Mystery #7 mystery of the bride

Ephesians 5:32 

“This is a great (profound) mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

 

Introduction:

 

This mystery is so profound that we need to include many different references in the New Testament to fully grasp this.

 

The word profound means “the greatest” or “the greater”; “the furthest mystery….as in how far you can go” This great mystery really is the bride of Christ. The mystery of the bride is the greatest mystery speaking of Christ and the church. For those who respect their husband, Jesus, He will come for them.

 

The bride needs to be a chaste virgin for Christ. We are in this preparation time where the groom leaves and lets the bride prepare herself. Christ did not come to a purified bride, he came to a bride that needed cleansing and to be set apart. The key with Christ is that His blood has betrothed the church which is His body but only the rib will be His bride, exactly like Adam’s rib was removed and made into Eve.

He will choose a worthy bride at His appearing. He has given the betrothed all that is needed to be prepared for His return. The urgency of Paul’s message is who will go onto completion to be counted worthy of this top prize. We have an opportunity to be counted worthy as a bride of Christ. 

Paul’s paranoia is evidence through his warnings to the body of Christ that they may not be chosen as his bride because many are called but few are chosen.

 

NEED SCRIPTURE SILILOQUY

Add: 2 Corinthians 7:1

“For I am jealous for you with Godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the purity that is in Christ…to all who receive Him He gives the right to become children of God…Beloved now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be but we know that when He is revealed we will be like Him for we shall see Him for as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him, purifies himself just as He is pure…These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. I know your works. See I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength…

the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…God reveals His secrets to those who fear Him…You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions…When the virgins knock on the door Jesus says ‘I do not know where you come from’…He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down from heaven from my God. And I will write on him My new name…Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

 

Conclusion: (Keith needs to expand) - Add more info from Revelation (Bride/Philippians)

 

In closing, if we aren’t the bride who cleansed herself, God will finish the cleansing for us through the Tribulation.

The bride will be the one who inherits the conditional offer of the Kingdom.

 

(See Key to Wrath of God and Wrath of Lamb; Key to the Jewish Marriage)

*Goal of the prize of the race. Upward prize, highest invitation