Sunday 29 December 2013

END-TIME STUDY;PREPARING FOR RAPTURE ( PART 2 ): WASHING YOUR GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

PREPARING FOR RAPTURE (PART2): WASHING YOUR GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

TEXTS:   REVELATIONS 7: 9-17


REVELATIONS 7:9-17 (KJV)

9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 

10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

14 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.

15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
 
INTRODUCTION


One day, I got an email from one lady-evangelist that I exchange end-times emails with. In the email, She narrated a testimony she had on one fateful day. The Lord used the testimony to bless and inspire me a lot. I share the testimony as follows.

My friend said she just finished using the toilet and she was washing her hands in the basin. That was about the third time she used the toilet and she washed her hands, each time, after such use. As she was washing her hands, she said she heard a voice, which she recognized, in heart. The Voice asked her ‘why are you washing your hands’? She replied I just used the toilet. I am washing my hands to cleanse any germ I might have contacted. But, You washed your hand in the morning after using the toilet! The Voice asked her again. Yes, I did because I used the toilet in the morning. Anytime, I use the toilet I wash my hands to cleanse any germs I might have contacted. My friend replied.

Why then do you take as less serious and important, the washing of your heavenly garment? The Voice finally asked a question that totally caused my friend to have a change of orientation. Perhaps, my lady-evangelist friend never realized she had an heavenly garment that she needed to take its wash as serious as she washed her hands to prevent infection with germs. She realized she has not measured up to expectations in this regard.

Are you in the same shoes my friend was before she had a change of orientation? Do you know you have a garment God reckons with? Do you even know how to take care of this garment? What exactly is this garment for? How is this garment connected to Rapture? If you do not already know these things, this teaching plans to explore them. Or do you already know about this garment but are complacent in handling it? Why then do you take as less serious and important, the washing of your heavenly garment?

WHAT IS THE GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?

To answer this question, let us see from the bible whether we can draw an analogy between types of garment and righteousness. We arrive at two major types as follows.

1)  FILTHY RAG (FILTHY GARMENT), 


Isaiah 64: 6a
6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags;
 

Here, God links a type of righteousness to Filthy rag (filthy garment). If we are to interpret this verse, we can say that, if we are to liken our level of righteousness to the nature of  garment we put on, then we can say that all of us are putting on filthy rag and this filthy rag make us, all, unclean. This was the state of any man before he knows JESUS CHRIST. All unrepentant sinners are still like this. No one has power to remove this filthy garment by himself unless He repents in Christ Jesus.


2)  FINE LINEN (FINE GARMENT)

Revelations 19: 7-8
7 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.
 

8 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.                                                                                  
Here, God links a type of righteousness to Fine Linen (garment) and says those who will be raptured must be dressed in this garment (see Part 1 of this teaching). Unlike the filthy garment that is unclean, God says this type of garment is fine, clean, and white. When we give our lives to Jesus Christ and became born-again, our filthy rags were removed and we are dressed with the beautiful garment of righteousness, the fine linen. So when we say garment of righteousness in the remainder of this teaching, it is this FINE LINEN, clean and white that we are referring to.

DO YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS?

YES! There is a deliberate need to take care of your garment of righteousness because Jesus Christ says you must take care of it. Lets read Revelations 16:15

Revelations 16:15

15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his
garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

Jesus Christ said in this scripture above that if you did not keep your garment, when He comes at rapture, you will walk naked and your shame will be seen. 
The phrase ‘keep his garment’ means exactly two things:

1) To keep your garment means to make sure you did not lose it or remove your garment from you.
 

2) To keep your garment means to make sure your garment is in proper shape; not tattered, nor wretched.
If you lose your garment or remove it, and have nothing to wear, you will be naked and people will see your shame just like JESUS CHRIST said in the scripture above. Also, if you did not keep your garment very well and it became torn or wretched, people will still see your nakedness and you will be ashamed.

The first case of removing the garment is for the backslider. The bible makes us to understand that Jesus Christ is our righteousness. We put Him (Jesus) on like garment. So, when a believer backslides, he has not kept his garment. He has removed Righteousness (Jesus Christ) altogether from his life. He has removed his garment. 


