The Church The Body & Bride of Christ

Actually, 12 more chapters after this in the book. This is the last chapter in this page. This is chapter 40. The title of this chapter is The Church, the Body, and the Bride of Christ and Her Reward. If you looked at the chapter, actually Hal covered last week, he actually covered the Body of Christ. I'm not going to repeat that again. After looking at the chapter, I felt that it would be better to kind of look at the seven figures or seven pictures of the church.

And actually, I'm not going to talk about rewards at the very end of the chapter. So we'll pretty well cover most of the chapter except for the body. And the rewards, we're just not going to be able to have time to cover. And there were some things in there I didn't, you know, Helen and I kind of looked at and we weren't really sure. So we decided not to touch that for now.

So, okay, without looking at your handouts, If you have a chance to look at the chapter at all, he talks about seven figures or pictures of Christ and his church. Can you just name a few without looking? No further looking at your pages, just off the top of your head. Tell me a few of them that come to your mind. Some of them are pretty familiar. I was struck by the intimacy of these figures or pictures of Christ and his church.

Harry? I read the chapter, but I don't remember. Go ahead, somebody. Crystal? There's the shepherd and the sheep. The shepherd and the sheep, right? Good. Keep going. The bridegroom and the bride. Good, okay, that's three. Boy, you're doing good, Crystal. You're going to get a star. What kind of star would you like? Boy, hey. Okay, good. Okay, great. Anybody else can remember any of the other ones? She's got all the easy ones. Anyway, okay, well, I won't belabor it too long here. Let's just, okay, I'll show you all seven here. Okay, so basically, as Crystal points out, the shepherd and the sheep, the vine and the branches. One really interesting one, the cornerstone and the stones of the building.

That one really fascinated me, and we're going to look at that in some detail. The high priest and the kingdom of priests. And Hal covered really great last week, the head, Christ being the head and the body with many members. That was covered in the last chapter. And then we have a really interesting one, The Resurrected Christ, the last Adam, and the new creation. That's a wonderful picture of our intimacy with the Resurrected Christ. And then the Bridegroom and the Bride. So those are the seven ones.

Actually, I'm only going to cover six, and maybe, depending upon how we did one last week, we'll see if we can get all of them in here. It's going to be a challenge here, I think. Actually, what I found as I started going through these, I found that I wanted to stop and dive in more in some parts. And actually, he uses the word figure, and when I was asking Bonnie to look in the dictionary, figure, and it's used in a variety of ways, but it's really a picture, kind of like a mental picture you have in your mind of the Church and the Word of Jesus.

OK. OK. The Shepherd and the Sheep. I apologize, I couldn't exactly find the picture I want. I went out on the web and I couldn't find it. I wanted to find a sheep fold, but I couldn't. That was tough. So this is not exactly what I was looking for. But anyway, there's a shepherd and a sheep, or two shepherds and a sheep. Yeah, so anyway.

What's interesting is that the picture of the shepherd and the sheep is not only in the New Testament. There's a picture in the Old Testament of that too. I thought, well, you know, I'm looking here, we're looking here at the church, but there is a picture in the Old Testament of Israel being called the sheep of his pasture. I thought it would just be interesting just to look at this briefly, look at the middle passage, Psalm 95, just to look at that quickly.

Because as we're going to see, you know, In the eternal state, there's only one flock and one shepherd in the eternal state. But right now, there are several foals, if you will. And we'll get into that in a second. Psalm 95. If I could have someone read verses 6 and 7 in Psalm 95. Harry? Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you would hear his voice... It goes into another idea. That's fine, Harry. That's fine. I noticed that, too, when I picked that up. It starts into another idea, but that's okay.

So, basically, we're the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand, We are his people. All this personal relationship. Israel was the apple of his eye. And this idea of the sheep and the shepherd is there. And also in Jeremiah, where he calls them my sheep, the sheep of my pasture. So a very personal relationship, the Lord is pictured in the shepherd and the sheep.

When we move to the New Testament, we see an interesting thing occur in the Gospel. In the Gospel of John, in John 10, let's just turn to that. And look at that briefly, John 10. And in John 10, if you look through that, I have verses 14 through 16. And I'll just go ahead and read that, even though I have it outlined here. Let me just read it, 14 through 16.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the father knows me, I know the father. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they shall hear my voice, and they shall become one flock with one shepherd. Well, I think in this passage we kind of see God's desire for You know, eternity, his desire is to have one flock and one shepherd. And I'm kind of curious, there's a little, and I've kind of tried to point out, there's a little confusion between the word fold and the word flock. The newer translations will translate in verse 16, flock, but the King James, I know, has fold.

