The Bride's Garment

Q: What does the Bible say about the bride of Christ?

The Bible describes the bride of Christ as being adorned with strength and honor, reflecting her being robed in the righteousness of Jesus. The bride of Christ is depicted in Proverbs 31:25, where it states 'Strength and honor are her clothing.' This symbolizes the spiritual adornment of believers, who are covered in the righteousness of Christ. Just as garments represent a person's identity, the attributes of strength and honor illustrate the grace bestowed upon the church. This concept extends back to the beginning of creation, when humanity was created in purity and without shame, later necessitating a covering due to sin, showing our need for Christ's righteousness.

Q: How do we know that believers are clothed in Christ's righteousness?

Believers are clothed in Christ's righteousness by God's grace, as they receive strength and honor that they did not earn. The scripture explicates that believers do not earn their clothing, which is strength and honor, but are gifted it by God. In James 1:17, every good and perfect gift is attributed to the Father of lights, affirming that believers receive their righteousness through the gospel of grace. It is not a result of personal merit; rather, it is God's pleasure to bestow this grace upon His chosen people. This gift, acting as a spiritual garment, illustrates the truth that our standing before God rests solely in Christ's work and not our own.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to understand their need for a covering?

Understanding our need for a covering emphasizes our dependence on Christ for righteousness and protection from judgment. The awareness of needing a covering originates from the fall when humanity recognized their nakedness and shame after sinning. As noted in Genesis, man attempted to cover his own shame with fig leaves, symbolizing humanity's futile efforts through false religion to attain righteousness. For Christians, recognizing that true covering – the righteousness of Christ – is essential underscores the necessity of faith and repentance. It reflects the believer's understanding that without Christ, there is no adequate protection from judgment, emphasizing the significance of faith in His completed work.

Q: What does it mean that the bride shall rejoice in time to come?

The bride will rejoice in future glory, understanding her righteousness in Christ and the complete atonement for her sins. The phrase 'she shall rejoice in time to come' signifies the eschatological joy and assurance believers will experience as they stand before God. This joy is rooted in the knowledge that Christ has paid the price for sin, granting them eternal life and security in Him. The laughter referenced denotes a stark contrast to the fear of judgment, as believers will find solace in their identity as the beloved of Christ. It reaffirms the hope that they can rejoice in their inheritance and relationship with God, knowing that their future is eternally secure.

Proverbs 31. I'd like to look at verse 25 this evening. Proverbs 31, verse 25. Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come." When I first got to this 31st chapter, I looked at the latter part of the chapter and I saw that it was the description of the attributes of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I first read it a time or two, I thought, well, what I'll do is try to sum up this last half of this chapter, this book that we've been in for these many years. But the more I looked at the verses, these latter verses, and thought upon this thought. This is the book of wisdom. Solomon penned this book.

And I thought, the Spirit of God moved upon this man to make these final words to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And with that thought, I thought how foolish it would be to not just relax and look at these verses and ask the Lord for wisdom. If any man lacks wisdom, what does scripture say?

Ask of the Lord. And so I've asked the Lord to give me some light on this passage of scripture. And I believe he has. And I want to share it with you And I'm going to ask us all at this moment right now, ask the Lord right now to speak to our hearts. Ask the Lord to give us some understanding in these final words out of this precious book.

We're drawing close to the end and this precious revelation is concerning all of us, the bride, the redeemed, the regenerated objects of God's mercy. This book's not written to this whole world. It's written to God's people. This is a book that is penned to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a book that is written and sets forth the rest, the spiritual rest of God's people. And therefore, as we look at these verses, let us relax and just hear what the Spirit says to the church and rejoice in what the Lord has to say.

Now, as I read this verse, strength and honor are her Clothing. Well, I knew that it was, I knew that it was speaking about clothing and immediately my mind goes to where yours is going right now. The clothing, you know, the clothing of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. The, the being robed in his righteousness. So we know that there's a good, there's a good place to start. The scripture says, strength and honor are her clothing. Strength and honor are her clothing, the bride's clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Now, as I read that, I began to think, what was the need of her, the bride, being spiritually clothed? Now this is how I'll just sit and I'll just muse on these scriptures and I begin to think and ask the Lord, Lord, teach me, teach me out of this book. She needs clothing. She needs clothing. And the scripture says strength and honor are her clothing.

I went back to the beginning. the beginning of the scriptures. And I read this, that whole account of man being created in the image of God. And the first couple of chapters set forth an amazing truth. It was, it was, look at, just look at, look at this. Genesis chapter 2, verse 25. Look and let's just see what the scripture has to say. Genesis 2, 25.