The second case is for believers who have not backslided but have unconfessed and unforgiven sins in their lives. All these sins are defilement to them. They tarnish the righteousness of Jesus Christ that they put on as garment. Even though, they are still in Christ and they have not removed their own garments like the backsliders, Their garments have become torn and filthy again. Soon, that filthy garment they put on will expose their nakedness and people will see their shame.

Keeping your garment, like Jesus Christ said, will help you, believer, prevent yourself from the two situations above, arising from not keeping your garment.

The next thing is to look how to keep or maintain (wash) your garment of righteousness clean and white. But before that, let us look at why we need to keep our garment clean and white.

IS GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPORTANT TO MAKE RAPTURE?

YES! One principal requirement to making rapture is that we must possess garment of righteousness and that it must be holy, white and clean (not filthy) up to the last minute of rapture. Lets briefly look at why this garment and its condition are both necessary at rapture.

1) WITHOUT GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MAKE   RAPTURE    


Mathew 22:11-14 

11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: 

12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

From the text above, we see how God, The Father, will make the possession of garment of righteousness a prerequisite to be at the marriage supper of The Lamb.

2)  IF THE GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS DIRTY, STAINED OR FILTHY, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO MAKE RAPTURE 


Ephesians 5:27 
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish

Revelations 19:8-9

8 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. 

9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

From the two scriptures above, we see that, to make rapture, God expects the garment of righteousness on us to have ‘no spot’, ‘no wrinkle’, ‘ no blemish’ but that it should be holy, clean and white; the exact state it was when we first surrendered to Jesus Christ. So, in order to know how to keep our garment of righteousness clean and white or how to wash it, first, we have to know what can make it dirty (unclean, spotted, wrinkled).

WHAT STAINS, SPOTS, WRINKLES, AND DEFILEMENTS DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR OWN GARMENT?
 

As we have already shown above that we were in filthy rags before we surrendered to Jesus Christ. These dirty rags just depict how spiritually dirty we were before holy God because of our sins. But when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, He washes away all the sins that brought filthiness to us. He took away the filthy rag and gave us spiritually fine linen of righteousness.

So, anytime a believer falls into sin, the fine linen he is putting on begins to become unholy, stained, wrinkled, defiled, until it becomes a filthy rag again. Any unrepented, unconfessed or unforgiven SINs will eventually stain our garments of righteousness that Jesus purchased for us and we will become filthy gain and unworthy for rapture. 

What stains are on your own garment?  How have you soiled your garment since Jesus Christ purchased it for you? Is it the stain of lusts, worldliness, and disobedience to God, immoral dressing or some other stains you have on your own garment?

WASH YOUR GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

As believers, we are not supposed to commit sins deliberately again. If we do, we will face the fierce wrath of God because we will be nailing His Son to the cross again and subjecting Him to open shame. However, any sin we commit unconsciously is still a sin and will still be a stain to our wedding garment of Lamb of God and must be washed away.

Our text above is very clear about how to wash our garments from stains of Sins. Revelations 7:9-14 above makes us understand that Apostle John saw the people that will make the rapture and all of them have one thing in common;  they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

Verse 14 can be expatiated as follows above.

•  All those that made rapture washed their robes; This suggests that their robes were dirty, stained, spotted or filthy before they washed it.

•  All of them made the robes white;  This suggests that they continued the washing of their robes till all dirts were removed.

•  They washed their robes in the blood of Jesus.

All the actions above were done deliberately, not by accident. This verse, Revelations 7: 14 was what the Bible summarized in Revelations 19:7-8.

Revelations 19: 7-8
 

7 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.

8 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.
 

These two verses imply that the bride of Christ deliberately makes herself ready. So, you can see that to wash your garment is to make yourself ready. Will you wash your garment and make yourself ready? Will you come and wash your garment before Jesus comes? Wash! I say wash!

HOW TO WASH YOUR GARMENT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

How then do you wash your garment? Any time you ask God genuinely for mercy and forgiveness of Sins (REPENTANCE) you are washing your garment. This repentance will help you wash away the stains of sins that have come into your life by carelessness, ignorance, or through any other means. These stains will hinder a believer from making rapture if they are not attended to. I do not encourage that a believer commit sin deliberately.

