Sam Soleyn - A Woman's Role in the Body of Christ Part 1. Sam Soleyn 03/1995

Transcription

1 1 8/13/2008 1:34 PM A Woman's Role in the Body of Christ Part 1 Sam Soleyn 03/1995 Praise the Lord. Welcome again to our continuation of our time together in this Camp Meeting. I want to begin this evening with a reading from the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, beginning at verse 21. Verse 21 and following says, "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 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. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Chri st does the church - for we are members of His body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." (inserted - Eph. 5:21-33) Yearning for the Bridegroom I was in a meeting recently, and the worship leader was singing the song, "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of this world will be strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." And, there came a point in the service, as this song was being sung, it was being repeated. And all of a sudden, something rose up in me. It was a hard feeling for me to put into words. The best I could tell you is that there was a yearning in me. It was very strange, strange to me. The pastor of the church sensed the same thing and he was walking back after he had given some instructions up front, he was walking back to where he was seated with his wife. And he went right past me and I stopped him and I said, "I really believe that the bride is yearning for the Husband."There was a woman whom God has gifted in

2 2 8/13/2008 1:34 PM mimistry and she was miming the song. She had been just instantaneously moved by the Holy Spirit to go up front and to start performing a mime. And as I looked over and I saw her, what she was mirroring in that moment, she was physically looking as if she were looking intently in the face of the Lord. And it is hard for me to explain to you what happened. She was doing externally what I was feeling on the inside. I was surprised. It really caught me by surprise, because this is a feeling and an emotion that was very different for me. And for just a moment, I realized that there was a yearning in a man for Christ. And I really couldn't explain it. So I got up to preach, and the Holy Spirit instructed me, even as I was getting up, to lay aside my prepared text. And He started to give me revelation. And together with the fellowship at the moment, that church fellowship, we began to experience something that, for me, was throwing a door open. It was a hungering and a yearning for Christ. And then the Lord began to put flesh to this revelation - and I want to share with you some of the flesh that He gave me in this revelation. The Illustration Is Not the Point I'd like to begin by reading the last part of that reading I just read from Ephesians 5. We started at verse 21 and we went through to verse 33. But I want to focus on verse 32 - and that's where I want to start. "This," Paul said, after having talked about "husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, wives submit to your husbands as unto the Lord" and so on. After that, he comes down to verse 32 and he says, "This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church." And all of a sudden, the Lord began to open up for me what I was feeling. I began to see this - now, I'd have revelation of this Scripture before, but it wasn't put together with my personal feelings in the matter at the time. I had revelation intellectually and I'd taught on this passage before. But I never felt so drawn in to the revelation as in that moment orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.Now this Scripture is normally preached to teach as a foundation the relationship of Christian husbands and Christian wives within the body of Christ. But, what he's saying is, "This is a profound mystery - this relationship between Christ and the church. That's a profound mystery. But I want to use something with which you are already familiar as a means of unlocking and revealing this mystery to you." That's why he says, "But I show you - I am displaying to you - I am presenting to you - this mystery of Christ and the church." And to unveil the mystery of Christ and the church, he refers to the relationship between a husband and a wife. And he says, by implication he's saying, "You should be very familiar with the relationship between a Christian husband and a Christian wife. You should be familiar with that. So I am using this very familiar thing to reveal a mystery to you."so the vehicle is not the emphasis. In this passage, he's not emphasizing the relationship between a husband and a wife. In this passage, he is emphasizing the relationship between Christ and the church. Now that, that's plain. Therefore, who represents what in this mystery? In other words, he gives us a passage of Scripture that talks about husbands and wives. But he' really not talking about husbands and wives, he's talking about Christ and the church. Therefore, who is the husband? Obviously, Christ. Who is the wife? The church. That is why, throughout the passage, he's saying, "Wives, submit to your husbands as unto the Lord" But if we miss the point, he says, "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, His

