Response to the love of Christ

… Letter of the Book of James Letter of the Book of James Two Verse 18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a help me for him. Verse 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aaron, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in state thereof. And the rib which the Lord God hath taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Aaron said, This is now born of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. The end of Revelation Chapter 21 Verse 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven wives, for the seven last days, and talked with me, saying, Come hither. I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And there was like unto a stone holy flesh, like, even like, a just as stone, clear as crystal. Chapter 19 The seventh verse Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. A few verses in Ephesians Chapter 5 I read from verse 22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might present it to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But that it should be holy and without negative. As our brother who spoke previously expressed, I feel myself, I cannot adequately express the thoughts that are passing through my mind in relation to what we have these past few days. Christ in all his various aspects has been brought before us. And we have been enamored by many of the things which he has sustained and known. More of that blessed holy person. He has indeed, and I am sure each one in our measurement is filled our hearts with delight. But I feel this, how much am I, how much are you in keeping with that person? I say to myself, I have come very, very far. But nevertheless, as we read together, not that I wish to go into every detail, I don't. But we find in that fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians, it says there, first of all, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Also think of it, that you and I and all the Lord's own for whom he died, when we are gathered together in his presence, we shall be absolutely like him. One feels it, for we are very far short of it down here. But nevertheless, it's God's thought and his purpose that these things should be brought in us now. We often think, oh, it will be wonderful in that coming day, when the Lord comes in the clouds and takes us to be forever with himself. We'll be out of all that is against us. Sin will no longer hamper us. Satan will no longer tempt us and try us. We'll not have the weaknesses of the body. We'll not have the praises that are ours. We'll be like Christ. I say to you, and I say to my own heart, is it that I want to get out of this in which I am, that I look for the coming of the Lord? I've met with some, some dear Christians. No doubt they feel the present circumstances, and they ask me, and they say as it were, oh, if I could only get out of it, is that the reason why you and I want to see the Lord? Or is it that he has so got me, he's so gripped my heart, he's so got my affections, that I want to see him and him alone? No one knows. No one knows. Just that lesson, lesson, with infinite grace, he gave himself to the church. I'm not speaking as regards to the poor, such as Paul, who could say, Jesus, he loved me and gave himself to me. No one takes it as his right. That he loved the church and gave himself for it. Why? That he might present it to himself. Mark him. He's going to take all his own, you and me, and all his own everywhere in this world, those that have passed out, and those that will be gathered together the coming day, he's going to present them to himself. Could there ever be an imperfection in it? In that day there never will be. Presenting unto himself a glorious church, a church marked by glory, that's what it is. Marked by glory. Do you and I pretend that? Are you and I able to say, that glory marks me? Nevertheless, the Lord will have it, and one who shall be like unto himself. Could you ever think of it? The glory of that day will be magnificent, and we shall be in it. We speak of being in the glory in that day. Yes, it's true, we shall be in the glory, but we shall be absolutely suited to that glory, in all its perfection. Could you ever think, of the Lord having arrived at that sort of failure, so short, so slow? Never. And that's what glory is, to be like unto himself. Can you see it then? Not having spots. How many spots? I've often thought, how many spots mark me? How many spots mark you? Well, if you take them away, there'll be no mark of this earth upon us. There'll be no influence. Could you ever expect, in that perfect bride of Christ, as he presents it to himself, there should be any mark of age in it? No, never. What a perfect bride it should be. We often speak in natural things, when we see the wedding, the bride is perfect. Well, in the way which the Lord will have his way, the bride of the coming day, it will be absolutely perfect. There'll be no flaw. For any such thing. Bring it in as you like. There'll be no such thing as a mark. Not unless a company, not unless a person, has arrived at Christ. But that it should be holy. One feels, how unholy we are in ourselves. Unholy. Yes. Defied in the past. Yea, one has to confess, even sinfulness. But always that day, he'll bring it about. It'll be holy like unto himself. Without blemish. I've got that. We see pretty well and it's true. As we look at ourselves, we come here with full of blemish. That day, there'll be no blemish. Absolutely like unto himself. Perfect in every way. And how does he do it? That he might sanctify and cleanse it. Sanctify and cleanse it. Why did the Lord forgive you your sins, when you trusted in