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The Queen In Gold Attire
"Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine
own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the King greatly desire thy
beauty; for He is thy Lord and worship thou Him."—Ps 45:10-11.
The beautiful imagery of our text
and context relates to the Elect Church of this Gospel Age, which is here
pictured as a Bride, the Spouse, and ultimately the Wife of the great King,
Immanuel. The Scriptures abound with this view of the Church. Notice, for
instance, the Apostle’s words to the Church of his day: "I have espoused
you to one Husband, that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ."
(2Co 11:2.) Note again the words of John the Baptist, "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." (Joh 3:29.) The speaker does not identify
himself with the Bride class and this with propriety; for, as our Lord
declares, John the Baptist was the last of the Prophets; he belonged to and was
faithful as a member of the House of Servants, but did not come in under the
Gospel privilege of the Pentecostal blessing following our Lord’s redemptive
work. Of him our Lord says, "There has not arisen a greater than John the
Baptist, and yet I say unto you, the least one in the Kingdom of God is greater
than he." (#Lu 7:28.) In other words, our Lord assures us that to have the
humblest position in the Church class, in the Bride class being selected during
this age, is an higher honor than that which belongs to the very noblest of the
previous dispensations.
Failure to notice God’s dispensational dealings with the patriarchs in the
Jewish nation and with the Gospel Church has hindered many of the Lord’s people
from
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making good progress in the study of the Word; and it is time that all awake to
this fact and realize that various features of the Divine Plan belong to
various dispensations or epochs, and that all these are working together for
the grand fulfilment of God’s glorious purposes, of which the Apostle writes,
"He will gather together in one all these things in Christ, both which are
in Heaven and which are on earth." (Eph 1:10.) This great work is not yet
accomplished. The angelic hosts do indeed give reverence and obedience to the
glorified Son of God. A "little flock" of footstep followers of the
Lord Jesus from amongst men so glorify and honor Him as King of kings and Lord
of lords. But as for the masses of mankind, living and dead, they have never
even heard His name, or known of the grace of God in Him.
But according to the Lord’s Word these all must hear and know and have an
opportunity for salvation through Christ—"in due time." That due time
is the coming Age or new epoch called the Millennium, the great thousand-year
Day which God has appointed for the world’s trial or judgment; as we read,
"God hath appointed a Day in the which He will judge the world in
righteousness." (Ac 17:31) But prior to that appointed Day He called out
of the world a special class of those who have the hearing of faith and the eye
of faith, that He may thus select the Bride of Christ to be His joint-heir in
that Kingdom and His joint-associate in that glorious work of blessing all the
families of the earth and granting to all of them a trial or judgment—a
knowledge of the Truth and an opportunity to show their willingness to obey it.
THE BRIDAL ROBES
The context declares (V. 13), "Her clothing is inwrought with gold."
But this pictures her as the Bride when all the trials, difficulties and
testings shall have been successfully passed and she shall be accepted as the
Very Elect, to be forever associated with her Lord and a sharer
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of His glory. In the Scripture symbology gold is used to represent the Divine
nature. Hence the picture as a whole teaches us that when the King of kings
shall present His Bride before the Heavenly Father at the close of this Age,
after she shall have been glorified by the First Resurrection, she will be
possessed of the Divine nature—"glory, honor and immortality."—Ro
2:7.
This is what the Apostle Peter assures us will be the outcome. Speaking of the
promises of God’s Word to this Bride class he says that God "hath given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises whereby we might be partakers of
the Divine nature." (2Pe 1:4.) We do not get this Divine nature or this
gold raiment in the present life; our immortality is a hope and not an
actuality.
As the Apostle says, "we seek for glory, honor and immortality."
How difficult it is for us to grasp the thought that the great Creator,
desiring that the elect "little flock" should be associated with His
Son in the great work of the Millennial Age, the blessing of all the families
of the earth, did not invite the holy angels, but instead has sent the
invitation to our fallen race, to such of its members as would have the ears to
hear and the hearts to respond to the call of this Gospel Age—to walk the
narrow way in the footsteps of our Redeemer!
