The Paramount Truths
A Primer for Those Inspired as Kings to Search Out a Matter
Proverbs 25:2
CONTENTS
Salvation in Jesus 1
Eternal Security of the Believer 1
Growing Up in Christ 2
The Challenge of Godly Living 2
Growth by the Holy Spirit 4
Receiving the Holy Spirit and the Evidence of Being Filled with the Spirit 4
The Apostle Paul and the Full-Counsel Gospel 6
The Mystery of Christ Revealed to Paul 6
Bridal Types in the Old Testament 8
Bridal Manifestations in the New Testament 10
The End Times: First Trumpet Rapture 11
The Three Ordinances: Baptism, Communion, Head Covering for Women 12
Conclusion: Placing Our Expectation in Him 14
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How thankful that you are being quickened by God to know His truth. God richly blesses us through His Word and gives us precious truths, precept upon precept and line upon line; here a little and there a little {Isaiah 28:10).
The encouragement for this booklet is to bring forth paramount truths in the Word of God and to inspire you to search the scriptures for yourself. God will reveal Himself and His plan for you in wondrous ways if you will spend time with Him in His Word. II Timothy 2:15 encourages us, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the ward of truth.”
May the words of truth in love build you up and spur you on to seek Him even more as the coming of the Lord draws near.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Jesse O’Dorisio
SALVATION IN JESUS
The first paramount truth that opens the complete heart of God to us is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Simply and clearly God so loved mankind – He so loved you – that He gave His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for you. Jesus is the Lamb of God who shed His blood for ALL the sins of man (John 1:29). Jesus is the only way we have access to God the Father, as Jesus tells us in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me.” Salvation is by no other name than the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12).
God’s perfect plan involved creating man so that he would need a Savior. No amount of good deeds, no life-time achievements, no ceremony or ritual can save a soul. Romans 3:27 clearly tells us that the works of the law and its commandments cannot justify or save your soul. Romans 5 declares that the commandments and the ordinances were not given as a benchmark for man to live by, but rather to expose and make apparent even more how wicked man is and his need for a Savior. There is but one way, one Savior for your soul, and that Savior is God’s Son Jesus. God desired that His Son would be magnified, and that desire required Jesus to be the final, once-for-all sacrifice for sin. God’s only begotten Son was a man who lived in the flesh, died on the cross, and rose the third day from death to life everlasting so that anyone who believes on Him shall be saved.
All mankind has sinned and has come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and apart from accepting Christ as Savior, not one single person has righteousness (Romans 3:10). David wrote of our state before salvation in Psalm S1:5: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Salvation is only by faith in Jesus and His shed blood on the cross. There is nothing you can do to ‘earn’ salvation. “For by grace ye are saved through faith; and not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Romans 10:9-10 tells you how to get saved: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” At the moment of confessing the Lord Jesus and believing on Him you are transformed from a state of death to life everlasting. Christ now lives in you (Galatians 2:20).
Confess with thy mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord (go ahead, confess), and welcome to the family of God and the beginning of the paramount truths.
ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER
In Christ we are born of God, in Christ we are His children. As God’s children we are kept securely in His hand – and no man can pluck us out of that hand (John 10:28-29). Nothing can separate a believer from the love of God. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
The life God gave us through His Son is everlasting life – Christ’s own eternal life. There is nothing that could ever infringe upon Christ’s life in you. “Even if we believe not, He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself’ (II Timothy 2:13). His life in you is the seed that remaineth (I John 3:9). That seed stays; everlasting life has no end. God help us to rest in the great grace of God that saved us and keeps us. His grace and mercy never change.
GROWING UP IN CHRIST
You are born of God the moment you believe on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and the new birth is just the beginning. When you accept Christ as Savior, spiritually you are a “babe in Christ.” Just as a human baby grows up in the natural, you are made to grow up spiritually in Christ into the full potential as a mature Son of God. And in order to grow you need to be fed, nurtured, and loved. Natural parents want their children to grow up, be productive, get married, etc. How much more God wants this for His children!