3 3 8/13/2008 1:34 PM body." And then he goes on, in case we missed the point. I mean, he's belaboring the point of Christ in the story, or in the analogy. So he says, verse 24, after twice referring to Christ and the church, verse 24, he says it another way! "Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their own husbands in everything." By now we are bludgeoned with the idea that the wife is the church. And he's telling the wife to submit to her Husband. The Bride - Men and Women Why is he using the relationship between a husband and a wife to talk to the wife, the church, that is the wife of Christ. What is going on here? Obviously, he's trying to say to the church, "Men, you are the bride of Christ!" Because the church is comprised of both men and women. So when he talks about the wife in this story, he is, of necessity, if he's using the wife to talk about the church, he's including both men and women in the role of the wife. In the same way, when he talks about the husband, he's talking about not just a physical male in his role, but he's talking about Christ in His role. Alright?Why is he doing this? To what purpose? The reason is: that men do not know, naturally, how to respond to a man as a woman. But when you are the bride of Christ, male and female, in relationship to Christ, you are a woman. How then does a man learn to be a woman? Because Christ has given him a wife to instruct him how to be a woman.glory to God! Hallelujah! [laughter] And all of a sudden I realized - I was sitting on the front row, actually I was standing on the front row, at Living Water in Big Spring, Texas, feeling like a woman! But I was a guy! I was a man. But something within me yearned for my Husband, the Lord. There is nothing strange about this. Our minds have been contorted and twisted by homosexuality and the teachings and the practice of homosexually, openly and publicly in our nation today. And so men have been cultured in our society to refuse and reject the role of being a woman in relationship to the Husband who is the Lord. And because we have rejected that, we have used this passage to teach how men are greater than women, and therefore women must submit to men unconditionally as a condition of being a Christian. That's nonsense.the role of the Christian woman is a precious role. I'm not saying this to be charitable. When men reject the role of Christian women, they have no way of learning how to be a wife to Christ. How do they learn it? Are we, in fact, as men of God, the bride of Christ? We'd better be - because the bride is the one for whom He is coming. And whoever is in the bride, He will take with Him to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And if we're not going, we've got more troubles than wondering about these feelings.christ gave us the Christian woman who, by the Holy Spirit, is equipped to demonstrate submission without being a doormat. As we understand the role of the Christian woman, we see it not as a confining, degrading, demeaning thing, but we actually see it as what God requires of each one of us as the bride of Christ. And there is no possibility, I repeat, my brethren, there is no possibility, of a man in Christ learning how to be an appropriately submissive bride unless he accepts fully, unconditionally the role of his wife to him. There's no way.when I think of how this Scripture has been used by churches and by men to abuse women, to demean and degrade them, to exclude them from the legitimate ministries to which they're called, I can't help but think how far we have missed the revelation of the mystery.

4 4 8/13/2008 1:34 PM Women Have Liberty Too I want to tell you something that I believe is revolutionary, something else that is revolutionary. It is this: My brethren, because the Christian woman is a type of the church, she is able to do, the Christian woman, is able to do everything that the church is able to do. Now that, I'm sure, if by now you have concluded that I've skirted the edges of all things that are sacred, now I'm sure that you have concluded that I've gone over the edge.you know I had a good friend. I had a good friend, one time, and I was, he was very concerned about me because I was talking to him about some of these things. And he had lunch with me, and he said to me, he said, "Sam, you know I'm concerned about you." He said, "You've gone off the deep end." There was something rose up in me, I wanted to say, "Oh, you know, that's not true," you know? Lord said to me, "From where he's sitting, you're not just off the deep end, you're in over your head." So I said to him, I said, "Well, brother. I appreciate your generosity to me. But the truth is, I'm not just off the deep end, I'm in over my head." And it broke the ice with him. At least he was aware that I wasn't normal, from his standpoint of normalcy.now I want to explain what I mean by what I just said - that because the Christian woman is a type of the church, she is permitted to do everything that the church is permitted to do. I want to add a caveat. What is the church able to do by itself? Apart from Christ, what can the church do? Nothing. (inserted - actual verse - "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing." Jn. 15:5) So the church is under the covering of Christ, the Head. That's from 1 Corinthians, it says, "Now the head of every man is Christ, and the head of every woman is a man." (inserted - actual verse - "Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." 1 Cor. 11:3) In that description of headship, it was talking about, not a covering on the head, but of authority, the covering of authority. Being under the authority of.so the church does everything because the covering on the head of the church is Christ. It's a sign that the church is properly under the authority of Christ. Let me back up and explain all of this. You see, the kingdom of God is established pursuant to an original grant of authority from the Father to the Son. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me." So there is no authority left over for anyone else if He says "all." "All" means all. Not some, not a lot, not most - all means all. So all authority in heaven and on earth is fully vested in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that, any other type of authority must be delegated authority. That is, authority derived from that source.the church has all of the authority of Christ that He has given into it by His delegate, the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus said concerning the Holy Spirit, "When He comes, He will take of what is Mine and He will make known unto you, He will make it known unto you, and He will bring glory to Me by taking of what is Mine and making it known unto you. All that the Father has," He said, "is Mine. That is why I say He will take it, He will make it known unto you." (inserted - actual verses - "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you." Jn. 16:13-15)So Jesus gave an

