Now here's what's interesting, 99% of people that you talk to, it seems like, totally misunderstand
the subject of the bride of Christ in the Bible.
And there are a couple different variations on this.
Let me first talk about the most extreme variation.
There's a teaching out there of people who call themselves Baptist briders.
And it always blows my mind how people just create these man-made doctrines that have
no basis in reality, they have no basis in scripture, and they're vehement.
I mean, they're just militantly promoting this doctrine.
And there are so many things that the Bible actually says that we could get all fired
up about.
They get fired up about things that aren't even in the Bible.
For example, when Brother Chris Sose started coming to our church, some of his family warned
him.
They said, "Stay away from that faithful word Baptist church."
They said, "That's a bad church."
And he said, "Well, what's wrong with it?"
He said, "Well, they're a non-brider church."
And he said, "Non-brider?
What in the world does that mean?"
And he came to me and he said, "Pastor Anderson, I hear you're a non-brider.
What's that mean?"
And I told him, I said, "I'll tell you what, Chris."
I said, "On Sunday morning, I'm gonna preach a whole sermon on the bride of Christ."
And that's what I did.
I preached a whole sermon and explained the whole thing.
But this Baptist bride doctrine teaches that the bride of Christ will only consist of Baptists,
people that are part of a Baptist church.
Now where in the world they're getting this doctrine, I don't understand.
But that's what this, and they're saying I'm a non-brider because I don't believe that
strange doctrine that says you're not part of the bride of Christ unless you attend a
Baptist church.
And then there are even more extreme variations of this that teach that you have to be baptized
in a Baptist church by someone who was baptized by someone who was baptized by someone who
was baptized all the way back to John the Baptist.
And if that chain is broken in any way, you're not part of the bride.
And you know what?
I really hope that, you know, Pastor Armour, who baptized me when I was nine years old,
had that pedigree, you know, like from the AKC or whatever, going all the way back to
John the Baptist, you know, to prove that he was qualified to baptize me.
I mean, what kind of a strange doctrine is this?
And it's going to become even more obvious to you how bizarre this doctrine is as we
actually read what the chapter says.
Obviously that's a strange doctrine.
Obviously that's very bizarre and very extreme to teach that, but there are a lot of people
who teach it, believe it or not.
But I'll say this, even though that's kind of a fringe teaching and kind of, you know,
not as common, I would say this, 99% of Baptists, in my opinion, from what I've seen, 99% of
Baptists probably will teach that the bride of Christ consists of church-age saints or
New Testament saints only will be part of the bride of Christ.
And here's what they'll say, the church is the bride of Christ and therefore the bride
of Christ will consist of church-age saints.
And I'm sure you've heard it before, I mean, it's probably 99% literally that teach this.
And again, it's very unscriptural.
The statement that says the church is the bride of Christ is a false statement.
It's not true.
Now, first of all, go to chapter 19, I'll prove to you that it's not true.
In chapter 19 of Revelation, the Bible reads in verse 7, "Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to Him.
For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.
For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."
Now look at verse 7 there.
It said, "For the marriage of the Lamb is come."
The verb is come means it just came right now.
And Revelation 19 is at the end of the seven years.
So let me ask you this, is the church the bride of Christ today if the wedding is going
to happen in the future after the tribulation and after God has poured out all his wrath?
I mean, good night.
What if somebody's engaged and they're going to get married a year from now?
Would we call that person the bride?
Would we call her his wife?
No, because she becomes the bride when?
On the wedding day.
Is she the bride seven years before the wedding day or eight years before the wedding day?
Absolutely not.
So the statement the church is the bride of Christ is a misguided statement, number one.
Number two, if you would just use a concordance and just look up the term bride in the Bible.
The first time the term bride is used in the New Testament is in John chapter three.
And in John chapter three, John the Baptist uses a parable to describe himself.
And he says, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.
But the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because
of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled."
And what John the Baptist is saying with that parable is that he is not the main event.
