so you Casey Jones, look at that. Ah,
thank you. Put that in there. Take it with
you. We've gathered here today to
unite Ryan and Lord Grace in holy matrimony. If this is your
intention, who then gives Lord Grace in marriage to Ryan? Let me be seated. Ryan, more grace, can't believe
it's here. In the midst of all the activities
that go into preparing for a wedding and executing a wedding, It's
important for us to pause and to look at what God has to say
about the marriage union because God's word is the only infallible
source of truth and hope that we have. And so before we continue,
I want to have a word of prayer and then I want to read some
scripture. And let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before Thy holy presence thanking You that we have Thy
dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ as our advocate, our sin bearer,
our substitute. We thank You that we can come
before the throne of grace with boldness. Lord, we thank You
for Your absolute sovereignty. We rejoice that you do all things
well, and Lord, that in your good providence, you brought
Ryan and Lord Grace to this altar. We ask, Lord, that you would
enable us now to not just celebrate their wedding, but to worship
thee, and we ask your blessings on this union and on them. We
pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Many wonder about the meaning
of life. And the short answer to that
question is it's all about a marriage. It's all about a marriage. Not
your marriage, but a marriage that literally was made in heaven. A marriage where the father, after having consulted only his
own sovereign will and purpose, chose a particular people to
give to his son as a bride. This all happened before time
ever was. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the
Son of God, entered into that covenant relationship with His
Father and agreed to do everything necessary in order to redeem
her to Himself. And that's what He accomplished
at Calvary's Cross. He paid for her sins and He bought
her. From the very beginning of time,
everything that's been happening in this world, God is doing for
the purpose of bringing those whom He chose to His Son. And when the last of God's elect
is brought into a loving union with their bridegroom, then this
world will have no more reason to exist. A marriage between
Christ and His Church purpose of all things. And so, we read in Revelation chapter
19, let us be glad and rejoice. The Lord is telling us how all
of this is going to end. He says, let us be glad and rejoice
and give honor to Him. For the marriage of the lamb
has come, and the wife has made herself ready. And to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white,
for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto
me, write, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage
supper of the lamb. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings of God. God ordained marriage from the
very beginning, and it's honorable, and it's profitable for all men.
When a bridegroom and a bride come together, that is a blessing
from God. But for the believer, the marriage
is more than that. It's a reflection of their life
in Christ. And it is given to them as an
example of that perfect union that Christ has with his bride. Because we are sinners, we certainly
fall far short of the example that he gives us as the perfect
bridegroom and his bride. Nevertheless, the pattern still
stands. And so for the believer, we're
always looking back to Christ and his church for the example
of our marriage. And that's clear in the scriptures.
Looking to Christ as he is revealed in the scriptures is the one
thing needful. the one thing needful in order
to be part of that marriage feast of the lamb in heaven at the
end. And in order to enjoy the blessings that God has for you
in this life, looking in faith to Christ is the means that the
Lord has provided for his people. God's Word is timeless. Generation
and culture do not change it in any way. The Scripture says
to believe it, there is great reward. To believe God is great
reward in this life and in the life to come. We know that all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and all Scripture is profitable. for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of
God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Marriage
is a good work, it's a good work. God has given us His Word as
the revelation of His purpose in marriage. And so we read in
Ephesians chapter 5, giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
a time of thanksgiving. This is a time of celebration.
It's a time to rejoice in the Lord's good gift. And then in verse 21, he says,
submitting yourselves one to another in reverence of God. Looking first to him and then
in reverence to him, submitting yourself to one another. That's
what you do in marriage. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own 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. So just as what the Lord is doing,
He's going to conclude this passage by saying, I speak to you concerning
a great mystery concerning Christ and His Church. And so the Lord's
given us in His Word a pattern for marriage and He's telling
us that I'm the example. I'm the example. I provided for
my body. Husband, you provide for your
wife and protect her. 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."
And I can assure you, Ryan, that Lord Grace will have no trouble
following you. God gives you the grace to do the next verse. Husbands, love your wives. even as Christ also loved the
church and gave himself for it. That he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word. And so the Lord's
taken us back to his word. His word is the only standard
of truth that we have. 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. In this marriage
supper of the Lamb that's going to take place in heaven at the
end of time, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to parade before all
of creation the trophy of His grace. He's going to show them
what He's done for His bride, just as you've been You've been
paraded before us here, and that's the purpose of it, Lord Grace.
