David said, renew in me a right spirit, created me a clean heart, oh God. And that's exactly what we sung when we said revive us again, revive us again. We're gonna be in the book of Ephesians if you'd like to turn there. Ephesians chapter five. Now here in our text, it's a text that's used in false religion.

Well, I'll just tell you what it says. Wives, submit yourself unto your husbands and the Lord for this is right. Then it goes on to say, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. What false religion does, they stop right there. That's not the whole thought. We're gonna see that very clearly. But they'll say, women, you need to submit. Women, you ever heard that before? Women, you need to submit, you're a man, you need to submit. But they don't put the pressure where it needs to be, it's on the man.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church. What kind of love is that? Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. The Lord put us before himself, the Lord put us before himself, and that's the whole point.

And if a man does that, Do we have any, does our spirit have any trouble submitting to the Lord? No, no. Why? Because he says, you better submit or else, you better submit or else. No, because he says, I've loved thee with an everlasting love. That's not hard to submit to, is it? That's not hard to submit to. Now that's what he's saying in a physical sense, physical sense.

There's a spiritual message here that I want to look at this morning. If the Lord be our helper, Men use those words and they will draw an entire message out of why a woman should do this and why a man should do this and why, and it's all just false religion nonsense. The Lord doesn't need a preacher. Paul was dealing with a specific issue in a specific church at a specific time. Now this can be applied to us. We can say, okay, we can see the physical.

The submission, what he's saying is, is wives shouldn't be trying to rule the house and have an attitude of, I'm going to do what I want to do, whether you like it or not. And men should love their wives. It shouldn't be that man says, well, I did my part. You need to do better. That's not love.

You get what I'm saying? So that's what he's dealing with here. But that's not the entirety of the message. So we can see the physical. and say, okay, I understand what he's saying. But truly, none of you need me to tell you what to do in your marriage. The Lord does that. The Lord teaches us that. The Lord teaches us that. So let's look at the actual message here together. And it's found. And actually, if we miss one verse of this, we've missed everything. I want to show you that one verse first, and then we'll read.

Because everything about what we're about to read hinges, hangs on, and is dependent upon this one verse, verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. That's what everything he said so far has everything to do about. Everything to do about.

If we miss that, if you miss Christ in scripture, if a man's preaching and he misses Christ in scripture to give instruction to somebody on how they should be living their life a certain way, they've not preached the gospel. They've missed Christ. Our job is to preach Christ to the Lord's people, to the hope that he calls his sheep. That's what we do. We preach to all men, but the hope is that he calls his sheep. So everything here is an example unto the lick to reveal Christ, not to cause us to examine ourself, not to cause us to examine our spouses. You know how hypocritical it is for a man or a woman to look at their spouse and start pointing out things that they're doing wrong? That would just be hypocritical of me.

I would just be, you ever heard the expression, the pot calling the kettle black? Is that a Southern thing? Anybody heard that before? Okay, I heard it, all right. Sometimes I roll one, I don't know if it's gonna hit or not. That's what it is, though.

We're just a bunch of sinners, aren't we? Whenever you see that you're a sinner, you know that you could be better as a husband, you know that you could be better as a wife, and you know that you could be better unto your Savior. It doesn't cause you to want to do bad, it just means, Lord, give me repentance, cause me to seek Christ. You know the best relationship that you could possibly have is whenever you and your spouse are both looking to Christ. When he's the focal point, your marriage will be harmonious, absolutely harmonious.

I didn't say it wouldn't be problems. But the one thing needful is that you can rest in the finished work of Christ, and how precious it is to have two people that believe the gospel together living under the same roof. Now that's my introduction. So I want you to read along with me, if you will.

Ephesians 5, verse 22, and we're gonna read down to the end of the chapter. For the husband is head, oh, hang on, verse 22. Wives, submit yourself unto your husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it To himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you, in particular, so love his wife even as himself, and the wife she that she reverence. her husband. If we've missed that he's speaking of Christ in his church, we've missed it all. We've missed every bit of that. We were just, we could just make it a moral message that tells people how they should do in their marriages.

