Oct 12
6
THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM
“This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” Genesis 2:23
Our Bible is a very Paradise of each sweet flower and each regaling fruit. But the believer sits down most gladly in those choice spots, which are thickly set with tokens of the Savior’s tenderness. Surely happiness mounts up to heaven, when on Scripture’s ground, and under the Spirit’s light, the soul discerns that Jesus loves with an everlasting love. Reader! this humble tract will visit you in a favored hour, if it should lead you to drink deeply of such joy.
We cannot move far amid the pages of the Word, without hearing the silver voice—Give ear unto Me, that I may tell you of My love. For this purpose each tender image speaks by turn. Does a father love with strength of manly love? Jesus is the Everlasting Father. Is a mother gentle in her soft caressings? Jesus is more constant—”they may forget, yet will I not forget you.” Is a brother generous in his affections? Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren. Is the sisterly union as the intertwining of hearts’ fibers? The Church is “His sister, His spouse.” Is a friend noble in his sympathies? We read, “Henceforth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends.”
Will not these parallels suffice? No! not if another can be added. As all colors combine to form pure light—so all tints must join to form the full portrait of a loving Savior. There remains the full-blown endearment, when heart flows into heart in bridal-union—and will Jesus claim His people as His bride? It is so! This is the emblem, which is the Spirit’s choice delight. It meets us in the garden of Eden. It walks by our side throughout the green pastures of the word. It only leaves us, when Revelation writes no more. “The Spirit and the Bride say Come.” Echo replies to echo, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” “I will betroth you unto Me forever; yes, I will betroth you unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.”
Following such holy guidance, let us now seek Jesus in that pure feeling, which innocently played in Adam’s heart, before sin entered with unhallowing touch. The narrative is simple. “So the Lord God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep. He took one of Adam’s ribs and closed up the place from which He had taken it. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib and brought her to Adam.” But the mystery is deep. A greater than Adam and the first spouse are in this history of sinless union. Faith has been taught, and quickly learns, that the spiritual Bridegroom and the mystic bride are here! Earth’s first espousals are but the shadow of heaven’s far earlier love.
The second Adam sleeps a sleep—even the sleep of death; but not in Eden’s innocent delights, but on the hard altar of His ignominious cross. His side is pierced. There flow thence the means to constitute the Church. There is blood to expiate every sin—and water to wash from every stain. The Father presents the bride to Adam. The same Father gives the favored bride to Christ. Adam receives her as portion of himself. Christ’s word takes up the same welcome. They “are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.”
We are thus emboldened to draw with reverential pen some lines of likeness. Marriage can only be in kindred race. Here the bride is low in lowly origin. Her coarse material is clay. But Jesus dwells in heaven’s bright palace, bright in all the brightness, glorious in all the glories of His own Deity. How can union be? He leaves His home. He veils His Almighty might. He seeks our cell. He scorns not our loathsome rags. He is born a child of man in Bethlehem. He lives the Son of Man in human nature.
O my soul! did your Lord thus stoop to make you His forever? He did. Infinite was the distance—but He came with lightning-speed on wings of love—and rested not, until He rested in your far-off abode. The bridegroom counts all efforts light to win the bride’s regard. Can it be, that Jesus strives to gain unlovely souls? It is so! He lives, when we love. He scarcely seems to reign, until the heart presents her throne. Hence in the Scriptures He sends letter upon letter, each burning with the pure flame of tenderness. Hence He follows with the fond call—Turn! turn! Look unto me. Come unto Me. Return unto Me. Follow Me. Abide in Me. Hence He sends His faithful ministers—the friends of the Bridegroom—to plead His cause—to appeal in His behalf—to beseech in His name—to set forth His matchless charms—to show that His love is strong as death, and pure as the light, and boundless as eternity. That ministry is most true to Christ—most rich in everlasting fruits, which paints most vividly the mind of Christ.
But more than this. The Holy Spirit comes commissioned by the Father and the Son. He reveals the Lord in all the beauties of His person—all the wonders of His grace—all the glories of His work. He subdues all prejudice—turns the stream of opposing will—and kindles a blazing torch in the dark corners of the soul. Thus union is achieved. The faithful soul forgets her own people and her father’s house. She casts out the former rivals, which bewitched her thoughts. She comes out and is separate from a once-fondled world. She leaves all, and cleaves to Christ.
In nuptial bonds the bride rejects the distinction of her former name. A new address attests that she is no more her own. It is just so in spiritual union. What! though the nature of Jesus proclaims essential Deity—that very nature is the Church’s diadem. We are first told, that “The Lord our Righteousness” is His name. The same is her portion, for it is added, “The Lord our Righteousness” is her name too.