And I was curious about the NIV. It says sheep what? Sheep pen, okay. Well, they're actually different words, and that's one of the things, as I went through looking at this, that the word for fold, and some will have a little note in the King James that says it's not the best translation. So if you have a King James, you might want to mark that second where it says fold. It's better translated flock.

And that's kind of important because we're going to see that in this passage, kind of think about it here. Who's he talking to in this passage? Who's hanging out with him here in this passage, so to speak? If you look at the context, right? If you look at the context of this passage in John 10, it takes a little while to go back and say, well, who's he talking to here?

You know, you have to go back almost to chapter 9. Back in chapter 9, in verse 2, it says, and his disciples asked him, they were questioning him. And you think, well, may our disciples still hanging out there with him? And then if you go on through chapter 10, you'll see that eventually, Here in 10, like 1019, right after he gave this dialogue or this parable, they said there arose a division against him among the Jews. So it seems like maybe there were Jews. I mean, there were, you know, they all were Jews, but there were his disciples, those who believed in him, were around, plus others.

So he's telling them about the shepherd and the sheep. He's telling the story. So actually, And they talked about these other sheep. And these other sheep seem strongly to refer to the fact of, and we're going to see some passages that talk about other sheep, others that will come to know him.

And he makes very definite statements. He says, I must bring them also that they will hear my voice. It's not like they may hear my voice. They're definitely, in his plan and his purpose, they're going to hear his voice. That's God's plan and his purpose, that these other sheep will hear his voice.

But he's talking Some have called this fold here the Jewish fold, if you will. He says, I have this fold, but I want to have one flock. I hope I'm not confusing you here. There's flocks and there's folds. The flock is the entire group of folds, multiple folds. Primarily Israel and the church in this passage.

And actually here he says, back up in, I am the good shepherd. And it's kind of neat, looking at that, he is good because God is good. He's good in his very essence. And he said this wonderful, I know my own and my own know me. Once again, this is kind of portraying this intimate relationship. I know my experience, that know of experience. I know them and they know me. They know each other.

Let's see here. And he says, I lay down my life for the sheep, and we've covered this in previous times. The idea of four is on behalf of, instead of the sheep. He lays down his life, he's protecting the sheep, he's guarding the sheep, and then he goes into the other sheep and out of his fold. Let's just look at a verse here about where it says, I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice.

Let's look at Acts for a second here. Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28. I get someone to read in Acts 28 verses 26, 27 and 28. Actually, 26 kind of starts a little bit in the middle of the sentence, but I want to kind of capture the majority of it. 26, 27 and 28.

Yeah, go ahead, thanks. I take any willing victims I take. Okay. Yes, thank you. Yeah, I thought that's a pretty tremendous statement in verse 28. He says, you know, he's telling, he's telling, you know, primarily Jewish people, it seems like, let it be known to you, therefore, that the, that the salvation of God has been sent out to the Gentiles. They will also listen. It's not like they may listen. It's very emphatic. They're going to listen.

And I think it fits in very well with, I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd. And that's the picture in the eternal state. There's one flock and one shepherd, even though they're composed of foals. If you think about, like Hal has this picture of the church and Israel and the nations, even though they're different foals, but they're one flock. worshipping one saviour, one shepherd. So I thought that's a really neat picture. And just, you know, if you look at the words, the word for fold is an enclosure in the open. It's totally different. A flock is translated flock.

And like in Luke there, it talks about the shepherds tending their flocks. when the Lord came, that's the same word. If you look in the Luke account, the word for flock down here is the same word. So anyway, any questions about this? So we have the shepherd and the sheep, and with the church in view here is this other flock. Go ahead, I'm sorry. There's one word more referring to it. Okay.

That's, the flock refers, the flock is a group of sheep, basically. It's a flock of, in fact, actually it's, I think in most contexts, it's a flock of sheep. The fold is referring to a barrier or an enclosure, a fence or whatever. It's more, it's describing something that you put sheep into or house the thing. So they're referring to different kinds of things.

