A Glorious Church
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 7, 1835 BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE
METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and
gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the
washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but
that she should be holy and without blemish." Ephesians 5:25-27.
WHAT a golden example Christ gives to His disciples! There are few
masters who could venture to say, "If YOU would practice my teaching,
imitate my life." But the life of Jesus is the exact transcript of
perfect virtue and therefore He can point to Himself as the paragon of
holiness, as well as the teacher of it. The Christian should take
nothing short of Christ for his model. Under no circumstances ought we
to be content unless we reflect the Grace which was in Christ Jesus.
Even as a husband, which is a relationship that the Christian sustains
in common with the rest of men, he is to look upon Christ Jesus as
being set before him as the picture and he is to paint according to
that copy.
Christ himself being the Bridegroom of the Church, the true Christian
is to seek to be such a husband as Christ was to His spouse. I fear,
Brethren, that we often stop short of the Master's example–we compare
ourselves among ourselves and are therefore far from being wise. We
think if we avoid the egregious faults of some and can attain to the
moderate virtues of others, we have done well. Let it be so no longer.
He would never excel in statuary who should take the works of some mere
amateur to be his copy.
No. The sculptor knows that he cannot rival Praxiteles or Phidias and
yet he takes some Greek torso or bust from the antique to be his
model–he must have perfection there–even if there is none in his own
workmanship. The painter would never attain to eminence if he went to
an exhibition and devoted himself to the study of some work of moderate
worth and said, "I will attempt to reach this and there I will stop
contented." No. He goes to the galleries of the great masters and
though his timid pencil may not dare to hope that he shall strike out
thoughts so clearly and make life stand out upon the canvas as they
have done, yet he seeks to drink in their inspiration, hoping that he
may rise to some proud eminence in art by imitating them.
Let the Christian, then, aspire to be like his Lord who is the Author
and Finisher of his faith. And let him, as he runs the heavenly race,
look to Jesus and make "the Apostle and High Priest of his profession"
his continual study and aim to be changed into His image from glory
unto glory. You must be struck, in reading the passage before us, on
what high ground the Apostle takes the Christian. It is possible that
some husbands might say, "How can I love such a wife as I have?" It
might be a supposable case that some Christian was unequally yoked
together with an unbeliever and found himself forever bound with a
fetter to one possessed of a morose disposition, or a obstinate temper,
or a bitter spirit.
He might therefore say, "Surely I am excused from loving in such a case
as this! It cannot be expected that I should love that which is in
itself so unlovely." But mark, Beloved, the wisdom of the Apostle. He
silences that excuse, which may possibly have occurred to his mind
while writing the passage, by taking the example of the Savior, who
loved, not because there was loveliness in His Church, but in order to
make her lovely.
You perceive "He loved His Church and gave Himself for her, that He
might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing." He did not admire her because there was no
spot in her. He did not choose her because she had no wrinkles. He
fixed His affections where there were multitudinous spots and
wrinkles– where everything was deformity. He still set His heart and
would not withdraw till He had loved the spots away and loved every
wrinkle out of her who was the object of His choice. And now He seems
to say to every Christian man, however unhappily he may have fared:
"If perhaps, in the lot of Providence, you have been yoked to one who
deserves but little of your affection, yet if you cannot love because
of esteem, love because of pity. If you cannot love because of present
merit, then love because of future hope, for possibly, even there, in
that bad soil, some sweet flower may grow. Be not weary of holy tillage
and of heavenly plowing and sowing, because at the last there may
spring up some fair harvest that shall make your soul glad." He loved
His Church and gave Himself for her that He might present her to
Himself a glorious Church.
I do not intend, however, this morning, to enter into the duty of
husbands. That is not the reason for which I selected the text, but to
set forth the love of Jesus towards His people. And first, let us
consider the object of the Savior's love. "He loved the Church." Then
let us observe the work which love has carried on in pursuance of its
gracious design. "He gave himself for her, that He might sanctify and
cleanse her through the washing of water by the Word." Then, thirdly,
let us look at the beloved object when the design is
accomplished–"without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing." And then
let us pause awhile to behold this beloved object presented by our Lord
to Himself in the day of His triumphant espousals.