And that is not what we're going to do this morning because Christ is the focal point here. There's three points. And he actually comes from that one verse 32, Christ and the church is what I've titled, Christ and his church is what I've titled the message. And the three points are simple. Who's the subject? Christ.

Well, it says his, or it says the, which is his church. That means it's possessive. He possessed it. What did he do? He possessed the church. He owns the church. The church is one with him. And who did he do it to? The church, the church. So you have the three points there. First one is Christ. I love how it doesn't say the church of Christ. Let's read that again,

32. This is a great mystery. but I speak concerning Christ and the church. It doesn't say I speak concerning the church of Christ. It puts Christ where he belongs first and foremost. Christ is first, church is second. The Lord is above all. The Lord is sovereign and holy. And so often men will take him in their, well try, they don't take him anywhere. They try to dilute him down. They try to make him, make the gospel out to be weak and just not what it is at all.

And I told the men in the study, I didn't know if I would say this up here or not, but I saw a sign that said, it's a church sign. And it said, free coffee, free eternal life, free membership, come inside to inquire. And I thought, man, I'm glad Einstein says, holy grace church, that's it. To put salvation right underneath coffee, I mean, it's like, that's how they worship God? That ain't God. That ain't God. God's holy. and he's first and he's chief.

Brethren, may we never, may we never get gospel hardened, where it doesn't stir our hearts, where it doesn't, when we hear about the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't move us. May we never get to that point. May we always have a need of him. May he always give us a desire for him because he's everything. He's everything. Lord, create in me a clean heart. Revive us again. When we come here, that's our heart's desire. I need to be revived again. I feel like a dead man again. I'm dirty. Got the dirt of this world on us. Lord, wash me and I shall be clean. It puts Christ where it belongs. It says the church, it says Christ and the church. Just and holy is his character and it's his name. Isaiah 42, eight says, I am the Lord. That is my name and my glory.

Will I not give to another? Neither my praise to graven images. If you want to look. Man, if you want to look how to treat your wife, look at how Christ treats his bride. That's our example. We could never live up to that, but we strive for it. We strive for it. And our God is. distinctly other than anything else, especially us, because we're sinners. But he's distinctly other than all other gods, because he's real for one. There's no other gods that are real.

You remember the Philistines had taken the Ark And so that means worship couldn't take place anymore in Jerusalem, so everybody was heartbroken there. So they thought they were really doing something when the Philistines took it. And they put it in their temple. And their temple had a statue of their god named Dagon. Yeah, Dagon, well, that don't matter. The next morning, they woke up, Dagon was face down, face down. And they said, huh, well I guess we need to prop him back up.

See, all other gods need to be propped up. Our Lord don't need to be propped up. You couldn't touch that ark. You would die if you touched the ark. That's how holy our God is. No other God's holy. So they prop him back up. And you know what happened the next morning when they found him? He didn't have any hands. He didn't have a head. Lord knocked him over, knocked his hands and head off. What was that a picture of?

You can't approach God with works. And it's not about what you know, it's about who you know. It's not about what you know, it's about who you know. And all gods will bow to him because he's sovereign. This is Christ I'm speaking of. This is our Lord. The Lord afflicted the Philistines, gave them different plagues, and they ended up sending it back because they were miserable, miserable. They didn't want any part of that God. God is not one to be trifled with. He's not one that can be tested or tried. He's not one that can be challenged or questioned in any way.

He told Moses, I am that I am. You want to know who he is? That's him. I am that I am. And somebody said, well, that doesn't make any sense. Well, that's kind of the point. You have to believe he is. And believing that he is, That's what the scripture tells us, believing that he is and is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. I am that I am. And Christ told Pharisees the same thing. He told them before Abraham was, I am. And you know what the Pharisees did after that? They took up stones to stone him. Why? Because he was declaring his isness to them. This is why he's first here, Christ, and then the church. Christ first.

I am means he's the self-existent, self-sustaining, eternal one. He does whatsoever he wills, according to his own purpose, according to his own power. Isaiah nine, six says for unto us, a child is born unto us. A son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders. And his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. Jesus Christ is the sum, the substance and the subject of God's gospel. All history is his story. He purposed and ordained by the determinate counsel of God. None can stay his hand or even question him.

