Lord, it is on my heart that You would light the fire of our souls. Lord, once again stoke the passions of our hearts for Yourself—for this great One who has loved us so deeply and dearly that even the cross, even the fact that You had to become sin, did not deter You from Your purpose and what was on Your heart.
Lord, the failure of man did not stop You. And so, Lord, we come back this morning, and it is on my heart that, as You have poured out rain upon this dry and parched land, You will pour out Your Spirit on us this morning—the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Lord, that we might once again have those fires of passion in our hearts for You and Your purpose. Lord, do touch our hearts this morning. We are just flesh and blood, but yet, Lord, we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and we come to You, Lord, depending upon Your grace and mercy to touch us this morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, somebody is speaking to me. Clay, do you know how to use this Nextel? Would you go back here and find out what this message is about? Tell them I cannot get back to them until I finish. That will work. This is a call from work. I just hope it is not too much of an emergency.
This morning, what is on my heart? I need to give you a little background. It is on my heart, as our young adults and young people—and those who have much of their life still ahead of them—look forward to the future, that we recognize the day in which we live.
We live in the day right before the Lord Jesus Christ is expected to return. We live in an hour and a day that, on one hand, is extremely exciting. On the other hand, it is full of pressures that the world has never known before. The Lord has told us in this Book that in the last days the pressures would be tremendous and that, if He did not shorten it, even the very elect would have difficulty making it through. Even in the last hour, there would be great deceptions.
It is on my heart this morning that we get a grasp of the big picture—what the Lord is after from a broad perspective. When you get into everyday life, when you get into this Christian life where the Lord is trying to prepare us for His return, we find that we lose the forest because of the trees.
We are in this pressure cooker of life, and sometimes we are overwhelmed with life, pressures, the things of this world, and the cares of this life. We lose sight of the big picture. Frankly, we become discouraged, and our hearts can lose the purpose for which God created us.
Brothers and sisters, over the years there is one thing I know that is absolutely necessary for the Christian: he must have vision. If you do not see what the Lord is after, you will not make it through. You need more than just a few details along the way.
The Lord Jesus and God have provided us, in this Book, the story that He wants us to know. It gives us the full picture of what He is after. It took thousands of years and ages of ages before this Book was finally written and made available to His people, and the full story was given.
We did not actually have a full revelation until the Lord Jesus Himself came as a man on this earth, gave Himself up as the Redeemer of mankind, and went on through His disciples to reveal what His full heart and purpose is. Even the last book, written by John the apostle, was put at the end for a real purpose. We will see what that is in a moment.
God reveals it here in this Book. He has not tried to hide it from us. Yet many men read this Book and do not see. It takes the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to open to us what we read in this Book. This morning, I pray that the Holy Spirit will be with us as we share with one another. The Book—the story—is extremely important.
I do not know what you do when you get a new book in your hands, but if you really want to find out the big picture, and it is a new story to you, you first read the first couple of chapters of the book. Then you go to the end and read the last few chapters.
By doing that, you get the full scope of the book. You find out what the author’s purpose and heart is in writing the story. At the end is the consummation of everything that goes before. In those last few chapters, you really find out what the author is about, what he is trying to say, and what the story is trying to convey.
At the beginning, we see the groundwork laid. We see little hints of what the author is about, what he is going to do, and what he wants to share with us. The author generally introduces characters, goes into their background, and sets the stage for what he is about to reveal through the story.
It is a marvelous way for students in college to get a quick grasp of a book. Now, it does not work with math books—I want you to know that—but with stories, you read those first couple of chapters and then read the last ones. Then you can go and find out what happened in the middle.
Now, I never liked to do that. I always wanted to be surprised. But you know what? God does not want us to be surprised. He knows that in this last hour, brothers and sisters, it is very necessary that we know what is in this Book. He wants us to grasp it.
This morning, I want to help us look at a few of the last chapters and a few of the first chapters, so that we might see what God is after—what the big picture is.
Let us begin by reading a few verses. First, we will go to the beginning. Let us go to Genesis 1.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof:
And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being Himself the Saviour of the body.
But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it;
That He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
That He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself:
For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church;
Because we are members of His body.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God:
And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away.
