We're at Thy feet, blessed Redeemer, deeply conscious
of our utter insufficiency.
Remembering Thy word, without a say, without me,
you can do nothing.
Lord, we're just glad it's like that.
For then we can, in our weakness, our
utter insufficiency, cast ourselves upon Thy mercy.
Remembering that beneath are the everlasting arms.
Oh, we do so want that Thy name
shall be glorified in these gatherings, in every
moment, in every word.
Thy name shall be glorified, and the saints
shall be edified.
Oh, may that river of water of life,
clear as crystal, which proceeded from the throne
and from the Lamb, may that river of
life invade our hearts here tonight.
And in these days of communion, one with
another around Thy word, we ask it, Father,
in the blessed name that's above every name,
in the name of Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
I tremble a bit over the message that's
upon my heart tonight, and yet I'm trusting
the Lord will guide and that you will
be praying that he might open to us
the door, the door of utterance and the
door of understanding, the marriage supper of the
Lamb.
My Bible here I have open in the
11th chapter of the 2nd epistle to the
Corinthians, where we read in verses 2 and
3, For I am jealous over you with
godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to
one husband, that I may present you as
a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so
your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ.
And then here in the book of Revelation,
the 19th chapter, where we read of the
marriage supper of the Lamb.
Let us be glad, beginning with the 7th
verse, and rejoice and give honor to him,
the Lord God omnipotent, as it is in
the 6th verse.
For the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready, and
to her was granted that she should be
arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.
For the fine linen is the righteousness of
the saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are
they which are called unto the marriage supper
of the Lamb.
And he saith unto me, These are the
true saints of God.
We heard read this evening a portion of
the 2nd chapter of the gospel according to
St. John, where we have the story of
the marriage in Cana of Galilee, where the
Savior wrought his first miracle, turning water
into wine.
This miracle has been cause for great misgivings,
controversies.
There are a great variety of opinions and
of interpretations regarding this sign.
On the one hand, there are those who
are shocked, unable to understand
why the Savior should have wrought as he
did, turning the water into wine.
Then on the other, there are those who
would soften the word.
They assure us that it just could not
have been wine.
It must have been simply the fruit of
the vine, as we are wont to say,
the juice of the grape.
But I think, friends, there is no need
on the one hand of being surprised, if
not shocked, nor on the other of somewhat
twisting the word.
That is, if we take this in the
light of the scriptures as a whole, and
in the light of the customs of that
day, the biblical ideal really
is not absolute abstinence, but temperance.
We, as evangelical Christians, have concluded that it
is best to be teetotalers in view of
abuses which have come down through the centuries.
We will have nothing to do with
wine.
When I was there as a chaplain in
World War I, I asked for water at
a hotel, and the hotelkeeper was shocked.
What do you want with water?
Well, I want to wash.
Well, we don't use water.
I want water to drink.
He said, we only use water to wash
with.
We drink wine.
And I saw no abuses, nothing contrary to
right order.
We read that Mary, becoming aware of the
embarrassment of the host, turned to Jesus, saying,
They have no wine.
The Savior replies, Woman, what have I to
do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come.
Here we have, friends, the key which unlocks
the treasures that are found here in the
Word.
This is the key.
Mine hour is not yet come.
Marcus Dodds, that great Bible commentator, tells us
that with these words, the Savior marked his
steps on the way to the cross.
They reverberate through the pages of the gospel
according to St. John.
And when at last the shadow of the
cross falls upon the Savior's pathway, and he
finds himself in the upper room with his
disciples, he says, The hour is come.
Father, glorify thy Son with the glory which
he had with thee before the foundations of
the world.
The hour is come.
We see from the manner in which the
Savior expressed himself that that scene so lovely,
on the one hand, the handsome lad so
proud, and on the other, the damsel so
beautiful with her crown, her head crowned with
flowers, a crown of flowers.
Looking upon the scene, the Savior's thoughts go
far, far away to the cross.
What relation could there be between this joyous
scene, so very lovely, a marriage feast, and
the cross?
Ah, it was that the Savior, looking upon
this young man and this young lady, about
to be united in the bond of, holy
bond of wedlock, could not but think of
how he had come from heaven, leaving the
throne, in search of a bride.
And full well he knew that this bride
could not be found until he had gone
to the cross.
That she would be taken from his wounded
side, even as in the case of the
first Adam, the bride Eve was taken from
Adam's.
