Let's open this second hour with
hymn number, no, we're gonna open with the bulletin. The hymn
that's on the back of your bulletin, we'll open with that hymn. Let's
all stand together. Sons of God, redeemed by blood,
raise your songs to Zion's God. Made from condemnation free,
grace triumphant, sing with me. Calvary's wonders let us trace,
Justice magnified in grace. Mark the crimson streams and
say, Thus my sins were washed away. Wrath divine no more we
dread, Vengeance smote our surety's head, Demands of justice fully
bet, Christ hath paid the dreadful debt. Lamb of God, thy death
hath given, pardon, peace, and hope of heaven. It is finished. Let us raise
songs of gratitude and praise. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading
is going to be found in Ephesians, chapter 5. I want to first point
out that at the beginning of Ephesians, Paul writes that this
letter is to the saints, which are at Ephesus. Of course, it's
to us as well, to every saint. and to the faithful in Christ
Jesus. What I want to say with that
is that this scripture is written to believers, those who have
trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, who have deposited all their
trust in what he has done for their salvation. The scripture
is not written for their own believer, but for the believer
for us. Chapter 5 Ephesians. I'm going to read the first 20
verses. Be ye therefore followers of
God, as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ has
also has loved us, has given himself for us in an offering
and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. What wonderful, that
God was satisfied with what Christ did in the cross. It's a sweet
smelling savor. For fornication and uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becoming
saints, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting,
which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks, For
this you know, that no home monger, no unclean person, no covetous
man who is an adulterer has any inheritance in the kingdom of
Christ and God. Let no man deceive you with vain
words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon
the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers
with them, for ye were sometimes in darkness, but now ye are light
in the Lord. Walk as children of the light,
for the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness and righteousness
and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Have no fellowship. with their unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even
to speak of these things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved
are made manifest by the light. For who whatsoever do make manifest
is light. Wherefore, he said, awake. Thou
that seekest, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light. See then that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk
with wine where it is in excess, but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father God we come before you
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by his merit alone by
his sacrifice alone To give you thanks for your many, many blessings,
Father. To give you thanks for the Lord
Jesus Christ, Father. May we take heed to your word
here, Red, Father. May we meditate on it, Father. And we also pray now, Father,
for the preachers in Lexington, in the conference, bless them,
fill them with the Holy Spirit, fill the hearers with the Holy
Spirit, that they might hear what they need to hear, Father. And us here, Father, we thank
you for the message this morning, and we ask now that you fill
Robert with the Holy Spirit, fill us with the Holy Spirit,
that we might be able to accept and hear the Word of God, Father.
May the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified and may we be edified,
Father. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's stand together once again
and we'll sing hymn number 235, 235. It's true. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, Do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief Kneeling there in deep contrition, help
my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit would
I seek thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, Hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Please be seated. RG. Well, I made it up here so far
so good. I'm going to be speaking to you this
morning in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15 and 1 Peter chapter
3 and verse 7 on marriage between a man and woman and marriage
between Christ and the believer. Before I start, there's something
I need to say. I owe the people in this congregation
an explanation and an apology for my delivery. I'm having real
trouble with my message delivery. I preached my first message in
1971. It was a 10-minute message on
Nimrod, the mighty hunter. It was bad. It was really bad. And not too long after that,
we moved back to Texas. Now, in the South, and especially
in Texas, Reformed preachers have their own way of preaching. They have three rules. Number
one, When you get up behind the pulpit, you're the only man in
this whole room that knows what the truth is, and that's how
you preach. Number two, we believe that the
law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, so you preach the
law. Number three, you preach it loud. That's the way I learned to preach. And Deanna told me over the years,
you preach like you're mad. I said, no, I'm not mad. Well,
you look mean. I said, no, I don't look mean.
But since we've been here, and I sat under Greg's preaching,
I realized that all those years I did look mad. And I did look
mean. And I did preach real loud. I knew everything that the Puritans
knew, but I knew absolutely nothing about love and comfort in a message. I learned that from Greg, I really
have. I think the thing that I want
more than anything else is at least one time before I die,
I'd like to bring a gospel message that would comfort someone. that
would lift them up and draw them nearer to Christ. I'm not mad
at anybody. I love every one of you to death.
