If you turn with me to Genesis, the first book in the Bible. I think everyone knows this portion. We want to read from several places, from the beginning to the end of the Word of God.
And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone;
I will make him a helpmate, his like.
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept.
And He took one of the ribs, and closed up the flesh in its stead;
and the Lord God built the rib that He had taken from man into a woman, and brought her to man.
And man said, This time, it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.
This shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And they were both naked, man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Turn with me to Joel. Joel follows Hosea, if you are looking for it. Just two verses: Joel 2:15-16.
Blow the trumpet in Zion;
hallow a fast;
proclaim a solemn assembly;
gather the people;
hallow the congregation;
assemble the elders;
gather the children, and those that suck the breast.
Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber,
and the bride from her closet.
Repeat that last phrase: “Let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber, and the bride from her closet.”
And then in the New Testament, verses I think you are probably familiar with—or many of you, at least—in John’s Gospel, chapter 3. We will read what John the Baptist said in John 3:28-29.
Ye yourselves bear witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom;
but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice.
This, my joy, then, is fulfilled.
And then a parable I think many of you also know: Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins, verses 1 through 13.
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be made like unto ten virgins, which, having taken their lamps, went forth to meet the bridegroom.
And five of them were wise, and five foolish.
They that were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them;
but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Now while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
But at midnight there was a cry, Behold, the bridegroom! Go ye forth to meet Him.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are going out.
But the wise answered, saying, Peradventure there will not be enough for us and you; go rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
And while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage feast: and the door was shut.
Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour.
And then, closing in the Word of God, Revelation. Again, I think these verses are quite familiar. First of all, Revelation 19:6-10.
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.
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 it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And he saith unto me, These are true words of God.
And I fell down before his feet to worship him.
Let us stop with that.
And then in Revelation 21, again familiar verses: verse 2 and the latter part of verse 9.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Come hither.
I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
And then, in Revelation 22, one verse: verse 17.
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is athirst come.
He that will, let him take the water of life freely.
Lord, we come to You again this morning. Once again, we tell You our utter dependence and our desire to see the Lord Jesus as we have never seen Him before—to see Him as our Bridegroom.
Open the eyes of our heart. We can communicate things that will be just taken, we know, at surface value unless the Holy Spirit breathes upon them and gives them to us. We tell You again, Lord: You alone have the words of eternal life, and we tremble in Your presence.
We have been reading from Peter, and he says, “Let him who speaks, speak as the oracles of God.” No man is up to that measure. Holy Spirit, speak.
Holy Spirit, show us Jesus anew. Holy Spirit, take the words that are written on these pages and breathe life into them. And then we will say, “We have before heard of You, but now we see You.”
We ask this in the lovely name of Jesus. Amen.
I think everyone knows at this point the burden that has been on my heart: our corporate response to God. I think I have at least tried to make that somewhat clear in the last two times that I have shared.
Our corporate response to God—the explanation of the theme and the expression of the burden—I contain in just two simple thoughts. Now, I hope you remember at least those thoughts. If you forget everything else, may the Lord impress these things upon your heart.
The thought was this: without the individual response, the Christian life is impossible.
Now, I think many of us understand that. Everyone needs a touch from God. You cannot come to God, you cannot begin the Christian life, you cannot even start the Christian life without an individual response to God. I think everyone probably understands that.
But less understood is this second principle: without a corporate response to God, the individual Christian life is incomplete.
Now, do you understand that? It is not just us and God. It is not just our coming into salvation, our coming into sanctification, our being preserved, our being made whole, and all that God wants to do in our lives as individuals. He wants to do something even more marvelous.
He wants to take this group—you can call us a ragtag bunch if you like—but to take us and form us and mold us into something even more precious to Himself. That is a corporate response to God.
So that, if you allow me that bit of explanation, is the whole burden in a nutshell. That is what it springs from.
Now, you know, and I will resist a long introduction, if I can, on previous things. We talked about two previous aspects.
First, we talked about the body of Christ, our corporate response to God. The Lord is looking for a living organism, a new body for Himself. He once came in the body of our Lord Jesus, but at the Day of Pentecost there was a new body.
