Here Comes the Bride

I'm going to say this. If there was ever a time that I've ever got up on a platform to speak the word of the Lord and know that I knew that I knew that I knew it was the Lord, it's tonight. Pastor Terry does not know what I'm speaking about. The worship leaders had no idea what I'm speaking about. And I am just sitting here in awe of, of the Lord and his goodness and his faithfulness.

We are doing a series in our church. I think it's the best thing we've ever done. In May, we celebrate 40 years in ministry. And God is so faithful. And my son Jordan came up with the idea in the summer.

He said, let's do a series. Now. Normally I'm not a serious person. I'm the kind of person that if you tell me what to speak about, I'm like a hum and a humming, like I have no clue, I have to hear from heaven. But this series was, is called Walk with Jesus.

And we started in January and it has been absolutely incredible. And the idea is to see Jesus starting from the Old Testament all the way through, to see Jesus in the Scriptures. And you know, the Apostle Paul said that I may know him, that I may know him, that I may know him in the fellowship of his sufferings and the power of his resurrection, that I may know him. And what's incredible is we're all reading the same chapters every day. So it's as though when I sit down to read, I'm reading with the people in my church.

My granddaughter comes over now and has three hour conversations with me about the Word. People are telling us that their families are at dinner time, their children, because everyone's reading it. This is their conversation, it's the Word. And I even notice that when we preach things that we may have preached before, but because they're reading it, they're getting it. And I also, Pastor Terry told me that you guys did Jesus in the Old Testament.

I believe throughout the summer or whenever that was. So this. I believe that we live in a, in a world, a Christian world that is very Bible illiterate. And I think that it is so healthy for us to read the Word of God. Be diligent in reading the Word.

So anyway, we. One of my assignments was Isaac and Rebecca and of course the bridegroom and the bride. And I was stunned to see where these scriptures led me. For those of you that are new to your Bible, I'll be using a lot of typology and symbolism. Webster says a type or typology is a person or thing in the Old Testament believed to foreshadow another in the New Testament.

But I can't speak to you about the bride, which I am mainly going to focus on unless I talk about the bridegroom. I don't know if it's possible, but can you lower these monitors? They like listen. I know how I sound and hearing me back sounding is scary. It's like Judge Judy's in the room.

So Isaac is a type of Christ. He's a type of the bridegroom. So I am going to read some scripture to you and I am going to show you 10 ways in which Isaac is a type of Christ. But I'm going to kind of go, go quickly through it. This is Genesis 22.

It says sometime later, after Abraham was blessed and now had Isaac, Isaac is now about 17 years old, God tested Abraham's faith. He didn't necessarily test Abraham, he tested his faith. And I heard someone once say probably 35 years ago, faith that isn't tested can't be trusted. God tested Abraham's faith. Abraham, God called, yes, he replied, here I am not.

That is a sign of a surrendered life. He says, take your son, your only son, yes, Isaac, whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will show you. The next morning Abraham got up early. That's obedience.

My husband used to always tell our kids to delayed obedience is disobedience. So the very next morning he got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him along with his son Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

Stay here with the donkey. Abraham told his son servants, the boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there and then we will come right back. So Abraham placed the work the placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac's shoulders while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, father.

Yes, my son Abraham replied, we have the fire and the wood. The boy said but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? God will provide a lamb for the burnt offering, my son Abraham answered and they both walked on together. When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

And he, Abraham, picked up the knife to kill his son. And as a sacrifice, at that moment, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, Abraham. Abraham. Yes, Abraham replied, here I am. Don't lay your hands on the boy, the angel said.

Do not hurt him in any way. For now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son. Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns and in the thicket or in the thorns. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son.

Abraham named the place Yahweh, Jehovah Jireh, which means the Lord will provide. To this day, people still use that name as a proverb. On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray you bless every single sentence. Speak to me and through me, and speak to your beautiful women, your bride.

In the name of Jesus. Amen. And Amen. So very quickly. 10 ways.

