“BEHOLD, THE BRIDEGROOM”
A. C. Craig
These two scriptures refer to the wedding feast. The vital thing in the first was the wedding garment. In the second, it was the oil. Both these things are vital. I want to say a brief word, especially about the second one, as it bears much on ourselves in our own times, this simile of the kingdom applying at the present time more so than the first. But the great thing is, that God will have Christ distinguished in the first. And He will not allow anything to slight or discredit Christ. That is the teaching in the first parable in this simile of the kingdom. When He introduces Christ and stages something in view of His honour, God will hold to that and He will summarily deal with everything and anything that would in any way interfere with the honour of Christ. God knows how to distinguish Him. He has the right to do it. And while things run on as they do in the first section of the parable, men hold to their commerce and what not, and make light of the great testimony of the wedding feast, the king represents God as having supreme rights, universal rights. And if He makes an arrangement, a wedding feast, He will have His mind carried through, but it brings out what men’s hearts are in regard of the presentation of Christ.
Now a wedding feast is not exactly bringing up the idea of responsibility. It is something that God presents in view of man’s appropriation and coming into it in the way of having pleasure. It does not bring up the thought of responsibility, although the King has rights.
These rights,
beloved brethren, are brought into function in regard of distinguishing Christ. God loves to do that. He loves to distinguish His beloved Son. At the beginning of this gospel He opens the heavens upon Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. God is set on that. He is going to stage a thousand years when Christ will be distinguished. He will do that for a thousand years—how wonderful! And His beloved Son will be honoured. There is no mention of the bride here. It is only a question of His Son. He made a wedding feast for His Son. God’s heart delights in Him and He would have our hearts too to delight in Him as the One who is to be distinguished.
He is so worthy. He is so personally worthy. He is so morally worthy. He is so officially worthy. He is worthy to be distinguished. That is the idea here. You think of who He is in Himself, His own intrinsic value. And God is set to distinguish Him. And for a whole thousand years He will distinguish Him. This simile of the kingdom applies to the fact that He would bring forward the sentiments of it at the present time that we might all be set for setting out Christ for His own distinguishing. He is wonderful! What a blessed Person He is!
The king “made a wedding feast for his son”. Beautiful! He is the Prince, the great Heir. He is the Heir to everything. Does it not give you a feeling of exhilaration that this blessed One is soon to come into His rights publicly? And God will set Him forward. People made light of the invitation. Oh you think of the many today who treat these things with a certain amount of disdain. They made light of it. I hope we do not do that in divine things. People are making light of them, discrediting them, writing them down. Oh that we might be found valuing everything that God has staged in view of distinguishing Christ.
I want to pass on to the second section. He says to his bondmen, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy; go therefore into the thoroughfares of the highways, and as many as ye shall find invite to the wedding feast”. There is a change in the parable there.
There had been a point (Matthew 22: 7) when he sent forth his armies, but subsequent to that there is a change, he sends out his servants once more into the thoroughfares and the highways and they bring in as many as they can find. There is a change in that. A certain juncture came in the course of things when the Jew rejected the testimony of God’s goodness that He had brought in to distinguish Christ. The point came when they rejected that, and in the goodness of God He continues, and it brings out further His wonderful overtures to the Jew. He shows patience to the Jew, wonderful patience. But it brought no response. That is very solemn. In all this the Jew is set up in favour. What a privileged people they were. You read Romans 9 where Christ was presented to them and they refused, they made light of Him.
And then a change comes, and he sends the bondmen out again. That would be like the testimony of the Spirit. God in His goodness would continue, He would have His Son honoured, and the Spirit is here to honour Christ. He is here to glorify Him. I trust we all accept that. The Spirit is here with that in mind, to glorify Christ, and God will not allow Him to be slighted. He may run on in His patience. Things may come in, things may be said, rivals may be set up, earthly heirs may be appointed, but God will not allow that to run on. He will deal with that.
