Traits of Christ's Bride

Well, last Sabbath, I had a rare opportunity. I had the opportunity to attend services in Cincinnati and listened to a sermonette and a sermon. And I had the opportunity to hear a sermonette by an ABC student who's been hired as a trainee. This particular individual's name is Davy Jones or David Jones. His wife, Joy, have two children. He's attending ABC.

He used to be a helicopter pilot. And he showed such great promise that it was decided to hire him. And he's going to school and then on the weekends and some evenings he's being trained by Steve Myers to go out into the ministry. He was discussing. He gave a sermonette and took the announcements for both services.

But he was describing in his sermonette a discussion he had with his mother. He mentioned that every Friday night they'd have a Bible study and he was about age 12. His mother brought up a topic that sort of surprised him.

She asked him to list for himself what his ideal woman would look like. What would she look like? What would be her characteristics and traits? And he mentioned, well, he was a little embarrassed to start with because your mom doesn't normally ask you what kind of a woman are you dreaming about. So she told him, go ahead. So he started out by saying, well, he thought of a shapely woman, tracty, beautiful hair, nice complexion. He went on and on, basically describing physical attributes that his ideal woman would have.

Now, all you single fellows here, several of you around in the audience, if you had to make up a list of what your ideal woman would look like, what would you put down? What would you bring out? Now, she then added an element to the discussion she asked him, now what if this ideal woman were your wife?

What else would you be looking for? If you were considering her, not just, okay, here's the zenith of what a woman should look like, but you want to marry her. Are there any other additional characteristics you would come up with? Well, that changed it a little bit. He started thinking about, well, maybe she can cook.

Maybe she'd be domestic, good sense of humor, good personality, good character, and on and on and on. So he began to think a little more seriously about other characteristics that maybe were a little more important than just physical traits. Both he and his mother, when he got through and they looked at the list, had a chance to discuss the list, acknowledged that this was quite a woman that he was describing as his perfect mate, an ideal woman, and would be his wife. Then she turned the tables on him again. She asked him to put together a list of traits or characteristics of an ideal husband. Now, he hadn't been thinking about that, but now he had to start thinking about, as she put it, if this ideal woman is somebody you want to marry, is she going to marry somebody who's not ideal himself?

So if you're going to marry this woman, what do you need to do? What kind of traits should you have to be an ideal husband? Well, he was rather young at the time, and he began to think about it and thought, well, you know, I don't have many of these traits. He could think of things like masculinity and muscular and handsome, maybe a good education, good career, whatever it might be.

She's still asking to put the list together anyway, so he had to write down all of these traits, and he said, you know, I'm not this way, but her answer was, well, then you're going to have to grow into it. He was to become that man. He might not have been that man at age 12, but if he wanted to be that man, well, he had several years.

He could start right then and start working toward that goal. If he knew what he considered the model man, he could work towards becoming that man. Now, let's take it a step further. What is Christ looking for in his bride? Jesus Christ is going to marry the church when he returns to this earth. What kind of a bride is he looking for? What kind of traits would he be looking at? God is in the process of following and creating a bride for his son to wed, and Christ is going to wed that bride. Does he have a list of traits and characteristics that he's looking for? Is he going to marry just any old woman, or is the woman, the bride, that he's going to marry? Is she going to have certain characteristics? Think back when you were baptized.

Did you become immediately an instant spiritual giant? I've known people who've been baptized before who thought, okay, I'll go under the water, my sins will be forgiven, I'll come back up, I'll have hands laid on me, and boy, once I receive the Spirit of God, I'll be Superman almost, I'll be able to do almost anything. They find out very quickly that that's not true, because when we first start out, we realize that we have to go through a spiritual process of growth, do we not? Spiritual maturity, spiritual growth is a process. It doesn't happen overnight. It's something that we have to grow into. With that in mind, let's go back to 1 Peter 2 and verse 1, 1 Peter 2 and verse 1, where we find this principle clearly articulated for us in the Bible.

