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We appreciate the special music. Certainly both selections had outstanding messages for us.
We certainly do need to follow God and let Him build the house. We are the temple of God's Spirit, of course, and God is building the house within each and every one of us, so I certainly appreciate that. No, normally I would have my shofar up here. Have any of you missed my shofar yet? No? Okay, you're being too honest. Actually, I got a fat lip trying to blow that thing.
This week, I'm not kidding. I don't even think my wife knew this. My lip squelled up a little bit from trying to make that thing sound decent. I didn't intentionally leave it at home, but perhaps God had something in mind, because by the time I remembered it, I was too far to go back. It was too late to go back for it. So yes, breathe the sigh of relief. We will not be blowing the shofar. Actually, I was thinking about having Will Dunn blow it for me, because he's definitely very hot-winded. So I know he could do a great job. He actually did blow it for me once, and he knows how to blow it. So maybe next time, we'll let Will blow the shofar, and maybe God will then allow me to remember to bring it. Well, thank you for coming to share this special occasion of marriage. We are here as family and friends to witness and celebrate the wedding of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and God's true Church, the chosen ones, the saints of God. Having grown to love one another, Jesus and the Church have chosen to commit their lives to each other in marriage. And so today, they are here to be united as husband and wife. Now, you may recognize that. It is the opening introduction to our wedding ceremony in the United Church of God, and it really does apply to what's going on here today. God is a family, and He uses human family relationships to help us better understand the relationship that He wants to have with us on a spiritual plane. The Bible speaks of the marriage of Jesus Christ to God's Church. The Bible speaks of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let me ask you a question. Are you diligently preparing to marry Jesus Christ? Ask yourself another question. Are you good enough for Him?
Are you good enough to be Christ's wife? Are you now in the process of becoming without spot or wrinkle, without blemish? Now, let's ask ourselves, how can we possibly be good enough to marry Christ at His return at the sound of the seventh trumpet?
Now, in order to better understand how we are to marry Christ at His return, it's vital that we understand the five steps of the ancient wedding. It was customary at the time the Bible was written. Now, about 11 years ago, 10 or 11 years ago, I remember reading some information by Dean and Susan Wheelock about the ancient wedding. They have a website called Hebrew Roots or something similar to that, if you care to look up their website. So, I will certainly give them credit for bringing this to my attention. But it's all biblically based, biblically sound, and I've actually shared this with some of you about 10 years ago. It's been a while. Some of you may remember. If you do remember, I'm sure you can be refreshed, and those who have never heard this material, I'm sure, will be inspired by it. Let's go to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. And we have been reading a lot in the book of Revelation. We haven't made it to Revelation chapter 19, however. Not yet, in the series of sermons I'm talking about that I've been giving in the various church areas where I pastor. I'm behind in Lawton, so I've got to try to get caught up. I'm going there this Sabbath, and lest I forget, let me say happy Feast of Tabernacles to all of you and Day of Atonement, because those in Tulsa I won't be seeing. Most of you I won't be seeing, because this Sabbath I'll be in Lawton, and the following Sabbath is the Day of Atonement. So I'll be in Northwestern Arkansas for the Day of Atonement, so I'm going to miss seeing many of you brethren from Tulsa, so I wish you a very wonderful Feast of Tabernacles. Those in Oklahoma City I won't be seeing again either, so I wish all of you a very fine and wonderful Feast of Tabernacles, and also a very inspiring Day of Atonement. My wife and I will be going to Gatlinburg this year, as we're once again serving the Deaf brethren, and that is the designated feast site in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. So all of you have a great feast wherever you're going. The main thing is we go up to worship the King. So in Revelation chapter 19, let's begin reading.
Let's begin reading in verse 5. Then a voice came from the throne, from the throne of God, saying, Praise our God, all you, his servants, and those who fear him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. And to her, to his wife, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, symbolic of the clean and bright, or that was clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So this linen, this clean and bright linen, is symbolic of the righteous acts of the saints. Verse 9, Then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And that's correct. It is a calling to this marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. So here we read about the marriage supper of the Lamb. So I mentioned that there are five steps to the ancient wedding that was around the time when much of the Bible was written. So let's talk about, first of all, the first step in the ancient wedding, and that was the match. Some of you have watched Fiddler on the Roof, I'm sure, and, you know, there was a matchmaker. You may remember that. Well, the first step is the match. The groom's father arranges the marriage. This was standard back in these days. The groom's father arranged the marriage. It is his responsibility to find a suitable wife for his son. Now, my son's 27 years old. I doubt if he's going to allow me to do this. But back in those days, the groom's father would arrange the marriage, and it was his responsibility to find a suitable wife for his son. Now, that ties in very well to Genesis 2, the very beginning of the Bible, the first couple that were created. Let's go to Genesis 2, verse 18. Genesis 2, verse 18. Let's notice verse 16 and 17 before we read verse 18. And the Lord God commanded the man Adam, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So God clearly gave him instructions about eating all of the trees, including the tree of life, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were not to eat of this tree. Verse 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone. It's not good that man should be all by himself. I will make him a helper comparable to him. And then if we drop down to verse 21.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Well, you know, we might notice in verse 20, it said, Adam was naming all the cattle and the birds and everything. In verse 20, the last part of it says, But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. Okay, the raccoons didn't do it. You know, elephants, tigers, nothing was comparable. God had to make someone special for Adam. So God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man he made into a woman, a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, which in Hebrew is ishah, because she was taken out of man, which is ish, ishah and ish. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. God was certainly with them in the Garden of Eden. God had put them together as husband and wife. God created Adam's wife. He created her expressly for him. She was made to order by God himself. She was beautiful. She was suitable. She was perfect for Adam. And he was excited, very, very excited about God's new creation.