God has a perfect plan and path that is tailor-made for each one of His children. That path is a lifetime of events, joys and sorrows, successes and failures, that all are perfectly ordered for you to grow up fully in Christ. He saw you, and He drew out your path before He ever set a star in the heavens. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29-30). God wants His best for all His children, but He does not force anyone to take it.
Throughout the Word of God, especially in the Apostle Paul’s letters, the call for Christians is to grow up. And we grow in GRACE and in KNOWLEDGE. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen” (2 Peter 3:16). This maturing of salvation is possible because of the working power of grace. Every godly thing built or grown in our lives is by God’s all-sufficient grace that abounds toward us in every good work (II Corinthians 9:8). “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Ephesians 4:15 speaks of God’s plan for us: “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.”
I Timothy 2:4 tells us that we are to come unto the knowledge of the truth. We rejoice that the word ‘knowledge’ means a full, exact, complete knowledge. Paul made it clear in Acts 20:32: “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.” The Word of His grace is the only way we will be separated from the world and to Christ’s life. It will not be by the works of our flesh – which are filthy to God – but by the grace of God’s divine finished work in us. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). We are clay upon the potter’s wheel, His wondrous workmanship. The only requirement for us is to yield and to fully believe God and His all sufficient grace to us.
THE CHALLENGE OF GODLY LIVING
Every child of God has two natures: the ‘old man’ and the ‘new man.’ These two natures are constantly at war with each other. Paul writes of this struggle in Galatians 5:16 -17: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”
It is essential to understand God’s divine purpose in giving us this precious challenge of the two natures. If we do not understand it we will be miserable and defeated; but, if we understand it, we can have joy and grow in the understanding our lives are made to be completely dependent upon Jesus. The more we realize who we were and where God has brought us, the greater appreciation we will have for how much He loves us, and the more we will love Him.
The old man is the flesh. It is carnal, a body of sin. It is our fallen human nature in the realm of darkness and death controlled by satan. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:1-3).
The new man is the spirit. It is the inward man with a divine nature in the realm of light and life controlled by God. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (I John 3:9). “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
We will never find the way to godly living by our self-efforts. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). We live godly lives through the spirit, the new creation, the very life of God that He gives His children. The promise of victory lies in I John 4:4: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” And, in Romans 8:37 we are assured, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”
Praise God for the power He has given us through the blood of Jesus. By faith and by hearing and believing God’s Word He empowers our lives with promises in His Word. We have access by faith to everything. We can – and we should – live godly lives because of the love of God that brought us His grace through Jesus. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
The Bible tells us to become mature Sons of God and to be no more like children. “That we
God’s Word tells us clearly, “. . .whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23). Paul wrote in Romans 7:18-19 of his own personal struggle with his flesh: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” We need power from on high to defeat our flesh, and power is exactly what we have. The living and active power of Christ’s very own life is in us is why we can say with full assurance, “Greater is He that is in me than He that is in the world.” (I John 4:4).
God’s love toward us gave us all the divine grace needed to overcome this wicked world. We should no longer be the servants of sin. We are the temple of God, magnifying His faithfulness as full overcomers in Christ. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16). With confidence we can say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13).
GROWTH BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
We receive the ability to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit, the one of the Trinity who first convicts us to receive Christ as Savior. He is the one who knocked at the door of our hearts to let Christ Jesus come and live in us.
In John 14:16-17, Jesus speaks to His disciples (and to us) of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us: “Not only will the Holy Spirit be with you, but he shall be in you. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” At the time Jesus was speaking His disciples were saved believers who were physically with Jesus. Note, these verses make it clear that they were not yet filled with the Holy Spirit, as it is written He shall be in you.
Jesus continues in John 16:12-15: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you.”
It is very clear from these two verses there was something new about to happen: the Holy Ghost abiding in man. In Acts 1:5 Jesus said, “John the Baptist baptized with water, but in just a few days ye all will baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” In Acts 2 we read they all were filled and all spoke with other tongues.