Verse 1 says, therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, notice we're newborn babes, we should desire the pure milk of the word, why? That you may grow thereby, so that you grow up. So when we have hands laid on us, receive God's Holy Spirit, we start out as babes. Now, a baby does not start out on the meat of God's word. You take a day old baby and give it solid food and see what happens. It can't take solid food. Its digestive system is not made at that point to receive it. Now, your baby can drink milk, maybe some other liquids, but it has to grow before it can begin to take solid food. That is the way we are when we first start out. We start out on the milk of God's word and we have to grow thereby. And we've got to begin to mature. And the growth process that we see from a baby to childhood to adulthood to old age is a type of what we go through spiritually. Start out as a baby, we begin to mature, we grow up, and then eventually we can be on our own. Let's notice over here in 2 Peter 3, 18. 2 Peter 3, verse 18, we find the same thing mentioned. It says, but grow. So we are to grow. We're not to stagnate. We're not to stay the same. Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So the attitude of grace that Christ has, the knowledge that He has, we are to grow in that knowledge of Christ. And grace has to do with His unmerited pardon, forgiveness, and we are to grow up, we are to mature. Now Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 12, I think, explains this in much greater detail about the growth process that we go through and describes to a certain extent what we are what we are like when we go through this. Let's notice beginning in verse 12, Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4, 11 talks about why God has placed the ministry in the church. It gives the different responsibilities in the church. And the reason for that is for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, or the building up of that body, till we all come to the unity of the faith. So there should be a unity and a harmony of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Notice, to a perfect man. So you and I are to become that perfect man.

You can list all those traits, and then we are to become like that. The word perfect here in the Greek means pertaining to being mature in one's behavior, to grow up. How often have you maybe told someone as a teenager, perhaps, why don't you just grow up? And you're telling them to act their age. Well, God wants us to mature. So as it says here, that we are to become, well, it says, to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So you and I are to measure up to the stature of the fullness of Christ, his full character in an outlook and approach. And that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. So we're no longer to be children when it comes to understanding. The Bible says, in knowledge be men, in malice be children. And so, you know, same thing being mentioned here.

Verse 15, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ. So we are to grow up from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. So in the Bible, in the scriptures, God reveals to us the standard, his law, his way of love.

We must grow into the measure of the stature of Christ. It's just like a little child. Maybe a little girl looks at her mom and she says, I want to be like you or like the little boy. You know, I want to be like you, dad.

And so, you know, he strives to become like his parents. Well, here we have Jesus Christ and you and I are to measure up. We're to come to the point where we mature and become like him.

We are to become the bride that Jesus Christ is looking for, is going to marry at his second coming. What is it that Christ is looking for in his bride? Have you ever sat down and put together a list?

What would he be looking for in his bride? Well, let's go through some of the scriptures. I think the Bible's fairly clear. I'm not going to give a complete list that might go into the hundreds of different things, but there's some major categories that I think that obviously Jesus Christ is going to demand of the woman that he marries. Number one is found over here in Matthew 25 in verse 20. So let's go over to Matthew 25 in verse 20. Christ is going to look for a bride who is faithful. Who is faithful? He's not going to marry someone who's going to be unfaithful.

He's going to go after other men. R is going to run around on him. R, you have an affair. You have this type of thing. Matthew 25 in verse 20. Parable of talents here says, so he who had received the five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents.

Look, I've gained five more talents. Besides that, his Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. So here he refers to a faithful servant, and God shows that we're faithful over a few things today. We haven't been given earth-shaking responsibilities. We're responsible for ourselves, for our families, for how we spend our income.

A few things that God gives us to do in this life. And if we're faithful in doing it God's way and the way he says, then we will be rewarded. Another one came. He had received two talents. He doubled his talents. Notice why Christ said in verse 23, the Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. So that's talking about the future. Enter into the joy of your Lord. How many marriages have ended up in divorce because one of the mates was unfaithful. God is not going to marry a bride who's going to be unfaithful, who's not totally faithful and committed to her husband and to his way.

Notice back here in the book of Malachi chapter 2 in verse 14. Malachi 2 in verse 14. We see an indictment against the treachery of Israel, Judah, Jerusalem and how they have not remained faithful to God. And they come back and say, well why aren't we being blessed? And God says, yet you say for what reason?

Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. So God says, okay, you've entered into a covenant and yet many of you have not been faithful to your wife. Now the word here concerning this, treacherous, God says you've been dealt treacherously, means deceitful in the Hebrew or faithless. So they haven't been faithful and they've been deceitful. But did He not make them one? When you get married, God says, look, you're one. Having a remnant of the Spirit, and why one? He seeks godly offspring. That's why. Verse 16, for the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce. He covers one's garment with violence. Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. So they were not faithful to their mates, and God said they were not being blessed as a nation, as a people, because of that. James chapter 4, in verse 3, shows there's a spiritual application of what we're talking about. James chapter 4, beginning in verse 3, he talks about, in the first few verses, why there are wars, fighting, violence among them, because of their covetousness, their wanting, their lust. And in verse 3, he says, you do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your own pleasures. Adulterous and adultresses, do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God?

