know that when we bear fruit, we are bearing fruit in our character for Him so when He says you are full of good fruit and full of this living water, He is saying you have allowed Me to dwell in you. You have allowed Me to perfect you, and we are working. I am washing you with the water, we read about in Ephesians 5. I am cleansing you and getting rid of every spot, wrinkle and blemish until you are ready for the wedding. This is a beautiful song picturing God’s Church and what Christ is doing with us. We will read verse 16 and conclude that chapter: “Awake, O north wind, and come, O south! Blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its pleasant fruits.” We know we are the garden of God. He started with the Garden in Eden, and then He went to a spiritual garden which is composed of human beings. We have studied all of that before. We are bearing fruit for Him as a vineyard and a place where His trees are producing fruit because this wonderful living water is in us. It should be within us. All of this is pictured here, and this is why He finds His bride gorgeous, just beautiful. It is our character! It is not our physical looks. It is our character that He is in love with, because He is working on her to present her to Himself as a beautiful bride without spot or blemish. This is a mystery how He has taken physical marriage and physical family and within that unit has pictured what He is doing spiritually with the body of Christ. It is a beautiful analogy and wonderful concept that only the Great and Almighty God could come up with. A SACRIFICE WITHOUT BLEMISH I want to look at this concept of being without spot or blemish by going farther back into the scriptures where we can see this spoken of. We understand that Christ is the firstfruit, and He was our Passover and is our Passover. We just came through the Passover season and Unleavened Bread, and we are looking forward to Pentecost. We want to refresh our memories on this and combine it with this understanding of how He wants us to be just gorgeous for Him on His wedding day. Now turn, if you would, to Exodus chapter 12. Read verses 1-5. You will remember when we read the Song of Solomon it refers to your hair as like beautiful fleece on a goat, as well. We see God is saying I want the Passover to be without blemish. We know that Christ is our Passover. We can see that in the New Testament. Start turning to I Corinthians 5. We have just commemorated Passover. We read this scripture here, and let’s refresh our memories again. I Corinthians 5, verse 7: “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.” The ancient Passover in Old Testament Israel had to be perfect and without blemish because it was looking forward to Jesus Christ, the sacrifice for us who would die for our sins. He absolutely was perfect. In a physical sense, they were trying to mirror something that would happen in the future and did happen when Christ died for us. Then we are told to put out the old leaven and be a new lump. We have studied the concept of leaven being sin in our lives that leavens the whole lump. We also looked at the fact that the new leaven, Christ’s kingdom, will also grow from something small and fill the whole world. But right now we are still dwelling underneath Satan’s government, so we have to continually be putting out the leaven of malice and wickedness which is sin. We need to put that out of our lives. Each year at Passover we memorialize two things: the first Passover at Exodus and then, of course, Christ, our perfect Passover. The purpose of taking Christ our Passover is to cleanse us as the firstfruits and remove all of the spots and blemishes that we have accumulated during that year. As at baptism, our sins are washed away once again at Passover. We are washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. We become, in effect, part of that sacrifice: the body of Christ. Christ wants to present it to Himself without spot and blemish when He comes. Let us go back now to the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 15 and study the physical firstfruits. Read Deuteronomy 15:19-23. God says to offer to God a defective sacrifice is wrong. When the physical sacrificial system was in place and they were bringing a sacrifice offering to God, it had to be without defect. It could not be blind, lame or sick. It had to be perfect. It had to be the firstfruit of the flocks. We know that was symbolically pointing into the future for the firstfruits, God’s Church, the body of Christ. They are also firstfruits. Taking that comparison, we know we are to be without defect. We are not to be lame. We are not to be blind. We are to be without spot or blemish. We want to offer ourselves to Christ in a perfect state. Indeed, when we get married to Him as the bride of Christ, we need to be without spot or blemish with no defects. What is that definition of blemish in Deuteronomy 15? Just what are we talking about? It means a stain or a blemish physically or morally. Even back then, God in His Hebrew had the connection that you could not give a sheep that was lame, sick or blind, but also there was that secondary meaning that it has to be morally pure. We need to be morally pure. I have a hip that goes out. Sometimes I feel lame, and I am lame sometimes. That does not mean I cannot be a good sacrifice because God is looking morally. Each of us has physical defects, but God wants us to overcome our spiritual defects, that is the character flaws that we have. God is trying to assemble the firstfruits who would join Jesus Christ, the first of the firstfruits. THE FIRSTFRUITS If you turn to Romans 8, you will see that there is room in this family of firstfruits for more children, the firstfruits. Romans 8, verse 28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Here we are told Christ is the firstfruit of many brethren who are firstfruits. We are looking forward to