Jesus had been with His disciples for over three years, and yet there were things He could not say to them because without the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, they could not understand. The disciples needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and so do we today if we are to comprehend the depths of God’s love and truth. Romans 5:5: tells us, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
The Holy Spirit works in us the filling of all the fullness of God by taking the things of Christ and making them ours, and transforming us from heirs of God to joint heirs with Jesus Christ. “He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew [it] unto you” (John 16: 15). The Holy Spirit fills us with the truth in love that grows us up into all things in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Unlike natural maturity, spiritual maturity does not come with age, it comes by yielding to God. Young children can be mature in Spirit – mature Sons -just as David, as a boy, was king.
RECEIVING THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE EVIDENCE OF BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT
The in-filling of the Holy Ghost is a necessity for a child of God to have the ability to mature fully as a Christian.
The infilling of the Holy Spirit is a surrendering of your mind, soul, and body to God – the letting go of ‘you’, and the allowing of the Spirit of God to begin to completely take over your life. This does not happen upon salvation. It can happen shortly after accepting Christ, but it is NOT the same experience as salvation. This separate experience is made clear in Acts 19:2: “Paul finding certain disciples asks, ‘Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?” They were saved and baptized, but had yet to receive the in-filling of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Spirit increases our knowledge and faith in the love of God. The infilling for this purpose began at the day of Pentecost as told in Acts 2:1-4: “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
The day of Pentecost which brought the infilling of the Holy Ghost gave us the power of His might, the very power of Christ Jesus, Himself. From that time forward, the Holy Spirit began to take the things of Christ and make them ours. “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I,that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (John 16:15).
So how does one receive the in-filling of the Holy Ghost? The same way we receive every single thing from God: by faith and believing.
The Word of God tells us the evidence that a person is filled with the Holy Ghost is the same today as it was at the time the book of Acts was written: “. . .and [they] began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” These people were speaking in tongues of men and angels (I Corinthians 13:1). God’s prayer language was given then – and it is given to us today – as the sign/evidence that we are filled with the Holy Ghost. Other examples that the infilling of the Holy Ghost requires the evidence of speaking in tongues are found in Acts 10:44-46 and in Acts 19:6. Yes, the sign a person is filled with the Holy Ghost is that they speak in other tongues.
Once filled with the Holy Ghost we understand and rejoice in the depths of the truth as we see with Spirit-enlightened eyes. “But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed [them] unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (I Corinthians 2:9-10). Speaking in tongues is our love language given to us from God to praise His Son. Romans 8:26: “. . .but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 14:39: “. . .forbid not to speak with tongues.” He rejoiced that he was filled with the Holy Ghost, and that he spake in tongues often. He tells us in I Corinthians 14:18: “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than ye all.”
Once filled with the Holy Ghost, a saint can grow into a life full of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 11:24 Paul saw Barnabas as “a man full of the Holy Ghost.” Paul encouraged Timothy to “stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.” (II Timothy 1:6). The full power of the Holy Ghost dwelling within is what enables us to overcome anything in life’s path, and causes us to have a real testimony.
The infilling of the Holy Ghost is how we have intimate worship with Jesus Christ, as we are supernaturally enabled to praise and worship Him. With the infilling of the Holy Ghost in your life you can receive Paul’s gospel that enlightens the mystery of Christ and the Church, as set forth in Ephesians 5:22-33.
THE APOSTLE PAUL AND THE FULL-COUNSEL GOSPEL
Paul was the apostle sent by God to minister the deep things of God tucked away in the mystery of Christ. It is written of Paul in Acts 9:15: “…for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings and the children of Israel.”
Before Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus {Acts 9:1-20}, Paul was known as Saul. He was a Pharisee of the religious sect of the Jews that refused to believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. Saul was so filled with hatred for Christ that he devoted his life to persecuting anyone who believed in Jesus. At the point of his conversion,Saul was on his way to capture men,women and children who loved the Lord to persecute them -even to death.
However,out of His great grace God had another plan for Saul:to make the chief of sinners (whom Paul would refer to himself as in I Timothy 1:12-15} the anointed and chosen vessel to bear the name of Jesus to he Jew and to the Gentile. As Saul, Paul was a murderous killer and blasphemer against the Truth. Yet, he was not too wicked to be saved by the blood of Jesus. God’s infinite grace forgives a multitude of sins {I Peter 4:8), and the Word of His grace builds us up and gives us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified {Acts 20:32).