You ever get, you ever say, why is this happening, Lord? You ever done that before? Hopefully we don't do that in unbelief, but sometimes we do. So we're doubting, that's what we do. I'm not saying that's a good thing, I'm just saying that we're all the same.

That question doesn't bother God. His plan and purpose will stand, regardless of how we feel about our circumstance, regardless of how we feel about what's going on. The hope is that he would give us grace to endure. Peter prayed, I'm sorry, Paul prayed, said, Lord, rid me of this curse in my body, this affliction that I have, prayed three times, and the Lord didn't answer until the third time, and he told him, He said, my grace is sufficient for you.

I won't take it away, but my grace is sufficient for you. For in weakness, my strength is made perfect. You ever feel like you're weakness? The definition, I feel like I'm weakness. Weak in my faith, weak in my person, my mind is weak. Oh, wretched man that I am, but In weakness, his strength is made perfect.

This is Christ. This is Christ and his church. This is what he's done for his people. His power is limitless. His love is everlasting. His wisdom is sovereign. His truth endureth to all generations. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness because he's the source of all light.

Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 32. Look at verse 17. Now to my knowledge, I had never read this, or it's been a long time, I don't remember if I did, but the Lord gave me this passage. I love whenever you find things in scripture that you never have read before, never seen before. It's just vast. You might have read something, but maybe you didn't see what the Lord could reveal in it, and I feel like he did, and I pray he will for all of us this morning. Look here at verse 17.

Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out thine arm, there is nothing too hard for thee. Thou showest loving kindness unto thousands and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name. Great in counsel and mighty in work, For thine eyes are open upon all the ways of sons of men, to give every man, every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings, which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even into this day, and in Israel, and among other men, and has made thee a name as at this day, and has brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with strong hand, and with a stretched out arm and with great terrors, and has given them this land which thou did swear to their fathers to give to them a land flowing of milk and honey. We'll stop there. Brethren, this is our God. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. How glorious. He says, the great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts is his name. I love that description. This is who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

Job 26 says, lo, these are parts of his ways, but how a little portion is heard of him, but the thunder of his power, who can understand? Who can understand? What he's saying is you hear a little portion from the Lord, part of his ways, but the thunder of his power. We can't even understand the thunder, can we? Scientists try to explain things. Man tries to explain things, but God does things. God does things. The human brain doesn't have a fraction of the capacity it would need to understand the all of our great God and Savior.

How do you explain he never had a beginning, never gonna have an end? How do you explain that he loved his people before the world ever began, and always has, and always will? That's what everlasting love means. Before the world even were created. He said, before I formed you in the womb, you're mine. I bought you. How do you explain him never having a beginning?

What a God we serve. Omnipotent, omnipresent. May we never think of our Lord as anything but this. It's Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Because there's so many churches that are diluting down what the word of God says and not telling the truth. May he always keep us looking to him as he is, as Isaiah saw him.

Seated, meaning the work is finished, he's successful. He was seated on his throne, he was high. That means we are to reverence him and lift it up. And his train filled the temple, that's his glory. All the glory goes to him. This is our God, this is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Malachi 3.6 says, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

You know the best part about him being God is he is the head of the church. He is the head, the covenant head of the church, which brings us to our second point. Go back to Ephesians chapter five with me. We'll read that one verse again, verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is the church that he purchased with his own blood. This is the church that he successfully redeemed. This is the church that he made the righteousness of God in him. This is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 6, 19, and 20 says what? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Brethren, before time ever began, God elected a people. He predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son. We just heard about the Son. To be conformed to His image. Not having this image of sin any longer, but having a glorious image. That's what He said we saw earlier that He might present to Himself, it's in this same chapter, that He might present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any blemish whatsoever.

This is what the Lord did. He elected a people in order to save his people from their sin. He didn't create everything and it started falling apart and then he starts worrying and it's, I hesitate to even say it like this, but this is how people act. Like he keeps coming up with new ideas to fix problems that we do. No, he's seated. He don't, no. He redeemed his church one time, it's done, it's over.