I. First, then, may the Spirit of God help us while we look at THE
CHOSEN CHURCH, THE OBJECT OF THE SAVIOR'S LOVE. Some of our Brethren
are very fond of what is called the general or universal view of God's
benevolence. I trust we are not afraid to deal with that whenever we
come across it in Holy Scripture. We believe, "God is good to all and
that His tender mercies are over all His works." We believe Him to have
the love of benevolence towards all His creatures and we can preach
without bated breath upon such a text as this–"He is not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."
But some of these Brethren are very much afraid of the peculiar and
special sign of the Savior's love and they seem to shrink from a text
which has anything particular and discriminating in it. They shake it
off from their hand into the fire as Paul did the viper of old. Now we
thank God we have learned to love the distinguishing Doctrines of
Grace, and that predestination and discrimination are not hard words
for us to pronounce and neither do they grate upon our ears! But we
love to read this text and put the emphasis upon the accusative case.
Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her.
We perceive that Christ did not love the world in the sense in which
the term " loved" is here meant. We see here that Christ gave Himself
not for the world, but for her, that is the Church. In the sense in
which He is said here to give Himself, He did so for none except His
chosen people, the Church–His one, special, and particular object of
affection. It is not thus that Christ has loved universal
creatureship–and all mankind alike without exception or
difference–but He loved the Church and gave Himself for her.
Now what is this Church which Jesus Christ loved if it is not the
entire company of the elect? As many as the Father gave Him from before
the foundation of the world, whose names were written in the Lamb's
Book of Life before the stars began to shine. As many as were taken by
Him to be the sheep of His pasture, the jewels of His crown, the
children of His love, the subjects of His kingdom, the members of His
body–each one of them being particularly known to Him and chosen in
Him before the mountains lifted their heads into the clouds–so many
compose the Church of Christ which was the object of His redeeming
love.
We have to search for these chosen ones in what is called the Church
visible. We know that they are not all Israel who are of Israel and
that the visible Church is not identical with that Church which Christ
loved and for which He gave Himself. There is a Church invisible and
this is the center and life of the Church visible! What the wheat is to
the chaff and heap upon the threshing floor, such are these living
Christians among the mass of professors in the world. There is a
distinction which we cannot see–which it is not for us to try and make
manifest–lest, in endeavoring to root up the tares, we root up the
wheat also. There is an unseen Church which becomes visible in Heaven,
which will be apparent and manifest at the coming of the Son of Man.
This it is which Christ loved and for which He gave Himself.
Now observe what this Church was by nature, for that is the subject of
our discourse just now upon this first head. The Church which Christ
loved was in her origin as sinful as the rest of the human race. Have
the damned in Hell fallen through Adam's transgression? So, once, had
the saved in Glory. The sin which was imputed to lost spirits was
equally and with as fatal consequences imputed to them–and had it not
been for the incoming of the Covenant Head, the second Adam–they had
forever suffered with the rest. They, too, were alike depraved in
nature.
Is the heart deceitful above all things in the unregenerate? So it is
in the elect before regeneration. Was the will perverse? Was the
understanding darkened? Was the whole head sick and the whole heart
faint in the case of those who con- tinued in sin? It was just the
same, at first, with those who have been, by Sovereign Grace, taken
into the heart of Christ. "We were," says the Apostle, "by nature the
children of wrath even as others." Remember that between the brightest
saint in Heaven and the blackest sinner in Hell there is no difference
except that which Christ has made! Had those glorified ones been left
to continue in their natural state they would have sinned as foully and
as constantly as the worst of sinners have done.