Pentecost, now only thirty days away, the Feast of the Firstfruits. We are trying very hard in our lives to develop fruit. Firstfruits should be abounding in good fruit in our character. We are looking forward to Pentecost to be able to offer God some character that is better than the character of the year before and hopefully that was better than the year before that. We are growing. We are a tree that is becoming more fruitful each passing year. Now, if you would, turn to Hebrews chapter 12:18. “For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.” This is a comparison to the Church we have come into contact with as the congregation of the firstfruits, as compared to ancient Israel forming a congregation for God and seeing all of these physical signs and wonders and the things that happened to them. When they came to Sinai and saw the mountain shaking and the quaking, they were terrified. This is what is being described here. Read Hebrews 12:20-24. We have been so blessed to come into contact with the Church of the firstborn. It is that spiritual kingdom of God called Mount Zion with the spiritual temple to the living God in a heavenly spiritual city called Jerusalem. All things we cannot see with the naked eye, but by faith we trust that they are really there. We have come into contact with it. By faith we understand we have come into contact with the truth of God, the true Church, and have been sprinkled by the blood of our Passover so that we are washed clean. We have had our spots and blemishes removed so we can be prepared as the bride of Christ. It is very important to always remember we are involved with something huge here! This is what it means to be part of the firstfruits. Now let’s corroborate this with a few other scriptures. Turn to I Corinthians 15. These firstfruits are not taken lightly. We were just told they are registered. God watches every one of them and they are registered! I Corinthians 15, verse 20: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” There are other firstfruits like Peter, James and Paul who are asleep now. They have died. Continue in verse 21: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.” That is His bride. Continue reading I Corinthians 15:24-27. God the Father is above Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is His firstfruit and then He has many brethren, the firstfruits, the body of Christ. Skip, if you would now, to Revelation chapter 14:3. “They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.” The 144,000 are the ones registered. They are numbered. They are the firstfruits. They are the many brethren that Jesus Christ is assembling as firstfruits, His Church (the body of Christ) that He wants presented to Himself without spot or blemish at that soon-coming wedding. It all fits perfectly! Let us go to James 1:17. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” So we become a type of firstfruits by receiving spiritual gifts from above. These are beautiful and wonderful spiritual gifts that come from above and are part of the truth, the word of truth. These help us be a firstfruit of God’s creatures. God the Father is the only one who can draw us to Christ and help us to receive the truth. He draws us to learn these things and to bear fruit for God. In other words, this is a miracle that God is doing! We are basically along for the ride. We have work to do, but God the Father drew us to Christ. Christ is washing us clean so we can be presented to Him without spot or blemish. This is something They are doing that is miraculous. We have a part to play with our free will allowing it to happen within us. We allow God the Father and Jesus Christ to work with us to bear fruit and get us ready as the bride of Christ. Therefore firstfruits, the Church, and the bride of Christ are all the same thing. We need to remember that as we look in the scriptures back and forth. The firstfruits, the firstborn, the Church, the bride of Christ are all talking about the same thing but showing us different sides of the same thing God wants us to understand. There are many parts of this to know. What it is to be a firstfruit, what it is to be a Church, what it is to be a firstborn, what it is to be a bride all have to come together to make the full understanding. INTEGRITY AND TRUTH I want to define spot and blemish more fully now. Blemish number 8549 in your Old Testament comes from the word tamiym and comes from number 8552 which means for the entire thing and literally, figuratively or morally. As a noun it means integrity and truth. In other words, a firstfruit, to be without blemish, must possess in entirety the truth and be full of integrity. In other words, perfect character while also possessing the truth. It is exactly what we just read. So we need to understand the truth so we can say good things to people, but we also need to have integrity of character within us and be growing and bearing fruit for God. This word tamiym is related to the word tummiym number 8550 which means perfections, one of the epithets of the object, one of the writings on an object in the high priest’s breast plate. So that same word is related to what the high priest used to have in his breast plate with writing on it, and that writing said complete truth. He wore something on his breast plate that said I represent, as high priest, complete truth! So those two words: without blemish, means we have complete truth and integrity. Those are pretty high standards to attain. We need Christ’s help to do this. Therefore, we need to possess and speak God’s truth and be growing in character attaining to the perfection that Jesus Christ has. The words spot and blemish also come from the root word that sounds like moon in Hebrew, muwn, 3971 which means to stain or blemish morally or physically. In other words, if one was to try to possess that truth and then get a stain or get a blemish on it, that