Christ as Our Bridegroom

[00:00:00] We turn to a number of scriptures this morning. [00:00:05] First in the second letter to the Corinthians, the second corinthian letter, chapter eleven, verse two and three. [00:00:19] For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. [00:00:34] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. [00:00:53] And then in the revelation and chapter 19, the revelation, chapter 19, from verse four to ten, and the four and 20 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, amen. Hallelujah. And a voice came forth from the throne, saying, give praise to our God, all ye his servants, ye that fear him, the small and the great. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders. [00:01:43] Hallelujah. For the Lord our God the Almighty reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him. For the marriage of the lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he saith unto me, blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he saith unto me, these are true words of God. And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he saith unto me, see, thou dost not. I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. [00:02:44] Revelation, chapter 21, verse nine. [00:02:51] And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, who were laden with the seven last plagues. And he spake with me, saying, come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like unto a stone most precious, as it were a Jasper stone, clear as crystal, having a wall great and high, having 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. On the east were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, and the wall of the city had twelve foundations and on them twelve names of the twelve apostles on the lamb. And he that spake with me had for a measure the golden reed to measure the city and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth four square and the length thereof is as great as the breadth. [00:04:13] And he measured the the city with the reed of 12,000 furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal. And he measured the wall thereof 144 cubits according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall thereof was Jasper. And the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was Jasper the second, sapphire the third, chalcedony the fourth, emerald the fifth, sardonyx the 6th, Sardius the 7th, chrysolite the 8th, bero the 9th, Topaz the 10th, chrysoprase the 7th, Jason the 12th, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls each. One of the snubbed was one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God. Beyond, beyond, beyond blame are the temple thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the lamp thereof is the lamb. And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereon. And the kings of the earth bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination of the lie. But only they that are written in the lamb's book of life. And he showed me a river of water, of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of garden of the lamb in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the river. And on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no curse anymore. And the throne of God and of the lamb shall be therein. And his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be night no more. And they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun. For the Lord God shall give them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. [00:06:54] We bow together in prayer. Father, we come to the end of this conference together. We want to thank you, Lord, for all your grace and all your love shown towards us in these days. You have been so faithful, Lord, and we would just give to you all the glory and praise and honour. And Lord, as we come to this final time this morning, we want once again to stand into that anointing which you have given us through the finished work of our Lord Jesus. That anointing of grace and power. We thank you that it can be a reality both in speaking and in hearing because of the person of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, o heavenly Father, may this time live for every one of us. We pray we may be delivered from all thoughts concerning the various journeys we must make or the clearing up operations that have to take place. Lord, deliver us from all those things and help us in this hour to hear your voice. To receive from you, Lord, illuminate us in such a way, Lord, that we shall be captured more deeply than ever before for yourself. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Amen. [00:08:29] It's amazing to me how these conferences, how quickly they go. [00:08:35] It seems always such a long time, one whole week much longer than the normal conferences. It seems as if we have such a lot of time and so many sessions and. [00:08:50] But suddenly it seems it's Saturday and then Sunday is on us and it's over. [00:09:01] I want this morning to just finally say something about Christ as our bridegroom. [00:09:09] Of course, that's the most obvious meaning of this word in two corinthians and chapter eleven and verse two and three. Oh, I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I espoused you to one husband that I may might present you as a pure virgin to Christ bridegroom. Christ as our bridegroom. We considered Christ as our covering, as our justification, as our atonement. [00:09:56] We have considered Christ as the baptizer in the Holy Spirit and fire. The one who immerses us in the person of the Holy Spirit swallows us up in the greatness of the Godhead all the time, bringing us into living discoveries of his greatness, of his beauty, of his grace, of his power, of his love. [00:10:28] It is a marvelous thing to know the Lord Jesus as the baptizer in the Holy Spirit and fire. [00:10:39] We consider the Lord Jesus as the head, our head, holding fast the head and discovering the body, finding one another. As we have a living relationship to the Lord Jesus head. [00:10:59] I have no doubt at all that the key to all genuine service and work, as far as gods kingdom is concerned, is hearing the Lord. [00:11:16] It is the ability to hear what the Lord is saying, to hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. At any given time in history we have considered Christ as king, king of kings and Lord of lords as king of the Jews, king of Israel, the one who finally is going to come. Oh, how wonderful it is to consider Jesus as king. I don't know what it is, but because we, all of us, it doesn't matter which circle we move in. In christian circles we all have understood that we have moved into the age of the spirit, we have moved into the age of the heavenly, have moved into the age of the spiritual. And in some strange way this psychologically accustoms us or forms us to think that somehow the coming