To begin with, there is no difference between the election and the
non-election. They are all alike fallen. "They are all gone out of the
way–they are altogether become unprofitable. There is none that does
good, no, not one." No, more! This Church of Christ is made up of
persons who are actually defiled by their own transgressions. Are you
and I members of that Church? Ah, then we are compelled to confess that
in us by nature dwelt all manner of concupiscence, vileness, and an
evil heart of unbelief ever prone to depart from the living God and to
rebel against the Most High. And what have we done since? Or rather,
what have we not done?–
"We wandered each a different way But all the downward road."
We did not all fall into the same vices, but still when the black
catalog of sin is read, we have to weep over it and to say, "Such were
some of us." And why we should be made a part of Christ's Church is a
question that never can be answered except with this one reply, "Even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight." Do the wicked sink to
Hell with their sins like millstones about their necks? We would have
sunk there, too, and as rapidly and as fatally, unless Eternal Love had
said, "Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a
ransom." Look at Christ's Church as you see her visibly in the world
and I ask you, Brothers and Sisters, though she has much about her that
is admirable, whether there is not much that might cause her Lord to
cast her away?
Even in her regenerate state she speaks truly when she says, "she is
black as the tents of Kedar." Mark the hypocrites that come into the
Christian Church and that mar her purity. Observe the formalists that
crowd her courts–that sit as God's people sit, and sing as God's
people sing–but have hearts full of rottenness and villainy! Observe
even the true saints–how unbelieving, how often carnally-minded, how
childish–how ready to murmur against God! How few of them are fathers
in Israel. When they ought to be teachers they have need to be
instructed in the first elements of the faith.
What heresies come into the Church and how many unstable minds are
carried away with them. What divisions there are! How one says, "I am
of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," and a third, "I am of
Christ." What envy there is, what backbiting of those that are eminent
for usefulness. What suspicions against those who are a little more
zealous than their fellows! My Brethren, what a need of affection we
can see in the Church of Christ! How little brotherly kindness, how
little sympathy!
On the other hand, how much of pride is discovered–how much caste
creeps in and prevails even among those who profess to be Brethren! How
we find some claiming to be lords in God's heritage and taking to
themselves names and titles to which they have no right, seeing that,
"One is our Master," and we are not to be called, "Rabbi," among men.
When I look at the Church even with a blinded eye, having no power to
see her as God's Omniscient eye must see, yet is she covered with
spots! Well may she wear her veil and say, "Look not upon me, because I
am black, because the sun has looked upon me."
Church of God, how is it that Jesus Christ could love jou? Even in your
Church capacity and Church estate, there is so much that could make Him
say, "You are reprobate silver. You shall be cast into the fire." Lo,
how much there is that must make Him say of you, "Salt is good, but
this salt has lost its savor and how shall it be seasoned? It is
therefore good for nothing but to be trod under foot of men." And yet
you see, dear Friends, it is written that Christ loved His Church and
gave Himself for her.
1 think I see it–a piece of ground untilled–neither hedged, nor
walled, nor covered with vines, nor redolent with the perfume of sweet
flowers. It is a spot in the wilderness filled with thorns and
thistles. Her hedges are broken down. The stones of her walls are
scattered. The wild boar out of the wood wastes her. All kinds of
unclean creatures lurk among her weeds and brambles. Oh, how is it,
Lord of Glory, that You could buy, at the price of Your heart's blood,
such a waste piece of ground as that? What could You see in that garden
that You should determine to make it the fairest spot of all the earth
and that it should yield You the richest of all fruit?
I think, again, I see the Church of God–not as a fair maid decorated
for her marriage day with jewels and carrying herself right gloriously
both in her person and her apparel. But I see her as a helpless child,
neglected by her parents, cast out, unwashed, unclothed, left uncared
for and covered with her filth and blood. No eyes pity her. No arms
come to bring her salvation. But the eyes of the Lord Jesus looks upon
that infant and straightway love beams forth from those eyes and speak
from those lips and act through those hands. He says, "Live!" And the
helpless infant is cared for–she is nurtured–she is decked with
dainty apparel. She is fed and clothed, and sustained and made lovely
through the loveliness of Him who chose Her. Thus it is that strong
love moved the Grace of God and the Church found that Christ gave
Himself for her.
