In this message we will continue to consider the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the Word of God—King of kings and Lord of lords.
According to Revelation 19, the church is both the bride who is presented to Christ and the warrior who fights with Him against God’s enemy. The armies in Revelation 19:14 are the called and chosen believers in 17:14. They are also both the bride and the guests called to the marriage dinner of the Lamb (19:7-9). The guests invited to the wedding feast and the bride are the same. The bride consists of the invited guests, and the invited guests make up the bride. After the wedding, all the guests will become the army. As the bride, we must be beautiful, without spot or wrinkle, and be clothed in fine linen. As the warrior, we must be equipped to fight against God’s enemy.
In Revelation 19:14 we see that the overcomers, as the armies which are in heaven and the ones who followed Him on white horses, are “dressed in fine linen, white and clean.” The fine linen here is the clothing of the bride. The wedding garment of “fine linen, bright and clean,” will be the armor for fighting. The overcomers who are the heavenly armies are those who constitute the bride of Christ. In other words, it will be the bride of Christ who will follow Him as His army to fight and destroy Antichrist and his army. Those who have overcome every obstacle will be Christ’s co-fighters in the final battle against Antichrist. These are His bride. They have become His co-fighters by His ministering the rich life supply to them. Surely the expectation is that His overcomers will be such co-fighters.
The overcoming saints have two garments, one for salvation and the other for reward. The fine linen here is the second garment. This second garment of the overcomers qualifies them both to attend the marriage dinner of the Lamb (vv. 8-9) and to fight with the Lord against His enemy. Thus, the wedding garment becomes the fighting garment. The second garment qualifies us not only to attend the wedding but also to join the army. The bride’s wedding garment will be the uniform that she wears as God’s army to fight against His enemy. As we have seen, this garment is Christ lived out of us to be our daily righteousness. Even today, we are fighting by Christ as our garment. Ephesians 6 indicates that the whole armor of God is Christ. Furthermore, the Lord’s army will be on white horses as a properly formed heavenly army.
At His coming again, the Lord Jesus first will meet His bride. After receiving the bride, Christ and the overcomers will enter into battle against the enemy. According to Revelation 19:11, the Lord will ride on a white horse, and the armies which are in heaven will follow Him on white horses, dressed in fine linen, white and clean.
Just as in Ephesians 5 and 6 we see the church as the bride and as the warrior, in Revelation 19 we also have these two aspects of the church. As the church, we are the bride and the warrior. In God’s economy there is one army constituted of a corporate warrior. This means that the warrior in Ephesians 6 is a corporate entity. Only as a corporate entity, the Body, can we put on the whole armor of God. This is contrary to the concept held by many Christians that an individual believer is able to wear the entire armor. The armor in Ephesians 6 is not for Christians as individuals; it is for the church corporately as the Body. What this chapter reveals is not the believers fighting as individuals but a corporate army fighting the battle for God’s interests on earth.
Spiritual warfare is not an individual matter; it is a matter of the Body, a corporate entity to fight the battle against God’s enemy. No soldier in a modern army would enter into battle by himself. Rather, he would fight as part of a well-trained and fully equipped army. After we have been formed corporately into an army, we will be able to fight against God’s enemy. God’s strategy is to use the church as His army to fight against the enemy. Therefore, it is very dangerous to be isolated from the army. Only by remaining in the army will we have the necessary protection.
According to Ephesians 6, the Lord with His might is the armor that we put on for our protection. This means that we, as the Body, need to put on Christ Himself as our armor. In order to fight in the spiritual warfare, we must have Christ as the whole armor of God. In 6:14-17 there are six aspects of Christ as the armor: the girdle of truth, or reality; the breastplate of righteousness; the firm foundation of the gospel of peace, the shoes; the shield of faith; the helmet of salvation; and the sword of the Spirit. Therefore, the whole armor of God consists of the girdle, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, the helmet, and the sword.
According to verses 17 and 18, we receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit by means of all prayer and petition. Actually, prayer is the means by which we receive all the aspects of the whole armor of God. It is by praying in spirit that we apply the girdle of reality, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes as the firm foundation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
Among the various items of the armor, only the sword is for offensive warfare; that is, it is the only item of God’s armor used for attacking the enemy. In spiritual warfare we must deal not only with the objective enemy but even more with the subjective adversary. Satan is not only the enemy outside of us; he is also the adversary within us. Today we face a greater problem with the inward adversary than with the outward enemy. The attacks of the enemy from without are not as serious as those of the adversary from within. To deal with this inward adversary, we need to experience the killing power of the word. Yes, the enemy is outside of us, but his elements are within our being. Because the enemy’s elements are within us, we need the killing power of the word to be applied to our being subjectively.
In Ephesians 5 the word is for nourishment that leads to the beautifying of the bride, but in Ephesians 6 the word is for killing that enables the church as the corporate warrior to engage in spiritual warfare. Pray-reading the Word of God is the way to kill the adversary within us. Every day and in every kind of situation, we should pray-read. Whenever we are troubled by something negative within us, we should take the Word of God by means of prayer in spirit. As we do this, the negative element will be killed.
In Ephesians 6:17 Paul charges us to receive “the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” This means that we need to take the word of the Bible as a sword for fighting the enemy. According to Paul’s word in this verse, the word of God is the sword not directly but indirectly. Paul speaks of “the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” Here we have indirectness. The sword is not the word directly. Rather, the sword is the Spirit directly, and then the Spirit is the word. This indicates that if we would deal with the enemy Satan, the word of the Bible must become the Spirit. If we would use the word of the Bible as a sword to kill the enemy, in our experience the word must be the Spirit.
We need to realize that things such as our opinion, thought, temper, emotion, natural life, and point of view are often used by the powers of darkness in the air to damage the Body life. As brothers and sisters in the church, we all have our emotion, thought, opinion, and natural life, and we all have our own point of view. Quite often we are offended, not due to the wrongdoings of others but simply due to our emotion or opinion. Due to their emotion, sisters are easily offended. Suppose an older brother speaks a word to a particular sister, and she is offended because of her emotion. Then the evil power in the air comes in to take advantage of her emotion, and she determines not to forget that she has been offended. Apparently the problem is her emotion. Actually the problem is that her emotion has been taken over by the evil force in the air. This means that the real enemy is not this sister’s emotion but the evil spirit in the air that takes advantage of her emotion in order to damage the church life. If the enemy is to be defeated in this situation, the sister must learn to receive the word as the Spirit, which becomes the sword to deal with the enemy. As we read the Word of God, we receive the word in a living way as the Spirit, and the Spirit, which is the word, becomes the sword that kills our emotion directly and kills the evil force indirectly. The word that we receive as the Spirit then becomes the sword to slay the enemy. Apparently the sword of the Spirit kills our emotion; actually it kills the evil spirit in the air who takes advantage of our emotion.