Believe me, she was way, way above anything he had ever seen. He was quite excited, no doubt about it.
Now this ties in to what we've understood for a long time in God's Church.
John 6. Let's go there. John 6. We know that God is the one who does the calling. God the Father is the one who opens a person's mind and reveals truth to the person. Now the person needs to respond to that truth, or God will not continue to give that knowledge and that understanding. A person does have to respond. God does the calling. He opens up a person's mind, but a person must respond to it if he's to continue to get the knowledge and the truth that God desires to give him. Now in John 6, and actually I want to read this in context, so let's go to verse 41. John 6. Sometimes I know we read over the context, and I think the context is significant here. John 6. The Jews then complained about him. They complained about Jesus Christ because he said, "'I am the bread which came down from heaven.' And they said, "'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he says, I have come down from heaven?'" They didn't understand what Christ was saying, even though Christ was so far different from anyone else. I mean, he was a human being, but he was without sin. So he did stand out. There's no doubt about it. Christ did stand out, and certainly in that way, as far as his character. But they were complaining about Christ, and Jesus said in verse 43, "'He answered and said to them, Do not murmur or do not complain, do not grumble among yourselves.'" And that is a human tendency to grumble and complain, and to think, you know, who does he think he is to say this or that or the other thing? And that's kind of how they looked at Jesus Christ. Who is he to say he came down from heaven? Verse 44, Christ says to them, "'No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.'" You know, evidently, God wasn't really drawing all these people at this time. God isn't drawing everyone now. He is drawing some people. He is calling some people to be a part of the marriage supper of the Lamb. But he's certainly not calling everyone. He's not calling the billions of people who live today on this earth. He's only calling a small little flock.
Verse 45, "'It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God, therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.'" Now, I went back and looked up where this was quoted from in Isaiah. So, let's go back to Isaiah for a moment. Isaiah chapter 54, I believe. Let me double-check this. Isaiah chapter 54 verse 13. Isaiah 54 verse 13. Isaiah chapter 54 verse 13. "'All your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children.'" The point is, God is the one who does the calling. God is the one who does the teaching. But the children do have to respond. The children do have to be willing to obey and to follow the instruction that God is given. Now, if you'll notice in the context here in chapter 53, it talks about Jesus Christ in verse 3 as one who was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. In fact, Jesus Christ, the Savior who this is prophesying about, was crucified because they did grumble and complain about Jesus Christ. They did not recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God. They rejected him as the Son of God. But as it says in verse 4, "...surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions." That's why Christ died. It was because of our transgressions. Anyone that God is calling has to understand that, that Jesus Christ died for us. The one that we are to marry at his return died for us. He laid his life down for us. That's fundamental. Obviously, we have to understand that it was Jesus Christ who was bruised for our iniquities. He was wounded for our transgressions, all of us. He died for each and every one of us. Verse 7, "...he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent. He did not rebel. He did not fight against those who were crucifying him." In fact, he said, if my kingdom were of this world, then my people would fight, that I would not be delivered. But Christ looked to the kingdom of God. Christ came the first time to lay his life down for the bride of Christ. Those who understand, those who are being taught by God, it's vital that we understand that it is God who is the one who is teaching us. And we have to listen, and we have to apply what we learn and live by it, and not resist it, but to live by it. Now, we could read further here, but the point is, Christ died for you, he died for me, he is the groom that we are to marry. He is the faithful husband who will lay his life down for his bride.
In fact, if you notice in verse 5 of chapter 54, and this is talking about a perpetual covenant of peace that is coming in the future, let's read verse 4 and 5. Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame. God's people must place their faith and trust in God, and in Jesus Christ, and not fear anything that's going to happen in the future. We must rely on God and place our faith in God, and trust in Him, and look to Him, and no one else. So do not fear, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth. And some of us, I'm afraid, even as we grow older, have things that we are ashamed of, and those things need to be forgiven just as well. For you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore, for your Maker is your husband. Your Maker is your husband. The Lord of Hosts is His name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman, forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife, when you were refused, says your God, for a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you.