I must not, however, leave this point without reminding you of what
kind of love it is which Jesus Christ gives to His Church–you perceive
it is the love of a husband. Now the love of a husband is special.
Those gentlemen who think that Christ did not love the Church more than
He loved the rest of the world must have a very strange idea of how a
husband ought to love his wife, for it says, "Husbands, love your
wives, as Christ loved the Church." And surely a husband ought to love
his wife more than he loves other people! Therefore Christ cherishes
for the Church a special, particular affection which is set upon her
rather than upon the rest of mankind.
The Lord has set His Church as much above the rest of the world as He
has fixed His own Throne above the kings and princes of this lower
earth. And the day shall come when she, "fair as the moon and clear as
the sun and terrible as an army with banners," shall be recognized as
being the favorite of Heaven, the peculiar treasure of Christ–His
regalia, the crown of His head, the bracelet of His arm, the
breastplate of His heart–the very center and core of His own love. Let
us not quibble at this Truth of God for it is exceedingly precious. Let
us seek the honey out of it and believe that Christ loves the Church
with a special love.
Again, a husband loves his wife with a constant love and so does Christ
His Church. He will not cast her away tomorrow having loved her today.
He does not vary in His affection. He may change in His display of
affection, but the affection itself is still the same. A husband loves
his wife with an enduring love. It will never die out–he says, "Till
death us do part will I cherish you." But Christ will not even let
death part His love to His people. "Nothing shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
A husband loves his wife with a hearty love, with a love that is true
and intense. It is not mere lip service. He does not merely speak, but
he acts! He is ready to provide for her needs. He will defend her
character. He will vindicate her honor because his heart is set upon
her. It is not merely with the eyes that he delights, now and then, to
glance upon her, but his soul has her continually in his remembrance.
She has a mansion in his heart from where she can never be cast away.
She has become a portion of himself–she is a member of his body–she
is part of his flesh and of his bones. And so is the Church to Christ
forever an eternal spouse. He says–
"Forget you, I will not, I cannot! Your name
Engraved on My heart does forever remain. The palms of My hands while I
look on, I see
The wounds I received when suffering for you."
Now let us leave this point, only reminding you, again, that this
Church is only the Church of Christ because He has made her so. She had
no right or title to His affection. He loved her because He chose to do
so and having once loved her, He never will divorce her–she shall be
His world without end.
II. And now I shall want your patience a few minutes on the second
point, and that is THE WORK WHICH LOVE
SEEKS TO ACCOMPLISH IN ITS GRACIOUS DESIGNS. Since the Church is not
fit for Christ by nature, He resolved to make her so by Divine Grace.
He could not be in communion with sin. Therefore it must be purged
away. Perfect holiness was absolutely necessary in one who was to be
the bride of Christ. He purposes to work that in her and to make her
qualified to be His spouse eternally.
The great means by which He attempts to do this, is, "He gave Himself
for her." Beloved, I wish I had the power of speech this morning as one
sometimes has it, or rather, I wish that another had to handle such a
weighty theme as this– for how can I set forth to you the preciousness
of this gift? He gave Himself for His Church! Had He given His crown
and royalty and come down to earth for awhile, that were mercy! Had He
given up, for a time, the happiness and pleasure of
His Father's house, this were something–and this He did. But it was
not enough. He would not merely leave His Glory and part with His
crown–He must give Himself!
Here He is on earth, born of the Virgin. A helpless Infant. He slumbers
at her breast. Throughout His life foxes had holes and birds of the air
nests, but, "He had not where to lay His head." He has given you much
in this. "He is despised and rejected of men, a Man of Sorrows and
acquainted with grief." The crown of thorns is on His brow! The lash of
the scourge is on His back! The spear is at His chest! The nails are in
His hands and feet. He has given you much, but now He is about to give
you all He has.
