The Bride of Christ, Part 3

In summary, there are many in the church who consider themselves "friends" of God, even as they walk in disobedience to God, when, in fact, God's Word says:

The LORD is a friend to those who fear him (Psalm 25:14).

The fear of God which caused man to walk in strictest obedience to God went out when the doctrine of grace came in.  Again, let me make clear that I am not against "biblical" grace:

For the LORD God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory.
The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. (Psalm 84:11)

I am only against man's perversion of "biblical" grace which cuts short that same scripture by proclaiming only the first parts of the verse, while neglecting to teach and preach the second part that ends in a "conditional" statement: "from those who do what is right."

God's grace is given to us for two reasons:

The first is so that we can come to believe in who Jesus is...His Son.  It is the grace of God's Son that leads us to the free gift of salvation:

We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus (Acts 15:11).

 

But the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ did not stop there.

 

But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)

 

He also provided the Holy Spirit to us for the purpose of walking in obedience to the Father, even as Jesus Himself walked in obedience to the Father.  It was never intended to cause us to feel comfortable while doing evil in our dis-obedience to God.  That is strictly a deception of Satan., but then again, reciting only "part" of a truth is one of Satan's well-known tricks that began even in the Garden with Adam and Eve.  Our enemy is very uncreative and unimaginative.  He does the same thing over and over again, while sin-blinded men fall prey to the same tricks over and over again.

Fear of God keeps us walking in His ways and not our own.  When we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, then the Holy Spirit is given to us to enable us to do just that, walk in God's ways of obedience and not in our own ways of disobedience which is sin.  We no longer look to the law to keep us righteous, but to the Spirit of God to keep us righteous, but regardless we are to remain righteous!

 

Well then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! (Romans 6:15)

 

Grace was never intended to do away with the law, but to confirm or establish it as truth:

 

Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. (Romans 3:31)

 

When Paul says we have been set free from the law by grace, he means from the punishment of the law, for he himself publicly kept the law even as a servant of Jesus Christ.  Here are the instructions given to Paul by James and the elders of the church in Jerusalem, concerning Paul and four other believers:

 

Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. (Acts 21:24)

 

The grace of God enables us to do the work that He has given each of us to do, works of righteousness:

 

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. (Romans 12:6)

 

But whatever I am now, it is all because God poured out his special favor on me—and not without results. For I have worked harder than any of the other apostles; yet it was not I but God who was working through me by his grace. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

 

When we are being faithful servants to Jesus, utilizing the grace that has been given to us to perform good works, then and only then does Jesus become more than Savior, He becomes LORD.  The word LORD indicates ownership, as a master to a servant; it indicates supreme authority.  And once we have shown our faithfulness as servants, we then become friends. 

But there are many in the church that call Jesus LORD and are not walking in obedience to Him; in fact, they are doing nothing at all because it is inconvenient.  Their flesh rules them, not the Spirit of God.  They are not servants of Jesus for they are walking by their own authority, not that of the LORD.  This means that what they speak are only empty words, having no corresponding actions to confirm the truth of the words.  These are deceived by Satan into believing that the appearance of righteousness equals righteousness.  But they are wrong....dead wrong!

For the LORD knows by name those who fear Him and walk in obedience to Him, and those who do not:

Then those who feared the LORD spoke with each other, and the LORD listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.

 

“They will be my people,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3:16-18)

 

When Israel had been delivered out of bondage, there came a time shortly thereafter, when the LORD said to Moses:

 

"Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.”

 

So Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.

 

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people." (Exodus 19:9-11)

 

Immediately after the people were sanctified, having washed their clothes (garment) of the filth of the world (bondage of Egypt), the LORD gave them the LAW (the Ten Commandments).

 

Immediately after we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit of God (who never changes) places the law directly into our hearts for the purpose of obeying it:

 

 After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:33)

 

that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

 

For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another..(Romans 2:13-15).

 

John Bevere (author of The Fear of the Lord: Discover the Key to Intimately Knowing God) believes that just as the Israelites were given two days to clean their garments before the glory of the Lord was revealed to them on the third day, the church also is entering into the third day (a day is as a thousand years to the LORD) and the time of sanctification is nearly over (the past two thousand years since Christ = two days of sanctification for the church).  He believes the "latter rain" (or the glory of the LORD) will arrive after these two days of sanctification.  These two days (2,000 years) have been given to the church to clean its garments (REPENT) from its defilement of conformity with the world and disobedience to God, so that their works will not be consumed by the fire of a holy God.

 

How many in the church will have their garments cleaned and spotless when He reveals His glory to the world once more? How many will be prepared to see the glory of the LORD when it comes? 

