The Bridegroom – Forever…Forever…He is glorified. Forever He is lifted high, forever He is risen and He is alive.
The ground began to shake and the Prince of life, stepped out of the tomb…it was truly finished. The penalty for ALL sin was paid for in full. Death had been defeated once for ALL. He had the keys of hell and the grave. Nothing could ever steal that from man…ever again. The risen King of glory now owned the rights for all mankind.
Yet He is not seeking validation from you and I…for His works that redeemed us from spiritual death and the lake of fire or His death that reconciled us with the Father. What He is seeking for is the bride that loves Him…and that loves and adores the Father. The One who has allowed Him to sanctify her and cleanse her by the washing of the water by the Word.
A bride that has one heart, one mind, one body with Him.
Fast forward…
Rev. 21:2-3 – Then I, John, saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
V22-23 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.
The bride is the New Jerusalem, the place where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb dwell. She is filled with the Presence of God and the light of the Lamb, His glory, illuminates her. She is the fulfilment of Gen. 1:26. She reflects His glory.
In preparing for this message, the Holy Spirit showed me the Sword of the Spirit which we know is the Word of God. Immediately He followed with the scripture, ‘Put on the whole armour of God” and specifically, the breastplate of righteousness.
We know from the armour that the breastplate protects the heart. What is so important about the heart?
The heart of the matter –The basic, central or critical point of an issue, topic or problem. The essential core or most important aspect of an issue, topic or problem.
The Central Processing Unit or CPU is the heart of the computer. It performs the calculations necessary to make the computer work.
The heart in the human body is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the cells and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. Every single cell is dependent on the heart for its wellbeing.
The spiritual heart (who we really are) is responsible for our spiritual wellbeing. It supplies spiritual wisdom and guidance and is the wellspring of our moral behaviour which is determined by our nature and character.
If something is wrong with the heart, it negatively impacts everything else that is dependent upon it.
The heart is critical in the health, the well-being of the body.
The heart is the womb where Christ is birthed in you.
It is here in the heart where you are becoming holy (set apart to God).
It is here in the heart that your nature and character are being transformed into the nature and character of Christ and you are becoming holy.
It is here in the heart that your own righteousness – your moral behaviour is being formed.
Understanding Righteousness VS Holiness
God IS HOLY – He is perfect in every way, flawless, perfect in love, perfect in mercy, perfect in anger, perfect in justice. It is His nature and His character. We know and understand the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. He is absolutely perfect in all of these attributes. There is nothing or no one more holy than God.
Ps. 99:5 – Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool – He is holy (qadosh – sacred).
God the Father is determined that we should be the same. Created in His image. Therefore, in His determination we shall be holy and without blemish. Christ in us, the hope of glory. The glorious church/bride.
But for that to happen, we must become consecrated…surrendered to Him and His will and this is described as being set apart to Him. Also called holy.
Holiness – the state of being holy, set apart, reserved to give glory to God.
So holy is both:
- The description of His nature and character and therefore our nature and character.
- And it is about being consecrated and set apart unto Him.
Lev. 11:44 – For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves and you shall be holy (set apart); for I am holy (perfect in every way).
Lev. 20:26 – And you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy (qadosh –sacred), and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine
God IS RIGHTEOUS –
The Righteousness of God – God the Father is absolutely righteous. He is perfectly just and His judgment is according to truth (Rom. 2:2). He does not bend the lines.
The mercy and grace that we experience was paid for in full by the Lord Jesus Christ. He was FULLY punished for ALL SIN. All righteousness had to be fulfilled. The judgment and penalty for ALL SIN was FULLY paid for.
Yet, now that the moral righteousness of God was fully satisfied by Jesus, our substitute… God the Father reveals his righteousness apart from the law… that which is ethical and honourable.
Rom. 3:21-26 – But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God (how is it revealed?), through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as the propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Righteousness – Tseh’dek – that which is altogether just and right.
Righteous – Oxford Dict. – Morally right, virtuous, ethical, law-abiding, God fearing, honourable, blameless.
Righteousness – Oxford Dict. – The quality of being morally right.
Jesus Christ, our Lord, our example, the express image of God (Heb. 1:1-3) loves righteousness and hates wickedness.
Psalm 45:6-7 – Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom. You love righteousness (doing the right thing) and hate wickedness.
Our righteousness on the other hand is our own moral behaviour which is developed by the Holy Spirit as we surrender more and more in the secret place.
So what the Holy Spirit wants to do today is teach us how important it is to protect our heart by taking responsibility over what we allow to take up residence in our hearts.
The reason why.
Prov. 4:23 – Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
Whatever we believe in our heart is going to determine how we live. Whatever!
For us who desire to be the bride of Christ, the preparation begins with sanctifying our heart.
The bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem, the city of God and the Secret Place.
The journey of transformation that has to take place in you to become the bride of Christ has its roots deeply entwined in First love and the surrendered heart.
