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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Rich Constantinescu

Cleansed by the Washing of the Word

I was glad when they said to me, let us go up to the house of the Lord.

I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I should have drank that before saying it.

My family came from Romania 3 years before I was born, so I was raised in an immigrant household.

And I'd like to introduce you to my ministry.

That's my precious family, my wife, Kathy Kyungja, Kim Kyungja actually.

So I speak a little bit but not very much.

But those are my children, Rachel, Crystal, Gloria, and David.

And so, Ephesians chapter 5 is where we're going to start.

Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church.

And it's not on the screen, so I hope you brought your Bible.

And gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.

Have you ever been camping without water to take a shower in for a number of days?

Can you Imagine with me what it felt like when you got home and you cleaned up.

Revelation chapter 21, please go with me there, verse 27 says, "...there shall in no wise enter into the city of God anything that defileth.

Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, But they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

We don't want to go to heaven and have the same problems that we've had here on earth, amen?

We don't want to have the rebellion because sin and righteousness do not peacefully coexist.

And God is holy, God is love, and He does not dwell with wickedness.

God bore long with him, but he had to leave.

Sometimes it's important to have a quarantine.

And this time, as we are Approaching the second coming of Christ, we need to quarantine those things which separate us from Christ.

Before Jesus comes, there is a work of preparation.

In the book of 2 Peter chapter 3, it says, verse 10, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Reminds me of the big 1 right there.

"...the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." And then here it is, Peter in 2 Peter 3 is an Adventist.

Looking for the appearing of Jesus Christ, the advent.

Verse 11 says, "...seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation or lifestyle and godliness.

Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Coming here on the airplane I was looking out and I don't know if it was in my subconscious that I had read some Facebook post or something about some earthquake, but as I was coming in I thought to myself, I wonder what an earthquake would look like from the air.

And then the next thing I thought was, I wonder how fast I can run up to the front of the plane and ask the guy to turn the plane around.

Verse 13, Nevertheless, we according to His promise look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, and righteousness does not peacefully coexist with wickedness.

That's why Peter says, Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye might be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless." There's nothing that compares to peace with God.

Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, Your sins have separated between you and your God.

Your iniquities have hid His face from you that He will not hear.

Romans 5, verses 1-2 says, "...therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." What is your main desire today?

Is your main desire to come into such a close covenant relationship with God that you lose sight of the difficulties on earth.

2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18 says, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us are far more exceeding in eternal weight of glory.

Some people go through arduous long years of training, and then they take long residencies, and they count it worth it at the end because they're equipped to serve.

When we have God before us, then all the difficulties that we have to pass through will be as if for a moment.

I hope that's your experience in medical school, but something tells me It might not be.

Or maybe the medical students are all gone already, sleeping.

But the trials and tribulations can be born as we have this blessed hope in us.

Romans 8, verse 7 says, the carnal mind is enmity against God.

You know, when I was a kid, we will have to come back to this text, I was planning on getting there, but when I was a child, my father had pictures of the homeland, Romania.

And as I flipped through these albums, I was struck with the drabness.

And as I paged through these picture albums that my father had accumulated in Romania, I have been taking a lot of pictures there before he came to America, I concluded that I never wanted to go to Romania.

And so I announced to my family that I'm so glad they didn't live in Romania anymore because there's no color there.

And they all laughed because obviously Romania is a very beautiful country And there is color in Romania.

We have that same immature view of heaven when we haven't experienced the goodness of God.

Because I was mocking the very thing that 1 day I'd be willing to die for, and that is knowing God.

Nothing on earth can even come close to satisfying what God has prepared for them that wait for Him and that love Him.

And so before Jesus comes, He wants to clean us and to get us ready for His coming.

Because there's no repeat of this sin problem in heaven.

The reason why Jesus came was to lift the curse from mankind, but He does not lift the curse without removing the cause.

Otherwise, as we all know in medicine, if we don't remove the cause, we'll have a repeat of the symptoms.

And so, He cannot do away with death until he does away with the sting of death, which is sin.

Matthew 121 tells us, You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.

It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

We need help being diligent that we might be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless.

Because all of our external washings will not solve the inward problem.

Because the carnal mind is at war with God.

That's why the first new covenant promise in Genesis chapter 3 was given to us.

Please go to Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 and you can quote it by memory with me.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and your seed.

It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.

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Cleansed by the Washing of the Word

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