A Prepared Bride for Christ

A royal event is brewing. An announcement will be made soon in the loudest possible voice that you could imagine. A voice that is so loud, it is as loud as rolling thunder from one of the largest thunderstorms you could ever be in, coupled with the booming waters of Niagara Falls, if you were at the bottom, coupled with a stadium of people just shouting and yelling to where you just couldn't hear the person next to you. If we turn to Revelation 19, verse 6, here's the news that is going to be spoken in such a loud voice that it's almost unimaginable.

Number one, how loud it will be, but number two, how important this announcement is. In Revelation 19, beginning in verse 6, it says, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude of people, yelling, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings altogether. And what was this announcement? What was so important that was being said at this volume? Well, we read part of it in verse 7.

That is so exciting to God and to the family of God. And that announcement will be rolled out with a great proclamation. Do you want to be part of that announcement? Do you want to be part of the bride of Christ? Are you now in your life preparing to be a fit helper for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Prince of Peace? Today, I'd like to examine some of the key responsibilities that you and I have right now in preparing for the coming return. The title of the sermon is, A Prepared Bride for Christ. Let's consider a couple of passages. You don't have to turn to them. One is in Genesis 2, verse 18, where it says, It is not good that man should be alone. Jesus Christ called Himself the Son of Man.

He called Himself the Second Adam, Paul did. He called Himself that man from heaven. It's not good that man should be alone. I will make Him a helper fitting for Him. We like to think of that on the human level. But the human marriage is a pattern of Christ and the Church, we are told in Ephesians 5. Another passage that the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 47, The first man was of the earth made of dust, but the second man is the Lord from heaven.

And you know it's not good, we can see from Scripture, that He is alone, or that He should be alone, but that God would make Him a helper fitting for Him as well. Jesus Christ needs a body of helpers for the world tomorrow, for that great kingdom that's going to come to earth in order for it to be successful, in order for its growth to be compounded across time. And so, Jesus is preparing the Church as a type of bride. Let's see how He's doing that over in Ephesians 5, verses 24-27.

We can gain a little insight here as Paul speaks to husbands and wives. Verse 24, he breaks into this verse, he says, The Church is subject to, or obedient, submissive to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything. Verse 25, Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her. So we see that His bride is going to be submissive to Him now.

We pray, if we pray as we're commanded to, Your kingdom come, Your will be done. Not my will, but Your will be done. We need to be growing in submission to Him, in obedience to Him, obeying Him. We also see that He gave Himself for her. Verse 26, that He might sanctify. Now, if you have been baptized, you are converted, but sanctification is what grows throughout your life. We are called, we are baptized, but to be sanctified means to use that Holy Spirit, allow our human nature to be crushed in God's nature to come in, to grow in sanctification more and more.

And this is what Jesus is wanting to do in your life now, to sanctify and cleanse you with the washing of water by the Word. What is by the Word? We tend to think of this as the Word, but that means the word logos, or logos is the word that Word is translated from.

So it's by Him. He's going to wash and cleanse us. He's going to clean us up if we allow Him. By Him, by His blood, by His living in us, by His growing in us. Verse 27, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish in a spiritual sense. So marriage, this concept, is an analogy that Jesus has used.

It's an Old Testament concept as well for events in the World Tomorrow period. It's used to describe leaders and helpers in the coming age. You'll recall in Revelation 19.9 it says, Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is going to, by analogy, have a marriage, a wedding, a bride, a feast. It's going to be a glorious occasion at the raising of the first fruits of the family of God, to join Him as a body of servants to assist Him.

And right now, Jesus Christ is assessing potential helpers. It's kind of like a young man might be assessing a potential helper for his life. Any day you get to meet people, you look around. So Jesus Christ is assessing those who are called, those who are converted, to see who will be assisting Him in the World Tomorrow. We see in Malachi 3, verses 16 and 17, a glimpse as to how this occurs, or is occurring at this very moment.

Malachi 3, verse 16, says, Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another. You fear the Lord, don't you? And we speak to one another, don't we? And the Lord listened and heard them. What are you saying on God's Sabbath day? How do you speak to other people during the week? How do you relate to your workplace, wherever you are? How do you relate to your neighbors? God listens because out of the abundance of our heart, our mouth speaks. He also can assess our minds. He knows our thoughts. And so, continuing on, a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and meditate on His name, who want to be part of His family.