And He that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
I think that is all we need to read this morning. The emphasis is that the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
What we see at the consummation of this Book we call the Bible is a wedding. We see the bride and the Bridegroom. We also see—and it is very important that we take note of this—a new heaven and a new earth.
Brothers and sisters, this is what is on the Author’s heart. This is the consummation of the story. This is something that has been on God’s heart from eternity past, and He wants us to know about this story.
It ends with a wedding. We see the bride and the Bridegroom joined together, going into the new place prepared for them: a new heaven and a new earth.
I think it is pretty amazing that the Bridegroom has come to the conclusion that the world as we know it today—and the heavens as we know them today, glorious as they are—is not suitable for Him and His bride. He wants a new place for Him and His bride.
Brothers and sisters, is that much different than the hearts of newlyweds today? Is not part of what we do, particularly as men, to want a place for our bride—a place to live? Before we get married, generally we build a place, rent a place, or whatever it may be. We look for a place that we can call home.
It is more than a house. It is more than a building. It is a home, a place where we intend to live our lives together. This Bridegroom is so excited about His bride that He has created an entire new heaven and a new earth. Think about that. That is amazing, is it not?
Who is this Bridegroom? We know that the Bridegroom is the Lamb, and we know that the Lamb of God is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Bridegroom.
Throughout the Word of God, hints are given about this end story. God gives us these hints all along the way, as many people who tell stories give hints throughout the storyline of what the end is really all about. Then you come to the end and say, “Yes, that is it. I understand. I see.”
What did John the Baptist say when he saw Jesus? He said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” The Redeemer. This precious Redeemer. John was given revelation that this One who had come to him was the Lamb of God.
But John said something else. Remember? He said, “I am the friend of the Bridegroom.” He also realized that this One called the Lamb of God was the Bridegroom. It is a tremendous hint from God that there is something about the Lord Jesus Christ being the Bridegroom that is really special.
As the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus is our Redeemer. We know the great story of redemption. Our brother Kenny shared last week on the blood of the Lamb and the fact that, because of the blood of the Lamb, all the history of sin in your life can be taken away. God will not even remember it.
God puts tremendous emphasis on the blood of His Son. He is so satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son on your behalf. He says, “When I see the blood of My Son on your life and you ask Me to forgive you, I will forgive you, because He has paid the price for that sin.”
Not only will He forgive you, but it is gone. It is over. If you try to bring that up to Him again, He will not know what you are talking about. That is amazing to me. I have never quite been able to understand how God can do that, but that is how much respect He has for the Son and His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross.
The Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God. That is the redemptive work that takes care of man’s problem—man’s sin. But there is something else in God’s heart that has nothing to do with sin. It is His purpose.
God loved His Son so much that He wanted Him to have all things. We have this great creation that God created so that the Son might inherit all things, even man, whom He created. That was on His heart.
From Genesis 1, we know that man was supposed to rule and subdue this earth. Unfortunately, we failed. But God did not give up His purpose. The Lord Jesus had to come as a Lamb, as a Redeemer. The Lord never gives up, brothers and sisters, on His purpose.
He wanted a bride. That is what God had on His heart. The bride is to be perfect, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. If you read Revelation 21, you see that the bride is described as a city. That is rather strange to us, but it is the way the Author communicates to us the qualities of this bride.
As you read Revelation 21, you see gold everywhere and precious stones everywhere. There is light—the glory of God shining forth. There is no sin there. What God had in His heart from the beginning was a bride for His Son.
This was before sin ever entered the picture. In Genesis, we see Adam and Eve before Satan enters the picture. They are without sin, and we begin to see what is on God’s heart.
The point I want to make is that the Lord so desires His bride that He will create a new heaven and earth for her. There will be no sin, no pain, and no sorrow. Nothing to do with sin will remain in that new creation. It will be us and Him reigning and ruling in the new heaven and earth.
This is the end of the Book. This is what the Book is about, and we cannot lose sight of that. I thought that if we called this Bible by a subtitle—and I hope you do not think this is heresy—the subtitle might read: “The Bible: Jesus Christ and the Wedding.”
Because that is what the Book is about: Jesus Christ, His wedding, and His bride—what the Lord had on His heart from the very beginning.
God’s heart was for His Son. He said, “It is not good that man should be alone.” In God’s own heart, He was saying, “It is not good for My Son to be alone. I want Him to have a complement, a helpmeet, for My Son.”