Isaac is a type of Christ. Isaac and Jesus are both children of the promise. Isaac and Jesus are offered by their fathers who love them. Isaac and Jesus both had a three day experience and walked up a steep hill. Isaac carried the wood to the place of sacrifice, just as Jesus carried his own cross to the place of crucifixion.

Isaac was bound on the altar just as Jesus was bound to the cross. Abraham's servants stayed behind, just as Jesus's disciples stayed behind during the crucial crucifixion. Isaac willingly submitted to his father, just as Jesus voluntarily submitted to his father. When Isaac's father was asked about the sacrifice, Abraham answered, God will provide the lamb for himself. We know that Jesus is the spotless lamb that the Father provided for us.

Write John 1:29. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Revelation 5:12 says, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength and glory and blessing. Number nine in Genesis 3:18 thorns were a consequence of Adam and Eve. Sin, right?

The Bible tells us when they sin, the ground was cursed with thorn thorns. It was part of the curse. When Abraham saw the ram, it was caught in a thorn bush. This was a foreshadowing that when Jesus wore the crown of thorns, he was declaring that he is delivering us from the curse of sin. What was under his feet was now on top of his head, declaring that he is now the King of kings and Lord of lords over everything.

Over every single curse. Amen. And number 10, even the substitute of the ram in place of Isaac, was a picture of Jesus being the substitute, the lamb who took away the sins of the world. And that place is called Jehovah Jireh. Because we know that whatever we sacrifice to the Lord in the nick of time, God will come through for us.

Now, before I go on, there's two words worth noting that were never used before. For 22 chapters, approximately 250 years, these words were never mentioned. Words that are very common to us in our Christian walk. They were never mentioned until chapter 22. And this is called the law of the first mention.

Number one, the word love. Not mentioned in the creation of the world. Not mentioned in the creation of Adam and Eve. Not create. Not mentioned in their marriage.

Not mentioned when Noah put the animals in the ark. Genesis 22:2. Take your son, your only son, whom you love. Take the son, the son that you love, and give him back the son you waited for for 25 years. The.

The son you have loved for 17 years. Go ahead and sacrifice 42 years of your life. So here we see love isn't flowers and chocolates on Valentine's Day. It's the giving up. It's the giving away of our rights.

And it's intense. Because what we love, we will sacrifice for love is sacrifice. Love. Sacrifice is the best and withholds nothing. For God so loved the world that he gave up.

He gave away his one and only son. The Bible encourages us. Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole mind, whole soul, whole strength. This is how we're supposed to love the Lord. This is how we're supposed to love one another.

But Jesus said in John 14:15, if you love me, you'll obey me. And oftentimes we don't have an obedience problem. We have a love problem. Number two, the word worship. This is the first time worship is mentioned in the Bible.

Chapter 22. 250 years later, this is the time Abraham told his servants, the boy and I will go and worship there and then will come back to you. Notice there's no instruments, there's no worship team. There's no music, there's deafening silence. And there was Abraham having to build an altar.

And the word altar means place of great slaughtering. He had to build an altar while his son held the wood. And in those days, when you built an altar, you. You had to take unused stones, heavy stones. He had to pick up the weightiness of what was being put on him.

And he had to take it step by step, stone by stone, pain by pain. And he had to build it to where it became an altar, where wood was placed on top of it where his son was going to be sacrifice. They sang it tonight. Lay it all down, lay it all down. There's no waste at the altar.

Whatever you give to God, God will replenish 100 fold. Maybe not in money, but he will replenish it in peace. He'll replenish it having the presence of the Lord walking with you. So worship is not what we do with our lips. Worship is what we do with our life.

It's not an hour or two thing on a Sunday. It's all day. It's every day. It's every single minute of our life. Is my life worshiping you?

And I heard someone say something like this. I wish I would have written it, but I heard Worship is tucking your will underneath your heart. Worship is tucking your will, not my will, thy will, underneath your heart, underneath your emotions. And let me just say this on the sideline. Emotions are the greatest distorter of revelation.

