It is truly been a pleasure for
me and Janet to be with you all today. I wish I could express
to you how much your love and your fellowship mean to me. Some of you have been around
a little bit long enough to have had a relationship with for a
long time. And I count your friendship and
your fellowship very, very dear. I appreciate your hospitality
and your attentiveness. This is an easy place to preach
and it is my delight to be here. If you would turn with me in
your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 62. I've entitled the message tonight,
A Message to Christ's Bride. I pray this will be very beneficial
to us, bring glory to our Savior. I hope it's something that you
can take with you tomorrow morning. Today has been just a special
day, hasn't it? We got up in the morning, we're
able to drink a cup of coffee and come in and hear two messages
from God's Word. Got to go eat lunch, have a time
of rest this afternoon, and come back and hear one more time the
free, sovereign gospel, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a blessing, isn't it? But tomorrow morning, you got
to go back out to the salt mine, and I want to give you something
that you can take with you, a message of comfort and assurance to the
hearts of God's people. The bride's comfort and assurance
is all found in one place. It's found in who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. That's where our comfort, that's
where the assurance of our salvation is found. Our assurance of salvation
is not in our love for him. Oh, I love him, don't you? But
that's not where my assurance is found. It's in his love for
me, his love for his people. Our comfort is found, our assurance
of salvation is found in His choice of us. We find no comfort
in deciding to accept Jesus as our personal Savior and let Him
into our heart. Our comfort, the assurance of salvation is
found in He chose me. Our assurance of salvation is
found in Christ our righteousness. Not in any goodness of our own,
but in this, Christ is my righteousness. And that, if we see Him, we have
assurance of our salvation. And I have four points of Christ's
message to his bride from the first five verses here of Isaiah
chapter 62. The first point is this. Our message to Christ's bride
is the message of Christ, and it's a message from Christ. Look
here at verse one. For Zion's sake will I not hold
my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. until the
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation
thereof as a lamp that burneth. The prophet says, I have a message
from the Lord. God's given me the message, and
I will not hold my peace. I'm gonna preach this message.
I'm gonna proclaim the message that the Lord's given me. I'm
not gonna rest. I'm not gonna quit preaching
it. I'm not gonna hide, so I don't have to preach it. I'm determined. to preach the message that the
Lord's given me. And all of God's servants know
exactly the way Isaiah felt there. We feel that way because the
Lord's given us a message to preach to his people. And that
message burns within us so that we have to preach it. We have
to preach this gospel of God's grace. The Apostle Paul told
the church at Corinth, when I came to you, I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul
said, I'm coming to you to preach the message God's given me of
Christ and Him crucified. In Psalm 116, David said, I believed,
therefore have I spoken. And the apostle Paul, amen to
him, in 2 Corinthians chapter four, he said, I say the same
thing, I believed, therefore have I spoken. And this message
of Christ and Him crucified is so important, it's of vital importance
to our souls. Paul said, necessity is laid
upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach
not the gospel. That's how important it is. It's
important that we preach the gospel. And it's just as important
that we hear the gospel. I hope that we all pray that
the Lord bless the man who's preaching. I also hope that we
pray, Lord, give us a heart of faith and ears to hear the message.
It's of vital importance that we hear this message of God's
gospel preached. And we preach, don't we? Every
time the Lord gives us opportunity, we preach. But I'll tell you
when we hear. I'll tell you when we'll find
salvation. I'll tell you when our hearts
will be comforted, when we'll find assurance of our salvation.
It's when we quit hearing the preacher and when Christ speaks
to the heart. That's when we'll find salvation.
That's when our hearts will be comforted. And that's why God's
servant will not hold his peace. He won't hold his peace in preaching,
because if you're gonna hear from God, you're gonna hear from
a preacher. So he won't hold his peace. And he won't hold
his peace in the study either when he prays for you. I do not
intend to begin to hold my peace in preaching the gospel. And
I do not intend to begin to hold my peace in praying for you.