5 5 8/13/2008 1:34 PM exclusive delegation of authority to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit distributes into the church the authority of Christ in the form of gifts to men, according to Ephesians 4, verses 11 and following, actually, verses 10 and following. (inserted - actual verses - "He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers" Eph. 4:10-11) So in that way, there is authority in the church, properly coming through a line of delegated authority, originating with the original grant of authority from the Father to the Son. So whenever the church does anything, it does it as part of the delegated authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. In that sense, you see, the Head of the church is Christ. He is the covering that legitimizes the use of His authority. Apart from this covering of Christ, there is nothing the church can legitimately do. Because there is no other authority. But once it is under the covering of Christ, it is capable of doing anything He wants to do by His Spirit.A woman, Christian woman, it says, "Now, wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church." (inserted - Eph. 5:22-23) That's what I was just explaining. As Christ is the Head of the church, the church is able, under His Headship, to do everything that He's doing. In the same way, under the proper covering, that is, under the proper authority of Christ, a woman is capable of doing anything and everything in the church. The issue is not what she can do, the issue is the authority by which she does it. The issue is not what the church can do. The issue is whether or not Christ is permitting it to be done. If Christ is doing it, the whole church can do it. If there's that legitimate delegati on of authority, under the covering, the woman is able to do anything that the church is able to do, because she's a representation of the church. "But in the Assembly..." Because men have refused to open up opportunities for women to minister, then they have excluded the women from participation when God would not have excluded her in the first place. So whenever the Scriptures say, when Paul says, "In the assembly, I do not permit a woman to teach or to usurp authority over the man," (inserted - actual verse - "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent." 1 Tim. 2:12) the issue is not whether or not she can teach. The issue is whether in doing so, she is usurping the authority that God has put to cover her. If she is not usurping authority, then she is not in violation of this principle because if the church is not usurping the authority of Christ, it is not violating the principle of His total authority.what we have done, you see, we have moved into the church - first, we have moved the church into a building, and then we have moved a pulpit into the church, and then we've called the ground on which the pulpit stands, "holy ground." You see? And because we have done that, we see the role of a woman within the context of this aberration that we've created. And that's what has oppressed women. It's the doctrines of men that have oppressed women. For there is no freedom or legitimacy for anyone - man or woman - within the doctrines of men.three hundred years passed, after the church had existed, before it owned a building. An even longer period of time passed before they brought in a pulpit and pews. I'm not saying your church can't meet in a building. But everybody