The bridegroom courts the closest communion. It is even so with Jesus. By His Word, and through His messengers, He allures His people to His side. He opens to them the purposes of His grace—the secrets of His kingdom. He encourages them to tell out their every need, and fear, and desire, and hope. He tenderly invites, “Let me see your countenance, let me hear your voice, for sweet is your voice, and your countenance is lovely.”
Who can portray a bridegroom’s sympathy? It is, however, but a drop compared to the full ocean of a Savior’s care. “We have not a High Priest, who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” “He who touches you, touches the very apple of His eye.” “In all our affliction He is afflicted.” No suffering member can be pained on earth, but the participating Head cries out in heaven, “Why are you persecuting Me?” Reader! you have often heard these truths. Do they touch a responsive chord within? If not, yours is not the bride-like spirit.
The bridegroom brings his dowry. And does not Christ enrich with gifts? Angels may marvel, dazzled by the Church’s wealth. He holds back nothing from her. All His attributes are her grand inheritance. His wisdom is hers to guide. His power is hers to uphold. His love is as the sun to cheer. His faithfulness and truth are her shield and support. His Spirit is poured down in unfailing measure to teach, to solace, and to bless her. His righteousness is hers, to be her spotless robe. His heavens are hers, to be her home. His throne is hers, to be her seat. His glory is hers, to be her crown. His eternity is hers, that she may joy forever. Happy the soul, which responds—All this I steadfastly believe!
The bridegroom shrinks from no labors, which bring support and plenty to his beloved. Thus Jesus lives a life of watchful work. He rests not night and day. His outstretched hands are ever pleading, and ever pouring down supplies of grace. He purchased all Heaven’s blessing, that His people may never lack. And as each need arises, He is all vigilance to see—all bounty to bestow. Earthly union often knows the pang of separation. Duty’s stern voice may say—Depart. Necessity may force to lonely distance. But nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell, unlocks the arms which cling around a divine Bridegroom! At each moment He is nearer than the shadow to the side. Life is but leaning on His arm. Death is but sleeping on His breast. There is a never-failing bond in the sure world, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
In this cold world, affections cool. The day, which dawns in love, may close in hate. Tastes vary and cause variance. Discordant tempers make discordance. Far otherwise is the heavenly wedlock. It is ever true, “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.”
When Jesus calls in love, He changes by His spirit. He imparts a new nature, whose every pulse is unison with Himself. It is heaven’s own harmony, when Christ is all. Here a house is often tears, because of godless offspring. Many a one has sighed, “O Absalom, my son, my son!” But from heavenly union nothing springs but heavenly seed. Believers are married to Christ, that they should bring forth fruit unto God. Apart from Him, the heart is the hotbed of evil. United to Him, it is the holy parent of each holy grace.
But at present the Church sees her Bridegroom only by the eye of faith. The veil of flesh impedes the meridian gaze. But yet a little while and the day of visible espousals will arrive. A startled universe will hear the shout, “Behold the Bridegroom comes.” There will resound, “as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” Then shall He shine forth, “to be admired in His saints, and to be glorified in all those who believe.” The bride “shall be brought unto the king in clothing of needlework; with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought, they shall enter into the king’s palace.” The nuptial song shall be one ceaseless Hallelujah. Happy soul, which responds—All this I confidently expect!
Reader! is it your happy privilege to know that a union, which thus lives forever, cements your heart to Christ, and Christ to you? Remember, then, that this blessed relationship demands your faithfulness. The Lord is jealous of His people’s love. You must not stray from Him for one single moment, or in one single thought. The caution is needful; for days are come, in which strangers are gone forth, professing to be the Bridegroom’s friends. They even stand in pulpits, and give instruction in His name. By this sign you may know them. They exalt the bride rather than her Lord. They magnify His ordinances rather than Himself. They beguile her to admire herself, to lean on herself, to trust in herself, and to decorate herself in the mock robes of false humility and superstition. Take heed; the ground is slippery. It may seem pleasant to self-loving nature; but it slopes towards Antichrist!
It may be that some worldling reads this whose life is wedded to another lord. Would that such may turn and burst their fearful bonds! There is indeed the prince of this world. His promises are lies. His dowry is anguish. His embrace is death. His chamber is darkness. His bed is flames of fire. His marriage-wail is agony’s wild shriek. Worldling, can you love this spouse?
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The kingship of Christ- J.C.Philpot.
“King of kings and Lord of lords!” Revelation 19:16
The kingship of Christ is full of sweet consolation to
the tried family of God. As Zion’s enthroned King, He
supplies His people out of His own inexhaustible fullness!