So it's very confusing when, If you render the last one and they will become one fold, that's when you think, well, wait a minute. One flock is a body of people that the Lord has saved by his grace, consisting of foals, if you will. I'm getting some strange looks here. I'm sorry, go ahead, you had a question too. Okay. The way I saw it, looking at the words, fold is, he says, I have other sheep which are not of this fold, this open enclosure. We have this enclosure. And he has other sheep that are not of this fold.

And he said, I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. And look back at that Acts passages, that's talking about the Gentiles. So there's another fold out there. And then at the end he kind of sums it all up. He says, and they will become one flock with one shepherd. And so I saw that as as the internal state, when Israel, the church, and the nations are all there together. There's one flock with one shepherd.

I don't know, is that? And you were looking at it on the flip side, the fold. Well, I'm not totally with you. I guess, I don't know if I read something in the chapter about that. Okay well I think you know depending upon and it's back to which word you use you know if you use the King James you're going to you're going to call that word fold so and that makes it you'd say well there's many folds and there's one giant fold I don't I mean okay Well, now there's another issue, and you're absolutely right. The church is composed of Jew and Gentile, and that's kind of another issue. In this passage, I saw, since he's talking to the Jews right there, there's this fold, which is Jewish entirely. And he says there's another fold, which is different, but will all become one flock. But what you're saying is that other fold is composed of Jews and Gentiles, and I think that scripture... Well, you said that it was going to bring... OK. Right. OK. OK.

I would I would just say it's part of this flock, flock being as what the what word do you use? If you use fold in both places, you're going to say, well, you know, that folds become part of that fold. I haven't thought of it. Yeah. I think that's how I saw it, that's how I saw it more than that light, but I think in this case he's referring to Israel being one fold and then the other fold is the Gentiles, which is, that's another fold, but they're together a one flock. Just like you have many members but one body, a very similar kind of thing. You had a question. enclosure for sheep. Yeah. OK. But the enclosure. I think I totally failed here. I'm probably nitpicking here anyway.

The fold is a fold to contain sheep. But is that word in the passage or not? The word fold is definitely there. I mean, look in your whatever Bible you have. Fold is there, right? Well, so which one are you saying isn't fold? Okay. Isn't he saying that one of them isn't?

If you have the King James translation, the word fold, this word would be fold in the King James. That's what I'm saying. And that's probably... So, is this equivalent of the word fold? And in the King James, it says one fold. So the thing is, if you don't have a King James, I can see why I totally confused you. In verse 16, it's rendered fold.

Well, this is the Lord saying, right? He says, you know, there's this fold, but He says, I see what you're saying, but the Lord is over all the folds, right? It seems that there is somewhat of a prophetic nature to this passage because he is speaking to a Jewish man. Exactly.

But he is talking about, I mean if you go up to 18 it says, and I lay down my life for the sheep and you jump to 18 and it says, But I lay it down in my initiative. I have authority to lay it down. I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from my father.

The Jewish people, I mean, at this point, you know, this is under the, you know, this is the 32nd, look at the page. There may be an element of what I think Anne Marie's getting at, which is there may also be a prophetic idea of, yes, there is going to be, you know, here's your faction. I'm going to there are there's this other block out here, you know, you know, so I can understand what I'm saying. But there's a broader. Well, in the interest of time, we better move on. We'll never get to the rest of them. That's really great. No, it's really good.

Hopefully I, you know, If you have a King James, look at your King James when you get home, and just observe that the second one is rendered full. And that's why I kind of got off on that, maybe too much time doing that. Actually, this one here, I think I may just read through. We've been through this before, the vine and the branches. It's just beautiful. It's a beautiful passage. And it's another picture of the, let's see, a picture here. You know, the branches and the vine. The vines are hung up above the ground. Anyway, I am the true vine. My father is a vine dresser. It's all this intimate relationship. Actually, if you don't mind, I'm just going to go on to the next one because we'll never quite make it here. But we've talked about this before. It's a beautiful picture. And I just want something to observe. We always have to be connected to the vine to produce anything of value to the Lord. Apart from me, you can do nothing. He who abides in me bears much fruit. Connected to the vine, we can produce a fruit that will glorify God.

That's kind of the bottom line. So I'm just going to kind of zoom through that one. So let's go on. This is one of my favorite ones right here. I like, OK, I tried to, and I found this little neat picture of a foundation here. You can't quite get it all on there, the foundation on there. There we go. OK. All right, so the picture here is the cornerstone and the stones of the building.

