II. HOW MUCH DO YOU AND I TRULY UNDERSTAND THIS?
I am afraid some of you think that I am half crazy tonight. You are saying, “Well, I don’t comprehend this; what is this man talking about? God married to us! Christ married to us! I don’t understand it!” God have mercy on you, my poor listener, and bring you to know it! But let me tell you, if you could come to understand it, then you would discover a secret here that would make you a thousand times more happy than all the joys of the world can ever make you. You remind me of the chicken in the fable, who found a diamond on the dunghill, and as he turned it over, he said, “I would rather have found a grain of barley.” He acted according to his nature. And so it is with you. This precious pearl of union to God will seem to be nothing to you: a little worldly pleasure will be more to your liking. One could weep to think there should be such ignorance of true joy and true delight! Oh! blind eyes, that cannot see beauty in the Savior! Oh! stone-cold hearts, that can see no loveliness in him! Jesus! they are obsessed, they are insane, who cannot love you! It is a strange foolishness of men and women to think that they can do without you, that they can see any light apart from you, you the bright Sun of Righteousness, or anything like your beauty in all the gardens of the world apart from you, you the Rose of Sharon, you the Lily of the Valley! O that they knew you!
Do I address any one here tonight, who, while they pretend to be religious people, have no real allegiance to the Lord? There are many like that, and we occasionally meet with them here. They cannot satisfy their conscience without some show of religion, so they join with us as listeners and spectators in the solemn assembly; but they never unite with the church, because they have not dedicated their hearts to Christ. Ask them the reason, and their answer sounds pure, and yet in truth it is anything but innocent. You tell us that you are afraid to become a true Christian because you would not walk consistently? Wouldn’t it be more truthful to admit that your relationship with the world, your love of money, your ordinary pastimes, and your occasional partying, harmless as you try to persuade yourselves they are now, if viewed in the light of marriage to Christ, would be accounted as very shameful? So far as the principles of Christianity are concerned, you endorse them with your private creed, and you are “Protestant” enough to prefer the most evangelical doctrines; but your reluctance to make a true commitment to Christ is a clear index to a most fatal flaw in your character. You might admit that God is supreme, but not the exclusive Lord of your heart. You would give the Lord’s altar more honor than any other altar, but still you would not remove the high places which desecrate the land. Your opinion is that there is no god in all the earth but the God of Israel, yet your practice is to bow down to the god of this world. You wish to have all the promises of God bestowed on you, but you decidedly object to make any vows to him. It is to people like you that these delicate appeals are most distasteful, “Return, faithless people, for I am your husband.” Nothing in your experience responds to this. You stand aloof as if you were offended. I must warn you, therefore, that God can be your God only in these bonds of covenant union.
But, Christian, now I speak to you. Surely you know something about this, that God is married to you? If you do, can’t you say with me, “Yes, and he has been a very faithful husband to me”? Now, there are none of you who can object to that! Thus far he has been very faithful to you, and what have you been to him? How kind and tender has he been; how faithful, how generous, how sympathizing! In your every affliction he has been afflicted, and the angel of his presence has saved you. Just when you had reached your limits of endurance he has come to your aid. He has carried you through every difficulty, even until now. Oh! you can speak well of him, can’t you? And as for his love, Christian, as for his love, what do you think of that? Is it not heaven on earth to you? Don’t you think it to be—
“Heaven above
To see his face, to taste his love”?
Well, then, speak well of him, speak well of him! Make this world hear his praise! Ring that silver bell in the deaf ears of this generation! Make them know that your Beloved is the fairest of the fair and compel them to ask, “How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women?” [Song of Solomon 5:9]
Again, for those of you who do not know him, I would like to ask you this question, and you need to answer it. Do you want to be married to Christ? Do you wish to have him? Oh! then, there will be no difficulties in the way of the match. If your heart goes after Christ, he will have you. If, when you get home tonight and kneel down next to your bed, you say to him, “Dear Savior, here is my heart, take it, wash it, save me,” he will hear you. Whoever you may be, he will not refuse you. Oh he seeks you, he seeks you! And when you seek him, that is a sure sign that he has found you. Though you may not have found him, yet he has already found you. The wedding-ring is ready. Faith is the golden ring, which is the token of the marriage bond. Trust the Savior! Trust him! Give up trusting in your good works. Give up depending on your merits. Take his works, his merits, and rest alone in him, for today he says to you, “I will make you my wife forever; showing you righteousness and justice, love and compassion. I will be faithful to you, and you will acknowledge me as LORD” [Hosea 2:19-20] Oh, may the Lord Jesus do that to every one of you, and may Christ’s name be glorified forever. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
