Our Mercifully Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for the affectionate terms that you refer to your
bride as. Lord, we thank you for making us so in
Christ. And Lord, we pray that the wind
of your spirit would blow blow upon your word and blow in our
hearts. Lord, reveal the glory of Christ
and cause us, Lord, to come in faith and in love, to bow before
him and to rejoice in the union that you have made between the
bride and the bridegroom. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. It's saying him 340 in the hardback
hymnal. 340. Give peace to thy heart. Draw
me, my Savior, so precious have I. Hold me, oh, hold me close
to thy heart. Shelter me safe in that mirror
of rest. Shelter me safe in that mirror
of rest. Nearer, still nearer, Lord, as an offering to Jesus
we'll eat. Oh, eat my sins, Lord, now that
you've won. Still the earth to be thine. Sing with me. Oh, can you try? Ever, still the ever, my life
shall last. Till safely home, my anchor is
cast. Free and blessed angels Ever
to reign Nearer, my Savior Still nearer to me Nearer, my Savior
Still nearer to me Be seated, please. Let's turn in our Bibles together
to 1 Peter chapter 3. Last Wednesday night, we looked
at the uncorruptible hidden man of the heart. What a blessing
it is to know that Christ in us is that hidden man in the
heart, and that the new nature that we have in him is uncorruptible,
undefiled. He's going to present us holy,
unblameable, and unreprovable in the sight of God. This evening, I would like for
us to consider the verses surrounding this fourth verse and give particular
attention to the union that Christ has with his church. Now, Peter
doesn't use the same words in our text that Paul uses in Ephesians
chapter five. when after describing the husband
and wife relationship, he said, I speak to you concerning this
great mystery concerning Christ and his church. And yet we know
that that is the picture given to us in the marriage union. And so the evidence of the new
heart is the ability to hear and to rejoice in all of what
God instructs us with. The evidence of this new heart
is to see the glory of Christ and to believe on Him and to
believe in Him. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ for all of our righteousness All of our justification, all
of our acceptance before God, we believe on Him. We believe
in Him as the sovereign Savior, the Son of God, the one who stands
in our stead, our sin-bearer. And so, that's the evidence of
the hidden man, the uncorruptible hidden man. And we're going to
look at the obvious explanation of these verses very quickly
and then I want us to spend our time considering this marriage
that was made in heaven when the father chose for his son
a bride and gave his son that bride. in the covenant of grace. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world and redeemed that bride unto himself, he paid
the ransom price. Think of this union between a
husband and a wife and we can't not consider Hosea and Gomer. Take for yourself A bride from
harlotry and that's what the father has done, he's taken to
himself a bride that was by nature a harlot and who wasted herself
with her various lovers until Hosea came and purchased her
to himself. There's the marriage union. over
and over again, we see that illustrated in the scriptures. Notice in
verse one, likewise ye wives be in subjection to your own
husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without
the word be won by the conversation of the wives, while they behold
your chaste conversation coupled with fear. who's adorning, let
it not be that of the outward adorning, a plating of hair and
the wearing of gold or the putting on of apparel, but let it be
the hidden man of the heart, and that which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight
of God is of great price. So the Lord's instructing a bride,
a wife, who's married to an unbelieving man on how to conduct herself. If that man is willing to remain
with her, then she's to show by her conversation, by her example,
the grace of her conversion in hopes that the beauty of that
life would have an influence in his heart, causing him to
want that same life in Christ. But he gives some limitations
to that obedience in verse six. Verse five, for after this manner
in the old time, the holy women also who trusted in God adorned
themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands. Even
as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose daughter as you
are, as long as you do well, and are not afraid with amazement."
Now, I tried to understand what the
last part of verse 6 really meant and so I spent some time trying to understand this passage
and I think that I'm sure that what the Lord is
saying is be respectful toward your husband but not giving in
to intimidation nor allowing yourself to be led into sin nor
to be harmed. The wife does not have to submit
to an abusive husband or one that would insist that she follow
him away from that which is right before God. That's what the Lord's
saying here. He's speaking to believing wives
and saying, submit to your husband, follow your husband, unless he
wants to lead you into something that would be contrary to where
God would have you to be, or unless he threatens you with
abuse. And under those circumstances,
you're not obligated to submit to him. So that's clearly what
the Lord is saying here. Verse seven, likewise ye husbands
dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto
the wife as unto the weaker vessel and as being heir together of
the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered. Husbands dwell
with your wives in an understanding way, be gentle, be calm. Be understanding
toward them and don't use your physical strength to overpower
them or to intimidate them or to control them. have done that, men do that.