So they bring in both the evil and the good and the king comes in to see the guests. It says,
“the wedding feast was furnished with guests”. And the king comes in to see the guests. He beheld there a man not clothed with a wedding garment. He disowned Christ. He refused to recognise Him. He did not have a wedding garment on. That was the distinguishing mark. The qualification for being present was the wedding garment. It was provided. He did not provide it. It was what was coming in from God so as to be equal for the wedding feast. It does not create anything unusual among the others who were present; it creates no upset amongst the others. They accept him. That is what the situation is; people just accept him. They did not find anything wrong. There is not a word about their having found anything wrong with the man. These, dear brethren, are the kind of conditions that exist today. Things are accepted. Nobody makes a protest, and yet all the time Christ is being slighted. Nobody says to him, Why have you not a wedding garment on?
This is where it lies, dear brethren, it is accepted in the circles of profession, what is said against Him, what is said about Him in a discrediting fashion, when His own intrinsic value is set aside. When all is made available for men by God, and the way of righteousness (that is the suitable, and only suitable, clothing before the eye of God), the opposite is accepted by men. This man had his own suit. He wanted to appear in his own suit, and that was acceptable to men. It will not do for God. That very thing in itself is a discredit to Christ, a dishonour to Him. And so God goes on. He carries on His inspection, He came in to see the guests. Do not forget that. He walks up and down, so to speak, His eye ranges through the whole scene of the profession and He detects those who maybe make a profession, but just appear in their own righteousness. This matter of self-righteousness, pride, arrogance, is really self-will, and God detects that. In itself it is a dishonour to Christ.
God will have Him distinguished. Hidden ourselves, but clothed in His worth, you think of the preciousness of the wedding garment, to feel suitable before the eye of God, clothed with Christ. Empty profession that surrounds us is not only negative, it is a dishonour to Christ, an ignoring of what is due to Him. I trust we might develop a greater judgment about what profession is, distinguishing between God’s people who are mixed up in it, and what the thing is in itself. It has arisen in our own times, a system of things that is nothing but a dishonour to Christ. We want to be able to distinguish between what the persons are and what the thing is, and be able in any way we can to bring in help in view of a mighty deliverance. I think we want to be urgent before God that that may be so, that there may be God’s intervention in delivering His people so that all may be brought in to honour Christ. Well, that was all I had to say about this wedding garment, to glorify Christ.
I had mainly in mind to speak about the Spirit. These virgins represent pretty much what exists at the present time because they are waiting on the Bridegroom, and so are we. The cry has gone out, “Behold”. Not, ‘Behold the bridegroom’; no, we want to read our Bibles accurately. “Behold, the bridegroom”. I think that is fine. That cry had gone out, and it had the effect of stirring up the virgins. They that were foolish took their torches and did not take oil with them, but the prudent took oil in their vessels with their torches. Now, the bridegroom tarrying, they all grew heavy and slept. Everybody slept, the ten of them. There were only ten, and the ten slept. There was somebody who did not sleep. Somebody, who raised the cry, did not sleep. “Behold, the bridegroom”. The blessed Spirit of God who is here neither slumbers nor sleeps. “Behold, the bridegroom”—
He calls attention to Christ. He is here to distinguish Him. That is fine. It says the prudent took oil, but the foolish did not take oil with them. Notice that. It is not that they forgot. I am quite certain, beloved brethren, that we have not sufficient judgment about things. We are not able to discern and judge. Mr. J. Taylor used to emphasize from the Revelation, “God has judged your judgment” upon Babylon. God expects us to carry a thorough judgment about everything that dishonours Christ and dishonours the Spirit. We want to have a thorough judgment of that, at the same time loving His people. We are out to save His people, but hating the thing.
It says they did not take oil; there is a certain ignoring there, a slight. But the prudent took oil in their vessels with their torches. Now the bridegroom tarrying, they all grew heavy and slept, but in the middle of the night there was a cry—“Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him”. I want to emphasize this, “Go forth to meet him”. If you read notes of the ministry of seventy-five years or so ago you get this, “Go forth to meet him”. That kind of ministry was brought out then. There needs to be action. There needs to be diligence. Leave everything here and go forth to Christ. That was needed. We need ministry like that, I believe, and the Spirit of God in His faithful service will bring in that urge, that direction. Go forth to meet Christ. Leave everything here. Are we ready for that? It says, “Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their torches. And the foolish said to the prudent, Give us of your oil, for our torches are going out. But the prudent answered saying, We cannot, lest it might not suffice for us and for you. Go rather to those that sell”. Now this is fine. Have you been to those who are selling the oil? The five prudent had been to the sellers of
the oil. They had obtained it, and the foolish could have had it on the same terms. The same terms are extended to everybody.
