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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of
God..."
Part 205
THE MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB
(continued)
“And
I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor
to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is
come, and His wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Rev.
19:6-8).
The
vision is introduced by “the voice as it were of a great multitude.” The four living creatures and the twenty-four
elders had issued the command from the throne for
Now
we come to an even greater wonder.
Not only does the vast multitude
express their praise to God, but now they speak as to one another, proclaiming
with joy and gladness, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honor to Him…” But WHY? Is it because the Jews have all returned to
Can
you not discern the sequence? As soon as
There
is an interesting passage in Isaiah 61:10.
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a
bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” This verse teaches us two things: (1) that God has clothed us with the GARMENTS OF SALVATION and (2) He has covered
us with the ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
The Spirit here points out to us that not only is there a garment of
salvation, but there is in addition a robe of righteousness. Jesus Christ is our salvation! We are saved by grace through faith,
As
soon as man sinned, God made them
garments, the Bible declares. That
means that God accepts men just as they are in their consciousness of their
humanity and their fleshly condition. He
affirms them as carnal, sinful, as sheep gone astray, each turned to his own
way. But, blessed be God! He does not permit them to stand before Him
in the consciousness of their nakedness, of their exposed flesh — nor does He
expose their flesh to one another in their nakedness. Oh, no!
HE HIMSELF COVERS THEM. By making
garments for men God shows that He first of all accepts them as they are, in all their fleshiness. In this way He covers their flesh but does not destroy it. God’s first action towards man is that He
preserves him in his sinful state of being, with the physical body, the carnal
mind, and the fleshly inclinations, giving him an “atonement,” that is, a
“covering” to hide or take the attention away from his flesh, making him
“accepted in the Beloved” — until he
can be changed! With the fall of
May
I share with you now a revelation that has been a great blessing and encouragement to me in my walk
in God.
First, let me say that the garment
of salvation is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith. “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not
reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to
him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is counted for righteousness. Even
as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying,
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin” (
This
is the sphere with which most Christians are acquainted, and we bless God for
this beautiful and precious truth, for it is the solid foundation upon which we
can build as we experience God in His great dealings and plan and purpose in our
lives. Our practical, daily experience
has revealed the undeniable fact that just because the righteousness of Christ
has been “imputed” to us, “charged to our account,” doesn’t mean that there has
been even one iota of change in our STATE OF
So,
while imputed righteousness gives us
a clean slate before God, we soon discover by experience that this leaves us
far short in our state of being of
the image and glory of God, far short of either maturity or perfection. We still find in our nature the law, the very
working of “sin and death,” and all the old emotions and cravings of “the
flesh” are continually surging, seething, bubbling up just beneath the
surface. In our salvation experience we
have found mercy, goodness, graciousness from God, a covering, an atonement, and yet, is it not
true, dear child of God, that our hearts
are not satisfied? Why? Is it not because we know in our deepest
heart that the garment of salvation has covered over all our sins, but beneath
that garment still lies our flesh — our
God
dearly loves all His little children unto whom He has imputed the righteousness
of Christ by faith. And they are His no
matter how they are living today! But He
doesn’t want to leave us in this unrighteous state! His plan and purpose is to change us,
transform us into His very image and likeness, to actually make us pure as He is pure, righteous as He is righteous! He wants to impart His righteousness to us, not just impute it. “For He hath made
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS
OF GOD IN HIM” (II Cor. 5:21). Can you not see that there is a world
of difference between being counted righteous and being made
righteousness! Every son of God is ordained and predestined
to possess and become the righteousness of God, be righteous as He is
righteous, to be holy as He is holy.
Who wouldn’t want to become this
righteousness? Who would not
desire to always be right in all we think, in all we desire, in all we say and
do — to never again think anything wrong or have any wrong ideas, desires, or
motives; but to always be pure, correct, and divine in everything. What a blessed state! Impossible?
Not at all! It is what God has
planned for us and is working on in us.
Of this very truth the Psalmist wrote when he said, “He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name’s (nature’s) sake.” He leads me in paths that will bring me to
this glorious state where my inward
nature is righteous as He is righteous.
Blessed be the Lord!
