Purification of the Bride
Today the first candle of advent has been lit. It symbolises the birth of the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ. It symbolises much more than that. It stands for His return in glory to establish His kingdom on earth. Let this candle also stand for the purity of the Bride of Christ. Over the following weeks more candles will be lit, to me, and I hope you too will understand when I say, each candle will also stand for a stage in the purification process.
In Biblical times it was the custom for the bride to remain at home, under strict supervision until the groom came to collect her and take her away at the marriage. The date and time of the coming of the groom were never announced before hand. It was essential that the bride be of unimpeachable virtue. She would have to undertake certain ritual purifications, external (physical purifications) to symbolise an inner purity as well.
The bride of the Messiah is the Christian church, more precisely those who believe in Jesus as the Saviour and the Son of God. We must not confuse this with any particular congregation nor with any particular denomination. Now we are in the time when the bride must prepare herself to be spotless and pure in the eyes of her Lord.
Before the second coming God will send out His Holy Spirit to prompt believers to repentance. Those who are slow to repent will find themselves being shaken. This will happen to congregations, to denominations and to nations as well. This shaking will be extremely painful to some. Sin within congregations will be revealed publicly, if there is no repentance before God. This will be worldwide. It has already begun in some denominations where wrongdoing by members and by the leaders at many different levels has burst into public knowledge with painful results for many. Any church or congregation leadership that continues ( or begins ) to cover up these things will be separated from the Lord.
The Hebridean Revival
In the 1950 there was a sovereign move of God through the Holy Spirit, which is commonly called the Hebridean Revival, a similar revival happened in Wales but not quite at the same time. Both of these were characterised by ordinary people of all ages being convicted of the need for repentance purely through the influence and touch of the Holy Spirit on their hearts, minds and spirits. There was no legalistic preaching! No accusations made by friends, relatives, authority figures or even by enemies.
Men in the fields fell on their knees and confessed and repented. Restaurants, bars and pubs emptied without a word being said and the people who left went straight to the churches and fell on their knees or faces to confess and repent.
Even the teenagers, and remember the 1950’s saw the birth of rock and roll, teenage rebellion and a so called teenage culture, As if of one mind they all left the saturday night dance and ran to the church to confess, repent and to worship God.
Those who did not respond to this call for repentance, were dealt with by God Himself.
When a pub was emptied one night as people left for the church, one solitary man remained behind scoffing at those who left desiring God’s mercy in their lives. He was found the next morning, his beer untouched as was all the alcohol! He was lying on the floor, face down, weeping like a baby. He had been the town alcoholic, but after that night he never touched a drop of alcohol ever again. He never scoffed at the gospel as he had earlier. His whole character changed. Because God had been merciful to him and shown him what it would be like to be separated from Him. The man’s often violent and abrasive behaviour became gentle and loving after his encounter with God.
Vision
Some years ago the Lord showed me a vision of the earth; more precisely of human kind. In this vision the world was divided into three parts. One part was brilliantly and beautifully lit. In that part there was joy and gentleness, goodness and love. The second part was in darkness an almost impenetrable darkness. Through the darkness I could vaguely see that people in that were treating each other extremely badly, there was anger, there was bitterness, cruelty, neglect. Some had everything they could need or possibly want and others had nothing. But all were suffering, because the Lord of that kingdom was Satan. Where as in the light God and His son Jesus were the rulers.
Between the light and the dark was a fairly wide area which was a dull grey colour. This area was the most densely populated. In it were people who believed in nothing, or believed in themselves, or in money, fame and almost anything else you can think of. There were also people there who would say they were Christians and others who believed they served other Gods and even those who were inclined, perhaps unknowingly, who served Satan.
Of the people in that area who called themselves Christians, they did not appear to live a truly committed Christian life. They went through the motions, said all the right things, even went to church; but their hearts were not right with God. They were neither wholly for God nor wholly against. They had not made up their minds one way or the other. They were just going through the motions and living with their feet in both camps.
I believe God said that they were the majority of Christians in the world throughout the ages.
As I watched this vision unfold before me I noticed that the grey are between the light and the darkness was becoming narrower and narrower. Gradually I came to understand that the darkness was encroaching more and more into the grey area. As the darkness moved into the grey area people there were faced with the necessity of having to make a decision. To commit themselves wholly to the salvation bought by the blood of Christ. To stand up and be counted as it were. To have faith in God’s mercy and power; Or to fold under the pressure and lose their faith. This represented the time of the tribulation.
Eventually there was no more grey area. The light area and the dark area were in direct contact…. and combat. The horrific suffering of those who did not make a commitment to Jesus was terrible to behold. Then I noticed something I had not noticed before. There were movements of light out of the Light area into the dark area and out again. There were Christians brave enough and with sufficient faith to go into the dark area to seek out people to bring back with them into the light. Not all who went in came out again, but there were more who took up the task.
We know from the Bible that Jesus will be victorious and will return for His bride.
Purification process
There will be a purification process affecting individual Christians, congregations and denominations.
No person, congregation or denomination can escape this process, it is necessary for the purification of the bride. It has already started in Finland, and dare I say it has already started in this congregation. Repentance before God is the only necessity and course of action. Only God Himself can forgive us our sins. Without repentance the individual will become separated by unrepented sins from God. I am not talking about any one particular sin nor about a particular class of sin, but all and any sin. Nor am I speaking as one who believes himself to be without sin but as one who knows himself to be a sinner too. All who fail to confess their sins to God, first and foremost to God, will find either that their sins will somehow become public knowledge, to be dealt with by the congregation or they will become separated from God for all eternity. Jesus spoke about this and it is also written about in the book of revelation. The lukewarm church at Laodicea would be spat out by God for being neither hot for Him nor cold. Revelation 3
Paul warned that once we are forgiven we can not continue to sin, while banking on the forgiveness we have already received. Romans 6. 1-2: 11-14: 15-16: 18-19. To deliberately sin on the basis that we have been forgiven all past, present and future sins is to pervert the gospel completely.
Last Sunday Juuso spoke about the need to watch and guard against corruption in ourselves as individuals and as a congregation. It is also true of denominations too. Whilst I thoroughly endorse what Juuso said, I believe it to have been from the Lord, It is not much use watching and guarding without first doing a clear out. If we stand in the doorway or at the gate to prevent corruption entering when it has already entered we are even more vulnerable from behind and can be totally unaware that we harbour the enemy and his corrupting influence within our selves.
First we need to wash and then we can watch. Washing is confession before God and repentance.
Repentance is turning away from sin and approaching ever closer to God. And as we approach we will be ever stronger in guarding ourselves and our churches from the insidious corruption of evil.