would mean we are speaking something incorrectly which would be a stain in God’s eyes. When the body of Christ is teaching something incorrect, that is a stain or blemish. UNREPENTED SIN It would also be a stain or blemish on our character. In other words, if we are carrying around unrepented sin, we have within us a stain or a blemish in our character. This means our sacrifice, which is what we are to God, is not without defect. It has a defect in it. Back to the firstfruit, the offering to God must be without blemish. It must have no defect. If we are carrying around an unrepented sin, we have a defect. There is something wrong and it needs to be fixed. We can compare the physical to the spiritual. We find that at the first Passover God said do not bring Me a sheep that has defects because it is representing My Son. Then when He spoke of the sacrificial system and the firstfruits being offered as sacrifices, He said do not bring Me a sacrifice that is blind, lame or sick. It has a physical defect. All of these pointed to the spiritual things that He would do later in the Church. Pentecost is thirty days away. We do not want to offer ourselves on Pentecost to God as an offering and be full of unrepented sin. An offering is a sacrifice. We do not want to approach Pentecost and say God here I am, I am Your offering, and know that from Passover to that point we are still full of unrepented sin. That is offering God a sacrifice with defects in it. Now to the very best of our ability, we need to try to go to God constantly and repent and get that blood to wash us clean. We need to be working very diligently to overcome sin and put out the leaven. To the extent we are doing that and are successful is how good an offering we are giving God. We are not going to be perfect. Christ was perfect. But for us to settle for imperfection is wrong. Keep striving and working to try to attain perfection so we can offer a good offering. We are drawing from the Old Testament physical examples and comparing them to what God wants to see spiritually. Christ is washing us year by year, day by day with His blood and working in us. He is helping us to overcome if we are allowing Him, so that eventually we can be presented to Him as a bride without spot, blemish or defect. It is a miracle that this can get done at all with physical human beings! The only thing that can hold up this whole process is you and I. Christ is perfect and He is all powerful. We have to allow Him with our free will to work within us. A TESTING PERIOD So the point we are driving toward is Pentecost will soon be here. We were told by Christ from that first day of the week during the Days of Unleavened Bread you count fifty. This is the testing period of seven sevens. You test and try yourself over these next seven weeks and make sure you are as pure as you can be in your character. When you come before Me on Pentecost, you can offer a good offering without spot or blemish. We do this by overcoming sins. We have been examining ourselves since prior to Passover looking for spots and blemishes and for things wrong. So a successful Passover season would mean that we were cleaned by Christ’s blood and we continued overcoming and bearing fruit for Him. We stayed as clean as possible. It is not perfectly done by any of us, but we are striving to stay as clean as possible removing these spots and blemishes from our character so that we can be part of that bride that is clean. In the image that we saw in Song of Solomon of a bride with a veil and beautiful gorgeous white clothing we do not want to be the one ink spot on that garment. As the bride cleans up, Christ is looking and says there are a number of spots and blemishes on here. We do not want our name next to one. We want to be working on our character so that Christ will say I am washing this person with water, that spring of life. I am cleansing them with My blood, and that stain is going away. It is fainter than it was the year before. It is going away. It is getting better. That is what we are trying to achieve. God can do this in us miraculously, but we have a big part to play with our free will and working on these things to overcome sin. Now, if you would, turn to I Peter 1:13. “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” So God says the revelation of Christ is to return soon. We want to be fully clothed with the grace that He is bringing, as obedient children. Therefore, in order to fully attain the reward that He would like to give us, we must not be going back to our former lusts as we did when we were ignorant. Before we were called, we were all in the habit of sinning constantly. As we were called and were baptized and we had our sins washed away, year by year we should be overcoming sin. We should be growing stronger and stronger, kicking Satan out of our lives. We should be getting rid of those old habits. Remember that Spanish proverb? “Habits are first cobwebs, and then they are cables.” We want good habits and good cables around us, and we want to bust asunder all of the bad habits, bad thoughts and bad ways of life. We are told here not to go back to your old former lusts. You are preparing for Christ Who is coming very soon. We are told here in verse 16 “Be holy, for I am holy.” Our husband to be is holy, and He wants His bride to be without spot or blemish. Continuing in I Peter 1:17. “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear…” So as many days as we have left, be fearful and in respect of God in what He is doing to us. It is an amazing thing that He is doing. Do not make it harder for Him than it already is. Verse 18: “…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” We are told we were not redeemed with money. That would have been easy. You were redeemed with My Son’s blood! You have been cleaned up with His blood. Do not take this lightly. We are now measuring your work! Are you