WARRIOR CHICKS the Battle to Be the BRIDE

WARRIOR CHICKS…the Battle to be the BRIDE

(What it means to be the Bride of Christ)

Last week we talked about the incredible AWESOMENESS that was a revelation to me about how God has called the “Church” to be the Bride for His Son, Jesus….Jesus is our Bridegroom

We read several Scriptures where Jesus actually referred to Himself as the Bridegroom….

We even learned about the historical Biblical Jewish Wedding customs and how they COMPLELTELY parallel what God has done through His big gigantic wedding plans of us, The Church, to His Son

We talked about how there is truly NO ONE that can satisfy your longing for intimacy like the ONE, TRUE LOVE of your life…Jesus!!!

There were a couple of Scriptures that we talked briefly about that spoke to us about exactly WHAT the Bride would look like and HOW she would act…

Today, we’re going to dissect a couple of those Scriptures so that we will know that we know how God is dealing with us to become the Bride that He has chosen…even before the foundations of the earth was laid…to be the pure and spotless Bride for His Son

Let’s start with these 2 passages….

REVELATION 19:6-8 “Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine LINEN, BRIGHT and CLEAN, was given to her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)”

Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. To make her HOLY, CLEANSING her by the WASHING WITH WATER THROUGH THE WORD, and to present her to himself as a RADIANT church, WITHOUT STAIN or WRINKLE or any other blemish, but HOLY and BLAMELESS.”

DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS:

stain: to discolor, soil, or spot; a blemish on one’s moral character or reputation, a mark that is not easily removed…..

wrinkle: a minor difficulty, puckered, to become crumpled…fyi…the major cause of wrinkles is DRYNESS…could that be why Ephesians says to wash ourselves in the Word!

radiant: an object or a point from which light or heat rays are emitted, filled with light, bright, glowing, beaming, characterized by health and happiness….

holy: devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity, having divine quality…

blameless: free of guilt, innocent, of irreproachable character….

clean: free from dirt, stain or impurities, producing little contamination, sharply defined, not ornate but spare, devoid of restrictions or encumbrances, thorough and complete, clear-cut…

FYI…speaking of “producing little toxins”…everyday we sluff off dead skin cells…this is why we take baths and WASH ourselves…so that we get rid of the TOXINS in and on our bodies …instead of letting them just fall off everywhere

bright: reflecting light in large amounts, full of illumination, glorious, splendid, happy, cheerful, intelligent, full of promise and hope

linen: Notice that when we are presented to Jesus as the bride…we are to be wearing LINEN, Bright and Clean…..radiant, without stain or wrinkle or blemish….and also notice the “washing with water through the Word”

I did a scientific study on LINEN….have you ever heard how Science is another way to prove that the Bible is true?....this is gonna amaze you….it totally AMAZED me!

LINEN…it is made from flax plants….flax is believed to be one of the most ancient agricultural crops.

The word LINEN is Greek…we get the word LINE…which is derived from the use of a linen thread to determine a straight line (think of the plumb line in Amos!!!!)

It was sometimes used as currency in ancient Egypt…Egyptian mummies were wrapped in linen because it was seen as a symbol of LIGHT and PURITY and as a display of WEALTH…it is a natural preservative!

TO MAKE THE FIBER: It is very labor intensive to manufacture…but when it is made into garments…it is highly valued and expensive…it is produced in relatively SMALL quantities (remember the Scripture about narrow is the way and FEW will find it…Matthew 7:13)

To generate the longest possible fibers…flax is either hand-harvested by pulling up the entire plant or stalks are cut very close to the root...then the seeds are removed through a process called “winnowing”…..the fibers must then be loosened from the stalk through a process called “retting”…it takes place in big tanks…then the stalks are ready for scutching…this process crushes the stalks so that the parts of the stalks can be separated …then the short stalks are combed away…to leave behind only the long, soft flax fibers…

This making of the fiber is a tedious, painful process…a difficult time…the seed is separated….the plant is cut off from its root in the earth…from the plant that it had been part of and had grown from…it is now separated from all it has known and been comfortable with…the stalk has been cut off from the natural life source it had relied on and depended on…now to be crushed…and separated even more…to have shorter fibers “combed” away

Scientific Properties of LINEN: it reflects light…which is what we are supposed to do….but get this…..very scientific here….Scientists can actually measure light energy in living organisms…Human beings have a signature frequency of 70-90….all results with numbers less than 50 were identified as the signature frequency of chronic disease…any number less than 15 was identified with those having cancer…..the signature of linen is 5,000!!!!! How do other fabrics compare…standard cotton has 40 units of energy…organic cotton has 100 units…which is normal, but its not a healing fiber…silk measures only 10 units of energy…rayon measures 15…pure wool measures 5,000…..