No wonder the Apostle declares that although we have God’s assurance that we
are sons of God, and although this signifies that we shall be heirs of God, yet
it does not appear what we shall be, how great we shall be. It is too wonderful
a matter for us to comprehend; too wonderful to even be described in the
Scriptures. Hence, the only information granted to us is that when our Lord
Jesus shall be manifested at His Second Advent in power and great glory, then
the First Resurrection change shall make His faithful "little flock"
like Him, that they may see Him as He is—not as He was—and share His glory; for
flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God—though all flesh shall see
the salvation of God, shall experience
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the blessings that will flow from that Millennial Kingdom and be recipients of
the Divine favors which will then be poured out upon all flesh with lavish hand
and blessed results.—1Co 15:50; Isa 40:5.
But the context says more respecting this raiment.
Note (V. 14) "She shall be led unto the King in raiment of
needlework." This word "led" properly enough applies to the
present life. All through this Gospel Age, from Pentecost until now, the Lord
has used various instrumentalities to call out from the world this peculiar
people; and by various instrumentalities He has led them from grace to grace,
from knowledge to knowledge, and changed them from glory to glory, to prepare
them for their final acceptance, in the First Resurrection, of the clothing of
gold—glory, honor and immortality.
It is in full accord with all this that the Scriptures represent that all
accepted of the Lord throughout this Gospel Age have been granted a wedding
garment clean and white, "pure linen which is the righteousness of the
saints." (Re 19:8.) That robe figuratively represents justification, the
covering of our blemishes; and it is a wedding garment because it constitutes a
basis of our ultimate acceptance by the Lord in the end of this Age, when the
marriage of the Lamb shall come. These espoused ones are cautioned that their
treatment of the robe will determine whether or not they will ultimately be of
the Bride class: (1) They must keep their garments unspotted from the world
(Jas. 1:27), and (2) must embroider them with fine needlework. Painstakingly
they must endeavor to fix and establish in their robes the glorious pattern
outlined for them by the word and example of their Bridegroom and His
mouthpieces, the Apostles.
REMOVING SPOTS AND WRINKLES
If any of those "called to be saints," on accepting that invitation
and receiving the robe, supposed it would be an easy matter to keep it without
spot or wrinkle or
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any such thing he was soon undeceived. Each one of this class has found out
that it requires great circumspection, great care, to live in a world in which
sin abounds and, as a New Creature, to act through a body the imperfections of
which are continually coming to light as growth is made in grace and knowledge.
The great Apostle acknowledges the impossibility of perfection under present
conditions—except that our hearts, our intentions, our wills, might be perfect,
should be perfect, must be perfect, thoroughly loyal to God and to
righteousness. He says, "When I would do good evil is present with
me"; and again, "We cannot do the things that we would."
The Scriptures declare that "There is none righteous, no not one" (Ro
3:10); and when the thought of our own imperfections and the sin abounding all
about us would make us fearful, convincing us of the impossibility of preventing
our garments from receiving spots or wrinkles, what then? Ah, they tell us how
these are to be gotten rid of; they tell us that the merit of our Lord’s
sacrifice not only cancelled for us our past sins and covered us with His robe
of righteousness, but that all subsequent imperfections, resulting from
original sin, weakness and ignorance, may all be forgiven us and not remain as
spots upon our robes. The Apostle says, "The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin." (1Jo 1:7.) The thought of this text is not the
original justification which we received when we received the robe, but a
cleansing which may be ours after we are the Lord’s and have the robe. The word
cleanseth here refers not to something already past but to that which is now at
our disposal, which is now in progress, a cleansing or forgiveness which all of
the Lord’s people need to pray for and to accept, as in the Lord’s prayer,
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against
us."
Thus through the Age from Pentecost down, those who have been called, accepted
and robed with the wedding garment have been obliged to strive to keep their
garments
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unspotted, and oft with tears to apply for the cleansing when a spot would be
seen. Their consciences are so tender on the subject that their neighbors and
friends of the world and nominal Christendom think them strange, peculiar
people. They are more distressed to see one spot upon their robe than are many
whose garments are filthy. But the effect upon them is a blessed one, as it
develops in them more and more love for righteousness and greater zeal and
strength in overcoming.
They are making progress, even though to themselves it may appear slow; they
are becoming fortified, strengthened and built up in character—in their love
for whatsoever things are just, true, lovely and of good report.
(Php 4:8.) We are now referring merely to that class of the called ones who
will ultimately be accepted as the Bride. We are not referring to all who make
a consecration and are accepted of the Lord, but who fail to be thus particular
about the spots and wrinkles on their robes. These we will consider later.