I may have one time been mean, but I haven't been for a long
time. So if I've offended anyone or if you thought I was upset
with you, I'm sorry, I'm not. I'm not, but I need prayer because
I'm having a desperate struggle Just about the time I get started,
I'll fall back on Calvinism. And I'll start thinking I'm the
only one here that knows the truth and you're going to hear
it. And I'll put you under the law. And I'll tell you, this
is what you have to do. If you don't, you're not saved.
And I'll do it loud. And I don't want to do that no
more. I've come to the conclusion that this pulpit is not Mount
Sinai, and I'm not Moses giving you the word of the Lord. I'm
just the oldest sinner in this room preaching to a bunch of
other sinners. So pray for me that I'll be able
to overcome all those years of bad habits. So I'm going to speak
to you this morning about marriage because usually we bring a message
on whatever's on our mind at the time. And I know more about
marriage than any man in this room because I've been married
almost 58 years. So that's what I'm going to preach
on this morning. In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse
15. Husbands, love your wives 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, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it would
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 and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. for we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. What is the definition of marriage? We get it really early in the
scripture in Genesis chapter 2. It says the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And while he slept,
God took a rib from Adam and closed up the flesh thereof. And with the rib he had taken
out of the man, made he a woman. And he brought her to Adam. And
Adam said, this is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bones. She shall be called a woman because
she was taken out of man. And for this cause, Shall a man
leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. You don't get much plainer than
that. The word cleave means glued. The man and the wife are glued
together. They're one. They cannot be separated. Father and mother can't separate
them, brother and sister can't come between them, and children
can't come between them. It doesn't say you're one with
your children, it says you're one with your wife. That's the
marriage between man and woman. But here it just said in verse
21, or verse 20, that we are members of his body. of his flesh
and of his bones. The church as a whole is the
bride of Christ. But every one of us individually
are married to Christ. We are bone of his bones and
we are flesh of his flesh. We are members of his body. And
the marriage between a man and a woman is a poor picture of
our marriage between the believer and Christ, between Christ and
the church. For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they
too shall be one flesh. Again, the word joined is a carpenter's
term. It means glued to one another,
inseparable. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. The marriage between
a man and a woman is not the mystery. Verse 30 is a mystery
for we are members of Christ's body, of His flesh and of His
bones. 1 Peter chapter 3 and verse 7. Likewise, you husbands, dwell
with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as
unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace
of life, that your prayers be not hindered." Being heirs together
means that in Christ there's neither Jew nor Greek, bond or
free, male nor female. But we're all one in Christ. That's the thing we need to keep
in mind. You're not going to find a book
or anything telling you the meaning of what this verse really is,
and I'm going to tell you why. At one time, I owned about 30. of the books by the Puritans
and Pink and everyone else, not one of them touched on the meaning
of the weaker vessel. Matthew Henry was the only one,
and he said, it means the women are weaker by nature and inclination,
and that's not what this means. That is not what this means.
It's not a question of being physically weak or physically
strong. As we go through this verse,
we'll see what that means. Likewise, your husband dwell
with them according to knowledge. What you talking about according
to knowledge? The knowledge that you've engaged
yourself in a union that should be unbreakable. It's not always
is, but it should be. the knowledge of what it means
to be married, the knowledge of what it means to give honor
to the woman as unto the weaker vessel. I told you there's not
a lot of things written about this in there or not. Years ago,
my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter bought me a T-shirt that said
on the back in letters about that high, Antique Cowboy. And that's what I am, I really
am. So what you're going to hear
mostly this morning is an antique cowboy's definition of dealing
with your wife and knowledge and showing honor to your wife.
Now, before we got married, my wife's name was Deanna Yvonne
McCarroll. She had her father's last name. That means that he was her protector
and her provider. She carries his last name. But
when we got married, she became Deanna Yvonne Horton. And I became her protector and
her provider. I stand between her and the harm
of the world, between her and other people. If you're going
to hurt her, you're going to have to hurt me first. The knowledge
that I am a protector and a provider is one of the things that men
really need to be taught. the knowledge that what marriage
really is. That this woman that loves you
and yourself are one unit. No one else but the two of you
and you are one. Now the knowledge that you deal
with the lady as a weaker vessel is this, you have to give honor
to her, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel.
