The Washing of the Bridegroom
Consider the fire of the LORD: His purging, refining, saving, damning, loving, hating, glorious, terrible, eternal fire!
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zech 13:9)
But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: (Mal 3:2)
Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt 3:12)
Beloved sisters, how I need His grace to give you a small glimpse of the unfathomable mystery of the bridegroom’s baptism in the Water of the WORD! Ultimately this water is the refining judging presence of the living God to purify His Bride by abolishing all that does not conform unto His holiness and by purging the filth from that which is subservient unto Him. How the heathen and the backslidden cannot comprehend this baptism! For the nature of this washing which is unto the beautification of the bride, the mortification of her filth, and the redemption of her soul, that she may be suitable unto the bridegroom, defies the pride of life that reigns through the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2)!
The washing of the bridegroom refers to the experience of the bride that occurs as a result of the bridegroom’s effective performance of the LORD’s charges in Eph 5:25-33. The commanded response of the bride to the bridegroom’s washing is given in Eph 5:22-24.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body.24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,27 That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. (Eph 5:22-33)
The Bridegroom’s Washing
The Bride’s Part in the Washing
· Submits to the bridegroom as unto the LORD
· Subjects herself to the bridegroom in everything as the church is subject to Christ
The Bridegroom’s Part in the Washing
· Head of the wife
· Savior of the body
· Loves the bride as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for it
· Loves the bride as his own body
· Leaves his father and mother and becomes one flesh with the bride
The Result of the Washing
· The bridegroom sanctifies and cleanses the bride with the washing of water through the WORD
· The purpose of the latter is that he might present the bride unto the LORD, as a glorious saint, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish
Ultimately, the man of God labors that his wife may attain and maintain Biblical perfection unto the Day of Judgment; see the Condescension of God chapter 19: The Partial Completion of the Gospel—Present Progressive Salvation Explained). To introduce “the bridegroom’s Washing”, here is a journal excerpt from the day the LORD revealed to me a glimpse of this washing (1/27/14):
The washing of the Bridegroom does sweep over me, even the purging of this carnal massacre, the onslaught that would destroy my soul lest I be slain by His piercing WORD. Surely the Bridegroom had cast me unto the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all His billows and waves past over me. His purging water compassed me about, even to the soul, the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped around my head. This great mystery of the Bridegroom and His wife is dispensed in this Divine washing, this holy baptism, this refining washing, whereby the bride’s self is denied, her flesh is subdued, and she is resurrected a glorious entity, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Oh her beauty and splendor do come entirely through this baptismal furnace! She is indeed His glory! This woman is the glory of the God-Man Jesus Christ. Her baptism of death to the sinful flesh cannot be escaped if she is to remain His cherished wife. The LORD has surely commanded me to enter into this purging washing through my lord Sean by faith, though I see not, nor know the length of time that it will last. He commands me to be still before His presence, to possess patient endurance through this washing. There is no other way! There is no other way to see His will come to pass, even to see His glory upon the earth. It is called a mystery because I do not understand it. The world presents the false inverse paradigm: the bride has her own independent splendor and glory But in this Gospel, Jesus Christ is LORD! King of kings! Oh my soul, resist not this purging washing! Forsake not this holy circumcision. Will you return when you fall in the constraining of His love? Surely the boundary lines have fallen for this bride in pleasant places. Surely she has a delightful inheritance. His love does lead her into and keep her in this furnace of affliction until she is ready. By His love will her obedience faith overcome.