"IF YE DO THESE THINGS"
When the Apostle Peter said, "If ye do these things ye shall never fall;
for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting
Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2Pe 1:10,11), he is
referring to the same things that are represented by the embroidering, the
needlework upon the wedding garment.
All the espoused ones are shown the pattern on the robe. They are all informed
of the necessity of working out their own salvation, of cooperating with the
Lord in the matter of making their calling and election sure to the glorious
station to which they have been invited. They are informed that through much
tribulation shall they enter the Kingdom. (Ac 14:22.) This tribulation is the
painstaking "fine needlework" of our context.
Not all tribulation that may come to mankind is a part of this embroidery. The
Apostle speaks of some in these
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words, "But let no man suffer as an evil-doer or as a busybody in other
men’s matters." (1Pe 4:15.) The intimation is that such sufferings are not
incidental to the embroidering we are to do, but the result of our not being
engaged in our embroidering work and having time to meddle with sin or with
other matters and affairs. Such tribulations add nothing to our embroidering on
the robe, except as they might awaken us to a sense of our neglect of the
important work which must be done in our own characters if we would be fit for
a share with our Lord in His Kingdom, fit to be accepted as members of the Very
Elect, the Bride, the Church in glory.
The baneful experiences which come to us as a result of our faithfulness to the
Lord, to the Truth, to the brethren—these constitute parts of the embroidering.
These help us to fix in our hearts and characters the principles of
righteousness and of love divine. How tedious the work appears to us sometimes!
At the close of each day we are astonished at how little we have accomplished;
and the weeks and months go by with similar experiences.
With the close of the year, when we give our robes particular attention we
behold the comparatively little that has been accomplished since the examination
of the year before.
But how does the Lord view this matter? Is He expecting that you and I and all
of His followers will be able in every detail to follow the glorious pattern
that is stamped upon our robes? Will He require of us as a condition of our
acceptance as His Bride that not a feature or detail shall be lacking? Oh, no!
Such a view would swerve and at once discourage us from further effort.
The entire tenor of Scripture is to the contrary. As, for instance, in the
parable of the talents, our Lord represents some as having less ability and
some more, and indicates that His approval will be in proportion as we have
endeavored to accomplish His will. The one who had faithfully used the two
talents heard the same words of approval as the one who had five talents and
used
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them—"Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord."—Mt 25:21.
And so with the robe: If the Lord, who takes cognizance of our endeavors, sees
persistency and the right intention He counts it unto us as being perfect. We
shall not be married in these robes. These are merely the ones in which we are
being led to the marriage. More and more they should show our love, our zeal
and patient endurance. As the Master examines the work will He not expect to
find the last better than the first, even though none of it be perfect? Will
not this be the basis of His approval of our endeavors and on account of which
He will be willing to give us the new robe of gold?
Some of us, perhaps, remember that when we were children at school we had
writing copy-books with perfect copper-plate engravings at the top of each page
as copy. Alas! and do we not remember also that in many instances the first few
lines were the best on the page and that carelessness and indifference to the
copy and to the necessity for the lesson became more and more marked as we
proceeded to the bottom of the page? We remember that we copied our own instead
of looking to the engraving at the top. So it is with this matter of the embroidering
of our robes. If we become heedless, careless, indifferent, overcharged with
the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches and the affairs of this
world, our robes will show it. Little embroidering will be done and it will be
of poor quality. Spots will get on; and we shall neglect to have them cleansed
away. Soon our robes will be entirely unfit for the Inspection of the Lord or
for the marriage. It is time, dear friends, that we awake to the
responsibilities of the hour, that we realize that the Bridegroom is nigh, even
at the door; that the last of the wise virgins will soon enter into the
marriage and the door will be shut; and that the choicest blessings of all time
will soon be won or lost as far as we are concerned. —Mt 25:1-13; Eph 5:15-17.
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LOVE FULFILS THE LAW
Let us make no mistake as respects what constitutes this needlework, this
embroidery. It is not knowledge, though knowledge is very necessary to its
proper in-working.
It represents not natural talents, though these may be utilized in connection
with it. It represents not merely laborious works, though these may be very
proper and perhaps necessary to it if conditions are favorable. This embroidery
represents love; for "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." (Ro 13:10.)
This is the new commandment which our Lord has given, "A new commandment I
give unto you, that ye love one another." (Joh 13:34.) Love for the Lord,
and His Truth He places on a parity when He says, "Me and My Word."