Honor and respect are the same thing, basically the same word. Respect for women is almost going
completely out of society. Respect for women is a learned
behavior. It's not something that comes
natural. No one is born with the respect for women ingrained
in him. They have to be taught. Little
boys that are not taught to respect women grow up to be men that
don't respect women. You got to start when they're
about that tall. You don't hit little girls, son. You don't talk back to your mother,
son. You don't argue with your teacher,
son. You pull a chair back from the
supper table so your mother can sit down. You open the door for
your mother because she's a woman and she's your mother. You open
the door to the restaurant for a woman. I don't care what color
she is, how old she is, how ugly she is, how beautiful she is.
You do it because she is a woman. Respect for women is as far out
of date as I am. It's almost vanished. But it's one of the most important
things that a husband needs to learn. Your wife is the weaker
vessel. She needs to be cherished. She needs to be protected. She needs to be taken care of. She needs to feel like that you
are there for her. Now you say it's just almost
a waste of time, doesn't really make good sense opening a corridor,
but I'm going to tell you right now, ask your wife. When I walk
up and open the car door for my wife and she gets in, I've
told the whole world, this is my wife and I love her and she
is priceless to me and I respect her and you're going to respect
her too. When you open the door to the restaurant and you let
a lady go through there, it makes her feel like a lady. She's been
shown respect, if you want to call it, by the stronger vessel. Respect for your wife is so important. It's important enough that if
you don't have the proper respect for your wife, it's going to
hinder your prayers. Now, all you boys that are married
know this is true. Argue with your wife and then
try to pray. You can't hardly do it. It's almost impossible. Now,
to show the woman respect as unto the weaker vessel, means this, to an antique cowboy,
this is what it means. We have the most fantastic young
women in this church that are anywhere in the whole world. We have young ladies here that
are shining examples to other women. Never sell yourself short,
young ladies, because if respect is not given to you, demand it. When some boyfriend pulls up
in your driveway and beeps the horn, go out and say, listen,
I like you a whole lot, but I don't like you enough to let you dog
whistle me out of that house like a little puppy. You get
out of that car and you knock on the door and you say, Mr.
Horton, I'm here to take your daughter out. Is she ready? And
when you walk out to the car, stand there until he opens the
door. You're entitled to that respect
because you're a woman. When you get to the restaurant,
stand there until he opens the door. When you go in and walk
to the table, stand there until he pulls the chair out and helps
you be seated. That is the respect due to a
woman at least where I came from. Now I understand that my generation
is just about all gone. But women, godly women, are the
cornerstone of an orderly society. They are the mothers of our children. They are the caretakers of our
house. They are all the things, if they're
a godly woman, they're all the things they're supposed to do. I'm gonna give you a picture
of two vessels, man and woman. Men are like a bunch of little
wild animals. They roam across the face of
the earth and everything they can't eat or play with, they
break it and throw it away. And you know, that's true. Men
as a vessel or a plastic five gallon bucket from Home Depot
that costs $2 and 50 cents. But a woman on the other hand.
is a beautiful handmade cut glass bowl that's trimmed in silver
and platinum, and it has diamonds and rubies embedded in the glass. Beautiful, priceless, priceless
bowl, plastic bucket. Which one's the weaker vessel? Women are so precious. They are
priceless. What do you do? How do you treat
a priceless treasure? You put it up on a shelf somewhere
where nobody can knock it over and break it or chip it. You
protect it. You watch it. You keep it safe. You make it
feel safe. It knows as long as you're there,
you're the house bond, the husband. As long as you're there, nothing's
going to happen to her. That's how you handle a weaker
vessel. Now, that is a marriage between men
and women. But the marriage between Christ
and the individual and Christ and the church, the picture is
not nearly, nearly as beautiful as the real thing. Does Christ
dwell with us? He most certainly does. Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 6. According to the riches of His
grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin
according to the riches of His grace. Now we're not accepted
by the Beloved. nor did you stand there and god
the father said here all of these people i have chosen all of the
elect or your would you take them you know i don't know we
work for it in christ we are all of your phone and flourish
of his flash and members of his body he'd dwells with us twenty
four hours a day where three or more gathered in my name there
will I be in a mystery there's more than three here. Christ
is here. He dwells with us. He watches
over us. He protects us. He is our protector
and provider. He is the one that is able to
take care of us. Now does he Does he have the knowledge that's
required here to award his bride? And you better believe he does.