The Lord in that second chapter had given the account of how the Lord had formed man, verse 7, out of the dust, and He breathed life into him, and He created a woman. He took the man, verse 15, put him into the garden to dress it, keep it. Verse 26, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And then look at verse 18, And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone.

I will make him and meet for him. I'm gonna make him one to be his companion. I'm gonna make him one that he can rest in, relax in. I'm gonna make him one that he rejoices in. I'm gonna make him And then the scripture says this about the creation. He made Eve, he formed Eve out of the rib of Adam, made Adam out of dust. And verse 25 gives the account of the purity, not holiness, but the purity of man when God created him. Verse 25. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. They weren't ashamed. They were both naked. They were not ashamed.

Man had never at this point sinned against God, and there was no Shame found there was no need of clothing To hide their nakedness There was no need to they were both You can you can go go swimming and As long as you've got on a pair of trunks Okay, everything's acceptable But you take off that pair of trunks, and then we done crossed the line big time. And that's not acceptable anymore. Man by nature, when he was created, had never rebelled against God. And there was no need of clothing. I have on a short-sleeved shirt here. Now, you see my arms. There's no shame in this. You see my arms right here. But now, there's other parts of me that needs clothing to be within the bounds of acceptability.

But when man was created, the scripture declares they were both naked, man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. There wasn't any shame in it. There was no sin. There was no reason for sin. But after they ate of the fruit, which was forbidden by God, something changed. In that same verse that we just read, 25, and they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

But something happened. Man ate of the fruit. Their eyes were opened, the scripture says, and then they knew. They knew they were without a covering. And so what they did, they took leaves, fig leaves, and made themselves an apron. to cover their nakedness. Now, before a man or woman is converted, this is the attitude.

Man, because he's got a conscience. Every man, every woman's got a conscience. They know right from wrong. I'm not saying every man or woman is converted, but every man and woman has got a conscience. And they know, they discern right from wrong. They know something. There's something in man's creation. He knows something of right and wrong. But whenever man rebelled against God, he was ashamed. They knew that they were without clothing, and what they did is they made a covering for themselves.

They took fig leaves. Fig leaves, depending on the age, how old the tree is, a fig leaf can be 6 inches to 12 inches. It's a pretty good-sized leaf. I grew up around fig. Brian, I know you did. And you get a fig tree, and it can have a pretty good-sized leaf to it. Well, they took fig leaves and sewed them together. made themselves a covering.

They made themselves a covering. And the scripture declares why they made a covering. They knew that they were without a covering. Not that they were concerned about being without a covering before God, but it was just a shame, naturally speaking. You don't have to be a believer in this world to know that walking around outside without clothes on is not acceptable. Man by nature knew he was without a covering, and so he was going to make himself a covering before God.

Everybody was guilty. The scripture says, Genesis 6-5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. There is nothing found in man, mankind in general. There's nothing good in mankind by nature. When Adam ate of that fruit that was forbidden of God, he knew this was imparted into his, you know, DNA. He knew that something wasn't right, and he was guilty. He knew that he was guilty.

I'll tell you how far this can go. I even thought about how needful it is for us to go to the store and buy shirts and pants and clothes and stuff like that. You know, somebody said, well, it's just because, you know, I like this kind of thing. It's because there's something in every man and woman, whether they realize it or not, there's something in every person, even those who are without Christ, especially talking about those who are without Christ, that knows that nakedness is not acceptable. It's not.

So man was going to make himself a covering, so he took fig leaves, sewed them together, made himself a covering. That's man by nature, spiritually. But until the Lord reveals the gospel of God's free grace and realizes by the Lord's teaching that Christ is our only atonement, only covering, man tries to cover himself, and he does it through false religion.

False religion. is the absolute most heinous thing that this world has ever known, because it's dealing with the ruin of men's souls. False religion. You talk about wickedness. Every thought, the scripture says, of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And I thought, if you want to see the evidence of every thought, of the imagination of his heart, look at all the false religions. You know, when you first read that, you think, well, all he does is men just went around, they murdered people, and they just, you know, they were just rampant, you know, killings and robbings and stuff like that. False religion. Every imagination of his heart. Why do you think that there's so many different ones? Because men are trying to create their own covering. That's every imagination of a man's heart.

Men, by nature, are religious. They're religious. I used to wonder. I'd watch these cowboy shows, and I'd watch these shows, and they'd show these Indians, you know, you know, be out there and blowing smoke and, you know, dancing around and waving fans and doing this kind of stuff. And I think, they never heard anything about the gospel, but know there was something in their heart that knew that they needed a tone, they needed a covering. There's something about it. And so men have invented false religions.