He is stripped naked to His shame. He gives His last garment that He
may cover the nakedness of man, but when He cries, "My God, My God, why
have You forsaken Me!" When having drank the last drop of the bitter
cup of woe, He bows His head and says, "It is finished!" And He gives
up the ghost–He has given you all that He can give–for He has given
you Himself. He gives you His Godhead that comes on earth, but is
veiled in clay. He gives you His entire Manhood, for His body is given
to the scourge and tomb–and His soul to agony and death–He gives
Himself.
Perhaps you will say, "But how does His giving Himself tend to cleanse
His Church?" You know, Beloved, how the precious blood of His heart
takes away sin. How the righteousness of His life covers His Church and
makes her beautiful in the sight of God. You know how the water which
flowed with the blood purifies and sanctifies His people. But, perhaps
you will never realize better how Christ gives Himself to you than you
do at the sacramental table. There in type and symbol you see in that
bread His broken body. You see set forth in shadow in that wine, His
blood.
And what do you do with that bread? Do you look at it? Yes, with tears
in your eyes! What do you do with the cup? Do you regard it? Yes, with
loving eyes. But this is not all. "Take, eat!" says the Savior. "Drink,
drink all of it," He says. And as you eat and drink, you are thereby
reminded of the great Truth of God that He has given you His flesh to
eat and His blood to drink–and that these, like some healing medicine,
will purge you of all diseases, cleanse you of every lingering cancer,
go through and through the secret parts of your soul and expel with
their sanctifying influence the very roots and seeds of corruption and
make you perfect in every good work to do His will.
I admit that you may not feel this at present, but you have that within
you in having received Christ which will be the death of all sin. He
has given Himself to dwell in you, to kill every lust, to slay every
corruption, to expel the Canaan-ites out of the Canaan of your heart
till King David shall reign in Jerusalem and the Jebusite shall be put
away forever. Beloved, this is the way in which He sanctifies and
cleanses His Church–by giving Himself for her–first upon the tree and
afterwards in the Church, by the work of the Holy Spirit as a
quickening and cleansing power, dwelling there forev-ermore.
When the text says, "He gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and
cleanse her," is there not allusion here to the double cure of sin?
Here is Christ sanctifying by the Spirit, that is to say, taking away
the propensity to sin–killing the power of sin in us–helping us to
reign over our corruptions that we may in heart and life be pure, even
as our Father which is in Heaven is pure. And as to the cleansing, may
not that allude to justification and pardon? Of that we spoke
particularly last Sunday to our own joy if not to yours. We are
complete in Him. We are perfect in Christ Jesus and the design of
Christ is that sanctification shall be as perfect as
justification–that the power of sin shall be as thoroughly slain as
the guilt of it–that altogether sin shall cease to be in the
Christian.
But what is the outward instrumentality which Christ uses? The text
says, "With the washing of water by the Word." We Baptists are
generally thought to lay great stress upon Baptism. There can be no
greater mistake made than to suppose that we exaggerate its importance.
I sometimes think we do not value it enough! Those who practice infant
Baptism might be much more fairly charged with exaggerating the
importance of Baptism than those of us who scrupulously require a
profession of faith from all persons before we think of baptizing them
into the name of the Lord. I do not believe that Baptism is intended
here, nor even referred to.
I know that the most of commentators say it is. I do not think it. It
strikes me that one word explains the whole. Christ sanctifies and
cleanses us by the washing of water, but what sort of water? By the
Word. The water which washes away sin, which cleanses and purifies the
soul is the Word. The Word of God has a cleansing influence. It comes
and convicts the man of sin. It makes him see his impurity so as to
hate it. When applied with power by the Holy Spirit, it works
repentance. It leads the man to weep and bewail himself before God.
That same Word leads to faith in Christ Jesus and faith works by love
and purifies the soul.