To Him, as our enthroned King, we give the allegiance
of our hearts. Before His feet, as our rightful Sovereign,
we humbly lie. And we beg of Him, as possessed of all
power, to subdue our iniquities and rebellious lusts, and
sway His peaceful scepter over every faculty of our soul.
The kingship of Christ is a blessed subject of meditation,
when we consider its bearing upon our helpless, defenseless
condition. We stand surrounded by foes . . .
internal,
external,
infernal,
all armed against us with deadly enmity!
Every child of God is surrounded by a multitude of enemies
without and within, who, unless they are overcome—will
most certainly overcome him. And to be overcome is to be
lost, forever lost, and to perish under the wrath of God!
What hope or help can we have, but in . . .
that all-seeing eye, which sees our condition;
that all-sympathizing heart, which feels for us;
that all-powerful hand, which delivers the objects of
His love from all the snares and traps—and defeats all
the plans and projects of these mighty, implacable foes?
We daily and hourly feel the workings of our . . .
mighty sins,
raging lusts,
powerful temptations,
besetting evils,
against the least and feeblest of which, we have no strength!
But as the eye of faith views our enthroned King,
we are led by the power of His grace to . . .
look unto Him,
hang upon Him, and
seek help from Him.
Trials in providence,
afflictions in the family,
sickness and infirmities in the body,
opposition and persecution from the world,
a vile, unbelieving heart, which we can neither sanctify nor subdue,
a rough and rugged path, increasing in difficulty as we journey onward,
doubts, fears, and misgivings in our own bosom,
inward slips and falls,
wanderings,
startings aside,
hourly backslidings from the strait and narrow path,
jealous enemies ever watching for our halting,
with no eye to pity, nor arm to help—but the Lord’s!
How all these foes and fears make us feel our need
of an enthroned King, Head and Husband . . .
whose tender heart is soft to pity,
whose mighty arm is strong to relieve!
We should be ever looking up to our enthroned King,
not only that He might sway His scepter over our hearts,
controlling our rebellious wills, and subduing us to His
gentle might; but as King over all our enemies—of which
our internal foes are much more numerous and mighty
than any external enemies!
When we feel the power of sin, the tyranny of our vile
lusts and passions, and what our nature is capable of
if left to its own will and way—how sweet and suitable
is the promise, “You will again have compassion on us;
You will subdue our iniquities and hurl all our sins into
the depths of the sea!” Micah 7:19
“We are powerless against this mighty army that is
attacking us! We do not know what to do, but we
are looking to You for help.” 2 Chronicles 20:12
“The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save!”
Zephaniah 3:17
In the gospel, in the preaching of the cross, in the faith once delivered unto the saints, in all that we preach… Christ is all. He is all. He is our message. He is in all we preach. He is all we preach. He is all. He is the only thing that we are sent to preach. There is no gospel without Christ. The gospel is Christ.
And if we can’t see that, if we don’t see that, if any preacher cannot see that Christ is in all the Scriptures, that He is the whole message of the Scriptures, that He is the only message of the Scriptures, that He is all and in all… if a preacher cannot see that, then he should put the book down and stop preaching because Christ is the message of the Scriptures, the only message. He is all.
Yes, Christ is all. Ian Potts (extract from Christ is All)
Spiritual Fragment
I remember, that after my poor heart had wandered from the sweet enjoyment of the Lord, and I had got entangled with some flesh-pleasing idols, the Lord brought me feelingly into chapter xvi. of Ezekiel, for that chapter contains a solemn figure of the wandering, backsliding heart of a child of God. Almost every sentence of it cut me up, and I said to myself, This is my case. In a spiritual sense, I am this vile fornicator, I have acted this base part; whatever becomes of these base characters in the end, I must go with them. But I think I shall never forget the conclusion, for a blessed one it is: “And I will establish my covenant with thee, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee, for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.” (Ezek. xvi. 62, 63.) This, this is matchless grace. Here the Lord shames us out of our sins, and kisses us into obedience. – Gadsby.
‘I am not afraid of alarming people too much about their souls; I wish I could hear more crying out, “What must I do to be saved?” under a feeling sense of their lost and ruined condition, and crying earnestly for mercy.’
‘If I preach to please men, I am not the servant of Christ; and “woe unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” ‘ William Tiptaft.
I would rather believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody, except the will of men be added to it. –C.H. Spurgeon
We shall now have a full definition of faith, if we say that it is a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds, and sealed on our hearts, by the Holy Spirit –John Calvin
The free, sovereign grace of God!
(Octavius Winslow, “Christ, Our Righteousness”)
“Those He predestined, He also called;
and those He called, He also justified;
and those He justified, He also glorified.”
Romans 8:30
The justified sinner stands the closest to God,
of any created being in the universe. Nearer
to the throne of the Eternal, he cannot stand.