I
thank God today that there is a righteousness, a divine righteousness that God
can impart and inwork into men, and which can exalt a man to the image and likeness of God. In no other way can men ever be exalted or
lifted up out of the power of sin, self, limitation, sorrow, and death. So I gladly and thankfully this day record
this truth that the righteousness of which I speak is the righteousness of God,
which by faith we may possess; not merely a righteousness imputed, in which we
can trust for our salvation, but a righteousness IMPARTED, INWORKED INTO THE
NATURE. All very good is this talk about
imputed righteousness, but I cannot — will
not — settle for a righteousness that is only imputed. If it is not imparted, it is not a power
within us at all. I thank God for
the word of the Master Himself who told us that this
We want more than just to pile “coverings” over
our flesh nature, we want our inherent nature changed into HIS, so that all
that is contrary to Him shall be completely done away. Multitudes have received the glad news of how
the righteousness of God is imputed to us by faith, and have believed, but
still in their daily life they know that within themselves there remains the
rudiments of carnal mindedness and sin.
And with repeated failure and guilt-consciousness they keep on praying
day after day, “Lord, forgive us our short-comings! Forgive us our trespasses! Forgive us our many sins!” And year after year they never cease praying
that way. Why? Because imputed righteousness is our
possession as we believe on Him, but we must go on in to the second provision
of His redemption, to not only be clothed with the garments of salvation, but to
lay hold upon and appropriate HIS INWORKED RIGHTEOUSNESS, becoming covered with
the ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, which results in an entirely new state of being, making us like Him, transformed and transfigured
into His very own image in ever increasing splendor…from one degree of glory to
another (II Cor. 3:18).
To
be covered with the robe of righteousness means that when men look at us they
SEE NOTHING BUT RIGHTEOUSNESS! Ah, it is
easy to find people wearing the garments of salvation, for we see His salvation
upon them, we can tell they have met the Lord, they know they are His children,
they rejoice in sins forgiven, and they trust Him to help them and bless them
in various ways. They have been
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, but few have gone on to the second step
of His redemption of which
God
is going to spring forth righteousness until all the nations SEE IT!
“Thy
people also shall be all righteous: the branch of my
planting,
the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified” (Isa. 60:21). To
God be the glory, HE is bringing forth a firstfruit company, the work of His
hands, the branch of His planting, to BECOME ONE IN CHRIST, and of this very Christ, Head and body, the Son
and the sons, the Lamb and His bride, we read, “this is His name whereby He
shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:6). No more of our own self-righteousness, no
more stumbling and blundering and falling, but so fully clothed with Him, that
our very state of being testifies “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Certainly HE shall be glorified, because HE
alone shall be exalted, magnified through the revelation of His grace and glory
through the completed work of His hands.
This desire has been implanted by God, and HE shall certainly bring
about its fulfillment! We have tried to
do it o
When
people see a life that is beyond and
contrary to any life they have ever witnessed, then the righteousness of Christ
is revealed. When people behold us in
our problems, under the pressures of job, family, and bills; in the
perplexities of trouble and the horrible disappointment of tragedy and loss —
when they see us facing these things and
Put
ye on Christ! To this you are
called. Seek to walk worthy of this
calling. Yield yourself to the mighty
Christ within you to reveal the wonderful grace and the omnipotent power of His life that enables
you to be clothed in a divine righteousness.
Take time to realize that it is the King’s own robe that you are invited
to wear! It is the token that you are
the chosen one whom the King delights
to honor and to raise up to His side to sit with Him in His throne. The Psalmist revealed the great truth that “Righteousness
and judgment are the habitation of His throne” (Ps. 97:2). His throne
means HIS RULERSHIP in and through our lives, as His will replaces our
will, His thoughts replace our thoughts, and HIS LIFE becomes the sphere of our
daily activity. The fruit of righteousness
is the fulfilling of His will in us, and the filling up of our life with His
rulership, His throne fixed in us, where He rules and reigns supreme. Take time to remember that as much as you
need it in the palace, in the King’s presence, and in the midst of His “many
brethren,” no less do you require it when He sends you forth into the world,
where you are the King’s representative.