This helpmeet was to be His complement, having His qualities and His character, like Him and yet different. We are humanity, and yet we have divine life because of the Lord Jesus Christ. The two will be one.
Remember the emphasis in Genesis: “Let Us make man in Our image.” Man is singular. “Male and female created He them”—plural. Out of one, there are two, and the two become one. That is mathematics 101 from God: one becomes two, but two become one. That is a different kind of math, is it not?
Today, the church is the future bride. But we need to be very clear: today, the church is the body of Jesus Christ. In that day, the church will be the bride of Jesus Christ. There is a difference.
As the body, we have come into union life with our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the body that He is maturing and washing with His Word at this point in history, bringing her to the place where she can be His bride.
Ephesians is very clear that He loved her and gave Himself for her. Brothers and sisters, we need to remember that there is an aspect of the cross that has nothing to do with sin. It has to do with gaining a bride.
I do not want to devalue the Redeemer or His redemptive work. All I am saying is that this redemptive work restored man to a place where he could answer to God’s heart and be a part of this bride that He wants for His Son. You might say redemption is a remedial work because of man’s fault.
But if you look at Genesis and then read Revelation 21, there is no sin in the beginning and no sin in the end. This shows us God’s heart and God’s purpose. What has God revealed to us? A wedding—a Bridegroom and a bride.
The fall created quite a problem. The rest of the Book deals with the problem of sin, because not only have we committed sins, but we have a rebellious self-life—a natural man in us that is opposed to the things of God. He may be a good man, but he is still opposed to God. We have Satan to deal with.
Sometimes we become so consumed with these things that we lose sight of what God is really after. He is after this bride.
Young people, particularly those who have just gotten married, are contemplating marriage, or will someday contemplate marriage: marriage is from God. Marriage is God’s thought. It is not man’s institution.
The ceremonies, of course, are what man has decided to have, and there are all kinds of different ceremonies. But marriage itself—two becoming one—is God’s concept. He said, “I speak of a mystery. I speak concerning Christ and the church.” What was He speaking of? Husbands and wives.
So do not take this matter of marriage lightly. Today, unfortunately, the way the world has gone, we can enter marriage thinking, “If this thing does not work out, I can get out of it.” That is not God’s heart. I know it happens, but it is not God’s heart.
Marriage is something very holy and something to be cherished. It is a picture of Christ and His church. I just want you to know, young people, how important marriage is. When you join in union in such a way, it is not merely for yourselves or only for your own pleasure. It is a foretaste. It is God’s way.
If you have ever had a friend, husband, or wife with whom you were very intimate—and I am not merely talking about physical relationships, though physical relationship belongs within marriage—and that intimacy is taken away, it is devastating. It is very, very difficult.
Intimacy is one of the most precious things that God has allowed us to be a part of. If you have tasted it, and for some reason it is taken away, it is very difficult. Some brothers and sisters here know what I am saying.
It is one thing to be joined in life with someone, but quite another to be truly intimate with one another. Because of our flawed lives, many marriages do not know this intimacy as they should.
This is something that our Lord Jesus Christ is so looking forward to: a day when He can be intimate with His bride, with no sin there and nothing between us and Him.
This will not merely be intimacy for individual Christians. It is intimacy for us all as one. That is why oneness becomes so critical in the body of Christ. The Lord Jesus is not going to have many brides. There will be one bride.
We may not be able to grasp all that, but I can tell you it is extremely important to God and His Son. That is what He has been after all along. Sin has delayed and waylaid God’s plans, but it has not stopped Him from achieving His purpose. From the Book, we know that He will.
The church comes out of Christ. The church is not greater than Christ. The church is not equal to Christ. The church comes out of Christ. All the material to build the church comes out of Christ. Nothing out of man, nothing of the natural man, is a part of the church. That is very critical.
In 1 Corinthians 10:17, it says that we are one bread, one body. We are many, but we are one. We are bone of His bone, and because we are all bone of His bone, we are one together.
The church is not me plus you plus these brothers and sisters, all just being in Christ. That is not the church. The church is one woman. The church is one. The natural man has been eliminated.
The source for this woman that God wants for His Son has to be pure. It has to be Christ and nothing else. The natural man can be very, very good. He can have all kinds of talents. But the Lord says, “No, the source is important here. It needs to come from the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.”