The body of Christ is the vessel that God has chosen to express the fullness of His Son through. That is amazing. That is an amazing point.
So we spoke about the body of Christ, our corporate response to God. We spoke about:
We need to have some light as to what it means to be in the body of Christ. And thirdly, we need to understand the practice of the body. I meet many believers who talk about the body of Christ and have no living experience of being built together with the saints in a body to express His life together.
To me, that is just theory. That is just theory. It is of no real value other than theory.
Secondly, we talked about the building of God, our corporate response to God. Now, building is close to my heart, and it seems to me to be a particular privilege that God has chosen us to be the place where He will dwell for eternity.
His home. His temple. The place of His abode. His residence. That is what we are as the people of God.
Now, we talked about several things here. First, seeing God’s heart for the house. There needs to be a seeing. If there is not a seeing of God’s heart for the house, you will have little appreciation for what it means to be the building of God.
Secondly, we talked about seeing the Builder of the house. Now, I think this is a major point because sometimes we think it is upon us to build the church.
Clearly, the Lord Jesus said at His revelation at Caesarea Philippi:
I will build My church;
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
Solomon, the builder of the temple, said:
Except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain that build it.
I think it is Psalm 127:1.
And then we talked about seeing the house built. It is just like the body of Christ: it ends up on the practical side. God is not after those who just understand principles. God is not just after those who see what is in His heart, but in the end He is after this house being built.
And we read in 1 Peter 2: we are being built up a holy habitation; we are being built up a holy priesthood; we are being built up a people for possession. This is the heart of God, and that building work is so essential.
Well, that is the best I can do in resisting long introductions, as Justin likes to remind me.
Today, the burden that is on my heart is the bride of the Lamb—our corporate response to God, the bride of the Lamb, our corporate response to God.
Now, I do believe, brothers and sisters, if I can put it this way, the pinnacle of the purpose of God is expressed in marriage.
I do not know if you agree with me, but it seems to me the very heart of God, the whole of His expression, maybe can be boiled down to this simple principle: God will express His whole purpose in and through a wedding.
Isn’t that marvelous? Well, for those of you who are contemplating being married, it is a marvelous thought that He goes way beyond the human institution. God Himself has chosen to be married to man. God Himself has chosen, as His only bride, the church.
Think of it. I tell you what, it is a very difficult thing to express in fullness, but God Himself has chosen for His Son, our Lord Jesus, the church to be His one and only bride. Amazing. Amazing thing.
So that is the burden that we will look at today. This is almost an unthinkable privilege.
Those of you who are married, and those of you who are pondering marriage, can think about it in the abstract or in a more real sense. But no one is closer to you than your mate.
They even say, if you are together long enough, you begin to look alike. Linda fears that thought. You begin to think alike. You begin to be alike. You begin to anticipate one another and know one another with such intimacy and such communion and such joy that you discover the longer you are together, the better it gets.
I have told you before, one of my favorite authors says marriage is like an old pair of shoes: the longer you wear them, the more comfortable they get.
So this is the burden: this unthinkable privilege for the church. We are the bride of the Lamb. It is amazing.
Well, Jessica asked me the other day, when she heard about the subject, “Dad, are you okay with that?”
Yeah, I am way okay with that. I guess she was thinking, being a guy, you know, am I okay with being called a bride—a part of a bride?
This is the most glorious privilege that we could have. Upon His bride He will shower all of His blessing, all of His fullness, and all that God has. If you can even begin to wonder in those great terms, it will be shared throughout eternity with His one and only bride.
What a privilege.
I think most of you know who Winston Churchill is, the great Prime Minister of England during World War II. Now, Winston Churchill was a great man. He did great work, and he was a great leader.
I do not think it is too much—I am prone to exaggeration, so you balance me; let the historian balance me if I am wrong—but it seems to me that single-handedly this man buoyed England from collapse.
Single-handedly, this man inspired a people. Single-handedly, this man provoked them never to give up hope, but to know that freedom is the greatest of all things. Single-handedly, this was a great man. He did great things.