Verse 17, They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts. On that day I will make them my jewels. Jewels! You and I have the opportunity, if we will humble ourselves, do the will of God, submit to His ordinances and His commands, and desire to have the godliness and that godly mentality, we can be made His jewels and be His.

There's a societal concept that we have in Western culture. Essentially, when it comes to a woman thinking about perhaps being a bride, that looks are everything. You know, appearance is what you need. It's a very shallow sort of concept of primp and show up. That is not what Jesus Christ and God are looking for. He talks about the outside looking nice, but the inside being a tomb, a whitewashed sepulcher, as it were. He is looking not on the appearance, but on the heart, on the development of holy righteous character, on the creation of a nature that is like the family of God.

And so, He warns repeatedly about individuals who will just kind of show up and say, Well, I love you, and I kept all this special stuff wrapped in a holy napkin, but I didn't do anything with it. I appreciated being called, and the honor of being called holy, and here I am. And He says, depart from me. I never knew you to those who do not develop that character. We can become conceited because we are associated with truth. Just by learning the truth, knowing the truth, we can be conceited that we are something, or we are valuable in some way.

And yet, God could shut off our mind in a second like He did Nebuchadnezzar's, and we'd be nothing more than animals crawling around on the grass. What God is looking for is the development of holy righteous character, and that is the fruit that He wants to harvest in us.

Those are the preparations we need to be making in order to be a bride fit, or fitting for His Son at His return. In Revelation 3, verse 17, we see there are individuals who are fairly conceited religiously, and they think, I'm it. I'm good. I'm right. Without really doing a whole lot. Ephesians 3, verse 17, He says, Because you say I am rich spiritually, I become wealthy, I know a lot, I have a lot of knowledge, and I have need of nothing.

I'm waiting for somebody to show up and elevate me. I'm ready. I'm full of all kinds of good potential. He says, Because you say that, I do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You can just see somebody who is all shined up on the outside, but there's no substance on the inside. There's no compelling nature. Like a person who walks in the room and stuns everybody, but later on nobody wants to be around that lady because they're not like her.

They don't think like her. They don't have the values that she does. They actually stand for something totally different. So it's not about looks. It's not about stamp of approval. It's about character. And some of the most beautiful people I've ever met would not win a beauty contest because they are golden on the inside and you just want to be around them.

And you feel pulled apart when you have to leave. Here we see an expectation of an individual without a total transformation. God wants you and I to go through a total transformation from our human carnal nature into a divine nature. And we cannot have a valid expectation of being part of the Bride of Christ without a total transformation, without the scrubbing, the washing, the changing, the garments, the white, which is associated with righteousness taking place. It's not acceptable. Verse 16, So then because you are lukewarm and neither cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth, out of the body of Christ.

You come out of that body because, you know, you're really not like me, he's saying. And we want to be careful to be preparing as a fitting helper, and not one that is making assumptions. So how does a woman prepare to be a bride for a husband? I had asked my wife, how does a woman prepare to be a bride? It was interesting. The answer I got surprised me, actually. I thought it would be a rather simple answer.

I thought she would mention something about getting a dress sewn. I married her once, and I remember her mother helping out, and her dad, and various things that they made.

Getting this thing organized and that, I thought would be the answer. Her answer was this. First of all, it starts in early childhood. Preparing to be a bride starts as a very young girl. It starts with a desire. Little girls desire to be married. They have pretend weddings when they're little.

They practice. I know we've had many weddings in our house through the years. And the dog was usually the groom. But then the preparation began with the mother. The example of the mother, the teaching of the mother, the mentoring that took place over a period of many, many years. There was domestic experience assisting with chores and being taught.

And eventually, the abilities for those chores grew. The abilities to perform things that are necessary within a family home that are complicated. Those things grew. There was intellectual development, spiritual education within the home, within the church.

There was schooling, there were talents, there were personality. There went along with an intellectual development that would one day present this lady as a bright person who understood, had wisdom, experience, had understanding, that was able to contribute to the lives of others, including little people that would come along later. There was external development that would take place in those little girls. The body would develop and grow to be suitable as a wife and a mother. There would be dress and the grooming on the outside, along with beauty, hair styling, all the things that girls and ladies learn to do to embellish not only themselves, but also to provide beauty within environments where other people are, which is a gift in itself.