So, you know, if you look up cornerstone, the dictionary cornerstone is a stone that was that typically is used to initiate the start of a building. And sometimes they'll inscribe, they'll inscribe on this date, we built the Empire State Building or whatever it is from a building point of view. And I found actually in this in this context and here again, we get into different translations and different views. The King James rendered many times the word chief, the chief cornerstone.

And actually it has the idea that this stone here not only was at the starting point, but it was a special stone that had additional strength to give stability to the entire building. So it had the added idea, and that was kind of neat when I came across that, that it was chosen to give additional strength to the building. It was the initial point of the building, so it kind of fits better even with the idea that the Lord Jesus is our cornerstone.

And in 1 Corinthians 3.11, it says, no man can lay a foundation other than Jesus Christ. So you can't lay a foundation, and actually the idea is you can't lay a foundation, you can't come alongside the Lord Jesus and say, well, I'm going to get close to the Lord, and I'm going to lay a foundation kind of right next to it. No, it says that the foundation must rest It must be in Christ, in essence. And we kind of know that from the rest of Scripture. The foundation is in Christ. It's not next to Christ, around Christ, I'm acquainted with Christ, I sort of like Christ, He's a wonderful man. No, it's none of that.

It's built in confidence that He is the only true foundation that man can lay. And then it goes on to say that Christ is a precious cornerstone. The idea of precious is... It's actually the idea of choice and precious. a choice and precious and highly valued and highly honored cornerstone. And then what's neat is the whole building built upon this precious foundation stone that we can't build beside around, it has to be in him, on him. Each stone in the building is a living stone and it's intimately involved with this cornerstone. And so let's look here for a second at 1 Peter. First Peter Chapter 2. First Peter Chapter 2. And I guess I wanted to read verses 4 through 6 in First Peter Chapter 2.

And coming to Him as to a living stone rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone. and he who believes in him shall not be disappointed. So this passage, you know, I kind of have it kind of, you know, you are living stones, you're being built up as a spiritual household for a holy priesthood, and this kind of looks forward to the one we're going to get to later on about the high priest and the collection of priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And the whole structure is this habitation or this of God.

And that's talked about in Ephesians chapter 2. So let's just look at that quickly as well. Ephesians chapter 2. And I'll just go ahead and read this one, starting in verse 19. It says, Ephesians 2, 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of the household of God, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built up together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. So there's this wonderful picture of the stones being built together, built on the cornerstone. And in verse 20, I think it's just really neat. And this is where, does someone have, let's see, Marilyn, I hate to pick on you, sorry.

Could you read your verse 20 for us, Ephesians 2.20? Okay, I know it's probably there somewhere.

Okay, what's interesting, I don't know why, New American Standard just has the cornerstone, doesn't have chief, but that word chief seems to be pretty, you know, that's the idea of this special stone that has additional strength to give strength to both the walls. That word chief seems to be important, from what I can tell.

It does mean that it's a special cornerstone, different than other corners. I guess there's, you know, I don't know enough about cornerstones. But anyway, this is a picture where I mentioned this before, the chief cornerstone. So across different translations, it's rendered differently. Chief cornerstone seems to be better, from what I can tell. It indicates it's a special kind of stone.

I don't know. David? Well, actually, it's the same word. Yeah. Yeah. OK. You're asking me that what you saw in the first in the first Peter verse, it had it was the word. Yeah. Well, I had noticed that it was just one word in other places that had like two words. And that confused me a little bit. And I'm not sure I can resolve that. Didn't do that.

Right. Yeah. But it's funny when you go and look that word up, it renders it chief. It talks about this special stone, though. And I don't know. Yeah. You look in the combines, for example, say this is a special stone that has additional properties. And so I was confused about that, too. So I'm sorry I can't resolve that. But anyway. It seems that the original word does have this idea of this additional special cornerstone. OK. Other thoughts on cornerstones and buildings? OK. All right. Now, OK.

I have a special treat for you here, all the way from Amsterdam. When Vine and I, we had the privilege of living in England for five years, and we got a chance to visit a Bible museum in Amsterdam. And in this museum they have, it's not very impressive, you walk in, it's just these little figures on tables, you walk around, maybe it's the size of this room, a little bit bigger than this room, and they'll have little figurines and pictures of different biblical characters, mostly Old Testament. And so I wanted to show you a picture, and this wasn't taken when I was there, and it didn't scan in as well as I'd like it to, but I thought it fit well with the next one here, or a topic of conversation.