And the Lord is clearly instructing, this is what he means by the
weaker vessel. Women are stronger than men in so many ways, but
not physically. And so he's talking about using
physical strength to intimidate the wife. And the husbands don't
do that. So that's the, That's the word
that God has given to us to practice in our marriages. And those who
have been given the uncorruptible new heart, hidden man, as the
Lord describes him, rejoices in those instructions and wants
to have that kind of that kind of marriage and that kind of
relationship with their spouse in their home. Now, all that
having been said, one of the clearest revelations that is
made of our Lord in scripture is that of a bridegroom over
his bride, a husband over his wife and never has he used intimidation
to force his wife to submit to him. He has given her in this
inner man, this hidden man, he's given her a desire to follow
him and to love him and never would he lead her anywhere but
that which is honoring and good and holy. He's the perfect husband. He's the perfect husband. And
we're not talking about genders here now, we're talking about
a spiritual union, a great mystery concerning Christ and his church. Turn with me to Hebrew, Isaiah,
I'm sorry, Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah chapter 54, verse 4. Fear not, for thou shalt
not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not
be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth.
and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. For
thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth shall be, or shall he be called. For the Lord hath called
thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife
of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment
I have forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Thy maker is thy
husband. Here the Lord's describing the
new birth. He's describing his bride as
one who was married to another and abused by that husband, that
man of the law, that man of sin. And her maker allowed her to suffer
that for a little while, for a little while. And then he redeemed
her and he says to her, there's no reason now for you to be ashamed. There's no reason for you to
be intimidated. There's no reason for you to
be in the bondage of this marriage that you were in. And her beauty, as we saw in our
text, is not with the outward adoring of the flesh. It's an
inward work of grace in the heart. You know, you think about man-made
religion. I'm thinking about that man,
that parable that the Lord told about a man who had a demon in
his life. He had a bad habit that he couldn't
control that was destroying his life. And so he got religious. And scripture says he cast that
demon out. And he swept his house clean
and he garnished it. He put all the religious trinkets
and all the outward images of religion in his life. And when the demon came back,
he saw that the house was empty, that there was no And he came
back with seven of his friends, and the latter end of the man
was worse than the first. He had his life cleaned up, he
turned over a new leaf, he had reformed himself, and he was
no longer being controlled by that old habit, but now he was
being controlled by the outward adorning of man-made religion,
the false hope of freewill works religion, and he was worse off
now than he was before. And those that are controlled
by those demons are impressed by, oh, the one who can adorn
their house the most, the one who can put on the most pretense
and the most religious hypocrisy is the one who is most highly
esteemed. And here's what our Lord's telling
us in 1 Peter chapter 3, this hidden man of the heart, he's
not interested in outward appearances. He's not interested in trying
to, let me rephrase that, of course we're interested in outward
appearances, but not in an attempt to try to intimidate or try to
convince or try to get advantage over another person. or to be
deceived by these outward religious appearances. We're desiring that the Lord
do a work of grace in the heart. The inward adorning of the spirit
is what our husband does for his bride, thy maker. is thy husband. There
was a time when you were abused by an abusive man. You're not
obligated to be under that. I've come and I've redeemed you. I bought you to myself like Hosea
did Gomer. And I have nothing but kindness
for you. I have nothing but grace. I have nothing but love. This
is the relationship that I have with my bride. You know, the
Pharisees didn't feel comfortable around the Lord, but one time
the Lord gave a parable about a king who put on a wedding feast
for his son and he sent his servants out to invite men to come and
And they all refused, they all refused the invitation. They
went one way or they went the other way. And so the king sent
his servants back out and he said, you go out into the highways
and the hedges and compel them to come in, that my house might
be full. And when the Pharisees heard
this parable, they knew that it was about them and they plotted
together what they might do. The Pharisees were never comfortable
around the Lord. The self-righteous never are.