If you remember, he was always pointing to Jesus Christ, saying, "You know, I'm not the
Christ.
I'm not even worthy to stoop down and unloose his shoe latchet."
That's what John the Baptist said.
He said, "Look, he must increase, I must decrease."
And what he's using there is a parable to explain, "Look, Jesus is the bridegroom.
I'm more like the best man," because he said, "I'm like the friend of the bridegroom."
That's where my joy is fulfilled, not to be the main event, but to share in the bridegroom
special day.
You know, if you're the best man at a wedding, you're not there to steal the show and make
the day be all about you.
No, you're just there to be happy for your friend and to rejoice in his day.
And you always want the emphasis at a wedding, of course, to be on the bride and on the groom.
And so John the Baptist is just using that parable to explain his role as the best man,
so to speak, the guy who points to Jesus and gives him all the glory and lets it be all
about him.
Now, you can't just take that parable and just run with it and make it mean whatever
you want.
I mean, that's what it says.
That's what he meant.
That's the context.
End of story.
There's a tendency sometimes to abuse parables.
And the Bible says the legs of the lame are not equal.
So is a parable in the mouth of fools.
And so we need to be careful that we don't twist parables into meaning something they
don't mean.
So the word bride is mentioned in John 3.
You want to know when the next time God uses the word bride in the New Testament?
Revelation 21, okay?
So there's no mention of the term bride from John 3 to Revelation 21.
So it sounds to me like we're going to get our doctrine on the bride of Christ from Revelation
21.
Isn't that what it sounds like?
Because that's the only place it's mentioned besides John just using a parable about a
bride and a bridegroom, really Revelation 21 is our primary source of this doctrine.
And if we look at Revelation 21 and read it, I can prove to you several different ways
right now that the church "is not the bride of Christ" and that the bride of Christ does
not consist of church-age saints or even New Testament saints, but that rather the bride
of Christ consists of every believer who has ever lived throughout all ages.
Old Testament, New Testament, and if we let the Bible define itself, we'll see that.
Therefore, people saying, you know, "Well, the church, the bride of Christ, is a different
group."
No, no, no.
The bride of Christ is all believers, all saints from all ages, and I'll prove it to
you.
Let's read it together.
You be the judge.
He said, "I'm going to show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife, and he carried me away in
the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.
And her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal,
and had a wall, great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and
names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel."
Now stop right there.
Let me ask you this.
Does that sound like a New Testament church age group there, the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel?
Now if the names are written thereon, that means the names Ruben, Gad, Asher, those are
the names that are written on the foundation.
Are those people New Testament saints?
No, of course not.
Let's keep reading.
It says, "On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates,
and on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles
of the Lamb."
So the gates are labeled with the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve patriarchs from the
Old Testament.
The foundations are labeled with the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And then it says in verse 15, "And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure
the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.
And the city lie four square, and the length is as large as the breadth."
And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs, and we talked about the fact that
a furlong is an eighth of a mile.
The 12,000 furlongs is 1,500 miles, so this city is huge.
It's 1,500 miles by 1,500 miles and 1,500 miles high.
This is a huge city.
And it says in verse number 16 at the end there, "The length and the breadth and the
height of it are equal."
And he measured the wall thereof, 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is
if the angel, you know, roughly a little over 200 feet there.
And it says in verse 18, "The building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city
was pure gold, like unto clear glass, and the foundations of the wall of the city were
garnished with all manner of precious stones."
We'll come back to the precious stones in a moment.
But it says in verse number 21, "The twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate
was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."
It says in verse number 22, "And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it, and the city had no need of the sun, neither of the
moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of
the earth do bring their glory and honor into it, and the gates of it shall not be shut
at all by day, and there shall be no night there," and on and on.
So what do we see here?
When we look at this passage, is there any mention of the church, or church-age saints,
or you must go to a Baptist church, or you must be baptized by a guy who was baptized
by a guy who was baptized?
