Rebound revisited, part 15. Eph 5:25-30; Tit 2:14; Heb 9:14; 10:2; 2 Pe 1:9.

Title: Rebound revisited, part 15. EPH 5:25-30; TIT 2:14; HEB 9:14; 10:2; 2 Pe 1:9.     

 

Opening prayer / announcements:

 

 

Christian marriage is designed by God as a special and intimate fellowship, so much so, that it is likened to the fellowship between Christ and the Church.

 

1TI 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,

 

1TI 4:2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

 

1TI 4:3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.

 

1TI 4:4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude;

 

1TI 4:5 for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

 

EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;

 

EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

 

A husband cannot cleanse his wife, as Christ did the Church, but he certainly can be a help or a hindrance to her in virtue love.

 

Just as “the word” is the agent of cleansing in life, so the husband can use words. Words that help his wife and not hinder her. The husband should see himself as Christ and his wife as the church and with that in view he will be an excellent husband. Only in the CA is this possible.

 

EPH 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.

 

EPH 5:28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;

 

He does not love his own wife does not love himself.

 

Christian marriage has been designed by God to reveal the relationship of Christ to the Church. Either spouse, or both, walking in darkness hinders God’s design.

 

EPH 5:29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

 

EPH 5:30 because we are members of His body.

 

The believer’s cleansing in Christ motivates him to execute God’s plan and produce fruit, TIT 2:14.

 

TIT 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,

 

TIT 2:12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,

 

TIT 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus;

 

TIT 2:14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify [cleanse - same word] for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

 

OT animal sacrifice was a covering of sin as judgment was held for the cross of Christ. Now true cleansing has come, HEB 9:14.

 

HEB 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing [katharotes; noun] of the flesh,

 

HEB 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

ROM 3:21 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

 

ROM 3:22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;

 

ROM 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

ROM 3:24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

 

ROM 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance [hold back] of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

 

ROM 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

 

HEB 9:15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

 

HEB 9:16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.

 

HEB 9:17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

 

HEB 9:18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

 

HEB 9:19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

 

Hyssop was used at the first Passover to put the blood on the doorposts.

 

Blood and water became ceremonial cleansing to the Jews that represented the true blood and water of Christ, 1JO 5:6.

 

1JO 5:5-6 And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.

 

HEB 9:20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you."

 

HEB 9:21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

 

HEB 9:22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

 

HEB 9:23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these [the objects of the tabernacle were representations], but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

 

HEB 9:24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands [tabernacle], a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

 

Clearly stated here, the tabernacle represented heaven, and once the sacrifice was complete the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies. These are manmade copies and shadows, but our Lord is the reality and He entered the true heaven after His sacrifice and amazingly enough, He brought us with Him. So if this is who I am, why walk in darkness?

 

 

The tabernacle was divided into three parts. There was the outer court which represented the earth. Then there was the holy place and then the holy of holies. The holy place represents heaven as it relates to our experience, and the holy of holies represents the very presence of God, the very throne room of God.

 

The high priest could enter the holy of holies once a year, and that after he offered a sacrifice for himself. He could not enter without washing in the bronze laver, which was filled with water. Again we see the significance of blood and water together.

 

HEB 10:12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God

 

EPH 2:6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus