“WATCH THEREFORE”
J. N. Grace
The coming of the Lord has been referred to in what has proceeded earlier and I thought another touch might help, particularly as to the place of the Spirit with us. Thank God for the presence of the Spirit! That is the mark of this dispensation; redemption having been completed to the satisfaction of God, Christ has gone into heaven and the Spirit has come.
How favoured we are! There is a divine Person here indwelling the saints, and He will be with us for ever. His business is to call attention to Christ. Now that is the purpose of our being here today. Every occasion when the saints are together is to call attention to Christ; that is the Father’s pleasure, and I think it is the pleasure of every heart that has come under the influence of Jesus.
This simple parable is one that looks forward to the end of the dispensation; maybe it goes further and links with what is coming, the public side of things, soon to come. The call has gone out, dear brethren, “Behold, the bridegroom”. Have you heard it? It is not just attention being called to the coming of the Lord but to the Person who is coming. What place has the Bridegroom in your heart? On occasions like this attention is often called to the bride, but in Matthew’s gospel I think it is the Father calling attention to His Son. Previously to this it speaks of the king who made a wedding feast for his son. Typically, it was to honour Christ, and that is what our being together is primarily for, to honour Christ, and to honour Christ as the Bridegroom. Scripture would indicate that that is the finest way in which we can view things in the way of joy in the relationships that God has set up. It looks forward, of course, to the public side, the Bridegroom; the bride is not mentioned here. Redemption had not yet been accomplished, the Spirit had not come; now the Spirit has come and the bride is being formed in view of the day of display when the Bridegroom will actually come. But ere He comes, dear brethren, the Spirit is saying, “Behold, the bridegroom”.
Where are our eyes looking? Are we looking for the next great event in the world? Are we thinking about what is happening among the nations and how prophetic scriptures may work out? I do not think the Spirit of God is engaging us with that. The Spirit of God is engaging us, I think, in the ministry of these days with the Person of Christ, to make Him so attractive to our hearts that we cannot do without Him. Is that the feeling of your heart, dear brother and dear sister, that you want Him?—not just to be relieved of your aches and pains and circumstances that maybe are very difficult, but you want Christ.
Well, there were ten virgins here. I would think it relates to the whole profession of Christianity. Five were wise and five foolish, all virgins, the outward position the same, but what marked some off from others was that they had oil in their vessels and they were ready.
It is an allusion, of course, to the Spirit of God, not only that we have the Spirit of God, but that He is being put to use, may I say reverently, in the testimony. May I say that plainly?—your testimony. What part have you in the testimony of our Lord? It is a vital thing if we are left here, day by day as the years mount on. What has God left us here for? To fill out our part in the testimony of our Lord. He has not left us here to make money; He has not left us here to make our name in the world; He has left us here, dear brethren, to fill out our part in the testimony of our Lord with hearts that are burning. Oh that our hearts may be quickened in relation to Christ and in affection for Him!
The Bridegroom! could you think of anything better in relation to Christ than to view Him as the Bridegroom? It means He is coming for His own pleasure and satisfaction. Maybe He will come today. For us it will be the rapture. As to the public display of Christ, we have not reached that yet. But He is coming, and our eye, dear brethren, should be on the Bridegroom.
How attractive the Spirit of God is making Jesus to the hearts of those who love Him. In every way in which He is spoken of in the Scriptures He is spoken of in a way that is intended to attract our hearts so that we want to be like Him.
What a fine thing it is to be amongst these five virgins who had oil in their vessels. It is not just a question of assenting to the presence of the Spirit as a known doctrine. It would raise questions with us as to how far we are conscious of the presence and activities of the Spirit in view of the present testimony. How easy God has made things for us; He has furnished us with all that is needed. In the face of the rejection of Christ, and the rejection of the Spirit, God has furnished every believer with all that is required to enable him to go through in victory in such a way that the end will be ready for Christ. I think the Spirit’s work is just on completed, and when the Spirit and the bride say, Come, that means that the Spirit’s work is completed. It is a wonderful thing that the Spirit’s work will be as complete as the work of Christ. We often get engaged with our break—downs and our failures; true enough, and we do well to judge them, but let us not forget, dear brethren, that God has furnished us well. He has foreseen the whole of the dispensation, and every breakdown of responsibility that has occurred in your history, and mine, and that of every believer. God has foreseen it all, and provided what is needed in the presence of the Spirit. Oh thank God for that! It is for us to value it.
These 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”. Well, the Spirit will see the testimony through; and He will see you through, and He will see me through, as we are dependent upon Him. And that is just not one day a week. We get up in the morning. What do we do? We turn to the Lord and we turn to the Spirit; we have prayer and read the Scriptures, and have a sing—I hope we do. That is where the service of God begins; the service of God does not begin when we come together in the hall; I think the service of God begins in our homes, and I think the Lord would encourage our brother and sister who have been married today to start there. It develops further as we come together in assembly because of the presence of the Spirit. He is known in a greater way as we come together. What will happen? Who can tell what will happen when scope is given to the Spirit to engage our hearts with Christ?
I do not intend to speak for long, my main impression to pass on to the brethren is just that we need to make more room for the Holy Spirit. He is a blessed divine Person who knows the feelings of the Father for the Son; He knows the feelings of the Son for the assembly, and He is perfecting that work in His own way, through discipline, through sufferings, through pressure, through problems, but if we gave room to the Spirit and scope to the Lord I think we would find that there is much more than problems in the divine mind. What belongs to the assembly is life.
That is the testimony; the testimony is not just knowing doctrine, though it is essential that we do know doctrine. I would commend it to all the young brethren to read the ministry, and to profit by it, but let it take you into the presence of the Lord, and count on the Spirit that the ministry might become effective in you by way of formation, .so that you become more like Christ. That is what the Spirit is doing, and that is the bride. In the present time the assembly is here as the wife, when faithfulness is needed in a scene of contrariety; but when she has made herself ready—ready for the great day of display, when all that the Spirit has perfected day by day in our circumstances will come out in a scene of glory in relation to Christ as the bride—how wonderful it will be!
So the Lord says, “Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour”. We speak of the Lord’s coming; we speak of the nearness of it. Do we believe, dear brethren, that the Lord may come today? Today! It is the gospel—“Now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation”, 2 Corinthians 6: 2. That runs parallel with the truth of the assembly, the Spirit being here and His work almost completed. Oh let us give more room to Him! How many things we allow to come into our lives that hinder the activity of the Spirit in the prime work that God is doing in these days. The finest work that God has done, and is doing, is what He is doing in the assembly by the Spirit. There are other glories—creational glory; there is glory connected with past dispensations—but the crowning thing, dear brethren, is what God is doing in the assembly—in forming a vessel that is just suited to that blessed Man. He is doing it, and will do it. I think the marvel of it is that He is doing it in the very place where Christ has been crucified, and He is doing it in the face of hostility and the efforts of the enemy to rob God of what is due to Him and His glory.
Well, may we watch, “Watch therefore”. What does He mean? “Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour”. Are we watching for the Lord? When we get up in the morning are our first thoughts about what we are going to do in business today, the problems we are going to work out at school, or is our first thought, Will He come today? Have you ever thought that way? Getting up in the morning you think what a crowded day it is going to be, but, Will He come today? That should be the expectation of our hearts, dear brethren, every day; it may be the day the Lord will come. To relieve us? to get us out of our troubles and problems? No. To get what is due to Him, to satisfy His own heart in having the assembly with Him for ever.
“Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour”.
Address at Redbridge
19 May 1990