again of the Lord Jesus is going to be a kind of. [00:12:40] It's not going to be a literal, actual coming. [00:12:45] Now there's no doubt about it that when the Lord Jesus comes, it's going to be as spiritual as anything in this world. But when the Lord Jesus comes, he's coming back with the body that he walked on this earth for 33 years. [00:13:00] His actual body, a color to his hair, a complexion to his skin, a color to his eyes. He's actually coming back with the very marks in his hands and in his feet and in his side that he received in the very last part of his earthly life. The Lord Jesus is coming. I find it simply marvelous to even consider it. It sort of ties everything down. It suddenly wakes one up to the fact that there's going to be a coronation one of these days. That's going to blast any british coronation into a kind of realms of the shadows. [00:13:44] Your inauguration of the president. Pooh. It won't be anything compared with the coronation of the king when he comes back. I just imagine it, all the glory of the pageantry when somehow or other we've got those bands playing, I suppose heavily as well as on earth. I imagine great standards being carried. And I see Abraham walking with Isaac and Jacob and their wives in the procession and then all the others all the way down. And I see the apostles coming along and finally the king himself. What a marvelous thing it's going to be about you. I just can't wait for it. [00:14:31] Mister Sparks always used to say, have you ever noticed that when people sing a hymn about the coming of the Lord, however depressed they are, they all rise. It's as if they can't help it, even if they want to be depressed if something happens in their spirit. It's a kind of witness of the spirit with their spirit that that is something that is as certain and sure as the word of God itself. Well, my friends, it's a marvelous thing to consider. The Lord, he has created a heaven and an earth, a universe which has been spoilt and subjected to corruption and to sin. But God is going to redeem the actual earth itself and the heavens. There will be a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And God's purpose concerning the jewish people is not just going to be flung away. He's going to redeem it. And in the end, something will happen in the nations. And his glorious purpose for man is not just going to be thrown away in defeat. He's going to have a redeemed man, a new man, joined to the Lord Jesus. Isn't it marvelous at the heart of that new creation? Well, now, what about this matter of the bridegroom? You know, the Bible ends with a wedding. Now, everybody loves a wedding. [00:15:54] I mean, people may fear funerals, and they may fear dedications or christenings, as some would call it, but everybody loves a wedding. [00:16:09] And the Bible ends with a wedding, the wedding of the lamb and the wife of the lamb. Now, that wedding is not the end of everything, as if that is an end in itself. A wedding is not an end in itself. It is the cause of one phase of life, the beginning of a new phase. One whole series of experiences has ended for both the husband and the wife. And they are now entering into a new phase, joined together as one. [00:16:58] And that is really how the Bible ends, and we have it in revelation 21. Listen to these words. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. First things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne says, behold, I make all things new. And he saith, right, for these words are faithful and true. One whole phase has ended. Morning death, morning crying, pain, all this parenthesis of sin, all this glorious being, gloriously being brought into the salvation of God. That whole phase is closed now. He says, all these things are passed away. The first things are passed away. Behold, I make all things new. And then he goes on, and he says unto me, they have come to pass. [00:18:31] I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is the first of the fountain, the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things. And I will be his God. And he shall be my son. [00:18:56] Not just my baby, not just my child, but he shall be my son. As we've heard from our brother Stephen through this week, he shall inherit these things because he's grown up. The first phase has passed away. [00:19:15] Everything now is at the beginning of a new phase. We don't even know exactly what is going to happen in the ages that are to come. We don't know what God is going to do in those ages that are to come. [00:19:33] People have all kinds of questions that they ply servants of the Lord with. When they touch on this matter, they ply them with. They come up afterwards and say, could you tell me, will we eat in the ages to come? As if that matters. I mean, really, does it really matter whether we eat or we don't eat? And God's got a vested interest in keeping us alive. He hasn't saved us so that we could stayed away in the ages to come. So if we don't have actual food of that kind to eat, there'll be some other way that we will be kept alive. But anyway, people can't say, are we going to eat? [00:20:16] And then they say, are we going to recognize each other again? I have no problem about this, of course, perhaps some folks don't want to recognize some people. I don't know. I mean, the fact remains that people are always asking me, will we recognize one another up there? Well, you know, I have a feeling that you and I will intuitively know who's who. [00:20:38] I don't think I shall ever have to have Abraham pointed out to me. I shall just have that say for him. [00:20:45] And I think the same with Moses. And I won't get it from one of my Michelangelo's portraits or whatever else. I mean, he may look nothing like Michelangelo's sort of portraits, but only a mother that enjoyed those others. But all I know is that I will know inwardly that's Moses. I think we will know one another. I think it's even more remarkable. I think that probably they will know you. [00:21:14] I don't know whether the saints can see us down here, but if they do, they're very interested. [00:21:22] You see, we're all family. [00:21:24] Everybody takes an interest in the family. [00:21:28] They're all family, really. [00:21:31] He would say, will we recognize each other? [00:21:35] Well, even if we couldn't recognize each other right at the beginning. I don't think it will take more than a thousand years for us to get to know who's who. [00:21:48] But I personally imagine we will know. But these are. These are ridiculous things. [00:21:55] Will we be? Will we wear clothes? People ask me, you wouldn't believe what some believers, mature believers, ask all kinds of things. [00:22:09] These are nothing. What I want to know is, what are we going to do now? That really does interest me. I wonder what we're going to do because we're not told. Now level. Some people have got