That God would give you an ear to hear that he blessed your
heart through the preaching of the gospel. You men who preach
will understand this. I do not intend to begin to hold
my peace in praying that you not hear me, but that you hear
the Lord. That's our prayer. We will not
hold our peace in that prayer. But the real blessing to God's
people is in this, that this is Christ speaking in this first
verse. He's speaking to his people through his prophet. Yes, Isaiah
is saying it, but this is Christ speaking to his heart. The Savior
says, for Zion's sake, my people's sake, I will not hold my peace.
For Jerusalem, my people's sake, I will not rest until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof is
a lamp that burneth. The Savior says, I'll not rest
until the righteousness and salvation of my people is crystal clear
to them, has been revealed to them. And that's just what he
did. In the fullness of time, Christ
our Savior came to this earth. He appeared in human flesh and
he was on a mission, wasn't he? His whole time here, he was on
a mission to seek and to save that which was lost. And when
he was here, he did not hold his peace. He constantly cried
to his people, come to me, come to me. Are you thirsty? Come
to me. Drink of the waters of life freely.
Are you weary? Are you so weary of trying to
earn your way to God? Are you trying to earn your acceptance
from God? Does that make you tired? The
Savior says, come to me and rest, rest. Look at Psalm 69. Our Savior would not rest. He
wouldn't hold his peace and he wouldn't rest. He was constantly
working to accomplish the salvation of his elect. The first recorded
words that we have in scripture of the Lord Jesus is I must be
about my father's business. I've got work to do and I'll
not rest till it's done. Look here at Psalm 69 verse nine. He says, for the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me. God's elect will never be found
guilty. because the reproach of our sin
has already fallen upon Christ, our substitute. And our Savior
had such zeal to accomplish this salvation. He had such zeal to
put away the sin of the people that he loves. His zeal literally
ate him up. That zeal compelled him to go
to the cross. It compelled him to go suffer
and die for his people, to put their sin away so that they'd
have this salvation. The Savior is crucified. They
took a dead body down from the tree and buried him. And he arose
again. And now he ascended back up on
high. And even now he will not hold
his peace. Even now he's not resting. he
ever lives to make intercession for his people. Even now, he's
pleading the blood of his sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sin
of his people with his father. Even now, he won't hold his peace.
Even now, he's pleading his sacrifice. Now, that's the message of Christ,
and that's the message from Christ to his bride. Now, don't you
find comfort? Don't you find assurance for
your soul to hear how the Christ died for you? He rose again for
your justification. He rose again because if He died
for you, He put your sin away. And now He ever lives to make
intercession for you. My brother, my sister, if Christ
died for you and He makes intercession for you, You have peace. You have full assurance of salvation. That's not being brash, that's
not being presumptuous, that's full assurance of faith because
of who Christ is and what he accomplished for his people.
Here's a second point. Our message to Christ's bride
is the message of Christ our righteousness. Look here back
in our text, Isaiah 62 verse one again. For Zion's sake will
I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest,
until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the
salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth to save a people, to save a people that the Father
gave him the covenant of grace, but now they're sinful people.
And that's why he came. They needed a savior. They needed
to be saved from their sin. So that's why he came, to save
them from their sin. And he came to save them. He didn't come to help them out.
He didn't come to contribute. He came to save them from their
sin. They're so sinful, there's not
one good thing about them, not one. They don't have anything
that they could contribute to their own salvation. They're
completely ruined in sin. And Christ came to save them
with such a zeal that he would not rest until he did everything
that it took to make them righteous and to save their souls. The
Savior had such zeal for his people, he was compelled to become
a man. He was compelled to be made under
the law, to be made under his own law and obey that law for
his people, that they might have an obedience before the law.
He had such zeal to make his people righteous that he agreed
to be made what he was not so they could be made what they're
not. He was made sin so that his people would be made righteous.
