Revelation 19:6-9

I think it may be good to recognize the harlot, Babylon, that has now been destroyed, as the zeitgeist of Satan and this world, totally driven by enmity against God. Because it is within this chaotic mess that God is working everything toward the end that He is determined from before the foundations of the earth. It is from within this system that God is putting all the pieces together to create His perfect Family, a Family He can totally trust to live as He lives, productively with outgoing concern for others in all things.

It is within this Babylon that most of mankind lives, battling among themselves, driven by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Yet it is within this mess that the wife of Christ is making herself ready, living under the sovereign direction of the Word of God within the chaos around us.

Now I would like to read these verses in Revelation 19 from the Amplified Bible that brings additional description of God's judgment and more importantly, of the impending joy of all for a job well done.

Note the preparation of the bride was accomplished through living as Jesus Christ does in righteousness. The bride is allowed to dress in the dazzling clothing of righteousness, as the Amplified noted in Revelation 19:8. The prepared, upright, just, and godly living in deeds and conduct and right standing with God. You may remember this in line with what I cited from President Reagan's commencement address to the Citadel, class of 1993, when he said,

As I mentioned in that last sermon I gave at the Feast, within this world that is always driven according to the zeitgeist of Babylon, the wife of Christ must be revealed at His return. She has the privilege and responsibility now to walk not yoked with this world's mindset of chaos and confusion, but in unity with Him prepared right now within the truth of God's Word in upright, just, and goodly living, deeds, and conduct and right standing with God.

These are the things that are already put in place to create the absolutely perfectly prepared helpmate of Christ, and within His Word, God has faithfully given us the table of contents for the wife of Christ's instruction manual, a table of contents that we can spend a lifetime expanding in the details we glean from this chapter.

So let us turn to the wife of Christ's preparation manual, to Proverbs 31, and we are going to read all the way from verse 10 through the end of the chapter. But I want us to consider this beyond what we normally would consider the physical ideal wife. I would like us to think about all these words with ourselves in mind regarding what the wife of Christ, who has made herself ready, is to be doing right now.

Revelation 19:6-8

As we wait, then, we are to cultivate a heart of eagerness for the Lord's appearing, while taking care not to be just emotional, but prepared for the event when it happens. You know the perfect metaphor for this? It is like a bride preparing for her wedding. She is eager and expectant, and wants this event to occur yesterday, but she knows that she has to be careful and plan for the wedding. So on the one hand, she is eager, on the other hand, she is assiduous, she is careful and enduring, so that she can prepare for when that day arrives. Notice what it says in Revelation 19 about the bride, verses 6 through 8.

She was eager and assiduous, she did her job eagerly, expectantly, and she was ready for the wedding.

Revelation 19:1-8

Brethren, this is the bride of Christ that has done whatever it takes under the direction of the Bridegroom to be fully ready when Christ returns. He has supplied all the fine garments to be worn by His bride. The bride has carefully participated in the preparation to be the fulfilling and perfect helpmate of Jesus Christ within all that He could provide.

Although Revelation 19:7 tells us the bride has made herself ready, verse 8 shows us it is only through the humble cooperative effort with Jesus Christ, who supplies everything we need to finish the training of perfection, that this will be an accomplished end.