the idea that we're going to be forever, just in a kind of eternal hallelujah chorus. [00:22:27] But as I said last night, I mean, I can't believe that God is so egocentric that he will be satisfied by an endless, endless hallelujah chorus. I mean, think of it. There's no night, and it just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. I mean, I would have thought even the Lord would want the rest changed. [00:22:56] But people have got this idea and they put it in these kind of Sunday school hymns, you know, that we're going to sing forever, strumming our hearts and sort of floating around on crowds, sort of course. I mean, no wonder people think it might be boring. I don't think so. God created this universe, and it is so marvelous, and it's only a shadow of what he wanted. [00:23:21] It is the merest shadow of what he wants. [00:23:26] What do you think it will be like when the whole thing is released from its bondage to corruption and begins to evolve and progress into what God originally intended? And then I wonder, has God got far greater schemes on foot? I am sure. But the thing that excites me most of all is that the Bible ends with a wedding. Just as if God is saying, look here, don't get your minds all filled with whether you're what you're going to be clothed in and what you're going to eat and whether you recognize one another. The main thing is to know that you and the bridegroom are finally with, because that is the heart of the whole matter. [00:24:15] So don't get caught on all the other things. [00:24:18] The question is that it will end with a pure virgin being presented to Christ as her one husband. And then there takes place the actual wedding, and the two of them go out into eternity, as it were, to do the will of God. [00:24:46] Now, if we can get our hearts fixed like that upon that goal, I believe it's going to determine a whole lot of things in our lives. A whole lot of issues are going to be suddenly seen in very clear, stark colors. [00:25:04] It's interesting that this bride, this wife of the lamb, is described in revelation 21 and 22 as a city. [00:25:17] And this city, this holy city, this new Jerusalem, is described in these same chapters as a bride, as a wife. Now, because it is the Bible, most of us are somehow or other acquainted with this, this extraordinary combination of two matters. But now, actually, when you consider it, it is a very awkward, a very abnormal, a very unusual combination. [00:25:55] Have you ever heard anyone describe his wife as a city? [00:26:02] I have never ever heard anyone describe his wife as a city. She may be as large as New York or London, but he has never described her as a city. [00:26:15] She may be fortress like, like some of the wall cities of the world, but I've never heard a husband say, this is my city. [00:26:28] I mean, if. If it wasn't the Bible, it would be ridiculous. No wonder people who have not got illumination or understanding on this, they can only consider this city as an actual city. And they speak about treading its streets of gold and going through its pearly gates. You know, they're always singing and you run the blow hymn about going through the pearly gates and treading the streets of gold. I mean, because it, the human mind can't conceive that this city, with its street and its walls and its gates, is a bride. [00:27:11] I mean, the two things are so different. [00:27:15] And yet at the end of the Bible, it is as if God has wedded two ultimate truths into one. [00:27:25] The bride represents intimacy, union, communion, fellowship, the deepest love known to mankind. [00:27:46] Two people becoming one in love to share the same name, share the same life, share the same heritage, inheritance, share the same future, share the same family. [00:28:10] There is nothing in the whole of human experience quite as intimate, as deep as the significance of marriage. [00:28:28] And here at the end of the Bible, we have this marvelous truth. We find it right back in the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis two. We find it actually in Genesis one when he created man, male and female created he them. [00:28:46] But in Genesis two, we have the whole picture of how Adam could find no help me, could find no one who corresponded to him. And finally, as again we heard this week, God put him to sleep and out of him took something out of which he created woman. And these two are the same. They are the same. [00:29:09] They are constituents of one life, complimenting each other. [00:29:26] In other words, what God is saying in the whole of the Bible is I am not interested in mechanics or machinery or knowledge or theories. [00:29:44] I am only interested in those who love me with all their heart. [00:29:52] I will save those who don't love me with all their heart. [00:29:57] I will give them an eternal salvation because I love them so much. [00:30:03] But no one will ever come to the side of my son and share in the glory, the full glory of the kingdom to come who does not love him with all their heart. [00:30:19] I will have no bride for my son who is there for what she gets. [00:30:25] Dare to manipulate him there to extract from him every single thing for her own fulfillment and for her own glory and well being. I will not have such a bride for my son. [00:30:44] The only one who will be there will be those who have followed the lamb. Whithersoever he goes, they have laid down their lives for the lamb. [00:31:03] The rain will be there. [00:31:05] The other side is the city. Oh, may I say one other thing about this? Is it not interesting? Is it fanciful that if you take this Bible and you doesn't matter what version you have and you more or less open it right in the center of the Bible, where do you open it? [00:31:27] In the song of songs. [00:31:33] Right at the heart of his revelation is this most remarkable little book called the song of songs. And what is the song of songs? It is the story of God's love for his people and their love for him, the bridegroom and the bride. [00:31:56] The jewish tradition is that Solomon fell into a trance and God gave him a vision of his love for Israel and the love of Israel for him, for God. [00:32:17] I say that because you will see in some of your commentaries that some go so far as to call this song of Songs a bawdy ditty. [00:32:34] It is a revelation. [00:32:37] My dear friends, the other thing about this city is that it is. The other thing about the bride, about this wedding at the end of the Bible, is that it is a city. [00:32:48] Now there is nothing more different. [00:32:51] What is a city? A capital city. This isnt just a city. [00:32:55] This is a capital city. What is a capital city? A capital city is where normally all the national administration is centred, where all the government is seated. That's the place of government. That is the place of administration. That's the focal