That's the purpose, to show Christ and His church. After you exchange your vows,
you will take on LaRoe as your name. Again, a picture of being
in Christ, the union that we have in Him. Verse 28 says, 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 cherisheth it, even as the
Lord has done the church. So the Lord is saying that church
is part of my body. She's my bride. I'm the head
of the body. And He cares for His church as Himself. for we are members
of his body and of his flesh and of his bones. And for this
cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and should be
joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. It's very simple, very clear. The Lord's relating our marriage
here on earth to that eternal union that he has with his bride. And then he goes on to say, this
is a great mystery. And by mystery, what the Lord
is saying is it has to be revealed. God has to reveal the truth of
this to your heart. It's not something you can discover
on your own. 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 see that she reverends her husband. What a glorious type and picture. This is what it's all about.
Everything in time and eternity is about a marriage and everything
that God is doing is to bring his bride to himself until he
has that consummation of that marriage in heaven. There's four words just very
quickly I wanna speak to you about. The first word is the
word covenant. A covenant is a promise. In a
few minutes you're going to exchange vows and you're gonna be making
a promise to one another and you have mutual responsibilities
in that promise and the strength of your marriage will be in your
faithfulness to keep the promises of the vows that you're about
to make. So it's not a contract, it's a promise, it's a covenant
relationship. And so it is in the relationship
that Christ has with His Church. The difference is that the Lord
Jesus Christ bore all the responsibility Himself. It's not a mutual thing. It's not something that we have
to make our promises to God and keep our promises in order to
keep the union alive. The Lord Jesus Christ made a
promise to the Father to redeem His Bride. And He successfully
accomplished everything that was necessary to purchase her
to himself on Calvary's cross. And then he sends his Holy Spirit
into the hearts of those for whom he died, those whom the
Father chose, and he reveals himself to them, and he makes
them love him and want to be with him. He irresistibly draws
them to himself. This is what God designed from
the beginning. It's all about Christ and his
church. David said, although my house
be not so with God. David was talking about the tabernacle
of his own flesh being filled with sin and his own household
being not what it ought to be. None of our homes are. your home
won't be. But David goes on to say, although
my house be not so with God yet, He has made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, this is all my salvation
and all my desire. The hope of our salvation is
not our making promises to God and keeping those promises. The
hope of our salvation is secure in the promise that Christ made
and fulfilled. The second word is the word union. The Lord said to Adam after making
Adam, He said, it's not good that a man shall be alone. I
will make a help, meet for him, suited for him. So the Lord put
Adam into a deep sleep just as the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross went into death. And He removed from Adam a rib
Not a bone from his foot to be under his authority, not a bone
from his head to rule over him, but a bone that was closest to
his heart. And he made Eve from that rib.
And Adam woke from that sleep and he saw her and he said, this
is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and
the two of them shall become one flesh, no more mine and yours."
Now it's all ours. That's what marriage is. That's
what it is between Christ and His Church, and that's the way
the Lord designed it for us here. It's a perfect union. And the
hope that we have is that being found in Christ perfect union
with Him. So the Scripture says, as He
is so are we. So are we. He is all of our righteousness. His perfect life of obedience
is our life before God. His death on Calvary's cross
is our death. He lived the perfect life. He
died the perfect death. His resurrection is our resurrection.
He ascended back into glory and He took the names of those for
whom He lived and died with Him. seated at the right hand of God
right now as their advocate. So, we have union with Christ,
a perfect union. Scripture says, he that sanctifyeth,
that's the Lord Jesus Himself, and they that are sanctified
are all as one, wherefore He is not ashamed to call them His
brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we, his bride, are complete
in him, lacking nothing. Everything that God requires,
he looks to his son for. And his bride rejoices in her
bridegroom. The third word is the word love.
How could we miss that word at such an occasion as this? It's
love that brought you to this altar. It's love that you have
in your heart now for one another. And our hope and prayer is that
your grandmother and I have been married 52 years. And I can say
this from experience. As the time goes, you'll look
back on this day If God grows you in his grace and the knowledge
of Christ, you can say on this day, that was the day that we
loved each other the least. That's my hope for you all. Everybody
here hopes that for you. I want this union to be blessed.