There are social skills, speaking, how to speak, how to listen, loving, serving, helping, within social groups, interacting, contributing, receiving, being gracious, growing in the opportunity, ability, and desire to have better social skills. There's a work ethic, diligence, combined with constancy and dependability. All of that added together. A good wife needs perseverance in those things, because it's not just the ability to have a good work ethic and be diligent, but a woman's work never seems to be done, from early morning to late at night.

Sometimes that work can be very repetitive and very unstimulating when adult minds are not present and you're dealing with little children that have increasing needs and demands that just go on and on and on. The stamina that's required and the perseverance to keep going, those things have to be developed as part of a work ethic. There's the financial development of understanding finances, of getting a job, of budgeting, of wise spending, of frugality, of saving in order to manage the household finances and those which she is responsible for and make them cover the needs of that developing family.

There's nutrition, including the knowledge of it, the shopping, the gardening, the food preparation, the cooking, the serving of it, in ways that make it appealing and very stimulating, which meals aren't just putting food in our stomach. They actually are a special time of relationship building, of sharing and giving and presentation. There's wedding preparation itself, which includes the ability to be involved in event planning and facilities and thinking of guests and the needs of guests and providing for their needs and a reception and the attire, of course, and the preparation for being presented to her husband.

And the result is a prepared bride. The result of a young life, the culmination of all that went in from many different sources, is a young woman who is a fitting helper, one who really is able to help. The Bride of Christ is similar to that. We are to start in our early spiritual childhood, and we are to learn and develop those things as well on a spiritual level. Otherwise, what we're doing is we're just coasting on grace.

On God's graciousness, we're hoping that He'll accept us based on just good will. Just like a woman might grow up and she doesn't do those things, but she's coasting, hoping some guy will pick her just... just out of luck. I don't think that's what you would want a man to receive as a spouse, and we certainly don't think that Jesus Christ would be well suited by a bride who is not prepared to help Him and assist Him in the wonderful world tomorrow. So the vital lesson for me, and I hope it is for you, is, are you preparing to be Christ's helper at His return?

Symbolically, part of the bride, that body that will assist Him and help Him. Let's go to Matthew 25 and take a look at the parable of the virgins, the ten virgins. Matthew 25 will begin in verse 1. Now this is a parable that He created, He taught, so that we can learn from His perspective what is needed, what His needs are, what we should be doing.

Matthew 25 verse 1. Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Here we are. We've had our spiritual life. It's now come to its end. The Messiah is returning, and we go out to meet Him and see if He'll pick us or if He will include us within that body. Notice they took their lamps. Notice it's dark. What's interesting here is you and I have been called in a world of darkness, a society of darkness, and you and I are to be lights, lights to the world, we're told in Matthew 5.

So an important part of our calling is to be reflecting that light from the God family. We can only do that by imitating them in every way and becoming more and more like them as the Holy Spirit moves within us. Now five of them were five, and five of them were foolish. We find that five of them were playing a very dangerous game. Guess when the end will arrive.

I'm not going to change until things get really bad. I've strategized here that I can be selfish and preoccupied or not serving or not changing, but I still have time. I don't think he's coming now. That's kind of one of the things that could be played. But the lesson here is all the players lose. If we go to James chapter, just keep your finger there, let's go back to James chapter 3 and verse 13. And we are warned about not having the real godly mindset growing in us. James 3 verse 13, who is wise and understanding among you?

Not everyone in the church will be a wise virgin. But who among us is wise and who are foolish? Well, he says here, let him show by good conduct that his works, the works of loving and serving, are done in the meekness of wisdom, godly wisdom.

We find that in verse 17, the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable. It's peacemaking, joining together. It's gentle. It's willing to yield. It's full of mercy and good fruits. It's without partiality, without hypocrisy. So this is the kind of wisdom that we find back here in Matthew chapter 25, that these five virgins will have, the five whys will have. But we find in verse 3 of Matthew 25, that those who were foolish took their lamps and no oil with them. They didn't really have light. They didn't really have God's nature. God's spirit wasn't flowing through them. They weren't really reflecting anything. They showed up also, but they were not really being godly.