But sinners, harlots, and publicans, oh, they were never threatened
by him. They never, the Lord told, the
master told his servants, he said, go find the poor, the blind,
the halt. Go get the homeless people out
of the gutter and bring them in. They're the ones that are
gonna fill my house. They're the ones that are gonna
be a part of this wedding feast of the Lamb. There's a wedding
that we must be a part of. Weddings are happy times. And
we're thankful for the Lord's blessings when he brings a man
and a woman together in love to unite their lives together
in such a commitment. But there's a wedding that we
can't miss. If we miss this wedding and we
don't, we're not looking to attend this wedding as an observer or
as a guest, we're looking to attend this wedding as the bride.
And we miss this wedding and we miss everything. And what
the Lord is telling us in this parable is the nature of the
people that are going to be at this wedding. Turn with me to
Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19. Verse seven, let us be glad and
rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb
is come and his wife hath 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 things,
these are the true sayings of God. If we miss the marriage
supper of the Lamb, we've missed everything. and what the Lord
is telling us in this parable. He tells us this parable twice,
and one of the times that it's recorded, he speaks of there,
after the doors are closed, there's found in the wedding feast, a
man that did not have that wedding garment. They gave all these
guests, all these homeless people that were compelled, and that
word compelled, by the way, it means to be forced to come. The Lord has to compel us. He
has to make us to come. If he just offers us an RSVP
invitation, we're going to decline it every time. We're going to
be like those Pharisees. We're going to find something
better to do. Compel them to come in, he said.
Make them come. For everything is ready. It's
all prepared. And after the doors are closed,
there's found a man who didn't have a wedding garment on, this
white, this white linen wedding garment, which is the righteousness
of the saints. There's a man in the wedding
found. And I can just see this man. He comes to the wedding. And
he's not homeless. He's got some means and he's
kind of proud of the outfit that he's wearing. And he notices
at the door that they're giving a white robe to everybody that
comes in. Everybody in there has got the
same thing. I don't wear the same thing all these homeless
people are wearing. I'm proud of what I've got. And when the
king comes in, he says, what are you doing in here without
a wedding garment? And he tells his servants to
cast him out into utter darkness. You see the picture there. That
there are those who try to come into the wedding feast dressed
in their own righteousness. They've swept the house clean.
They've garnished the house. And they're trusting in something
that they're doing in hopes of being part of this wedding. Turn with me back to the book
of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61. Look with me at verse 3 of Isaiah
61. I'm sorry, Isaiah 62. at verse 3. Thou shalt also be a crown of
glory in the head of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. He's talking about his church.
He's talking about his bride being the crown of his glory. His crowning glory is the saving
of his people. That's the crowning glory of
Christ. And when he redeemed his bride unto himself, all the
attributes of his glory were placed on full display at Calvary's
cross. His holiness, his love, his goodness,
his mercy, his justice, his righteousness, everything, everything was put
on display at the cross. And so what he's saying is the
work of redemption that he did in purchasing his wife to himself,
is the crown of His glory. Look at verse 4, and thou shalt
no more be termed forsaken. We were forsaken of God as we
just read earlier in Isaiah chapter 54 and we were allowed, we were
left in the arms of our lover Our abusive husband for a little
while, he said, I left you there for a little while and then I
redeemed you but no longer shall be called forsaken. The Lord
Jesus Christ was forsaken of his father. My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? God's eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. When God saw sin on his darling
son, he had no choice but to thrust the sword of His justice
into the heart of His own Son, to close the windows of heaven,
to withdraw His presence and leave Him to Himself. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, all by Himself, bore the sins of His people and
put them away. He was forsaken, that we no longer
have to be forsaken. And so now here's what he's saying
to his bride, this crown of glory that he has, this beautiful wife
that he has purchased to himself, one who's not looking for her
acceptance by her outward appearance of beauty, but by the hidden
man of the heart that he's given her in Christ. Thou shalt no
longer be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land anymore be termed
desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. Hephzibah, delight
of the Lord. You're not going to be called
forsaken, you're going to be called my delight. You're my
love. You're the one that I died for.