6 6 8/13/2008 1:34 PM knows that the church is not a building. And yet we call the church, we say, "There's a sanctuary." I thought God didn't dwell in temples made with hands. (inserted - actual verses - "However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? says the Lord. Or where will My resting place be? Has not My hand made all these things?'" Acts 7:48-50) Because I thought that His Spirit fellowships with the human spirit. And that's holy ground!if it is really true that the church is comprised of people, how is it that we could call any room constructed by a human hand, a "sanctuary"? What is the basis of it? How is it suddenly that yellow carpet and a wooden pulpit is suddenly transforming of the area into "holy ground"? And we don't think we have idols? [chuckle] The only thing that makes void the law of God is the traditions of men. We're constantly trying to fit a holy thing into the permissable conveniences that God allows us. So God permits us a convenience at times of having a building and then we transform the building into the thing itself, the holy thing. And in the process, we walk away and turn our backs upon the truth. So we see the church then within the context of these trappings and we use the trappings to entrap the freedom of the bride of Christ including the women. Neither Male Nor Female When we do that, I want you to know, when we do that, we not only impinge upon the lawful freedom of the children of God who happen to be female, we also limit our own freedoms as the children of God who happen to be males. Because we do not allow ourselves to experience the fullness of the freedom of the bride of Christ under the Lordship of the Head who is Christ.If my view is correct, that the Christian woman is a type of the church, how is it then that we are not limiting and restricting ourselves as men to the same strictures that we place upon women? How? If we are the bride, and in the eyes of the Lord, we are a woman, how is that we do not accept for ourselves, as men, the same restrictions that we demand of the woman? Or is that we think that it's a male thing? Because we are men, we have certain lofty exalted positions, vis-a-vis the women.i want to tell you something about God. As we relate to the Father, there is neither male nor female. (inserted - actual verse - "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3:28) The only purpose that I can find in the Scriptures, vis-a-vis the purposes of God for which the woman was created as a woman, in the New Testament, is that she models for us what we should be in relationship to our Husband who is Christ. Otherwise, as she stands before the Father, she is neither male nor female. It's only as she stands in relationship to male, to humans, that it's an appropriate designation of male and female. And once we understand - and that serves the purposes of procreation and those sorts of things - but once we understand that vi s-a-vis God, His gift to us of the Christian woman, is a living allegory of the church. Then whatever the woman, the church, is able to do under the covering of the Head, the woman, the physical woman is able to do under the lawful covering, principally of her husband.see, we don't, we don't really get it. We are living today in a great type. The fullness of the type will be realized at the time the bride is caught up to be with the Bridegroom. How are we to keep that in front of us, day by day? The relationship of the husband and the wife has been given to us.

7 7 8/13/2008 1:34 PM Covenant With God I want to digress here for a moment and come back. I want to do a segue and then come back. The importance of understanding the marriage relationship between Christ and the church is directly at the heart of understanding how it is that we have a relationship with the Father. So this is no small matter. I know that there's a great deal of teaching on covenant in the body of Christ today. And men are always wanting to cut covenants with other men so that - humans wanting to cut covenants with other humans - so that we could have a very special relationship within the relationship of Christ and the church. I want you to understand something about covenant.god has never entered a covenant with a man, with a human being. Now, since you may have already concluded that this guy, "I, you know, I just don't know about him," then hold on, hold on. Walk with me through it. Hear what I'm saying. In your mind you're already saying, "I know that's not right because there was a covenant with Abraham and there's a New Testament covenant." Well, hear what I'm saying. God did not enter a covenant in which He required anything of Abraham. God entered into a covenant with Himself because God's interest was in having children. He qualified Abraham for something called being a "third-party beneficiary" as the one through whom He would keep His covenant with Himself.What was the purpose and point of God's covenant? He said, God said, "I intend to make of you, Abraham, a great nation and in your seed I will bless all the nations of the world." (inserted - actual verse - "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." Gen. 12:2-3) Why? Because in the end of it all, God wanted sons. That's why He raised up the first of His sons, Adam. The Bible says, "And Adam was the son of God" (inserted - see Lk. 3:38) From the dust of the planet that God had recently made, He formed and fashioned with His own hands a being that He called Adam. And He said, "Let Us make him in Our likeness, after Our own image." So in the image of God, God created Adam. (inserted - actual verses - "Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." Gen. 1:26-27)Why? Because Adam was a prototype, the first one, like a seed. The earth itself is like a seed in the inky blackness of space. From the dust of the seed, He raises up a seed within a seed to produce for God what He's after when it's all finished. When it's done, there won't be churches and covenants with people and all of that. When it's done, when the earth has come, when the world has come to an end, what God will have is His family, His children. The Bible tells us that at the end of the millenium, when Christ has ruled and put all rule subject to Him, then He will hand up the kingdom to the Father and God will be all, in all. (inserted - actual verses - "Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He has put everything under His feet.' Now when it says that everything' has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include God Himself, who put everything under Christ. When He has done