The five, though, who are genuine overcomers, living the real life, these who are wise from God's spirit because they're living that and it's growing in them, they are the real deal. And you and I need to be that. We see in verse 5 that while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. Nobody knows when Jesus Christ is going to return exactly. And he said that we'll all be caught by surprise. What he really wants us to be is a genuine bride all the time, genuinely growing in godliness, genuinely growing to be like our Father in Heaven all the time, so that whenever he comes, the real deals will be really and readily recognizable. And at midnight, when everybody didn't know, in other words, when he was coming, at midnight, the cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him. Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. We don't really have much righteousness here. Let me hang on to you. God, I'm with him. I'm with her. We're together. I'm part of this group. We're coming as a group. Judges is a group. Greatest on the curve. But the wise answered, No, lest there not be enough for us and you, but rather go to those who sell and buy for yourselves. They were self-deceived. If we hold your finger there and go to Revelation 3, verse 15, we find, once again, a group of individuals who need to buy for themselves directly from God. Revelation 3, verse 15, when he says, I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold. He's speaking to people here who get their water from seven miles away through an aqueduct that comes through the air. So no matter if it came out of a boiling hot spring or the coldest arctic iceberg, by the time it got to the town of Laodicea, it was always lukewarm. They didn't get their water from Laodicea. They got it from somewhere else. Dropping down to verse 18, I counsel you to buy from me. This is the point of this message, this lesson to the church. Get it from me. You can't get it from any other source. You have to get real gold. Gold that's tried in the fire in others, it has been refined. The impurities are out. The bride of Christ won't come with all kinds of impurities and some dress that's not pure white and not ready. It will be pure, and we can only get that from Jesus Christ. Buy from me real gold, pure gold, that you may be rich in white garments. The white garments represent righteousness, that you may be clothed. So it's very important for us as individuals, if we want to be part of the First Resurrection and not fail, to be preparing to be a real bride fitting for Jesus Christ at His return. We find in Matthew 25, verse 10, going on, And while they went to buy, in other words, they're, Okay, I'll get righteous now. I'll overcome. I'll repent. Gotta do it fast. Well, wait a minute. He's already here. He's already here. Gotta really overcome quick. Get God's nature fast. Just bam! Can you do that? Really can't, can you? It takes a lot of time. I'm thankful that God is so merciful and so patient. Many of us feel that. We can look back on our lives and say, Wow, what if He had come before? What if He had given up on us? But He hasn't. And life's experiences go on, and we get to learn, and we get to grow.

But a bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding, and the door was shut. You know, there in Revelation 3, verse 7 and 8, Jesus Christ said, I am the one who opens the door to New Jerusalem, and I shut the door to New Jerusalem. No one can open it, and no one can shut it except me. Not all the pleading that you make, not all the whining, not all the excuses. I have that responsibility of opening or shutting that door. We will come, and the decision will be made. You see in verse 11 in Matthew 25, afterward the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! Remember, the door was shut. And when He shuts the door, no man can open it.

Open to us! But He answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. I do not know you. Why doesn't He know? You're not like Me. You don't think like Me. To know God means to keep His commandments, all of them. To love neighbor as self, to love God with your heart, soul, and might, to humble oneself.

Those are the ones He will know. And watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. But we can be preparing as the bride. Along the way, the bride will have challenges. She will be tested. She will be refined. It will require perseverance. One scripture in Revelation 12 says, The dragon was enraged with the woman. Who is the woman? The bride to be. There will be that. There is that. Satan wants us to fail. He wants to deceive us and get us off somewhere else in some twig. He wants us to be overwhelmed and discouraged and quit. And he is enraged with the woman at the end time. And he left one part of the church to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. We have to be prepared to that level. Committed to that level. No matter what comes. Now, we are told, and Christ Himself tells us, that we can be prepared early.