producing fruit? We have cleaned you up. We have given you the Holy Spirit. We have given you this water of life. We have washed you. Are you constantly going back to your old ways and undoing what We are doing and making us start again? Or are you a fading spot getting whiter and whiter? That is what we want. We want to be getting whiter with each and every passing year. I think this year we are understanding this more than ever before and definitely growing in amazing ways. If you would now, turn to II Peter chapter 3:14. “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless…” We want to be diligent and be working on these things so when Christ, our Husband, our Redeemer comes, we will be without spot and blameless. Verse 15: “…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you…” So we want to learn by the longsuffering of Christ (He is very patient with us) that He has offered us salvation, and He is working with us. We have to realize that. He is not going to let us go down the tubes. He is working with us. He wants to give us the full reward He possibly can, and we have to work with Him on that by growing in holy righteous character. Turn back to I Timothy chapter 6:1. “Let as many bondservants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and His doctrine may not be blasphemed.” We are under Christ. He is our Master. We do not want His name blasphemed. Verse 2: “And those who have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather serve them because those who are benefited are believers and beloved. Teach and exhort these things. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.” God says do not put up with the teaching that would turn us away from the true doctrines of God and from the doctrines which accord with godliness and would cause within us wranglings, disputes, arguments, strife or the pursuit of physical gain. We are not in this for the pursuit of physical gain. We want spiritual blessings. Continuing with I Timothy 6:6. “Now godliness with contentment is great gain.” If you want great gain, be godly. Be like Jesus Christ and be content with what you have physically. Verse 7: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.” If we do not want to go to destruction and perdition, pursue those things which are real gains. Spiritual gains and character growth are the things God will reward us for doing because we will have gotten rid of every spot and every blemish. Verse 10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” We pierce ourselves with many sorrows when we go back to the sins we left behind. It could be money. It could be all manner of things. It could be a short temper, it could be gossip or just a variety of things that we go back to. When we do, we pierce ourselves with unnecessary sorrow. God wants us to grow beyond the things that we left behind. Continuing in verse 11: “But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” We need to strive until Christ is here, putting aside everything that is holding us back. We need to get rid of everything that encumbers us and all of the sins that hold us back from growing in holy righteous character. We need to stop returning to those things which pierce us with many sorrows. Let us go forward in the joy and the peace of Jesus Christ. FOOLISH VIRGINS We often talk about the foolish virgins in Matthew 25. We all know the parable of the foolish virgins. They all went to sleep. When they were awakened at Christ’s return, half appear to have oil and half do not. The ones with oil were wise and those who were foolish had no oil in their vessels. We have looked at that and studied it. People have accused others of being the foolish virgins and being the Laodiceans. It is time we all look lest we fall, and examine to see whether we are foolish. That word “foolish” would come from your Strong’s in section 3471 to 3474 which means speaking silly things, being block headed. They are not bringing people the message of hope and of the gospel of the kingdom, but instead being full of spots and blemishes. They are turning people from God and preaching false doctrines, false signs and wonders, and actually showing people what God is not rather than what God is! This is what that means to be foolish. To be one of God’s virgins, part of the bride of Christ and not be speaking the truth is a blemish. Not giving people hope and not giving them joy and peace is a blemish. We do not want to have that blemish as well. We can have blemishes in our character and we can have blemishes in the things we say in God’s name. THE STATE OF THE FLOCK Turn, if you would, to Proverbs 27:23. “Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds; for riches are not forever, nor does a crown endure to all generations. When the hay is removed, and the tender grass shows itself, and the herbs of the mountains are gathered in, the lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of a field; you shall have enough goats’ milk for your food, for the food of your household, and the nourishment of your maidservants.” What is being said to us here? We are all part of the flock of God, hopefully. We are to know the state of the flocks. When we look at the Church of God in general the world over, the state of the flocks here and there is not good. We see many, including ourselves from time to time, with spots and blemishes. We need to work on those things. But as a rule the Church of God is going backwards! We are preaching wrong things in the name of God, and we are very harsh and judgmental in our attitudes. We are very hard in our dealings with one another. By doing so, we are piling up more spots on the garments that the Church is wearing at the end time. We are told here that when the hay is removed, in other words when the crop is ready to come in, we want it to be ready for God. We want to have lots of wonderful clothing. Christ is the one that is washing