The prudent had been to the sellers. Who is selling the oil? Oh, there is a wonderful economy in existence, beloved brethren. The economy of the Father and the Son is in existence. They are the Sellers of the oil. They will communicate the oil. What a wonderful and glorious system!—a glorious economy where the Father and the Son are operating. Think of the Spirit being given from that area, the great area of grace, the area of provision. How delightful!
They are selling the oil, not giving it away. In the glad tidings you get everything for nothing except for repentance, of course; but everything is free, the free gift of grace, the free gift of righteousness; all that is in the glad tidings. But when it comes to a matter like this, it has to be bought. There has to be a transaction between yourself and the seller of the oil. Something vital has to take place, something real, something concrete. He tarried. I wonder why the bridegroom tarried. You can be sure he would not tarry any longer than was necessary. Why did he tarry? To allow the foolish to buy the oil. Oh the patience of Christ! He is waiting on the foolish to go to the sellers to buy the oil. That is why He has tarried. Oh this wonderful dispensation! Beloved brethren, I am making an appeal as to the importance of having the oil.
How are you going to light the way of the Bridegroom? These torches were lit in view of showing up the way to the wedding hall, to light the way of the bridegroom.
Oh, that is our privilege now, to light the way of the Bridegroom. You need oil for that; it is vital. Mere profession will not do. We need
the blessed Spirit as the energy of the light, the source of the light, that the way of the Bridegroom might be lit up. It is a vital principle. There are certain things like the torch and the vessels, but the vital thing is the oil. Unless that is present there will be the flickering of the light and its dying out. To be sustained in freshness and with our hearts all aglow we need the oil. Oh to make more room for the Spirit! Get ready! They that were ready went in, that is the idea. The Spirit helps us to get ready, so that there might be no delay. They that were ready, “went in with him to the wedding feast”. All that is necessary at the present time. We are looking on to the great future, but there are occasions when we experience the presence of the Bridegroom. It is the cry, “Behold, the bridegroom” that awakens bridal feelings. That the Crier should select that term “the bridegroom” is to awaken bridal feelings and greater sensibilities in the presence of all the condition of things that would slight and dishonour Christ, even denying His name. It would awaken true bridal feelings that there might be an answer to Himself.
These are the kind of people who go in with Him to the wedding feast. Think of being in there with Christ, all for His own satisfaction, for His pleasure. The Spirit of God, beloved brethren, would see to it that this is true, that these things are real and vital with us, and that we are in there with Christ for His own pleasure. How wonderful it will be when the time really comes. The parable gives us some sense of what can be touched and tasted now while awaiting His coming, but think of what it will be when the marriage ceremony comes. You know, the bond has already been formed. All we await is the marriage ceremony, the marriage supper. The blessed Spirit is here. He is the bond. He is the bond
eternally. He is the bond between Christ and ourselves. That took place two thousand years ago when He came in at Pentecost. All we await is the marriage supper. Wonderful sight! We shall be there for His pleasure, not merely for our own satisfaction, but for the distinguishing of Christ. The marriage supper of the Lamb will be for His distinguishing. The Spirit of God would urge us now that there might be something of it in the way of foretaste for Him and for ourselves. “Blessed are they who are called”. You will not be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Abraham will be, and Moses and David, but you will not be called. There would not be any if you were not there. That is it; you belong to it, you are essential to the scene, for His wife is the very centre of the affections of the Lamb.