He was at the seat of power. When Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin sat in those chairs—sat in those chairs; Linda is laughing, I watch my English, it is not my strong suit—they were at the seat of power, the world’s power.
Yet the remarkable thing about Winston Churchill was that his marriage was known as an example of love and loyalty in England.
This great man, who did so much and thought so much, was once asked, “Mr. Churchill, if you could come back again in another life, what would you come back as?”
And he thought for a moment, and he said, “I would come back as Mrs. Churchill’s next husband.”
He knew the privilege. All else pales. All else pales.
Now, this is my burden, brothers and sisters. The most spectacular, the most honored, the most privileged calling of the church is to be the bride of the Lamb. That is what we are.
Well, I believe you see this purpose of God, this pinnacle of God’s creation, in marriage in Genesis 2. In the very beginning, God reveals His heart in type.
Now, you all know that story, so this is just laying groundwork in regard to seeing the purpose of God in marriage. You remember the story. We have read this story.
It is an interesting thing. In God’s creative genius—unparalleled creative genius—as He made everything those six days, coming up to man, He said, “It is good.”
Now, I have always liked that phrase that the writer of Genesis, as Moses put it: He saw what He had made, and it was good. Now, this is God saying that.
But when it comes to His making of man, and taking him and putting him to sleep, and taking the rib from the side of man, and from that rib fashioning a woman, and bringing that woman to the man, and he replies, “This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh,” it was after this that God said, “He saw everything that He had made, and it was very good.”
This is God’s heart expressed. It was not about this marriage; it was His heart. This was a type, Adam and Eve. This was an illustration of what He was after. This was the beginning of the unveiling of the very purpose of God in His heart.
Now, I think you can fast-forward. Go to the end of the Bible. If you do not think the beginning is enough, go to the end of the Bible, and you come to Revelation.
In those closing moments of the book of Revelation, you begin to see again what God’s heart is. It says in Revelation 19—by the way, we will turn back to that for a moment—Revelation 19.
Go to verse 6. Now, brothers and sisters, this verse has in it four hallelujahs. This is the only place in the New Testament where there is “hallelujah,” and there are four hallelujahs.
The reason there are four hallelujahs is because this is God’s ultimate expression, His ultimate purpose, the whole of His heart being expressed.
And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.
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.
If you begin back in verse 3, you see “Hallelujah.” If you look in verse 4, you see “Hallelujah.” Over and over, when God comes to the revelation of His purpose, He speaks.
The revelation of that purpose is to be manifest in the marriage of the Lamb.
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.
Look in Revelation 21. I think all of you know this:
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride for her husband.
This is the heart of God.
In verse 9, the latter part, we have already read it. The seven angels that were formerly used for such destruction, with the seven bowls that contained the seven plagues—those same seven angels begin to announce, “Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
This is God’s heart.
Well, I hope this is amazing to you. I hope you get it. God has chosen us to be His very bride.
Now, if I could borrow from the young people—I will give myself away as a fraud—that is way cool. Can you imagine? This amazes me.
You see, I do not know if you have discovered it, but you are not perfect.
Most marriages fail because one person begins to understand that the person they married is not perfect. Think of it.
You go into marriage with such rose-colored glasses. I tell you, man, it is a good rule to spend a lot of your counseling for those who are to be married waking them up in their idealism, okay? Waking them up and preparing them.
Sooner or later, you begin to discover—fancy that—that your mate is not perfect. And that is the reason most marriages fail. Now remember, it is perfect in your estimation of what is perfect.
But God Himself has chosen us to be the body, the bride of the Lamb. Think of it. And we are not perfect.
I mean, come on now. I do not think I need to pull at your leg too much to begin to make you confess that we are not perfect. And God, in His wisdom, has chosen us, the least perfect, to be His one and only bride for all eternity.
That amazes me.
One of my favorite sayings is from Socrates, the philosopher. Now, some of you know who he is. But he said this: “By all means, marry. If any of you are betwixt an opinion, by all means marry.”
“If you find a good wife, you will become very happy. If you find a bad wife, you will become a philosopher. And that is good also.”
Here is my point: God did not choose the best. Can you imagine? He chose us.