One of the figures here. Can someone tell me what this is? What this is trying to portray? This is the caption below it. This is out of a book I had. This is a picture of Aaron, the chief priest with the 12 stones for the tribes of Israel. He has his rod, his rod that butted, I guess. Here's all the pomegranates and bells on his tunic there. He has the turban on top.

If you go and look at it, they try to look at scripture and build this little model. So, my question for you is, we're talking about, the next section is on the high priest and the kingdom of priest. Is this the kind of picture we're looking to, I mean, is this the right priesthood? Is this the priesthood that when we talk about the Lord Jesus being the chief, the high priest, is this what it's talking about? Or is it talking about a different priesthood? Okay, you get a second gold star. Right. This is what's called the Aaronic or Aaron's priesthood. Scripture talks about it was Aaron's family, the priestly line.

Well, then this person Melchizedek in the Old Testament comes on the scene and his name literally means the King of Righteousness. And he kind of comes and he goes. He has no earthly ties and people give gifts to him. And so it says the Lord Jesus, as we're going to see here. So this is the Aaronic priesthood. This is what a priest in the Old Testament looked like. And a lot of significance to all the clothing he's wearing.

But the Lord Jesus is a different priesthood. He's our high priest, but he's from this line of Melchizedek. It says, so also Christ did not glorify himself to become our high priest. He was designated or called out by God as high priest according to the order, not of Aaron, but of Melchizedek. This person that seemed to have no beginning, no end, just comes on the scene in the Old Testament and then departs. So his order is the Order of Melchizedek, which is an eternal order.

And the Lord Jesus is our high priest who is interceding for us. He passed through, it says here, since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Aaron went into the holy place here on this earth, right? He went into the tabernacle. out in the wilderness. But Christ didn't enter the one made with hands. He entered heaven itself to appear before God.

So there's a contrast. And actually, we could spend a lot of time on this. You could go through and look at the Aaronic priesthood and the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, and there's parallels across that whole line of the high priest in the Old Testament picture and the Lord Jesus. But it's a different priesthood, a different line, Melchizedek.

And then every believer The entire body of Christ is a priest unto God. And it says you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. He's made us a kingdom of priests to God and to his God and Father. Then last two I just talked about some of the things that believers do as priests to God. We present our bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And then we say, Through him, through Christ, we continually offer up the sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.

So there's this wonderful picture of Christ being our high priest, of this eternal priesthood, and the believers being believer priests, exercising their spiritual service of worship. And actually, you can go in, in Hebrews there, and you can look, it says that Christ, this Melchizedek priesthood, is superior to Aaron's priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood. So that's that picture of Christ as our high priest and every believer as a believer priest.

Okay. Questions on this one? Now this one I wish I had drawn a picture for. In this picture or figure, we kind of come to the two kinds of men in this universe. We have Adam and we have Christ and there are two heads. And what's in view here is the Lord Jesus, who's called the last Adam. He's called the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15. And also called the second man. But it's this comparison between Christ and the new creation. Those who are now in him, they're believers.

So it talks about, in 1 Corinthians, it talks about the fact that the first man, Adam, with a living soul. So if you were to write, if you write Adam, you would write here, you'd say Adam, he's the first man Adam, he's a living soul, but the Lord Jesus, the second Adam, he's a life-giving spirit. Adam is from the earth, Christ is from heaven. So you could create a table or a column of information about Adam and about Christ. Man is either in Adam or he's in Christ. You can't even do that. There's no other place you can be. You're either in Adam or in Christ.

So this picture is talking about those who are in Christ. The body of believers are in Christ. So this whole picture, this whole section is talking about that. Now, these wonderful verses here about all believers are a new creation in Christ. And this one in particular is just really... I started looking at that and it just has so many neat things that...

In 2 Corinthians 5.17, the first bullet on that, under all believers, it says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.

What's kind of neat is that that word new, there are two different words for new. I think Hal's pointed this out many times, that two different words for new. One is new in time, like you might have the, I have the newest Oldsmobile or newest Eclipse or whatever, like Ryan likes. But this word is new in quality. It's, in fact, actually some have rendered it fresh. It's a whole new start.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature or a new creation. Old things have passed away. And it says, old things have passed away. It's talking about the fact that it's actually have come to an end. It's not like they've been, that they've ended their usefulness. You're now a new creation in Christ. New things are in view. Behold, new things have come. So old things have passed away, have come to an end. New things have become.