Thank God for that zeal. He did not rest until the work
was done. You wanna know how it's done?
How do I know this work is done? When he went back to glory, he
sat down. The work's done. He sat down
on the throne of glory because the work's done. That's the only
way sinners like you and me can ever be made righteous. And that's
what Christ our Savior has accomplished for his people. Now this bears
saying, contrary to the man's religion of the day, the zeal
of the Savior and the righteousness of the Savior will never be wasted,
never. All of his people will be made
righteous. All of his people will see Christ
and they'll believe Christ. Look here at verse two. And the
Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the
Lord shall name. Now Gentiles here that Isaiah
refers to are sinners. I mean real sinners. To a Jew, the worst sinner you
can imagine is a Gentile dog. Yet Isaiah says, that's who is
gonna see thy righteousness. That's sinners, or who Christ
came to save. And he will make every last one
of them righteous. They're going to believe. They're
going to see Christ. They're going to believe him
with a new heart that God gives them in the new birth. They're
going to see Christ. They're going to believe Christ
because they're going to be joined to Christ in a vital union with
Christ so that God's elect are not made like they're righteous. No, they are actually literally
made righteous in Christ, and not someday, right now, made
righteous in Christ. The elect are joined to Christ,
in union with Christ, so that they are everything that Christ
is, through union with Him. God's elect are joined to Christ
in such a close union with Christ our Savior, that when you look
at Christ, You can't tell where He stops and where His people
begin because they're one. When the Father sees His people,
He doesn't see the Savior and you. No, He sees one. He sees the Savior. He sees His
Son and He loves you in Him. He accepts you in Him because
we are one flesh. We're in such union with Christ
our Savior that we're one flesh with Him. And He says, at that
time, you'll bear a new name. that the mouth of the Lord shall
name. Now, can I show you that from scripture? This union with
Christ is so intimate. It's so real that we are one
with him. Let me show you that. Look at
Jeremiah chapter 23. Verse five. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, thou raised under David a righteous branch,
and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. See, there it is, that righteousness,
that zeal of the Savior will not be wasted. In his days, Judah
shall be saved, Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his
name whereby he should be called, the Lord, our righteousness,
Jehovah Sidkenu. Now every person in this room
knows exactly who that's referring to. It's referring to the Messiah.
It's referring to Christ, our Savior, is it not? He's Jehovah
Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. All right, that's his name. Look
over at Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah 33, verse 14. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good
thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel, and to the
house of Judah. In those days and at that time
will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness,
Jehovah Sidkenu. Now wait a minute, I thought
that was the name of Christ the Savior. What is? That's the name
wherewith he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. Here
Jeremiah says this is the name wherewith she shall be called. This is the name wherewith his
bride shall be called, Jehovah Sidkenu. This union of Christ
and his bride is so close. It's so intimate. We're so much
one with him that his name is our name. No longer do we bear
our worthless name in Adam, but now we bear his precious, sweet
name, the Lord, our righteousness. Now, brethren, that's what the
Lord calls us. If he said that's the name we're
with, I will name you that I will name. If the Lord calls us righteous,
Larry, that's what we are. If he calls us righteous, that's
what we are. That's the name that God who
cannot lie has given his people. God can't call us something that
we're not. So if God calls us righteous, we are righteous.
You'll bear his name. And that righteousness, will
be forever. You cannot lose the righteousness
of Christ. Jehovah Sidkenu will be our name
forever. On the day that Janet and I were
married, she walked in that morning to the church and her name was
Janet Conley. When we walked out of that church,
she's holding my hand and she had a new name, Janet Tate. And if I have my way, That'll
be her name to the day she dies. But I don't know if that'll be
the case or not. But this I do know. Christ's bride will never
lose her name. She'll never have to change her
name. She will always bear the name
of her husband, her savior, the Lord, our righteousness. Now
my brother, my sister, you get a hold of this. If Christ is
your righteousness, you have full assurance of salvation.