One day, in all eternity, when the curtains are rolled back, He will say, “This is My bride, My wife.”
That is the heart of God.
Well, we must press on, or we will never finish, and I will make Keen a liar and I will have to speak again. Brother, I will try not to do that.
The first thing I think we need to see, after understanding this whole thing, this whole concept—that the pinnacle of God’s purpose is manifest through marriage—is that we need to see the Bridegroom.
Now, I put it this way: we need to see the presentation of the Bridegroom.
Think of it. When the Lord Jesus comes, He comes—and we can say numerous things about what He is, who He is, and His coming. We can say He is the Redeemer. We can say He is the Son of Man. We can say He is the Servant of God. We can say He is the Son of God. We can say He is the conquering King.
We could go on and on, literally summing up all the ways that the Lord Jesus is presented to us in the Gospels and in the Epistles. But there is one particular way—you know where I am going—that comes to the heart of the burden this morning: He is presented as the Bridegroom.
When He first comes, He is presented as a Bridegroom.
Now, we have already read John 3:28-29. John the Baptist’s own testimony is that he is not the Christ. “I have told you I am not the Christ.” But what does John say he is?
He takes this remarkable statement and says, “I am the friend of the Bridegroom.” That is the way John the Baptist summarized all that he was. He was a voice. He was the friend of the Bridegroom.
Now, that may not mean so much to you, but in old days, in biblical days, in weddings, that friend of the bridegroom and that bridegroom were inseparable.
It was the responsibility of the friend of the bridegroom to make sure everything went well for the wedding, to make sure everything was prepared, all was in place, all was taken care of. You might today say it is the best man.
But here is the way John introduced himself. And then he said:
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom;
but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth with joy because of the bridegroom’s voice.
This, my joy, then, is fulfilled.
This is the way the Lord Jesus is presented in the Gospel.
Furthermore, in all three Synoptic Gospels—I think you know what that means: Matthew, Mark, and Luke—the Lord Jesus said this. I will just read one to save you the time from turning to it: Matthew 9:14-15. The others are Mark 2:18-20 and Luke 5:34.
The disciples of John come to Jesus, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees often fast, but Your disciples fast not?” It was a legitimate question.
And Jesus said to them—this was His explanation:
Can the sons of the bridechamber mourn, so long as the bridegroom is with them?
But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then will they fast.
Not only was it John’s testimony that Jesus is the Bridegroom; it was Jesus’ testimony: “I am come, the Bridegroom.”
Now think of it. You may think the Lord came for redemption, and you would not be wrong. I will not take that away from you. Certainly He came to redeem and save those that were lost.
But if you can bear with me a moment, that was remedial work. That was not the end of the work.
The whole work of salvation, the whole work of justification, all of this work—even the work of sanctification, which we have been most recently hearing about—all of it, in one sense, is remedial to the issue of being made ready as a bride for Christ.
“I have come to you, a Bridegroom. I will be taken away, and you will fast. But now you rejoice.”
This was the Lord’s own testimony.
Brothers and sisters, for this the Lord Jesus gave His life. Turn with me to Ephesians 5. I think every one of you knows these verses. I will read from Ephesians 5:22-27.
Wives, submit yourselves 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.
This is what the Bridegroom does. This is His work: to give Himself for the bride.
That alone should cause a corporate response from us. When we see that Jesus gave Himself up for His bride, to present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, not having wrinkle, our response should be, “What a price. What a price.”
I do not know how to explain this clearer, but in the old days they used to have to pay for wives. Now, you might think today we are paying enough after we are married, but in the old days they had to pay for wives. It was called a dowry.
Certainly, in biblical days, the thought in view was that a price was paid. I have heard recently that in the oil-rich countries, where this tradition is still practiced, the price of wives has gone out of sight.
But think of it: the Lord Jesus paid an inestimable cost, a cost you cannot begin to quantify. He did not give just a dowry. It says He delivered Himself.
What a price. Here, saints, I do not know if that thought causes you to respond to God, but it should.
I have said the phrase before: all give some, but some give all.