Sometimes people are naturally straightforward and blunt. They feel they have to tell you what they think about you. They say, “I have always got to tell the truth, because the truth sets you free.” But I do not know how many times you have been put into bondage by people telling you the truth about yourself.
A lot of times it puts us in bondage instead of setting us free. Why? Because it is the natural man trying to do the things of God. We need to be honest with one another, but the truth that sets us free is not the truth about ourselves. It is the truth about Jesus Christ and what He has done in His work on Calvary’s cross.
We may need to be shown what we are, but the whole purpose of that is to see what Christ has done to take care of what we are. The real truth that sets us free is Jesus Christ, not what I think of you.
The church is not just a group of Christians getting together. It is not a group of Christians coming and having a good meeting. The church is a life. I want you to know that. The church is a life, not merely a way of life. It is a life of which it is critical that we be a part.
God does not only want spiritual giants. He wants us all to be spiritual. He wants us all to come to spiritual stature. We have to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But what is the purpose? The purpose, brothers and sisters, is that we might be part of this body, that we might have our appropriate place in the bride of Christ. It takes spirituality, and therefore we need to grow.
God is not after spiritual giants so that they might be admired or so that He might say, “Look what I have created here. Look what I have done.” That is not what God is after.
God’s goal is that we grow spiritually and be joined together in the oneness that He has accomplished through Jesus Christ. We must know the life of Christ. There is life that comes directly from God, given to you when you accept the Lord Jesus Christ.
But His life also comes through brothers and sisters. We need to know the life of the body. Most of how God reveals Himself to you is not merely direct, though He does reveal Himself directly; He also reveals Himself through your brothers and sisters.
You will see more of Christ in your brothers and sisters than you will ever see in yourself. If you start looking at yourself, you will either be fooled into thinking you are really good or really bad. You will never have a correct evaluation of yourself when you are looking at yourself.
God’s heart is that we share in the life of the body. We must have our secret life with the Lord—absolutely essential. But what is that secret life for? Is it merely for you, something that you keep for yourself?
Christ has never kept anything for Himself. Christ is the Giver. If we are bone of His bone, we would expect that we would be givers. The real purpose of spiritual growth is that we might help our brothers and sisters grow, encourage one another, show Christ to one another, and strengthen one another.
It is not just for you. If you live according to yourself, you will divide yourself from the body and miss out on the life that God wants to provide through His church.
Y’all are going to have to give me some liberty on time here. I have just gotten started, frankly. I did not mean that in a bad way. Forgive me, Lord. I just want you to know. So bear with me.
One helpful example is precious stones. In the New Jerusalem, there are precious stones in the foundation—precious stones in this bride that Christ is going to have. There is also gold in this city.
Gold is a basic element. It speaks of God—the life of God, the nature of God. We receive that gold when we receive the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives. It is as though we obtain it directly.
A precious stone, however, is not a basic element. It is a number of compounds or elements that have gone through hundreds of years of trials and pressures in the earth, and a gem is formed. It comes out of many trials and much pressure.
We know that we are living stones, but God wants us to become precious stones. How does He do that? It is the work of the Holy Spirit—the inward work of the Holy Spirit. God imparts His life to us directly, but the Holy Spirit puts us through trials and pressures and brings forth a precious stone.
Is God creating all these precious stones simply to put them on display, like the Hope Diamond in the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.? God’s bride is not a museum.
The bride for the Son is not a museum with individual precious stones placed here and there for everyone to admire. “Oh, look at that marvelous diamond.” That is not the way it is.
The precious stone is to add glory to the whole. When you look at the whole, you see this glorious light, with precious stones reflecting that glorious light. You do not merely notice the stones; you notice the glorious life with all of its colors.
John saw a city. Yes, it had all these things in it, but what he saw was the city. It was glorious.
I have another illustration that I think shows this matter of being built together. Debbie Hudson had a thousand-piece puzzle at her house. What is a puzzle about?
Whoever creates a puzzle has an image that he wants to display—usually a pretty picture of something: an animal, a barn, or scenery. In his heart, the purpose of the puzzle is to display the image.
But the puzzle comes in a whole lot of little individual pieces. Each one is cut differently. Every one is unique in shape, size, and color. Each is specially designed and cut.