Every person that was elected, the Lord's already redeemed them, it's done. Now in time, they have to find out about it and the preaching of the gospel is what he uses by his spirit to call them out of darkness into light. He births them into the family of God. This is what God has done for his church.

Every single one of his sheep, And I use that verse so often because I love it so much. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. That's become very predominant in my life right now because we have puppies, as you all know, and those little guys will follow us everywhere. You're just walking and it just follows you along.

Why? Well, we got the food. We got all the means. It can't do anything for itself. We have the food. We have everything it needs. So it follows us. They follow us around wherever we go. Can't you see the picture of the sheep following after Christ? Why we follow him? He's got the food. He's the bread of life. He's the fountain of living water. He's got the wine. He's got the honey and the milk. He's got everything for the church. This is what he's given to his church. He's the great shepherd.

Ephesians one says God chose us in him before the foundation. of the world, that we should live wholly and without blame before him in love, having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his, the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In order for us to be accepted, he had to be separated from his father. He had to become a man. He had to bear our sin in his body on the tree.

For you and I to be accepted in the blood, which is the church, which is a representation of Christ being the head of the church, in order for us to be accepted of God, he had to become a man and do what we could have not done, no matter what, live perfect. Live a perfect, sinless life.

We can't even go, well, sin's not what you do, sin's what you are, but that being said, if it wasn't what we are, then, and it is what we do, we couldn't go a minute without sinning. Why? Because our thoughts are always on everything else. Paul said, that which I would do, I do not, but that which I would not do, that's exactly what I find myself doing over and over and over and over.

You can be hearing a good message, entering into it, driving down the road, maybe even in church. You're entering into it, the Lord's blessing it to your heart. All of a sudden, you think of something else and you're drifting. Anybody else have that problem? I hate it. The 15 minutes goes by and I miss the whole thing. I'm like, now I'm at my destination. I'm like, what? What is wrong with me?

But you know what the Lord's done? It's despite and in spite of all that, You've been made accepted in the beloved. You've been made accepted by the finished work of Christ on the cross. You've been made accepted in the beloved by the grace of God alone.

But God didn't look at us and say, she's beautiful. God looked at us and saw that we were ugly and wretched and vile sinners and said, I'm going to make her mine. She's mine, I bought her with a price. And then I'm going to robe, I'm going to make her beautiful. I'm going to robe her in my righteousness. I'm going to give her my glory. This is what Christ did for his church.

You see the verse, look at, look at what he says in verse 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife. And they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. What is he saying? He's saying that the church is the bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that glorious? Oneness, perfect oneness, union with him. Somebody says, I don't understand that. Scripture doesn't say you had to understand it. It said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe, believe by faith. He lived a perfect life, he died a perfect death, he took our penalty, our guilt, our shame, our sorrow. He was made a curse for us, for us to have the blessing. He had to become the curse for us to have the blessing of eternal life.

That's why that sign I mentioned to you earlier is so wrong, is because salvation is free, yes, free to you and I, but it cost God his son. What took place on the cross of Calvary was not a pretty thing to the sight. It's a glorious thing that happened because without it, we wouldn't be saved, but it was gruesome. It was violent. Our Lord was in agony.

His soul was made an offering for sin. And to just put it in the same category as something else that's free is, insulting to it because what he endured, what he done is far greater than most understand. He took a bunch of sinners and made them the righteousness of God in Christ. He took his elect who were dead in trespasses and in sin. While they were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. What does that mean ungodly?

Well, that means we were on everything that he is. Do we see that? And having no hope to get to him or become anything like him, he has to do it. This is what this accepted in the beloved is all about. To be accepted in the beloved, he had to be rejected by men. He was. He had to be separated from his father. He had to endure the full wrath of God and he did. He had to die. That's what it costs for you and I to be accepted in the blood. And that's exactly what he did. And that's exactly what you are now. If you're his, all of his elect are accepted in the blood.

When he sees us, he sees the blood. He sees his son. He doesn't see us as wretched. He doesn't see us as vile. He doesn't see you whenever you have unbelief. It's already gone. That doesn't mean don't pray and ask for forgiveness. It just means The Lord's not taking a tally, said, well, you did it again. You did it again. No, when he sees us, he sees us in Christ. He doesn't see sin on us any longer. Do we see that?

