 Yeah, welcome back. We'll continue with the sacrament of the Lord's table. Yes, coming to the question posted over here. It's an interesting question. Does the church also give us a certificate of salvation? I have absolutely no idea. I've never heard of that concept. I mean, there are people who design a salvation certificate to honour the day that they came to the Lord. So they create their salvation certificates and frame it and put it on the wall. I've seen that. But a church formally issuing a salvation certificate, it's not a concept that I'm aware of. Primarily, between you and God, so I don't think... Yeah, sorry. So, yeah, Sanjay, I'm not aware of this thing. But if you're thinking in terms of any paperwork for any legal thing, then I guess you would go to the government for that. So the church issuing, I do not know. Pardon? Yeah, so alright. So we were looking at the importance of not just reflecting upon the work of the cross, which Jesus did for us when we are holding those elements. We also look at the significance it has for us as the body of Christ, where we need to maintain unity among ourselves. So there are two aspects. The Lord's table reminds us of what Jesus did for us on the cross and how we are united with Him and how we are going to continue walking with Him and live a new life in Him by participating in His body and blood on a daily basis. So we are united with Him, but we also remember that we are united with the other believers because now we are all part of one single body and we are sharing that one loaf which is Jesus Christ. So let's look at some things which Paul says to the Corinthian church regarding the celebration of the Lord's table. The first thing that we see is in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 18 to 22. What does he say in this passage regarding the Lord's table? 1 Corinthians 10, 18 to 22. Observe Israel after the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar? What am I saying then that an idol is anything or what is offered to idol is anything? Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with the demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of the demons. What do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? Over here, Paul is referring to certain people in the church who it looks like as if these are people who come to the church services and they participate in the Lord's table. But these simple people also seem to have been going to the temples and over there they participate in the food offerings which are placed before the idols. So Paul says over here, how can you be partakers of the food of idols and also be partakers of the Lord's table? Because you are basically expressing loyalty to two different masters. And a person cannot have two different masters. A person can be completely faithful to only one master. So maybe they were trying to please people from their earlier religious background. So maybe because of that they were visiting those temples and participating in the food offer to idols, eating that. And then they would come to church because they also want to be part of Christ. So Paul says over here, you cannot participate in the Lord's table and also participate in the food offer to idols because you would have to publicly declare your loyalty to one master. So the first thing that we need to keep in mind when we are partaking of the Lord's table is that when we are participating in the wafer and the grape juice, we are saying, yes Lord, I believe in your burial, death and resurrection. But Lord, not only am I just asking you for the benefits of this resurrection, I am also saying that now you are my master. I am going to follow you. I am going to stay loyal to you. And just as you took up your cross, I too shall take up my cross and follow you. So you're not only declaring your faith in what Jesus did on the cross for you and claiming the benefits of that. You are also acknowledging and saying, now you are Lord of my life. You are the one and only master that I am serving. So with that awareness, if we are participating in the Lord's table, obviously we cannot go the next day and participate in food offer to idols. Because then you are saying that I'm also participating with the demons. So you cannot be loyal to two masters. So here Paul says, you must stay loyal to one master. So when we are holding the elements, we ask ourselves, have I gone after other idols? In my life, it may not be physical idols. In our Christian community, most of us do not have anything to do with idol worship. But have I gone after other idols and declared them as my master in the way I lived in the choices that I made? So if there are other idols in your life, you would have to say no. Now that I'm holding these elements and I'm placing myself under this Jesus and I'm feeding upon Him on the loaf of bread which represents Him. So I have chosen Him to be my master now. So there must be no other masters in my life. So we examine our hearts to see whether any other masters have crept in and taken over our loyalty. We ask ourselves, whom have I been loyal to this entire week? Is the Lord alone my master or have I given my loyalty to other masters as well? So even though we may be careful in not partaking of the food of idols, which is basically of course what he's talking about over here. Paul is referring directly to actually physically eating the food offered to idols. We may not be doing that but the spiritual principle which is contained in this passage where it talks about who has your loyalty. That spiritual principle applies even today to us. So we ask ourselves, is the Lord Jesus alone my master and am I being completely loyal to Him? Or has my loyalty been divided between Him and other other masters also? If that is the case, then we would have to forsake those other idols and say, No, I will only have one master, the Lord Jesus Christ. So we look at the spiritual principle contained in this passage and we make sure that we are abiding by that. So to partake in the Lord's supper in a worthy manner, we would have to have loyalty to only the Lord Jesus one single master. There should be no other masters in our heart. We should not be serving some worldly ideals or some worldly goals or wealth or