And so the Savior's thoughts turned to the
cross.
Fine hour has not yet come.
This is the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
You will recall Isaiah's words, even before the
Savior's coming, thinking of Israel and her maker.
Isaiah uses these terms, her maker, Israel's husband,
Israel the bride.
We find it in that great psalm, Messianic
Psalm 45, that appears, you will recall, in
the first chapter of the epistle to the
Hebrews, where we have the Father speaking to
the Son, saying, Thy throne, O God, forever.
And here in the 45th Psalm, we read
of the Queen, the bride, at the King's
right hand, clad, clothed in the gold of
Ophir.
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of thy kingdom is a right
scepter.
Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity and wickedness.
Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with
the oil of gladness above thy pillows.
All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes
in Cassia, out of the ivory palaces whereby
they have made thee glad.
King's daughters were among thy honorable women, upon
thy right hand did stand the Queen, in
gold of Ophir.
The Song of Songs has been taken through
the centuries by the Church as a figure
of the union that exists between the Lord
Jesus Christ and his own, his Church, Solomon,
the type of Christ saying, Thou art fair,
my dove.
There is no spot in thee, my friend,
my spouse, my bride, replying to the bride
and saying, I am my beloved.
And my beloved is mine.
The Savior, you will recall in his parables,
was wont to speak in these terms.
A king held a marriage feast for his
son and sent out invitations that friends might
come to the feast.
And Paul, in his epistle to the Ephesians,
which is the great epistle of the Church
where the Church is defined, speaks of the
head as the bridegroom, and the body the
bride.
You will recall his words in the 5th
chapter, how he speaks of marriage and the
exhortations there regarding the husband, his
manner of dealing with the wife.
And he goes on through the chapter saying,
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 blemish.
And so he goes on.
And then suddenly he cries out and says,
No!
He says, This is a great mystery.
I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
And then when we come to the closing
book of the Bible, you will recall the
Savior's word to the Church in Ephesus.
I have against thee, somewhat against thee, for
thou hast left thy first love.
And finally, in chapter 19, this great event
toward which the Church moves, this great consummation
of the ages, the marriage supper of the
Lamb.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give
honor to him, the Lord God Omnipotent.
For the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.
For the fine linen is the righteousness of
saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, Lesser are
they which are called unto the marriage supper
of the Lamb.
And he saith unto me, These are the
true sayings of God.
And so it was very natural for the
Savior, in that hour there, at the marriage
feast in Cana of Galilee, greatly moved.
You know, I can't go to a wedding
without reaching for my handkerchief.
The mystery of it.
And there is something about it that always
seems to take you to that which, according
to the word that we have just read
in Ephesians, is symbolized.
The union between the heavenly bridegroom and the
bride.
And so Jesus is greatly moved as he
looks upon this lovely scene.
The Savior's humiliation.
What was he doing?
Opening the eyes of the blind, healing lepers,
lifting up the lame, raising the dead, delivering
from satanic oppression the demon-possessed.
What was he doing?
Ah, friends, he was turning the bitter waters
of life into the wine of a heavenly
experience.
I think perhaps we evangelicals, it's not true
of all the evangelical bodies, who use grape
juice in the communion service have perhaps lost
something of its significance.
You know there are those, our Episcopalian brethren,
our brethren of the Lutheran communion, the Plymouth
brethren, there are many groups that look astounded,
shocked over the fact that there are those
who do not use wine.
It's a symbol of the new
life in Christ.
Now with this background, let us turn to
at least three of the practical implications of
this lovely symbol, which is really the deepest
in all Holy Writ regarding the union between
the Church and her Head, Christ Jesus the
Lord.
In the first place, the fact that we
have what Paul brings out in his epistles,
that there is for the believer who enters
by faith into union with his Lord and
Savior, a break so radical, so complete, so
utter, so absolute, well, Paul speaks of it
as death.
We are commanded to consider ourselves dead, to
sin dead to the world.
Dead we are, dead in the body of
Christ, Paul tells us, to the law that
we might be married to another.
I'm so glad that in the English version
it reads in this fashion, in the Spanish
it reads, muertos a la ley en el
cuerpo de Cristo para que seamos de otro.
We are dead to the law that we
might be to another, that we might be
united.
Here in this King James version it reads
that we might be married to another.
Think for a moment what it meant to
the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, this
shepherdess, this humble maid of the country, in
her simple life, taken to
the palace.