us. We are told that in Ephesians. He is washing us and getting ready to present us to Himself without spot or blemish. We want to be among those who feed on good food, grow in holy righteous character and who overcome so that we can have clean garments at Christ’s return. When the harvest is complete and all is said and done, we want to be told, well done good and faithful servant. You did overcome and now enter into the gates that I have prepared for you. This takes work and effort. This is not something that is just going to happen. We have a free will. We have to use that to strive to be as clean as possible. When we find a spot or a blemish, immediately go to God to have it removed. Work in character growth to not repeat it. This is being a fruitful person, a fruitful sheep in God’s flock. This is being a firstfruit. We see that the state of the flocks is not good. We can go to Ezekiel 34. We are not picking on anyone because we have all been guilty of the same things. Read Ezekiel 34:1-10. These are sobering words. You could continue on and see that God continues to berate the flock itself. There are those among the flock who are stronger than others and are pushing each other away from food and ruining the food in the pasture. The state of God’s flocks at the end time just before Christ’s return is not good. If we were to continue reading all of Ezekiel 34, you would see this is just prior to His return. What is wrong? Spot and blemishes are not getting taken care of. Therefore, the sheep are lame. They are sick. They are not being healed. They are not being helped. This is the state of God’s flocks. We need to be aware and be sober-minded about this. In our own lives we can go directly to the Chief Shepherd, Christ, and receive His blood to clean us up. We need to have Him wash us with His water and prepare us as part of the bride. That is what each of us has to do. Any of us with responsibility over a flock needs to be very careful how we treat the sheep because we are to be helping them grow in holy righteous character and helping them to bear fruit. We need to be helping them get ready as this bride of Christ. We know that in the last days by reading Revelation chapter 3, in the Laodicean era, that the Church is found to be poor, blind, wretched, naked and miserable. So the Church, the flocks of God, are in no shape to be a firstfruit offering! We are full of spots and blemishes. Instead of overcoming sin, we are being overcome by sin. Satan is having his way with too many of us. We are going backwards. Instead of conquering and growing we are being conquered. God is going to help reverse this if we allow Him in our individual lives to work with us at overcoming sin and putting out these spots and blemishes. The reward that He offers even the Laodiceans is very fine. It is a difficult time to be in the Church, but we can do this by His power and His might. But we have to cooperate and stop going back to our old sins and stop going back to the things that have conquered us and held us back from growing. We need to move forward bearing fruit for God. Let us now go to Hebrews chapter 10. We are exhorted to do things for one another here as we see the day approaching. We certainly are well aware of the day approaching of Christ’s return. Read Hebrews 10:19-25. As we see the day of Christ approaching we should be exhorting and encouraging one another to wash ourselves clean with the pure water and with Christ’s blood. We need to abstain from sin and help one another with love and good works and so consider each other. In this we should get more fervent as we see the day approaching. It has never been closer for anybody than it is for us right now! Continue reading in Hebrews 10:26-32. That is the day we are still in. We are still struggling with our sins and our character flaws. God knows that. We have not rejected Him, but we are struggling. He wants to see how serious we are. Will we, indeed, let Him wash us clean and bear fruit? Continue reading verses 33-35. Do not get shaken in our confidence. God is there for us, and He is working with us very diligently. Even when we fall, He is working to pick us up. Read Hebrews 10:35-39. We are all of those who believe and are striving, working and struggling. God says do not draw back into your sins and your old ways and give up. Keep striving forward. When you fall, ask for repentance. Ask for that cleansing of Christ’s blood. He is our High Priest, and He is a faithful High Priest. He knows what it is to be tempted. He never fell for it, but He knows what it is to be human. He is there for us. All we need to do is exercise our free will. Say, yes, please cleanse me. I am struggling to overcome this and I am working to bear fruit and offer You a good offering. Count the days and make use of each day. Encourage one another, brethren, because the day is not far off. We know Pentecost 2004 is just ahead. We need to offer God an offering of character on that day. Christ’s return is not that far off. That is when the books will be sealed and our reward is done. Let us strive for the best reward possible and try to accomplish something for God so that He can present us to Himself as part of a spotless and beautiful bride. FIGHT SATAN BY FORGIVING OTHERS Fight Satan in several ways. We can fight Satan by growing good character. He hates that. As we learned at the beginning of these holy days, we fight Satan with forgiveness and washing one another’s feet. Satan hates forgiveness. He does not want us to dispense it, because he knows when we do not dispense it, we cannot receive it. We have studied that in the beginning of these holy days. Forgive one another for our short comings and our faults. Forgive one another liberally and we will be forgiven liberally by God. Let’s reread those scriptures in Luke 6:37-42. We cannot be a good sacrifice for God if we are full of spots and