The Word is preached, the Word is believed. And as soon as ever that
Word is believed, it begins to act like water in the heart of man. You
cannot receive the Gospel and yet be as filthy as you were before. My
Brothers and Sisters, if you really welcome the Truth of God, those
grosser sins will be washed away at once. Next, as you discover them,
your besetting sins will be cleansed away and constantly–as you
understand the Word better, believe it more firmly and feel its effect
more powerfully–you will by it, as by water, be washed and cleansed
from all indwelling sin till you are sanctified and cleansed and made
fit to enter into Heaven!
This one thing let me say solemnly–I go not into this world to preach
the efficacy of baptismal water in cleansing souls from sin. Let those
who care to do it, and think it their office, magnify their office
exceedingly. Let those who think that sacraments have necessarily
efficacy in them stand out and boldly declare it. But as for us, we
believe that the water which cleanses is none other than the Word of
God which is preached by man and applied by the Holy Spirit! We rest
upon the uplifted Cross of Christ, upon the doctrine of His Atonement,
on the great Truth of His abiding Presence in the Church of God and
ever pray, "Sanctify us by Your Truth. Your Word is Truth."
And, mark you, the world has had a fair trial of both plans. Throughout
the dark ages the world tried the efficacy of Baptisms and
sacraments–century after century Popery and priest-craft gutted the
world with the idea that Baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper
were a prescription for cleansing away sin. What was the result? Were
not the cities filled with harlots? Were not the dungeons crowded with
prisoners? Had not the earth become an Aceldama and was not the whole
land, like Sodom, reeking with filth?
Then came Luther and Calvin and though these men held not all the Truth
of God in its fullness, yet, at least they held, "the washing of water
by the Word," and Luther and Zwingli and Calvin declared, "The world's
great purgative is faith in Jesus Christ, not sacraments. The
priesthood lies with Christ and not with men. Priest-craft is to be put
away. Justification is by faith in Jesus Christ and that faith comes by
hearing and that hearing by the preaching of the Word."
And what happened? Why, the world woke as from a long slumber! She
found herself in chains–she snapped the chains as Samson snapped the
green withes. Progress came–knowledge, light, truth–and if the world
is not holy, yet what strides has she made since the day when Tetzel's
"Indulgence for Sin" defiled the world through and through to its very
center with blasphemy! We have but to keep on using this washing of
water by the continual preaching of the Word and the day shall come
when our poor planet shall be cleansed from blood and filth and shall
come out from the mists in which she is now enveloped and shine like
her sister stars, bright in the light of her God!
And the only sounds that shall be heard from her shall be songs of joy
and peace, because the Lord God Omnipotent reigns. This, then, is
Christ's way of cleansing and sanctifying His Church–by the washing of
water, that is to say, by the Word of God.
III. And now let us pass on, again troubling your patience, to the
third point–THE LOVED ONE AS SHE IS PERFECTED. One is inclined to draw
a veil over the face of beauty which never can be painted. She is to be
a glorious Church. We love our own highly-favored Church. I am sure
there is not a member of it–at least I do not know one– that does not
feel his heart leap every time he thinks of this Church which God has
so prospered and blessed and honored.
For all that, we are nothing but a militant Church and a very imperfect
one–a Church that has cause to mourn and humble herself before God for
many sins. And I, as pastor, looking upon you all, cannot help while I
bless God for all I see that is excellent, bowing my own head in the
dust because of the sins of a people favored with the Gospel who,
nevertheless, have much to confess before God. We are not a glorious
Church. You can cast your eyes upon such churches as the Moravians who
gave themselves up, men and women, to Christ's cause and scattered
themselves all over the world, preaching the Gospel.
Greenland was not too cold. The Sahara was not too hot–they sacrificed
everything for Christ–but yet the Moravian Church with all its
excellence has much of which it may well repent. It is not a glorious
Church. You may look where you like and you shall see that the dust of
travel is still upon the wilderness Church. She has the Presence of
God–she has her Shekinah–but alas, she is troubled within by a mixed
multitude. Korab, Dathan and Abiram sometimes vex her. Her Master has
to send her fiery serpents sometimes and she still needs to keep the
bronze serpent lifted up every day. Even in her ranks there are some
that still need to look and live.