One of course, comes first. To our Lord and His Word we must be true at all
hazards. Then comes love for the brethren—because they are His—because they
have His spirit—because they are seeking to walk in His footsteps. "He
that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath
not seen?"—1Jo 4:20.
This is the forceful argument of the Apostle. The love must continue and extend
to neighbors, friends, yea, to enemies, so that those who would have the full
pattern on their robes must have in their characters a true, genuine, staunch
love for all these. And if, perchance, the enemy should be a brother, the
testing to love might be all the more severe. But that this feature of the
embroidery be worked is our Lord’s requirement. Whoever does not love even his
enemies is not fit for the Kingdom—whatever he may be fit for. Love as
brethren, be pitiful, be sympathetic, be generous, be helpful, be
self-sacrificing, do unto others as you would they should do to you. Let the
Golden Rule measure your thoughts, words and deeds—measure the length of the
stitches in your embroidery and assure yourself that it is "fine
needlework."
Our context declares that when the Bride class shall be the Queen and shall be
presented before the Father,
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the virgins, her companions, shall follow after. Who are these virgins? They
are those represented in the parable as the foolish virgins. They were as truly
virgins as the wise ones, as truly justified and as truly consecrated to the
Lord. They also got the wedding garment. Theirs also was stamped with the
pattern for embroidery. But they neglected the work. They became overcharged
with cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. The first spot upon
their robe distressed them; but subsequently they became accustomed to seeing
it spotted, and thought less and less of the matter. They were themselves free
to admit not only their consecration and their possession of the robe, but also
its disfigurement by the spots and wrinkles which they did not approve, but
which they had given up the thought of removing as too great a task to
perform.—Mr 4:19.
What they should do is to apply to the Bridegroom for the cleansing fluid, the
precious blood—that He would take away these spots and blemishes, giving such
chastisements as His wisdom would see best for the inattention,
carelessness—and to entreat that they might no longer be of the foolish virgin
class but of the wise—wise toward God, wise to appreciate the fact that the
great blessing now being proffered to the Very Elect is valuable beyond all estimate.
But the more spots and wrinkles that get upon the robe the more likely is the
wearer to be careless. Noting that the majority of even the consecrated have
spots and wrinkles, he is apt to conclude that he is no worse than others, and
not nearly so bad as many.
How we would like to awaken some of these to a realization of their proper
position and need of prompt action and redoubled energy not only in securing
the cleansing of the robe but also in the work of embroidering it with the
fruits and graces of the Spirit which they have so sadly neglected!—2Co 10:14.
Our father’s house is the world; for as the Apostle declares, "We were
children of wrath, even as others."
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(Eph 2:3.) In accepting our Lord’s invitation to be His Bride we are joining a
new family, a new house.
We are exhorted to show our appreciation of our espousal by forgetting the
house and family to which we formerly belonged and held allegiance. This is in
harmony with the Apostle’s exhortation, "Forgetting the things which are
behind, I press on to those things which are before"; and again, "the
things that I once loved, now I hate"—things highly esteemed amongst men I
now see to be unworthy of those called to be heirs of God, joint-heirs with
Jesus Christ our Lord.—Php 3:13; Ro 7:15.
"FORGET THY FATHER’S HOUSE"
Here, dear friends, is the gist of
the entire question: Our Lord declares that we and the entire world are either
for Him and His cause or against the same. There is no neutral ground; and
hence in leaving the father’s house, the world, and our own people, and in
becoming members of the New Creation, the Church, the Body of Christ, begotten
of the Holy Spirit, we should understand that the change is a radical one and
not any longer seek for our fellowships and joys from the worldly sources but
only amongst those who with ourselves are consecrated to the Lord and waiting
for His return, and for the marriage and for membership in the elect class, the
Bride. The more we attempt to mix worldly things and prospects and aims with
our high calling the more it will be shown that we are at the very most foolish
virgins; for we cannot serve God and Mammon. This, of course, does not signify
unkindness toward friends or neighbors or kindred. The Lord’s saints are
exhorted to do good unto all men as they have opportunity but especially unto
the Household of Faith. And with the latter and their aims they must specially
identify if they would come off conquerors, and be received by their Lord and
King as His Joint-heir and Bride and introduced as such to the Heavenly
Father.—Ga 6:10; 2 John 8.
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