June 5, 2003 (4)THE SCRIPTURES EXTENSIVELY USE TYPE AND SYMBOL. Many of the precious things of the Word are couched in this manner. Purposely the Lord has hidden these precious truths that He might reveal them to His own. Prov. 25:2 The great mystery of Revelation twelve is the woman. Yet, the Word abounds with choice examples of the Bride of Christ who is this extraordinary woman. From the very beginning, With Eve, the mother, the life giver. To the gorgeous Queen of Psalms forty-five. The woman of perfect virtue and works of Proverbs thirty-one. The wives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For that matter almost every woman mentioned in the Bible in one way or another exemplifies the woman who will be the Bride of the Lord Jesus. She is amply portrayed and foreshadowed to those who look for her. She is that glorious church of Ephesians five-twenty seven. She is that majestically illuminated city, filled with all the light of the glory of the Lord. Shining, scintillating, glowing like one colossal diamond with the eternal glory of the Lord God Almighty, He who is the very essence of light. Rev. 21:11
THE ARCHITECT AND BUILDER OF THE CHURCH IS THE LORD. The creator and artist who created Eve was the Lord Himself. She was not spoken into existence but carefully and wondrously shaped and formed by the very loving hands of the Everlasting Father. Taken from Adam, a relationship and a kinship of the closes kind. In a very beautiful way, she was born of the man, so the church of the Lord. Born of the Word, born of the Spirit. Taken from Jesus ever and indelibly to be a part of Him. Effectively, deliberately the Lord Jesus is shaping and forming His Bride. She is constructed on this rock, not Peter (the pebble), but upon Christ the rock of the Lord. The spiritual Rock which accompanied the children of Israel in their wilderness journey. The Rock identified as being Christ. 1 Cor. 10:4 To Israel He was the source of life sustaining waters. To the Bride He is the occupant of the true temple of the Lord. Eph. 2:22 He will dwell in His fullness and completeness in the Bride in these last days. This is the Divine reason for the existence of the church. He is desirous of her being His and His alone. He longs for her absolute attention and love. The woman was created from the man, for the man, therefore is of the man, so likewise the Bride. 1 Cor. 11:8-9 The woman is to be the glory of the man, whatever that may be taken to mean in the natural its spiritual implications are tremendous. 1 Cor. 11:7 The destiny of the Bride is to be the crown jewel of the whole of the plan of salvation. The grand and glorious plan of the Lord was to find a redeemed people who would dedicate themselves whole heartedly to the Lord. From the vision which He gave to John on Patmos it is very evident that He will find those, however many or few, who will measure up to the requirements for purity and holiness, to be members of the Bride of Christ. Whether we like it or not, absolute conformity to the Word of the Lord is necessary to be a part of that Bride.