We have no glorious Church on earth, nor do I think we can get much
idea of what a glorious Church is. I tried yesterday, last Sunday
rather, (and all the days since then seem to have gone so rapidly that
I thought it yesterday). I tried last Sunday to show what a glorious
person was. But what must a glorious Church be? There is one lamp.
Well, that is very bright, very pleasing. You like to have it in your
room–but think of all London illuminated to the very top of the cross
of St. Paul's–and what an idea you then have of brightness!
Now, one glorified Christian is a lamp. Think, then, of all Heaven with
its domes of Glory lit up with ten thousands times ten thousands
companies of blood-bought spirits whom Jesus Christ has taken up–a
glorious Church! One flower is very sweet. I smell its perfume. But I
walk into some vast conservatories, into some gentleman's garden, acres
in size, and there are beds of flowers–blue and scarlet, and yellow. I
see the verbena, the calceolaria and the geranium and many others, all
in order and in ranks. Oh, how glorious is this!
Those undulating lawns, those well-trimmed hedges, those trees so
daintily kept–all growing in such luxuriance. One flower is sweet, but
a garden! A garden! Who can tell how sweet this is? So, one glorified
saint is one of God's flowers, but a glorious Church is Christ's
garden! A drop of water may be very precious to a thirsty tongue, but a
river full of it! Children are pleased, when for the first time in
their lives they sail across some little lake. But how surprised they
are when they come to the deep and rolling sea which seems without
shore or bottom!
Well, so pleased am I at the very thought of the glorious Church. As
yet I have never seen anything but one little lake–this Church–the
Church of God in England. The Church of God in the world–what is it,
after all, but "a drop in a bucket"? But the glorious Church–the whole
of the people of God gathered together in one, all perfectly free from
sin, all made like unto Christ and all bright with the Glory which
excels even that which Moses and Elijah had when they were with Christ
in the holy mountain! Or such as Moses had when he came down from the
top of Horeb, when he had been forty days with God–a glorious Church,
a mighty company of glorified beings!
But do observe what is said of her. She is to be, "Without spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing." "Without spot"– that is much. But, you
see, spots can be taken off. The face is washed and the spot comes out.
The garment is thoroughly cleansed and there are some chemicals and
acids applied and the spots can be removed. Though, truly, some of us
have scarlet spots of a crimson-like dye, yet the blood of Jesus is a
wonderful detergent and it can get out spots of any color. Though we
may have been lying in the lye-tub of sin even for seventy years, yet
Christ will get all the spots out of us if we are a part of His Church.
Though His Church is double dyed, yet Christ will make her white as
snow. But that is not the wonder of the text. The marvel is, "without
spot or wrinkle." You may get a spot out of your face, but you cannot
smooth out a wrinkle! You may make what efforts you please, but you
cannot get rid of your wrinkles. You that are getting old, if time has
come and driven his plow across your brow, why there the furrows will
remain–they will not come out. Yes, but the Church of Christ is to be
without wrinkle as well as without spot! How will He get the wrinkles
out? There is no chemical that I know of that can get rid of them.
But Jesus Christ has a sacred art, having in Himself, by the washing of
water, even the Word, the power to get wrinkles out! Lightfoot says
there is an allusion here to the carefulness of the Jew in his
ablutions. The Jew not only washes very carefully when he is purifying
himself for worship, but lest any dust or impurity should remain in any
crack of the skin, or in any wrinkle, he seeks by washing again and
again with the severest care to get out the least filth that would be
in the wrinkle.
