“BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM”
F. G. Suckling
I feel the time is urgent. The cry has already gone out, “Behold the bridegroom”. There was a period when some of us lost the import of that call, but the Lord in His love has revived us to realize its urgency. As we remember Him in the Supper every first day of the week we remind ourselves that we do it until He comes. How we need to be ready and waiting for that momentous event!
This matter of the oil in the vessels is so important. It says, “The prudent took oil in their vessels with their torches”. The others were careful to have their vessels with their torches, but were not concerned about making sure they had the oil. It would speak to us of the Holy Spirit within us as the only power for light in our souls so as to be kept watching and ready for when the Lord may come. Would we not all love to be kept in the appreciation of it? It is the Lord personally we are waiting for. The foolish said, “Give us of your oil, for our torches are going out”. But it is not within our power to do this, for it is God alone who gives the Holy Spirit.
The Lord said to the disciples in John 20, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. I believe it would mean that He wants us to experience the power of the Holy Spirit daily in a living way. We have been feeling tonight in our prayers that there is a oneness that is of the Spirit in which we are unified in our desires and outlook.
So the cry is, “Go forth to meet him”. It is like the end of Hebrews; we “go forth to him without the camp”. That is to be our position and our attitude all the time, for we are going out of this world; we are going to Him. Every day we need to remind ourselves of the nearness of the Lord’s return. We have felt lately how the Supper every first day of the week emphasizes it to us in the experience of it, and in the sense that it is the chief joy of the week as we wait for the Lord to come.
What is said in verses 11 and 12 is very serious as to those who came when it was too late, the door having been shut. They say to him, “Lord, Lord, open to us; but he answering said, Verily I say unto you, I do not know you”. You know, in Christendom at large that expression is used quite a lot, “Lord, Lord”, but the question is—and it comes home to us all—whether we really know what it means. It is a wonderful reality to all who know Him as having the Holy Spirit! The assembly expression, “Lord Jesus”, as Paul says, is used by those who have the Holy Spirit, and it would speak to us of the assembly’s love for Christ and Christ’s love for the assembly. How privileged we are to have the light of the Head in heaven and His body here, and the truth of Christ and the assembly. And this is all known inwardly.
So we thank God for the leaders now with the Lord who by the Holy Spirit brought these truths to us from the Scriptures, and for present ministers who continue in this work. How we would long and pray for our brethren who are not with us that they might be recovered to this living experience too.
Well, I just felt the importance of having the Holy Spirit in us, and of having oil in our vessels; not to hope that we have it and go on with a certain form of things, but to know His presence in a real way. May the Lord help us in view of His coming and may we be watching and waiting for Him, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Christchurch, N.Z.
6 June 1983