God’s Purpose Consummated

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.—Revelation 19:7-8

My principal aim shall be to show you that the blessed and glorious union, which is to be celebrated between the Church and her Lord, will be “the marriage of the Lamb.” The ever blessed and eternal union of hearts with Christ will be in reference to His sacrifice, specially and emphatically. The perfected union of the entire Church of God with her divine Husband is here described by the beloved apostle, who laid his head upon his Master’s bosom and knew most about Him, and who was under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost in these words: “The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”…

I will set forth this marriage as best I am able. It is divinely veiled as well as revealed in this Revelation. God forbid we should intrude where the Holy Spirit shuts us out! but still, what we do know of it, let us now think upon, and may the sacred Spirit make it profitable to us...

The marriage of the Lamb is the result of the eternal gift of the Father. Our Lord says, “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me.” His prayer was, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (Joh 17:24). The Father made a choice, and the chosen He gave to His Son to be His portion. For them He entered into a covenant of redemption, whereby He was pledged in due time to take upon Himself their nature, pay the penalty of their offences, and set them free to be His own. Beloved, that which was arranged in the councils of eternity and settled there between the high contracting parties, is brought to its ultimate end in that day when the Lamb takes unto Himself in everlasting union the whole of those whom His Father gave Him from of old.

Next: this is the completion of the betrothal, which took place with each of them in time. I shall not attempt elaborate distinctions; but as far as you and I were concerned, the Lord Jesus betrothed each one of us unto Himself in righteousness, when first we believed on Him. Then He took us to be His and gave Himself to be ours, so that we could sing, “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song 2:16). This was the essence of the marriage. Paul, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, represents our Lord as already married to the Church. This may be illustrated by the Oriental custom, by which, when the bride is betrothed, all the sanctities of marriage are involved in those espousals; but yet there may be a considerable interval before the bride is taken to her husband’s house...Well, then, you and I are betrothed to our Lord today, and He is joined to us by inseparable bonds. He does not wish to part with us, nor could we part from Him. He is the delight of our souls, and He rejoices over us with singing (Zep 3:17). Rejoice that He has chosen you and called you, and through the betrothal look forward to the marriage. Feel even now, that though in the world, you are not of it: your destiny does not lie here among these frivolous sons of men. Our home is henceforth on high…

The marriage day indicates the perfecting of the body of the Church. I have already told you that the Church will then be completed, and it is not so now. Adam lay asleep, and the Lord took out of his side a rib and fashioned thereof a help meet for him: Adam saw her not when she was in the forming, but he opened his eyes, and before him was the perfect form of his help meet (Gen 2:18). Beloved, the true Church is now in the forming and is therefore not visible. There are many churches; but as to the one Church of Christ, we see it neither here nor there…But the day will come when He shall have completed His new creation, and then will He bring her forth whom He has made for the second Adam, to be His delight to all eternity. The Church is not perfected as yet. We read of that part of it which is in heaven, that “They without us should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:40). Unless you and I get there, if we are true believers, there cannot be a perfect Church in glory. The music of the heavenly harmonies as yet lacks certain voices. Some of its needful notes are too bass for those already, and others are too high for them, until the singers come who are ordained to give the choir its fullest range...There is demand for other voices to complete the heavenly harmony! Beloved, in the day of the marriage of the Lamb, the chosen shall all be there—the great and the small—even all the believers who are wrestling hard this day with sins and doubts and fears. Every living member of the living Church shall be there to be married to the Lamb.

By this marriage is meant more than I have told you. There is the home-bringing…All the faithful shall soon be away to thy land, O Emmanuel! We shall dwell in the land that floweth with milk and honey, the land of the unclouded and unsetting sun, the home of the blessed of the Lord. Happy indeed will be the home-bringing of the perfect Church!

The marriage is the coronal-avowal. The Church is the bride of the great King: He will set the crown upon her head and make her to be known as His true spouse forever. Oh, what a day that will be when every member of Christ shall be crowned in Him, and with Him, and every member of the mystical body shall be glorified in the glory of the Bridegroom! Oh, may I be there in that day! Brethren, we must be with our Lord in the fight if we would be with Him in the victory. We must be with Him in wearing the crown of thorns, if we are to be with Him in wearing the crown of glory. We must be faithful by His grace, even unto death, if we are to share the glory of His endless life.

I cannot tell you all it means, but certainly this marriage signifies that all who have believed in Him shall then enter into a bliss that shall never end; a bliss that no fear approacheth or doubt becloudeth. They shall be forever with the Lord, for ever glorified with Him. Expect not lips of clay fitly to speak on such a theme. Tongues of fire are needed, and words that fall like fire-flakes on the soul.