Emotions are the greatest distorter of revelations. We have to tuck our emotions under our heart and follow the Lord. Now the bridegroom needs a bride. The father Abraham was concerned about Isaac's future, the continuation of God's covenant and the promises that was made to him. And in.

And God the Father needed a bride for his son Jesus. So that we would continue the example that Jesus was on the earth. That we would be his hands and his feet extended, telling people about his grace and his mercy and his kindness and his goodness. You could read Genesis 24 on your own, but here comes the bride, the perfect bride. The going to talk about two different brides tonight.

And this is a synopsis. The father Abraham sends his servant to find a bride for his son from the country Abraham was originally from. And it was at a well, I want you to remember. And wells are where thirsty people come to get hydrated. Because without water we die.

So the servant goes back to Mesopotamia or Ur of the Chaldees, to. To get the bride, to take her out of the world, to bring her to where Isaac the Son is. So in typology speaking, it's a foreshadowing. The Father God sends his servant, the Holy Spirit to find a bride, the church for his son Jesus from the world. So the servant, the Holy Spirit goes into the world to get the bride, which is us, the church, to take her out of the world and bring her to.

To Christ and the servant Goes to a well, a place where, where people are thirsty and a place where hearts are quenched. And now enters Rebecca. She is the Old Testament type of a bride. And she is carrying a water jug. She's.

She. She's carrying an empty vessel that needs to be filled to, to quench her thirst. And she's an Old Testament foreshadowing of the New Testament bride. So she meets the servant, she, she in contact. So it would be like us, we're in contact with the Holy Spirit before we even know who the Holy Spirit is.

And she immediately bows down and humbles herself and wants to serve. She has a true encounter. And we know that a great price was paid in, in order to release her from her present home. So with us, a great price was paid to release us from the world of sin and death. And she leaves her family immediately.

She leaves the known for the unknown in order to go and meet the bridegroom. So with us, we leave the world as we know it for a new life. And once she's married, all that is Isaac's place become hers. So with us, we, we have, we share in Christ in, in Christ's inheritance. So I said all of that quickly to say this similarly, and maybe, I know this is a little soon, but maybe someone can come on the keys and just help me.

And I, I really want your undivided attention. Similarly, there's a woman in the New Testament, and coincidentally she goes to the same well thousands of years later. Coincidentally, the well is called Jacob's well. Jacob was Isaac and Rebecca's son, their offspring. And this nameless woman in John 4 is considered to be a type of the New Testament bride.

Yet she's nothing like Rebecca. If I were to think of a bride, I would never consider her. I would never even consider me. And she knew who she was because when she meets the bridegroom, she says, you're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan. In other words, you're holy and I'm not holy.

This bride had quite the reputation. She doesn't deserve to be married to the bridegroom. She doesn't deserve a spotless wedding gown. She doesn't deserve anything. This bride is messy.

This bride has issues. And there's such a disparity between the two. She's nothing like Rebecca. This is not where the bride of our Lord should ever come from. She's already been married five times and she's living with somebody, which makes it adultery.

Yet Jesus, the bridegroom pursues her. He goes out of his Way to go where the religious elite would not dare to go. The religious walked out of their way not to walk through Samaria. But Jesus purposely walks through Samaria. He sits down and he rests in Samaria.

Unholy Samaria. He still walks through Samaria. He still shows up where no respectable or religious person would go. Sometimes he parks himself in our Samaria and he has a conversation with us. I don't know about you, but my Samaria was a hotel room in 1975.

Living with my boyfriend, stoned out of my mind in Mexico. Have this conversation with God cursing him out. And he shows up. He shows up. He said, maria, he knew my name even though I wasn't in church.

I was in Samaria, but he knew my name. I don't know if any of you remember. You might have been in a bar or in a club. That was your Samaria. And Jesus somehow showed up.