When Jesus returns will He find servants or will He find friends?  How long will it take each of us to become more than faithful servants?  It took the disciples three and 1/2 years.

Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. (John 15:14)

The Bride of Christ, Part 2

So what happens to the believers in Christ whose garments have been stained or spotted?  Why are they not walking in white raiment with Jesus?

When we proclaim our trust in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sakes, then the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us, in other words, GOD lives within us, for the purpose of helping us to walk in HOLINESS.  If, instead, we walk by the flesh and walk right into willful sin, such as sexual immorality, we defile this temple (our body) which has become God's residence.

Are we truly aware of what defiling the temple means to God?  We have studied (in the story of Hanukkah) that a certain Antiochus defiled the physical temple of God and is compared in scripture to the anti-christ.  If we are not walking by the spirit of holiness, then by what are we walking?  And if the Lord returns and we are found walking by the flesh (according to the lies of Satan, rather than in the truth) then what should we expect to receive from the Lord when He returns?

Our holy God will not stand for defilement of His holy place.  Our bodies, once made holy, are to be kept holy, or we will suffer for it.  Willful sin defiles the body because we were once washed clean from defilement through the blood of Jesus, and we have now allowed sin to defile the garment (the covering) that was once white as snow; we have not considered that which was done for us by Christ as precious and sacred.

That garment, as we saw in the last posting, is the righteousness of Christ. We are warned over and over again in scripture, that we are to walk carefully in that which we have been given, always guarding it from loss:

Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will? (Hebrews 2:1-4)

Paul told the church in Corinth to expel a believer from their midst who was involved in sexual immorality, and was completely unrepentant about it.  Why would he do this if the grace that comes through salvation covers all of this man's sins?  Or does grace only cover the sins we repent of or that we commit in ignorance rather than willfullness? Paul turns him over to Satan, to suffer in his body, in hope that it will bring him to repentance and save his soul.  This is the Spirit of God in Paul stating such a thing, because the Spirit of God will do the same to each of us, if necessary.  We Christians have to understand that this is the mind of a just and holy God that does not allow unrepentant sin to continue in us without suffering consequences; this is the mind of a loving God who has provided us an escape from sin through Jesus, and will now turn against us if we do not hold fast to that which He has given to us.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. (Hebrews 3:12-14)

 

We must heed the warnings held in this passage of scripture: brethren, take heed, so that you will not be found to be departing in your heart from the living God with whom you are currently reconciled to, hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.  Isn't the write of Hebrews saying that we are made partakers of Christ IF we hold fast to the faith we had at the beginning of our walk with Christ?  Which indicates conversely that IF we do NOT hold fast to that faith (by which we walk in truth and holiness by the Spirit of God), we cannot claim to be made partakers of (or one with) Christ. 
 

So we must consider what it is exactly that happens if the Lord comes back for His bride and finds a believer in unrepentant sin, not a sin of ignorance that he has not even been made aware of (for it is clear that God's grace would cover that), but a willful sin that was done with foreknowledge that it is definitely without a doubt sin against God.

It sounds as though Jesus takes the individuals with spotless garments of white, and leaves behind the individuals who have spotted their garments with unrepentant sin.  How do these individuals who have been (temporarily at least) left behind wash their garments to make them clean again?

It might be that scripture is telling us that a purging process is required; a process that brings unrepentant sinners to repentance because, sadly, they would not come to repentance quickly and humbly (as David did).  These individuals need some strong persuasion to get past the will of their own ego or whatever it is that is keeping them from repentance.  And Jesus knows just what they need:

 

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Rev. 7:14)

 

For these saints, the purging process was "great tribulation" through which they "washed their robes (indicating that they already had the garment, but it needed cleaning) and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."  Many believe that these are Jews only that will be saved through the great tribulation.  But the Word of God says that a multitude of Gentiles will be saved as well (Rev. 7:9-14).

 

In fact, Jesus says that some of us can escape great tribulation, but that there are conditions necessary to escape it:

 

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. (Luke 21:36)

 

Why do we have to be accounted worthy?  Aren't we worthy because of Jesus?  Doesn't God just see Jesus and not us, not our sins done after we were saved?  It sounds to me as though there is more required of us, as Jesus Himself said:

To whom much is given [the very life of Jesus Christ, God Himself], much is required [from those who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ]. (Luke 12:48)

Interestingly, those words are spoken by Jesus right at the end of a parable about a wicked servant:

Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. (Luke 12:35-40)

Let's break that passage down a bit because several things are said here that are not said by coincidence, but deliberately and prophetically as is all of God's Word.

First of all "Let your loins be girded about" is similar wording to Ephesians 6:14a:

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth...