This is how I wash my own garment:


Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. Forgive me all sins. Forgive me all sins that can lead me to hell. Forgive me all sins that can deny me a place in heaven. Forgive me all sins that can make me miss the rapture. Wash me with your blood. Wash my body, soul and spirit. Wash me inside and outside. Wash my garment with your blood and prepare me ready for your coming. Cover me with your blood in Jesus name. Amen.

I say this prayer as many times as possible in a day, even if it is just for 1or 2 minute each time. Sometimes, I say this prayer as many as 10 to 15 times a day or as God allows me. I have attached this prayer to my use of water. Most time I use water for any purpose, I say this prayer. I encourage you also to say this prayer as often as possible in a day. We do not know the day nor the hour that Son of man will come and any little stain of sin will disqualify us. That is why you must wash in his blood all the time to stay blameless.

You can see that, contrary to some believers that say we do not need to ask for forgiveness of sins again apart from the one we asked on the day we give our lives to Jesus, we need to continue repenting till Jesus comes even though we are to avoid committing sins. You also must make conscious effort to run away from sin.

SUMMARY

We can see that the issue of garment is very important. Joshua, the High Priest was resisted by satan because Joshua was adorned in filthy garment (Zechariah 3:1-4). And the Lord forgave the iniquity of Joshua, the High Priest and likened it removing the filthy garment from him.

We have also read how a man was cast into lake of fire at the marriage supper of the Lamb for not having the wedding garment.

We have also read that garment is our righteousness which could be defiled by sins. And lastly, we have also read that those who made rapture are the only people who washed their garment clean and white in the blood of the lamb. They made rapture because they kept washing their garment to make it clean. 

You can choose to be wise like those who wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb. Wash your garment before trumpet sounds. Cultivate the habit of daily repentance of all sins you commit in thought, actions, words and by other means. It is difficult not to stain the garment but it is easier to wash it in the blood of the Lamb.

ACTIONS
 

Are you an elect of Christ? Are you truly saved? Are you on the narrow road? Do you want to make the rapture/heaven? If your answers are yes, then,                                                  
• Make all efforts to heed the warnings of Jesus Christ.
• Be watchful. Pay attention to what is happening around the World and see whether they match what the scriptures say.
• Be filled with the Holy Spirit and be in the Spirit all the time.
• Fast, consecrate yourself, run away from sin and worldliness.

If your answers are NO, then you can repent today. Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord.

PRAYERS
 

If you will like to confess your sins and accept Jesus to save you, say the following prayers, sincerely and faithfully and make a determination never to commit sin again.

Lord, Jesus Christ, I am sorry for all my sins. I confess them with my mouth and I ask for mercy. Please forgive me and wash me in your blood. I accept you as my personal Lord and Saviour. Write my name in the book of life. Give me power over sins and fill me with your Spirit and Joy of Salvation. When rapture trumpet sounds, let me make it. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name, I pray. 

Begin to read bible. Begin with the book of John. Pray always. Fast regularly (you can begin with once in a week). Look for a bible believing church where they teach repentance, holiness, salvation and fellowship with them. Pray before you go. Don’t just go to any church. There are a lot of deceptions out there. If you need our assistance, we can recommend for you, if you email us. Always run away from SINS.

•  Lord, Jesus Christ, do not shut the door of your wedding banquet against me and my family.

•  Lord, Jesus Christ. Enlist me as your wise bride.

•  Lord, Jesus Christ, forgive me all sins that can make me to miss rapture and the Kingdom of God.

•  Lord Jesus Christ, wash my wedding garment in your blood and make it ready.

•   Fill me with the grace to watch and pray. 

NEED MORE INFORMATION?

For more information, question or contribution, please send email to us at raptureglorious@gmail.com or jesuscoming@yahoo.com and please tell others to join us. We teach people deep word of God about holiness, righteousness and how to prepare for rapture. You can send email to us to receive the teachings, free. We also send breaking news of end-time events that happen around the world to people with bible verses that match them. You can send email to us to receive them, free. 

We will like to get as many people as possible ready for rapture. We wish nobody goes through the great tribulation. What are happening now are child’s play.                                          
 

Shalom.                                       
JESUScoming

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