THESE are the words of John the Baptist. He was a wonderful man. Christ Himself says of him that of those born of women there had not risen a greater than John the Baptist. He was wonderful in this respect that he was spoken of hundreds of years before he was born. The prophet Isaiah, who lived about 700 years before John the Baptist, speaks of him as “the voice that crieth in the wilderness,” and the prophet Malachi, who lived 400 years before John, speaks of him as “my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.” We may say that he was also wonderful in this, that he was sanctified from the womb. There is no question of that. He was also wonderful in this, that he was the first to proclaim publicly that Christ had come, when he said: “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” This honour was also his, viz., that he baptised Christ in the river Jordan. Now, we see that these were words which He spoke to His disciples when they came to Him about a certain question which had arisen between themselves and the Jews, evidently about purifying. Very likely the Jews maintained that purifying was from the ceremonial law. The Jews were zealous concerning the tradition of their fathers, and they held that purifying was through the ceremonial law, and John’s disciples were zealous concerning their own master and his teaching, and they probably held that purifying was from the baptism of John, and said to Him that He who was with them beyond Jordan was baptising, and that all men came to Him. It appears that there was here zeal without knowledge on the part of the disciples of John. I think, that they were jealous of Christ—He was in opposition to their own master, He was baptising and all men came to Him, and they were to defend the honour and glory of their own master. John, however, dispels the error under which they were labouring: “Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ,” and so now, without enlarging on these things, he says to his disciples: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice, this my joy, therefore, is fulfilled.”
In seeking to speak from these words we may notice first the parties here spoken of, and they are the bride and the bridegroom. There is a bride and a bridegroom spoken of here, and who are they? Secondly, what is said about the bridegroom, for it will naturally follow what has been said that the bridegroom has the bride, and in the third place, the effect that this had on the friend of the bridegroom who was standing by and hearing His voice: “This my joy therefore is fulfilled.” This was the effect it had on John, and it is the effect it will have on all His friends. It is the fulfilment of their joy.
First, the parties here spoken of, i.e., the bride and the bridegroom.
We need not take up time pointing out that the Bride and the Bridegroom here are none else than Christ and the Church. The Church is spoken of in many places in Scripture as the Lamb’s wife—His mystical body, and we are told in Scripture also that when two are married that they become one. Now the Church is the mystical body of Christ, and we know that our bodies are made up of members—different members, and each member has its own function, and the Apostle speaks of this when he says that one member of the body cannot say to another: “I have no need of you.” The ear cannot say to the eye, nor the eye to the ear: “I have no need of you.” He goes on to say: “If the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?” What I wish to point out is this, that Christ’s mystical body, as our bodies, is made up of members. In the Church of God He bestows different graces and gifts upon each member of His mystical body, the Church, and one member cannot say to another: “I have no need of you.” The weakest is as useful in his own place as the strongest. He gives grace—different exercises of grace and different exercises of gifts to different members, but each is useful in this mystical body of Christ. Most of you will have read in the Fathers of Ross-shire about two godly ministers, Mr. Fraser of Alness, and Mr. Porteous of Kilmuir. It seems that Mr. Fraser was in the habit of preaching the law, and on the other hand Mr. Porteous was more on the gospel side in his preaching. The Lord was blessing Mr. Fraser’s labours in quickening and awakening sinners, but evidently they were not getting nourishment for their souls, and so they were going from Alness to Kilmuir to hear Mr. Porteous in order to get nourishment until at last the Church at Kilmuir was overcrowded with the people of Alness. Mr. Porteous’s elders spoke to him, and suggested that he should speak to Mr. Fraser, so Mr. Porteous told Mr. Fraser that he was sorry to see so many of his congregation coming to him and complaining that they were not getting the nourishment their souls required, and that if the Lord gave it to him he should not keep it back for Mr. Porteous considered Mr. Fraser was better able to give it than he was. The answer Mr. Fraser gave was this: “When the Lord sent me out to preach He gave me a quiver of arrows, and I will be trying to shoot these arrows, and the quiver is not finished yet; but when He sent you out He gave you a cruse of oil, and your cruse is not empty yet, and I will be trying, as long as the Lord will enable me, to pierce and break the hearts of sinners in Alness and also send them to Kilmuir to be healed by you, and we will be working together in building up the Cause of Christ.” We have here two men—one sent out with a quiver of arrows, preaching the law, and the other sent out with a cruse of oil to preach the gospel, and to feed the Lord’s people.