God specially chose to reveal the mystery of Christ to Paul that the Gentiles {you and me} can now be made joint-heirs as husband and wife with Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:5}. Just as a king must have a queen, Christ Jesus as King will have a Queen to rule jointly with Him forever. Paul was dedicated to preaching the full counsel of God, as noted in Galatians 1:8: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Paul also noted that God Himself shall judge according to the dispensation of the gospel given to him: “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” (Romans 2:16).
Paul was made a minister to fulfill the Word of God: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you,and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” {Colossians 1:24-27). We are encouraged to follow Paul as he followed Christ: “Not as though I had already attained,either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of
Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12}.
“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen” {Romans 16:25-27).
THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST REVEALED TO PAUL
All God’s precious people,whether the Israelites of the Old Testament, or us today, have always been saved by one thing: by grace through faith in the freely shed blood of Jesus (Ephesians 2:8}. Even though the plan of God from the beginning was to bring many Sons to glory through His only begotten Son Jesus, there was a hidden plan, a “mystery”: Jesus Christ is to have a Bride.
This Bridal message was not for the Old Testament worthies of faith (i.e. Moses, Samuel, David, etc.). It is the “some better thing for us” (New Testament overcoming saints), “that they [the worthies of faith in Old Testament] without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40).
Ephesians 3:1-9 explains the message of the glorious bridal “crown glory” gospel which in type is like a queen is to her king. It is important to understand that these verses are not speaking to salvation. Salvation is not a mystery of Christ, nor is the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Bride of Christ, the rib portion that will be taken out from the whole Church at the first trump, is the mystery Paul wrote about.
The riches of the glory of the mystery of Christ is “Christ in you the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). This is a perfectly matured Son of God, fully grown up in faith and believing the Word of God, all by grace. Only through the Holy Spirit shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts does this transformation happen from glory to glory into even the very image of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Paul was completely convicted of heart, and the grace of God made him fully purposed for one thing: to win Christ Jesus as Bridegroom (Philippians 3:11-14).
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BRIDAL TYPES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Adam’s Rib
Genesis 2:21-22 tells us of the creation of Eve – the first wife – from Adam. In type Adam is the Church as a whole, the body of believers. Adam was asleep when the rib was taken from his side to create Eve, and in this age most of the Church is asleep (I Thess. 5). God will take a rib (those who are awake and looking for the return of Jesus as Bridegroom) out of the entire body of Christ (the church) at the first trump. This company of believers will be the Wife of the Lamb.
Noah
Noah and his family of eight survivors (eight represents the number of the Bride in the Bible) were not the only believers at that time. But Noah found grace in the sight of God (Genesis 6:8), and the Lord convicted his heart to be just and to yield to God. Because Noah obeyed God, he and his family did not see death. They were delivered in the ark, just as Jesus Christ (the ark) will deliver His Bride prior to the destruction and devastation that will come upon the earth in the seven-year tribulation.
Rebekah
Genesis 24 tells the wonderful account of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife. Abraham (type of God the Father) sends his servant, Eliezer (type of the Holy Spirit), to find a bride for Abraham’s son, Isaac (type of Christ the Son). The servant Eliezer prayed to God that he would know who this woman was, and Rebekah came out before the servant was finished speaking. Not only did Rebekah hasten to give the servant drink in a gracious and humble manner, she also hastened to water all his camels, providing life-sustaining water with a willing and cheerful heart attitude. When it was time to go on the journey to the master, she said “I will go”, and Rebekah went immediately with the servant. When Rebekah saw Isaac, she veiled herself, lifted up her eyes, and lighted off her camel to go meet him.
Ruth
Ruth was one of two daughters-in-law of Naomi. When Naomi’s husband and her sons died, she was left a widow with no heirs. Ruth was the only daughter-in-law who agreed to go with Naomi to her native country, saying “Whither thou goest, I will go and whither thou lodges!, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God.” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth was willing to leave all she knew – even her people – to dwell with and take care of her mother-in-la w. Naomi in type is like the Holy Spirit, and Ruth followed her wherever she went. Naomi guided Ruth to lie at the feet of a near kinsman, Boaz (type of Christ), whom she found favor with and who redeemed the inheritance for her. Ruth’s unselfish and bold heart led to marriage to Boaz and full redemption. If we go boldly and rest at the feet of Jesus for the purpose of marriage, in time we will be at His side as His Wife.