money or status. Those should not have our loyalty. The Lord Jesus alone should have our loyalty. And of course those who are living with non-christian family members, they would also have to make sure that they are not participating in food offered to idols. The second thing that Paul touches upon that would be in the chapter 11 passage. So first Corinthians chapter 11 verses 17 to 22. You can literally feel the anger of Paul in these verses. He is very, very upset about one specific thing in this passage. Okay, so even as this passage is being read out, look at what is making him so angry and what are the strong words that he uses regarding this particular manner in which these people were participating in the Lord's table. So first Corinthians 11, 17 to 22 if someone could read out. Shall I go ahead? Yeah, go ahead sister. In the following directive, I have no praise for you. For your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. So then when you come together, it is not the Lord's supper you eat. For when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private supper. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. Don't you have combs to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you certainly not in this matter? That should be enough. Thank you. So here Paul says, what shall I say to you? Shall I praise you certainly not in this matter? He is very upset with them and this is what he is upset about. He says, I have heard that when you people come together as a church, there are divisions among you. Some of you consider yourself superior to the others. And so very sarcastically, he says in verse 19, no doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. So some of you believe in certain things and you have certain theological preferences. So you argue against the others and you say, I believe in this, I practice this. So I have God's approval. God looks upon me with favor. You on the other hand, you have this other belief system. So you are not favored by God. So there were divisions among them regarding doctrinal matters, maybe regarding their theology, maybe even regarding some practices in their Christian walk. We are not given details about what exactly the differences were, but the church was divided. There was no unity. They differed on certain matters and they acted as if because they held one particular belief, they are superior to the others who don't have that particular belief. So what would happen when a divided church like this meets together for the Lord's Supper? Because in those days, it was not just a matter of each person sitting in their own chair and then someone comes to you and hands you the wafer and the grape juice. In those days, Lord's Supper literally meant Supper. It's like where everyone would sit together and have a meal. They would actually eat an entire meal together. So if there are divisions among you and you think that you are superior and the other person is inferior because they have some other doctrinal view and you have all these differences among you, what happens when you come to a Supper like that? You will try to sit with the people whom you agree with and the other people are against you. They'll sit together in another separate group somewhere else and you're all supposed to be representing one single body, but the body looks so divided. There are differences among you. So Paul says over here, because of these divisions that you people have, where you need to show off that we are approved by God and you guys who don't hold our opinion, God looks down upon you, just to show off that what do you people do? He says in verse 20, when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, but when you're eating, some of you go ahead with your own private Suppers. So they are sitting in their own groups, considering themselves superior to the others and they're all eating together in their own little groups. Now what happens to some believer who comes over there who's not at all from a wealthy background? I mean the man is barely able to make ends meet. He comes there with a hungry stomach and here the people are sitting in their own little cliques or they all have their own little groups. This poor man doesn't know where to go for food. So he literally is sitting over there in the Lord's Supper. He's supposed to be celebrating it technically, but he doesn't even have any food. Nobody is giving him any food. They're all very busy sitting in their own private Suppers and so the man, he finishes the Lord's Supper on an empty stomach. He basically has not received anything and there you have the people in the private Suppers in those little groups where they have eaten so much, drunk so much that now some of them are actually drunk because they, you know, in their culture they used to have wine in those days. So some people have imbibed so much wine that now they're in a drunk condition and here is this poor believer who didn't even receive any food. He says, is this the way you treat the body of Christ? Don't say that you're celebrating the Lord's Supper. It's not the Lord's Supper that you're eating. If this is the way you're eating it and then he goes on to say, don't you have, you know, homes to eat and drink in. If you really want to eat and drink to, you know and get drunk and all that, do it in your home. Don't come and do that at the Lord's Supper which has a spiritual significance because when you come over here you're proclaiming your union with the Lord and what he did for you on the cross and the new way of life which you have in him. You come over here to remember that that you're participating in this divine thing which God has done and you're reminding yourself that now all of you together are feeding upon this one loaf of Jesus and he's imparting to you eternal life through his body. You're coming to remember those facts and there is no unity among you and one believer over there is starving where you have not even bothered to offer him food. In what way are you celebrating this one loaf? You know, so he's extremely angry with them and he says, do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? If you really honour the church of God if you really had honour and respect for the body of Christ you would see to