We can be prepared now and miss a whole bunch of things that Satan will bring upon the church. We can receive additional blessings. He gives us a couple of concepts. One is in Luke 21 and verse 36, where he said, Watch, therefore. Watch means to pay attention to your spiritual development. Be all about praying, overcoming, looking for sin, being forgiven, searching for the leaven in our lives. And also pray always. Be a person of prayer, in other words. With God's help, be getting sin out of your life and building righteousness in. That you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. We can be prepared early and be part of a place of safety during a time of tribulation that will come on humanity. He says in Revelation 3, verse 10, Because you have kept my command to persevere, persevere in godliness, in any situation, and always grow in that.

I will also keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. So we can be prepared early, now, in the good times, not just going through all the tragedy that must happen in the last three and a half years of this age.

But after the time of the end, when it's time for Jesus Christ to resurrect the firstfruits, whenever that seventh trumpet sounds, and whatever timing he wants to use, then he and his bride have a work to do. Let's take a look at some of the work that Jesus Christ and the bride will do, beginning with the Israelites, the nation of ancient Israel and the twelve tribes.

In Isaiah 9, verses 6-7, we find that the one we are called to serve will be great. He will be a great man. Very honorable, highly respectable, certainly an individual that we, as a type of a bride, would be able to look up to and honor and greatly respect. Isaiah 9, verse 6, Sounds like he needs a very competent helper, doesn't he? I know you and I now, as fleshly humans, would be of no help to him whatsoever. His thoughts are so higher above our thoughts, his ways above our... just as the heavens are above the earth. But in creating us in spirit being form and giving us the power and the intellect of a God being, we will be able to effectively assist him. What he needs from you and me is a character to go along with that being that he can create, a character of godliness that's tested. And then we would be a helper very suitable for him.

Jesus and his bride will work with the spiritual children during the world tomorrow for a thousand years. He says in Jeremiah, next book forward, chapter 3, verses 14 and 15.

Jeremiah 3, beginning in verse 14.

Return, O backsliding children. God wants, first of all, the nation of Israel to come back to their land, which is their eternal inheritance, and to become the model nation that they were always supposed to be. And that will happen. And finally, the word of God will go out of Zion, and people will see the results of them living it, and they will want to come and learn about this way of life.

Return, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion, the remnant will be small of those remaining at the end of the Great Tribulation. And I will give you shepherds according to my heart. You see how this bride, this church needs to be? People with his heart that think like him, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Are you a person that's according to his heart? David was according to his heart.

You and I need to be growing in a mind, a thinking, a heart like his, so that we can be shepherds during that time. In Isaiah 30, just back a few pages, in verses 20 and 21, Isaiah 30, beginning in verse 20, And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, even though there are going to be times of trial and testing in the lives then, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore.

But your eyes shall see your teachers. You know who teaches children the best in a family? It's the mother. She is there with them, teaching them, intellectually nurturing them and bringing them along. And so the bride of Christ in symbolism will be the teacher of these precious children, of the next group that God is working with, when his kingdom begins on earth. Verse 21, Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way.

Walk in it whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. Christ needs helpers, competent helpers, with the right heart, able to teach the right teaching, and able to direct people in godliness. Do you want to help? He is returning soon, and he will select the doers of the word.

Not the hearers, not the knowers, not the real intelligentsia who know this book inside and out, but those who do it, those who have become what the book says. We have excellent examples of those who are doers in helping and serving on a physical level.

They are the ladies. They are the wives. They are the mothers that are here with us today and everywhere else, because their focus is on helping, observing, preparing to fill those needs, cooking, washing, cleaning, providing, listening, serving, discussing, planning, all the way to their end with perseverance. That is Jesus Christ's analogy of what he is wanting from you and me.

We can be that. What is Jesus Christ looking for in a bride, in particular? Let's find out by going to Proverbs 31, because the answer to what kind of bride Jesus is looking for is found right here in Proverbs 31.

Beginning in verse 10 through verse 31. If you put yourself in his shoes for a moment and ask this question, who can find me a virtuous wife? What would the qualifications be that he needs? What is it that he is looking for? What is it that he needs from you and me as a group, a body, that would be able to assist him? Rather than just looking at this strictly from a physical viewpoint, let's kick it up a notch and look at this from a spiritual viewpoint. First of all, it says, Her worth to him is far above rubies.