point of national or imperial policy. [00:33:24] And here you have another picture. You have a picture of God wanting men and women who are able to govern, able to have dominion, able to reign with him, able to administer his will, able to work his works. [00:33:45] Go right back to the very beginning of the Bible and you have it almost the very first word that God said to man was have dominion. [00:33:56] And then when you go on, you find he planted a garden and you put man in it as if it was really a kindergarten. [00:34:07] He, God himself planted the garden. The rest of the world was a riot of life. [00:34:13] A riot of life. You see, people have got the idea that if God created it because everything was in its place, I'm not at all sure that's right. Because why did God say to Adam and Eve, subdue the earth? [00:34:31] It was a riot of life. You can't have life without it being a riot. Then if you found that out, these fellowships that don't have much life, they're as orderly as a graveyard. [00:34:43] But as soon as you've got life, you've got a riot. [00:34:47] It's bursting out every side, everywhere. Life, life. It has to be pruned, it has to be trained, it has to be disciplined, it has to be kept in order. [00:35:01] And this, this garden, this kindergarten that God put Adam and Eve in, I believe that his real aim was that once Adam and Eve had learned how to guard the garden, that's the word he used, keep the garden, guard it and tend it, care for it, then they would have. They would have added an allotment, you know, they would have added perhaps half again on one side and then half again on the other side and then half again on the north side and half again on the south side. And then they would have subdued that and trained it and then they would have gone further to another allotment and then until slowly they had won the whole world and turned the world into. Unto all of them. [00:35:51] Then God would have said, now you've learned the physical. [00:35:55] Now we will move into another dimension. Dominion, dominion. Dominion. He wanted them to learn how, in fellowship with himself, they could rule. They could have dominion. They could learn what his will was and then administer his will. [00:36:15] We come to the end of the Bible and we find that this wedding is not only to do with a bride and a wife, that it is to do with a capital city. In other words, God has finally achieved the thing that he first longed for and wanted when he created man, men and women in fellowship with him who can understand his heart, understand his mind and will and are able to do it. [00:36:49] Now, my dear friends, may be worth my just saying something about the ancient jewish custom of betrothal. [00:37:01] Those of you who originated in the Orient, you won't need me probably to say too much about this because the ancient jewish custom was pretty well like the oriental custom, you see, very often, until only about 50 years ago, in jewish families, good jewish families, a son was betrothed to a girl almost from birth. [00:37:38] In other words, families had got together and said, if you have a daughter, we would like your daughter to marry our son. [00:37:50] Now, the betrothal was when they were very young. It counts as a great shock to many people to consider the possibility that the Virgin Mary was only 13 or 14 when she bore the Lord Jesus, because it's a terrible shock to most people. They think of her as at least in hundred twenties. [00:38:19] But the fact is, no jewish girl betrothed to a husband would have gone into her late teens without a marriage. [00:38:32] You see, they were betrothed when young. That's what was so serious taken because of Joseph and men. That's what was so serious. When Joseph found that she was with child, it was a terrible shock to him. [00:38:46] To begin with, it was the Lord who explained everything to him. Do you understand? [00:38:52] But you see, it wasn't that they were actually married. They hadn't had the wedding. [00:38:58] That's why he thought the best thing to do at the beginning was to put her away quietly. Now, that just doesn't mean murdered her or something like that. I mean, the thing was that what it meant was very, very quietly, without any fuss, the actual betrothal would be cancelled. [00:39:23] And then Mary's mother and father would have had to rush down and found somebody who would be prepared to marry, probably someone who had not got parents wealthy enough to pay a big dowry they would have than anybody, in order to get her married. [00:39:42] You understand? [00:39:44] Now this is because of these ancient customs of betrothal. [00:39:49] Quite young, when a person was betrothed, it was much more than an engagement. You never broke it. The betrothal was absolutely binding, absolutely bounding. It was like being rigged without the marriage. [00:40:08] But then when the time came and the bride had grown to the right age and the families of both sides felt that they were ready, both the son and the daughter respectively, when the wedding took place. [00:40:29] And the marriage. [00:40:32] Now, I hope that that helps you in some little way, because, you see, here is the wonderful thing. We are all betrothed to the Lord, but the wedding hasnt taken place yet. [00:40:46] The wedding is still ahead, the marriage suffer of the land. The marriage feast is still ahead. We are betrothed. Were not engaged in the kind of western manner we are betrothed in the sense that we. As Paul said, I have a godly jealousy over you at Cardiff. [00:41:06] I have espoused you, I've acted as go between. [00:41:11] I have espoused you that I might present you a pure virgin to Christ. [00:41:26] Now, now, if we turn to Philippians, chapter three. [00:41:33] I find this testimony of the apostle Paul the most remarkable thing in the Bible, at least in the New Testament. It's certainly the most remarkable testimony in the Bible. [00:41:42] Listen to this. [00:41:47] I don't know where to begin. [00:41:51] Verse five. Circumcise the 8th day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin. The Hebrew of Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisees, touching zero perfectly. The church, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. Howbeit what things were gained to me these have I counted loss for Christ. Now there's no problem there. [00:42:11] Yea, verily I count all things to be lost to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them, but refuse that I may gain Christ. Religious underlying message that I may gain Christ or win Christ is the actual word, and be found in him not having a righteousness of mine own. So this winning of Christ is by grace. [00:42:39] It's not through righteousness which is natural to the apostle, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ or grace, the righteousness which is from God, by faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings becoming conformed unto his death. If by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from among the dead. [00:43:18] Now will you please note again the word I may attain? [00:43:23] And will you also please notice the word not the resurrection of the dead, but the resurrection from the dead? If we were literally, to put this in literal English, this is what the apostle said, if by any means available, I may attain unto the out resurrection from among the dead, not that I have already obtained or am already made perfect. [00:43:57] Now that's another statement I want you just to underline. Remember that this apostle has already written the first and second thessalonian letter, the first and second corinthian letter, and the roman letter, and the galatian letter. Now I would have thought that anyone who could write that kind of letter had obtained. [00:44:19] I would have thought that anyone who could speak as he did in the second Corinthian may have been caught up to the third heaven and not and hearing this is not an awful for a man to have. I would have thought of all believers he could have said, I've obtained, I believe I've arrived. [00:44:35] But he says, I have not already. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect, but I press on. If so be that I may nay hold on that for which also Christ Jesus laid hold on me. Brethren, I count not myself yet to have laid hold, but now that's tremendous when you think of the things that the apostle has communicated to us. I think of one corinthians twelve, or I think of one corinthians 13, or I think of one corinthians 15, or I think of romans five, six, seven and eight. I mean. [00:45:15] And he says, I do not count myself yet to have laid hold. But one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal, unto the prize of the high call of God in Christ Jesus. [00:45:34] Now, my dear friend, I say, this is the most remarkable testimony in the whole Bible. [00:45:41] What is the apostle talking about? [00:45:44] What is this prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Again, literally, if we were to put it, it is the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. Or as some people put it, the prize of the on high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Now, will you please notice it's in Christ Jesus. Right. The calling is in Christ Jesus. And it is an on high calling in Christ Jesus. And then there is a prize of the on high calling of God in Christ Jesus. [00:46:23] And then he says, I press toward the goal unto the prize of the on high calling in Christ Jesus. Now, what is this? [00:46:36] I mean. I mean, the apostle has opened his heart. He's drawn aside the veil, and suddenly we look in. Here is a man who is clearer on justification than any other of the writers of the New Testament. Here is a man who has labored with the Galatians, that they might understand that everything is of grace and not of our own works. And here he's talking about winning Christ. [00:47:05] Now, as I've said in many places, and I don't mean to be funny, this doesn't sound like good reform. Doctor, what is the apostle Paul doing? We almost feel all dear. If we didn't believe in the absolute inspiration as I do of the word of God, I would think. [00:47:23] I think the apostle slipped here. [00:47:25] He didn't mean that I may win Christ. I may gain Christ. We don't gain Christ. Christ is God's unspeakable give to us. He is given to us through grace. We don't win him. We don't gain him. [00:47:38] This is foreign. This whole language is foreign. We gain a prize, we gain a reward, but gain Christ. Win Christ. [00:47:50] What is the apostle Paul talking about? He who has been so clear on the matter that Christ is God's unspeakable gift to us, given to us on the basis of grace alone, on the basis of that finished work of Calvary. [00:48:10] And what is this attaining to this resurrection? The dead, everybody's going to attain to the resurrection. Even the worst, most depraved sinners of the world are going to be raised at the end of stand before the great white dome. [00:48:23] We don't attain. Over time we'll just wait. [00:48:27] There is a resurrection of believers, but we don't attain to it. The reborn of God is through grace. [00:48:34] We shall be raised first and we shall be forever with the Lord. Now what is this attaining to this special resurrection? I think of Hebrews eleven when it says, and some refuse the possibility of deliverance when tortured, looking for a better resurrection. [00:49:00] Now my friends, I don't want to make this last time heavy, but isn't it interesting? [00:49:08] Well now this is, this is how I see it. [00:49:13] Paul felt there was something he could lose even as a believer, and it wasn't salvation. [00:49:23] He felt there was something concerning the Lord Jesus that he could lose and it wasn't the Lord Jesus as savior. [00:49:33] Let me put it another way. [00:49:35] The apostle Paul felt there was something he could win. [00:49:45] Now I don't know whether that confuses you more. [00:49:49] What is the prize? [00:49:51] May I suggest to you that the prize is Christ as bridegroom. [00:50:00] In other words, I want to be absolutely clear on this so that nobody goes away saying, oh dear, dear, dear. [00:50:08] I never heard a more unprotestant teaching from a servant of the Lord. [00:50:19] All is of God's grace that the saviour is given through the grace of God. [00:50:30] The bridegroom is won through the grace of God. [00:50:36] All is a grace. I hope I can get this absolutely clearly across to you. Every single born again believer is a potential member of the bride. Every single one who's saved by the grace of God is a potential member of the wife of the lamb. But my dear friends, your salvation is given to you through the grace of God in our Lord Jesus. But it is through your appropriating and exploiting the grace of God that you will win Jesus at bridegroom. [00:51:08] It was this that fired the apostle Paul's spirit. It was as if suddenly he saw, I will not lose my salvation, but I could become a rejection. Having preached to others, I myself could become a regent. [00:51:26] I count all things, but lost as I may win Christ, he wasn't meaningless. I'm going to try and do every single thing I can to please God. So that in the end he says, well, maybe I should, you know, I should bring Paul through. Really, he's doing so well. Look at the long, quiet times he has and look at the fast days he has, and he's in view of one or two stonings. And I think he deserves. [00:51:57] That's not the way God judges. God has given every believer grace. [00:52:05] It's what you do with the grace that determines whether you finally become part of the Bible. Have you noticed that amazing little phrase in revelation 19? Blessed are those who are bitten to the marriage supper of the lamb. [00:52:26] But it can't