the interests of all the people in the group you would make sure that everyone has eaten that everyone has had sufficient wine to drink you would be doing all this together in unity honouring Jesus Christ but the way you people are doing it there is no unity and there is no spiritual significance so when we have our Lord supper we don't do it the way they did where people bring food it was like a potluck each person would bring whatever they can and they're all supposed to sit together as one group share with one another and eat together celebrating what Jesus has done for them and how he has brought them together so that now they are part of the family of God I mean they're like royalty they're members of the royal family they're supposed to be celebrating these things joyfully together but here we see that they're all divided and so Paul says don't despise the body of Christ in this manner understand what you are doing recognise the spiritual significance of what you are participating in so we should be careful that there are no divisions there's no prejudice in us when we are partaking in the Lord's table the third thing that we see about this whole the way these people the Corinthians were celebrating the Lord's table the third thing which we see is that they were treating it like as if it was some kind of a pagan feast because this is basically how the pagans would celebrate their feasts where you would have the food offered to the idols first and after the food is offered to the idols it's then distributed among all the people and then the people would sit together in their own individual groups and they would eat it and it's like a celebration, it's a feast the believers are not supposed to be doing this like some kind of a pagan feast there is a spiritual Christian Christ centred significance to this particular ceremony they are equating it with what is done in the pagan festivals and this is not a ceremony which is which can be equated with the pagan festivals this is something which has got a spiritual divine significance and so this is what he says in 1 Corinthians 11 27 to 30 is continuing the same train of thought and someone could read out 1 Corinthians 11 27 to 30 shall I sit down? please go ahead yes 1 Corinthians 11 chapter 11, 27 to 30 so then whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord everyone ought to examine denfils before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup for those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves this is why many among you are weak and sick and a number of you have fallen asleep so he says this is not just some pagan festival that's going on over here you're meeting together to have this Lord supper because of the spiritual significance in it and when you do it in faith understanding fully what you're doing understanding whom you're participating in then the power of the cross is released into your lives on the other hand if you're not even discerning what you're doing no power is going to be released into your lives in fact you will perish he says some of you are getting weak and sick and in fact are dying because you're not even understanding what you're participating in you're doing it in such an ignorant manner as though you're participating in some kind of a pagan feast so there's a deep spiritual significance to what is being done over here and so when we participate in the Lord's table we make sure that we are in union with the Lord whatever we have between him and us is all clean and clear if the Lord has convicted us of any sin at all we better have confessed it we better have repented and come back to him and said yes Lord I'm going to get back to following you and I will no longer live in this sin so the account between you and God should be clear when you come to the Lord's table the account between you and the other believers should also be clear there should be no bitterness, no slander going around spreading stories about that believer to the other people because you got hurt by them or something no, all that should not be there so you have to be honorable in the way you're celebrating this Lord's table so if you're doing it having discerned the body of Christ then the blessings which are there in that body the body which was crucified on the cross and the victory which was won through that sacrifice that will be richly released into your life on the other hand if you have not discerned it and understood what you're participating in it you'll get nothing out of it you will continue to have sicknesses continue to have illnesses Satan will continue to take advantage of you as a church and divide you so that you will not be able to achieve anything for the Lord and you will die defeated so Paul emphasizes the importance of observing this in a right manner so we come and we examine ourselves before God to see whether things are clear in our account between God and us and clear in our account between people and us the other believers and us and the second thing that we do is that we consciously remember what Jesus has done and we acknowledge and say yes indeed he died indeed he was resurrected and indeed in him I too have been crucified and now I can live in a new way so we acknowledge, we understand and we declare and we say yes I understand what I am doing I am remembering what you did for me on the cross and the third thing is because now we have understood we boldly claim and we say yes Lord I am holding in my hand the elements which represent your covenant so because of this covenant that I am in with you now Lord I claim my covenant privileges please grant my family member the healing that they need please give us the finances that we require because you see that bread and that wine it represents the covenant which he has entered into with you so now you have covenant privileges which you can claim in him so these are the things that we would do during the Lord's table, during the celebration of the Lord's table so that it is done in a meaningful manner and because we have discerned what the body of Christ represents we will gain the benefits of what he is offering us so these are just some things that I wanted to mention regarding this particular sacrament so yes I know like Paramita had mentioned