So if you and I are friends with the world, in other words, with its standards, its customs, its traditions, its values, God says we're in enmity with Him. Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Friendship in this world, in God's eyes, is spiritual adultery, because we're replacing God, His values, what He requires of us, with what the world does. And Satan is the God of this world, so we're actually substituting a false God and idol. We're going the way of the world, and God says that's enmity with Him. So we need to make sure that we do not compromise and go along with the world in its ways. Let me just give you an example. November, there will be an election. Who will you vote for? In the November election coming up. Well, hopefully nobody.

Now, God's approach is that we are not to become involved in the politics of this world. That God is the one who ultimately is going to determine who will sit in the office of the president for whatever prophecy God is going to work out. And so, consequently, we are not to get involved in that. So the friendship of this world going along with the world, its system, its way of doing things, its governance, God says we should not be a part of that. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 2, Colossians 1-2, we have another scripture that just simply talks about those who are faithful.

Colossians 1-2 says to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. What makes somebody a faithful person?

Well, they're faithful in their approach, are they not? In their mind, in everything they do. Are we faithful in doctrine? Are we faithful in obedience? Are we faithful in keeping the Sabbath, the holy days, tithing, God's law? Now, why would I ask all of this? Because you know it's important, one day the bride of Christ will be assisting Christ in extending salvation to the whole world in the millennium, the great white throne judgment, and then will assist him for eternity. He is not going to have a wife who does not support him and who is not faithful to him. As Matthew 10-37 tells us, this is also found over in Luke 14, but here in Matthew 10-37, Christ said, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will find it. God must come first in our lives. Our mate, when you get married, your mate, if you're a man, your wife should be the dearest woman in the world to you. You should be nobody else. More important, she is the apple of your eye. She is your love, your mate. Same thing for a woman with her husband. And so when it comes to our husband, there should be no one more important. You can't put another human being, money, power, prestige, whatever it might be. God must come first in our lives. Now let's notice 1 Corinthians 6 very quickly. 1 Corinthians 6, 15.

Chapter 6 and verse 15 here says, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Now when you are converted, given God's Spirit, it is the Spirit of God that baptizes you into the body of Christ, or places you in the body. Baptism means to submerses or put into and so we are put into the body of Christ. So shall I take then the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Well, certainly not. Is Jesus Christ going to allow His body or take His body to become associated with a harlot? He says, No. Or do you not know that He who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, He says, shall become one flesh. But He who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him. So once we receive the Holy Spirit, we become one with Him. John 17, Christ prayed that we would be one, as He and the Father are one. So He says, flee sexual immorality. And every sin a man does is outside the body, but He who commits sexual immorality sins against His own body. We can sin against the church by going off. It says there, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body, in your spirit, which are God's. So our bodies are a member of the body of Christ, and as such they belong to Him. When you get married, 1 Corinthians 7 is very clear. Your body does not belong to you, it belongs to your mate. Her body belongs to you. And once we become a part of Christ, we belong to Him. And we were bought and paid for it. So, you know, from that point of view, we're also owned by Him. You know, in the Old Testament, God entered, it says over and over, into a covenant with Israel. It was compared to a marriage relationship.

Now, God divorced them. You know why He divorced them? Because they were unfaithful. They did not remain faithful. He put away His wife because of adultery. And how did she commit adultery? Well, instead of depending upon God for protection, she made alliances with other nations. Instead of trusting God, they went and worshiped idols. They sacrificed their children to idols, to Moloch, and to some of the gods around them. They adopted the practices, religious practices and customs of the nations around them. And they went in that direction. So, the Bible is very clear that we must remain faithful to God in His way. Now, too many people today marry for the wrong reasons. People get married because money, power, prestige, advancement. He's good looking. He's got a good car, you know, whatever it might be. Yet, God is looking for a bride who will deeply love Him. Jesus Christ wants a bride that He knows who loves Him. So, the second point that Christ, second trait that Christ is looking for in a mate, is one who deeply with all of her heart loves Him.