Who is the Bride and Where Did He Get Her?
But now in coming to speak of the parties here spoken of—the Bride and the Bridegroom, who is the Bride and where did He get her? In the first place he found her dead in trespasses and in sins. There was no difference between her and others: “By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men because that all have sinned.” Dead in trespasses and in sins—no difference whatsoever between her and the rest of the human race, as the prophet Ezekiel puts it: “Cast out in the open field.” Now, did Christ marry a dead Bride, as it were? (You never heard of, and I do not suppose the law of the land would allow a man to marry a dead woman.) No, He did not. What did He do with her? We read: “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” He brought her alive by His Word and Spirit, and she was betrothed to Him in righteousness, in judgment and in loving kindness. It was here He found you—dead in trespasses and in sins—you who have a ray of hope that you have been betrothed to Him as your own Saviour. You will be the first to admit that it was dead in trespasses and sins He found you. Were it not that He came your way, and quickened you by His Spirit you would have remained dead in trespasses and sins just as those who will be lost for ever. If you have a ray of hope that He did this for you—that He came your way and quickened you, and united you to Himself, you will have to confess that He found you among the dead. There will not be a saint in Heaven of the human race but will have to confess that it was there they were found—among the dead and He brought them alive.
Opposition to the Marriage
Now, in speaking of this marriage, was there anything to oppose it? Was there anything that opposed this person being betrothed to Him? When two are to be married there is what we all know to be a proclamation of banns. Now, why is there a proclamation made when two are to be married? Is there any sense in the thing at all? Yes, it is not done without a reason or purpose. Why is the proclamation made then? It is made for this purpose, that if any person has an objection to the marriage taking place he has an opportunity of coming forward and putting a stop to it. That does not take place very often, but I saw it being done (not in our church)—a son of the man who was to be married got up and said he was putting a stop to it, and the marriage was stopped until matters were settled. Now, another thing, when the two parties do not belong to the same parish the proclamation will have to be made in both parishes. Now, the parties here belong to different parishes, as it were—the Bridegroom belongs to the parish of Heaven, and I think we may say the Bride belonged to the parish of hell. Was the proclamation made in both places? Yes. Were there any objections in Heaven to the marriage? Yes. What were they? In the first place, there was this objection—He was a divine and eternal Person and she was a finite creature and polluted, and how could the eternal God who was from everlasting to everlasting come to be married to the world? How was that objection to be got over? Here, my friends, was love that was strong as death that many waters could not quench, and floods could not drown. He loved them with an everlasting love. He said He would take her very nature: “Seeing the children were partakers of flesh and blood He likewise took part of the same.” He became flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. There was this objection also—the law of God objected to this marriage. What did the law say? She is married to me—she is my wife, and although she has conducted herself as she has done—she has forsaken me and broken her marriage vows, yet that does not mean that I lost my claim on her. I still claim obedience just as before. Let us remember that we are married by nature to the law in our first covenant head—the covenant of works, and the law of God in breaking the covenant demands obedience of us, and we have no excuse for not giving that obedience. We are so very, very ready (that is, Christless sinners here to-day and elsewhere) to say: “I can do nothing,” and you think that your inability and your helplessness will excuse you in the eyes of the law. No, the law demands of you the same perfect obedience that it demanded of man in a state of innocence, and it will demand obedience throughout eternity—do this? It is no excuse, and it will not be accepted of you to say: “I cannot do it.” Dr. Hugh Martin, Edinburgh, used to say: “Although you had no other sin going to eternity but your inability, that very inability will bring you to hell.” But now Christ came, or rather entered into a covenant to obtain His bride. She was under the law—she was under its curses and could never meet its demands, and the law has never ceased to demand of her what she could not pay. The law demanded obedience and justice demanded punishment for the past, and she could give neither the one nor the other, and that is the case with you, but Christ was made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. He exalted the law and made it honourable, and I think I am right