Do we have any art lovers?

Do you recognize the importance of the image?
(Life drawers are wanted – as there might be a nude!)

Psalm 149:3-4
   Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
   For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

Genesis 1:26
   And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness

Did you know that the image is not yet finished?
2 Corinthians 3:18
   But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Colossians 3:10
   And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him

What images do you enjoy?
Romans 1:22-23
   Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
   And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

Under the Old Covenant (Testament):
Leviticus 26:1
   Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 7:5
   But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

Similarly under the New Covenant (Testament):
Acts 15:20
   …abstain from pollutions of idols…

Why?
Deuteronomy 7:6
   For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

Don’t pursue those images.  We’ve got our own art to work on.
We must prepare the way.
Luke 3:4
   Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Bring the heavenly to earth.
Matthew 6:10
   Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Isaiah 45:8
   Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness

We must focus on the eternal heavenly things, not the temporal earthly things.
Colossians 3:2
   Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.     

2 Corinthians 4:18
   While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Matthew 16:23
   …thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Philippians 3:19-20
   Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
   For our conversation is in heaven;

We make images or ‘patterns’ of the heavenly here on earth.
Note the heavenly relationship of God with cherubim.
Psalm 80:1
   Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

Psalm 18:6,10
   In my distress I called upon the LORD…
   And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

God instructed Moses to make the tabernacle as a pattern of the heavenly.
Hebrews 8:5
   Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Exodus 25:18,22
   And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
   …And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony

Moses and Aaron brought blue to earth – the color of the heavenly and God.
Numbers 4:9,10-12
   And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it:
   …And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put to the staves thereof:
   And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put them on a bar

The pattern of longsuffering from following Christ that is to be our art:
1 Timothy 1:16-17
   Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
   Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Marriage is to be an image of the Lord’s relationship to his people.

Ephesians 5:22-24
   Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
   For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
   Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

And, wives’ clothing and accessories (such as jewelry) are an image of the heavenly.
She is clothed in righteousness – righteousness which comes from obedience and subjection to her Lord.
1 Peter 3:3-6
   Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
   But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
   For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:
   Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord

A woman’s beauty is primarily for her husband.
Revelation 19:7
   …for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Revelation 21:2
   …prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Proverbs 5:18-19
   …rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
   Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

The only clothing and jewelry a woman is to wear is clothing and jewelry acceptable to her husband.
Ephesians 5:24
   Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

She wears beauty from her husband (his preferences) through obedience to him.
She follows the image/pattern of the only righteousness acceptable to God being from God – the fine linen which is our righteous acts.
Revelation 19:8,14
   And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of saints.
   …And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

Proverbs 31:22
   She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

Any other righteousness/beauty/clothing/jewelry is trash and is thrown out.
Romans 10:3
   For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

True repentance of the bride of Christ is stopping our own works including our own ‘good’ works (ugly clothing), and putting on beautiful clothing of righteous obedience to Christ – doing the works that the Lord has for us.
Isaiah 64:6
   But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteous acts are as filthy rags;

Zechariah 3:3-5
   Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
   And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him.  And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
   And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head.  So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments.

Ephesians 2:10
   For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The image of Christ’s bride in women is removing those old clothes – stripping her naked, and putting on new clothes of obedience to her husband – clothes that please her husband.
Some might consider this art to be pornography.
Deuteronomy 21:11-13
   And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife;
   Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
   And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife.

Lamentations 1:9
   Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end;

Women are not to dress like whores.
Proverbs 7:10
   …there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

But what does a whore dress like?
She dresses like a woman who whores with false gods...
Nahum 3:4
   Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

...such as Islam (or those of the ‘cover up with clothing’ false religions):
Ezekiel 13:18
   Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls!  Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?

The burka:
Genesis 38:15
   When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face.

God clothes his people/the bride with his clothing and jewels – beauty.
Ezekiel 16:10-14
   I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
   I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
   And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
   Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
   And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.

Disobeying, she perverts the clothing and jewelry for her own false gods.  She pursues false images.
Ezekiel 16:15-18
   But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
   And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.
   Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
   And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

The punishment:
Ezekiel 16:37,39
   I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.
   …they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

Again, God’s people – that woman, has her own beauty with her own jewelry.
Hosea 2:13
   And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

She perverts the clothing from God by whoring with the false god: Baal.
Hosea 2:8-9
   For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
   Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

Hosea 2:3
   Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

Making her naked for all to see is affliction and chastening.
Psalm 119:67,71,75
   Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.
   …It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.
   …I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

Hebrews 12:11
   Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Psalm 94:12
   Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law;

But chastening is a blessing, as it gives you a place.
Without a place, she would be simply trash.
1 Corinthians 11:32
   But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

She is stripped of the old to start again.  Wipe the canvas clean.
(Again, this art might be considered pornography by the world.)

Isaiah 43:18
   Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Matthew 5:30
   And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

The image is complete when God’s people become perfected (alternative translations for the word ‘perfection’ are maturity, fulfilment or completeness)…
Ephesians 5:27
   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.

…As our art truly has completed the image in Genesis 1 (male and female) a pattern of the heavenly, Christ joined to his bride.
Genesis 1:27
   So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Matthew 22:2
   The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son

Isaiah 61:10
   I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.