The Church – Its Consummation Is Righteous Joy – The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb And The Church’s Return To Earth - Part 1 (Part 12 In The Series) Series

As I said the Church is made up of individuals so let us take just one individual, any individual. That person was utterly undone, utterly without hope, and heading for eternal separation from a God of wrath. What rescued him from his abandoned state was the grace of God. Can we understand that, or perhaps a better question might be, “Can we ever appreciate the depth of that?” Grace reaches out to the unreachable and the grace of God does everything for us, because even as Christians, it is grace that supplies everything.

Grace saves and it equips and it clothes us. Picture it this way. A man of extraordinary means has a mansion but no family. He goes out to the seedy part of town and lifts up a derelict man, one everyone would walk past and not even acknowledge, and takes him home to his mansion. The first thing to do with that man is to clean him up (give him a good scrub) so that he looks half way decent. Then he is clothed appropriately and now is looking quite decent.

The man might wonder what is happening to him. He knows he did nothing to deserve that treatment. Maybe he thought a bit the way Mephibosheth did - {{2Samuel 9:7-8 David said to him, “Do not fear, for I will surely SHOW KINDNESS TO YOU FOR THE SAKE of your father Jonathan, and will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you shall eat at my table regularly.” Again he prostrated himself and said, “WHAT IS YOUR SERVANT, THAT YOU SHOULD REGARD A DEAD DOG LIKE ME?”}}

And yes, the next thing was to seat that man at the same table as his benefactor and a few other similar men who had been rescued in the same way. He sort of felt out of place; all this was different to him. The other men were friendly and well meaning so he soon settled in. He was astounded when shown his room. It was palatial.

The next day he felt a bit unsettled and asked, “Why are you doing this for me? I don’t deserve it, and I can not repay you in any way.” The benefactor answered him, “I am doing this because I can, and it fills me with joy.”

That is exactly what the Lord did for us. We were the dregs of society (please note – WE ARE ALL DREGS OF SOCIETY BECAUSE WE WERE LOST SINNERS). There was not one atom of assistance we could have given God, for each of us was worthless beyond compare. However, we were worth to God, the death of His Son on the cross. I hope no one ever thinks he/she was not too bad, not foul sinners like those in jail. That is self-deception.

So . . that is how we were, but what changed us was the love, mercy and forgiveness of God. Changed from derelicts into sons and daughters of the living, loving God. It is grace that saved us; grace that keeps us and GRACE THAT CLOTHES US. Realise that we had not a stitch of decency to clothe ourselves. Every single thing and every blessing comes down from the Father of lights in whom there is no variableness.

That is important. The filthy rags of sin were exchanged for the righteousness of God. {{Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is UNCLEAN, and ALL OUR RIGHTEOUS DEEDS ARE LIKE A FILTHY GARMENT, and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away”}}. We were altogether useless but the grace of God changed us and now we’re dressed in the pure righteousness of Christ.