blemishes. Blindness, lameness and disease are among them, spiritually speaking. With those conditions within us we cannot help our brethren to get out of their conditions. We need to do it first. If we are liberal and are forgiving of others, we will be forgiven liberally for our sins. The principle here is very clear and forthright. It is stated by God in a way that none of us should misunderstand. What it is He is looking at to judge us by is how we treat our fellow man, especially in the body of Christ. So help one another clean up, and wash one another’s feet humbly. Take care of each other, and encourage one another as we see the day draw closer. Read Ephesians chapter 4:11-16. This is the body of Christ becoming the beautiful bride as we work together to become perfect. All of us are striving for perfection in our own lives and encouraging one another toward perfection in their lives. Continue reading in Ephesians 4:17-24. We are all of this new breed of man with the Holy Spirit within. We are all putting off the old man who lives according to the lusts of the world and putting on the new man who is full of kindness, mercy, compassion, love and forgiveness. These are the fruits that we need in our lives. Continue reading in verses 25-32 and through to Ephesians 5:1-2. There you have it. If we want to be an offering to God without blemish and without spot, we must work on these things. Avoid the sins that befall mankind. Avoid the lusts of the flesh that we walked in before our calling. Strive as best we can to fulfill that wonderful calling that God has given us. Work with Him and allow Him to work in us. A PORTRAYAL OF GOD’S CHURCH I want to conclude by reading an Old Testament chapter. These words now I think will be more inspirational to us and helpful because this is God’s Church in the end time and what God wants to do. Turn, if you would, to Hosea 2. It is not too long of a chapter, and we are going to read this whole chapter. God is talking to His end time Church here. Hosea 2, verse 1: “Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ and to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’” So we say to all who hear this tape who are brethren, God’s people, if you were called and given the Holy Spirit, we are sisters in a sense. We are part of the bride of Christ. Mercy is shown. God is showing mercy to His Church. Even after all of our sins and shortcomings, He is reviving the Church. He loves His bride. Continue in Hosea 2:2. “‘Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; for she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and expose her, as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.”’” Verse 6: “‘Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. She will chase her lovers, but not overtake them; yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, “I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.” For she did not know that I gave her grain, new wine, and oil…’” God gave us the truth very mercifully and called us out of sin. “‘…and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal.’” Verse 9: “‘Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time and My new wine in its season, and will take back My wool and My linen, given to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall deliver her from My hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths - all her appointed feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees…’” This is undoubtedly God’s Church. We are God’s vineyard and His fig trees. “‘…of which she has said, “These are my wages that my lovers have given me.” So I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.’” This is as we read in Ezekiel 34. Continuing in Hosea 2:13. “‘I will punish her for the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers; but Me she forgot,’ says the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her.” God will have mercy once again. We will fully experience His wrath as a Church. That is, His work to show us our true condition that we are poor, blind, wretched, naked and miserable. And once He puts the eye salve on so we can see what we are really like, then He will help us. Rereading verse 14: “‘Therefore, behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.’” I was listening to some of the hymns from the hymnal that we used to sing back in the Worldwide Church of God days. We would go to the Feast and sometimes five or ten thousand of us would be singing the hymns. I long for those old days. God says it is going to come again. Let Me work this out! Continue with Hosea 2:16. “‘And it shall be, in that day,’ says the Lord, ‘that you will call Me “My Husband,” and no longer call Me “My Master,”’” Soon we will be able to call Christ our Husband and not just our Master. “‘…for I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals…’” We will stop preaching the wrong message of harshness. “‘…and they shall be remembered by their name no more. In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely.’” Peace is coming. Spiritual peace from this war with Satan and physical peace will be spread upon the whole earth. Verse 19: “‘I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy; I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. It shall come to pass in that day that I will answer,’ says the Lord; ‘I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth.’” Hosea 2, verse 22: “‘The earth shall answer with grain, with new wine, and with oil; they shall answer Jezreel. Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; then I will say to those who were not My people, “You are My people!” And they shall say, “You are my God!”’” That is coming soon. The fig tree is starting to bear fruit. We are taking of the grain and producing grain and wine. We are given oil for our lamps. Let’s take advantage of the time we have left. Be prepared as a beautiful, gorgeous bride of Jesus Christ!