Wedding Preparations

Wedding Preparations

Excerpted from “The Barrier”

Sermon #1590

Delivered on Lord’s Day morning, March 27, 1881, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

Of all the analogies God could use to describe his church, one of his favorites is a bride preparing for marriage. If we’re going to love Christ, we must love his bride. And if we’re to be ready for the wedding, we need to make sure we are dressed accordingly.

Nothing unclean will ever enter [the New Jerusalem, on the New Earth], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Revelation 21:27

Spurgeon • It is the glorified church that is here spoken of, and hence the text may be said to refer to Heaven. For at the present moment the nucleus of the glorified church is in Heaven, and from Heaven every defiled thing must be shut out.

It may also refer to the Kingdom of the millennial age, when the saints will reign with Christ upon the Earth for a thousand years, when even upon this battlefield our conquering Leader shall be crowned with victory, and where his blood was shed, his throne shall be set up.

The text may also be read as including the eternal world of future happiness [the New Earth], for the glorified church will one day possess that glorious, endless, undefiled inheritance. But out of her shall long before have been gathered all things that offend and those that do iniquity. From Heaven and from all heavenly joys and states sin must be shut out. Into the perfected church there nothing that contaminates shall ever enter.

I should like you for a minute or two to think of that perfected church as she is described in Revelation 21, for it is a description worthy of the most profound study. What glory will surround the risen saints in their role in the city of God: “having the glory of God,” says the eleventh verse. What a glory of glories is this! Even now, my brothers and sisters, you who are in Christ possess the grace of God, but by and by you shall conspicuously shine with the glory of God.

At present you share in the dishonor which falls on your Master and his cause among a wicked generation, but then you shall share in the glory which is the reward of the anguish of his soul. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

How glorious will that church be whose light shall be the presence of God himself—light in which the nations of the redeemed shall rejoice. Oh my God, write my name among them! And to that end, write me among your persecuted saints below. We should be content to endure what little shame shall come upon the active church on Earth if we may participate in the honor of the church glorified above, for this is an excellent glory.

What a church will the church of God be in those happier days! We watch the church of God sometimes with apprehension and alarm, for though we know that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her, yet her feebleness makes the timid tremble. But in her state after the Resurrection there shall remain no signs of feebleness, for that which was sown in weakness shall be raised in power. She shall be a city the like of which has never been beheld, whose foundation shall be deeper than the depths beneath and whose towers shall reach above the clouds.

No institution shall exist so long or flourish so abundantly as the church of the living God. When you think of the church of God, settled in her place by the Almighty himself who has established her, remember her vastness, for a multitude that no man can number shall be seen among her inhabitants. Her census shall prove her citizens to be as the stars of Heaven in their multitudes. From her vast foundation the living stones shall rise course upon course, twelve foundations of jewels, till “the mountain of the house of the LORD . . . shall be lifted up above the hills” (Isaiah 2:2).

I say again, write my name down among the dwellers in the great city! What higher honor can I crave? To be numbered with princes, to be named with emperors—think of it! Your beautiful pieces of royal clothing are but poor toys. True glory lies in being part and parcel of the church, today despised and rejected of men, which shall before long look forth fair as the sun and astonish the world with the brightness of her rising.

Alcorn • These days many Christians bend over backward to criticize the church—in some cases to berate her in the most scathing terms. They distance themselves from the bride of Christ to the point that they no longer are part of local churches, confident they are better off on their own.

Spurgeon acknowledges the church’s “feebleness” but believes Christ’s promise that Hell itself won’t prevail against it. So he says, “True glory lies in being part and parcel of the church, today despised and rejected of men, which shall before long look fair as the sun and astonish the world with the brightness of her rising.”

Spurgeon would decry the low regard and dismissive attitudes many Christians today have for the church, Christ’s body. It’s trendy for people to say, “I love Jesus, but I hate the church.” But the church is Christ’s bride, and even with all her flaws, he loves her and will never give up on her. If you came to me and said, “Randy, I want to be your friend; I love you, but I hate your wife,” I would say, “If you hate Nanci, you cannot be my friend. She and I are one. I am deeply loyal to her. I would die for her.” Christ would say the same of his bride, except he would add, “In fact, I did die for her.”

As the church, we’re part of the ultimate Cinderella story—we’ll be rescued from a home where we labor, often without appreciation or reward. One day we’ll be taken into the arms of the Prince and whisked away to live in his palace. When “the wedding of the Lamb has come” (Revelation 19:7, NIV), the New Jerusalem, consisting not only of buildings but also of God’s people, will come down out of Heaven, “prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Revelation 21:2, NIV). The eyes of the universe will be on the Bridegroom, yes, but also on the bride for whom he died. “His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear” (Revelation 19:7-8, NIV).

It takes faith, but we must learn to look at our local churches, even with all their problems, and say, “Many of these people are redeemed; they are Christ’s bride, though now they are as imperfect as I am. Help me, Jesus, not to dismiss and berate and ridicule them but to love them as you do. Help me to see that you call me to be your bride, not as an individual, but as part of a church.”

I have vivid memories of my wife’s and my daughters’ pure beauty in their wedding dresses. The church, Christ’s bride, should likewise be characterized by purity—a fitting gift for our Bridegroom, the Crown Prince who has been utterly faithful to us.

If we were to guess what the bride’s fine linen stands for, our first instinct might be to assume it’s the righteousness of Christ that covers us. Significantly, however, the text says something different: “Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people” (Revelation 19:8, NIV). It’s only because of the Bridegroom’s work that the chosen princess, the church, can enter the presence of her Lord. Yet her wedding dress is woven by her many acts of faithfulness while away from her Bridegroom on the fallen Earth.

The picture is compelling. Each prayer, each gift, each hour of fasting, each kindness to the needy—all these are the threads that have been woven together into this wedding dress. Her works have been empowered by the Spirit, and she has spent her life on Earth sewing her wedding dress for the day when she will be joined to her beloved Bridegroom.

This gives us a wonderful reason to remain here on this Earth, even though we long to be with our beloved Jesus. The wedding approaches, yet there’s more for us to do to present ourselves pure before our Lord. Part of us wants fewer days between now and the wedding, because we’re so eager to be with our Beloved in our new home. But another part wants more days to better prepare for the wedding, to sew our dress by acts of faithful service to God.

The imagery is beautiful but potentially disturbing. A pure bride doesn’t want to appear scantily clothed or dressed in rags at the altar before her beloved Bridegroom and a crowd of guests. But if she has been diligent to prepare, her dress will be substantial, beautiful, and complete. May God help us to be his church, to build his church, and to love his church.