be. The bride having a marriage supper is normally in honour of the bride and unemployed. So who these that are bitten? [00:52:37] It's such a mauness that even if you're not in the Bible, it's a blessing thing to be asked. [00:52:43] I don't think it's angels. They're going to be there anyway. [00:52:46] I mean, they'll be there anyway, as far as I can see. So who are these blessed ones that are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb? [00:52:56] Can't be the bird. [00:52:59] Now, my dear friends, the exploiting and appropriating of the grace of God is the key to everything. It's the key to some of the parables the Lord Jesus told. He gave. He said he told a story of a man going to a far country. He took three servants to one he gave five talents. To one he gave two talents, and to one he gave one talent. Do you remember the story? And the man with the five talents went away and traded them. Sounds terribly commercial. [00:53:27] Real Jewish. Understand it fully. He went away, took the five and traded them. And what did he get? He got ten. [00:53:36] Only think that's very bad. That couldn't have been a spiritual man. Oh, no, no, that's not spiritual. [00:53:42] What about me taking five talents and traded them? Vulgar, filthy commerce. Mama. Unrighteousness. [00:53:52] Taking him out like that and getting his hands soiled instead of getting on with the Lord's work. [00:53:59] Then the man had two talents. He only had two, but he went out with his two, traded them and got four. [00:54:10] And then there was the man with one talent. Now who was the spiritual one, who wasn't going to get his hand soiled with anything like this? [00:54:19] The grace of God is the grace of God. I'll sing about it, I'll read about it, I'll study it and I'll tell you. [00:54:32] And that's what he did. He buried his talent. And then the nobleman came back. [00:54:38] He called the three servants for a reckoning. [00:54:42] And the first one said, you know, you gave me five talents, I traded them another ten. Here are the ten. Well done, good and faithful servant, said the master, I will make you responsible for much more. Now then, he said, what about you and Miss mental? You know, master, you. You gave me two talents. I traded them. I'm afraid I didn't get ten. What did you get? Four. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. I will make you more responsible than ever over much in my kingdom. And now, what about you, o master? [00:55:25] I knew how exact you were, how precise, how careful. [00:55:33] The grace. The talent you gave me I have carefully wrapped up in some linen, put it in a box and buried it. [00:55:46] Here it is, master, your talent, you wicked and slothful servants of the master, take away from him the one talent that he has and throw him out and take the talent and give it to those who had five and those who had four and have traded it and got ten. [00:56:13] And have got four. [00:56:15] Now we think, oh, how terrible. But the point of the parable is simply this. The Lord was talking about the end. [00:56:25] I don't think it's to do with salvation, agree. It is to do whatever they want. [00:56:31] All of them were given something by the law. They're not all given the same grace. If your calling is a much greater calling and you're called to do more, you will have more grace given to you commensurate with your gift in calling. If you have less, you will have less grace. But God always gives the assurance sufficient grace for the calling he's called you with and the ministry he's given to you. You have absolutely no excuse to bear everything. [00:56:59] You can increase what God has given you so that you have not five but ten, not two before, but many of us. [00:57:13] The grace you receive is exactly the same as when we received it. We have done nothing with it. Now, my dear friends, to me this is very, very important. As a matter of exploiting and appropriating the grace of God. God has given you grace. You can't just sing about it, study it, even level in it and bury it. [00:57:37] You have got to exploit it to the full, appropriate it to the full. And this is the apostles testimony. I count all things but lost. How could a man count everything but lost unless it was that he took hold of the grace of God? [00:57:53] No one can suffer for the Lord. No one can sacrifice his life for the Lord. No one can lay down his life for the Lord. No one can go away. That is difficult, unpopular and be uncontaminated unaffected in his relationship toward the Lord Jesus unless he learns, she learns, to take hold of the grace of God to the full every day, every hour of every day. [00:58:25] Oh, my friends, God doesn't call us to something that is impossible. It's not as if he says, now, if you want the bridegroom, I want you to tie yourself in knots. [00:58:37] I want you to get into such a strain and a stress. This is religion. [00:58:46] God has given us grace. [00:58:49] Why did he save us? [00:58:52] He saved us that we might become the bride of Christ, the wife of the lamb. That's why he saved us. Do you think God has a vested interest in you not becoming part of the bride? Of course not. He has given every single bit of grace you and I need to become part of the bride. My dear friends, what a tremendous thing this is. What a tremendous thing this is. [00:59:23] What are the qualities the bridegroom looks for in the bride? [00:59:30] What are the qualities that the bridegroom looks for in the bride? Now some of you heard quite a lot of this, I think, but I just want to end really on this matter and then finally conclude with one last thought. [00:59:47] I think the first thing, the first quality the bridegroom looks for in the one who is betrothed to him if she's going to finally come to the wedding, is love, first and last and all between. [01:00:07] Do you mean to tell me that any bridegroom would take something less in a bride that's asking for divorce? [01:00:18] I know that 50% of all America, of all american marriages end in divorce. [01:00:24] And no wonder. [01:00:28] We are not looking for a quality of absolute loyalty, absolute love, first and last and all between. [01:00:50] Nothing else will satisfy the blackhead. [01:00:53] You can have all faith so as to remove mountains. He's not impressed. I want to tell you something. [01:01:02] You can move mountains, it's no big deal. I wish some people actually did move a few more, but still, I mean, the fact is that as far as God is concerned, it's no big deal moving mountain people just don't use the faith God has given them. But I mean, you only have faith as great as mustard seed to move a mountain. [01:01:20] You don't have to have faith as big as a mountain to move a mountain. [01:01:23] There's a faith, small, square, mustard seed, you can have such faith. Doesn't satisfy God, doesn't satisfy the Lord Jesus. [01:01:33] You can have money. Of all