It is no more clear than in our Lord laying down His life. This is what He paid for His bride.
I read in Romans 8. Turn with me to Romans 8. I think you all know this, but whenever you are depressed, this is my prescription—my medical prescription.
Read Romans 8:31 to the end. Read it till you cannot read it anymore. Read it till you memorize it. Read it over and over, and you will begin to understand what this price our Lord paid secured for you and me as the bride of the Lamb.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Isn’t that remarkable? If that is not a head-lifter, then there is not one.
It seems to me there are seven questions here. “Who can separate us?” Seven questions—the ultimate perfection. Every question that can be asked is resolved right here.
It goes further. There are ten things that would think, in all of their magnitude, could separate us from the love of God. Ten is the number of tribulation. Not a single trial is able to separate us from the love of God.
Every question answered. Every trial accounted for. No separation.
Can I put it another way? No divorce. Isn’t that glorious? No divorce. He will never leave us. He will never forsake us.
Not man, not beast, not celestial, not infernal—nothing, nothing is able to separate us from the love of Christ. Isn’t that beautiful? That is what His death secured.
Read those verses when you are depressed. All because He went through the test and He came out victorious.
I read a story about the test that the bridegroom has to go through in the Amazonian jungles. I have been to Brazil a few times. The first time we were down there, they were playing soccer. Of course, I do not know anything about soccer, but I remember beside the soccer field there were two anthills about this big.
I did not know what could come out of those anthills. I mean, bears could come out of those anthills. They were enormous.
But it says in the Amazonian jungle that they take a bag, fill it with fire ants, and tie the bag around the bridegroom’s hand. He has to stand there, showing no sadness of expression and no change, while he is being tortured by this handful of fire ants. Then his marriage will be successful.
Now, man, does that tell you something? The ladies are all mad at me.
But no test is like our Lord Jesus’ test, when He hung on that cross and said:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
It was all for one reason: that one day He might say, “Behold, the bride of the Lamb.”
Well, I think you are with me so far.
Recently, of course, you know I have been sort of hung up on weddings, thinking about weddings lately. Jessica’s wedding. Janine Martin, the mistress of ceremonies, told me a story. I like this story.
We have such traditions. Now please, I am not second-guessing the way we look at weddings. Do not take this where I do not mean it.
But she said recently she went to a wedding, and the bride, this time, was up front standing and waiting. All of a sudden, the speaker had everyone stand and turn, and repeated those words from Matthew 25:
Behold, the Bridegroom.
Oh, I like that.
We need to behold our Christ in all of His fullness, presented as the Bridegroom.
Well, time is leaving me. The next point has to do with the preparation of the bride.
Now, you may not believe this is important, but at least from the vantage point that I sat in just several weeks ago, preparation is an enormous thing.
I cannot imagine. They just would tell me to go off to myself and leave them alone. Once in a while they would say, “Do you have a check?” But nevertheless, there was so much preparation.
So many little details—amazing little details—so many big details, so many decisions to be made, so many things to be accounted for. In the end, so much preparation for that day when you could say, “Behold, the bride.”
Preparation is a big thing. It is a critical feature of the wedding. Let me put it this way—as simple as sometimes my finite mind can put things—without preparation, there is no wedding.
Do you understand? I know, forgive me, I have been told I cannot say that. But do you understand? Without preparation, there is no wedding.
Turn again to Revelation 19:
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.
Did you catch that? “His wife hath made herself ready.”
Believe me, I think we need to tell Alan to do some original-language research and see if this is not just some error. Surely it meant, “And the Lord has made her ready.” Surely it means that.
It cannot mean what it literally says: “His wife hath made herself ready.”
But, dear saints, this is my whole burden: your responsibility is your response.
Without a response, you will never be ready. There are many responsibilities, all of which He bears upon His shoulders, but there is one responsibility that, as the bride of the Lamb, we must do: respond to Him.
That is our corporate response.
In this age of grace, I wonder if we do not struggle with this thought. We say, “All is grace. All is grace. It does not matter. In the end, I will be okay.”
Dear brothers and sisters, I do not believe that is what the Word of God teaches.