And they're all different. There's always this one's got to do this. I told you about me asking. I was talking to Darwin Pruitt years and years ago. Darwin told me about his nephew. And his nephew asked him. He said, Uncle Darwin, you say this is right. He says this is right religiously. How do I know who's right?

Darwin told him, but for the grace of God, you won't. You won't know. And you'll die. And you'll go to hell. but for the grace of God. You know why you're sitting and loving the gospel of God's free grace? It's because God's given you a new heart to want to be here. And if it wasn't for that, you'd be sitting somewhere else just loving it. Whatever it is, you'd love it. That's what you'd want to do. And you'd feel good about it, because they'd make you feel good about it.

Every imagination, man needs a covering. Every man needs a covering and he knows it. But until the Lord gives him a new heart, he doesn't know the truth of truly having his sin atoned for and truly having a covering, an atonement for his sin. Here's my second point. How things are right now, how things are right now for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, back in Proverbs, this is how every believer is. Every man needs a covering. We all know it. Every man by nature is going to go to some place and going to try to listen to what that covering is, and he's going to say, yeah, man, if I can speak in tongues, okay, I got it.

Now, if, no, no, no, that's not right. No, if I'm baptized, that's right. No, no, no, no. If I make a professional face, walk down the aisle, shake the preacher's hand, repeat these words after him, you know, and stuff like that, and if I slip and fall, what I'll do is I'll have rededication. You come down on rededication. If you find yourself kind of messing up, you know, come down for rededication, and you kind of re-up. Like, you know, doing four more years in the service. Just, you know, do it again.

Yup. And that's the life of it. Every man knows it. But here's what a believer knows. And that's in this verse right here. Strength, verse 25. Strength and honor are her clothing. Now, we're talking about the bride here. Man by nature knows something about him. He's got to have a clothing. He's got to be covered, you know. But the scripture declares the clothing of a believer regenerated by the grace of God. Here's the bride's clothing. Here's her garment. Here it is. Strength and honor are her clothing. That's the clothing of a believer. Strength and honor are her clothing. And it's given to her. She didn't earn it. She did not earn her clothing. She didn't earn it. It was God's good pleasure to give her a clothing, to grant her a robe of righteousness by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was nothing that she did.

The scripture says in James 117, every good gift and every perfect gift. Would you not say that strength and honor before God is good clothing? Strength and honor are her clothing. I would say strength and honor, and I'm gonna tell you in a second what strength and honor is, but would you not say strength and honor? If God says strength and honor is the clothing of the bride, then here's what a believer says, strength and honor is my clothing because I believe God. Every good gift and every perfect gift, strength and honor, what a gift. cometh down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Well, I thought it was because we made a choice. I thought because we, you know, we made a choice, we decided to give our hearts to Jesus.

Of his own will begat he us. Rebirthed us. How? With the word of truth. By the preaching of the gospel. This is the way that God rebirths his people. He puts them under the sound of the gospel. And they hear the truth. And that is God's means of regenerating. He puts them under the truth. They hear the gospel. He gives them a new heart, new ears to hear, new eyes to see, and he rebirths them. He makes them alive. No man, no woman can rebirth themselves. You couldn't rebirth yourself the first time. Did you make a decision to be conceived? Did you have any part in that at all?

Here's the scripture. The scripture declares that every good gift, every perfect gift from above, from the Father, with whom there's no variables, no shadow of turning, And here's the reason, the last part of James 117, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. God's will and purpose for his people, he was going to make them to be aware of his mercy and grace. And he told them through the preaching of the gospel, and they heard him, every believer knows in their heart, every believer knows Psalm 118 verse 14, the L, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the Lord, the Father who chose us, Christ who redeemed us, and the Spirit of God who regenerated us by grace, the Lord is my strength. Now our passage says strength and honor are her clothing.

Now you want to know how strong, how stable in the Lord Jesus Christ a believer is? You want to know how strong they are? The scripture says the Lord is my strength. How much strength do you have? I don't either. How much power do you have? I don't either. I tell you the strength that we have is the Lord.

Jehovah. The scripture says the Lord is become my salvation. The Lord It has come to pass is what, when it says the Lord is become, it has come to pass. And another one, another explanation of that word is exists. The Lord is my strength. The Lord exists as my strength. The Lord, it has come to pass that the Lord is my strength. Had he not called me out of darkness, revealed himself to me, made me to know that he's my strength, you know what would have happened? I would have thought I was my strength. I'd have given all kinds of excuses why I've been so good, so faithful. Oh, I've slipped a little bit. Don't get me wrong. You know, I ain't perfect, but, you know, uh-uh.