How many times have you told your wife, I love you with all my heart? And that, you know, you mean it. That she is the one that, as far as a human being, you'd rather be with and spend your time with. Let's notice in 1 John 4.19. 1 John 4, verse 19. If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen? So, how does God know that we love Him? Because he can see if we love our brother or not. We love our brother. That's a clue. If you were dating someone and you wondered, well, do they love me? Well, you might get a clue from, you know, who else do they love? Or, you know, do they appreciate your family, appreciate your parents, or whoever it might be. Verse 19, I think, shows here that God is the one who loves us.

As verse 9 says, in this, the love of God was manifest towards us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. So He sent His Son so that we might have life. Go back to verse 17, says, love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There's no fear in love, perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. Verse 19, we love Him because He first loved us. See, in essence, it's sort of like a man who decides, you know, he sees a woman, and he's attracted towards her. So what does he do? He begins to pursue her. He begins to try to get a date with her. He'll court her. He'll call her. He'll make himself known to her. He'll indicate his attentions to her. Well, God does the same thing with us. We don't pursue Him. He pursued us. None of us can come unto the Son unless the Father draws Him. So God has to initiate the process. We don't come to the Father except through the Son. So the Son is involved in the process likewise. So He courts us. He calls us. He makes Himself known to us. He makes His way known to us. He wants to have a godly relationship with us. And so He begins to pursue us.

If we love our future husband, we will love his family and his potential family members also. That means we'll love one another. And then we will love all humanity. Remember John 3 16, God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. God did that for every human being who's ever lived. Now with that in mind, let's go back to Matthew 22 and verse 36. Matthew chapter 22 and verse 36. What kind of love are we supposed to have?

Notice when the lawyers came to Him said, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

And Jesus said to her, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, as Mark says, and all your strength with every fiber that is within you. So we are to love our future husband with our whole being. This is what marriage is built upon. To love your mate and to have eyes only for that person. Not to be lusting, desiring, going after someone else, but to be faithful. How many have remained faithful, truly, to God, to His law, His way of life, His church, His approach, His values? How many have deviated, gone off from those? In Romans chapter 5 and verse 5, Romans 5, 5, we find this mentioned here in the scriptures. Romans chapter 5 and verse 5 says, Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, perhaps for a good man, someone wouldn't even dare to die. But God demonstrated His own love towards us, and that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. So we know that God is faithful. We know that He loves us, and that once we receive the Holy Spirit, God pours out His love on us, and He wants to see us reciprocating that love back, or returning that love to Him. We are to love God with all of our heart. So the second quality that God is looking for in a mate would be one who would truly love Him with their whole being. Now, so many marriages today fail because of flaws, shortcomings, weaknesses, persons' makeup, the way they are. And we all know that there are people who maybe have emotional, psychological problems and difficulties that would have a great deal of trouble being married and truly loving a person as they should. So that brings us to another characteristic that God's looking for in a mate, and that is godly character. God is looking not just for characters, but for someone who has godly character. Character is a set of qualities that make somebody distinct, especially the qualities of mind and feeling, and I might add of action and lifestyle. What is it that God's looking for as far as our character? Remember Philippians 2.5? Philippians 2.5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. You and I are to have the mind of Christ. So godly character begins with having that mind in us, having the fruits of God's Spirit, having the gifts of God's Spirit. This is obviously, or these are obviously qualities that we have to grow into. You don't start out that way, just as a little baby doesn't start out. It starts out basically neutral. It has to grow and develop its personality and its character and its approach. It has to be taught. We don't start out with this godly character, but we have to grow into it. We have to mature. We have to grow into that bride. Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1 tells us a little bit about the character that God is looking for in us. And he explains it here by the example of Jesus Christ. Beginning in verse 1, how God has dealt with mankind over the years is his God who at various times, or in many, you know, in times past in many different ways, and in various ways has spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets. He has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he is appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

I want you to notice in verse 3 especially, it talks about Christ is the express image of the Father.

In a number of translations, this is translated as character, that he possesses the character, the exact character of the Father. Remember when Christ was on the earth, he said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If the Father himself had come to the earth, been born of a woman, he would have lived, kept the wall, obeyed exactly as Jesus Christ did. The word here for express image in the Greek from Strong's Concordance, first of all, it describes the instrument using for engraving or carving. Like you have a coin, you have a stamp, and each time it stamps, it's an exact replica of the one before. The marks stamped upon the instrument are wrought out on it. A mark or a figure that is burned in, like putting a brand. We've seen how you brand a cow.

