This is a subject hardly touched upon and rarely taught perhaps because it is presumed that as soon as you are BORNagain then you are automatically in the bride of Christ and as such the more 'exciting' things to speak about is the rapture and the antichrist etc.
But the Bride of Christ is the primary objective of the age .For the Lord is coming for a bride who has got herself ready .
John 14:3 "and if I go and prepare a place for you , I will come again , and receive you unto myself ,that where I am ye may be also .
If it is doubted that every true born child of God is to be ready then Jesus said to his disciples "be ye also ready"
There is in that warning the implication of not being ready.
The story of the ten virgins which the church in the main has rejected for herself and said it is for the world . Is in very truth a message for the church and for every believer .
For a virgin is a God given state . When Paul spoke to us as those under the law he spoke of a woman married .
But when he spoke to those who were BORNagain he spoke of "chaste virgins" 2 Cor 11:2
In ALL things all 10 were the same . Save in one thing . The 5 foolish virgins did not have their "vessels filled" and thus were unprepared for the coming of the Bridegroom . By the time they seem to be ready the 5 wise had already entered "into the promise" and the door had been shut.
When they knocked ,they heard a voice say "I know ye not"
Note it is not the same words as "I never knew you" which is said on the day of the judgment of the wicked. They are barred from the KINGDOM .
A careful reading of the account of the 10 virgins it will be seen they are barred from the MARRIAGE . and thus were not recognisable as a bride . "I know ye not ".
Make no mistake .Each and every true BORN child of God is called to that "high calling" But not all will respond ,hear or be ready .
Ephesians 5:32 this is a great mystery ,I speak of Christ and the church.
Where then do we start ?
As always in the beginning.
Many no longer believe Gods account of the beginning and or have compromised with the world and in consequence mixed truth with error .
But John spoke of "ye fathers ye know Him who is from the beginning" I fail to see how you can ever hope to know Him who is from the beginning if you do not believe Him who "in the beginning created the heaven and the earth" Gen :1 and all that followed .
But he who sent Christ into the world to save sinners declares also that he created man on the sixth day out of the dust of the earth and in another place states that the first Adam "is the figure of him who was to come " Romans 5:14
If the first Adam (1 COR 15:45 )was the figure of him who was to come . Then the Last Adam (1COR 15:45) substance as it were.
The Lord was called the last Adam because there will be no other 'Adam' after him like unto the first .
Did not the first Adam receive a bride from God? From whence did she come?
For while Adam was created from the dust of the earth . Eve was created from the body of Adam. A body from a body.
In that the first Adam was a figure of the last Adam then the last Adam receives a bride from God .Not from the dust of the earth , But from His body . Which is the church general.
This might be questioned and challenged as having no baring on the Bride of Christ .
But the pattern is repeated more than once in the Old testament which then establishes the truth of it .For in the mouth of two witnesses a thing is established.
Genesis 24
When Abraham who is a figure for the Father sought a wife for his son of promise ,Who is then a figure for the Son . He sent his high servant a figure for the Holy Spirit to seek a bride .Not out in the world but ONLY from among his bretheren. and he gave gifts as an earnest to her both of good and honourable intentions but also of what was to come .
Thus we have a wife for the son of promise taken from among the bretheren.
Then we have the twelve tribes of Israel . Who were all counted bretheren and who all had an inheritence .
But out of the 12 there was one tribe taken who had no inheritance for Lord God was their inheritance Joshua 13:13
A body taken from the midst of the body .
Finally there are the apostles themselves .
For out of the 12 apostles .There was Peter ,James and John ,Who saw and heard things the others did not.
and even out of those 3 there was John who at the last supper was the only one who said "who is it?" Not "is it I ?"
He knew it was not him.
The Bride then will come out of the body of the church .
If it is still doubted .
Then the Lord says he is OUTSIDE the church knocking on the door .
Again the church has discounted that as applying to itself .and applied it to the world .
But consider this .
After the resurection no door closed or locked was a hinderance to him.Why then is he outside knocking on the church door?
Note, there is but one door . We may all come from different denominations but in very truth there are no denominations in heaven or for that matter in Gods mind on the matter . There isa but one church with one door.
Whether you count your church as THE church and all the rest are heretics or you count yourself as part of that church which is his body .Then the Lord is still outside knocking on the door.
That knocking then is and must be a call to repentance. For if the Lord has to knock and therefore seek permission to enter his own church then the church is in a very funny place indeed!Nor is it aware that he is outside . For if he did not knock who would know?
Then the knocking on the door is to ALL who are inside the church . and therefore the knocking is a call to each and every person in the church .
But even as john 3:16 is a call to the whole world with no exceptions .So also then the promise is only to those who respond .
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but shall have every lasting life"
No one then is excluded from the gift but if the promise is to those who do believe .Then the implication and clear warning is that those who do not will perish.
So in likeness then the knocking on the door is a call to ALL in the church.
The promise though is given only to those "who have ears to hear and open the door"
It should be noted that if you hear and think its for someone else then you will not receive the promise ,its having eats to hear AND open the door to THEM will I and the father come and have fellowship with.
and what of the warning of Paul who said of some "they entered not in because of unbelief?"
How many came out of Egypt? How many who did so actually entered into the promise?
Yet were not all the people of God who had been saved by God from the bondage of Egypt?
Were they still not the people of God when the door had been closed and they perished in the wilderness?
But what does the scriptures say " who is she that looketh forth as the morning,fair as the moon,clear as the sun,and terrible as an army with banners " Song of Solomon 6:10 That is the bride of Christ .