I will gather you with great mercy, with a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord your Redeemer. Now this is written to Israel, to the children of Israel, both physical and spiritual descendants of Israel. We are of spiritual Israel, but also physical Israel, the chosen people of God, will be restored in the future. Jerusalem will be the city of the great King, and Israel will have a special place in the Kingdom of God. So it is important that we see the connection, we see the way this works together. God is the one who does the calling. God is the one who does the teaching. He's the one that opens the mind, and it is Jesus Christ who laid his life down for his bride. And God is calling the bride. God is making the match. The Father is making the match. You are here today because God called you to be here. You are here because God wants you to be the bride of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Now, how grateful should we be that God has seen fit to call us, to lead us and move us and teach us? I mean, God gets all the credit, doesn't he? Because we are a stubborn and a stiff-neck people who obviously do need to be deeply repentant, as Mr. Cagle talked about in his sermon. We all need to be deeply repentant. That is the key for those God is calling now. Are we going to be deeply repentant? Mankind has rejected God as their Father. You have not rejected God. God is your Father. Just as Adam and Eve rejected God's authority in their lives, choosing to eat of the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil, God said, don't eat of it. They did it anyway. They chose to listen to Satan the devil and obey him. Satan was the liar. He was the father of lies in the Garden of Eden. They listened to him. They didn't listen to the one who could teach them the truth and would teach them the truth. So they rejected God. They rejected God as their teacher. They rejected God as their husband in that sense. It's very important that we understand these issues, especially here on the Feast of Trumpets.
So, mankind has been continuing on the same course. Satan is the God of this world, as the Scripture reveals. And he is, in a sense, an abusive, kidnapping father. He is the God of this world, and in a sense, he is the father of this world. He is an abusive, kidnapping father, though.
We are free moral agents, and the world in general has chosen Satan to rule them. Now, you have chosen to follow God. You have chosen to obey God and serve Him. You have chosen to resist Satan, knowing that if you resist Him, He will flee from you. And so, Satan does not have a hold on you. He has not kidnapped you once, yes, but you have been freed from the kidnapper. You have been freed from Satan the devil. When you made your choice to obey and follow God, to be baptized, to become a member of the family of God, you made a choice. And it is a very, very important choice. Now, Christ said the Pharisees, the religious leaders in Israel at the time of Christ, were of their father Satan the devil. That's the language. We don't have time to go there, but it's in the Bible. Their father, Satan the devil. And he said, Satan was the father of lives. Remember, you cannot serve two masters. Christ told us that. You can't serve two masters. You must serve one or the other. You must serve Satan or the true God. The Pharisees were instruments of Satan. Now, as far as ancient Israel goes, in 1 Samuel chapter 8, let's go back there and just read a few verses. God called Israel to be his chosen nation. Now, we know that the world became so corrupt that God had to send a flood upon the earth at Noah's time to save mankind. Almost everyone was wiped out except Noah's family at that time because they had become so corrupt and so evil. And then God decided to have a chosen nation, Israel. 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 7. Well, let's start in verse 5. Remember, ancient Israel had made a covenant with God. Exodus 19 through 23. It talks about this covenant that God made. Whatever you do, God, we will do, is what Israel said. God agreed to be their God. He agreed to be their Father. They agreed to be God's chosen people, the special children of God, the sons of God. But Israel was unfaithful to God. They did not want God to reign over them. In fact, they wanted a human king because, you see, they lacked faith in God. They lacked patience and they lacked faith. In 1 Samuel chapter 8, and this is a mistake that many of God's people make, they look to men and they lack faith in God. 1 Samuel chapter 8 verse 5. In verse 4, the elders of Israel had gathered together. Samuel came to them and said, they came to Samuel at Rhema and they said to him, Look, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways.
The sons were corrupt and they were not walking in God's ways. So they said, Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Instead of trusting God to take care of things, to step in and fix things, they wanted to fix things themselves.
And so the thing displeased Samuel in verse 6 when they said, Give us a king to judge us. So Samuel prayed to the eternal. Samuel took it to God because Samuel was faithful and obedient to God. He was a true prophet of God. And the Lord said to Samuel, and we know we had a relationship with Samuel since he was very, very young. Samuel was just a child, a very small child, when God began to talk to him and speak to him and work with him.
Samuel prayed to the eternal and the Lord said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. That's what this was all about. They were rejecting God because they did not have faith that God would intervene and take care of the issues and take care of the problems. Too often, we become impatient because God isn't taking care of things the way we believe He should. The way we believe He should. Instead of being patient and waiting on God to take care of issues and problems like these corrupt sons of Samuel, God would have surely done that had they had faith and had they really looked to God as their king and humbled themselves before God, then He surely would have been their king. And we see that in the scriptures. When we read it, it's loud and clear, but it was the people who rejected God. And God said, They have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, Samuel, that I should not reign over them. Now, it was not a good choice, but man chose Satan as their Lord and master.
They yielded to their own or they leaned to their own understanding. They wanted to make the choices and the decisions. They didn't want God ruling over them. Again, it's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The world is Satan's, and that's why God has said we must hate the world and that we must be enemies of the world and we must come out of the world. God, a loving father, is choosing a bride for his son. God is choosing a bride. He is calling his son's bride out of the world away from their kidnapping father, Satan the devil. A kidnapping, abusive father, Satan the devil, God is calling them away from Satan's influence. The true God wants to be our God and he wants us to be his children. He wants us to marry his son. He is the one making the match. So if God has chosen to bring you here today, then thank God for that. Don't question it, just thank Him for it and strive to do your part as the bride of Christ. God is the one who makes the match. He is Lord and master of our lives. He wants us to be the bride of His beloved son. In 1 Corinthians 1, it talks about who God is calling these days. We ought not be too proud about that. In 1 Corinthians 1, God does tell us this for our own good, unless we become haughty, thinking that we're so special and wonderful and blameless. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty and not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. We should glory in the eternal, in the Lord, because God is able to work with people like us. God can change our hearts, He can change our minds, and He can make us a worthy bride. So that's the kind of mindset we need to have, a humble mindset. One, very grateful to God and thankful to Him for His calling, and very grateful that He has made the match. Again, God looks at the heart and He wants to see a deeply repentant heart. That's the most important thing. It's not that we're perfect, but it's that we are deeply repentant when we fall short, because all of us will fall short at times. That's no excuse for falling short. I mean, that's a trap that Paul talked about.
We don't sin to somehow bring glory to God. That brings no glory to God. We strive against sin. We put sin out of our lives. We strive to overcome. We know that God wants us to be overcomers, but we also know that when we slip up, when we sin against God, if we have a truly repentant heart, which means, God, I want to change. I want to be different. I no longer want to continue like this. God, please help me and save me from myself.
Give me the strength that I need to do the right thing, to stop this wicked, sinful behavior, and to obey you. That's the kind of heart that God is looking for in His people. He can work with someone like that. Even if a person is quite weak and stumbles often, if he gets back up and truly has a heart to seek God, and he will endure to the end, and he will stay faithful, even though he does fall, but he looks to God to help him up, to strengthen him and to help him go forward. So the first important part of the ancient wedding is the match. God is the one, God the Father is making the match. He has chosen you out of this world. He has called you and chosen you to be different from the rest of the world. It is a high and a holy calling, not to be minimized in any way. Now the second step in the ancient wedding was the betrothal. A marriage contract was made between the potential bride and the groom. The father of the bride negotiated a bride price. The father of the groom would then pay that price. Now Satan, who became the god of this world when Adam and Eve decided to let him be their teacher, instead of God, and they yielded to Satan the devil, they disobeyed the true father of the whole universe. So Satan, in a sense, became the god of this world. He became the father of this world. And he wanted Jesus Christ to fall down and worship him. He went to Christ. He tempted Christ. Scripture tells us about those temptations, but Christ refused to sin. It was a choice, and Christ made the right choice. He refused to bow down before Satan. He proved himself worthy as the son of God and as the Savior of the world. Now the negotiated bride price was the very life of the groom. It was the life of the groom. It was Jesus Christ's life. That's what would have to be paid. Now God is the one that designed all this from the very foundation of the world, because the Scripture clearly says that Christ was slain from the foundations of the world. But it's important to see the parallel between the ancient wedding and what happened spiritually throughout time. So the negotiated bride price was the very life of the groom in this case. The price now could have been several cows or horses or whatever, camels back in the old days. But from a spiritual standpoint, the negotiated bride price was the life of the groom. The price that had to be paid to Satan to free the bride from her adopted father was the shed blood of the groom. Now we know the Scripture says that we are bought with a price, and that price is the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Only the shed blood of Jesus Christ can wash away our sins. Only by accepting Christ as our personal Savior and allowing that shed blood to wash away our sins, striving to certainly repent of our sins and to put sin out of our lives, it's only that that will allow us to become the bride of Jesus Christ. In John 15 verse 13, and you don't need to turn there because I'm going to read it to you, greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for his friend. Christ was the groom who agreed to lay down his life for his friends. For all of you here, for his bride, his best friend. A bride should be your best friend. My wife was my best friend. She was my best friend, my closest friend. I grew to love her. She grew to love me. We got married. I would lay my life down for my wife. Christ certainly did lay down his life for his wife.
In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25 and 26, it brings us into focus here. Ephesians chapter 5, and I know we read this often, and we read it in marriage sermons, but we need to realize that there's a spiritual aspect here that's so powerful that we mustn't lose what is being said here in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5, let's read in verse 22, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wise be to their own husbands in everything. So the church is to be subject to Jesus Christ. The bride is to be subject to the groom. We're to be subject to Christ. So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. Christ gave himself for the church. He laid his life down for the church, 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. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. The church is to become unified. The church is to become united. That is our calling. We are to become united as the church of God. We are to become unified just as a husband and wife who truly love each other are to be united in the way they approach life, in the way they handle things that go on in their marriage and in their lives. It is a great mystery. Christ is speaking of the relationship that he has with the church. Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. So we should be drawn to each other as husband and wife. Many married couples here today. It's a very important analogy that God gives us of husband and wife physically, and also husband and wife spiritually.
So the betrothal is the second step here. The potential groom and bride had to agree to marry each other. Back in the old days, the ancient wedding, they had to agree to marry each other. Now, it was a match that the father of the groom would would orchestrate, but they had to agree to marry each other. You know, they didn't marry against their will. They had to agree to it. The potential groom had to agree to marry. She was a free moral agent. She had to agree to marry the groom, and the groom had to also agree to marry her. It was customary for them to drink a little wine at the betrothal ceremony to seal the marriage contract. That was accustomed to drink a little wine. Now, our baptism into the Church of God pictures the acceptance of Christ as our Savior and as our loving husband and our protector. Our baptism pictures our willingness to submit to Christ and to do His will just as He submitted and did His Father's will. Remember, Christ said, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And He was completely united with God and willing to do what His Father told Him to do. Not my will, but your will be done. He subjected His own will as a human being who was flesh. He subjected that will to His Father's will, and He willingly laid His life down for all of us. That was what was required.
Every year, baptized members observe the Passover, and at Passover we drink a little wine as a memorial of our baptism and our commitment to Jesus Christ. So next year at Passover, remember what we're talking about here today. Each year we renew our covenant with God. We renew our wedding vows, in a sense. Every year at Passover, we renew, in a sense, our wedding vows.
This is a betrothal period that we're talking about. We seal or renew the covenant with a little wine that is symbolic of Christ's shed blood for us and our acceptance of Him as our Savior, our Lord and Master, and our soon-coming King, and also our loving Husband.
We realize at baptism that we are going to be asked two questions. Number one, have you repented of your sins, which are the transgression of God's holy and perfect law? And number two, have you accepted Christ as your personal Savior, your Lord and Master, your soon-coming King? Upon these two conditions, then a person is immersed in a watery grave, the ceremony of the laying on of hands takes place, and we are promised the gift of the Holy Spirit.
That is the gift, and at that time we are sealed. Let's read 2 Corinthians chapter 2 now. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21 and 22. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21. Now, he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Now, notice that word, a guarantee. He has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts. God looks on the heart. God looks where the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts, and it is a guarantee. Now, the word translated, deposit, or guarantee here, depending on which translation you look at your reading, this word is the Greek word arabon, or ar-habon, a-r-r-h-a-b-o-n. It could also be translated as a pledge, and speaks of the absolute surety that the promise given will be fulfilled. Now, in Fiddler on the Roof, you may remember the papa saying, they gave each other a pledge, something like that. Unthinkable.
They gave each other a pledge to be married, and in a sense, this is what we do when we're baptized. We make a pledge, and God makes a pledge to us, and He gives us a guarantee. He grants us His Holy Spirit. It is very interesting to note that in the modern Greek language, arabon is the very word for the engagement ring. It's the very word for the engagement ring. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the engagement ring, in a sense, by which Jesus Christ has sealed our betrothal to Him. It might be important for us to consider that we have an engagement ring, that we are engaged to Jesus Christ. We are betrothed to Jesus Christ. It's the Spirit that God gives us, and draws us close to God, and to God the Father, and to Jesus Christ. We had to agree to be His bride. We are free moral agents. We agree to be the bride of Christ. He said He would send a comforter during His absence, and we know with full assurance that the Holy Spirit is a great comforter. The Holy Spirit gives us tremendous peace. It gives us strength and power to endure, and to go on, and to fight the good fight. We must be thankful for the Spirit of God on a daily basis, on a continual basis, and we must know with full assurance that Christ is coming back to marry us. Christ is coming back. That's what this day pictures, the return of Jesus Christ. Behold, I come quickly. He's coming for His bride. We have to have faith in that promise. Now, that brings us to the third step in the ancient wedding, which is the waiting period. The waiting period. After a person is betrothed, then the groom would go back to his father's house once the betrothal period began, and the future bride would return to her house with her father. So they would each go back to their house. They didn't get together and live together at that point. They were betrothed, but they were not yet married. So they weren't living together as husband and wife. They went back to their father's house, and a time of waiting and preparation for the wedding would then take place. There was much to do for the groom and for also the bride. The groom would need to help his father prepare the wedding chamber. The bride would need to get herself ready to be married. Now, in the book of Esther, and I'm not going to take the time to go there, but it does show some preparations that would take place in beautifying the bride for the upcoming wedding. Remember, Esther was to marry the king. A beautiful wedding gown must be prepared. Now, we as the spiritually betrothed bride of Christ are now in a waiting period.
We have been betrothed, but we are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. We are to wait patiently, having faith. Now, we already talked about the importance of being patient and having faith and relying on God to take care of the issues that come about in our lives, not taking matters into our own hands when it isn't our place, but relying on God. Because God is our king, and He is the one that we should look to for guidance, for direction, and for deliverance. So, we wait patiently and we have faith that our betrothed will come back and marry us as He's promised. We have faith that Christ is doing His part in preparing for us. We certainly know that Jesus Christ is doing His part. In fact, Christ makes intercession for us on a daily basis, as the one that we're betrothed to. Christ sees what's going on down here. Christ was tempted in every way as we are tempted. Christ knows how difficult it is for His bride to be faithful.
So, He is there cheering you on and going before the Father, making intercession when you slip and fall. If you have a repentant heart and mind and you want to continue as the bride of Christ, then Jesus Christ sees that. He wants you. He's accepted you. The book of Hosea is a powerful book that, one of these days I'm going to prepare a sermon on the book of Hosea, but it talks about just how willing God is to forgive, how willing Christ is to forgive. Hosea married a prostitute, someone who had sinned greatly, and it was to be a type. In a sense, we're all prostitutes.
I mean, we've all sinned, haven't we? We're all worthy of death. The wages of sin is death. That's what we deserve. In a sense, we're prostitutes, but God loves us. God looks at our heart. He wants to see if we are repentant, and He wants to see that we are coming out of that evil behavior. So, He looks at your heart, and Christ is there for you. He's making intercession. This is what He's doing as He prepares for His return and the acceptance of His bride. In John 14, verse 1, Christ gives a betrothal speech to His bride. Let's go to John 14. In a sense, we could look at this as a betrothal speech. John 14, verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions or offices. If it were not so, I would have told you I'd go to prepare a place for you. Christ was leaving them to prepare a place. He was telling His disciples who were also a part of the of the bride of Christ that He was leaving them to prepare a place for them. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will receive you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also. So Christ is coming back and we shall forever remain with our husband, Jesus Christ. That is the picture that God wants us to have firmly in our minds. We are preparing now for the return of our betrothed. There is much to do. There is much to do. Really, we are to redeem the time, as the book of Ephesians tells us. We are drawing close to the time of Christ's return. We should be careful how we use our time. Now is the time to stop doing some of the things that you do for pleasure and for other's sake that is frankly just a waste of your time. Use your time more wisely as you prepare for the return of Christ. Perhaps more time fasting, more time in prayer, more time in studying the Bible. You are the one that has to decide how you're going to use your time, how you're going to utilize the time God gives you. We must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, as the Scripture says. We must be sure that we have a lamp that is in good working order, and we must know the Word of God. We must have plenty of oil for our lamp. We must be stirring up the Spirit of God, and we must be producing spiritual fruit on a daily basis. We must be vessels of righteousness, vessels of mercy, and vessels of love. We are to become like Jesus Christ. We are to put on the nature of Christ. As Mr. Kegel mentioned, we are to bring every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Jesus Christ. And we are not to make provision for the flesh. So we are to make some good choices that will keep us from being tempted in the first place. Stay away from those tempting things as best you possibly can, and make the right choices. We must be ready for the return of our husband to be. Our faith in him as our guide, our protector, and our Savior must be strong. In Psalm 90, verse 17, let's go there briefly. We'll just read one verse. Psalm 90, verse 17.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. In other words, we look to God to establish the work of our hands. What are you going to do with your hands the rest of your life? What are you going to do with your time the rest of your life? Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.
Let the beauty of God be upon us. In other words, become like God. Reflect his character in all that you do. We must become as beautiful as possible for our husband. God is called the weak and the foolish, but we're not supposed to stay that way. We are to be overcomers. We are to change our lives. And that's where people will be confounded in seeing that the weak of the world have changed. They've changed, and they are really fine and decent people here on this earth, but even so much more at Christ's return. It will confound the mighty. We must be preparing a beautiful wedding gown of righteousness. We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, the mind of Christ, to guide us and to be in us. Now, we know that the bride is veiled, which is a picture in a sense of the parable of the wheat and the tares. Some masquerade as ministers of light and righteousness. They masquerade as the bride of Christ, but they're really not the bride of Christ. They focus on the outward appearance, not upon developing themselves internally and spiritually.
The Pharisees were like that. They thought they were the bride of Christ. They thought they were in good stead with God the Father. And yet, his son said that they were of Satan the devil. They were of their father, Satan the devil. So we must not masquerade as ministers of light and righteousness. We must be ministers of light and righteousness. We must focus not on the outward appearance, but upon developing ourselves spiritually. And again, we have to look to God to do the work in us. God is the one who builds the house. We must respond by humbling ourselves and yielding to God and allowing ourselves to be a vessel for his use.