mysteries you could hold forth about the deeper thing, about eternal things, the deep things of the spirit, doesn't impress the bridegroom. [01:01:48] He wants you to have knowledge full knowledge. [01:01:51] But that's not the thing that impresses the bridegroom. [01:01:56] You could sacrifice yourself, as the apostle Paul said. You could give your body to be burdened and all your goods to feed the floor doesn't impress the burden, not if there's no love. The one quality that must lie behind all this faith and knowledge and sacrifice is love. [01:02:16] And that is the only quality, finally, that the bridegroom looks for a total, absolute love that will lead to a life long devotion to him. [01:02:31] He will go where he goes. [01:02:35] You will share his burden, you will follow in his footsteps. [01:02:43] Don't tell me that anything else will take you the whole way than the love of God shed abroad in your heart. No wonder John said, little children, keep yourselves in the love of God. [01:02:57] I suppose we could put in many modern colloquial language, keep yourself in love with God. [01:03:09] And the second thing, I think about magic for those who are great feminists. Here you go. That's very nice. [01:03:19] So is there any equality in the bridegroom? Do I have to say about the bride groom himself? [01:03:26] Do I have to say anything about the love of the Lord Jesus for you? [01:03:31] His love for you is absolute. [01:03:35] He has given everything for you and his committal to you, his love to you, to you, his faithfulness to you is absolute, unconditional. [01:03:50] The second thing, it seems, is the quality that the bridegroom looks for in the bride is character. [01:03:58] This is where I think Christendom has fallen flat on its face. In this matter at least, certainly protestant. Christendom I won't take to here. You wouldn't think that we need to grow at all in the law, would you say? Converted. That's all evident. That's all that matters. [01:04:20] Everything. Lord wants to marry a ninny. [01:04:25] Can you imagine it? The bridegroom, king of kings, lord of lords, lord of the. Of the kings of the earth. And he's got the most empty, heavy bride, she is. Probably don't like to say it, but she's stupid. [01:04:45] Saved, but stupid. [01:04:48] She doesn't know how to read his heart. She doesn't know how to sense what he desires. She has no idea of how to manage the things of the household. [01:05:03] She doesn't know anything of the cast that brought her into the relationship. [01:05:11] She is an empty headed, immature baby in the song of Solomon. At the end of it, when the bridegroom and the bride are together, the bride turns to the bridegroom and says, what shall we do for my little sister? [01:05:31] She hasn't grown up. [01:05:33] Remember the story, my dear friends. There can be no wedding unless there's some kind of growth. But I'll say something in one moment. But on this matter of character, there are three things that make this bride. This city. Gold, precious stone and pearl. [01:05:53] The gold represents the life and nature of Jesus. But it is not just the life and nature of Jesus. It is the life and nature of Jesus in you and in me. [01:06:06] Jesus said to the church at Laodicea, I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined in the pot. What did he mean? Since it's all a place? He meant at the cost of experience. [01:06:17] My grace makes available the gold of my life and nature. But the cost is your experience. [01:06:26] It will not come cheaply into your life. You will come into circumstances and situations where the goal of the life and nature of the Lord Jesus is made a reality in you. And the gloss, the wood, hay and stubble of your own superficial nature will be burnt up. [01:06:46] Go. [01:06:48] I can't imagine that most bridegrooms would want to marry an ugly bride. [01:06:54] And even if it wasn't a physical beauty, I'm sure they're looking for beauty of character, of personality. [01:07:02] Gold, precious stone. Precious stone is formed by intense pressure and heat in the dark places of the earth. And I always believe that the precious stone represents the fellowship of Christ's soul suffering. [01:07:21] Let me put it another way. I think it represents the excellences and beauty of the Lord Jesus which are brought in us when we share his sufferings. [01:07:34] My dear friends, so few of us want to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. We're all for the power, all for the gift, all for the life. [01:07:49] But we don't want the fellowship of his suffering. [01:07:52] This precious stone out of which this city, this bride is produced, are the excellencies and beauties of Christ. Do you know, my dear friends, I have to be careful when I have met some very ugly people who are saved by the grace of God. But they are beautiful. [01:08:14] We can't help if they're born ugly. [01:08:17] And my word, what a wonderful thing happens when God begins to bring the beauties and glories and excellencies of the Lord Jesus into a life. [01:08:31] It's so. It radiates out of a person and makes them beauty, beautiful. [01:08:39] And then pearl. Those gates were pearl, of course. I know you must have all heard, a pearl is made out of a bit of worthless grit. [01:08:53] A little bit of worthless stone or grit falls into the softest part of the oyster shell. And then all the life of the. Of the clams, mobilized and it puts a coat round the grit to try and get rid of it, and then another coat, and then another coat, and then another coat, and then another coat. And lo and behold, a pearl is produced, a pearl of wondrous beauty, and no one would know. But at the heart of that pearl is a worthless bit of grit. [01:09:33] That is what I call the inexplicable and exceptional suffering that God calls some of his saints to endure. [01:09:46] The apostle Paul spoke of it as that stake that we heard of throughout the world, that stake, that form in the flesh that I think Columbia puts it in a footnote like the agony of impalement. [01:10:03] There are into the lives of believers. They come into the lives of believers, inexplicable things that no deliverance ministry will ever deliver them from, no amount of experience of the resurrection life and power of Jesus will ever expel. It is a state given by God, a messenger from Satan, to break and weaken and bellow. It is a worthless bit of grit at the heart of that servant of the Lord's life. But all the life and grace of Jesus is mobilized in that life to count the grit, the beauty again and again is sufficient for the. [01:10:59] And so a pearl is produced. Now, my dear friends, that's character. I say, what does a wide brim look for in the wide character? He looks for beauty and then maturity. I've already mentioned this, but I just want to underline it. This word maturity. In the new testament it is the word perfect. [01:11:21] And