You're the one that I'm doing everything for. the only reason
that this world exists and all that I'm doing in this world
from one end to the other is for my bride. You're not forsaken, you're the delight of the Lord. And thy land shall no longer,
and thy land, Beulah, translated means married. No longer are
you desolate, but now you're married. Now you have a husband.
For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. It shall be in union with Christ. This husband-wife relationship
began all the way back in the garden, didn't it? When God took
Adam. Adam's name, by the way, the
literal translation of Adam is red, it's red, that's what it
is. And Adam is formed from the dust
of the earth and he's the type of Christ in the garden. And
the red reminding us of the sacrifice that he's going to make on Calvary's
cross to redeem his bride. And then God putting him into
a deep sleep. the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross when he goes into the grave and when he comes out of the
grave and the father takes from the rib of Adam his bride and
and fashions Eve whose name translated means life and now she has life
and she is the life of God in this world and she's the one
with the message of life in Christ to declare to the rest of His
lost bride, she might have life in Christ. And then Eve is deceived by sin. Adam ate of that fruit with his
eyes wide open. Adam was not deceived. Eve was
deceived by the serpent. And you and I are so easily deceived
because our hearts are deceitful, desperately wicked. We can't
know them and so Satan, we're easy prey to him. But Adam ate of that fruit, knowing
full well what he was doing. There was no deception in Adam's
heart. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
went to the cross, knew full well what he was doing. He knew
that when he drank the bitter dregs of that cup of sin that
he was going to be owning the sins of his wife. And by his
death, you see Eve would have been put out of the garden and
had no hope of life had Adam not followed her and redeemed
her by his own sin. We're not justifying what Adam
did. We're saying that Adam and Eve
were a type of Christ in his church. And the Lord Jesus Christ
took that sin and went to the cross in order to purchase for
himself a bride that through death, through death, they might
both live. That's why the that's why the
seraphim were placed at the at the entrance to the garden to
guard the tree of life. Adam and Eve couldn't eat of
the tree of life anymore. They had to die in order to live. What a glorious picture of Christ
and his church. So here our Lord is telling us.
Look at, you're still there in Isaiah 60, 62, look at verse
five. For as a young man marrieth a
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. In Revelation chapter 21, John
sees the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven as a bride adorned
for her husband. So the bride's coming down the
aisle and she's been made beautiful by this redemptive work accomplished
at the cross. Here's what our, if we have any
understanding of the union that Christ has with his church and
what he did in order to redeem his bride, These admonitions
given to us in scripture as to how we ought to conduct ourselves
in our homes will be the result of that, won't they? Be the result
of that. This marriage union is seen over
and over again in the scriptures. We saw in the Song of Solomon
where the Lord Jesus refers to his church as his sister. as his sister. You know, Sarah
was Abraham's half-sister, wasn't she? And Abraham and Sarah, a
picture of Christ and his church and the love that they had and
the miraculous birth that was brought about in bringing the
child of promise, Isaac, into the world. And of course you have Isaac
and Rebekah and Abraham sends his servant Eleazar like God
sends his Holy Spirit out into the world and he finds his bride,
he finds Rebekah. And he describes to Rebekah the
nature of his master. And that's what the Holy Spirit
does. He describes to us The wealth and the beauty and the
strength and the character and the nature of our Isaac, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then when Laban asked Rebecca,
will you go? I will go, I will go. He makes his people willing in
the day of his power. They love their husband. And she loved him before she
ever met him. Over and over again, we can't. Boaz and Ruth, what a glorious
picture of Christ and his church. Redeeming, reckoning with the
law, satisfying the demands of those 10 elders in the city gate,
and purchasing Ruth, the Moabitess, to himself. Here it is. Here's the union. This marriage union is repeated
over and over again. David and Abigail. How David
buys Abigail from a churlish man and delivers her and makes
her free. And Solomon and his 700 wives. And the scripture says that he
loved them all. He loved them all. Now, I can't
enter into that. We don't understand how that
relationship worked. But it's not for us to try to
figure that part of it out. It's for us to see the picture
of Christ and his church. Even when we look at the end
of Solomon's life and how many times we've all thought, Solomon,
how could you have been led into idolatry by your wives? You were
the wisest man God ever made. And yet do we not see in that
a picture of the 700 wives, seven being a number of perfection,
the perfect church, the full body of Christ leading our husband
into idolatry when he bore our sins on the cross and died in
order to redeem us to himself? I quit trying to figure out how
a believer could be led into idolatry. The Lord shows us that
this is the real message here, that we led our husband into
sin when he went to the cross. That's all we need to know about
that. The whole song of Solomon, Solomon
talking to his bride and that love story. We just read a few
verses from it at the beginning of this service. What a picture. And in Proverbs, Solomon describes
the church as the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. Who can find
her? She's such a rare jewel and she
provides for her children. and her husband is proud of her.