Penny and. And Peter. Penny's my assistant. I call her Penny. Worth a million.

Thank you, Jesus.

She said that she was backslidden and her hus. Her boyfriend was backslidden. And their first date, over a. Over a glass, a pitcher of beer, they start talking about the Lord. And they're weeping.

They're weeping because he still goes to Samaria.

He's still seeking to save that which was lost.

He sits down and has a conversation with us. And he challenges our will. And he causes us to confront the very thing that will satisfy, that we think will satisfy our thirsty soul. Samaritans were considered half breeds. They worshiped many gods, plus Jehovah.

Jehovah was somehow thrown in the mix. But Jesus isn't offended. He still goes to Samaria. And the one act of this bridegroom broke the geographical, social, religious, gender barriers. He tore down sacred cows and taboos.

Religious red tape was about to be shattered. And the rabbi of rabbis is about to speak to this kind of woman. This kind.

No respectable holy rabbi would dare speak to this kind of woman. Number one, rabbis never spoke to women. Number two, rabbis never spoke to women in public. And number three, any rabbi worth its salt would never, ever, ever have a conversation with this kind. But here comes the bride.

The unlikely bride.

She shows up at noon. She's late. She's late for the date. She's hiding from her community of good girls. She's full of shame and she doesn't fit in.

And she's the exact opposite of Rebecca. She's not chaste and she's not a virgin. She's worn out from life. Yet Jesus has the Longest conversation with this woman than any other woman in the Bible. Jesus also knows why she's married five times and why she now has a live in boyfriend.

The Bible says man judges the outer, but God judges the heart. She's known to be a loose woman, but if that were true, she would have been stoned. Maybe she was the unluckiest woman in the world. In Deuteronomy 24:1 to 4 it states that if a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something not pleasing about her, he can divorce her. Now this was the custom.

This was not God's law, this was man's law. So let's say she was the worst cook in Samaria, the worst housewife in Samaria. Maybe she couldn't bear children. Maybe her husband didn't like her nose, maybe he didn't like her shape anymore.

So according to this Jewish law, he could get rid of her, he could toss her aside, he could just, he could disregard her or discard her. Maybe the guy she was living with, maybe he didn't want to marry her, he wants to try her on for size. So five husbands and a fling later she meet, she meets Jesus. She meets Jesus at a will.

This adulteress, it doesn't stop Jesus from having a conversation with her at the hottest time of the day, the most inconvenient time. Now the disciples show up and they're astonished, they're speechless to see Jesus talking to her kind. I guess they forgot who they once were. In ancient days, the well was not only a place for women to draw water and congregate and chat, it was the place where men went to meet a bride. There were no bars, there were no watering holes.

This was the real, for real watering hole. This is where you went to pick up someone to meet someone to meet your life partner. And there's the disciples and they're astonished. And this looks like a total setup. This looks like a setup for a marriage proposal.

And the disciples are probably thinking, am I really seeing. What I'm seeing is Jesus trying to pick this woman up. I mean this is eerily similar to Abraham when he sent his servant to a well to find a bride in a foreign land and ask a strange woman for a drink.

Moses went to a well and found his wife Sapporo. Jacob went to a well and found his wife Rachel. Now Jesus appeared to have found his bride. The Messiah offers this woman living waters. And there's nothing random in the Bible.

If you really dig a bit, see living waters had great significance. Living waters were running waters. They were not stagnant. They had to come from a spring or a stream. It had to be bubbling over water that seemed to be alive.

Living waters had to be used in the temple. The custom was when the Jews came in to the temple, they had to dip in living waters before they entered the temple. The temple needed an outside source. Water had to be delivered from an outside location to be placed in the temple so they could dip themselves in. What is that symbolize?

It was nothing. Stagnant, no dead religion, no dead worship. The waters were brought from the pool of Siloam. Remember that in John 9, where the blind man was told to wash the mud off of his eyes so that he could see because living waters had healing properties that caused the blind to see. So with us, we need constant deliveries from heaven, from an outside source so that we could receive fresh sight, fresh revelation, and not get stuck in stagnant religion and worship.