Very good, Dr. Lightfoot, but the Jew cannot wash wrinkles out. He can
wash away the dirt, but he cannot get rid of the wrinkle. But Christ
can banish away both. Another good writer says that perhaps there is an
allusion here to the fuller's trade. The fuller gets out the spots
first and then as the cloth may have been so folded up that there are
creases and wrinkles in it, he uses different stretching and milling
till at last he manages to get out the creases and wrinkles from the
cloth as well as the spot. I do not know whether there is an allusion
to that, but this I know–there shall not be a spot of sin on any of
God's people, nor yet a wrinkle of infirmity!
They shall lose the effect of old age and weakness in their bodies and
they shall lose the defects and infirmities in their souls. The outward
spot shall be removed and the inward deformity, which was like a
wrinkle ingrained into their very nature, shall also be taken away. But
do observe the next word. The Holy Spirit seems to exhaust language to
describe this purity. He says, "Without spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing!" She shall have nothing like a spot, nothing that can be
construed as a wrinkle–she shall be fair and the world shall be
compelled to acknowledge that she is. The eyes of God shall look upon
her. And though He sees in darkness and discovers the hidden things of
night, even He shall discern nei- ther spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such
thing in any one single part of the body or the soul of any one of the
members of the mystical body of Christ!
Oh what perfection, Beloved, is this! I cannot speak of it, but I can
delight in thinking of it! I was trying to think last night what I
should be like when I was freed from my spots and wrinkles. Ah, you can
all see them now–I wonder you put up with them sometimes! But what
shall I be when I have parted with them forever? And I shall get rid of
them. Death is stamped on every infirmity–the Lord has put the poison
into the heart of my inbred sins and bless His name for it. But what
will you and I be like when we are perfect?
No hasty temper, no sloth, no wrong thoughts, no cold hearts, no
dilatoriness in prayer, no sluggishness in praise. Oh, Brothers and
Sisters, there will be some of you so different we shall scarcely know
you! When some Brethren die I believe they will go to Heaven, but they
will be strangely altered by the time they get there. They are good
people, but they have such crotchety ways, such strange sense of humor,
such hot tempers that surely we shall have to be very wise people to
know them in Heaven! We shall need to be informed who they are, they
will be so greatly changed!
But this will be the happy state of all–whether altered much or
little–we shall be, "without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." I
must not dwell longer, though the theme invites it. Hypocrisies,
heresies, declensions, divisions–all these will be put away from the
Church. Infirmity, doubt, sin, fear of every kind will be put away from
every Believer and we shall be presented blameless, holy and
unreprovable in the sight of God!
IV. And lastly, THE LOVED ONE IS TO BE PRESENTED. It is said, He is "to
present her to Himself." Every day Christ presents His people to His
Father in His intercession. The Holy Spirit presents poor sinners every
day in conversion to Christ, but there is to be a day when Christ will
present His glorious Church "to Himself." When He shall come, then
shall be the wedding day. There shall be heard the cry, "Behold, the
Bridegroom comes!"
Then the virgins with their lamps trimmed shall go forth to meet Him
and His Church shall enter into the supper feast, to sit down and sup
with Him and He with her. Today the Church is like Esther bathing
herself in spices, making herself ready for Ahasuerus, her lord and
master. Today we are engaged–at the coming we shall be married. We are
waiting now impatiently for Him–then we shall be in His embrace. Today
we wear not the crown, today we wave not the palm–but tomorrow when He
comes we shall be crowned with Him and triumph with Him.
Let us long for His appearing. Let this bright hope sustain you in the
dreary months of waiting and the weary hours of fighting, "He comes! He
comes!" And when He comes He will be glorified in all His saints and
admired in those that have believed on Him. I would to God we were all
members of His Church! There is only one token of membership which is
infallible and that is saving faith in Christ. If you believe in Jesus
you shall be without spot or wrinkle. But if you believe not, you are
not of His Church, and neither shall you be a partaker of His cleansing
power nor of His glorious advent.
God give you a new heart and a right spirit and wash you with water
this day by the Word, for Jesus' sake. Amen.