This is all, this is all. The Lord gives us the grace to
see the hidden man of the heart,
Christ and his church. These other things will be taken
care of. I want to close this service by
reminding us of the parable that the Lord told in Matthew chapter
25 about the 10 virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom. And the Lord tells us that five
of them were wise and five of them were foolish. And the scripture says that it
was late at night and they all ten slumbered and slept. Do we not become spiritually
dull and often sleep in our waiting? We're watching and waiting for
that day when the new Jerusalem comes down as a bride adorned
for her husband. That day when the marriage supper
of the lamb and the Lord gathers together his entire bride. And puts them on his head as
his diadem, his crown of glory. And she rejoices to be cast down
at his feet and to and to and to worship him. in all of eternity,
in a wedding feast that will never cease, it'll never stop.
It'll go on and on and on for all eternity. We miss this wedding
feast, we've missed it all. And so believers are watching
and they're waiting and they comfort one another with these
words and they long for that day in their souls and their
spirit, the inner man does. Now the old man still, he's still
attached to this world and attracted to the things of this world but
the inner man of the heart, the hidden man of the heart that's
incorruptible, the new nature, he's longing for that wedding,
for that time when he will see his husband and be made like
him. Here in this parable there's
There's five foolish and five wise and at midnight, at midnight,
there's a cry that comes. The bridegroom's coming and they
wake up and they're trimming their lamps, their oil lamps. And I think about that passage
over there in Isaiah chapter 42 when the Lord says that a
smoking flax, he will not quench. know that's the picture of this
oil lamp that's that's burned down and there's just an ember
left and and normally we would wet our fingers and put that
out and the Lord said oh no I'm not going to do that. How oftentimes
we're like that we're like these virgins so our oil had we our
lamp is in need of trimming we're in need of the Lord to to give
us the oil of his spirit and to blow the wind of his spirit
upon us. And that's what he does for the
five wise. But the five foolish, what do
they say? Give us of your oil. They think
that they can get the spirit of God from one of these other
believers. And they say, oh no, we can't.
We can't share this with you. You're gonna have to go get it
from the man who sells oil. And while they're gone, the bridegroom
comes and the five wise virgins are taken in to this wedding
feast of the Lamb. And then the Lord concludes that
parable when he says, watch therefore, for you know not the day nor
the hour that the bridegroom will come. Watch. Oh Lord, give us the spirit of
grace to always be watching, always be waiting for that perfect
husband who's never abused his wife. All he's ever done is love
her and provide for her. A wife whose beauty is not her
outward adorning of the flesh, it's not It's not fleshly things
like they have in religion to impress other men. It's a work
of grace, the hidden man of the heart that is uncorruptible,
undefiled, holy. That union would be made perfect
one day when we are brought into his holy presence. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for the revelation
of the bridegroom. Thank you, Lord, that though
we were forsaken in our youth, that you have called us Hephzibah,
the delight of the Lord, and Beulah, married. Lord, take us
into thy Bridegroom's Chamber, we ask in Christ's name, amen. 294, let's stand together. you Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
now has borne us by the arm. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, now has borne us by the arm. ? Keep thy promise and defend us
? ? Seek us when we go astray ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ? ? Hear our prayer as we pray ? ? Blessed
Jesus, blessed Jesus ? Thou hast promised to receive
us, O ransom for all we need. Thou hast pursued to relieve us, thanks to friends and houses free. Blessing Jesus, Blessing Jesus,
and be with us today. Blessing Jesus, Blessing Jesus, and be with us today. Blessing Jesus, Blessing Jesus,
Thou has brought us life. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
Thou hast loved us, loved us