Now let's go on to the fourth step. The third step was the waiting period. We are now in that period. We are waiting. We've been betrothed. Now those of you who are baptized have been betrothed to Christ. Some of you who are not yet betrothed, that's where you're at. Perhaps you need to make that commitment and become betrothed to Jesus Christ. Then you'll be in the waiting period for Christ's return. Now again, we're all in this next step, step number four, which is the coming of the groom. We're all waiting for the return of Jesus Christ, and that's what this day pictures. The father of the groom would decide when it was time to send for the bride.
A friend of the groom would go immediately before the groom to announce his coming.
Then the groom would go and steal away his bride from the bride's father's house.
Now that's the ancient wedding. And spiritually, the key is to always be ready. We don't know the exact hour when Christ is coming back to steal, in a sense, his bride away.
It says he comes as a thief in the night. But of course, those who know him, as we know him, it doesn't have to be like a thief in the night for us. It won't be as a thief in the night. We will be waiting for and expecting Christ's return when he comes. So the key is always to be ready. We must not allow ourselves to let down our spiritual guard or fall asleep spiritually. Because if we do, that may be the very time the father tells his son to return for his bride. Now a lot is going to happen, hopefully, that will certainly wake all of us up who have been sleeping. But we do look forward to the return of Christ.
Do you now have sufficient spiritual oil for the return of Jesus Christ? That's a good question. Do you have the oil that you're going to need? Is the Spirit strong within you? Now that is the overall moral teaching of the parable of the ten virgins. Now we don't have time to go to the parable of the ten virgins, but I think we remember the parable of the ten virgins. We have to be like the wise virgins who had plenty of oil. They didn't have to go back to get oil because they had oil there to keep the lamp burning.
Now only the Father knows the day and the hour, and he is the one whom, remember the song, the one whom the Father sends. The Father knows the day and the hour. He is the one who sends back the Son. Christ is coming again to take His bride to forever be with Him, and He is going to bind Satan the devil, who is that kidnapping father of this world. Satan is going to be angry. He will try to prevent Christ from taking the bride. He will rise up to fight against Him. We have some cataclysmic times ahead of us. We have some very turbulent times. The dragon will make war with the church. We read that recently in Tulsa in Oklahoma City, Revelation 12, about how the dragon will make war with the church. Some will be protected by the Father and by the bridegroom by Jesus Christ. Some will be required to also have their blood shed. Some will have to go through the Great Tribulation to have their garments cleansed and whitened. So we're waiting now for the return of Jesus Christ. Now is a time of preparation. At Christ's return, it will be too late. So either we learn our lessons now, or we learn them through the Great Tribulation, or we burn in the Lake of Fire. If we've had God's Spirit and have rejected Him and choose to go that manner, otherwise we need to wake up. The sooner the better.
Now that takes us to the fifth step. Christ is returning. In fact, let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I was surprised that they left this for me. In fact, they left a lot of the meaty ones actually for me. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 17. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 through 17. Let's read those verses. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13, But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. We will always be with our husband, Jesus Christ. We will always be with the Lord. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, another scripture they left for me, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Corinthians 15, this is the resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15 verse 50.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption. This human flesh is corruptible. It must put on incorruption.
This mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be written, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.
So we do look forward to the return of Jesus Christ. We look forward to step number five in the ancient wedding, and also spiritually, which is the wedding feast. The wedding feast, and let's go back where we started in Revelation chapter 19. At Christ's return we shall be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. Those who are dead will be raised first, and those who are alive shall be changed to spirit. And then the wedding feast, Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19 verse 5. Then a voice came from the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great.
So that's all of us here today, as well as many, many others who are called chosen and faithful. Verse 6, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.
Christ now reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. She's made herself ready. She has been faithful throughout. She has endured to the end. The same shall be saved, those who endure to the end.
So we do need to remain faithful. We do need to put Christ first in our lives to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We do need to make wise choices, because time is going to get much harder. It's going to get more difficult in the days ahead. But thankfully, Christ is coming back, and a glorious Kingdom is going to be established, and the wedding feast is going to be the beginning of all that. It's going to be a beautiful time when we will be married to Jesus Christ. The saints will become the bride of Christ. Verse 8, And to her it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
Then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. These are the true sayings of God. We should have faith in what we've talked about today, because these are indeed the true sayings of God. Satan will try to confuse you. Satan will try to confound you. That Christ is there to give you clarity. Christ through His Spirit, through that down payment, through that guarantee.
If we stay close to God and we call upon Him, and we walk with Him, then certainly we shall become the bride of Christ. Now, at the wedding feast in the ancient wedding, the couple would go into the wedding chamber that had been prepared for them. Seven days they would be alone together. The marriage would be consummated. The husband and wife would become as one. They would finally be united in marriage, completely united.