And these new things are all these wonderful blessings that we have in the Lord Jesus, that we've We come into this wonderful relationship with Him. We're now in Him. We're now baptized, as the next one says. We've been immersed into Him. For all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus, have clothed yourself with Christ, for you're all one in Christ. So in this picture, we have Christ and the believer as one. They're in union with one another. And that's a picture that's in view.

And it says that we are His workmanship, or His handiwork. So once again, any good works that happen come out of this relationship with Christ, because we're creating Christ Jesus for good works, and because of that, we can produce good works. And it says, and this is kind of referring, looking ahead here, so that he himself might take the two, if you read the context there, it's the Jew and the Gentile, into one new man, or actually one new person. All the new's in this passage, the new here, this new and that new and this new, they're all the same new in quality, are fresh. It's a fresh start, a brand new start. None of the old is in view. So we're one new man.

And that word created, created in Christ Jesus, it's founding upon our It's almost like the foundation idea again. It's founded in Christ, not exterior, founded in Christ upon a union with Christ. So this wonderful picture is that we have the last Adam as being in union with this people that have been bought out for him, that have been created in him, have been born from above. So I thought this was a particularly neat one.

And it's this contrast between, are you an Adam or are you in Christ? Okay. Okay. Then lastly, we have the bridegroom and the bride. And this first passage here in John, this is John the Baptist speaking, and he's observing the Lord Jesus, and people ask him, are you the one, are you the Christ that we expect? And he says, no. He says, I'm not. I'm not the Christ. He says, I've been sent before him.

And then he says, he who has a bride, referring to Christ, is a bridegroom. Christ is a bridegroom. And he's just a friend of the bridegroom. John the Baptist is a friend of the bridegroom. who stands and hears and rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. And then he says, so that this joy of mine may be made full. So he's looking forward.

And this is the first time, as I went through this, the first time that the idea of Christ as a bridegroom is mentioned. When John the Baptist mentions it, he mentions it looking forward to the time when the Lord Jesus will be the bridegroom. And then the bridegroom, the bride, is described in Ephesians there, talking about the church, I was thinking about how carefully, I see folks are familiar with Mary Poppins, this is a poor example, but anyway, Mary Poppins, what was Mary Poppins? She was out on the street, she was selling flowers, right?

Thank you. That's terrible. OK. OK. Well, what can I say? I don't know. You're right. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that's terrible. OK. Thank you. I don't know. Anyway. OK. So that's My Fair Lady, right? OK. We'll get there. Anyway, she was out selling flowers, right? She was not well-dressed. Her language was atrocious. speak the Queen's English.

So what is, what's his name? Help me here. Rex Harrison. Rex Harrison, yeah. He brings her in, right? And he basically, he makes her into the woman that he wanted, if you will. I mean, that's not exactly the story, but it's, so I'm just trying, it's kind of, it hit me here.

I said, look at this one, and the Lord has created in his church a bride that is suitable for him. I mean, like I said, it's a poor analogy there. But anyway, but the Lord, he sanctified her, he cleansed her, he washed her. He presented that he might present to himself a church in all her glory, having no spots or wrinkles. She would be holy and blameless. It just kind of struck me, the Lord. I mean, there was no bride suitable for the Lord. He had to create a bride that was suitable for him, if you will.

And that's us, that's us. And then in this wonderful picture, in Revelation about the married supper of the Lamb. Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. And His bride, once again, has been made ready. It was given to her to be clothed in the fine linens, and bright and clean. For the fine linens are the righteous acts of the saints.

And I was kind of thinking again, these righteous acts, they're not things that the saints kind of did on their own. They're His, as we saw in the previous picture, of His being in union with Him, those acts come out from our union with Him. So in all these pictures we see there can be no separation between the Savior and His Church. Anything the Church can do for Him, quote-unquote, has to come out from that union. Nothing can be added by the Church that has not come from the Savior.

Whoa. Okay. Any last thoughts? I'm not Mary Poppins. Okay. Anyway, let's close. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your word, Father. Thank you just for these wonderful pictures of who you are and the people that you called out for your own, the body of Christ, the Church, Lord. We thank you that you have provided and you've made us ready and fit Of ourselves, we're not ready. We don't belong in your presence, but you have found a way and provided your son to allow us to come to this wonderful relationship. We ask it in his name. Amen.