The Lord has become my strength. The Lord is my salvation. The scripture says strength and honor. Strength and honor. Strength and splendor. It says honor, splendor, the ornament, the majesty, the glory, the magnificence, the comeliness, of the bride, the beauty of the bride.

What is the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ to the bride? He's my everything. He's my Lord. He's my God. He's my Savior, my Redeemer, my Advocate. He is my all and in all. Strength and honor are Her clothing. That's what the scripture says about the bride. Oh, I wrote down this scripture right here. It's Psalm 62, 1.

When my heart is overwhelmed. Oh, how often do we find ourselves overwhelmed? Our bodies are weak. Our minds are weak. This world is evil. Everywhere you turn, it's just wickedness. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. When these things began to overwhelm me, Lord, lead me. Lead me. You lead me. You know why? I don't know the way. But you said, you're the way, Lord. Lead me to you. Lead me to where you are. When grief, sorrow comes, we find ourselves thinking that we're gonna finally fail. I don't think I'm gonna make it. I just don't think I can go much longer like this. This is the cry of a believer. Lead me to the rock.

Lord, if I can see you, if I see you, if I look upon you, you give me a heart to look at you, I'm okay. Everything's good. What Scott used to say, I hadn't heard any bad news since I heard the good news. Isn't that true? You know, I miss hearing those things, don't you? I do. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Beloved, there's only one place of safety, There's only one place of safety. I'm serious. You look around. Look around here. You know, everything around us is fading. But not him. Not him. Lead me to my refuge. Lead me to him who is my strength. He is the strength and the honor of the bride. He's the bride. In closing, I want to look at that last part of this verse.

And she shall rejoice in time to come. Now, you know, I'll tell you what I thought, and I'll bet you a hundred bucks that this is what you thought too. And you were right. And you were right. When it says that latter part, She shall rejoice in time to come. The believer does rejoice. They rejoice in their heart. They thank God for his mercy. And that's true. But there's one definition about that word rejoice that I thought was so precious. And I'd have never thought of it, just, you know, of myself. And here's what it means. To laugh. means to laugh, to laugh.

The scripture declares concerning the bride, she shall laugh in time to come. What is she going to laugh at? Oh, death, where's your sting? Grave, where's your victory? She's going to rejoice. She's going to laugh. She's going to rejoice. This is how things shall be. Shall be. The scripture says she shall rejoice in time to come. First thing we think about. Whenever it's time to die, this is going to be, and that's our old nature. I get it. I get it. Like I told you, every time I go for a, you know, have a checkup, I got to have them. Man, I spent half my life now going to doctor's visits. And every time I go, I always wonder. I said, well, you know, that's my old man. But you know what the scripture says?

When that time comes, she shall rejoice in time to come. She's going to be glad. She's going to rejoice. She's going to be rejoicing. And the closer, I know this by experience from hearing it myself, the closer a believer comes to realizing, like here again, I told you that I've heard so many things from Scott, you know, He said, you know, the worst part of hearing some bad news, the worst part of it is when you first hear it. After that, you know, the Lord settles the hearts of his people. She's going to rejoice. She's going to laugh. She's going to laugh, be glad. I wrote this down in closing. The bride rejoices now in the Lord, but she shall rejoice, be eternally glad, Because then he will know, she will know, he's loved me with an everlasting love.

And he's promised, I'm never gonna leave you. I'm never gonna leave you, I'm never gonna leave you. Does that mean in the time that it comes time for me to die, and I can't catch my breath, or I can't get my focus, does that mean then too, As I've said before, if that happens to fall under the category of never, that's what it means. I'm never going to leave you. I'm never going to forsake you.

The bride shall laugh because then she truly knows I'm clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's paid all my debt before God's law. I don't owe anything. All of the provisions has been made. His goodness to me is never going to fade away. It's never going to wax old.

And in that day of judgment, she is going to rejoice to hear this. And I got this from the scriptures out of Matthew 30, uh, verse 34, chapter 25. In that day, the day of judgment, and the Lord shall say to those on his right hand, now you listen to this, come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come. I pray the Lord bless these words. Amen.

The Bride's Garment

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the bride of Christ?

How do we know that believers are clothed in Christ's righteousness?

Why is it important for Christians to understand their need for a covering?

What does it mean that the bride shall rejoice in time to come?

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The Bride's Garment

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the bride of Christ?

How do we know that believers are clothed in Christ's righteousness?

Why is it important for Christians to understand their need for a covering?

What does it mean that the bride shall rejoice in time to come?

Sermon Transcript

About Marvin Stalnaker

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