Sisters, how the false carnal wisdom of the world staggers at the heavenly wisdom of the bridegroom’s washing! How the world has lied to you sister! It has taught you that the bride has beauty of her own, that she is desirable to the bridegroom in her own stead due to her beauty and talents and various other carnal assets. The world teaches you that after marriage it ought to be “happily ever after” as though both bridegroom and bride were already perfect! Yet the eternal unchanging true wisdom of God reveals to us that within true marriage among us, in the sense of all that God created marriage to be unto His glory and the good pleasure of His will, the bride must undergo world-changing earth-shattering refinement and purging. The bridegroom, through his washing with the WORD, does baptize his dear bride continually in the holy SWORD which does slay her adulteress spirit each time it arises unto her progressive sanctification and perfection before the King of kings and LORD of lords! In the midst of these washings, there is pain, sorrow, agony, and distress for the bride, for she has much to be purged of. There is much circumcision of the heart that she must be brought through within her God-ordained marriage for the redemptive path that she has undertaken by her own volition to follow Christ!
How the bride does burn within these washings, and yet they are her life! For the commandment of her husband given by the decree of the LORD is a lamp; and the law he gives her is light; and reproof and instruction are the way of life (Prov 6:23). Dear sister, did you expect to be perfected on the day of your marriage ceremony? It is certainly not the case! Not only is it possible for these washings to ensue, but they certainly will ensue if the husband and wife are in the will of God. And not only will they certainly ensue, and so you believe them to be one aspect of the marital union, in addition to other more significant things. No dear sisters, the washing of the bridegroom, with the bridegroom led of the LORD and the wife in subjection within these washings is the crux of the marital union itself! This is why the passage on the mystery of marriage in Eph 5:22-33 speaks specifically and pointedly about this purging. This is the mystery of marriage: the bridegroom is to purge carnality with the SWORD of the Spirit, which is the WORD of God, and the bride is to subject herself unto this washing. She must acknowledge that has not been perfect, nor near perfection. She must humble herself under this washing, seeking not to defend her ways, to justify herself before her husband, to accuse her husband as a result of her own self-exaltation, or to flee the washing. If she desires to be a help meet unto her husband, to be all that she, in the Spirit, desires to be unto her husband, she must set her heart to face her sin in the washings and subject herself to the WORD of God from her husband.
Dear sisters, I know not how to emphasize this enough! When you consider your marriage, you must be prepared to humble yourself to these washings, to surrender to them. Surely the remainder of your sin will be exposed, some at a time, and at each time, your husband, as He follows the LORD is going to slay the wickedness in you with the WORD. And at each of those time, as you have likely experienced, you will be tempted intensely with the pride of your flesh to think evil of your husband, to question his kind intention, to fear that he has failed to understand the state of your soul, that he is not aware of your manifold burdens, THAT HE IS A HARD MAN, that he is not giving you the worth that you in your pride feel that you deserve, and with worldly sorrow that your marriage is destroyed because your husband has called attention to your vileness and thus you are not the irresistible beauty that you had falsely relied upon as the foundation of the flourishing of your union…and you have a choice: to follow the LORD or to obey the antichrist. Every step in the way of pride results in increasingly severe chastening of the LORD (the LORD loves you sister and desires that you be not damned in the hardness of your heart!). Every step in the way of pride causes you to lose the very thing that you had desired: perfect Spiritual oneness with him.
