How important is it to us that the Church becomes “The Most Beautiful Bride”? More important than the first question, how important is it to God that the Church is “The Most Beautiful Bride”?

When Garry and I counsel couples preparing for marriage we often remind them that they have an obligation to bring their healthiest self to marriage. I’m sure you agree. But have you considered that this is true for each member of the church? When one member is spiritually sick it affects the entire church.  We have an obligation to keep ourselves spiritually healthy. Not only that but we have an obligation to one another when we see the slightest spiritual sickness in each other to offer help graciously and gently.

Mat 11:28-30 NKJV 28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

In studying Pastor Murray’s outline on “The Wedding of the Bride of Christ” Matthew 11:28 – 30. The first point under “Married Happily Ever After to Christ; Or the Life of Covenant Faithfulness “is “Christ the Bridegroom – Rest for the Weary”.

The first thought is, “The character of an awakened sinner, Bride to be: all you who labor and are heavy laden”. Are you spiritually laboring by trying to find goodness in your own merits? Are you struggling to accept that there is nothing good in you? Does the absolute free love of God scare you? Do you find the free love of God hard to accept?  Are you striving to earn God’s love? Do you find loving others freely an impossibility? Are you heavy-laden and spiritually sick? Are you pressed down by the guilt of your sinfulness? The answer is found in the bridegroom’s invitation.

“When you realize that you are “dull in prayer, wandering in meditations, rare in thoughts of Him. Do not bear this frame. Whatever way God has appointed, in His strength, vigorously pursue, until this frame be altered, and you find your Beloved.” ~ John Owen

“The bridegroom’s invitation”.  It’s such a sweet call “Come to Me…” come to the very Fountain of living waters and drink freely and deeply. What a sweet invitation. What an invitation full of grace and mercy. “Come to Me…”. Does it melt your heart? Does it awaken you to a sense of your wickedness in the sight of God? Are you persuaded your sin deserves the harshest punishment?

If you have heeded and accepted the call. Are you drinking deeply from the Fountain of living waters? What a sweet deep Fountain He is! Do you grieve for those who refuse to come? Do you fervently pray for them? Do you actively share the gospel and call them to look to Christ and live? Do you realize that they are saying the exact thing Israel said in Jeremiah? “Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” Jeremiah 6:16.

Do you realize when any of us refuse to listen to God’s word and yield our will to His by faith we too are refusing to walk in the path, He has for us, and we are spiritually sick? Do you actively call those who are spiritually sick back to their first love? If not, why? Could it be because of your own spiritual adultery? Our own unconfessed and unrepentant spiritual adultery makes us feel like the hypocrites we are. When you find yourself without Christ as the Shulamite did, two things must be considered. First, search your soul for the cause of His absence, and secondly look to the promises for His presence. If you discover you are in spiritual adultery, will you repent? Will you look to and believe (faith) the promises?

I can testify that this harlot was recovered. I ran throughout the city and found my Beloved. Oh, sisters, He is a faithful bridegroom to His church. He gives freely from the fountain of living waters to those who thirst! “When you realize that you are “dull in prayer, wandering in meditations, rare in thoughts of Him. Do not bear this frame. Whatever way God has appointed, in His strength, vigorously pursue, until this frame be altered, and you find your Beloved.”[1]

Do you realize any sickness in the church is a problem? Just as the Shulamite could not live without her Beloved. This should be true of us. One person within the church satisfied with a dull, hard heart should concern us greatly. We should be good watchmen and seek after one another to offer help and guidance. To come alongside and gently, lovingly point one another back to God. We should be willing to teach what true union and communion are and to help one another live in communion. Do our circumstances determine if we live in communion? Of course not! If we do not yet understand what it means to live in union and communion with God are we seeking help? If not, why? Trust me help is there in our church without condemnation just for the asking.

“Because You have made us for Yourself, our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.”

~ Saint Augustine

“The bridegroom’s promise: I will give you rest…” Augustine says, “Because You have made us for Yourself, our hearts are restless till they find their rest in Thee.”[2] “I will give you rest.” What a sweet promise. Are you restless? Jesus is the One whom God has promised will bring you rest. Do you have unreconciled relationships in your life? Are you angry? Are you fearful? What does it mean to rest? When we are resting in the shared love of God and making returns on that love, we are the most content. We are eager to be reconciled with everyone in our life. We put our anger to death quickly because we recognize we have been forgiven much. We rest in the free, bountiful love of God and our fears are quenched. We love others around us, and we stop putting ourselves above others. When we rest in union and communion with God, we are truly free to love and serve others. There is no freedom apart from true union and communion because if we live outside of the free love of Christ our wills are in bondage to sin. “Come to Me… I will give you rest.” Will you come and rest in union and in communion with the Triune God?

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

1 I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto me and rest;
lay down, O weary one,
lay down your head upon my breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
so weary, worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting place,
and he has made me glad.

2 I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
the living water, thirsty one;
stoop down and drink and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
of that life-giving stream;
my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,

And now I live in Him.

3 I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light.
Look unto me; your morn shall rise
and all your day be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
in him my star, my sun;
and in that light of life I’ll walk
till trav’ling days are done.

Horatius Bonar (1808 – 1889)

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[1] John Owen, Communion with the Triune God, Edited by Kelly Kapic and Justin Taylor, (Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway Publishers, 2007) page 242.

[2] Augustine, Confessions, 1.1.1.