This is hardly touching the subject . But will add to it anon .
in Christ
gerald
But the Bride of Christ is the primary objective of the age .For the Lord is coming for a bride who has got herself ready .
John 14:3 "and if I go and prepare a place for you , I will come again , and receive you unto myself ,that where I am ye may be also .
If it is doubted that every true born child of God is to be ready then Jesus said to his disciples "be ye also ready"
There is in that warning the implication of not being ready.
The story of the ten virgins which the church in the main has rejected for herself and said it is for the world . Is in very truth a message for the church and for every believer .
For a virgin is a God given state . When Paul spoke to us as those under the law he spoke of a woman married .
But when he spoke to those who were BORNagain he spoke of "chaste virgins" 2 Cor 11:2
In ALL things all 10 were the same . Save in one thing . The 5 foolish virgins did not have their "vessels filled" and thus were unprepared for the coming of the Bridegroom . By the time they seem to be ready the 5 wise had already entered "into the promise" and the door had been shut.
When they knocked ,they heard a voice say "I know ye not"
Note it is not the same words as "I never knew you" which is said on the day of the judgment of the wicked. They are barred from the KINGDOM .
A careful reading of the account of the 10 virgins it will be seen they are barred from the MARRIAGE . and thus were not recognisable as a bride . "I know ye not ".
Make no mistake .Each and every true BORN child of God is called to that "high calling" But not all will respond ,hear or be ready .
Ephesians 5:32 this is a great mystery ,I speak of Christ and the church.
Where then do we start ?
As always in the beginning.
Many no longer believe Gods account of the beginning and or have compromised with the world and in consequence mixed truth with error .
But John spoke of "ye fathers ye know Him who is from the beginning" I fail to see how you can ever hope to know Him who is from the beginning if you do not believe Him who "in the beginning created the heaven and the earth" Gen :1 and all that followed .
But he who sent Christ into the world to save sinners declares also that he created man on the sixth day out of the dust of the earth and in another place states that the first Adam "is the figure of him who was to come " Romans 5:14
If the first Adam (1 COR 15:45 )was the figure of him who was to come . Then the Last Adam (1COR 15:45) substance as it were.
The Lord was called the last Adam because there will be no other 'Adam' after him like unto the first .
Did not the first Adam receive a bride from God? From whence did she come?
For while Adam was created from the dust of the earth . Eve was created from the body of Adam. A body from a body.
In that the first Adam was a figure of the last Adam then the last Adam receives a bride from God .Not from the dust of the earth , But from His body . Which is the church general.
This might be questioned and challenged as having no baring on the Bride of Christ .
But the pattern is repeated more than once in the Old testament which then establishes the truth of it .For in the mouth of two witnesses a thing is established.
Genesis 24
When Abraham who is a figure for the Father sought a wife for his son of promise ,Who is then a figure for the Son . He sent his high servant a figure for the Holy Spirit to seek a bride .Not out in the world but ONLY from among his bretheren. and he gave gifts as an earnest to her both of good and honourable intentions but also of what was to come .
Thus we have a wife for the son of promise taken from among the bretheren.
Then we have the twelve tribes of Israel . Who were all counted bretheren and who all had an inheritence .
But out of the 12 there was one tribe taken who had no inheritance for Lord God was their inheritance Joshua 13:13
A body taken from the midst of the body .
Finally there are the apostles themselves .
For out of the 12 apostles .There was Peter ,James and John ,Who saw and heard things the others did not.
and even out of those 3 there was John who at the last supper was the only one who said "who is it?" Not "is it I ?"
He knew it was not him.
The Bride then will come out of the body of the church .
If it is still doubted .
Then the Lord says he is OUTSIDE the church knocking on the door .
Again the church has discounted that as applying to itself .and applied it to the world .
But consider this .
After the resurection no door closed or locked was a hinderance to him.Why then is he outside knocking on the church door?
Note, there is but one door . We may all come from different denominations but in very truth there are no denominations in heaven or for that matter in Gods mind on the matter . There isa but one church with one door.
Whether you count your church as THE church and all the rest are heretics or you count yourself as part of that church which is his body .Then the Lord is still outside knocking on the door.
That knocking then is and must be a call to repentance. For if the Lord has to knock and therefore seek permission to enter his own church then the church is in a very funny place indeed!Nor is it aware that he is outside . For if he did not knock who would know?
Then the knocking on the door is to ALL who are inside the church . and therefore the knocking is a call to each and every person in the church .
But even as john 3:16 is a call to the whole world with no exceptions .So also then the promise is only to those who respond .
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him shall not perish but shall have every lasting life"
No one then is excluded from the gift but if the promise is to those who do believe .Then the implication and clear warning is that those who do not will perish.
So in likeness then the knocking on the door is a call to ALL in the church.
The promise though is given only to those "who have ears to hear and open the door"
It should be noted that if you hear and think its for someone else then you will not receive the promise ,its having eats to hear AND open the door to THEM will I and the father come and have fellowship with.
and what of the warning of Paul who said of some "they entered not in because of unbelief?"
How many came out of Egypt? How many who did so actually entered into the promise?
Yet were not all the people of God who had been saved by God from the bondage of Egypt?
Were they still not the people of God when the door had been closed and they perished in the wilderness?
But what does the scriptures say " who is she that looketh forth as the morning,fair as the moon,clear as the sun,and terrible as an army with banners " Song of Solomon 6:10 That is the bride of Christ .
This is hardly touching the subject . But will add to it anon .
in Christ
gerald