How simple it is for our minds to be beguiled when our moral filth is exposed to our husband. For in the pride of our flesh we had presumed upon our own resources for the eliciting of the husband’s love, and thus when he exposes the incompetency of our resources we are tempted to believe that all is lost, as though the health of the union were dependent upon our moral assets. And thus when the sin is exposed the pride of your flesh causes you to go into denial, to hide behind fig leaves of self-defense, taking the offensive by accusing your husband of ignorance, hatred, or carnal anger. But the mystery of the bridegroom’s washing, dear sisters, is that it is your humble SUBJECTION within the inevitable washing, a washing that is inevitable, because it is inevitable that you will have besetting sin, that your husband will seek to purge, and which, if your do not surrender to this purging to be delivered from, you will perish in hell! For Christ said that it is for judgment that He is come into the world, that they which see not, they which humble themselves and acknowledge their blindness might see, and that they which see according to the false sight of the pride of their hearts might not see. Oh sister, when your husband exposes your blindness and you claim that you are not blind, that you can see, when indeed you cannot, your sin remaineth! LORD have mercy. (see John 9:39-41)
Thus, the health and flourishing of your marriage, its conformance into everything you have righteously desired it to be is dependent upon your humble subjection to the washing your husband brings upon your sin. You must not harden your heart when you are faced in these washings. You must meekly surrender, follow, listen, learn, pray, and ENDURE! It is all that you may know Christ! You are going to see Christ! Oh you are going to see Christ! And as a result, you will be walking in the light and the fellowship you so yearned for with your husband will take place. Oh sister, when the sin is exposed, all is not lost! Humbly surrender to your husband, to the WORD of God, and the desire of your heart, the special blessing, will be around the corner in the providence of the heavenly Father! Indeed after ye have suffered a while, He will make you perfect, strengthen, stablish, and settle you (1 Pet 5:10)
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:32 But though He cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. (Lam 3:27-33)
Consider the result of the bridegroom’s washing stated in the Eph 5 passage: the bride is sanctified and cleansed, she is presented unto the LORD as a glorious saint, she is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish! Why is this bride so Spiritually stunning: glorious, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish, holy? It is because she has subjected herself to the LORD through the washings of purging. This is your deliverance dear sisters! Surely the sin will be exposed! Certainly your husband will expose your sin! But what will you do? Will you surrender to the washing and reap the outcome of being your husband’s glorious bride and a part of the LORD’s glorious Bride? Or will you dig your own grave and destroy your household?
O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer;
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee!
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
O to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wand’ring sinners to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.
O to be like Thee! Lord, I am coming,
Now to receive th’ anointing divine;
All that I am and have I am bringing;
Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.
O to be like Thee! While I am pleading
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love.
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit for a life which Thou wouldst approve.
Hymn: Oh, to be Like Thee
Sisters, as you count the cost of following Christ, even in the building of the tower of a God-exalting marriage, you must be prepared and willing to remain humble and subject through these washings. Your obedience to the LORD within marriage through this subjection has everything to do with the state of your soul before God, your Biblical perfection, that you may be worthy on judgment Day, that you may continue to see and know your dear LORD Jesus Christ! Surely whoever does not bear his cross, and come after Christ, cannot be His disciple! And if you forsake not all you have, you cannot be His disciple. (see Luke 14:27-33) You must forsake your self-righteousness, your desire to glory in yourself before your husband, your pride…
Finally beloved sisters, I cannot fail to mention that you are following the LORD Jesus Christ, your LORD, as your subject yourselves to these washings. Though they must come upon you because of your own sin, if you humble yourself under the WORD of God, the cleansing wave, the LORD Jesus will embrace you with floods of heavenly love, comfort, and peace through the burn of the washing. Even through the pain of the chastening, if you humble yourself, the LORD has purposed and promised to bring you through, to make you victorious over your sin. For if we be dead with Christ, we know that we shall live with Him (Rom 6:8, 2 Tim 2:11). Thus, in the pain, oh may we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God which does embrace us through the pain and assure us of a moral resurrection regarding the issue at hand! Know we not that as 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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin! (Rom 6:3-7)
How this washing upon my filth does pain and weary my soul
Oh the pangs upon my lips from His burning coal
Yet He does still capture me with His intense loving gaze
This broken and contrite spirit hath He regarded and thus willed to save me from this haze
Oh He hath slain the root of bitterness with His mighty Sword
To resist His redemptive floods, God forbid, damnation I cannot afford
I love you, I love you, I love you He does repeat as He embraces me with great strength
For He Himself has suffered infinitely more in my stead, for my salvation, He would go any length
Oh He has drank the full torrent, and He does hold me now through the washing of my mire
So to be faithful, stedfast, and trusting I wholeheartedly do aspire
Go to Chapter 5 Weapons of Warfare
Consider the fire of the LORD: His purging, refining, saving, damning, loving, hating, glorious, terrible, eternal fire!