Your heart ought to be comforted. That's not presumption. That's
full assurance. You can never perish if you don't
have any sin. Is that right? You can never
perish if you don't have any sin. Well, if Christ is your
righteousness, you have no sin. You're perfect in him. That's
our comfort. That's the assurance. of our
salvation. Our message to Christ's bride
is the message of Christ our righteousness. Thirdly, our message
to Christ's bride is the message of Christ's glory. Look back
in our text, verse three of Isaiah 62. Thou shalt also be a crown
of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Now what is this crown of glory
that's in the hand of the Lord? Look over in Jeremiah again,
chapter 13. That crown of glory that's in his hand is his people. Jeremiah 13, verse 11. For as the girdle cleaveth to
the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house
of Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord, that
they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for praise,
and for glory. The glory of Christ is the salvation
of His people, that He did indeed save to the uttermost everyone
the Father gave Him in the covenant of grace. That's His glory. And
the glory of Christ depends upon Him doing that, saving all of
His people from their sins. Christ would lose all of His
glory if even one sinner for whom He died perished, if just
one. He died for a number no man can
number, and if He lost even one of them, He'd lose all of His
glory. Well, here's our message to Christ's
bride. It's the message of Christ's
glory. He has saved all of His people from their sin. He didn't
miss one, and He will. Without a doubt, one day, present
every last one of them before the Father is perfect. Father, here they all are. I
brought every one of them to you. That's His glory. But now I want you to notice
this. I think this will give you some comfort. This crown
of glory is not on the head of the Savior, is it? It's in His
hand. I looked and looked and looked
at that. I'm sure I don't know everything there is to know about
that, but I think I've got something that'll help you. God's elect,
you find them in the hand of the Savior. We're in his great
hand, his generous hand of provision that provides for us everything
we need, everything God requires. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. That's whose hand we're in, his
generous hand of provision. God's elect are found in his
great hand of comfort. That hand that soothes and comforts
the heart of the weary, burdened child of God is difficult for me emotionally. to watch other people suffer.
It's just very difficult for me. My heart just breaks for
you. And I wish, like anything, I could go to the graveside,
I could go to the bedside, I could go to the home of one of our
dear brethren that are suffering so much and give them some comfort. And I'm not up to the task. But
I know whose hand you're in. who can soothe and comfort the
hearts of his people. You're in his hand. He'll comfort
you. He'll comfort you with his presence. God's elect are in the mighty
eternal hand that provides or that protects his people. They
will always keep those that he loves. No man can pluck them
out of my hand. We're eternally secure in that
great hand. Now that's where we find comfort.
That's where we find the assurance of our salvation is being in
the hand of Christ our Savior. His glory depends upon Him keeping
us. Then everything's going to be
all right. Now if His glory depends upon Him keeping His people,
if His glory depends upon Him keeping you, it's going to be
all right. His glory is not going to be
tarnished because He lost one. that our message to Christ's
bride is the message of Christ's glory. And then fourthly, our
message to Christ's bride is the message of Christ, our bridegroom. Verse four, thou shalt no more
be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate,
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah, for the
Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Now I talked about this earlier,
the believer's union with Christ. And that union is a marriage,
whereby the husband and the wife become one flesh. That's what
the apostle Paul told us in Ephesians chapter five, when he gave instructions
to husbands and wives about marriage, he said, now I give you these
instructions, I'm preaching the gospel to you. This is a great
mystery, Paul said. I speak concerning Christ and
the church. Between Christ and his bride,
they become One flesh. Now, when we're born into this
world, we're born ruined in Adam. But oh, how everything is changed
when we become married to Christ. By nature, our name is forsaken. He says, thou shalt no more be
turned forsaken. That's a capital F. That means
he's speaking here of a proper name, forsaken. That's our name. That's who we are and what we
are. The word means destitute. In Adam, that's what we are,
forsaken, destitute. We don't have anything that God
requires. We're empty of everything God
requires. God requires righteousness, we
don't have any. God requires obedience, we don't
have any. God requires holiness, we're
empty of it. And we don't have any way to
earn a righteousness or to make ourselves holy because all we
are All we have is sin. We need life, but we don't have
any. We're destitute of life. We're dead in trespasses and
sins. We don't have any peace with God. The carnal mind is
enmity against God. We're destitute of peace. All
we are is full of war and hate against God. We don't have any
love for God. We're destitute of everything
that God requires. Oh, but in Christ. We have everything
that God requires and we have it abundantly, richly. God requires righteousness. Christ
is our righteousness. Well, then we have it abundantly,
don't we? You can't get any better than
Christ. Can't get any better than Him being our righteousness.
