You just finish up chatting with someone...maybe a potential client or a possible future boss after interviewing with them. Maybe it was with a casual friend or acquaintance you crossed paths with...or even worse...you were ‘sort of flirting’ with someone that you hoped to maybe meet up with in the near future to get to know better. And when you got back in your car you glanced up in the rear view mirror - there it was...more glaring than a huge zit that pops up on prom night – it was a piece of food stuck in your teeth.
You instantly die a thousand deaths as you begin to rehearse how much you might have smiled while talking, trying to convince yourself they did not notice. But you know they did.
Yeah...it happens.
IF only....IF only you had taken a quick look in the mirror prior to that conversation...or as folks like to do today, use their phone camera set to ‘selfie’ so they can make sure all looks well. You could have avoided that disastrous embarrassment of having such a glaring and unsightly experience.
We could save ourselves a lot of potential heartache and pain if we spent more time in front of a ‘mirror’ examining ourselves. And No, I’m not talking about a natural mirror. I’m referring to the ‘mirror’ of God’s word that James likens it to there in his first chapter. But we’ll come back to that in a bit. (1:21-25)
I left off yesterday reminding us of an approaching wedding that scripture teaches us is going to take place. Just a few passages for reference would be Matt. 25:1-11, as well as 22:1-14 and Revelation 19:7-9.
IF anyone knows anything about weddings...whether you are attending one, photographing one, or even taking part in one, there is much one needs to do to prepare. I shoot a lot of weddings...and it’s amazing how much time, effort, cost, and planning goes in to getting ready for a ceremony that last maybe 5-10 minutes, at best. Yes...receptions and parties celebrating that wedding last longer, but you know what I’m talking about here.
We read there in those passages I gave you...that the ones who ‘went in’ to this wedding the bible is talking about...had ‘made themselves ready’. In fact, we read where one person who showed up and was not properly attired...was removed from the wedding. (How they even got in to begin with is unclear).
Now I would like to direct your attention to a passage in Ephesians 5. Paul had been writing and advising how husbands and wives should relate to each other and he admonished husbands to “love their wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.” (25) But it is the next two lines we really need to camp out on and take in...
Christ 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.” (26-27)
Jesus (the bridegroom -Matt. 25) is coming back for a ‘bride’ (church) that has been sanctified and cleansed and will be ‘holy’ and without any blemish or wrinkle or stain or any such thing. (Like food stuck in their teeth or coffee stains on their gown, perhaps?)
How did Paul describe his hopes in presenting this church to Christ in 2 Cor. 11:2...as a ‘pure virgin’?
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Mat. 5:8)
“Without this sanctification (or being made holy/pure)...no one will see the Lord.” (Heb. 12:14)
Peter describes this being ‘holy’ as not like some 'blanket of holiness' that is magically thrown over us because we ‘say’ we are a Christian; rather he instructs us to be ‘holy in ALL our conduct’ (1 Pet. 1:15) even as ‘He (God) is holy’.
Did John write that whoever is abiding in Christ will ‘walk just as He walked’? (1 John 2:6)
Did Jesus not say we are to ‘be perfect as He is perfect’? (Matt. 5:48)
Does Paul not advise that ‘having these promises, beloved, let us cleans ourselves from ALL filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God’ ? ( 2 Cor. 7:1)
Does John not remind us that “Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure”? (1 John 3:3) And the reason being – when He appears- ‘we shall be like Him’ (2)
Does James not explain the reason for these ‘various trials and test’ is so that we “may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”? (James 1:2-4)
So if you happen to be like one of those ‘sleeping virgins’ in Matt. 25 who were awoken...and needing to ‘illuminate their lamps’ so that they can finish getting ‘ready’, you might want to take some notes on where we are going next here in the word.
This whole ‘sanctifying’ process...being made pure and holy...It really is ‘a thing’, you know? It’s not some wishful hope that because you wear a cross around your neck and sing beautiful hymns or worship songs that this all just happens on its own. That guy in Matthew 7:21-23 who was so busy ‘casting out devils, prophesying, and doing many wonders...all ‘in the name of Jesus’ heard some of the most chilling words a ‘supposed believer’ could ever hear: “Depart from me, I never knew you!...You...who continued to sin and break my law.”
Need I remind any of us that this man was accused by Jesus of doing...what so many countless professing believers admit to doing today and firmly believe is the ‘accepted norm’- that we will always continue to sin until we get to heaven. (Maybe though, just not as much as we ‘use to’ before we joined the church)
Yes, I know how problematic reading that last paragraph is and all the questions it brings up that trouble us. And for good reason. But know this...I’m not wagging my finger in judgement or condemnation at anyone. But I am pointing my finger right back in to God’s word and adamantly saying we would do good to go back and re-examine many of these scriptures that have conveniently escaped our attention for a host of reasons. Perhaps we heard them at one time, and then the ‘birds’(enemy) came and snatched them from our heart...’lest we believe and were saved’. (Luke 8:12). Or maybe ‘another gospel’ got ‘slipped in’ and deceived our hearts and lulled us to sleep.
But there is simply no getting around 1 John 3:6-9 that is clear: IF we are abiding in Him...and have truly been ‘born of God’, we will no longer to continue to practice sin. And anything and everything tied to this sinful flesh nature of ours...is sin. Which is why it has to be put to death and die. And that is exactly what those who ‘belong to Christ’ have done. (Gal. 5:24) This is what the true ‘children of God’ are led to do...IF they are truly following His Spirit. (Rom. 8:13-14)
Jesus minced no words when He declared: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who DOES the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21)
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46)
What is the ‘will of God’ you might wisely ask? Look at 1 Thess. 4:3- “THIS is the will of God your sanctification...”! There’s that word again. Paul kind of doubles down in his second letter to this same church reminding them how “God, from the beginning, chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirt and belief in the truth.” (2:13)
I’m not saying that ‘you’ do this, but it would appear that many professing believers today have bought in to this idea that being a ‘Christian’ is somewhat akin to admitting that we will never ‘measure up’ to what God demands of us (like being made pure and holy) so all we have to do is have close at hand, some life size cardboard cutout of Jesus that we conveniently take hold of and hide behind...usually when we go to church or want others to think we are Christians. And by all means, have it handy so when the ‘rapture’ takes place, God will see our ‘face of Jesus’ we hold in front of us so we don’t ‘miss that bus’. This is one of the great lies that have led many astray. (2 Thess. 2:9-12)
It was no accident that Paul wraps up his final letter (that we know of) to the Corinthians who had multiple issues needing to be dealt with , including no shortage of carnality and divisions, with this exhortation:
“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is IN you? - - Unless you ‘fail the test’?”
Oh, you mean we should maybe look in to the ‘mirror’ and see how this ‘getting ready’ is going?
Oh, you mean there might me something ‘stuck in my teeth’ like...the sin of grumbling or complaining or fault finding or self-pity or covetousness or greed?
Oh, you mean He was serious about coming back for a bride that is pure and holy without spot or stain or wrinkle or blemish or anything like that?
Friends...I too, was like that guy who saw the invite on the fridge to the upcoming wedding and just assumed I had plenty of time to get ready. And I got comfortable laying back in the recliner dulling my senses on some mindless TV show and then fell asleep. Whatever it was that ‘woke me up’, I cannot express enough the sense of alarm and urgency when I realized the seriousness of the hour. The ‘mirror’ I stood before did not lie. And there has been much to do. (Matt. 25:1-13)
Please join me tomorrow.
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