Live your life daily in the full consciousness of being covered with the
robe of righteousness, an object of honor, dignity, power, glory, and delight in the
Let all who read this message know that Jesus
Christ is our garment of salvation and He is our robe of righteousness. He is also the fine linen, bright and pure, with which the
beautiful bride of the Lamb arrays herself!
Just as Eve was taken out of Adam, so our robe of righteousness is derived out of Christ within our spirit. As the soul puts on more and more this robe,
the bride is adorned for her marriage. Put on Christ!
This work must be done each day in the inner chamber of our communion
and identification with Him. No person
changes clothes in public view! And how
better can we put Him on than by our constant living and abiding in fellowship and
union with Him in the secret place of the most High? Oh soul, take time to meditate upon this
wonderful truth. It takes great
patience, diligence, and much time for a bride to array herself for her
wedding. This cannot be done hastily or
superficially. It takes great patience,
diligence, and much time, my beloved, to
put on Christ! It takes time, quiet time
in living in fellowship with Jesus, to
realize that you have put Him on. Take
the time and the trouble. Your reward
will be great! As our garments cover us
and protect us from the wind and sun and cold, so Christ will be our beauty, our defense, our joy, and our
victory as we draw nigh to Him in every
experience and circumstance of life!
Now,
lest our investigation of truth should seem to miss the reality itself, I must
point out clearly that although all who witness the marriage of the Lamb also
behold the beauty of the bride arrayed
in her shimmering robe of fine, bright, pure linen — yet, it is not truly for their eyes that she is adorned. The bridegroom has won the heart of His
bride, and in
The
passage above (Rev. 21:2), in my opinion, is one of the most profound and
awe-inspiring statements of all scripture, and yet very few Christians grasp
the true significance of the scene. John
sees the bride-city coming down from God
out of heaven adorned as a bride for her
husband. If we are to understand
from this scene what John is describing for us, then what he sees is that the
bride “adorned herself” IN HEAVEN. She
did not adorn herself and make herself ready on earth in preparation for being
raptured away to a marriage in some
far-off heaven somewhere; rather, she adorns herself in the heavens of the
spirit of the Lord and subsequently descends from that high and holy sphere to
be glorified before men in the earthlies!
Strange, isn’t it, how the “traditions of the elders” usually get the
truth of God turned around backwards!
For
many years I have loved the beautiful portraits of the bride and the bridegroom
in the chapters of the Song of Solomon.
There are many facets and characteristics in the story, but in all the
portrayals of the drama which is Solomon’s Song, the Lord is looking for the
Shulamite, for that loveliest girl who ravishes His heart and who is going to
share His love and reproduce His life in the earth. She reaches for Him, is always and in every
way seeking after Him, responding to His overtures, His advances, His wooing,
as He seeks to express Himself in her.
In her search for her Beloved the lovely Shulamite maiden exclaims, “The
voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping
upon the hills. My beloved is like a
roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind o
There
is precious meaning here for the upbuilding of our souls. Before the eighth verse the bridegroom has
withdrawn. There are times when He
withdraws or hides Himself that He may prod us into deeper depths of earnestness
in seeking after Him. And there are
times when we do not keep in touch with
Him, as we are caught up in the cares of life and the clamoring of the world,
and the calls and demands of our own flesh, and are not quiet enough before Him,
so that we can discern Him and experience His work in us unhindered and
undisturbed. Christ the Bridegroom is in our spirit, He is not afar off, for He is nigh unto us. Yet how terrible is the vast chasm between
flesh and spirit! Still, from within our
spirit, across the great gulf, the voice of our beloved comes to us in terms of
love and endearment, in words of wooing, as well as in experience and dealings. Now the bride hears the sound of His presence
— she has not seen Him, but she hears His sound, she has not experienced Him,
but she hears His voice and knows that He is drawing nigh. Suddenly she sees Him — leaping upon the
mountains; those impassable obstacles, which would prove insurmountable to
anyone else, are stepping-stones for His feet.