Christ is our righteousness. We need life. Christ is our life. More than Him just giving us
life, Christ is our life. Well, if Christ is our life,
we have it abundantly, don't we? It can't be more perfect
than in Him. We need peace with God. Christ
is our peace. He made peace with God for us
through the blood of His cross. If Christ is our peace, we have
perfect peace with God. And Christ loves His bride. He
loves his people. Oh, how he loves. She's not forsaken.
He loves her. And how the bride revels in Christ's
love for us. His love is pure love. It's only
for her. It's all for her. If I told Janet I love you, but
I love a lot of other women too, you know, she wouldn't appreciate
that love too much, would she? And she should. Christ's love
for his bride, he tells her, is just for you. It's pure love. He's not inviting anybody. He
loves his bride. He calls his bride. His love
is sure. His love will never fail. He will never stop loving his
bride, no matter what. His love is measureless. You
can't measure the length of it or the breadth of it or the depth
of it. That tells me it's never going
to run out. even for sinful men and women like you and me. And
the love of Christ our husband comforts the heart of his people,
gives us assurance of our salvation. It's not because of our love
for him. It's because of his love for
us. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Now my brother, My sister, if
God loves you, you can never perish. He sent his son to die
for you so that you'd never die. Oh, how we revel in his love
for us, don't we? Not forsaken anymore, but loved.
Here's another meaning of the word forsaken. It's refused. Well, God refuses men because
of sin. God's holy, he can't accept men
in their sin. And by nature, we've refused
God. We've rebelled against him. So we need a mediator, don't
we? We need somebody who can touch the sinner and somebody
who can touch God and bring the sinner back to God. We need a
mediator. Well, that mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one who can do something about this sin that separated
us from our God. Christ came to take away the
sin of his people by being made sin for them. And when he was
made sin for his people at Calvary, the father forsook his son. That's why he cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The father forsook him because
he'd become guilty of the sin of his people. But by his sacrifice,
Christ put that sin away so that it's gone. And now that sin's
gone, there's no reason for God to forsake us. There's no reason
for God to refuse us. Our substitute was already forsaken
so that we would always be accepted in the beloved. And Christ our
husband sends this message. He gives his servants this message,
the message of Christ our bridegroom, constantly giving his bride assurance
of his love for her, constantly telling her, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. I was forsaken for you. and I'll
never forsake you. And you know this marriage is
a two-way street. The Holy Spirit comes and gives
His bride a new nature. He gives her a heart that loves
God, that will not forsake Him. He gives her a heart that believes
Christ and comes to Him willingly and lovingly and will not forsake
Him. He won't forsake me and I won't
forsake Him. Now I understand My hope, my
assurance is not found in the fact that I won't forsake him.
It's found that he won't forsake me. But I'm telling you what,
I'm not going to forsake him. I'm not going to let go. And
I'll give you this illustration. I like going someplace where
everybody ain't heard all my stories. My daughter Savannah was about
three or four years old. And it was a Sunday morning,
we were going to church, and it had snowed. It was wintertime
and snowed. The parking lot had been scraped. But you know how
it gets icy and snowy. We're having to walk real carefully
across the parking lot. And I'm holding her hand. And
we get almost all the way across the parking lot. She looks up
at me, and she says, don't worry, Daddy. I won't let go. I said,
that's good, honey. I won't let go, too. And I'm
just confident of this. She had no thought she was going
to let go of my hand. But her hope of not falling down
on that ice was not in how much that she was hanging on to me.