8 8 8/13/2008 1:34 PM this, then the Son Himself will be made subject to Him who put everything under Him, so that God may be all in all." 1 Cor. 15:24-28)That's the purpose. You know what someone is after in the beginning when you look at what the result is. When it's gone through all of its processes, where it ends up is where He intended that it should end up. So it tells us clearly what His intention was before He started it all - or as He started it all. God's purpose in the whole thing was to have children. Do you suppose that for one moment God would rely upon the integrity of Abraham to have this result? God tells us not to lean to or trust in the arm of flesh. (inserted - actual verse - "This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD.'" Jer. 17:5) Do you think that He would ignore His own advice?which man? Which man is capable of faithfully producing and keeping a covenant with God? No, that wasn't it. God swore on an oath to Himself because there was none greater than Himself and He confirmed the oath. (inserted - actual verse - "When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.'" Heb. 6:13-14) He confirmed His covenant by the integrity of His person. That's the only basis upon which He could form a covenant and so He qualified Abraham to see whether or not Abraham was worthy to be the beneficiary of the agreement that God made with Himself concerning having His own children.so that's why He had Abraham sacrifice Abraham's own future. Because at his age, this was all he had coming. This was the son of the promise and He asked him to give the son of His promise to Him. So in a sense, Abraham was cut off from his own lineage because in his heart he was willing to kill his son. Because of that, God elected that this would be the seed throu gh whom God would fulfill His promise to God. That's why Abraham had the benefit of God's covenant with God. (inserted - see Gen. 22:1-18) The New Covenant And the New Covenant, that truth is all the more apparent because the book of Hebrews, the 9th chapter tells us, "That God entered once into the holy place to offer Himself as a sacrifice to God." (inserted - actual verses - "He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Heb. 9:12,14,26) That's the New Covenant. God and God. And out of this covenant, out of this covenant, there comes the third-party beneficiaries. Those who benefit from the covenant without being either the party of the first part or the party of the second part.it's like this. When you have a marriage, the marriage is not between you and your children. The marriage is between you and your spouse. Many families, failing to recognize that this is the truth, have lived for their children, to their substantial regret. It is not appropriate for the children of a family to b e treated as part of the covenant of marriage. The covenant of marriage is between the two spouses, the husband and the wife. The

9 9 8/13/2008 1:34 PM children are the third-party beneficiaries of something they had no say in. They benefit by virtue of the covenant between the two. Let me explain to you how this works between the Father and the Son.The covenant exists between the Father and the Son and because the Son was obedient even to death on a cross, the Father highly exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name. (inserted - actual verses - "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phlp. 2:6-11) That is His inheritance. It is not that the Son has the large bulk of the estate and the rest of the sons of God have small apportionments of that estate. In other words, it is not that the Father decided to give to the Son most of the authority. The Father gave to the Son all authority. If He gave to the Son all authority, how come we share in His inheritance? Now there's a covenant. And this one is called the covenant of marriage - between the Son and the bride.because of the covenant of marriage between the Son and the bride, the Father has chosen to accept the bride because she is in the One He loves. Two Scriptures come to mind. First, "No man comes to the Father but by Me!" (inserted - see Jn. 14:6) Because we do not have a lawful right of entry into the presence of the Most High apart from the One through whose flesh we come by this new and living way (inserted - actual verse - "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water." Heb. 10:19-22) Accepted In the Beloved The second thing that is true is He is the Beloved and you are accepted in the Beloved (inserted - actual verse - "...to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved." Eph. 1:6 NKJV) Why do you think He told the story about how, Jesus told the story about how a certain king was making a wedding feast for his son? (inserted - see Mt. 22:1-14) And the one story about how he issued these wedding garments because, well he had first issued an invitation to his best friends, his invited guests, and they had all sorts of things they were doing. One had bought some land he had never seen. Another had bought some oxen that he had never tried. And so on. Well, you know, to people like that you could sell land and oxen anywhere. Of course, they were just making convenient excuses. So he sent out into the highways and the hedges to find as many as might be found and they were told, "Come in, come in. Those who were invited were not worthy - so bring in the street people, bring in the ones under the bridges." And as they came in, he gave them a wedding garment and they were invited to sit at the table of the feast prepared for the Lamb. (inserted -