there are some churches which will say that only a person who is water baptized must participate in the Lord's table but then nowadays we have a lot of churches which don't put that restriction because in the Bible we don't see any such you know, condition being laid down in the book of Acts, nowhere does it say that only if a person is water baptized only then they are allowed to participate in the Lord's table because there is no such verse given anywhere in the New Testament we don't put that restriction on people we allow anyone who is a true believer to participate in the Lord's table also there are some churches which have a kind of age restriction they say that only after a certain age you are allowed to participate in the Lord's table but then here at APC we allow even children who have made a true commitment to the Lord and to whom it has been clearly explained the meaning and the significance of the Lord's table once they have understood it even they are allowed to partake in the Lord's table why because salvation is open to a person right from the time that they begin to understand these truths right from the time that they are able to make a commitment to the Lord and say, yes Lord I repent of my sins and I choose to believe in what you have done for me on the cross and to start walking in a new way of life once they are already walking in that new way of life it makes sense for them to also participate in the Lord's supper which represents his body and blood so there are no age restrictions placed at least in APC and even children who have understood what they are doing are allowed to do it in an honourable manner acknowledging what God has done for them and so the power of the cross will be released even into their lives even though they are young so the only one requirement to participate in the Lord's table is that no you should be a believer you must have made a commitment to the Lord Jesus and benefited from the work of the cross otherwise it's such a meaningless thing it will mean nothing if you have not become a participant in his body and blood through the salvation experience what you are doing as a physical ceremony will have no meaning so a person has to be a true believer and once they are a believer, yes they can automatically participate in the Lord's table so that was regarding these two sacraments if there are any questions regarding this you can post it here otherwise we will move into the last portion of our doctrine of the church which is the biblical images which are used in the New Testament to talk about the church there are different word pictures used in the New Testament to talk about the church and we are not looking at this just for us to gain some head knowledge each of those word pictures is trying to teach us something if we say that we are the body of Christ then in that case we have certain responsibilities if we call ourselves the bride of Christ then that entails certain requirements from our side so we will look at a few of these pictures of what the church is to understand how it applies to us as Christians and what is expected of us because God sees us in that particular way if God sees us as his body what does he expect from us if God sees us as his bride what does he expect from us if God sees us as his temple then what does he expect from us so we will look at the practical implications of these biblical images which are familiar picture of the church it is being represented as the body of Christ let's look at a verse which talks about that Ephesians chapter 1 verses 22 and 23 so if someone could read out for us Ephesians 1, 22 and 23 and he put all things under his feet head over all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all so here we are told that God has appointed Jesus Christ to be the head over the church to be the head over everything for the church Jesus is head and lord over the principalities and powers he is the lord and head over creation he is the lord and head over every living being he is the lord and head over all the animals and plants and everything so basically he is lord and head over everything and he is acting in this headship for the sake of the church so now through Jesus the church also enjoys participates in this headship so because Jesus is the lord over creation now the believers can go to him and say Lord tomorrow we are having a meeting please give us clear weather because God is lord over the weather so because he is head over everything for the church the church can benefit from his headship so this is one aspect of how we gain from the headship of Jesus Christ another thing to keep in mind regarding the headship of Jesus Christ Colossians 1 17-18 Colossians 1 17-18 and he is before all things and him all things consist and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning the first born from the dead that in all things he may have the preeminence yes because he is the head of the church he should be given preeminence he should be regarded supreme in everything in our decisions in the way we live in the way we interact with each other in the way we conduct our church service in everything he is he should be regarded and treated as supreme because he is the head of the body the church and he must be given the supremacy so there are two aspects of this headship that we see because he is the head of everything for us on our behalf we can enjoy we can go to him and say lord sickness has to bow down to you therefore lord grant me my healing and we can go to him and we say lord you are the head of all the principalities and powers so lord in your name we cancel the works of the evil one against our church and what we are trying to accomplish for you so we cancel the schemes and strategies of the evil one so he is the head on behalf of the church so we enjoy the privileges which he grants to us because he is the head over everything and the second thing which we have to note regarding his headship is that because he is the head of the church we must treat him as supreme in all our decision making in the way we live in the way we treat people in everything he must always be supreme in our lives in all aspects of our lives other aspects of this idea of being the body of Christ 1 Corinthians 12 27 1 Corinthians 