The Spirit of God, beloved brethren, would stimulate something of the nature of that in our hearts now, in the time when all around He is being slighted and set at naught, and they put up some sort of pretence, while all the time the vital thing is missing. The vital thing lies in the Spirit of God. He would stir our affections at the present time in view of there being a portion for Christ pending the moment when there will be the actual marriage supper of the Lamb, when His wife has made herself ready. She will be clothed in the wedding garment, the righteousnesses of the saints. “It was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure” which is “the righteousnesses of the saints”. The bride makes her own wedding garment. He loves to have it that way, “the righteousnesses of the saints”. The Spirit of God would help us therefore, beloved brethren, to unite on Christ with hearts set on Him, and not deflected, sustained in loyal support of Christ and affection for Him, and these, bridal feelings stirred up by the cry, “Behold, the
bridegroom”. I want to point out that the Spirit of God does that. He is the Crier. He is the One that cries and He would have an answer to Christ, over against the slight on Him, and on Himself. It is possible that there should be this. May it therefore extend and expand amongst us more and more, for His name’s sake.
Address at Bendigo, Australia
21 March 1987
THREE GREAT ISSUES
N. T. Meek
Romans 5: 12–21; Acts 2: 1–8; 2 Timothy 2: 14–22
There are three things that have happened in the history of man which have brought very real problems. In fact more than problems, they have brought trouble. Every one of us here suffers to a greater or less degree from these things and so does everybody in the whole world. Even if they are Christians they suffer from these troubles, these three profound events. One of them is the fall of man; it has affected the whole race. Death has passed upon all men. That is incontrovertible, is it not? There is not a person who is not under the shadow of death. It does not matter what their status is, what their nationality is, whether they are, as men would say, good or bad; they are all under the shadow and power of death.
The second great event has been the confusion of language. That has brought its troubles too.
If persons speak a different language it is very difficult for them to understand each other and this makes for mistrust. You have only to go to
the airport to see some of the things that this has involved. The notices that tell you the way out have to be put into two or three or more languages. It affects, as I say, all men, not so deeply as the first event, but still men are affected by it. Even the great statesmen as they get together have to include an interpreter in their party who can translate for them. The third event is the failure of the church. I suppose you do recognise that the church has failed publicly; it is in many pieces. It has been unfaithful to its Head. You might say it has been unfaithful to its Lover. Now every one of us here suffers from that to a greater or less degree.
There is a way, beloved, in which God has moved to meet these three great events. So we read in Romans 5 that sin entered into the world by one man. I expect you can tell me his name. Although it entered in by one man only, it has spread to the whole race, the whole race has the disease. All men have been affected by the introduction of sin. It was in the universe in Satan before it came into the world but it was man who introduced it here. Perhaps one should say, to be accurate, “by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death”. What a tragedy! What a sorrow! Death rests upon everything, upon your beautiful garden, upon the whole creation, even the things the artists make such a lot of in their pictures, the mountains in their majesty and the rivers flowing through the beautiful country. You go into a person’s house and there are flowers on the table, a vase of beautiful flowers; they have just been picked, they are beautiful, but before long they will die. Death rests upon everything. It breaks in upon the dearest relationships, comes into families. There is not a family here that has not been affected by death.
It passed upon all men, it says, even upon those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. Then it goes on to say “as indeed by the disobedience of the one man the many have been constituted sinners, so also by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous”. Who is the One? I said just now that you knew the name of the man by whom sin came in. Let me ask you now, Do you know the name of the One by whom you can be constituted righteous? I will tell you His name, it is Jesus. He is the One. I wonder, dear friend, if you know Him. I wonder if you have any link with Him. I wonder if you have ever prayed to Him. I wonder if you have spoken to Him about your sins, not about Adam’s sins, but yours. It says “all have sinned”. God is not exactly charging you with Adam’s sins; He is not holding you responsible for them. They happened before you were even born. But God can hold me responsible for my sins.
Dear friend, what can be done about it? Something has been done about it, and that is that Jesus came here to be my Saviour and to bear my sins in His body. It has often been said, He did not send an angel, He came Himself. He did not just meet it by a word of power, a great crack of thunder or a sheet of lightning. He bore my sins in His body. It is in your body that you feel things. There, so to speak, is your house, a house that encloses your soul and your spirit. Just think of what it means that the blessed Lord Jesus bore my sins in His body. Men made Him suffer. You read the gospels and you will read about the sufferings of Jesus. What it meant for Him! A Person came here named the Son of man. That means He is for men. He is also Son of God, and that means He is for God. Yet man crucified Him; they hanged Him on the cross. What an exposure of the human race! You might say, what an exposure of my heart, and yet He bore my sins. I wonder if you can say He bore yours? I do not know any reason why you should not.