If you go on to read the next verse in Revelation 19, it may reinforce the thought and maybe break some of your sacred vases.
And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints.
Now, let me make a confession. I used to read this as the grace part. First, there was the responsibility part: “The wife hath made herself ready.” Then I seized upon this phrase, “And it was given to her.” Grace. Grace.
But actually, as a matter of fact, some people read this verse wrong. They think this robe of fine linen, this robe of working and fine detail, is the imputed righteousness that comes with believing in the Lord Jesus and being saved. It is not.
Read it carefully. It is the righteousnesses—if that is not too difficult of a word—it is the righteousnesses of the saints. It is actual righteousness, not imputed righteousness.
Now, what does that mean? That means that those who respond, allow the Holy Spirit to work in their heart, and appropriate the grace of God—there is an inworking of righteousness and an outworking of righteousness that is expressed.
Without that inworking of righteousness, made to look like fine needlepoint work—the Holy Spirit working in you, the character of Christ—there is no preparation, and we are not ready.
Oh, people go to pieces when you talk like that. They begin to think, “Brother, you believe in losing your salvation.”
No, I do not believe in losing your salvation. But I do believe there are righteous acts of the saints that must be wrought in us in this lifetime. This lifetime is for preparation.
If we miss it, we will not miss eternity, but we will miss the kingdom.
You will notice this is in Revelation 19. Chapter 20 references the thousand-year millennial kingdom, and then the whole bride is presented in Revelation 21, in eternity.
Dear saints, preparation is vitally important. I hope you understand this.
I can think of—well, maybe explain it like this—the story of the ten virgins. I think people struggle with it.
First of all, there are all kinds of gymnastics we go through mentally with this story. We say, “Well, they cannot all be believers. How could the Lord say, ‘Go away from Me; I do not know you’?”
But do you know that only believers in the Scriptures are called virgins? These are, in fact, believers. Five of them are foolish; five of them are wise. They are believers. They are all believers.
They all had lamps, which is some testimony of the living Christ. They all had oil, some less than others. They all went forth to meet the Bridegroom. Unbelievers do not go forth to meet the Bridegroom.
They all responded to the call, “Behold, the Bridegroom.” These are, in fact, all believers.
I think the lesson here, if you allow me, is preparation. Because it says in that story:
They that were ready went in with Him to the marriage feast.
And what does that mean? Does that mean we lose our salvation? No.
But regarding the kingdom, we need to pay attention, brothers and sisters. Today is the day to buy oil.
What happened to those five foolish virgins? They were told, “Go buy oil for yourself.” And the foolish said, “Well, cannot you just give us a little bit of your oil?”
Now, in this politically correct world, we would say, “How selfish they are. Why did they not give them some oil? Was that the Christian thing to do?”
They said, “It would not be enough for us and for you. Go buy oil.” And when they went to buy, the Bridegroom came.
It says, listen to this word:
And they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage feast.
Now, this is a burden that is on my heart. May we say to the Lord, “We want this lifetime to be a time of dealing, a time of appropriating, a time of laying hold, a time when the righteousnesses of the saints are wrought in us.”
If we do that, we will not only have the kingdom, where the great wedding feast goes on for a thousand years, but we will be there when the bride is announced for all eternity in Revelation 21.
Now, you may differ. You may differ from me on this. As a matter of fact, there is a phrase, “outer darkness,” that saints have troubled themselves with.
They think the simple evangelical explanation is, “That cannot mean believers being in outer darkness. It cannot mean believers.” But in fact, it does mean believers.
If you read the story about the wedding feast in Matthew 22, there was one who came without the appropriate garment. He was sent away and sent into outer darkness.
They have argued for years, “This one did not have that imputed righteousness.” But I would say further, it is again talking about the kingdom, and that one did not have the inwrought righteousness.
That is what He means by, “I do not know you.” Outer darkness is never meant to mean losing your salvation. Outer darkness has never meant you are out of God’s plan.
It only means you have chosen not to be prepared, and you have made a value judgment, and you miss out on the kingdom.
This is why the preparation of the bride is so important. I hope you do not find that too heavy. I think some spirits are flagging in the wind.