If I buy a box with all the puzzle pieces in it, I have all the pieces, right? When every person on this earth comes to the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and all the pieces are there, has God got what He is after? No.
It is like a box of puzzles. There may be a thousand pieces in it—perhaps 144,000 would be a better illustration—but all the pieces are simply in the box. That is not the Creator’s purpose.
All the pieces are together in the box, but is that the bride our Lord is after? No. It is still just a box of puzzles. It has not served the purpose of the Creator.
When you finally get the puzzle together, what do you see? You see the image. Whatever picture the creator intended to display is revealed. That is the purpose in the end.
The church is much like a puzzle. Every brother and sister is like an individual puzzle piece. Every piece has to be specially cut the way the Lord wants you cut. Every element of the puzzle has to be out of Christ.
If the pieces are all spread out on the table—even if they are close together, even touching—is that what God is after? No. The house of God, the church God is after, is not merely a bunch of perfect puzzle pieces that have reached maturity and have a casual relationship with one another.
The image that the Creator intended is still not there. Everything is still scrambled. That is not what our Lord is after.
We begin to put the puzzle together, and the image begins to come into place. Then we get to the very end, and there is a piece missing. Boy, does that destroy the puzzle.
Do you see how important you are to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you see how important it is to be a part of the body, to be part of this bride? You are being specially cut. Some of us feel as though we are being specially beaten up, but the Lord is working. He is shaping you just right.
For what purpose? He is going to fit you in with brothers and sisters. He is going to put you in a specific place. You have to be rightly related to your brothers and sisters. You have to be fitted into this puzzle.
It is not just a matter of being laid out on the table and displayed. You have actually got to be fitted in. If we are individualistic, our tendency is not to be fitted in. We may be very good Christians, but we will not be fitted in. That is destructive to the image.
It is difficult to be fitted in. First, you go through the pain of being shaped by the Holy Spirit into that special little piece. But if you are not willing to be fitted in, how destructive it is for the image.
Some people realize that the image is important and that brothers and sisters are important, but they say, “Just put me kind of on top in the right spot. Do not actually put me in; just lay me there.” That is still destructive to the image. We must be fitted in.
It is extremely important that we know the life of the body, give ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, let Him do His work in our life, let Him shape us, and be fitted in. He uses brothers and sisters to help shape us, by the way.
What is the image? Brothers and sisters, when God completes this puzzle, what is the image? It is Christ. What will be seen is Christ. That is what the New Jerusalem is: Christ.
When you look closely at a puzzle, you can still see that it is made up of distinctive individual pieces. But you have to look closely, because your eyes are drawn to the image, not the individual pieces. That is the body of Jesus Christ. That is what He is after in His bride.
All pieces are important. Every one is important. We have to encourage one another in the life of the Lord Jesus and in our life in the body of Jesus Christ.
The real obstacle to being fitted in is self. Let us be very clear about that this morning: the real obstacle is self.
We have to learn fellowship. I am not talking about socializing. I am talking about fellowship in which we share the Lord Jesus Christ with one another—what He has done in our lives and what Christ is doing—to help one another and to work together.
We will eventually find out, brothers and sisters, that fellowship is absolutely critical to bride life—to the life of the bride, to becoming the bride. God will bring us to a place where the principle of fellowship is absolutely essential.
How does He do it? He puts us in situations where we simply cannot get through on our own. The more resistant we are, the more situations He brings our way.
There will be things you pray about and nothing happens. It may seem like a closed heaven to you. Then God will say, “Why do you not go pray with so-and-so?” They pray with you, and it is as though the heavens open up. God is teaching us the principle of fellowship.
There are times when we pray for wisdom and it seems like it is not coming. Finally, the Lord encourages you to get with somebody—or with some brothers and sisters—and pray. As you pray, the wisdom comes. He is teaching us the lesson of being fitted in through fellowship.
Our self-life naturally resists this. But consider John 5:19. What did Jesus say?
The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner.
Everything the Lord Jesus did, He did in fellowship with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. He knew everything. He is the intelligent One. Yet He would not move outside the principle of fellowship with the Godhead. He never did anything on His own or out of Himself.
If the Lord Jesus lived by this principle, should we not live by the same principle of fellowship? Fellowship is critical to being fitted into the body of Christ.
When we fellowship with one another, sometimes we mistakenly take fellowship to a level it was not intended to reach. This is a warning.
