MARRIAGE IN THE LORD
Deuteronomy 24:5; Ephesians 5:29,25-27
As has been referred to already in the prayer, Christ should be central to this occasion. How blessed it is that we have a gathering on the occasion of the marriage of our beloved brother and sister, and the desire of everyone here would be that Christ should be magnified, that Christ should be central to the occasion. How much that has come before us brings in the practical exercises that relate to marriage. It has been pointed out that the divine ideal is Christ and the assembly. How wonderful it is that marriage should be taken up according to God’s thoughts about it. We grieve at what the world has done to marriage, but rejoice that there still is marriage in the Lord, marriage according to God. How blessed that is, and the standard in it is Christ and the assembly.
I was thinking of the wonderful aspect of the present period of time, which is what I understand is represented typically by the “one year” in Deuteronomy 24, when the Lord Jesus is distinctly living and active to “gladden his wife whom he hath taken”. The chapter begins with the exercise of divorce, and that related to what Israel should have been for God but was not. But how blessed it is that the Lord Jesus has distinctly set Himself for the period of this dispensation to “gladden his wife whom he hath taken”. In due course, as we had reference to in the first hymn, the bride is going to appear beside Him in glory. The bride is going to be publicly displayed in all her beauty, the fulness of what there is secured for God. How blessed that will be, when she will be, in all her beauty, the fulfilment of all that was in God’s mind. How wonderful it is, as we consider what our brother has brought before us in Genesis chapter 2, that the bride will be displayed in completion, glorified, a vessel that is entirely suited to Christ and suitable to take part in the administration that He will take up in the world to come. How wonderful that He will do that.
But He is not taking on these public responsibilities now, He is not taking charge of the world, He is not active in relation to government in the world. The Father has that in His hand and there is what is used under God’s hand for government now, but the Lord Jesus is not taking that up publicly yet. He has, you could say, this exclusive occupation, to gladden the heart of His assembly. We come together on an occasion like this and our hearts are gladdened, because Christ is providing for us. Our hearts are gladdened because He is giving us a fresh impression of Himself and how He has sanctified Himself for us, how He has set Himself so that we should be gladdened by the One who loves us so much. How our hearts would be drawn to Him as the One who, at this time, has set Himself apart. It relates to what we have in John 17, verse 19, “I sanctify myself for them”. He sets Himself apart that the assembly should be nourished and should be cherished, as the second scripture brings in.
How blessed to think of the Lord Jesus as having this spirit and attitude; “For no one has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as also the Christ the assembly”. Beloved, did you feel cherished by the Lord Jesus today? You come here, and His affections are towards you as part of His bride. His love is towards you that you should have that feeling, that knowledge of all the depth and breadth of divine affection that is towards you from the Lord Jesus, who is exclusively set now for the gladdening of the heart of the assembly. How blessed as He nourishes us, nourishes us with what is of Himself, nourishes us with thoughts of Himself. How we rejoice in the nourishing that we get as we come together, and of course each one of us will have that as we are in liberty in His presence. How blessed that is, that He is nourishing, He is providing for what He loves so much. You see what it has cost Him, that He has “delivered himself up for it”, but then it is presented here “in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word”. As He is sanctified for us, so He has in mind that exclusiveness of the assembly in its pleasure and its affection for Him.
How wonderful that there is something that exclusively is for a person. It is a blessed thing in marriage that there is a man and a woman who are exclusively for one another. How blessed to see Christ and the assembly in that relationship, and therefore as an example for our brother and sister in taking up their responsibilities in marriage. The scripture in Deuteronomy does not relieve our brother of responsibilities; he has them, and he has to take them up. But how blessed that there is what is exclusive in taking on the features of Christ and the assembly, so that He gives us that standard yet again, “Husbands, love your own wives, even as the Christ also loved the assembly”. There is no other standard in marriage. Everyone who is a husband will be well aware of failures and weaknesses and needs, what comes below the divine standard, but that does not take away from what God has in mind. These matters can be taken up in the Spirit’s power, that there should be an answer in marriage in the Lord to what there is in the delightful relationship of Christ and His assembly. May we be blessed as we consider these things, for the Lord’s name sake.
Word at a marriage meeting, Witney
1 September 2017
D.C. Brown
Edited and Published by John Brown and Paul Martin
36 Laverock Park Linlithgow EH49 6AT
email notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk
Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ Tel: 01277 650 661