But thank God, in Revelation 21 we see the whole of the church. Thank God for eternity. We see those seven angels saying, “Come hither, let me show you the bride of the Lamb.”
That is all of us. That is every believer, everyone in Christ, and they have eternity with the Lord Himself.
This is the burden. Well, let me close. Brother Jerry, I would like to finish. Would someone give me permission? I have got one more point.
Anybody else? Anybody ready to leave me? I do not want to speak again. The burden is on my heart. I would rather, if you can bear with me, give me some liberty. I will make this quick. It is my shortest point.
Some are greatly relieved at that.
First of all, response is a necessity and a vital part of the bride. But the third thing we need to look at is the passion of the bride.
Now, let me ask you this: do you have a passion for Christ?
When you look at the close of the book of Revelation, look at Revelation 22. Something remarkable happens. That one who was before the called one, being called—you remember we shared how God is always calling, and He is always looking for a response from man—that one, the called one, becomes the one who calls.
That is what happens at the end of the book. Look at Revelation 22:17:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
Now, do you not think that is a bit strange? We would think, “And the Lord Jesus says, ‘Come.’” But here something has happened.
This one who is His bride can no longer live without Him, can no longer wait till the wedding day. She is so exercised by the Holy Spirit that she begins to utter her singular passion.
It says simply, “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’”
And that One who was formerly the One calling—the Lord Jesus—begins to be the One who responds. Think of it.
You are probably confused at this point. You say, “Brother, I thought you said God is always calling and we are always responding.”
That is true. This life is all about response. That is our responsibility.
But in the end, the bride says—next to the last verse in the whole Bible is the last prayer:
Come, Lord Jesus. Come.
Just before that, the Lord says this:
He that testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly.
Brothers and sisters, that is the response of the Bridegroom. Yes. Yes. He hears that heart cry. He begins to see the passion of His own, the passion of the church, and then the Lord Himself, the One who used to be the One calling, says, “Yes, I come quickly.”
This, to me, seems to be the passion that is in the Lord.
Now, how do I close and conclude this? I think of the story in Genesis 24. You know this story. It is about Abraham looking for a bride for his only son, his one and only son, Isaac.
You know the story about Rebekah: to get a woman from my own family, not from the nations. He sends out his servant, who was in charge of everything over his whole house, to find for his only begotten son a wife.
The Father sends out His servant, representative of the Holy Spirit, with one singular mission. You may think the Holy Spirit has a lot of missions, but if you boil it down, the Holy Spirit has one mission: to find a bride for God’s only Son.
Yeah, I was not so touched—well, I should not put it that way—I was not as touched at the beginning of that story as I was at the end of that story.
When Rebekah was manifest, because of her actions, to be the one God had selected, and she was there with her family, there was a question posed to her.
They said, “Let her speak for herself.” Basically, let her speak for herself. “Will you go with this man?”
And there are three words. This is the whole burden:
I will go.
Did you hear me? “Will you go with this man?”
I will go.
That is response.
God is calling us today. We are called to this most high privilege: to be the bride for His Son. But He is looking for a response.
Now, I wonder: is our corporate response like Rebekah’s?
Do you have this passion: “Come, Lord Jesus”? Can you say, like Rebekah, regardless of everything else, “I will go”?
That is our corporate response.
Lord, we just bring back to You these thoughts. They may not be so clear, and they may be somewhat scattered, but we beg of You, Holy Spirit, who has come with this singular mission to find a bride for our beloved Lord Jesus, that You will speak to our hearts.
May we be those captured and captivated by the presentation of the Bridegroom. May we be so enamored with You, so caught up with You, so, Lord, drawn to You, that we would allow You in this lifetime to do that work of preparation.
Then, in that great day when it says, “Behold, the Bridegroom,” it can be said of us, “They that were ready went in.”
And Lord, we pray, like Rebekah, our spirit will respond to the Holy Spirit and say today, “I will go.”
Make this our life passion. Like Churchill, make everything else pale in comparison to being married to You.
Draw us with Your cords of love, and let us forever be known simply as the bride of the Lamb.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.