The secret place is all about the heart where First love is quickened and Gen. 1:26 is in progress. It is here where you are getting to know Him and you are learning to live a life of true worship. It is where the Spirit of God gives you revelation in the heart and that revelation speaks to you personally. You get the depths of salvation, of how God works and how God thinks.
It is here where you encounter your own altar of sacrifice, the place of surrender and through your surrender, it is where the Holy Spirit is birthing Christ in you. This is how you are being prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The secret place is not a physical place but it is the place of divine intimacy within your heart where you fellowship with the Lord.
Here, in this place of intimacy is where you are learning to love Him and to know Him and through learning to know Him, your heart has come to assume a posture of humility before Him.
It is where you will find yourself bowed down in a posture of worship and submitted to the King of kings because of who He is.
Ps. 91:1 – He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He who dwells…abides under the shadow. It has become a place of habitation…a residence. And if you remember from our last teaching…this is who the bride is to be…a dwelling place for the presence of God and a place of worship. True worship is a response of the surrendered heart.
John 4:23 – The hour is coming says the Lord, and now is here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him.
This is the key to everything in our lives…loving and worshiping the Lord, not just for what He has done…but for who He is.
If all we ever do is worship Him for what He has done then there will come a time when we have become familiar with our salvation and its benefits and the wonder of it will grow dull and because we have never taken the time to fall in love with Him, for who He is, so that a healthy reverence has been birthed in our hearts for Him, we won’t even recognize that He does not sit upon the throne of our hearts.
In Rev. 2:1-5 Jesus warns the church of Ephesus that they are fervent and staying away from sin, doing all the works but they have left their first love. He has become a spectator on the side-lines. The Pharisees did all the right stuff but they didn’t acknowledge Jesus or even recognize their Messiah. We can be living the life of a Christian religiously yet not be in love with Him. We can sing songs about Him and what He has done for us and not intimately know Him. I am concerned that there are many in the body of Christ in this position.
Jesus follows this with:
Rev. 3:1-5 (The church in Sardis) – I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, (reputation) but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. You have a few names in Sardis, who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
You have a reputation that you’re alive but you are dead. They are lacking the One who is life. Jesus does not sit upon the throne of their hearts.
There are some who have not defiled their garments who will walk with the Lord in white because they are worthy. Clearly then, the ones who are being warned have defiled their garments (of salvation) and are not worthy to walk with Him in white.
YET, for those who overcome, Jesus will not blot out their name from the Book of Life. Conversely, He WILL blot out the name of those who do not overcome.
Throughout the process of preparing the bride, each one of us will be confronted by the light of His word that exposes any darkness in us so that we can repent AND we should rejoice for all the warnings that the Lord is sharing with us, the church, because it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
I absolutely want to know if I am deceived in any way. These Christians in the church of Sardis and Ephesus believe that they are doing the right thing. The problem is head instead of heart.
We can see from these following scriptures just how extremely important it is to protect your heart because what is in your heart will affect your behaviour and the choices that you make out of your heart will affect your destiny.
Matt. 12:34 – Jesus says to the Pharisees, “Brood of vipers! How can you being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things.
Matt. 15:18-19 – But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murder, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
David hid the word of the Father in his heart so that he would not sin.
Ps. 119:11 – Your word I have hidden in my heart (why?) that I might not sin against You.
Heb. 10:16 – ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days’, says the Lord; “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them.’
Rom. 5:5 – Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
The breastplate of Righteousness.
Our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12).
It is the determination of the enemy to prevent us from carrying the image of God and he will do what he can to keep you and I from truly getting to know our Lord and Saviour. He knows that if we spend time in the secret place we will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Here under His protection the Lord is able to write His laws into our minds and put His laws into our hearts, transforming us, cleansing us, sanctifying us and destroying any hold that the enemy had so calculatingly set up in our hearts through deceived thinking to keep us captive. Step by step the enemy’s plans are being exposed and the Holy Spirit is delivering us from them. Step by step, Christ is being birthed in us and the enemy can no longer control or manipulate us.
Psalm 45:6-7 – Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
This is our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, the One who is sanctifying us and cleansing us by the washing of the Word.
We know that the mystery hidden from the ages was to birth Christ in us, the hope of glory and if righteousness is the emblem of His kingdom and if He loves righteousness and hates wickedness then that is what is being formed in us.
Matt. 6:33 – But seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
This is the way that we protect our heart, firstly, we understand that we have been given the righteousness of God because it was paid for in full, Secondly, we seek first His kingdom (reign in me Lord, Let You will be done in my life Lord) and His righteousness (create in me a clean heart. I surrender Lord).
There is a cost to going deeper, to remain beyond the veil of this world…we who are in this world but not part of it.
But let our prayer be:
Teach me Your ways my Lord. I trust You, whatever You would have me do, You will supply the grace necessary to do it. Help me Holy Spirit to remain focused on the truth. Strengthen me my Lord, in my inner man, by Your Holy Spirit.
Psalm 112:6-7 – …the righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established; he will not be afraid.