Get this….this is just WOW…in the Bible in Deuteronomy 22:11 (“Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of wollen and linen together.” and Leviticus 19:19… God tells us not to wear linen and wool together….both of these fibers have a energy signature of 5,000…when put together…they cancelled each other out and bring measurable weakness and sometimes even pain to the human body…they collapsed the electrical field….WOW!!!!! God is in the DETAILS!!!!!

Flax fabric is also an excellent filter protecting against chemical exposure, and noise and dust…it reduces solar gamma radiation by half and so it protects humans…

Even if it is pulled from contaminated soil it still is totally resistant to harmful radiation!!!!....Flax cell is highly compatible with the human cell thereby producing a benevolent effect on the human organism…wearing linen clothes helps rid of some skin diseases …it is helpful in treating allergies and neurological ailments…it is also an effective barrier to some diseases

Linen cloth always feels fresh and cool because it ABSORBS WATER….isn’t that what we are supposed to do….be washed in the water of the Word…ABSORBING THE WORD!!

Get this….Linen just loves to be washed and ironed…the more linen is washed the softer , nicer and SHINER it becomes!!!!! When you wash linen…the items have to be thoroughly rinsed in plenty of WATER (OMGoodness!!!!!! That’s what the Word of God tells us to do in Ephesians 5!!!!!) to remove all soap, and soil residue and to prevent the formation of the so-called “age spots”…..Linen should not be dried too much by tumble drying…it is much easier to iron when damp….(damp with the Word….)

It is best to remove stains while still fresh…If allowed to set, stains my be hard, if impossible, to remove at a later date….fresh stains are easier to remove than old ones…..get the OFFENSES, BITTERNESS, any SIN OUT as soon as it happens!!!

Drying linen in the SUN (SON) helps to retain the original white color!...... Over-drying leads to the loss of the natural moisture content and makes linen brittle…..wow

It is easier to iron linen when it is still DAMP….be sure to first check your iron for mineral deposits…they can cause brown spotting (this is the “plumb line” test!!!...check your truth against the Word of God before applying it to your garment!)….get the wrinkles out right after you have been “Washed”…while you are still DAMP…with the WORD!!!!!! In other words…get all the mess and impurities OUT by washing liberally with the WORD…then iron out the wrinkles with the TRUTH of the WORD!!! ……WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Just by knowing what the properties of linen are NATURALLY….wearing linen strengthens your immune system and helps you stay at optimum health

Linen is the purest fabric available anywhere…because of its incredibly strong tensile strength, linen resists not only stains and dirt, but also inhibits the growth of bacteria…hospitals around the world use linen products to assure the utmost sterile environments…in fact, linen thread is the only suture approved for internal use in the human body!!!

Linen is anti-static….no more getting shocked!

Linen gets better with age…softer, smoother, more lustrous….linen items are regularly passed from generation to generation and redefine the meaning of heirloom….wow

It is moth resistant….(“lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where moth and rust does not corrupt…”)…due to its long, strong parallel fibers

OTHER BIBLICAL REFERENCES TO LINEN:

There are other Biblical references to LINEN…the curtains of the Tabernacle for Israel to worship at were made of linen…the holy garments the priests to wear was made of linen, the High Priest could only enter the Holy of Holies in white linen garments (Leviticus 16)…Aaron, before he entered the holy place, put on a holy linen coat and girdle and wore a linen cap on his head…in Revelations the seven angels were clothed in pure and white linen…the garments that are chosen for eternal life and happiness are going to be of fine linen. During the time Jesus was on earth…linen was a common fabric used by the people and the Temple because of its purity

What about the prophecy…”A bruised reed shall he not break and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.” Isaiah 42:3 and Matthew 12:20…..these are prophecies that would identify Jesus, the Messiah, to be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6)….fyi….smoking flax is quenched by just the slightest touch

Just these two passages (that we talked about earlier in Ephesians 5 and Revelation 19) give us all kind of information on WHAT the bride of Christ will be like

The bottom part of Revelation 19:8 talks about what the LINEN stands for…the RIGHTEOUS ACTS OF THE SAINTS

SO…what are the RIGHTEOUS ACTS OF THE SAINTS…

Dictionary definition of RIGHTEOUS: Acting in a just, upright manner…doing what is morally right…it is an ADJECTIVE…which means it is a describing quality…in this verse…it is the describing quality of a saint

A lot of times when we talk about “righteousness” we quote…or misquote the verse from Isaiah 64:6 that says “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags”…..