It was how much the big hand of her daddy was hanging on to
her. Oh, I'm thankful that my assurance
of salvation is found in this. He won't forsake me. But I'm
telling you what, I'm not gonna forsake him either. This marriage
is a two-way street. No more will you be called forsaken.
No more will you be refused. You'll be the bride of Christ.
By nature, we're desolate. Now that's our name. That's who
we are. That's what we are. We're desolate.
The word means destroyed or ruined. That's what we are in Adam. We're
ruined in sin. Something that's ruined, has
to be thrown away. There's nothing left of it. It
can't be remodeled, it can't be fixed up. It's ruined. That's what we are in Adam. There's
no spiritual life in us. We're dead in trespasses and
sin, spiritually ruined. So Christ comes in the person
of his spirit and gives his people life in the new birth. They don't
have any life, so he causes a new man to be born of the spirit.
Now the new man, is not the old man remodeled. The new man is
not the old man who's been taught some doctrine. The new man is
not the old man that's been given some light. The new man is a
new man who never existed before. He's got a new father. He's been
born from new seed, not from corruptible seed, but from incorruptible.
Because he's been born from new seed, he's got a new nature.
He's got a new heart, and he's got a new name. the name of our
husband, Jehovah Sekinu. And here our Savior gives two
more names that he calls his bride. The first one is Hephzibah. My delight is in her. We wouldn't believe this if Christ
didn't give us this message. He finds his delight in his bride. He finds his delight in seeing
her saved by his blood. Now it's easy to see how we can
delight in Him. Everything about Christ is delightful.
Of course we delight in Him, but He says here, He delights
in His bride. Oh, what love, what grace. He would delight in the likes
of you and me. That brings comfort and assurance
to the heart of Christ's bride. And I'll show you a good example
of that in Numbers chapter 14. If Christ finds his delight in
us, we cannot perish. Numbers chapter 14, verse eight. If the Lord delight
in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us,
a land which floweth with milk and honey. That's exactly what
he did for national Israel. He delighted in them, and because
he did, it wasn't because they did anything good, it wasn't
because they didn't murmur and complain and find fault. No, because he
delighted in them, he brought them into the promised land.
And what God did for national Israel, he will most assuredly
do for spiritual Israel. He'll bring them into glory,
into a land that floweth with milk and honey, because he delights
in them. Then the other name the Lord
gives his bride is Beulah, married. The believer is joined to Christ.
As we talked about this earlier, that marriage union, they're
one with Him. They're one flesh. He's the head
and we're the body, one with Him. You think what an honor
that is, to be married to, to be part of the body of Christ. And when a man and woman are
married, now everything's different. When a man marries a woman, everything
he has is instantly hers. It all belongs to her. When we
become married to Christ, everything that he has and everything that
he is is ours through union with him, joint heirs with Christ,
so that everything he has is ours. When a woman marries a
man, She's taken from the house of her father and taken into
the house of her husband. She's going to have to fill out
a change of address form. She's got a new address. The
same thing is true for a believer. When we're married to Christ,
we're taken out of that house of Adam. We're taken out of the
world. No longer are we citizens of this world, and we're taken
into the household of Christ. God the Father hath translated
us, transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of his dear son, a new address. And that brings great joy to
the hearts of God's people. Doesn't that thrill your heart
to be married to him? Do you know that thrills the
heart of the Savior too? Look here at verse five. For
as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.