Love beareth all things, it believeth all things, it never fails. It was love. Scripture says herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave
his son to be the propitiation of our sins. The demonstration
of love is what God has done in sending his son to die for
his church, to purchase his bride. Greater love hath no man than
this, than he lay down his life. for his friends. And that's exactly
what the Lord Jesus did. No man took his life from him,
he willingly laid it down in order to purchase his bride. God's love is very particular.
This idea that God loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved,
just not true. Scripture says, Jacob I've loved,
and Esau I've hated. He loves those whom he has chosen
in Christ, in this covenant marriage. And he does everything for her. His love is also everlasting,
it's eternal. He says, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. There was never a time, in time and in
eternity, when God did not love his bride, when Christ did not
love his bride. God did not love his people.
He loved Him with an everlasting love and that love never changes.
He said, I am the Lord and I change not. I'm the same yesterday,
today and forever. His love is perfect and it's
never changed. And His love is effectual. We
love Him because He first loved us. His love is irresistible.
When He shows His love to you, you love Him in return. The last word I want to mention
is the word forgiveness. We're sinners. We're sinners. We offend one another. We do
things wrong. We say things we shouldn't say.
We don't do things we ought to do. And there's going to be an
offense. I'm sure you've already experienced
some of that. You can't live together without sinners offending
one another. But being able to forgive one
another is the result of being forgiven. It's the result of
being forgiven. The scripture says that we are
to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven us. So again, we're
looking to Christ and his church. We're looking to the union that
he has with his bride as the model for everything. forgiveness. When the Lord Jesus Christ bore
the sins of His bride in His body upon Calvary's tree, He
put them away by the sacrifice of Himself eternally. He said,
I've separated your sins from you as far as the east is from
the west, and I remember them no more. Our sins are gone. That's what
He did for His bride. And knowing something of that
forgiveness will enable you to forgive one another when the
fences come, and they will. So there it is. Covenant, union,
love, and forgiveness. Christ and His church. I pray that your experience in
this marriage It's only right, it's time to
exchange vows, and it's only right that the husband would
be first, because Christ, as the bridegroom, initiated the
relationship with his bride. And so, Ryan, if you'll face
Lord Grace, and repeat after me. I, Ryan, take you, Lord Grace,
to be my wedded wife. You, Lord Grace. To you, Lord
Grace, to be my wife. To have and to hold from this
day forward. To have and to hold from this
day forward. For better or for worse. For
better or for worse. For richer or for poorer. For
richer or for poorer. In sickness and in health. For
sickness and in health. I will love you and cherish you.
I will love you and I will cherish you. And forsaking all others. And forsaking all others. keep
myself only for you, until death do us part. Lord Grace, I, Lord Grace, take you, Ryan, to be my beloved husband, to have and to hold from this
day forward, for better or for worse, for
richer for poor in sickness and in health. I will love you and
cherish you and forsaking all others keep myself only for you
until death do us part. The ring has been used for centuries
to seal important covenant. And it comes to its highest honor
in the marriage union. It's round in that it reminds
us of the eternal love of Christ. for his church and the never-ending
love that we pray the Lord will give you. It's gold, it's precious
metal. How precious, how valuable is
this love and union that you have? And it's to be worn, it's
to be worn as a constant reminder. When the prodigal came home,
the father said, put a ring on his finger, he's mine. And so
when you wear this ring, you say, I'm not just my own. I belong
to my husband. My husband belongs to me. I'll
wear it as a reminder of that. Ryan, if you put this ring on
Lord Grace's ring finger and repeat after me. With this ring. With this ring. I thee wed. I thee wed. And hereby seal my
vows. And hereby seal my vows. In the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You put that on Ryan's ring finger
and repeat after me. With this ring, I thee wed, and
hereby seal my vows, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Having promised your love and
fidelity to each other, and having sealed your vows by the exchanging
of these rings, acting on the authority of God's Word, I pronounce
you husband and wife. What God has joined together,
let no man put asunder. You may kiss the bride. Go, go, go. Yeah. Thank you all for being here. And everyone's invited to join
us at the reception at the Highland Manor, just one block that way. You can't miss it. So see you
there. I knew you did not say it.