10 10 8/13/2008 1:34 PM also see Lk. 14:16-24)I read in the Revelation, the 19th chapter, that the wedding of the Lamb has come and the bride has made herself ready. Bright garments, white and clean were given to her to wear and we're told, as an aside, these garments stand for the righteous acts of the saints. (inserted - actual verse - " 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 her to wear.' (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, Write: "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!"' And he added, These are the true words of God.'" Rev. 19:7-9)So the Father prepares the feast for the Son because the Son is the One whom He loves. And because this is the One whom the Son loves, if you kiss the Son, you will live. (inserted - actual verse - "Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him." Psa. 2:12) Hallelujah! [laughter]yes, men! Kiss the Son! [laughter] And there's nothing homosexual about that - because you are a woman when you do. You're a woman when you do. You understand now the significance of the role of women? In short, we have no access to the Father apart from the relationship of a bride - the bride of the Lamb. The Father will not recognize a relationship between you and Him apart from the Son He loves. He will not. "No man comes to the Father but by Me" because He is the way, the truth and the life. (inserted - actual verse - "Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" Jn. 14:6) The life of God is in Christ. That is why He gives us His Spirit to transform us into street people, from street people into residents of the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit works a work that transforms us because the Holy Spirit is, He operates in and He brings to us, and we're able to participate in the Spirit of the Bridegroom. The Spirit of the Bridegroom has been put in our hearts to cause us to love our Husband, the Lord.And what I was feeling, as a man, sitting on the front pew of this particular church, I had the feelings of a bride. And they were new to me because I wanted to look in His wonderful face. [chuckle] Glory to God! Folks, you ought to see the women in this audience! [laughter] Talk about rapture! The men are still kind of, you know, it's a little bit, it's a little bit harder on the men. But the women, the women understand this! The women understand this.you see, we do not have a covenant between the Father and ourselves. It would negate the validity and the place of the Son. What would be the role of the Son if you could have a covenant with the Father apart from Him? What is all this about being "in Christ"? Why not accept the fact that He just died as a Savior, move Him out of the way and it's the Father and us? Why is the Scriptures about "if any man be in Christ he is a new creation," that He has been reconciling the world to Himself in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5. (inserted - actual verses - "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation." 2 Cor. 5:17-19) What's this "in Christ"? It means that there is a relationship that the Father recognizes with His Son, and whomever the Son loves is accepted in the house of the Father.And the Father says, "I will spread out a banquet the likes of which has never been seen when the day that My Son's bride is joined with Him forever in the courts of heaven. "Because," He says, "The Son has met with My approval. I can trust Him to bring home a bride that is

11 11 8/13/2008 1:34 PM acceptable to Me." That's what it means when it says, "Although He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things that He suffered" and "being made humble even to death on a cross, God exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord." (inserted - actual verses - "Although He was a son, He learned obedience from what He suffered..." Heb. 5:8; "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phlp. 2:8-11) The Father cannot recognize anyone apart from the Son. He cannot, because He gave all authority to the Son. Christ Has All the Father's Reward Now you need to see, in the church, it is not that God has, that Jesus has the lion's share of the Father's reward. It is that He has all of the Father's reward. Now, this is easy to understand really, if you think about it in the context of marriage. My wife, being married to me, has total access to everything that I have or that I am because we're one. She often reminds me of that, by the way. [laughter] I was getting too serious here. Alright.If we're one, then whatever I am, she is. Whatever I have is hers. You see? We do not have a portion of the Lord's estate; we have all of it. In Him are all the riches of His grace. I think that's a pretty good deal for a woman, if you ask me. And all of the riches of His grace. (inserted - actual verses - "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Eph. 2:6-7) That's not a bad inheritance for the bride. Isn't it awesome? Not bad for the bride. She did alright. [laughter] She did alright - by His grace, by His grace. And I found that there was this thing stirring in me that I wanted, I longed for, my Husband the Lord. Demonstrating Submission When I see and understand how my wife defers to me, I now don't see it as her weakness. I learn something. Let me tell you about my wife a little bit. Lucy and I have been married for, this May, will be 19 years. We started out fairly young. She knows me. She knows how I think. She understands what moves me. If she approaches me from the standpoint of an argument, she knows that she probably won't get very far. Early in our marriage, I was attending law school and, as any unitiated young law student, I was being somewhat impressed by all this process of legal education. So I found one day that I was saying to her, I was beginning conversations with her with such expressions as, "Isn't it true..." [Laughter] She said to me, she said, "I want to tell you something. I knew you before you started all this." And she said, "I don't appreciate being cross examined." [laughter]but over the years, she and I have grown together, and the respect that she