The exact expression or image of any person or thing marked lightness, precise reproduction, and every respect. So Jesus Christ, in his character, in his outlook, in his mind, in his approach, was an exact replica of God the Father. Now, who are you and I supposed to be like? Well, let's go over to Galatians 2, verse 20. Galatians 2, 20. And we read here that I've been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So Jesus Christ lives in us. We are to be like him.

Now, people don't talk this way, but when someone sees you, they should say, I see Jesus Christ. That's how Christ would react. That's how Christ would think. That's how Christ would obey. That's what he would do. And so it should be in our thinking, doing, and approach. So, brethren, we are here, and part of the process that we're going through in our lives is to develop godly character. To have the very character and nature of God implanted in us and to grow in that. Hebrews chapter 5 talks about how we're not to remain based on the milk of the Word, but we are to grow up. We're to be able to discern right and wrong. We're to be able to judge. We're to be able to take the law of God and apply it to our lives and everything that we are faced with. Jesus Christ does not want to marry a rebellious wife, either. He doesn't want to marry a stubborn wife. He doesn't want to marry a flint-faced wife. He doesn't want to marry a self-willed wife. He wants to marry a submissive wife. So, the next point, next trait that Christ is looking for in a wife is one who is submissive. A submissive wife. Ephesians 5, 22, the book of Ephesians chapter 5, and we'll begin in verse 22.

Notice the instructions concerning marriage here. See, everything I've mentioned to you here concerning the bride of Christ also applies in her own marriage, doesn't it? How we need to treat one another. But here, verse 22, says, wives submit to your own husband as to the Lord. So, that implies that you're supposed to submit to the Lord, and as you submit to him, like man, you're supposed to submit to your husband. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. So, Jesus Christ is the head, and we are to be submissive to him. Now, you discover, though, as you read through this, that this whole section here about a husband and wife, that a husband is to love his wife, wife is to submit to her husband. That is verse 32 tells you, verse 32, that this is a great mystery.

But he says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. So, all that he's talking about here is a mystery, and it's something that we ought to reflect upon, meditate on, because the depth of what he's trying to get across here is a lot deeper, I think, than generally most of us assume. So, he's teaching that a wife, the church, is to be submissive to her husband. Now, verse 21 also talks about submitting to one another in the fear of God. So, in our physical marriages, there are times that a man will submit to his wife as far as decisions are concerned. Now, you may discuss something. I've known men before. If it's my thought, it's always right. And they don't give their wives any credit. Look at how many women are treated around the world, how they're abused, put down in second-class citizens. That's never what God intended in the Bible. There's a mutual working together in cooperation. And yet, we know that Christ is always right, and we are to submit to him and follow him. Now, in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 1, Paul says, Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. Now, I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions, is just as I deliver them to you. For I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ. The head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. So, we're all under authority. Now, it shows very clearly that the head of the woman is the man, and that Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Now, every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head, which is Christ. Now, when it says head covered, it's talking about having long hair. That's a shame for a man to have long hair, as we'll see. But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered, meaning her hair is cut so short that she looks like a man, dishonors her head. That's her husband. For that is one and the same as if her head were shaved. So, he says she might as well go ahead and be shaved. For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it's shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered. A woman's hair is given to her for a covering. For a man, indeed, ought not to cover his head. Should not have long hair. For a man should not have long hair. Since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not from the woman, but the woman is from the man. God took a rib out of Adam's side. Nor was man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. We've always thought that the fact that a woman has long hair shows her willingness to be submissive. And as a result, it's a symbol of authority, of submission to authority, and she has protection that comes from the angelic beings. Verse 13, judge among yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? This is not talking about putting a hat or a doily on the top of your head. It says, does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her for her hair is given to her for a covering. So even in that small matter, it shows a willingness by the very way you dress, the way you conduct yourself, that a woman is willing to be under the authority of her husband. And, brethren, we should be willing to be under the authority of Jesus Christ in everything that we do.