Esther
As a young orphan girl Esther is nurtured by the king’s chamberlain Hegai, and her uncle Mordecai. Both of these men in type represent the Holy Spirit who takes the things of Christ’s and makes them cur’s (John 16:14), so we can be the Readied Wife for Jesus at His coming. However, like Queen Vashti, some potential queens do not rejoice with gratitude and thankfulness to be the King’s wife – and their crown is removed. Here is Esther who alone was willing to do all that she was instructed by Hegai,a type of the Holy Spirit. She allowed Hegai (the Holy Spirit) to prepare her, to be presented before the King. Not only was Esther accepted by him, the King found her so beautiful he declared that he would share jointly all he had with her. (Esther 5:6, 7:2). Ruling and reigning jointly with Jesus forever is in the offering for us
today. By grace may we be like Esther, yielding to the workings of the Holy Spirit, and taking Him at His Word.
The Virtuous Woman
Proverbs 31:10-31 portrays the Virtuous Woman and many Bridal characteristics. This portion begins, “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.” This is a special one, out from among the daughters (believers). She is as the rarest gem. Her husband, Jesus Christ, can trust her completely with His heart (v. 11). She is diligent and works willingly, seeking the “wool” (the Lamb) and the “flax” (the fine white linen/righteous acts) (v. 13). She “bringeth her food from afar” (v. 14), as she rises up early in the day and feeds her household and others with the manna from heaven and the living water of the Word, Jesus (v.15). Her yielded life produces the fruit of the Spirit (v.16), and her strength is found in the Truth, which influences every part of her being (v.17). She fears nothing, even snow and winter do not intimidate her because she and her household are clothed with scarlet (blood of Jesus) (v. 21). Wisdom and kindness flow from her mouth (v. 26). Her children call her blessed, and her husband praises her for the work of grace she has allowed in her life (v. 28). There are “many daughters” (the majority of Christians), however she is the Virtuous Woman, the Bride of Christ, and she “excellest them all” (v. 29).
The Shulamite in the Song of Solomon
King Solomon wrote one thousand and five songs, but this is the only one recorded in the Word of God. This most beautiful and precious song is the superlative song of the lovers; the harmonious melody of the ones who have spirit-enlightened eyes only for each other, and who dine at the table for two in most intimate fellowship.
This Song is a song from the depths of the Bridegroom’s heart extoling the virtues of the Shulamite woman, encouraging her to grow unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).
While Solomon was a King on earth, and the Shulamite was likely Abishag mentioned in I Kings Chapter 1, this Song is really about the King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus Christ, and His absolute devotion and love for His Wife. There is no kingdom without a Queen to rule and reign with her King.
This Song begins with “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” A kiss on the mouth is personal; it is only shared between those who truly love each other. Our Bridegroom wants to kiss us with His Word so that we have an intimate knowledge of Him. These kisses equip us to fight the good fight of faith. The desire of the Bride of Christ is always toward the kisses of His mouth, His Word. And the Word of His grace grows her up so that she completes Him, they are one as Husband and Wife.
The Four Living Creatures/Beasts
In Ezekiel Chapters 1 and 10 “four living creatures” are noted – also referenced throughout the book of Revelation as the “four beasts.” These living creatures and beasts are Bridal types. In Ezekiel 1:12 it is noted that they “went straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went, and they turned not when they went.” The likeness of their faces includes the four-fold manifestation of Jesus in the gospels: the man, the lion, the ox, and the eagle. In Revelation they are the only company of believers seated in the midst of the throne as a queen is seated with her king.
BRIDAL MANIFESTATIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
In the New Testament the Bridal message transforms from types and shadows to the mystery of Christ revealed. In Philippians 3:14 Paul gets right to the point: “.. .I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus .” This verse makes it plain that there is a higher level of glory that by grace is in the offering to us that was not offered to God’s children who lived prior to Paul’s gospel.