12 12 8/13/2008 1:34 PM shows to me pays off abundantly in the harmony and peace that we enjoy. She will come to me now and she will say, "Well, Sam, I've thought about this particular project or this particular thing," and she would say, "This is what I think but I recognize that the decision is yours. I'm leaving it with you. Do whatever you think." You know what I do? Most of the time, I do exactly what she tells me that she thought. Because when I weigh it - we, sometimes I do it a different way - but if it pleased her, if that way pleased her, it's no big deal. I'm glad to show her my affection.but if she came in and threw the things down and said, "This is the way we're going to do it," I would probably come up with ten other ways to do it - and insist on nine of them and not hers. Women know something about, women know something about how to approach a man. Men don't. They want to arm wrestle you. Most decisions, you know, "Oh, man, you know..." And they want to go head to head with you and hammer things out. There's no particular joy - there's very little there by way of building relationships. But a woman knows how to approach a man. A godly woman knows how to approach a godly husband.that's where we learn how to approach our Husband, the Lord, with all deference and respect that is due to Him. And if He chooses not to agree with us, if we come deferentially to Him, He will explain why He's doing it differently. Because I know that. Because He says, "I will not despise, I will not despise a broken and a contrite heart." (inserted - actual verse - "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psa. 51:17) [chuckle] The Lord says, "I won't despise you when you come broken and contrite. I won't put you away." When my wife approaches me with an attitude of humility, I never reject her. I always see how I can bless her. If I see it, if I'm foolish enough to see her deference to me that God gave her to teach me, if I'm foolish enough to think of that as weakness, then I missed the whole point. Now because the Lord has shown me, when I see her approach me in that way, the Lord will quicken in my heart, "I want you to notice this. You haven't been so humble. You've been trying to persuade me of what you want. And I'm likely to resist you. I can think of ten different ways to do it - and not one of them would be yours." Be Ready Hallelujah. We're coming to the end of the hour and I want to wind it up with this: In the book of Matthew, chapter 25, there's a story about the husband coming for the bride. And it says simply, "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out: Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.' No,' they replied, there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.' But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. Sir! Sir!' they said.

13 13 8/13/2008 1:34 PM Open the door for us!' But he replied, I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'" (inserted - Mt. 25:1-12)This is the season when the Bridegroom is announcing, by His Spirit, His return. And the bride is awakening, men and women are awakening to feelings of longing for the return of our Husband, the Lord. And that's what I was experiencing. So the Lord began to, the Lord has begun to work in my heart the feelings of a bride for the Bridegroom. I urge you now, those of you who are listening, both in the studio audience and on television, I urge you to recognize that the Holy Spirit is preparing the bride for the advent of the Bridegroom. One of the ways of preparation is to receive the role of the woman, acknowledge that in this story, you are the woman if you belong to the Lord. Let the Christian women instruct the men concerning the relevance of this great mystery. It's not primarily about husbands and wives. It is primarily about Christ and the church revealed in the relationship of husbands and wives. Glory to God!I appreciate this opportunity to speak with you. May the Lord richly bless you. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Amen. Hallelulujah.