Solomon falls in love with her and she
is wedded and taken to the palace.
Think of the utter change that came into
the life of this maid.
Well, it was really death to her world
that she might enter into the world of
her royal spouse.
So it is in the Christian life, he
that is in Christ, is a new creature.
Old things have passed away, all things have
become new.
Friends, we should think of the Christian life
in these terms, especially in the days in
which we live.
Ah, they are indeed drab days.
They are indeed tremendous days of satanic oppression
in all the world.
Days when men's hearts are filling them for
fear of the things that are to come.
We ought to go back to this deepest
symbol of the Scriptures and think of our
Christian walk in terms of union with the
heavenly bridegroom.
A king, the Savior said in one of
his parables, sent forth the word, he was
to hold a feast, a marriage feast for
his son.
We are at a feast!
You will recall how the Pharisees came to
Jesus complaining because his disciples did not fast.
Walk around with long faces like the disciples
of John.
They couldn't understand.
And the Savior's reply was, can the children
of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom
is gone?
And then in the second place, and this
changes the picture a bit, does it not?
It's not all a feast.
This union between the heavenly bridegroom and his
church represents for his church great responsibility.
It can't be otherwise.
This maid, shepherdess, taken to the palace, Solomon's
bride, need not say, must enter in to
a sharing of the king's responsibilities.
And this brings us to the
Christian's walk and life and testimony.
Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.
And, Lord, I am with you.
This is our mutual responsibility.
This is our task.
I share with you now my passion.
Go ye into all the world and, Lord,
I am with you.
And you will recall how Mark closes his
gospel by saying that the disciples went, yes,
everywhere, and the Lord working with them.
We cannot evade this without greatly weakening the
ties between ourselves and our Lord.
We see it in Paul.
This explains those strange utterances that we find
in Paul's epistles regarding his experiences.
I bear in my body the marks of
the Lord Jesus.
I fill up that which is lacking of
the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake.
I am crucified together with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me.
And then, finally, and this brings us again
to the joyous aspect of the feast.
Could the bride possibly lack anything with such
a head, such a husband, such a bridegroom?
Could she lack anything?
Does this not shame us?
It should humble us into the very dust
for our anxieties and our frettings and our
worries and our cares and our fears and
our doubts.
Regarding the future and regarding our needs, my
God shall supply all your needs according to
His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
It really should be the end of all
of our fears and doubts and anxieties.
And here we have the secret of victorious
Christian living.
The Christian finds himself, it couldn't be otherwise,
the Christian finds himself seated in heavenly places
with his Lord.
In Colossians chapter 3 we read, If ye
have been raised up, if ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above where Christ sitteth on the right hand
of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on
things on the earth, for ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in
God.
Yes, the change is just that radical.
Ye are dead, and your life is hid
with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall he also appear with him in
glory.
Now wine is the most fitting symbol.
Fill the waterpots that save your bed the
servants with water.
And they fill them up to the brim.
And he saith unto them, Draw out now,
and bear unto the governor of the feast,
that they bear it.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted
the water that was made wine, and knew
not whence it was, but the servants which
drew the water knew, the governor of the
feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him,
Every man at the beginning doth set forth
good wine, and when men have well drunk,
then that which is worse.
But thou hast kept the good wine until
now.
We have a lovely custom in Mexico of
celebrating marriage anniversaries in the church.
I was invited to give the message only
a few weeks ago, three, four months ago,
it may have been that long, at a
fiftieth anniversary, wedding anniversary, a dear friend, a
pastor and his wife.
And I wondered, well now, what can I
say?
Well I finally settled down on the second
chapter of the gospel according to John.
And I assured a vast audience, my friends,
that wine had never been lacking in the
home of this dear pastor.
The wine of our heavenly life.
And so let us be much in prayer
that in these days, friends, we may feast
as never before.
For it is our privilege, the church is
the king's bride, to sit at his side
in heavenly places.
O gracious Father, we thank thee for this,
the first miracle the Savior wrought there at
the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee.
How very, very significant it was in the
light of all that took place, the Savior
going to the cross that he might find
his bride, taken as she was from his
wounded side.
And Father, we thank thee, without us tell
us in such clear tones, that together with
Christ we've been raised up, that we might
sit with him in heavenly places.
May it be so in these days, and
in the coming days, until we are called,
or until it could be, Father, the Savior
should come for the bride.
For we humbly ask it in his blessed
name.
Amen.