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on My name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. (Zech 13:9)
But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: (Mal 3:2)
Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt 3:12)
Beloved sisters, how I need His grace to give you a small glimpse of the unfathomable mystery of the bridegroom’s baptism in the Water of the WORD! Ultimately this water is the refining judging presence of the living God to purify His Bride by abolishing all that does not conform unto His holiness and by purging the filth from that which is subservient unto Him. How the heathen and the backslidden cannot comprehend this baptism! For the nature of this washing which is unto the beautification of the bride, the mortification of her filth, and the redemption of her soul, that she may be suitable unto the bridegroom, defies the pride of life that reigns through the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2)!
The washing of the bridegroom refers to the experience of the bride that occurs as a result of the bridegroom’s effective performance of the LORD’s charges in Eph 5:25-33. The commanded response of the bride to the bridegroom’s washing is given in Eph 5:22-24.
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He is the Saviour of the body.24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word,27 That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. 31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. (Eph 5:22-33)
The Bridegroom’s Washing
The Bride’s Part in the Washing
· Submits to the bridegroom as unto the LORD
· Subjects herself to the bridegroom in everything as the church is subject to Christ
The Bridegroom’s Part in the Washing
· Head of the wife
· Savior of the body
· Loves the bride as Christ loves the church and gave Himself for it
· Loves the bride as his own body
· Leaves his father and mother and becomes one flesh with the bride
The Result of the Washing
· The bridegroom sanctifies and cleanses the bride with the washing of water through the WORD
· The purpose of the latter is that he might present the bride unto the LORD, as a glorious saint, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish
Ultimately, the man of God labors that his wife may attain and maintain Biblical perfection unto the Day of Judgment; see the Condescension of God chapter 19: The Partial Completion of the Gospel—Present Progressive Salvation Explained). To introduce “the bridegroom’s Washing”, here is a journal excerpt from the day the LORD revealed to me a glimpse of this washing (1/27/14):
The washing of the Bridegroom does sweep over me, even the purging of this carnal massacre, the onslaught that would destroy my soul lest I be slain by His piercing WORD. Surely the Bridegroom had cast me unto the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all His billows and waves past over me. His purging water compassed me about, even to the soul, the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped around my head. This great mystery of the Bridegroom and His wife is dispensed in this Divine washing, this holy baptism, this refining washing, whereby the bride’s self is denied, her flesh is subdued, and she is resurrected a glorious entity, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Oh her beauty and splendor do come entirely through this baptismal furnace! She is indeed His glory! This woman is the glory of the God-Man Jesus Christ. Her baptism of death to the sinful flesh cannot be escaped if she is to remain His cherished wife. The LORD has surely commanded me to enter into this purging washing through my lord Sean by faith, though I see not, nor know the length of time that it will last. He commands me to be still before His presence, to possess patient endurance through this washing. There is no other way! There is no other way to see His will come to pass, even to see His glory upon the earth. It is called a mystery because I do not understand it. The world presents the false inverse paradigm: the bride has her own independent splendor and glory But in this Gospel, Jesus Christ is LORD! King of kings! Oh my soul, resist not this purging washing! Forsake not this holy circumcision. Will you return when you fall in the constraining of His love? Surely the boundary lines have fallen for this bride in pleasant places. Surely she has a delightful inheritance. His love does lead her into and keep her in this furnace of affliction until she is ready. By His love will her obedience faith overcome.