I Corinthians 15:41 speaks of ranks in the resurrection: “[There is] one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars:for [one] star differeth from [another] star in glory.” Paul expounds in I Corinthians 15:22-23 : “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits;afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
Some saints will receive bodies as the moon,and a few will receive the “sun glory” of Christ Jesus . In Revelation 21:9-11, the Bride is seen descending from heaven having the glory of God,and she has her own light:the light of the life of Christ fully manifested in her.
In Revelation Chapters 4 and 7 the Lord shows the Apostle John different companies of believers in heaven,arriving at different times, and doing very different activities. In Revelation 4 :4 we see the first company to arrive in heaven: the 24 Elders,which are the Old Testament full overcomers . (You can read about some of them, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Joseph, etc., in the “Faith Hall of Fame” in the 11th Chapter of Hebrews}. They are very close to the throne, and worship with great praise around the throne of God.
The next group to arrive in heaven are the four living ones (Revelation 4:6}. These are redeemed saints who are full overcomers in Christ (Revelation 4:9}; the joint-heir saints who are the Lamb’s Wife, seated in the midst of the throne .
Revelation 7:9 gives a glimpse of the largest group in heaven and one of the last to arrive: the innumerable multitude.These come out from the tribulation,and God has to wipe away tears from their eyes (Revelation 7:17}. This innumerable multitude missed God’s best and had to endure hardship and suffering because they were ‘asleep’ at the first trump (1 Thessalonians 5}. Instead of being seated in the throne as the Bride, they stand before the throne waving palms. They are servants – only heirs of God, not joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
Perhaps the greatest of all passages expressing the various glories of saints in heaven is Romans 8:17: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together.” All God’s children are heirs, just as children in a family. But, there is a company of high calling saints, the joint -heirs with Jesus, the Lamb’s Wife, the King’s Queen; she is one with Him: “My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. The daughters saw her, and blessed her; yea, the queens and the concubines,and they praised her.” (Song of Solomon 6:9).
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THE END TIMES: FIRST TRUMPET RAPTURE
The ‘end times’ begin with the second coming of Christ, the capturing away of the Bridal company saints pictured in Smyrna and Philadelphia. These full overcomers are those who by grace have made themselves ready (Revelation 19:7). This small company of believers will be taken up at the first trump because they are ready now.
In Revelation Chapters 2 and 3 the Apostle John speaks of seven churches which show, in type, the state of believers at the time of the coming of the Lord. To some degree, most of the seven churches departed from the love of the Truth. Only the churches at Smyrna and Philadelphia will keep the Word dear and be ready for the coming of the Lord. Ephesus will come close with many good Christian qualities, but Jesus says of this church in Revelation 2:4: “I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.”
With the revelation of Paul’s gospel we can understand and be prepared for God’s purpose for us in the end times. Luke tells us in Acts 1:11: “Which also said, ‘Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”‘ Hebrews 9:28 lets us know Jesus is coming back: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” The primary requirement to see Jesus at the second coming is to be looking for Him and loving His appearing.
Paul states in II Timothy 4:8, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” This is the call to fall in love with Jesus and win His best. We need to be awake and ready for His appearing (I Thessalonians 5:4-7).
I Thessalonians 4:14-18 tells of the Bridal rapture. At this particular moment the Church Age has wrapped up, the time to win Christ Jesus as Bridegroom is over, and the seven year Tribulation begins. Paul said in Philippians 3:11: “. . .if by any means” (i.e., if any way possible, Jesus work that readiness and love in my life) that “I might attain” to the Bridal resurrection. The Bride will be spared right before the Tribulation begins. Most of God’s people (the innumerable multitude) will miss this opportunity and be raptured a couple of years later.
We are being offered the first trumpet rapture to be with Jesus, taken out before the Tribulation and kept from the hour of temptation (seven-year Tribulation). How glorious to know He loves us so much! He wants to keep us from the coming worldly sorrow. May we yield to the Word of His grace and be captured away at the first trump, ever to be with our Bridegroom in the air.
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THE THREE ORDINANCES:
BAPTISM, COMMUNION, AND THE HEAD COVERING FOR WOMEN
BAPTISM
Baptism is the public expression to God and believers that one has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior.
