The Believers (1)
Message Twelve
The Bridegroom, the Maturity of the Bride, and Being a Warrior to Defeat God’s Enemy
THE EXTRACT OF THE OUTLINES
Scripture reading:
Rev. 19:7-8 Let us rejoice and exult, and let us give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and clean…
I. Christ is the Bridegroom, and the most pleasant person in the whole universe is Jesus as the Bridegroom—Matt. 9:14-15; 22:2-3; 25:1, 5-6, 10: (Monday)
A. John the Baptist said, “He who has the bride is the bridegroom”; when the Bridegroom is present, fear does not exist; when we touch the Lord’s presence and touch Him as the Bridegroom, we touch His loveliness, sweetness, and freshness—John 3:29a.
B. The direction of the Lord’s move today is to prepare the bride as the counterpart of the Bridegroom so that the redeeming God and His redeemed people may become an eternal marriage—Rev. 19:7-8; 21:1-2, 9-10.
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II. We need to see and apprehend the matter of the maturity of the bride—2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:13, 15; Heb. 6:1; Rev. 19:7b; 21:2, 9: (Tuesday)
A. Revelation 19:7b says, “His bride has made herself ready”; in the maturity of the divine life, the loving seeker of Christ becomes the Shulammite, signifying that she has become the reproduction and duplication of Christ to match Him for their marriage—S.S. 6:13; Rev. 21:9-10.
B. In the New Testament, the word maturity is used to denote the believers’ growing and being perfected in the life of Christ, which they received when they were regenerated; we need to go on, pressing on to maturity, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before—Titus 3:5; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; Matt. 5:48; Phil. 3:12, 14.
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C. Maturity is to have Christ formed in us; this also means that we are fully transformed into His image, and when the Lord has fully worked His image into us, we will be mature in life—Gal. 4:19; 2 Cor. 3:18. (Wednesday)
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III. The church as the bride of Christ must be a warrior to defeat God’s enemy—Eph. 5:25-27; 6:10-18; Rev. 19:7-9, 11-16: (Thursday)
A. The purpose of spiritual warfare is to bring in the kingdom of God; spiritual warfare is a matter of the Body, and we are a corporate army fighting for God’s interests on the earth—Rev. 12:10; 17:14; 19:14.
B. Christ as the fighting General will come with His bride army to fight Antichrist at Armageddon; the wedding garment is Christ lived out of us to become our daily righteousness—Matt. 26:64; Rev. 19:11-21.
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C. In Song of Songs we see that the overcoming lover of Christ becomes as beautiful as Tirzah and as lovely as Jerusalem; however, to the enemy, she is as terrible as an army with banners—S.S. 6:4, 10. (Friday)
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D. David typifies the fighting Christ in the midst of sufferings, and Abigail typifies the church fighting for the kingdom of God in the midst of sufferings; Abigail’s marriage to David typifies a fighting church as an army for warfare—1 Sam. 25:28; Eph. 6:10-20. (Saturday)
E. Through spiritual warfare, God’s eternal purpose is fully accomplished; “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever”—Rev. 11:15b.