Sisters, how the false carnal wisdom of the world staggers at the heavenly wisdom of the bridegroom’s washing! How the world has lied to you sister! It has taught you that the bride has beauty of her own, that she is desirable to the bridegroom in her own stead due to her beauty and talents and various other carnal assets. The world teaches you that after marriage it ought to be “happily ever after” as though both bridegroom and bride were already perfect! Yet the eternal unchanging true wisdom of God reveals to us that within true marriage among us, in the sense of all that God created marriage to be unto His glory and the good pleasure of His will, the bride must undergo world-changing earth-shattering refinement and purging. The bridegroom, through his washing with the WORD, does baptize his dear bride continually in the holy SWORD which does slay her adulteress spirit each time it arises unto her progressive sanctification and perfection before the King of kings and LORD of lords! In the midst of these washings, there is pain, sorrow, agony, and distress for the bride, for she has much to be purged of. There is much circumcision of the heart that she must be brought through within her God-ordained marriage for the redemptive path that she has undertaken by her own volition to follow Christ!
How the bride does burn within these washings, and yet they are her life! For the commandment of her husband given by the decree of the LORD is a lamp; and the law he gives her is light; and reproof and instruction are the way of life (Prov 6:23). Dear sister, did you expect to be perfected on the day of your marriage ceremony? It is certainly not the case! Not only is it possible for these washings to ensue, but they certainly will ensue if the husband and wife are in the will of God. And not only will they certainly ensue, and so you believe them to be one aspect of the marital union, in addition to other more significant things. No dear sisters, the washing of the bridegroom, with the bridegroom led of the LORD and the wife in subjection within these washings is the crux of the marital union itself! This is why the passage on the mystery of marriage in Eph 5:22-33 speaks specifically and pointedly about this purging. This is the mystery of marriage: the bridegroom is to purge carnality with the SWORD of the Spirit, which is the WORD of God, and the bride is to subject herself unto this washing. She must acknowledge that has not been perfect, nor near perfection. She must humble herself under this washing, seeking not to defend her ways, to justify herself before her husband, to accuse her husband as a result of her own self-exaltation, or to flee the washing. If she desires to be a help meet unto her husband, to be all that she, in the Spirit, desires to be unto her husband, she must set her heart to face her sin in the washings and subject herself to the WORD of God from her husband.
Dear sisters, I know not how to emphasize this enough! When you consider your marriage, you must be prepared to humble yourself to these washings, to surrender to them. Surely the remainder of your sin will be exposed, some at a time, and at each time, your husband, as He follows the LORD is going to slay the wickedness in you with the WORD. And at each of those time, as you have likely experienced, you will be tempted intensely with the pride of your flesh to think evil of your husband, to question his kind intention, to fear that he has failed to understand the state of your soul, that he is not aware of your manifold burdens, THAT HE IS A HARD MAN, that he is not giving you the worth that you in your pride feel that you deserve, and with worldly sorrow that your marriage is destroyed because your husband has called attention to your vileness and thus you are not the irresistible beauty that you had falsely relied upon as the foundation of the flourishing of your union…and you have a choice: to follow the LORD or to obey the antichrist. Every step in the way of pride results in increasingly severe chastening of the LORD (the LORD loves you sister and desires that you be not damned in the hardness of your heart!). Every step in the way of pride causes you to lose the very thing that you had desired: perfect Spiritual oneness with him.