actually in the Greek it just means full grown. [01:11:26] How can anyone be married and fulfill all the responsibilities of marriage if they had not come to maturity is the minimum requirement. Physical maturity is the minimum requirement for a bride. [01:11:52] What is the quality that the bridegroom looks for in the bride? [01:11:59] Those that go on to full growth. [01:12:03] Those that go on like the apostle says in his testimony, I do not count myself yet to have obtained, yet to have laid hold. But I press on, forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before. [01:12:19] I press on under the prize, to the gold, to the prize of the on high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Growing up, my dear friends, you don't surely think that the Lord Jesus wants to have, if I may put it this way, just to bring it home to you. You don't think the Lord Jesus wants a queen who is immature? [01:12:52] Do you really believe that he wants his throne shared by someone who can't understand insensitive adolescents, self interested, self seeking? [01:13:12] No. [01:13:14] The wife of the lamb must be like the lamb he wants somebody who's grown up, someone who has capacity and ability, somebody who has a capacity for sharing with him in the burdens and responsibilities of the kingdom, someone who has the ability to show those responsibilities and burdens. [01:13:47] Do you not think this is why God puts some of us, when we've said, Lord, I'll go the whole way? Why God puts us into some very strange situations and circumstances and with some very strange people? [01:13:58] I think it is the Lord is stretching our capacity. He's enlarging our capacity. He can't do it any other way than by putting you into a situation which is too much for you. And so you cry to the Lord, you think it's awful, but you take his grace and you come through, and a month later you're back to square one again. You cry to the Lord, and he brings you through, and you go, Lord, what kind of life is this? But you know what the Lord is doing? He's extending, enlarging your capacity. [01:14:29] He is creating an ability in you. [01:14:32] He's got a future in mind. [01:14:37] And lastly, what are the qualities a bridegroom looks for in the bride? Well, I don't know whether this would normally be so in many young men and women, but it's certainly true in a royal house. [01:14:55] He looks for a character, a capacity and a mobility to govern. [01:15:06] In the old days, they were very, very careful about choosing the queen. [01:15:11] She had to have the right pedigree, the right lump. It had to be the right match between royal houses. But much more important, it had to be someone who would be able to produce an heir to that royal house that had intelligence, character and quality. [01:15:33] Now, you in America don't, I mean, you know, good old republic, and you don't perhaps understand quite this thing of world houses. For you, it's all sort of past history, but most of european history, of the history of the world, was built on matching up royal houses and producing intelligence, quality and ability in heirs to royal mines. [01:16:02] It wasn't just anything, wasn't one of these Hollywood things. You know, some starry eye young prince saw a gorgeous Hollywood style princess and decided that he should marry her. That wasn't the way it was done. Unfortunately for them, their brides were chosen, and chosen, generally speaking, very carefully. [01:16:30] Now, my dear friends, putting it into another dimension altogether. The Lord Jesus is looking for someone with the ability to govern that, I think is tremendous. You know what? He's looking for someone who can understand him. [01:16:46] There can be no real government if you don't understand the Lord. People seem to think that government is just authoritarianism. It's nonsense. Government begins with an understanding of the law, a knowing of the law, a full knowing of the law, a deep knowing of the Lord. Then it's an ability to hear what he's saying. [01:17:05] Some people hear words, they don't hear what's being said. [01:17:10] Now, when the Lord begins to work with us, he wants us not just to hear the words, he wants us to hear what is being said. [01:17:18] And then there is more than just understanding the Lord, knowing the Lord and understanding his word. [01:17:32] It is not only a question of hearing what he is saying, question of obedience. [01:17:44] Wives. [01:17:46] O they are your husband. [01:17:49] Of course, it says, first, husbands love your wife. [01:17:54] I really thought it interesting that wives are not normally told to love their husbands, because they do. [01:18:02] It's taken for granted that normally wives love their husband. [01:18:08] And so the problem is husbands loving their wives. You know, the whole problem today is husbands often obey their wives. [01:18:18] And you know, the kind of thing that goes on. [01:18:21] And the marvelous thing it is when we learn to obey the Lord, that will lead us to government. [01:18:33] Government. Well, now, what can we say? In conclusion, only this. [01:18:41] I said quite a lot about the bride, but really my burden was the bridegroom. [01:18:51] It is to know the Lord Jesus as the bridegroom, to see him with the eye and the heart as the bridegroom, the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. [01:19:09] My dear friends, I don't think anyone will ever be prepared for the discipline or for the affliction, or for the tribulation, or for the exceptional circumstances and situations into which we are brought, unless we have caught a vision of the end. [01:19:27] Of course, the end will make up for everything. [01:19:31] I don't think for one single moment that when the wedding comes and the marriage supper takes place, the bride will spend our whole time talking about how much she sacrificed and how much she went through, and all the afflictions and tribulations and the pimples that had to be gotten rid of, and the bad complexion and this and that. The other. I think in that glorious wedding day, all the bride will be able to say was, it was the grace of God that saved me, the grace of God that kept me, and the grace of God that enabled me to come right through to this day. [01:20:15] She will be so taken by the bridegroom. [01:20:19] Dear friends, what a future we have as believers, and what a need there is now for the Holy Spirit to be able to do a work in all of us, in our relationship, one to another, in our places of work, in our homes and families in our personal life, our personal circumstances and situations. Oh, how gracious the Holy Spirit is. [01:20:48] You know, almost the very last word of the Bible is this in revelation 20 217. [01:20:58] And the Spirit and the bride say, come. [01:21:07] I hope every one of us, by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, will be able to respond and say, I go.