No, no, no.
What we see here is that the people who are part of this city are those that are saved.
It says the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.
In Revelation 19, it said that the lamb's wife with clothes and white raiment, which
is the righteousness of saints.
And look, people in the Old Testament were also called saints.
If they were saved, if they were believers, they were called saints.
In the New Testament, they're called saints.
Look, these are people who are believers from all ages, from all time.
I'll prove it to you further.
Go if you would to Ephesians chapter 2, because in Ephesians chapter 2, we actually have a
tie-in with Revelation 21, because if you remember, the city has 12 foundations and
on the 12 foundations are written the names of the 12 apostles.
You remember that?
Well, in Ephesians chapter 2, we see something very similar to that.
In verse 20, it says this, "And are built upon the foundation of the apostles."
Now, you think that's a coincidence?
I don't believe anything in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
And so, if Ephesians 20 is talking about being built on the foundation of the apostles, and
then in Revelation 21, he says, "Look, the city is built on twelve foundations that are
named after the twelve apostles."
There's a correlation here.
Let me show you what that correlation is, back up to verse 11.
It says, "Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are
called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands,
that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of
Christ."
He's saying, "Look, you used to be aliens of the commonwealth of Israel."
What's an alien?
I mean, you know, we live in Arizona, so you hear a lot of talk about aliens, right?
Illegal aliens.
Well, think about this.
Aliens are foreigners.
They're not citizens.
If we mentioned someone being an alien, we're saying they are not a citizen of our nation.
Well, here he's saying, "Look, in time past," look at verse 12, he says, "when you were
without Christ, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel."
Let me ask this, once you're in Christ, are you still an alien?
No you're not.
Because he says, "Now in Christ Jesus," verse 13, "ye who sometimes were far off are made
nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one."
And when he says both one, the context shows us he's talking about the uncircumcision and
the circumcision both being made one, that he has broken down the middle wall of partition
between us.
Verse 15, "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace."
And that he might reconcile both unto God.
So he's saying, look, the uncircumcision is reconciled to God.
The circumcision is reconciled, both are reconciled to God.
They're both made into one, they're both joined together in one.
He says that he has reconciled both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the
enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you, which were a far off and to them that
were nigh.
Look at verse 18.
Who are the ones that are far off?
The Gentiles.
Who are the ones that were nigh?
The Jews.
Okay.
And he says here, "For through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father."
That's why the Bible says elsewhere that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile.
It says in verse 19, "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners."
Remember he's talking to the Ephesians.
They're Gentiles.
He's saying, "Look, you're not uncircumcision.
You're not a stranger.
You're not a foreigner.
You're not an alien.
You are a fellow citizen with the saints and of the household of God and are built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets," Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
Wait a minute now, who is built on the foundation of the prophets?
Just the Gentiles?
Just the Ephesians?
Just the New Testament?
Just the church which is at Ephesus?
No, because he made of both, one.
And he said, "All of you are joined together, Jew, Gentile, bond-free, circumcision, uncircumcision.
You're all built on that foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.
Verse 21, "In whom all the," what?
The building.
You know, doesn't that make you think of that city that's built on that foundation?
"In whom all the building fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye are also builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
You say, "Oh, Pastor Anderson."
Ha, ha, ha.
This is just saying that in the New Testament, both Jew and Gentile are part of the, you
You know, the bride of Christ and part of that city and part of that building and built
on that foundation, but the Old Testament saints of another dispensation, you know,
they're not part of it.
Okay, go to Hebrews 11.
Go to Hebrews 11 because Hebrews 11 will prove it to you.
And really, you should have just been able to just read Revelation 21, see no mention
of the church, see listing Old Testament patriarchs.
How many Old Testament patriarchs?
Twelve.
How many New Testament apostles?
Twelve.
They're all in the same building, all in the same city.
That city represents the Bride of Christ, according to Revelation 21.