How simple it is for our minds to be beguiled when our moral filth is exposed to our husband. For in the pride of our flesh we had presumed upon our own resources for the eliciting of the husband’s love, and thus when he exposes the incompetency of our resources we are tempted to believe that all is lost, as though the health of the union were dependent upon our moral assets. And thus when the sin is exposed the pride of your flesh causes you to go into denial, to hide behind fig leaves of self-defense, taking the offensive by accusing your husband of ignorance, hatred, or carnal anger. But the mystery of the bridegroom’s washing, dear sisters, is that it is your humble SUBJECTION within the inevitable washing, a washing that is inevitable, because it is inevitable that you will have besetting sin, that your husband will seek to purge, and which, if your do not surrender to this purging to be delivered from, you will perish in hell! For Christ said that it is for judgment that He is come into the world, that they which see not, they which humble themselves and acknowledge their blindness might see, and that they which see according to the false sight of the pride of their hearts might not see. Oh sister, when your husband exposes your blindness and you claim that you are not blind, that you can see, when indeed you cannot, your sin remaineth! LORD have mercy. (see John 9:39-41)
Thus, the health and flourishing of your marriage, its conformance into everything you have righteously desired it to be is dependent upon your humble subjection to the washing your husband brings upon your sin. You must not harden your heart when you are faced in these washings. You must meekly surrender, follow, listen, learn, pray, and ENDURE! It is all that you may know Christ! You are going to see Christ! Oh you are going to see Christ! And as a result, you will be walking in the light and the fellowship you so yearned for with your husband will take place. Oh sister, when the sin is exposed, all is not lost! Humbly surrender to your husband, to the WORD of God, and the desire of your heart, the special blessing, will be around the corner in the providence of the heavenly Father! Indeed after ye have suffered a while, He will make you perfect, strengthen, stablish, and settle you (1 Pet 5:10)
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. 30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever:32 But though He cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. 33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. (Lam 3:27-33)
Consider the result of the bridegroom’s washing stated in the Eph 5 passage: the bride is sanctified and cleansed, she is presented unto the LORD as a glorious saint, she is without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish! Why is this bride so Spiritually stunning: glorious, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish, holy? It is because she has subjected herself to the LORD through the washings of purging. This is your deliverance dear sisters! Surely the sin will be exposed! Certainly your husband will expose your sin! But what will you do? Will you surrender to the washing and reap the outcome of being your husband’s glorious bride and a part of the LORD’s glorious Bride? Or will you dig your own grave and destroy your household?
O to be like Thee! blessed Redeemer;
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee!
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
O to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wand’ring sinners to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer, others to save.
O to be like Thee! Lord, I am coming,
Now to receive th’ anointing divine;
All that I am and have I am bringing;
Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.
O to be like Thee! While I am pleading
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love.
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit for a life which Thou wouldst approve.
Hymn: Oh, to be Like Thee
Sisters, as you count the cost of following Christ, even in the building of the tower of a God-exalting marriage, you must be prepared and willing to remain humble and subject through these washings. Your obedience to the LORD within marriage through this subjection has everything to do with the state of your soul before God, your Biblical perfection, that you may be worthy on judgment Day, that you may continue to see and know your dear LORD Jesus Christ! Surely whoever does not bear his cross, and come after Christ, cannot be His disciple! And if you forsake not all you have, you cannot be His disciple. (see Luke 14:27-33) You must forsake your self-righteousness, your desire to glory in yourself before your husband, your pride…
Finally beloved sisters, I cannot fail to mention that you are following the LORD Jesus Christ, your LORD, as your subject yourselves to these washings. Though they must come upon you because of your own sin, if you humble yourself under the WORD of God, the cleansing wave, the LORD Jesus will embrace you with floods of heavenly love, comfort, and peace through the burn of the washing. Even through the pain of the chastening, if you humble yourself, the LORD has purposed and promised to bring you through, to make you victorious over your sin. For if we be dead with Christ, we know that we shall live with Him (Rom 6:8, 2 Tim 2:11). Thus, in the pain, oh may we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God which does embrace us through the pain and assure us of a moral resurrection regarding the issue at hand! Know we not that as 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. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin! (Rom 6:3-7)
How this washing upon my filth does pain and weary my soul
Oh the pangs upon my lips from His burning coal
Yet He does still capture me with His intense loving gaze
This broken and contrite spirit hath He regarded and thus willed to save me from this haze
Oh He hath slain the root of bitterness with His mighty Sword
To resist His redemptive floods, God forbid, damnation I cannot afford
I love you, I love you, I love you He does repeat as He embraces me with great strength
For He Himself has suffered infinitely more in my stead, for my salvation, He would go any length
Oh He has drank the full torrent, and He does hold me now through the washing of my mire
So to be faithful, stedfast, and trusting I wholeheartedly do aspire
Go to Chapter 5 Weapons of Warfare