12 27 who are the body of Christ and members individually yeah each person individually is a part of this body of Christ NIV says and each one of you is a part of it part of this body of Christ and then Ephesians 4 16 if you could read out from him the whole body is joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love it says that each part of the body does its share of the work so that the entire body can be built up so from these two verses one principle that we are gaining is that every single believer is a part of the body of Christ and every single believer has got a role to perform in this body and if we are doing our role sincerely and all of us are doing our role sincerely it will automatically lead to the growth of the entire body the entire body will be benefited so nobody can sit back and say I don't really need to be an active participant in the body of Christ if someone could I think it is good if you could just mute yourself please thanks thank you so nobody can act as if they are not expected by God to be active participants we all are a part of the body of Christ and we all have a role to play and each of us is supposed to do the work that is assigned to us we have talked about this earlier we talked about how there are membership gifts we have of course the nine common gifts which all the believers possess but then you also have role or membership functional gifts where each person has given some special giftings and talents which can benefit the rest of the church and we are supposed to use those so when we call ourselves the body of Christ automatically this picture word picture comes with a responsibility where we have to fulfill our role when we stand there on the judgement day no the Lord will hold us accountable for whether or not we used our giftings so every person will be actually questioned by God how did you use the talents and giftings given to you did you use them to benefit the church did you use them to reach out to unbelievers what did you do with the talents and giftings given to you so it's very very important that we recognize that we all have a role to play and we all are equally important another passage which brings out another aspect 1 Corinthians 12 24 to 26 but our presentable parts have no need but God composed the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care for one another and if any if one member suffers all the members suffer with it or if one member is honored all the members rejoice with it so here another responsibility that comes to us because we are the body of Christ we are expected to live in a united manner having equal concern for each other so in this passage it talks about how God gives honor to all the different organs of the body all the organs of the body receive honor in the same way in the body of Christ we must recognize that God honors every single member it's not that some people are more important and some people are less important yes some people serve the Lord from the stage they are very visible everyone knows their name everyone talks about them maybe some believers are very invisible they are the ones who come early in the morning and make the arrangements for the church service nobody sees them nobody knows their name but in God's eyes the persons on the stage have honor for the person who came in the early morning to set up the hall for the church service that person also has honor so we have to recognize the spiritual fact and treat each other in an honorable way without any division and we must have equal concern for each other so this is a very important truth to remember God honors all of His people every organ of the body is equally honorable now when it comes to human ranking people have a very even believers have a very wrong worldly value system where they rank people based on whether the person is on the stage or not but in God's eyes how does He do the ranking we have to honor people in the way God honors people this is a very very important thing to remember when we are part of the body of Christ because a lot of division takes place because we have a worldly view of who we are and who the other believers are if we could see believers the way God sees them we would realize that no matter what that person's talent is and no matter what my talent is in God's eyes we all receive honor from Him and we are all equally important we all have a role to play which will lead to the growth of the entire body so rather than looking at each other in a worldly manner we have to assess each other in the way God assesses us so these are important things to remember when we consider ourselves the body of Christ and of course this other thing practical aspect, Colossians 3.11 here there is no gentile or Jew circumcised or uncircumcised barbarian, Scythian, slave or free it is all and isn't all so if we are one body of Christ then we can't differentiate between each other and say you belong to this race, you belong to this region or you speak this language based on that or you are either superior or inferior in India we have this really pathetic value system where we think that people who speak English are somehow in some way superior and that comes from a worldly viewpoint because the people who know English tend to get better jobs and earn more so we are basically saying that the person who has got more money with them are more important, what foolishness in God's eyes it's not the job that you hold or the salary that you earn which gives you value it is who you are, you are an organ in the body of Christ so you literally have value because you are a part of God's body you are a part of Jesus body so your value and worth comes from that so we most definitely should not be differentiating between each other based on the race that we belong to, the skin colour that we have the language that we speak or the amount of money that we possess why should we not differentiate between each other in this manner because Christ is all and is in all so if Christ is in the person who speaks another language and Christ is in me who speaks English then how dare I say that the other person is inferior because they don't speak English, what heights of foolishness Christ is in all so these are all things that we need to keep in