If we are not walking in truth, then we are walking in deception, lies, SIN; we are Christians, but carnal Christians.  If we are walking in (or girded with) truth, however, then we are walking in the garments of HOLINESS appropriate for one called to the priesthood of Jesus Christ, such as Aaron was clothed in:

And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother...He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments.. (Lev. 16:2-4)

Secondly, "and your lights burning" refers to the Holy Spirit, the oil by which the lamps of the churches burn...as the oil diminishes the light grows dim.  We become light to the world depending on how we walk by the Spirit; walking by the flesh produces no light, only darkness. As we walk by the flesh instead of the Spirit, our lights are in danger of going out altogether.

Finally, in that passage from Luke, the "lord" (master) is not going to a wedding; he has just returned from a wedding (the wedding of the Lamb to his bride, the church) and is coming to "sit down to meat" (the wedding supper of the Lamb).  He comes and knocks on the door expecting to find servants who are "watching" for his return.  And when he finds such servants "watching" they are brought into the wedding supper to join in the intimacy of eating with him and his bride.  [Eating is a very intimate thing in the scriptures and in Jewish culture...as at the Passover Supper with Jesus and His disciples.  In Jewish culture, the food that we share, makes its way into our bodies, and becomes part of our body, joining our bodies together in a shared bond (symbiotic) because of the food.  How much more relevant the Lord's Supper becomes to us once we are aware of that Jewish thinking?]

It appears from other scripture passages that the wedding happens during the Great Tribulation, and from this passage in Luke it appears that those who are saved in the Great Tribulation are then invited (because they now have the proper garments) to join in the festivities of the wedding supper of the Lamb.

What warning does Jesus give the church at Sardis, and to the church as a whole as well?

"If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Rev. 3:3b)  This is clearly stated in the passage from Luke where servants had to be ready at the first watch, and the second watch, and the third watch ("watch" being the military term for the divisions of the night during which different soldiers were to guard or "watch") because they had no idea when their lord would return.
 

What will happen to those who have not kept their guard up, have not been looking for the Lord's return, and who do not come to repentance even through the purging process?

I believe we can understand conversely by what Jesus says in Rev. 3:5:

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

 

That statement goes against the doctrine of "once saved, always saved" because according to Jesus only those believers who "overcome" will not have their names blotted out of the book of life.

I believe that it takes a very sin-hardened person to remain unrepentant and rebellious to God.  Once a believer knows Jesus, if he allows lust for sin to consume him, and remains unrepentant or even hardened against repentance, then what would God do with such a one if even a purging process cannot cause him to overcome sin because of his own self-will?  I hope these are rare cases.  I hope that for the most part, most of us, even those with past sins that were once worthy of stoning, sins that were committed after coming to Christ, have come to repent and thus our names will not be written out of the Lamb's Book of Life.

The Egyptian Pharaoh of Moses' time is a good example of hardness of heart that comes about from one's self-will or ego.  At one point, after the 8th plague of hail and fire mixed with hail, it appears that Pharaoh has actually come to acknowledge that the God of Moses is the one true God and he even acknowledges that he has sinned (Exodus 10:16).  But pride causes him to step back from that declaration and become sin-hardened.  Scripture says that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.  I believe that means that the Lord had Moses do that which the Lord knew would cause Pharaoh to harden his heart:  Moses did not allow him to save face in front of his own servants who have begged Pharaoh to listen to Moses and Aaron (Exodus 10:7). Pride was what hardened Pharaoh's heart, through the deceitfulness of sin, and he lost that which he had grasp of for one brief moment.

Some Christians, like Pharaoh, who have acknowledged God, will be written out of the Lamb's Book of Life because of unrepentant hearts. Some will dare to defy God's law, by rationalizing that they are intelligent or wise enough, as Solomon thought he was, to avoid the consequences of sin even if they play around with sin. To these, the message of scripture is clear:

REPENT AND BE SAVED...

...saved from sin and its consequences, set free and enabled to become obedient to God in every way, saved from the Great Tribulation, saved from being written out of the Lamb's Book of Life.

I have deliberately focused on unrepentant sins, such as sexual immorality, sins that I have actually seen the church of Jesus Christ walking in, and casually doing so.  I want to sound the alarm to Christians who think they can walk like this without suffering terrible consequences.

Yet, whether we are in deep dark unrepentant sin or not, does walking in holiness, girded about with truth, allow us (the church) to walk as those who are more in love with the world than with Jesus?  Will we be spared, also, who attempt to straddle the fence, or who call ourselves HOLY when we spend more time gossiping than we do in holy prayer?  Or more time shopping, or more time with our electronics, or more time in recreation?