He's the only one that knows all about us. He knew that in
the fullness of time, I would be born. At the appointed time,
October the 7th, 1936, that I would come into this world, shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. He knew that
I would go astray from the womb, speaking lies as soon as I be
born. He knew that I would have a heart
that was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? He knew that
my carnal mind would be enmity against God, that I would not
be subject to the law of God, neither indeed could be. He knew
that I would be an alien to the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger
to the covenants of promise, without having no hope And without
God in the world, he knew that I would be born into this world
dead in trespasses and sin, and he loved me anyway. The most
important thing he knew is this. He knew that I could never stand
before God wholly and without blame unless He became sin for
me. Who knew no sin that I might
be made the righteousness of God in Him? He knows more about
us than we know about ourselves. He knew all these things and
He married us anyway. In spite of ourselves, He made
us willing in the day of His power. He made us beautiful. He made us a priceless object,
a child of God. The Lord Jesus Christ did these
things knowing who we are and who we would be. Did He treat
us with the respect that I told you you need to treat your wife
with? It's so amazing how gentle the Lord Jesus Christ is with
his children. You remember in John chapter
four it says he must needs go through Samaria. Why? He had to go that way or go a
long ways out of his way. But there was a specific reason.
There was a woman there in Jacob's will that had been married five
times. She's well-practiced at being
married. And the man she's living with
now, she's not married to him. That's what Southern Baptists
call living in sin. And there's one little bitty
detail that if you're not careful, you'll overlook. It said that
Jesus sat on the well thus, probably tired, probably with his head
in his hands waiting for this woman. And in parentheses it
said, all the disciples had went to the village to buy bread.
Now why, they're all tired, why would you send 12 men to pick
up groceries that one man could carry? The reason is this. to keep that woman from coming
to the well with 13 strange men standing around it. She would
never be at ease. She would never be engaged in
a conversation with any of them. They're Jewish and she's Samaritan.
The Lord honored this woman, respected this child of God enough
to bring her there by herself and his self. And he engaged
her in a conversation, and he brought her to this point. The
woman said, I know that Messiah cometh, and when he has come,
which is called Christ, and when he has come, he will tell us
all things. And the point of the whole trip
through Samaria, sending the disciples off, the point of everything
is this. And Jesus said, I that speak
unto thee am. He brought this lady to the well
because it's the appointed time for her. It's her day of grace.
He got everything where she was comfortable and he spoke to her
and he called her. This lady was his from forever. She had always been bone of his
bone and flesh of his flesh. He could have called her there
in front of all the men and took her off to the side and talked
to her and they'd all be moving around and everything. The Lord
Jesus Christ accommodates Himself to our weaknesses when He calls
us. The woman that was taken in adultery. That has to be one of the worst
things that could ever happen. To be taken in the very act of
adultery. to be dragged down the street
by a bunch of hypocritical Pharisees with big bushy beards and their
little hats on their head and their self-righteous attitudes
and pointing the finger and the lawyers are with them. And they
drove this woman down the street and threw her out in the middle
of the crowd where the Lord is. And there they stood, these guardians
of God's word with their arms folded and they said, hey, teacher,
Moses commanded that when you catch somebody like this woman
caught in a very act of adultery, you stone them to death. What
do you say? Me? I would have said, hey, where's
the man? And why are you talking about
stoning her to death? You haven't stoned people to
death for adultery in hundreds of years. David committed adultery
and killed his best friend. Nobody stoned him to death. They
had quit stoning a long time ago. But the Lord didn't do that. stooped down and wrote with his
finger in the dust. Now, people will worry more about
what he wrote in the dust than they'll worry about the fact
that that's a child of his there in a bad place. He wrote on the
dirt dust with his fingers and he stood up. Scripture says they
kept asking. All at the same time, what do
you say? Give us an answer. Come on, what is it? And he stood
up and he said, he that is without sin among you, let him cast the
first stone. And he stooped over again, frightened
in the dust. Scripture says that being convicted
by their conscience, they all melted away from the oldest down
to the youngest. And finally, there's no one left
but him and the woman. And he stood up and he said,
Woman, where are those thine accusers? Now this is not a sign
of anything bad. It's a sign of respect when he
called her woman. Remember whenever his mother
came to him in Cana of Galilee to make the water and the wine?