A day will come—the day of days—time’s crown and glory, when, all conflict, risk, and judgment ended forever, the saints, arrayed in the righteousness of Christ, shall be eternally one with Him in living, loving, lasting union, partaking together of the same glory—the glory of the Most High. What must it be to be there! My dear hearers, will you be there? Make your calling and election sure. If you are not trusting in the Lamb on earth, you will not reign with the Lamb in His glory. He that doth not love the Lamb, as the atoning sacrifice, shall never be the bride of the Lamb. How can you hope to be glorified with Him if you neglect Him in the day of His scorning? O Lamb of God, my sacrifice, I must be one with Thee, for this is my very life! I could not live apart from Thee. If, my hearer, thou canst thus speak, there is good hope that thou shalt be a participator in the marriage of the Lamb…

It was next as the Lamb that He loved us and proved His love. Beloved, He did not give us words of love merely when He came from heaven to earth and dwelt among us “a lowly man before his foes”; but He proceeded to deeds of truest affection. The supreme proof of His love was that He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. When He poured out His blood as a sacrifice, it might have been said, “Behold, how he loved them!” If you would prove the love of Jesus, you would not mention the transfiguration, but the crucifixion. Gethsemane and Golgotha would rise to your lips. Here to demonstration, beyond all possibility of doubt by any true heart, the Well-beloved proved His love to us. See how it runs: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20), as if that giving of Himself for me was the clear proof that He loved me. Read again: “Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Eph 5:25). The proof of His love to the Church was the giving up of Himself for it. “Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phi 2:8). “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us” (1Jo 4:10). So, you see, as a Lamb, He proved His love; and as a Lamb, He celebrated His marriage with us.

Go a step further. Love in marriage must be on both sides, and it is as the Lamb that we first came to love Him. I had no love to Christ. How could I have, until I saw His wounds and blood? “We love him, because he first loved us.” His perfect life was a condemnation to me, much as I was compelled to admire it; but the love that drew me to Him was shown in His substitutionary character, when He bore my sins in His own body on the tree. Is it not so with you, beloved? I have heard a great deal about conversions through admiration of the character of Christ, but I have never met with one: all I have ever met with have been conversions through a sense of need of salvation, and a consciousness of guilt, which could never be satisfied save by His agony and death, through which sin is justly pardoned and evil is subdued. This is the great heart-winning doctrine. Christ loves us as the Lamb, and we love Him as the Lamb.

Further, marriage is the most perfect union. Surely, it is as the Lamb that Jesus is most closely joined to His people. Our Lord came very close to us when He took our nature, for thus He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He came very near to us when, for this cause, He left His Father and became one flesh with His Church. He could not be sinful as she was; but He did take her sins upon Himself and bear them all away, as it is written, “the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6). When “he was numbered with the transgressors” (Isa 53:12) and when the sword of vengeance smote Him in our stead, then He came nearer to us than ever He could do in the perfection of His Incarnation. I cannot conceive of closer union than that of Christ and souls redeemed by blood. As I look at Him in death, I feel forced to cry, “Surely a husband by blood art thou to me, O Jesus! Thou art joined to me by something closer than the one fact that Thou art of my nature; for that nature of Thine has borne my sin and suffered the penalty of wrath on my behalf. Now art Thou one with me in all things by a union like to that which links Thee with the Father.” A wonderful union is thus effected by our Lord’s wearing the character of the Lamb.

Once more, we never feel so one with Jesus as when we see Him as the Lamb‌…I never feel so close to my Lord as when I survey His wondrous cross and see Him pouring out His blood for me…I have almost felt myself in His arms, and like John, I have leaned on His bosom when I have beheld His passion. I do not wonder, therefore, that since He comes closest to us as the Lamb, and since we come closest to Him when we behold Him in that character, He is pleased to call His highest eternal union with His Church, “the marriage of the Lamb.”

And O beloved, when you come to think of it, to be married to Him, to be one with Him, to have no thought, no object, no desire, no glory but that which dwells in Him that liveth and was dead—will not this be heaven indeed, where the Lamb is the light thereof? For ever to contemplate and adore Him Who offered up Himself without spot unto God, as our sacrifice and propitiation;⁷⁴ this shall be an endless feast of grateful love. We shall never weary of this subject…

I have done when I have again put this question: Do you trust the Lamb? I warn you, if you have a religion that has no blood of Christ in it, it is not worth a thought: you had better be rid of it. It will be of no use to you. I warn you, also, that unless you love the Lamb, you cannot be married to the Lamb; for He will never be married to those who have no love to Him. You must take Jesus as a sacrifice or not at all. It is useless to say, “I will follow Christ’s example.” You will not do anything of the sort. It is idle to say, “He shall be my teacher.” He will not own you for a disciple unless you will own Him as a sacrifice. You must take Him as the Lamb or have done with Him. If you do despite⁷⁵ to the blood of Christ, you do despite to the whole person of Christ. Christ is nothing to you if He is not your atonement. As many of you as hope to be saved by the works of the Law or by anything else apart from His blood and righteousness, you have un-Christianized yourselves; you have no part in Jesus here, and you shall have no part in Him hereafter, when He shall take to Himself His own redeemed Church to be His spouse forever and ever. God bless you, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

From a sermon delivered on Lord’s Day morning, July 21, 1889, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.