him? Was it to get you out of judgment? Was it that you might no longer be charged with being a sinner? Or was it that he wanted you for himself? He began to wash our sins away. He wanted us for himself. Ah, there are many things in the world that we must know. We need cleansing from it. And he uses his word in the power of the Spirit of God, perfect in our hearts. Those things are brought to our consciences. And we own where sin has come in. We realize that we need cleansing from all the iron of the way. We have before us Rebecca. She was one rule that being brought from a far distant country to be the bride of Israel. As we've already said, Sarah passed off this evening. But Abraham wants a bride, a wife for his son. And she was brought that long, long journey How we are, as well, in the control and power of the Spirit of God, we travel the journey all the way till we meet the Lord. I say to you, I don't wish to in any way elaborate upon what our dear brother has told us, but I just wanted in a way to ask the question, did Rebecca not put on her vest when she realized, I'm going to meet my Lord? I say to you, we have to be brought upon by the Spirit of God that those characteristics which mark us are to be taken away, that we might be perfect, suitable for that blessed person to whom we shall be, to use the word, married for eternity. It's those things, then, that have been weighing on my heart. In the affections of our hearts, and I'm responding to this, the more I learn of the Lord, the more I get His beauty into my soul, the more I feel I want to be like Him. These things are brought in God to be like unto Christ, to be His for eternity. How can I take in anything that belongs to this world? I can't. It's utterly against the whole matter. So we find then, having been brought by the washing of the Word, we find there's another thing which marks it, and that is in Revelation 21. We find there it says, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And He carried me away in a spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me, I think, if I'm not mistaken, the way it should be, would be that city, the holy Jerusalem, not that great city, but that holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. It is going to please God in that coming day that the city of God, the city of Jerusalem, the holy Jerusalem, is going to descend and have its place, perhaps temporarily, upon this earth. What thing that marks it? I mean the glory of God. That which we've come short of, the beginning. That which the Lord himself fully vindicated, the glory of God, in coming into this world. In that blessed person there was the absolute setting forth of the glory of God, which we deserve for which we are. And yet the grace of God, or the magnitude of it, is more than overcomes me. To think that he should take up such poor sinners as you and I and make us suitable to himself and to have the glory of God. Yes, connected with it. Where might we be glorious? What a time it will be, the glory of God. He's going to make use of us in that sense because we, in that coming day, when the earth shall be blessed with God, the new holy Jerusalem shall be that which gives forth blessing to man and it will be through the blood. Through that blessed person himself being associated with us, may bring the bride to be the expression of God's glory in that coming day. And her life was like unto a stone, most precious. Even like just a stone, clear as crystal. Remarkable, that. A gesture stone, as far as I know, is of a whitish colour and it is clear. And it's clear as crystal. You know, I think sometimes if we see in one another, I draw those two points. I think these things are fairly clear. We're not human. We're not a crystal in our lives. There is guile seen in us sometimes. Yet the Lord, when he was here, says there was no guile. There's one thing one does not like and that is to see guile in a person. It's so destructive, seeking to be what you're not, to give a wrong impression. It might be a good one indeed in doing it. I mean, it's expected to be a good one, but it's a wrong impression. We're perfect. We can see right through it. It's just a stone. See right through it. It's clear as crystal. There's nothing. No false. Nothing false. Nothing deceptive. Nothing that's against it. Nothing. Pure perfection. And that is what matters, that right impression. I wonder if we can say what we get in the 19th verse. Today if God, and he will be, and we rejoice in him and give honour to God for the marriage of the Lamb is strong. And his wife made us up ready. His wife has made us up ready. Can we begin that the Lord in his ways with us in each, in our different circumstances, in what we must do, is he helping us to be ready for that day? Yes, he gives us our sign in the end. And to her was granted that she should be a very fine woman. Fine woman. That's a perfect quote. That which was characteristic of the purity of God is marked by that. White. For that fine woman is a righteousness of saints. That which is characteristic of Christ is brought out in us. How we need then to be exercised in all that we must do that we might be like Christ. Like Christ not in the coming day when he appears and by his resurrection power changes our violent bodies and makes it like his own body of knowledge. Not that. Though it will be. But now upon this earth that we might have the characteristics of Christ. The righteousnesses of the saints. The righteous acts. The motive, what are they? Self or what? The righteous acts of God should mark us. Now that's what he wants. May God grant that we may through his grace be able to have glory characteristics even more. …