mind when we talk about ourselves as being the body of Christ so we would have to ask ourselves am I behaving like I am part of the body of Christ or am I behaving like the world thinking the way the world thinks because the world's policy is me for myself we don't really think of ourselves as people who have to place others but in the body of Christ what does it say in the verse which we read earlier 1 Corinthians 12 verse 25 it says we should have equal concern for each other so these are some of the implications the practical implications of being part of the body of Christ another word picture which is used both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament about the believers being called the people of God let's look at one Old Testament verse and we will also look at one New Testament verse Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6 if someone could read out Deuteronomy 7 verse 6 Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 6 for you are holy people to the Lord your God the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people of himself people for himself a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth I mean look at what this verse is saying about the status of these people God has chosen you out of all the peoples of the face of the earth to be his people his treasured possession God specifically chose this race of Israelites to be his treasured possession and of course people from other races who came and joined the Israelites and became worshippers of Yahweh they also became part of the treasured position that is the high status given to these Old Testament Israelites and then in Romans 9 25 to 26 we discover that this high status is now given even to the gentile believers Romans 9 25 to 26 if someone could read out as he says in Hosea I will call them my people who are not my people and I will call her my loud one who is not my loud one and in the very place where it was said to them you are not my people there they will be called children of the living God so now we gentile believers we also have this special high status of being called children of the living God so we also now are his treasured possession so what was the main thing which was you know which set the Israelites apart as God's special people they obeyed the mosaic covenant they lived in a way which was very very different from the rest of the peoples out of all the peoples on the face of the earth this group of people were asked to live according to a different set of commandments a different standard of moral values which the rest of the world was not even observing that is what set them apart as God's people so now today we who have been given the same privilege of being called children of the living God it's not just enough for us to boast and say oh I'm a child of the king I need to ask myself have I set myself apart and am I behaving like a child of the living God or am I still living and behaving like a slave of sin so am I behaving like a slave of sin or have I actually set myself apart as a child of God of the living God and am I representing him and living as part of so the practical implication of this particular image of you know being God's people the practical implication is that I would have to live in a different way from the rest of the world when the world looks at me it should automatically recognize and see oh this person is different they are not like us they don't think like us they don't make choices like us they are different they are set apart the world should be able to actually recognize you and say that that you are different from it so that would be the responsibility which comes from this particular image before we run out of time if we can just look at one more image the bride of Christ and yeah the verses that we would look at no would we can't we don't have time to look at the verses but you know if you can just note down the references Ephesians 5 25 to 27 and Revelation 19 7 to 8 in both of these scripture passages there's one common factor there's one common principle being mentioned in the Ephesians 5 passage it talks about how Christ has cleansed the church by the washing with water through the world so it talks about the cleansing of the church in Ephesians 5 in Revelation 19 7 to 8 there it says that the lamb has made herself ready no sorry the bride so sorry the bride has made herself ready for the wedding of the lamb and it says fine linen bright and clean was given her to wear so when you talk about the picture of the bride of Christ the main thing which comes out is the cleaning the cleansing which God has done which Jesus has done and now because of the cleansing which Jesus has done we have to ready ourselves so that one day we will receive the bridal gown to use modern terminology we would literally receive the bridal gown which is what fine linen bright and clean was given her to wear so he is the one who washed us but we are the ones who have to ready ourselves if we ready ourselves and really prepare ourselves as a bride then we will be given the fine linen to clothe ourselves and then it explains in verse 8 Revelation 19 8 fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God's holy people so if we have made ourselves ready by doing righteous acts and living in a way that honors him then on that day fine linen the bridal linen will be given to us so we were able to look at these three pictures of the church alright let's close with the word of prayer Lord there are so many things that we covered today we pray that whatever is important for our personal walk you would impress that upon our hearts a lot and remind us of those truths again and again so that we may walk in them we pray a lot that we would participate in the water baptism if we have not already done so we would do it in faith knowing what we are doing so that the power of the cross can be released into our lives and every week for Lord even as we participate in the Lord's table enable us to discern what it is help us to understand and remember and recollect what it represents so that the power of the cross can be released into our lives again we ask you that you would enable all of this for us through your Holy Spirit thank you Lord in Jesus name amen thank you