A living relationship with Christ
Sunday service, dr Albu van Eeden, 10 Jun 2018
(Also the engagement of Giel Schoombee and Charlotte Theron)
We do not tell people to whom they should get married. They should hear from the Lord.
Rev 22:2,9
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
The time of engagement is much more important than we think. Do you realise that since the creation the church of Christ has been in the state of engagement till now. And all the trials across the way of the church are trials during the period of engagement.
Children of God had to pay with their lives for every true principle of the word of God. If we look at the apostle’s Creed, which in general is the established church belief statement.
“I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.”
Every one of these principles have been attacked through the years, right from the beginning. Even in the garden when the devil promised man that they might become like God and that God was jealous, the devil tried to destroy and tarnish God’s name and bring division between God and His bride.
That’s why you must watch and be on your guard up to the wedding day. Keep the Lord Jesus and your relationship with him at the center of your life.
The act of getting married is an act of obedience to the living God.
Let’s look at how difficult it can be to keep your relationship with Jesus alive. When Hudson Taylor in 1874 was facing great difficulties, forgotten by the Christian world, confined to his bed, after a life of sacrifice to bring the gospel to the Chinese. This is what he wrote, “if God called you to be like Jesus, he will put on you the requirements of obedience, and in many ways allow other Christians to do things you are not allowed to do. They will seem successful and pull strings to accomplish their goals. But you will not be allowed to do the same, and if you attempt to do it, He will humble you so that you despise yourself and all your good works.”
We read in our text that the angel showed John the bride of the Lamb. Note he doesn’t say the bride of the Lion. Yes He is the Lion but here she is called the bride of the Lamb.
God sent His son, Jesus, from eternity, into this world of time and then He went back into eternity. But the scars He obtained during His period of time while here on earth He still carries in eternity.
Christ has to deal with every sin in your life for you to qualify as being part of the bride of the Lamb. And that sacrifice is so critical that Christ carries those scars into eternity.
There’s a hymn, “my sins, my sins, my Savior”, which reads:
“My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
They take such hold on me,
I am not able to look up,
Save only, Christ, to Thee;
In Thee is all forgiveness,
In Thee abundant grace,
My shadow and my sunshine
The brightness of Thy face.
My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
How sad on Thee they fall;
Seen through Thy gentle patience,
I tenfold feel them all;
I know they are forgiven,
But still, their pain to me
Is all the grief and anguish
They laid, my Lord, on Thee.
My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
Their guilt I never knew
Till with Thee, in the desert,
I near Thy Passion drew;
Till, with Thee, in the garden,
I heard Thy pleading prayer,
And saw the sweat-drops bloody
That told Thy sorrow there.”
But let’s lift this verse out, because many people use Christ’s blood as an excuse to continue in sin
“My sins, my sins, my Saviour!
How sad on Thee they fall;
Seen through Thy gentle patience,
I tenfold feel them all;”
If you want to get proud, then only look at the sins Jesus had saved you from and all your pride will go. Unless you have gone through this, you will continue to feel sorry for yourself.
We also read of the new Jerusalem adorned as a bride for her husband. He compares the bride with the new Jerusalem. If you meet God personally you become part of the bride of Christ. If not you become part of another city, the great whore of Babylon, and Sodom. These cities of evil and slavery.
To which city do you belong, the bride of Christ, the heavenly Jerusalem, or Egypt, Sodom and Babylon?
Choir
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German Translation
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French Translation
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