He has, within Himself, overcome all things as the Son of man, from the
manger of
Sometimes
as we face the difficulties in our lives and the challenges that seem
impossible, we wonder if we can surmount them, and sometimes we are sure that
we cannot. We seem so attached, so
bogged down and held in captivity by the fleshly and the earthly. But He who could surmount the mountains of
man’s deception, sin, and limitation, of the cunning of the carnal mind, and
the powers of death and the grave, can surmount every mountain and hill that is
in your life and mine. And now, from
these lofty peaks of His triumph she hears His voice! “My beloved spake, and said unto me…” Can you not hear His voice? He is speaking, He is calling, and He says,
“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come
away.” He does not at this time call the bride to “come away
with Him,” but to come away and meet Him.
“Rise up…come away!” Leave
everything, especially your own reasonings behind, and come away into communion
with Him. In that quiet communion of
love He will lead you, lift you up, and guide your feet in higher places. It is when we first hear His voice, that we
must rise up and come away to meet Him.
It is when His presence steals in
upon us, and His whisper falls softly upon our ear, that we must turn aside
from all else to spend time sitting at His feet. God does not stand still, He is ever moving on; and if we
Do
you understand that every spiritual drawing you sense in your heart, is the
voice of your Beloved calling you to “rise up and come away”? Every moving and yearning from the depths of
your spirit within you, is the voice of your Bridegroom
“Look
from the top…” He challenges her. In
other words, now that you are in this place of experience come away and look
even higher, and higher, for the things that I will do in you. And He is just experiencing His divine joy
through union with His love. “Thou hast
ravished my heart…how fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better
is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices!” (S.
of S. 4:9-10). He is commenting on her
reality, not as she sees herself, but as HE sees her. Her reality is pleasing to Him as much as His
reality is pleasing to us. “Thy lips, O
my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the
smell of thy garments is like the smell
of (the cedars of)
When
giving instructions for the blending of
the holy anointing oil Moses instructed,
“Take all the principle spices…” (Ex. 30:22-25). This addresses the ancient art of the
apothecary. The Bridegroom is whispering
to the bride that she is God’s
apothecary, the mixing and mingling of all His divine virtues, excellences, fragrances,
and energies! She is leaning upon her
beloved, taking all of this in, He is loving her, making love to her, and she’s
receiving it from Him. She knows that
Christ is in her, that within her spirit lies all the reality of all the
glorious things He is speaking to her, but still she finds herself just as He
described her earlier, “A garden enclosed
is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut
up, a fountain sealed.” Have you
not felt that way, dear one? Finally,
with great earnestness and with fierce intensity she prays, “Awake, O north
wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow
out. Let my beloved come into
His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits” (vs. 16). In other words, mix your apothecary, Lord;
blow the winds of your dealings, move your spirit through me, come into your
garden and let the spices flow out!
Can
you not see what’s happened? She is
absolutely in love, so she has yielded
herself in totality. This is the place
God is bringing us to, where we say, “Lord, you can have my life. You can do what you want to do with me. I am yours and yours alone. I forsake every
other love, I denounce every vestige of
People
say, “Where is your God?” We respond,
“Oh, He’s in heaven, or He’s here, or He’s there.” Do you know where He is? He’s right here within us — in
His garden! Your Beloved is in
your garden, He’s in your body, He’s in your soul, He’s in your spirit, in the
fruitful places of your life which He has made fruitful. He’s
not out there, not in some far-off heaven somewhere, He’s right there in
the garden which you are. You may not be
aware of His presence, you may not have experienced the beauty and wonder of
intimate fellowship and vital union with Him, but these words are here to
awaken you, to cause you to rise up, to listen for His voice, to discern His
presence, to yield to His love, to follow after Him in a whole new realm of
reality and experience. “The voice of my beloved! behold, He cometh
leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills…my beloved spake, and said
unto me, Rise up, my love, my
fair one, and come away…” Some who read these lines are hearing His
voice, receiving His call, even now…
“Rise
up…look
from the top of Amana…thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my
spouse; thou hast ravished my heart.”
Oh, yes! It is up there — in the high places of experience
in Him — that we are made one in Him.
Only in the heights of HIS VICTORY are we adorned in the robe of His
righteousness. It is upon the mountain
tops of spiritual experience that we are perfected. It is there, in the heavenly places of the spirit,
that the bride is made ready for the marriage of the Lamb. Can you not see the mystery? That
is why John did not see the perfected bride-city “going up” to heaven
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Oh, no! In rapturous wonder John
stands transfixed as he beholds the New Jerusalem bride COMING DOWN FROM GOD
OUT OF HEAVEN PREPARED AS A BRIDE
THE MARRIAGE
“Let
us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself
ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints. And he saith
unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:7-9).