When we accept Christ, He gives us His eternal life. Galatians 2:20 is the summation of the reality of baptism: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
In baptism, the immersion in water symbolizes our death with Christ. Through faith in Christ we are raised up together with Him as we are symbolically raised up out of the water (the grave). We now live New Creation life because Christ lives in us. We are “. . .buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with [him] through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12). “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3- 4).
It is in the name of Jesus that we are baptized. The baptism referenced in Matthew 28:19 (baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost) is the baptism for the Millennium. It is not the baptism done in the name of Jesus – the baptism for this age.
Being baptized does not save you. If baptism was a requirement for salvation, one of the thieves on the cross would never have entered heaven, for he had no time for baptism since he did not accept Christ until the moment before his death, Upon drawing his last breath he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” Jesus replied, “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43). The thief confessed Jesus as Lord, and at that moment he was heaven bound.
Another clear example of the necessity of salvation before baptism is found in Acts 8:36-38, in the account of Philip and the eunuch: “And as they went on [their] way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, [here is] water; what doth hinder me to be (stop me from being) baptized? And· Philip said, ‘If thou believes! with all thine heart, thou mayest.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”
The eunuch first confessed belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God – and then he was baptized. These examples explain why infant baptism is of no effect for salvation. One must be of the age of accountability and be able to have confessed Jesus as Lord before being baptized.
COMMUNION
Communion signifies our remembrance that Christ gave His body to be beaten and ravaged, and that He freely shed His blood for the sins of man for all time; by drinking juice and eating crackers we are in remembrance of His great sacrifice. Believing upon the once-for-all sacrifice of the shedding of His precious blood saves us from sin and death. (Hebrews 10:10).
“For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake [it], and said, ‘Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.’ After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when he had supped, saying,’This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me’. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” (Matthew 26:26-29 & I Corinthians 11:23-25).
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:28).
I Corinthians 11:27-29 shows us that communion is only for those who have accepted Christ Jesus as Savior. If one who has never accepted Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior takes of communion, they have taken unworthily: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink [this] cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of [that] bread, and drink of [that] cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.”
THE HEAD COVERING FOR WOMEN
God has set forth a precious order in the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul outlines the hierarchy of headship among believers and with God in I Corinthians 11:3: “But I would have you to know that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”
Through Paul and the high calling gospel given to him by God, women are to cover their heads while in church. The wearing of the head covering by a woman is an act of submission, ultimately to Christ’s headship in her life. This includes married and unmarried women, as the Apostle Paul does not specify only wives but includes all adult females as he addresses women.
“. . .every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with [her] head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.” (I Corinthians 11:5).
We have an example in Rebekah, found in Genesis 24:64-65, as she immediately covered herself in the presence of Isaac: “And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off her camel. For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail,and covered herself.”
God honors the woman in this outward expression of a heart of obedience and submission to Christ’s headship, as she is being fashioned to be the Bride for the soon-coming Bridegroom. Jesus Christ’s Bride will be completely surrendered to all the perfect and complete will of her Lord. She will be chaste and devout in heart and soul only to Him.
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PLACING OUR EXPECTATION IN CHRIST
We are encouraged in the Word of God to let Jesus be our expectation. Psalms 62:5 tells us,”My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from him.” This verse is the heart that cries out for complete faith in Christ for everything in our lives.
As God’s children, we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavens in Christ: “Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3).
We live by faith and in complete confidence in Him that He will perfect that which concerns us (Psalm 138:8).God withholds nothing good from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). God assures us in I Peter 1:7 that the trials of our faith are much more precious than gold.
Psalms 37:4 encourages us:”Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” May our prayer always be: Lord, give me the desires of Your heart. Have Your way in my life, Lord . Yes, I do have desires, needs, and wants, but may I always bring these before You to convict my heart through Your Word, to show me the things that are of everlasting benefit.
Paul said in Philippians 3:7-8: “But what things were gain to me (or dear to me), those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” Paul encourages us: “Let this mind be in you,which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). What thanks to God that we can operate in boldness in our lives, knowing that we have the very mind of Christ to lead us all the way into the midst of the throne to rule and reign with Him forever.
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