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the word”. But there is an end in mind, a climax to all this, and
it is a glorious one, “that he might present the assembly to
himself”. Not only is our sister with Christ, with myriads more,
but the Lord is about to claim the assembly, and by Himself to
present it, to Himself, if I might put it that way. No other agency
is referred to. What a thought that is! What a time it will be!
The assembly belongs to Him, dear brethren, belongs to no
other, He has purchased it; I think we rightly use that word in
connection with the purchase of the assembly. You will
remember that Boaz goes over the ground before the elders in
the gate, and they were to witness that he had bought certain
things, the property of Elimelech and the two sons, but he
says, ‘moreover Ruth the Moabitess have I purchased to be
my wife’ (Ruth 4: 10), and the assembly is His wife, dear
brethren; when the day of the marriage comes it is said, ‘and
His wife has made herself ready’, Revelation 19: 7. It is a
wonderful thing to have part in that, and it lies, we believe, just
ahead.
What it says here is that He will ‘present the assembly to
Himself’. It causes the perfection of His manhood to shine forth
in His love for the woman of His choice; at the same time only
God could do that, so that His deity is implied in this action—
“present the assembly to himself”. I just want to press that the
Lord is going to have the assembly exactly as He wishes it to
be; that is how He sees it; and He has an end in that way in
view in regard of each one of us. Oh that we might be ready to
submit to His hand, to let Him have His way in bringing about
devoted committal to Himself and His interests here. It is so
urgent, so important.
“Having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it
might be holy and blameless”, and it will be, and we rejoice in
the satisfaction that that will bring to the heart
of Christ. “He shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul, and
shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53: 11), and we glory in it.