What did he say? Woman, what have I to do with
thee? Mine hour is not yet come. It doesn't mean disrespect. It
was a common Jewish greeting. He said woman. Where are those
of thine accusers? Does no man condemn thee? This
lady is standing there shamed and heartbroken. Her world has
come to an end. And the only answer to all of
her problem is standing there talking to her. He has loved
this woman since before the foundation of the world. Well, how do you
know that? Because no man can call Jesus Lord except by the
Holy Ghost. And she said, no man, Lord, capital
L-O-R-D, Lord. And he said, neither do I condemn
thee. Go and sin no more. You can read
this book from cover to cover, and you'll never find one child
of God that the Lord Jesus Christ got rough with or mean with. Saul of Tarsus, what did he do?
He knocked him off of the horse. Lay down there, boy, you've done
me more damage than anybody else in Israel. Now, he didn't say
that. All he said was, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
His children and He softens their heart. He gives them the ability
to come to Him. He knows we don't have the ability
or the desire to come to God. He knows that. But He will convict
our conscience. He will born us again. He will give us the ability to
see the kingdom of God. He will make us willing in the
day of his power, and he does it in the gentlest way you can
imagine. Nobody in town liked Zacchaeus. He's a tax collector, publican. They were notorious in Israel
at that time. Nobody liked him. He's a little
short guy and he climbs up in a tree so he can see Jesus. And
Jesus walks by and looks up and said, Zacchaeus, come down out
of that tree for today I must abide at your house. You don't
get any more gentle than that. He is the friend of publicans
and sinners. We are so precious to the Lord
Jesus Christ that it's beyond our capacity to understand to
be made sin for us. That's the worst possible thing
that could happen to him, to be made sin. The spotless lamb
of God made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. We are so precious and priceless
that he's prepared a place for us to go after we're gone. How
precious are we in the sight of God? Precious in the eyes
of the Lord is the death of his saints. We've been living down
here in the flesh, kicking and screaming with the rest of the
world, trying to make a living and doing this and doing that.
And all of a sudden we're with God. and it's precious to god
the death that we die is precious because now we're with him now
we're with him the whole universe was made for christ and we are
in union with christ that's the most fantastic thing that the
lord could possibly do to us to bring us in union with him
you know why We don't just get the credit for what he did. We were in Christ when he was
crucified. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ now liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. not my faith,
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for
me. This is the basic difference
between freewill religion and the gospel, is this marriage. Any freewill preacher that lives
will tell you that when you accept Jesus, You go into union with
him. You become a bone of his bones
and flesh of his flesh when you accept Jesus. That's not true. We were a bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh before he ever created the world. That's not even the same Jesus
that we know. So we put our wives as a weaker
vessel up on a shelf where they can't be harmed. We set them
up there. Does Christ do that for us? Oh,
yes, he does. He sanctifies us. He sets us
apart. And nothing is going to happen
to us. I don't care what it is. Christ
is there. I don't care what happened. We're
not worried about those that can kill the body. We will be
with Christ. He cares enough for us to come
back for us. And raise us up in the air to
go, so shall we ever be with the Lord. He's going to take
us back to paradise where a place has been prepared for us. That's
our marriage to the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 5 says,
Husband, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it. We're never really gonna be able
to do that, but we can see how much Christ loved the church.
Do we love our wives enough to leave the most beautiful place
that there's ever been, paradise? To leave the very presence of
God? To come down off of our throne,
down into this stinky world and live in a mud hut for 33 years? He took on him the likeness of
sinful flesh for his wife. Do we love our wives enough to
lead a sinless life and let her take the credit for it and get
all the good for it? That's what the Lord did. I want
to tell you something. It says here, excuse me, about
women being in subjection to their husband, and it calls Sarah
by name. And said, even Sarah called Abraham
Lord. Sarah means princess, but her
birth name, her name from before was Sarai, and that means contentious. And Sarah was a very contentious
woman. When the Lord Jesus Christ and
two angels were going to Sodom to burn it to the ground, they
stopped at Abraham's tent and they ate a meal with Abraham.