That is something that we should strive for, to have the mind of Christ now, to put on the mind of Christ. The saints are to rule and to reign with Christ in love for a thousand years. And then, for all eternity, we will certainly rule and reign with Christ and God the Father as the Kingdom of God extends throughout the entire universe, according to God's plan. And, frankly, we don't know what all God has planned for us.
So, brethren, we believe that Jesus Christ is returning to the earth. I just wanted to share with you, before we close here, this is again something from the Hebrew Roots website regarding the Feast of Trumpets. He says, the day of judgment need not be feared by those who are in Messiah.
He says, we don't need to fear. Therefore, Rosh Hashanah, which is another name for Feast of Trumpets, the beginning of days or beginning of the year, is not a day of fear, but rather a day for real celebration.
For it is all of these. And he gives four different words or names for the Feast of Trumpets. Number one, Yom Teruah, which means a day of blowing. Yom Teruah, a day of blowing, signifying the return of Yahshua HaMashiach, which means Jesus the Messiah, and his crowning as King of Kings. Christ is coming back. He will be crowned King of Kings. This is a day of blowing of trumpets to signify the return of Jesus Christ. It is also Yom Hazikaran, which is a day of remembrance to recall the creation of the world. Now, this is according to Judaism and according to the traditions that have been passed along. A day of remembrance to recall the creation of the world, the birth of Isaac and Samuel, and the binding of Isaac.
And, of course, Isaac was a type of Jesus Christ who was to be sacrificed, an Abraham a type of the Father. This is to recall the creation of the world, the birth of Isaac and Samuel, and the binding of Isaac. Another name for the Feast of Trumpets is Yom HaKesah, K-E-S-E-H, Yom HaKesah, the day of the concealed moon.
The day that no one knows for sure when it will take place, because it was through citing that they would determine the Feast of Trumpets. And it wasn't always easy to determine. It was the day of the dark moon or the concealed moon, the day that no one knows for sure when it will take place. Only the Father knows exactly when Christ will return. And then another name, Yom Hadin, the day of judgment, when God will judge righteously those who are His, and the wicked who oppose Him. Most of the people will be put into an intermediate state for future judgment. They believe that many people are now in what is considered an intermediate state. They're not yet written in the Book of Life. They have to stay faithful throughout. We wouldn't necessarily agree with probably their understanding on that, and I haven't read enough to know exactly what it is. They're saying that we know that those who are written in the Book of Life will become the Bride of Christ. Those who have God's Spirit, it's a guarantee. The name goes in the Book of Life. And God is not going to blot it out unless you decide you choose to have your name blotted out from the Book of Life. So, brethren, it is a very meaningful day, this feast of trumpets, this day of trumpets that we're keeping now. And the next 10 days are considered the days of all, or the days of repentance and judgment, as we go into the day of atonement just 10 days from now.
So we believe that Christ is returning to the earth. We believe when He does, a great resurrection is going to take place. Those who are Christ at His return will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the sound of the last trumpet. We shall be changed to Spirit once and for all. We shall be born into the God family at that time. We shall become God in that sense, that we will be the children of God. We will be spirit beings, completely yielded to God the Father and Jesus Christ. We shall be God's children, and we shall bear His family name. We shall be just we shall be like our elder brother, Jesus Christ, who is called the firstborn among many, brethren. We shall begin to rule with Him at His return. We shall be kings and priests in ministering the government of God around the world. Jesus Christ will be King of Kings, and He will be Lord of Lords. We shall become kings. We shall become Lords and priests.
God the Father will reign supreme in the third heaven until such time that Christ delivers to Him the kingdom. And He comes to reign from the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven. What a glorious kingdom it is going to be for all eternity. This day we're here today observing, this day pictures the beginning of all that we've mentioned. Are you anxiously anticipating the return of Christ just as the bride or groom anxiously anticipates their wedding day? Now, I can remember being pretty anxious about my wedding day. I didn't have cold feet. I was just excited and anxiously looking forward to marrying my bride. We should anxiously look forward to the return of Jesus Christ. Are you busily going about doing your Father's business right now? Are you becoming a profitable servant? Are you preparing faithfully for your big day, the wedding day? The Feast of Trumpets pictures your big day, the day that you will become the bride of Jesus Christ, your Messiah. So, brethren, have a wonderful Feast of Tabernacles and Day of Atonement. For those I will not be seeing, that my wife will not be seeing, I know she would like for me to extend it to you. Her best way is to
Mark graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, Theology major, from Ambassador College, Pasadena, CA in 1978. He married Barbara Lemke in October of 1978 and they have two grown children, Jaime and Matthew. Mark was ordained in 1985 and hired into the full-time ministry in 1989. Mark served as Operation Manager for Ministerial and Member Services from August 2018-December 2022. Mark is currently the pastor of Cincinnati East AM and PM, and Cincinnati North congregations. Mark is also the coordinator for United’s Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Services and his wife, Barbara, assists him and is an interpreter for the Deaf.