If we are Christians, then our lives are not our own.  Our lives do not belong to us to do with as we please.  We have a master to whom we are servants.  We cannot go our own way, do our own thing, with little regard for our master, and expect to be saved from what is to come.

This is the warning that Jesus warned us with...the warning that preachers everywhere need to be speaking loudly to the lukewarm church in these latter days whose lamp is growing dim.

The Bride of Christ, Part 1

This is a continuation of the study of the Seven Churches of Revelation that began prior to the holidays.  Now that the holidays are past, this posting picks up that study again with a passage of scripture pertaining specifically to the church at Sardis.  I have titled this posting "The Bride of Christ, Part 1" rather than "Church at Sardis, Part 4" because this is important and relevant to all the churches, for the church IS the Bride of Christ...at least part of what we call the church is, as we will see in this posting. Jesus recognizes those that make up the church, those of His own body, perhaps better than we do.

Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Rev. 3:4-6)

 

Please keep in mind that these words are spoken to the "church" - those who profess to know Christ. Jesus is not speaking about the lost ("lost" is the biblical term for those who have never yet come to know Christ.) This fact is critical to this study of the seven churches.  We must not attempt to transfer guilt onto the lost that belongs to the church alone.

Keep in mind, also, that what applies to the church that existed in Sardis over 2,000 years ago, applies equally to the modern church today. The things that Jesus spoke to John were not only for John's time, but were spoken prophetically to those in the future.  And the things Jesus spoke were not only for the church collectively, but also for the individual believer: "...let him hear..."

Thus, the garment referred to referred to in the passage above is none other than Jesus Christ Himself; the white refers to the righteousness of the saints who are clothed in Jesus, and whose garments are further woven into fine linen by their own righteous works after knowing Jesus:

 

For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:6-27)

 

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Rev. 19:7-8)

Those who have not defiled their garments of white will walk with Christ down the aisle during the wedding of Jesus to His bride, the church, for He is selecting for Himself a bride with virginal qualities, faithful to Him, separate from the world, blameless in all that she does, holy as He is holy: "For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."  (Lev. 11:45) 

Note that the bride makes "herself ready" implying some work on her part.

Her raiment is white, the righteousness of Christ, and she has not allowed the world, the flesh, or the devil to soil her garment which then becomes her wedding gown. She is a believer in Christ who has utilized the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the temptations of sin.

But what about those who believed in Christ, but have been overtaken by sin and so have defiled their garments?  Listen carefully to what Jesus is saying:

"...a few names...have not defiled their garments....they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy."

If only "a few names" (which speaks of a "remnant") will "walk" with Him, then what happens to the others - those who have defiled their garments, and how did their garments get defiled?  This is an important passage of scripture that has been neglected or passed over by the church today because it does not speak in "positive" tones.  It is a neglect that has caused, and will cause, thousands, if not millions, of believers to suffer great loss in the kingdom to come, simply because preachers and teachers have neglected their duty to preach the WHOLE word of God. They pick instead those passages that cause very little or no discomfort to anyone, and thus a large part of believers (the opposite of a "remnant") will suffer loss for their lack of knowledge. The blame is not on preachers alone, however, as each believer has a responsibility to study the word of God on his own to make sure his salvation:

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.." (2 Peter 1:10). [This being said by Peter at the conclusion of a list of things we believers are to do to add to that which Christ has done for us, one of which includes adding "knowledge" to our faith and to our virtue.  Peter is not telling us to go get "worldly" knowledge; he is telling us to get biblical or scriptural knowledge by reading and studying the Word of God.]

Before we continue, we must first understand the meaning of the word defile:
 

To defile means to: make filthy or dirty or to pollute; to debase the pureness or excellence of; corrupt; to profane or sully (a reputation, for example); to make unclean or unfit for ceremonial use; desecrate: as to defile a temple; to violate the chastity of.

 

Please note that defilement must begin with something clean or white or unpolluted, something excellent, something unsullied.  THEN, put in simplest terms, when defilement happens, the thing that was clean becomes dirty, or, as with a temple: desecrated, made unholy rather than holy. 

If righteousness by faith in Christ produces white garments that we are clothed in, both individually and collectively as the church, then something must be done that is the opposite of that "righteousness by faith in Christ" - something which can defile that same white garment and make it dirty. There must be a lack of faith and surely that lack of faith involves not utilizing the Holy Spirit to overcome sin.  These with defiled garments must be those believers who walk by the flesh (carnal Christians) and not by the Spirit; without the power of the Holy Spirit, they fall prey to sin, and grievous sin it is to the Spirit of God.