And I'll paraphrase this. The Lord told Abraham about this
time next year, Sarah is going to bear a child. And Sarah's
standing in the tent door behind them. And scripture says Sarah
laughed within herself. Yeah, good luck with that. Abraham's
almost 100 years old and I'm crowding 90. Yeah, I can see
me having a child. She laughed within herself. And when the Lord said, wherefore
did Sarah laugh? She lied to God. She said, I did not laugh. He
said, no, no, no, no, you laughed. But if you go over to Hebrews
chapter 11, It says that Sarah also, through faith, received
strength to conceive seed and bring forth a child because she
believed, she had faith in Him that told her. You know what
that is? Laughing in the tent door is
Sarah in the flesh. But God doesn't see Sarah in
the flesh. He sees Sarah in Christ. And because he does, she gets
credit for having the faith to conceive seed. And he's the same
way about me. He doesn't see Robert Horton
in the flesh with all my failings and all the dumb things I do.
He sees Robert Horton in Christ. Another one was Job. It was a
day when all of the sons of God came before God and Satan himself
came with them. And the Lord said to Satan, he
said, whence comest thou? He said, ah, from walking up
and down in the earth and to and fro in it. And the Lord said,
hast thou considered my servant Job, a perfect and an upright
man who loves good and hates evil? There's none in the whole
world like him. And that's followed by 41 chapters
of Job in the flesh. But God doesn't see Job in the
flesh. He sees Job in Christ. That is the strongest comfort
we can possibly have. I don't care what you do within
reason. I don't care what you do. You
are a child of God and whatever you just did has been thrown
into the depths of the sea and God has forgotten it because
God sees us in Christ. Christ loved the church, his
wife enough to willfully lay down on a wooden cross and let
them drive nails through his hands and his feet, knowing,
knowing that all he had to do was say the word and 12 legions
of angels would come down there and they would make the earth
a waste howling wilderness. But if he would have, his bride
would have died. His bride would have never seen
glory. He loved his wife enough to spend
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth in a stone
tomb that was not even his. He loved his wife enough to be
despised and rejected of men, to be a man of sorrow and well
acquainted with grief. He loved his wife enough to come
down from heaven and be made sin for us who knew no sin, that
all of us might be made to righteousness of God in him. Do we love our
wives that much? I doubt it. We don't have the
capacity, but we ought to. to dwell with
your wife in knowledge and render unto her the honor due to the
weaker vessel is not a suggestion. God didn't say it'd be nice if
you'd do that. He said, do it. He didn't say
it'd be nice if you loved your wife as much as Christ loved
the church. He said, do it. Now, in a marriage of a man to
a woman, The last word. The last word your wife needs
to hear at night just before she falls asleep. Is I love you. That's what she needs to go to
sleep. Having heard that. If you really
love her. If you really know how she is,
if you really want to give her honor as unto the weaker precious
vessel. you'll do that. Because Christ
did that for us. What's the last word that Christ
said to all of us before he ascended into heaven? The last verse in
Revelations. May the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you all. Amen. He loves us. father we thank you that you've
given us wives father godly women that we do love father and even
though we fall short so many times in so many ways father
we we are able to go on with each other we ask father that
you'd give us the grace to know father that you've loved us before
the foundation of the world you'll never forsake us father that
You'll do all things for our good that you will come back
for us, Father, and you'll raise us up in the air to be with you
forever. Ask you to be with Greg, Father,
and give him a safe trip home back here where we love him,
where his church is. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Let's close with hymn number
186. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. his new creation by water and
the word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. ? Elect from every nation ? Get
one or all the earth ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord, one
faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one holy
food and to one hope she presses with every grace and due. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. till with a vision glorious her
longing eyes are blessed and the great church victorious shall
be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union With
God the three in one, And mystic sweet communion With those whose
rest is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with thee. Before we're dismissed, I have
a short announcement.