You can be constituted righteous. By the obedience of the One the many will be constituted righteous.
What a beautiful feature obedience is in Jesus! He went to the cross in obedience to God’s will. He loved that will, blessed Saviour! Though it cost Him His life, He carried that will through, that I might be saved, that you might be saved. I wonder if you can say, ‘I am constituted righteous’. How can that be? I acknowledge that I am a sinner; how can I be constituted righteous? Jesus died for my sins. He bore the judgment of God. Every bit of judgment which I deserved Jesus bore. You add your sins to mine, and if we add all our sins together what a great lot there would be! You go out across Stockholm and add them in too, and then go across Europe, America, India, Asia, and all other places and, dear friend, He is great enough to bear them all. What a Saviour! This great failure of Adam from which the whole of mankind suffers has been met by Jesus. Blessed be His name! What a Saviour!
Great enough to take on Himself the sin of the whole world. He suffered for my sins because they had to be accounted for. God could not just ignore them. If He was going to bring me into eternal blessing, a blessing greater than Eden ever was, then the question of my sins must be met.
We live in houses and in them we have a dustbin and in that we put the rubbish. It is taken periodically to a rubbish dump and there it slowly decomposes. God is going to have a scene where there will not be any rubbish heaps. There will be no reminder of my sins, they will have been removed entirely. One of the prophets says, “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back”, Isaiah 38: 17.
Another prophet says, “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea”, Micah 7: 19.
Men deal with dangerous substances, radioactive materials and poisons, and so on, and the problem is how to dispose of them. God was faced with a greater problem; He had the problem of how to dispose of sins and sin. In the blessed work of Jesus we see the way He has dealt with it. Are you at peace in your soul about your sins? Are you settled? Somebody wrote a little poem like this.
‘The sinner who believes is free,
Can say, The Saviour died for me;
Can point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God’
You see, dear friend. Jesus’ blood was shed, the blood of such a One as He, that my sins might be cleared so that I might go free. Beloved, you can see how great Jesus is. He has resolved this great problem that affects all mankind. Do you not feel that it is worth telling people about? I am sure it is; I am sure we feel it is, only we often lack courage. We are affected by the unconcern of man.
I suppose from the very moment of the fall, Satan began to work to seek to nullify the great provision that God was going to make. How successful he has been we all know. He has infiltrated into man’s mind, into his leisure time, and into his Sundays. There was a time when, outwardly at least, part of Lord’s Day was given to God. Satan has tried to spoil it, and to a large extent he has succeeded and made man the more miserable in the process. He has never made a person happy yet. He may have given them excitement, but he has never given them personal peace. He has never brought real happiness into a single soul. It says of him in Isaiah 14: 17 that he does not dismiss his prisoners homeward. He
captures persons and, if he can, keeps them right to the grave. He never lets them go.
Sometimes you see persons who are obviously in his grip. What a sorry sight it is to see a person, young or old, in his evil grip!
I would like to speak now about the confusion of the language. We did not read about it but it occurred in Genesis 11. Before Babel the earth had one language. People could speak together and evidently they understood each other, and they essayed to build a tower to reach to heaven. They made a pretty good attempt; they got so far, and I think there is enough evidence to show that they were making a serious attempt. God in His mercy saw it and he confused their language and scattered them, and they have been scattered ever since. So we have maps of the world coloured in different colours for different races and different languages. The maps are going to change. There is going to be an empire where Jesus will be supreme. He is going to reign “from the river unto the ends of the earth”—the great extent of the sway of Jesus.
When you speak of Jesus you are touching deep waters, the Subject is so great; He personally is so great. By the time of Acts 2 He had been here and He had gone to the cross, and He had died and He had risen again. He had gone up on high and He had sent another divine Person down, the Holy Spirit, a distinct Person from Jesus. The Holy Spirit came down on these persons who had companied with Jesus. The Holy Spirit came and “sat upon each one of them”, Acts 2: 3. They were all believers and they began to speak with other tongues. God overturned the confusion and persons with different dialects understood each other. They heard in their own tongues the great things of God. What happened here was just the opposite of Babel; it was turned around so that they were no longer confounded but
they understood each other. How was this accomplished? It was accomplished by the coming of the Holy Spirit. Now one man might have said to another something about Jesus. Suppose he had known only one language and spoke in Swedish, and the other, from another nation, understood him. It would be a miracle, and the same the other way round.