Many today will not believe this because to them grace covers all sin. But perhaps the whole word of God has something different to say about that if we would but search it in its entirety and believe that God has not changed from the Old Testament to the New. Perhaps, as I have said elsewhere, grace is that which brings us to the cross, and grace is that which helps us to overcome sin.  Grace is also that which brought King David to his senses in his terrible sins against God concerning Bathsheba, yet David suffered great loss even after his repentance.  What would have happened if David had not repented?

Because God never changes and the Old Testament is prophetic and fulfilled by (confirmed by) the New Testament, we must look for a moment at the Old Testament to understand that God has made a distinction about sin, and then we will find the confirmation of that fact in the New Testament.

Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. (Lev. 20:2) This is comparable to abortion today.

 

And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Lev. 20:10)  This is clearly adultery.

 

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Lev. 20:13) This is the sin of sexual acts between partners of same kind, such as man with man, or woman with woman.

 

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. (Lev. 20:37)  This is the sin of being a psychic or a witch, mentioned elsewhere in the bible is the sin of consulting a psychic or using witchcraft.

Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death.. (Exodus 31:14).  This is the sin of not keeping holy - meaning separate from the world's ways -the Sabbath (Friday evening to Saturday evening).

 

These are only a few of the sins that brought death in Old Testament times, and because no sacrifice was provided by God to cover them, the participants of these sins were simply destroyed physically. to remove the unholy from the holy.  They were put to death because these sins were worthy of capital punishment.

But there were sins that were lesser sins in the eyes of God Himself that He allowed to be covered (or cleansed) by a sacrifice.  These included sins of ignorance.  But willful sins of the first magnitude (those in the partial list provided above) were not covered by sacrifice.  They were not sins of ignorance because God made sure they knew the Law, which clearly stated what was sin.  God made sure man knew which sins brought capital punishment, and which did not; similar to the laws of our land today.  In fact, the laws of our land were first established upon biblical precepts.

The Roman Catholic church identifies this distinction in sin as mortal sin and venial sin.  According to the Catholic church, a mortal sin is an unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace; "theologians list seven mortal sins;" while the term venial denotes a sin that is not regarded as depriving the soul of divine grace.  According to the Catholic faith, those sins that brought about a "total loss of grace" required the deceased soul to be "purged" or "cleansed" through the fires of purgatory, a place of making holy once more before being allowed to enter heaven and reside in the presence of God. Venial sins could be done away with by the "penance" of prayers, i.e., so many Our Fathers and so many Hail Marys.  And, of course, there were many who self-determined that they specifically were worthy of worse penance and these became known as the "Penitentes" doing things such as crawling for miles on their knees towards a church or shrine of some sort; these were "self-punishers."

I am not at all suggesting that the bible speaks of such a thing as "Penitentes" or "purgatory;" this is Catholic "dogma" (dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted). But I do believe that the Catholic church had some understanding that might have come from the earliest church, but that they went too far with resolution of this issue in their dogma. 

For there does seem to be something important in the words of Jesus concerning this church at Sardis that we Protestants are not quite getting, something we have passed over rather than search out, something that shows a distinction between those saved who have not sullied their garments, and those saved who have sullied their garments.

And I believe it might be about a distinction in sin AFTER we have been saved, not BEFORE we have been saved, because BEFORE we were saved we did not know the law, but AFTER we are saved, we do know, because we have the Holy Spirit to tell us and He speaks to us of the very things contained in the Law.  He does so because He is God and God created the very Law by which He holds us accountable once we have attained knowledge. 

No, we are not stoned for those sins today, but God has not changed in His attitude toward those sins...and His justice requires some sacrifice for ALL sin, even those willfully committed once we know better.  In David's case, he not only lost his newborn son, but violence remained in his own household, bringing David much sorrow.

The work of Jesus on the cross covers all of our sins before we came to know Him, before we came to understand the law of God, and I believe that His grace covers those sins that we commit unknowingly or in ignorance. But sins that are committed willfully once we know better, specifically sins having to do with the body, as Paul denotes, (the body being the very temple of God in saved believers), take the grace of God through the work of Jesus on the cross and count it as nothing of much importance.

And for those sins, the bible states, those believers (those with sullied garments) are treated differently than those with unsullied garments who walk down the aisle with Christ at the Marriage of the Lamb. For the others, a loss will be suffered, if only the loss of not walking down the aisle with Christ. That much, at least, is perfectly clear from the scripture passage at the beginning of this posting. But how is it possible for the whole church not to be the bride?  And what happens to those other believers who are not part of the "few"?

As this posting is quite long already, I must continue in the next posting at which time we will look for confirmation in the New Testament of things mentioned here.