What marvelous love!
Who will dare assert that salvation is not,
from first to last—of free, sovereign grace!
Let your eye pierce the veil which falls between
earth and heaven. Behold that shining, worshiping
being, standing so near to the throne of glory,
bathed in the overpowering effulgence of its rays!
Who is he?
He was once a sinner upon earth, the vilest
of his race, the dishonored of his generation,
forsaken by man—and abhorred of God.
But Jesus met him, and divine love drew him, and
sovereign grace rescued, pardoned, and saved him!
And now washed from all his guilt by the blood,
freed from all condemnation by the righteousness
of Christ—he stands before the throne “blameless,”
a “king and a priest unto God.” Such is the great
love of Jesus! And all this grace, and all this
glory, and all this bliss—flows from the free,
sovereign grace of God!
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,”
“I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep — and My sheep know Me.” — John 10:14
“The Good Shepherd” — well can the sheep who know His voice, attest the truthfulness and faithfulness of this endearing name and word. Where would they have been through eternity — had He not left His throne of light and glory, traveling down to this dark valley of the curse, and giving His life a ransom for them? Think of His love to each separate member of the flock — wandering over pathless wilds with unwearied patience and unquenchable ardor, ceasing not the pursuit — until He finds it.
Think of His love now — “I AM the Good Shepherd.” Still that tender eye of watchfulness following the guilty wanderers — the glories of Heaven and the songs of angels unable to dim or alter His affection — the music of the words, at this moment coming as sweetly from His lips as when first He uttered them, “I know My sheep.” Every individual believer — the weakest, the weariest, the faintest — claims His attention. His loving eye follows me day by day out to the wilderness — marks out my pasture, studies my needs, and trials, and sorrows, and perplexities — every steep ascent, every brook, every winding path, every thorny thicket!
“He goes before them.” It is not rough driving — but gentle guiding. He does not take them over an unknown road; He Himself has trodden it before. He has drunk of every “brook by the way;” He Himself has “suffered being tempted;” He is “able to support those who are tempted.” He seems to say, “Fear not! I cannot lead you wrong; follow Me in the bleak wasteland, the blackened wilderness — as well as by the green pastures and the still waters. Do you ask why I have left the sunny side of the valley — carpeted with flowers, and bathed in sunshine — leading you to some high mountain alone, some cheerless spot of sorrow? Trust Me! I will lead you by paths you have not known — but they are all known to Me, and selected by Me — Follow Me!”
“My sheep know Me!” Reader! can you subscribe to these closing words of this gracious utterance? Do you “know” Him in all the glories of His person — in all the completeness of His finished work — in all the tenderness and unutterable love of His every dealing towards you?
It has been remarked by Palestine travelers, that not only do the sheep there follow the guiding shepherd — but even while eating the herbage as they go along, they look wistfully up to see that they are near him. Is this your attitude — “looking unto Jesus?” “In all your ways acknowledge Him — and He will direct your paths.” Leave the future — to His providing. “The Lord is my Shepherd — I shall not lack.” I shall not lack! — it has been beautifully called “the bleating of Messiah’s sheep.” Take it as your watchword during your wilderness wanderings, until grace is perfected in glory. Let this be the record of your simple faith and unwavering trust, “These are those who follow — wherever He sees fit to guide them.” “His sheep follow Him — for they know His voice.” John MacDuff.
Absolutely Sovereign
Clay Curtis
Psalm 76:10: Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.
If we deny the absolute sovereignty of God we do not deny it because we think it belittles God. Whether we know it or not we do it TO BELITTLE GOD AND EXALT SELF. Though most argue against God’s absolute authority and power claiming concern over God being accused of being the author of evil, the true concern is that I’ll be found out to be the author of all my sin.
If we confess that God can remove his restraining hand from a man, harden a man’s heart, so that the sinner commits evil in a city all to accomplish God’s purpose then we have to confess that it is only by God’s direct hand and purpose that sinners are not venting more evil than we do now. By nature evil is what we are. The only thing keeping me from committing the vilest act right now is the sovereign power of God.
Yet, all the evil acts that sinners have ever committed on this earth have praised God. One only has to look at the most sinful act of all. At the cross we behold God bringing praise to his name from the unrighteous wrath of man through the death of his own Son. If everything which happened to God’s own Son was according to God’s determinate council then who are we to question him as to what he does from his throne in glory to us worms called men. Praise him that he has not given us our just due in removing his hand from all of us. Sinful man apart from God’s restraining hand is hell.
God’s absolute sovereignty is the very definition of who God is. It gives great peace to the sinner who has been made to see him in truth. I am thankful my God is truly God