in saying this, that Christ as the second Adam was not made under the law in the same way as the first Adam. There was a difference, and it is that Adam was made under the law as an untransgressed law. The law of God had no curse for Adam in a state of innocence, and while he continued to obey that law there was no curse for him, but now when Christ came, how was He made under the law? It was not as an untransgressed law He was made under it, but as a broken, transgressed law, and in that sense He had to be made under the curse, and not only that He had to be made under the curse of a broken covenant, but also justice demanded her life: “The wages of sin is death.” Justice demanded her life which meant eternal death for her, but now the Bridegroom came and took her nature—was born of a woman, and made under the law, and now He suffered and came under the curse of the law and laid down His life for her to satisfy the claims of justice. Now, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth,” and so this objection, or this obstacle, was taken out of the way, and the law of God was satisfied, and that, my friends, is the comfort of the Lord’s people in the moment in which they are enabled to believe in and accept of Christ as their Saviour. What about the law? The law now has nothing to charge the sinner with—there is no condemnation for him now. Why? Christ satisfied the law in the place of the sinner. “He that believeth is not condemned.”
We cannot say how long Adam stayed in a state of innocence, but, however long, we know that in the moment he sinned he had nothing to fall back on—not a penny laid by. He lived as it were from day to day, but this second Adam, who is the Lord from Heaven, has now earned for her unsearchable riches for time and for eternity, and the Lord will not ask even one single farthing of the believer because of the satisfaction that Christ has given to the claims of the law and of justice. Now, we may say that the proclamation was made also in her parish. Were there any objections there? Yes, there were two there too. Who were they? There was this one—her father, the devil. Christ, my friends, did not come to ask the daughter of His Father,—“He spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly.” You may be certain that Satan will do everything in his power to keep you from being married to Christ, as it were. He will say—you do not need to look for salvation, you are not elected, and I believe the devil makes his own use of the doctrine of election more than any other doctrine in the Word of God. What should you say to Satan if he comes with such a temptation to you? Tell him that he was a liar from the beginning, and that he knows no more about election than you do, and that is nothing. No angel or man on earth knows anything about election as regards who is elected or who is not, and you have no authority—no sinner here today has authority—to come to the conclusion that he is not elected. I defy you to show me your authority for saying you are not elected. It is not from Scripture you have your authority, but from Satan and yourself. You continue, my friend, to reject Christ in the gospel, and you will have an eternity to find out that you are not elected.
But you have this revelation, that you are called—see how beautifully the Word of God is putting it, not putting the cart before the horse. It does not say—make your election sure—if I was sure I was elected it would be easier for me to believe in Christ. The Word says: “Make your calling and election sure.” That is the order of Scripture, and that is the order which we should take. Satan objects to this marriage, but Christ takes the prey from the mighty and sets the lawful captives free. There is another objector, and perhaps the worst of all. Who is that? The Bride herself. When Christ came to her she would not accept Him, and ran away from Him. It was said to Rebekah: “Wilt thou go with this man?” and she replied: “I will go,” but how many when asked if they would go with the man Christ Jesus, say: “No,” and are many a year rejecting this Bridegroom? We compare her to a young woman and a man seeking her hand in marriage, but she has no love nor regard for him and would not accept him, so sent him away time after time, but somehow a change came in her mind, and now she began to love this person, and would be saying to herself—what would I not give if he would come and offer his hand in marriage to me now, but it is not likely that he will come to me again, but if he would, I would gladly accept him. Christ was offering Himself to her, and is doing so to sinners here to-day but they will not accept Him, but, if the Spirit would come in a day of His power and make you willing, you would soon come. I can appeal to all the Lord’s people here to-day—never did you do anything so willingly as to marry Christ in the day of your espousals. Not one of the mystical body of Christ ever accepted Christ against their will, and never will there be any, and why? Because, as we have it in the 110th Psalm: “Thy people shall be willing in a day of thy power.” They never did anything more willingly than accept Him.