Once we see the principle of fellowship and its value, we may begin counseling one another by telling each other exactly what the other person ought to do. That is dangerous.
You may feel very strongly that a person needs to do a certain thing, but brothers and sisters, you cannot direct them to do that—even if you believe it is the Lord. You can warn.
Our brother Stephen shared a principle with us many years ago that we have never forgotten:
We can confirm and correct, but never direct.
We can confirm and correct, but never direct, because direction is the work of the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Director. He is the Head.
A brother or sister may ask, “What do you think of this?” You may say, “I have a check about that, and this is why I have a check about that. I will pray with you about it, and we can see what the Lord has to say.”
The other approach is, “I have been through a situation just like that, and this is what you need to do: one, two, three, four.” Let us be careful in our fellowship.
But the point is that fellowship is absolutely critical because we need correction and confirmation.
The Holy Spirit and God are building a bride. This is a corporate bride: many individuals, yet one. He does it through the principle of fellowship. Fellowship is very critical and very important.
On Calvary’s cross, there are two aspects that we need to remember. One was our redemption. The Lord Jesus died as the Lamb of God on the cross. When that redemption work was completed, He said, “It is finished,” and He gave up His spirit. He died.
John the apostle was there and witnessed it. Redemption’s work had been completed. What happened then? John records that the soldiers came to break the legs of the ones hanging on the cross, so that they would die more quickly before the sun went down.
But when they came to the Lord Jesus Christ, He was already dead. If redemption were the end of the story, why does John tell us this? The soldiers did not break His bones, but one took a spear and pierced His side.
John said, “I saw it.” Out came blood and water. He testified that he saw it. There was something very important in this.
The first stage of Calvary’s cross was for our redemption. Something happened afterward. Not a bone was broken. Remember the words, “Bone of my bones.” Not a bone was broken. It has to do with the bride—this woman for whom He was looking.
Does Ephesians not say that He gave His life for her? He died for your sins, and He also died for His bride. Something happened on the cross that had nothing to do with sins. There was a work of Calvary that had nothing to do with sin.
The work of redemption had to be done first, because it was impossible to have a bride unless the work of redemption was accomplished. But secondly, the soldiers did not break His bones. Bones speak of resurrection life, and that is what we are made of, brothers and sisters: resurrection life.
Then the soldier pierced His side. Remember that the Lord put Adam to sleep, took a rib from his side, and built the woman. The soldier pierced the side of our Lord Jesus Christ while He was still in death.
The work of redemption was finished—very clear, very evident—and yet there was something else, a work of Calvary. Blood and water came out of the Lord’s side.
That became the life by which the bride would be built. The blood is for our sins. The water is the life of Christ poured out. That life flows into you, and that life flows into me. But that life is the foundation and basis of the bride.
At Pentecost, we see the birth, but the foundational work for the bride that Christ so desires was done at Calvary’s cross.
If you look in Revelation, the Lord says once again, “It is finished.” It is a different matter He is speaking about. The bride has been made ready.
What a powerful work was done at Calvary’s cross, brothers and sisters. We must know the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must know the life of the body, that He might have what He is after.
I want you to go away this morning knowing that the implications of Calvary are immense. They go far beyond solving the problem of sin. Solving the problem of sin and redemption was for us.
God did not give up. He so wanted this bride that He was willing to give Himself on Calvary to take care of this matter of sin. But He was also willing to give Himself that we might have His life, that the bride might be built.
Today she is being built. She is not completed yet. That is what the body is about. The bride is a person. The bride is a reality. The bride is out of Christ, and she is to be His helpmeet.
May the Lord give us encouragement. May He give us wisdom and revelation. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is doing a great work in this last hour. In a sense, He is preparing now to come back. He wants His bride to be ready.
We all need to look to Him that we might be ready. Yes, we need to grow before the Lord in our individual lives, but we also need to live the life of the body, that we may understand the life of the bride.
Lord, we come to You today. Lord, I feel that in some ways I have just been here and there, but I pray that You will give revelation and cause us to see what is on Your heart—what is really on Your heart, Lord Jesus, because that is what You are after.
Lord, we thank You for this marvelous plan of redemption. But Lord, we also thank You for Your marvelous purpose. In Jesus’ name. Amen.