It's far above anything in the universe. It's far above constellations or anything that's out there. See, he's creating godly children for the family of God. And a woman of virtue for him is far above anything that he has created. This is the most precious thing. In fact, he can't create. He cannot create the bride he needs to marry. We, with his assistance, have to do that. Otherwise, God would have just made us spirit beings a long time ago and forgot this whole thing. It's that spiritual, holy, righteous character that has to be forged and built over time with testing and opportunity and a war and a fight.

That is precious. That is far above rubies. The wife he needs is one in which he can safely trust her to go out and do the work that she's given to do, to teach and to guide, without error, without mistake. So that he will have no lack of gain. Remember, the increase of his government will be without end. He needs a wife who can help that happen so that there is no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

For one thousand years, that group of people will do him nothing but good. No problems, no detractions, no reversals. Now let's apply that to yourself and to mine. Jesus Christ is arriving soon. He needs a helper. How does he view you? How does he view me? Does he see us as worth with trust, doing him good for all that period of time? What is your value to him as he assesses you? Does he trust you? What's your contribution to his kingdom's gain, etc.?

He has to know that. And those in the church need to be preparing to be chosen. Now notice what the faithful are developing in. Let's drop down to verse 15. She also rises while it is yet night.

We live in a world of darkness, and we are to rise in this darkness in the night and provide food for the household. We are providing and sharing and teaching the bread of life now. This is what he needs now so that the same woman can do it with him later in the world tomorrow.

We need to be the light. We need to be working in the dark, and we need to be providing this food for others as a church and as individuals as we have opportunity. And a portion for her maidservants. By example, she needs to also be giving and serving this light of life to others.

Verse 16, she considers the crop in a field, and buys it. In other words, developed fruit ready for harvest. She considers and buys it. She buys from God the type of fruit, the type of gold that he is going to harvest.

She develops that in her life so that she is a real pick to be in the first fruit's resurrection. From her prophets, she plants a vineyard. Jesus said, I am the vine. You are the branches. Produce much fruit. And she is all about the production of fruit. She girds herself with strength. It tells us in the Bible to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. And she strengthens herself with spiritual strength. And strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good. She examines herself to see whether she is in the faith. She searches with God's help to find things that are not good and get rid of the bad. And only have the good. And with God's help, he cleans her up and creates in her a clean heart. Like David prayed in Psalm 51. Notice the things that she does. It is not just head knowledge. She is actually living like the sheep that will be separated from the goats. In verse 20, she extends her hand to the poor. She helps others. It is not about herself. She is helping others. She reaches out her hands to the needy. Again, Matthew 25, Jesus' own definition about who he is going to harvest.

Verse 24, she makes linen garments. In Revelation 19, it says, The bride has made herself ready, and her garments are white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. This woman is making linen, righteous garments. That is part of her character that is growing. And in this context, she sells them and supplies sashes for the merchants. Verse 25, Strength and honor are her clothing. She is strong in the Lord, but she also has honor. It says in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9, You are a chosen generation, a holy people.

A royal priesthood, his own special people. She definitely is one that is honorable. Strength and honor are her clothing. Because when a person is righteousness, it is very honorable. Not only in the eyes of humans, but in the eyes of God.

She shall rejoice in time to come. When Jesus Christ returns, she will rejoice and be part of that marriage. And what a great rejoicing there will be. She opens her mouth with wisdom, godly wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness. As we read in James 3, 17, that wisdom is pure, peaceable, gentle, full of good fruits. Verse 27, she watches over the ways of her household. Jesus Christ said to watch, to be aware. And she is watching, and she does not eat the bread of idleness. She's not going to be one who has put all this in a handkerchief and done nothing with it. No, she is working with God's Holy Spirit. And her husband, also Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, praises her.

Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all. Charm is deceitful and beauty passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands. We are told that we will receive the fruit of whatever we sow. God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that person shall reap. Let her own works praise her in the gates, because she will be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him for a thousand years. Brethren, Jesus Christ has a very important work to do. It is about Him. It is about His work. It is about the commission that the Father has given Him to do at His return. And He needs helpers. He has spelled that out for us very clearly. And He has high expectations that there will be a lot of people forming a body that, by analogy, will be a helper of bride to Him in the world tomorrow. Do you want to be one of Christ's helpers? If you truly do, then be busily preparing now to be His helper, His bride.