Well, we are just now speaking of those who have been under the wrath and curse of God, under sentence of death, but He took her nature, bone of her bone, and went and paid all her debt for her as we commonly say, and as the old divines used to say: “Sin is an infinite evil and she was in infinite debt which she could never pay, but Christ came and paid it all off,” and they are not indebted to Him. If you were in great debt and your creditors came to apprehend you and cast you into prison until you paid the last farthing, and a kind friend came and paid it, would you not be indebted to him? You who can cherish the hope that Christ came on your behalf, and underwent the miseries of this life, the cursed death of the cross, and was buried and continued under the power of death for a time, for you, has He not, my friend, put you under an infinite and eternal obligation, and especially to obey His command on the morrow: “Do this in remembrance of me”—in remembrance of what He did for you. Well, she was an abominable creature. Scripture says: “From the crown of her head to the sole of her foot there is no soundness in her, but wounds, bruises and putrifying sores.”
That is how the Bride is described in Scripture—wounds, bruises and putrifying sores.
Now, who is the Bridegroom?
He is the eternal Son of God: “Thy Maker is thy husband.”
It struck me very forcibly how Christ was made poor—He was rich and became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. He was made poor regarding temporal things—the foxes had holes and the birds of the air had nests but the Son of Man had no place to lay His head. Why was it that Christ had to be made poor in that respect? Why should He not have plenty to eat and drink? I take it to be this—The Bride was under the curse and she had forfeited any claim even to a drop of cold water, and when performing miracles, on more than one occasion He fed the multitude, yet we never find Him performing a miracle to feed Himself, because He was made poor that she might be made rich. Supposing you had nothing but potatoes and salt, if you are His you have that with a covenant right, for He purchased it for you. Now, He took their place and nature, and He purchased their blessings—Whoever will want His Bride will not want. “My God,” says the Apostle, “shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”—unsearchable riches. If you are poor, my friend, to-day, and you may be poor enough and complaining of your poverty, it is not because there is not enough in the store. Your Husband has provided riches for you. We hear a great deal about rationing, but Christ has given what He sees profitable for His bride.
I believe that it will be a question with yourself to-day as you expect to sit at His Table to-morrow—the lower end of the Table—how are you going to sit at the upper end of the Table among holy angels when you find yourself so corrupt and so unlike those who are going to Heaven? I remember the first time I ever saw the late Mr. Macdonald, Shieldaig, was at a Communion in —, and there was a godly man there, Allan Young, and he was so greatly taken with Mr. Macdonald that when he got up to speak to the “Question” he looked at Mr. Macdonald and said: “You nice minister, it is yourself that is worthy to be there and it is from your own mouth the truth is sweet.” After going on a little, he said: “We hear much about holiness or sanctification, but in my opinion there is nothing that is so difficult for the child of God to understand what holiness is. I am told that merchants will be taking stock once a year, and that they usually have cellars in their shops which they will be cleaning out before taking stock, but one man took stock and forgot all about the cellar until he went down and found it on fire and the smoke and smell of the rags was choking him with the result that he lost his way in the smoke and had to stay there until the last bit of it was burnt out. If I know anything about sanctification it is like that.” He is preparing them and will bring them to glory at last. He will present them holy and unblameable at last. He will present them before the Father.
Thirdly, the friend of the bridegroom rejoices.
What would rejoice yourself to-day? Now, you rejoice to hear His Word and if He would speak to you to-day you would rejoice. Nothing would give you greater joy than to hear the voice of the Bridegroom calling sinners—young men and women. That would rejoice your heart more than anything else.