Ezekiel, Remember in Ezekiel 47, he has a vision. He sees these living waters come coming from underneath the temple doors and they go out into the streets. And where there was no life, life began. Where there were no trees, trees started to grow. Fish of all kinds started to have life outside the temple because they were river living waters.

And we're his temple. And you know that. So one prayer to pray is, God, let me always have fresh deliveries of living water. Now I want you to listen to this. There was a custom.

Before a woman could marry, she would have to undergo a purification ritual.

Guess what it was called? A bridal bath. Guess what kind of water had to be used for the bride to be cleansed? They had to be living waters from an outside source. Jesus is offering this woman a marriage proposal.

And she meets the seventh man, the perfect man, who will never hand her divorce papers, will never change his mind about her, will never look at her with disdain. And not because she's perfect, but because he's perfect. You see, we are the New Testament bride. We are the woman at the well when Jesus found us. But he will make us, Rebecca, when he gets through with us.

Now, I don't know about you, but this fascinated me. This fascinated me. A bridal bath? A marriage proposal. In my.

In my religious mindset, I would never, ever, ever think that she would be the type of the New Testament bride. Maybe Mary, but not this woman at the well. No, because I don't know about you, but anytime I've heard it preached about the New Testament bride, there's always a pressure. There's always A subtle fear that when he comes back, I may not pass the test. Anybody else feel like that?

I have felt like that so many times. So I want to do something that I've never done before. I want you to close your eyes, if you would.

And I want you to imagine a wedding.

The great anticipation waiting for the doors to open. As the music begins to play.

Everyone in the room, all rise. All eyes are on the bride. And she's stunning. She's dressed in pure white. As layers and layers of ruffles form a train that could appear as a cloud trailing behind her.

She's flawless. Not a hair on her head is out of place. She's spotless from head to toe. Not a speck of dirt on her. Her eyes, clear as crystal.

And even though all eyes were on her, her eyes are on him. I want you to think about with your eyes closed all the preparation that the bride went through to look like this on her wedding day. The day that would change her life forever. The day where two would become one. Facials to look radiant.

Manicure, not a cuticle to be seen so she can display the symbol. The wedding band which will tell the world, I'm taken. I. I belong to him. The pedicure. Feet so smooth.

A hair appointment so that the bridal crown can rest securely on her head. So much pressure knowing she will be examined from head to toe.

Keep your eyes closed. Now think about this. The bride of Christ. She made no such preparation. In an earthly wedding, the bride prepares herself.

But God knows the bride can't make herself ready. She can't make herself bridal worthy. If we're honest with ourselves, we'll never be pure enough. We'll never be perfect enough. It's only his grace and his mercy that would allow her to be perfect in his eyes.

So Christ prepared a bride for himself. The bride didn't go through the lengthy examination process in order to be bridal ready or bridal worthy. It was the bridegroom that loved her before she ever loved him. He saw her as spotless before she ever took a bridal bath. He chose her before she chose him.

Come, let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, he'll make them as white as snow. While we were still sinners, our bridegroom died for us. And he will present us faultless as it says in the book of Jude. Now think about the grueling process that the bridegroom went through to make himself ready for the bride.

His face was marred so that the bride can be radiant. His body broken so that we could stand up straight. He wore red so that we could wear white. He wore a crown of thorns so that we can wear a crown of glory. His hands were pierced so we can wear the signet ring.

His feet pierced so we can wear shoes of peace. He hung naked so that we could be covered in robes of righteousness. And one day we will rise. One day our eyes will be upon him. We will behold him in all of his glory.

He paid the debt, the debt that was owed, so that we can walk away free. And all it takes is to say yes to the dress, yes to Him. All we have to do is put down our water jug, as she did, and accept the marriage proposal.

John 17:7 37 says, if anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink, and out of you will flow rivers of living water.