This is what has happened; persons come together and by the Holy Spirit they are able to speak about the great things of God. In our small measure we have been doing that now for two or three days. It is a wonderful privilege. We come to it that we need the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures. We need the Spirit to understand the Lord’s headship. We need the Spirit to convey spiritual thoughts to one another; so what might have been a great disadvantage operates to our advantage. God has met the confusion by a second divine Person. He sent Jesus to work out the great matter of our redemption, and He sent the Spirit that we might understand God’s things. Have you received the Holy Spirit?
I would like to speak now about this third thing, that is the failure of the church. How sad it is! The company that the Lord Jesus left here remained faithful for a time and then His word began not to govern them. The Lord Jesus went up on high and left believers here, the
‘called-out’ company. The church forgot Him. They said, as Israel had said, as “for this Moses .... we do not know what is become of him!” Moses had gone up the mount and was interceding for them. The Lord Jesus had gone on high to intercede for His own. When He was here He had done all He could do in love for them. Then He went on high and from that point He also did all that He could in His
love for them. He even sent gifts to His church down here; but the church forgot Him. Is not that generally the situation? The church has forgotten Him. It has become one of the establishments of the world, like politics and the administrative system, and the government.
The church is just one pillar of the world, along with such things as commerce and industry.
It has lost the sense of its heavenly calling. It has lost the sense that the Lord Jesus has gone on high and that it has been called with a holy and a heavenly calling. It has become attached to the earth.
It has become a great house and I have to admit I am in that house, the great house that has been unfaithful to Jesus. It has neglected His word, it has turned aside from His commandments, even though each was a commandment of love. It has lost its vital link with Him and, alas, many have become vessels to dishonour; they are really a dishonour to the name of Jesus. One moment they may swear, the next moment take His blessed name upon their lips. You can understand how the church has lost its power in testimony, the church which was once the light of the world, like a city set on a hill, testifying to the whole world the message of glad tidings, that Jesus was on high and that the church would follow soon.
That is what it should have been. I ask you, What is it now? You say, Is there any way out?
Well, we shall be positionally in the great house till we die or till the Lord comes, but morally there is a way out. The firm foundation of God stands. The Lord knows those that are His.
That in itself is a testimony to the breakdown.
Really, every believer should stand out clearly in a dark world, but so many wear suits of grey. Things are not black and white; things are not
clear; often you cannot tell. A person may be a believer or he may not. The Lord knows, which is a comfort. I may not know, but the Lord knows. It is like a seal. The royal house in Sweden would have a seal. Important documents carry the seal. One side of this seal reads,
“The Lord knows those that are his”. You turn the seal over and it says, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”. That is my side of the seal; that responsibility concerns me. I would just like to put this upon us. God is not exactly meeting it by Jesus or even by the Holy Spirit. He puts it upon me; I have to do the withdrawing from what is unequal to what is due to Jesus. This word iniquity means what is not consistent with Jesus and in that way, dear friend, this awful sorrow is met. Yet publicly, alas, the great house goes on to the end and the testimony has lost the clarity it once had.
If you get a few believers together they can, however, still walk in the original light. They can still be governed by the fact that Jesus has gone on high, and they are left down here to render to Him a testimony, a testimony which honours Jesus’ name. If you have such a company you can work out Christian truth. You can enjoy Christian privileges. You can enjoy what it is to be raised up together and set down together in heavenly places. In that sense in your inward experience you can touch what is outside of failure. I would just commit these few words to you, including this last scripture, because I think it is important that in the absence of Jesus you know how to act. Remember, you need to be governed by His word. Even if I find His word a test, my salvation is to be governed by it and not by my own ideas. May the Lord help us in these things, for His name’s sake.
Address at Stockholm
31 December 1989