FILTHY RAGS in this verse means “menstrual cloths”. …which means “death”…”no life”…doing things in the FLESH…there is no God in it…it did not come out of your relationship with Him…

In this verse, the prophet Isaiah is simply summing up the totally wretched state that God’s covenant people…the children of Israel, had shrunk into…these are the people that had received the Law from Mount Sinai after they came out of Egypt…but they turned from God and had started worshipping Baal

When this verse was written…in context it was talking about the “righteous acts” …that were just that, ACTS….yucky stuff being done by the children of Israel…it was all for “show”…not in real love and devotion to God...false intentions…remember when we talked about what all they were doing…worshipping false gods…idolatry…etc…Isaiah was confessing for the nation as a whole at that time…)

Remember how we talked about how much God even hated their feasts that He Himself had even ordained them to have…because they were doing it all for “show” according to Isaiah 1:13-14…they were acting “holier than thou” while “burning incense on strange altars”…as in Isaiah 65:3-5

Sometimes we take verses out of context…like this one and we say that it’s a blanket statement over mankind in general…where, of course, nothing we can ever DO will cause us to be righteous enough for our SALVATION…only Jesus can give us salvation….I don’t necessarily believe that everything we do is considered “filthy rags” to God…otherwise…why would He want us to do stuff?

How will Christ judge the saints “According to their works” as in Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.”….if God already thought that all our works were disgusting “filthy rags”…then how would He judge us?

Jesus taught that God will reward even small works, such as giving a child a cup of water…Matthew 10:42…We are commanded in Matthew 5:16 to let our good deeds “shine before men” that they might glorify the Father. In Ephesians 2:10 Paul writes that we are “Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”

Paul also urges the saints to “walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work.” Colossians 1:10…..it seems that pleasing God is connected to righteous works….

If it pleases Him…why would He consider it as “filthy rags”!???...of course, our works are not perfect….and of course, we cannot gain salvation by doing “good works”….but if we are going to imitate Jesus…like He says we are to do…then that means that we actually have to DO SOMETHING!!!

Remember “righteous acts”…is an ADJECTIVE…a describing word of what we are to do…how we are to act…what “distinguishing characteristics” we need to have…

Isaiah 61:10 “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my ssoul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ormaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels.”

To get really, really detailed…there are actually 2 different types of garments that the Bible says the true Bride of Christ will wear….one, GOD Himself puts on us….that is the garment of Salvation….He puts salvation on us when we ask Him for it….

Salvation is all of grace…there is no work that we could possibly do to earn this…it is freely given to all who ask!

Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

The second piece of clothing is the Robe of Righteousness…this is something that WE have to put on…..we have some responsibility in putting this garment on…just as the Jewish bride has to be ACTIVE in getting her garments ready for the wedding…SO DO WE!!!

Think about this: Does a bridegroom normally dress a bride? NOPE…that is the BRIDE’S job!

It is OUR responsibility to live righteously in this world

Look at the bottom of Revelation 19:7 again…”the WIFE hath made herself ready…”

These garments are totally different…NOT everyone who has the garment of salvation will have the robe of righteousness…as a matter of fact…there will be VERY FEW who have the robes of righteousness….

Remember when we talked about those who appeared to be NAKED before God…in Revelation 3:17 “Because you say, “I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you don’t know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.” (When we talked about the church of Laodecia)

“Naked” was being without the garments in the age-to-come that expresses their love for Jesus in this age…Revelation 16:15 “Blessed is he who watches, and KEEPS his garments, less he walk NAKED and they see his shame.”

Again in Revelation 3:4-5 in the letter to the church in Sardis…the Bible talks about there being only a few that have not “defiled their garments”

DICTIONARY DEFINITION OF DEFILED: to make filthy or dirty, pollute, to debase the pureness or excellence of, to corrupt, to profane, to make unclean or unfit, to violate the chasity of, morally blemished, stained or impure….WOW!!!!

If you look up righteousness in the dictionary…it is a PLURAL word…means it’s not a one time act…but LOTS of them!!!!

We are all righteous through Christ and Christ alone! That’s a fact that cannot be denied….but Revelation 19:8 is even more than that!!!! The Bible teaches that there will be a reward for faithfulness!!!

SUPER COOL!

Psalm 58:11 “So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily He is a God that judgeth the earth.”

Proverbs 11:18 “The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.”

Matthew 10:41 “He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.”

“1 Corinthians 3:8 “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his won reward according to his own labor.”

Revelation 22:12 “And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

Now we are gonna look at a few chapters in Ephesians that will show us EXACTLY what Children of the Light…or the Bride of Christ should act like…what will clearly distinguish us from the Children of Darkness….
Galatians 6:7-8 says “Do not be deceived.