Now, let's move on to the last point here. We find that back in Genesis chapter 2, in verse 20, in Genesis chapter 2. We'll begin to read in verse 20. God had added a new word to the word God had Adam to name all of the animals. And as verse 20 tells us here, so Adam gave names to all the cattle, to the birds of the air, to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper comparable to him. He didn't find one who could stand with him, who would be eyeballed to eyeball, look like him, had intelligence like him, had personality, could have character. He was on the human plane, who would be a helper for him. So, another thing that God is looking for in his wife is that she will truly be a helper, that she will be there to be a helper to her husband. And you find that the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam. He slept, he took one of his ribs, closed up the flesh, then the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, he made a woman, and he brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of the man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. You and I are to become one flesh with Jesus Christ, in the sense, one spirit. We receive the spirit of God, one approach, one attitude in serving God. So, we are to be a helper to him. Now, some people, when they see that word helper, and a wife is supposed to help her husband, think that that's belittling, puts down, puts her in an inferior position. And yet, throughout the Old Testament, the same Hebrew word translated helper here is used of God on several occasions, especially in the book of Psalms, where David said, come help me. God said, you know, I am a helper to Israel. But God is there as a servant to serve and to help.

Now, a wife, or a bride, when she dates her husband and thinking about marriage, she learns about her husband. She learns about his likes and his dislikes. She learns what pleases him. We are assisting God in the work that he has to do here on the earth. When Christ was on the earth, he said, my father works and I work. So, God himself, the Father, has a work that he does. Jesus Christ had a work that he was assigned to do by the Father. Now, in John 17, Christ said, I have finished the work that you gave me to do. The job, the responsibility that God gave to him, to call the disciples, to train them, you know, to heal the sick, go around preaching you everything that God had given him to do, except his death he had accomplished. You and I have been called to assist Christ in doing the work or the job that he's given to his church today to do. And what is that job? Well, it's to take the gospel to the world as witness. This gospel of the kingdom is to be preached in all the world as witness into all nations. Then the end is to come. Christ sold his disciples. Go into all the world, make disciples, baptize them, and you'll take care of them. And so that's the job. That's part of the responsibility that God has given us to do. This is a joint effort. We can't do it on our own. We've got to finish the work that God has given us to do. And one day, as we face Jesus Christ, he'll say, well done, good and faithful servant, you have finished the work I gave you to do, enter into the joy of your Lord. And so we will have done what he's given us to do. The point is we've been called to assist Christ. And we do that through our prayers, through our ties and offerings, through our personal involvement in the work, in any way that we possibly can, that we are there to serve and to help. I've only scratched the surface of some of the traits that Jesus Christ would be looking for and his bride. We need to go back and you'll think about these because I think within each one of these categories, we could add multiple layers of points that could be added. We're to be a helper. We're to be submissive. We're to love our husband. We are to be faithful to him and you can go on and on. Where do we learn to do these things now? Where do you learn to practice all of these characteristics? Well, there are a couple of areas. Number one, in marriage. A wife submits to her husband and there are times that a husband is submissive or yields to his wife and what she wants, especially if her idea is better than what he thought. So in marriage, there's mutual submission. There's helping one another. There's love and you could go on and on. And also, secondarily, in our Christian walk, how we live as a Christian, how we conduct ourselves. Are we not supposed to be learning these principles? Are we not supposed to be maturing and growing? And what God is looking for is a bride who is fully mature. You don't want to marry a child when you get married. You want to marry somebody who's mature, somebody who's on your level that you can communicate with and equate to. So you don't go back and marry somebody who's real young, somebody who's grown up, who's mature. And that's what God the Father is doing. He's creating a bride who will be on the same level as his son, who will be a member of the God family. And let's notice it back here in Revelation 19, one final scripture, verse 6, Revelation 19, in verse 6.

I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Hallelujah! For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. Now why will that marriage take place? Says, and his wife has made herself ready. The wife has grown into the job. The wife has matured and grown up and changed. And so therefore she can marry her husband. And to her it was granted to be a raid and fine linen clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous axe of the saints. So, brethren, we are to grow and to mature. We are to make ourselves ready and to be prepared for Christ when he returns. So I've given you today a partial list. Obviously it's not a complete list of what Jesus Christ is looking for in his bride. It would be good if you could spend a little time thinking a little more about this and think of what else would he be looking for. It is our responsibility to become that woman. Now for many of us as men that might be hard to think about, but we're to become a part of the bride, part of the woman that God is preparing for his son. We are to mature spiritually to become that spouse. So, brethren, let's make sure that that's what we're aiming for. That's what we're doing to spiritually mature.