How glorious is that? He talks about the church that's gonna be his bride. She's gonna be robed in white, robed in white. What is that a picture of? Perfection. holiness, spotless. He makes us unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. This is the church.

This is who she is because of what he has done. After the final wave of punishment do us. After the Lord took the final wave of our punishment. Understand that he knew the Lord was satisfied at that point. And he was able to say with confidence it is finished. But I pray the Lord allows us to enter into this thought.

Your sin is gone. Your sin is gone. My sin is gone. It's gone. No matter how guilty I feel, no matter how wretched I feel, no matter how vile I feel, no matter how much I mess up, no matter what I do wrong, my sin is gone. You can sigh on that one, take a breath. That's a breath of air. He, by himself, purged our sin. After that, he sat down. the right hand of the majesty on high, cleansed every stain with his precious blood. He said, it is finished. This is why every other gospel is not a true gospel. It's repulsive because it doesn't declare God accomplished anything. God's gospel is the only gospel whereby God was completely successful and God gets all the glory.

He's the alpha and omega. So it's about him starting it and him finishing it. That's who we preach. He gets all the glory in saving his church from their sin. I think I've been talking a lot about the church. I guess all three of these points just go together. Because I'm talking about, The church, but the point was, is his, it's his church. His church, and I think we understand that, but let me tell you something else about the church, briefly.

First of all, there's only one true church. It's not the church of the Mormons, it's not the church of the Baptists, it's not even the church of the Catholics, it's actually not the church of the Catholics, not even the church of the Calvinists, is what I was gonna say.

There's Calvinists that die in their sin and go to hell because they're holding on to what they know instead of who they know. I can believe the five points of Calvinism and still miss Christ. Don't forget that. It's not the head knowledge. Salvation's 12 inches from the head to the heart. If I don't believe at the heart, I have an issue, but the Lord has to fix it. I can't fix it.

No, it's the church of the Lord. It's Jesus Christ and his church. One church, that's it. There's always only been one church, all the way back to Genesis. Adam was the first member. If I could put it, well, Christ was the first member. You understand what I'm saying? It's his church. Adam was the first member.

Went down to Abraham, got the promise, and we can keep going. They were God's chosen people. Abraham was God's chosen people. I understand Israel, but that was a choice of a lineage to bring Christ into the world. He had purpose to bring Christ to the world in that lineage. But not every single Jew is a chosen child of God. We understand that.

It's not about bloodlines. That's what the scripture tells us. They that are of Israel are not all of Israel. Meaning if you're in the church, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're of the nation Israel. It's not bloodlines. And they're still looking for the first coming of the Messiah. It's already happened. The point I'm making is most churches preach that Israel is God's chosen people. That's not true. Spiritual Israel is God's chosen people. Please understand that. It's so important because people get it so mixed up.

God has one church that he bought with his own blood, that he established by his own righteousness. He is the chief cornerstone in Zion. It's not the church of the self-righteous or the works religionist either, I meant to say that. It's the church of and by. Church of and by and for God and his glory.

Look at her description in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's what she looks like right now. That's already happened. It's past tense. We heard that last week, I believe, didn't we? Well, yeah, I guess it was last week.

In the book of Jeremiah, brethren, something glorious that you already know, some of you, most of you probably, God is called Jehovah Sitkenu. That means the Lord, our righteousness. But if you go over to chapter 33, that's in chapter 23. So 10 more chapters later over at chapter 33, it talks about the church and it says, and her name shall be called Jehovah Sitkenu. Jehovah, sit, can you? The Lord, our righteousness. Why?

Bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, perfect union. When he sees us, he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. She's been set apart, elected to the father, predestinated to be conformed to the image of his son. She was ordained into eternal life before time ever began. He elected her, he redeemed her, he calls her, he keeps her, all by his power. Brethren, I hope and pray this message has given you some rest, because what a God we serve, what a salvation we have, and what a church he established by his own blood. He did all this because he loved her with an everlasting love. This is the glorious good news of Christ and his church. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.