We
may notice that there are two distinct elements in the vision; first, that of
the marriage and second, that of the marriage supper. Neither one of these is
described as being witnessed by John himself; but they are pictured by him in
terms of the words of the multitude and of the angel. The multitude of the saints is pictured,
first of all, as saying, “…for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife
hath made herself ready.” Then the bride
of the Lamb is described, also in the words of the multitude who at this moment
behold her in all her beauty and elegance.
And finally, the marriage supper is introduced into the picture as the
angel commands John to write, “Blessed are they which are called to the
marriage supper of the Lamb.”
Once
again we must keep in mind that we are dealing here with a vision, with a
picture which is highly symbolic. We
cannot take the language of this passage literally without falling into all
kinds of absurdities. What we have here
is a highly symbolic picture of spiritual
union with our Lord — the marriage of
the Lamb. Should we try to take it
literally we would see Jesus standing on a cloud with vast multitudes of saints
standing before Him, while the Father, or an archangel, or one of the
Patriarchs, or someone else recited the wedding vows. The marriage would then be followed by a
great wedding feast of earthly food set upon tables stretching into infinity,
followed of course by the final act of the drama — sexual union. Any thinking person knows that such is not
the case! Ray Prinzing once expressed it
this way: “It readily becomes an allegory, but for many it reaches only their
natural mind to be viewed after the flesh.
They talk of being a ‘bride,’ and see themselves someday walking down a
pathway clothed in beautiful bridal attire, to where the Lord waits for them,
and God performs the ceremony, and they, with Jesus, enjoy a thousand year
honeymoon on the Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.
How they think that this ‘
These
are all spiritual realities typified by earthly things! And in that picture there are several
elements, namely, the bridegroom, the bride, the attendants and guests, the
wedding, and the marriage supper of the Lamb.
The light of inspiration and revelation must shine brightly upon each of
these elements to give us understanding!
The
Bible begins with the marriage of
In
writing these precious truths relating to the marriage of the Lamb, we are
reminded again of the words of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, “Sir, thou
hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep…” (Jn. 4:11). Ah, what depths
there are to every particular realm and relationship which is prepared for
us to attain to in Christ! There are
beautiful truths — deep depths and high heights — to be explored as we ponder
this special relationship of brideship and the marriage of the Lamb. Is it an
Just
the sound of the words “The marriage of the Lamb” brings great joy, excitement,
and anticipation to my heart, as it should to every member of God’s elect. Beloved soul, we have rightly rejoiced in the
beautiful truth of our brideship to
Christ, however we must have anointed eyes to see and a quickened heart to
understand that in the final analysis the bride, though beautiful and blessed
beyond words to describe, is not the center of attention at the marriage of the
Lamb. It is the Bridegroom who is exalted there! “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give
honor unto HIM: for the marriage of THE LAMB is come…” It is not “the marriage of the bride” that is rejoiced in, but
rather “the marriage of the Lamb.”
It is the Lamb who brings the bride to His glory! It is the Lamb who loved her, and gave
Himself for her! It is the Lamb who
sanctifies and cleanses her with the washing of water by the word! It is the Lamb who presents her unto Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing…holy and without blemish. It is the Lamb who woos her and wins
her! She takes His name, she walks in His
paths, she shares His life, she
is made one in Him. Oh, yes!
Truly, it is GOD who worketh in
you, beloved, both to will and to
do of His good pleasure! It is CHRIST in
your spirit who is drawing your soul,
wooing you, and raising you up to live in Him!
Thank God, we are not left to our own devices to try and find our place
in Him. “Of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things!” It
is the Lamb who has taken the initiative!
It is the Lamb who has desired us, called us, proposed to us, planned
for us, and determined the outcome.
Therefore — it is the Lamb that is exalted — exalted by the bride at His
side and exalted by the unnumbered millions who fill the universe with their
paeans of praise! It is
To be continued… J. PRESTON EBY
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