{"id":731,"date":"2011-07-15T00:31:22","date_gmt":"2011-07-15T00:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=731"},"modified":"2011-07-15T00:31:22","modified_gmt":"2011-07-15T00:31:22","slug":"the-voice-of-the-heavenly-bridegroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=731","title":{"rendered":"The Voice of the heavenly Bridegroom"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/strong>My beloved spoke and said to me, \u201cArise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.\u201d \u2013Song of Songs 2:10-13<\/a><\/p>\n

The speaker is the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is his voice we hear; the voice which is as the sound of many waters; which spoke the \u201cgracious words\u201d the like of which were never uttered on earth. It is to his bride he speaks; \u201cthe bride, the Lamb\u2019s wife;\u201d his chosen, redeemed, called, sanctified one; given him by the Father before the world began; his one spouse, his \u201clove, his dove, his undefiled;\u201d of whom it is written, \u201cChrist loved the church, and gave himself for it.\u201d Of the saints of all ages is this \u201cbride,\u201d this \u201cbody,\u201d composed; all of them washed in the same blood, and clothed with the same righteousness.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is the voice of LOVE. \u201cMy darling\u201d is his name for his church. Other names of endearment he has for her, but this is chief. All in him betokens love. All that he is, and says, and does, intimates love; a love that passes knowledge; a love stronger than death and the grave; a love which many waters cannot quench nor the floods drown. It is in tender love that the Bridegroom thus addresses the Bride.
\n2. It is the voice of ADMIRATION. \u201cMy beautiful one\u201d is his name for her. \u201cYou are all beautiful, my love, there is no spot in you.\u201d The \u201cfairest among women, \u201cis his name for her, even as her name for him is the \u201cchief among ten thousand.\u201d The heart of the Bridegroom is full of admiration for the beauty and perfection of his bride. She is \u201cperfect through the loveliness which he has put upon her.\u201d He has ravished our heart, and we have ravished his!
\n3. It is the voice of AUTHORITY. The husband is the head of the wife; so is Christ the head of the church; and though it is love that speaks, it is authoritative love. \u201cArise,\u201d \u201ccome with me.\u201d Obedience is our true position; and no amount of love in him can ever alter this. It is not bondage; but it is obedience. It is not sternness on his part, yet it is authority. Our Bridegroom is Jehovah, Immanuel, King of kings, and Lord of lords. Shall we treat his voice as that of an inferior or an equal; or as the voice of him whom no amount of condescension and endearment, and admiration, can ever make less truly the Head of the church, Head of principalities and powers, the Head of the universe, of whom it is said to the church, \u201cHe is your Lord, worship him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My beloved spoke and said to me, \u201cArise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gods-love","category-pictures-and-types"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=731"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":733,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731\/revisions\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}