As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice
over thee. Now you men who are married,
you remember being newly married and how we rejoiced over our
bride when we were first married. Christ rejoices over his bride
the same way. He rejoiced when the Father gave
her to him and eternity passed. He rejoiced. When He came into
this earth, when He appeared to save her, He rejoiced. When He went to Calvary to be
made sin, to suffer and die, to put away her sin, do you know
He rejoiced? He despised the shame, why? For the joy that was set before
Him. He rejoiced to save her, no matter that it cost Him suffering,
no matter that it caused Him to be forsaken of His Father,
no matter that it cost Him His life, He rejoiced to save her. He rejoiced over her. He rejoices
when that bride is found in the new birth. Just like the shepherd
rejoiced to find that one sheep that was lost. The woman rejoiced
to find that one coin lost down in the dust. And the father rejoiced
to see that one prodigal come home. The Savior rejoices over
his bride when she's found in the new birth. And he'll spend
eternity rejoicing over that bride. How that young husband
rejoices over his bride. And at that time, when they're
first married, he thinks, it will never get any better than
it is right now. And you know what they find out?
Oh, it'll get better. It'll get better. Jan and I have
a sign hanging in our hallway. We used to have it out in the
one out in the yard and the weather destroyed it. So we got a new
one. We hung it in our hallway so it wouldn't get destroyed
by the elements. It says, grow old with me, the
best is yet to be. And we've hung that sign in our
hallway because we expect that our love will keep getting richer
and deeper and fuller as the years go on. That's been our experience. Now
on June the 20th, 1987, I couldn't understand that. I knew I loved
her, I knew she loved me, and I just, I felt like it couldn't
get any better. I believed it would. Because
so many people that have been married for many years told me
it would. So I believed them. But I didn't understand how can
that be? Now I do. And I give you this
example. A few weeks ago, we were at Jan's
mom's house. And her mother lives in the heart
of the Smoky Mountains. And when you leave her house,
no matter which way you go, you know what you always see? You
see some little stream. And usually they're shallow and
they're full of rocks and you see the water going over the
streams. And they're beautiful. I mean, they're just really pretty.
And you listen to them, the sound, it sounds pretty. The water gurgling,
you know, over the rocks and things. Sometimes there gets
to be a little more water and you splash it up and it just
looks very exciting and like, wow, look at that, you know.
But they're pretty shallow. Well, I look at those streams,
and I always like them. They just always are pretty to
me. But we were out driving one day. We come around this corner,
and there's a beautiful lake. I mean, it's breathtaking. It
was like glass, and the trees going up around. There's a mirror
image of those trees coming out across that lake. Beautiful. You know where all that water
came from? All those streams. Same water. But all that was
beautiful now. Same water, but I can tell you
which one I'd rather swim in, the deep one. I can tell you
where I'd a whole lot rather put my kayak in, that deep one,
the deep, still waters. And believe me, I hesitate, I
blush to compare my love for Janet to Christ's love for his
people. It's just an illustration, but I gave that illustration
to tell you this. Sometimes we get just a glimpse,
just a small glimpse of an understanding of how Christ loves his people.
And it's overwhelming, and we think, I could never love, I
could never appreciate, I could never be more thankful for the
love of Christ my husband than I am right now. Oh, you just wait. The best is
yet to be. The best is yet to be in glory. That love won't keep growing
now, won't keep growing, won't keep getting deeper, but in glory. We're gonna enjoy that love perfectly
for eternity. That's the message to Christ's
bride. It's the message of Christ. It's a message from Christ. It's
a message of Christ our righteousness. It's a message of the glory of
Christ our Savior. And it's the message of Christ
our husband. When we preach the message, when
we think about the message of Christ our husband, that's a
whole lot more than doctrine on paper, isn't it? Oh, that's
being in love with a person. That's being joined to a person.
That's having our Savior be a person who loved us and gave himself
for us. Oh, I pray that it'll glorify
our Savior and give you some comfort, give you some assurance
of salvation that you can take with you tomorrow morning. All
right, Lord bless you.