I don't think I've ever been
to one where the bride played the piano. But we're glad that she has and
she's here. Thank you all for coming. Joy,
we love you. This is a special, special time.
If you'll turn in your Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians,
I want to read from God's Word. And I'll begin with verse 32
in Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 beginning
at verse 32. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and His church. Now we just sang
about the covenant of grace. There is a marriage that was
made in heaven long before time ever started. where God the Father
coveted with the Son and with the Holy Spirit to purchase for
Himself a bride. And that's what this passage
of Scripture is talking about. And it's a mystery in that it
can't be understood by the natural man. The natural man receives
not the things of the Spirit. They're spiritually discerned.
It's not called a mystery because it's mysterious or weird. It's
a mystery because it's hidden. It's hidden from the natural
man. God has to reveal it to us, and I hope tonight that He
will. Let's begin back, because that's
what this whole passage is about. It's about Christ and His Church. Verse 21, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of God. 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. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify make it holy, separate unto himself, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water
by the word." So God uses his word. James put it like this
when he said, of his own will, of God's own will, begat he us
with the word of truth. The Lord, if he's going to be
pleased to reveal himself to us, it will be through his word. that he might present it to himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but it should be holy and without blemish, perfect before God. There's gonna come a day when
God Almighty is gonna parade the bride of Christ, His church,
before all of creation as a trophy of His grace. What a glorious
day that'll be. And tonight is just a reminder
of what we have to anticipate. So, verse 28, so ought men to
love their wives even as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself. For no man ever hateth his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth, even as the Lord the church.
For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband." Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would be pleased tonight to send your Holy Spirit and
power to open what no man can shut. Lord, that you would open
the mystery of the gospel of the union that Christ has with
his church. And Lord, that you would enable
us in this time of rejoicing with Delphus in joy, to get a
glimpse of that mystery in heaven, that eternal union that Christ
has with his church. For we ask it in his name. Be thou our vision, O Lord of
our heart, Naught be all else to us, save that thou art. by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, thy presence
our light. Be Thou our wisdom, and Thou
our true word. We ever with Thee, and Thou with
us, Lord. Thou our great Father, we Thy
true son. Thou in us dwelling, and we with
Thee one. Riches we'd not, nor man's empty
praise, Thou our inheritance now and always. And thou only, first in our heart
High King of Heaven, our treasure thou art High King of heaven,
our victory won, May we reach heaven's joys, our bright heaven's
sun, Heart of our own heart, whatever befall. ? Be our vision ? ? Still be our
vision ? ? O ruler of all ? Thank you, Celeste. Our prayer tonight is that God
would be pleased to reveal the mystery that is between Himself
and His church. And I have four words that I
want to deal with tonight, that if the Lord gives us some understanding
as to what these words mean in relationship to Christ and His
church, then we'll have a glimpse into that which is eternal and
that which is only saving. The only hope of salvation is
in this relationship that the Lord Jesus Christ has with his
church. The four words I'd like to share
with you tonight are the words covenant, the word union, the
word love, and the word forgiveness. Covenant, union, love, and forgiveness. And as I said, if God is pleased
to help us to understand these four truths as they relate to
the relationship that Christ has with His church, then there's
hope that we would be part of that church. Now covenant, first
of all, is a promise. It's the sealing of an agreement
between two parties. and certainly that's true in
the marriage union. Fulfilling certain promises,
two parties enter into a relationship and they agree to love and to
cherish and to remain faithful one to the other. We oftentimes
refer to the marriage union as tying the knot because we're
making reference to that covenant relationship that a man and a
woman enter into when they are married. The Bible speaks of
a covenant. We just sang about it. It's called
the covenant of grace. In fact, there's only two covenants
referred to in the scriptures. The old covenant, the covenant
of law, and the new covenant, the covenant of grace. The mystery
of these two covenants is that the covenant of grace pre-exists
the covenant of works. The Covenant of Grace, the New
Covenant, is eternally older than the Old Covenant. Men in
religion like to talk about the Adamic Covenant, and the Noahic
Covenant, and the Abrahamic Covenant, and they distinguish all these
different relationships that God had with men down through
the ages. But there's only two covenants.
There's the Covenant of Works, and there's the Covenant of Grace.
God put our father Adam under the covenant of works. He put
him under a law. He said you keep this law and
you will live. You disobey this law and you
will die. Now we know exactly what happened
with our father Adam. He disobeyed and he died. And
every one of us every one of us fell in our father Adam so
that we were born into this world spiritually dead. Now, men, by
their own natural instincts and inclinations, think that they
can earn favor with God by keeping the law. And so they enter into
this covenant of works in hopes that they'll be able to merit
some favor with God. But that covenant can't save. The covenant of works, the covenant
of the law, all it can do is condemn. That's all it can do. The only thing the law can say
to a sinner is guilty. And so the Lord said, I will
make a new covenant with my people. It won't be like the old covenant
that they broke. I'm going to take out their heart
of stone. I'm going to put in a heart of
flesh. I'm going to write my laws upon their hearts and impress
it upon their minds. And I'm going to establish this
covenant of grace. And it's not going to be like
the old covenant that depended upon both parties. I'm going
to take it upon myself to fulfill both sides of the covenant. That's
what he did. That's what he did. The Lord
Jesus Christ came into the world in order to satisfy the demands
of God's law, in order to put away our sins, and in order to
fulfill the covenant. And so God the Father, before
time began, entered into a covenant to promise his son a bride. The
son agreed in that covenant to pay the dowry for that bride,
which was His own precious blood. And the Holy Spirit entered into
that covenant and agreed to make those who were chosen by the
Father in the covenant of grace, redeemed by the Son, He was going
to make them willing and bring them to Himself. And so that's
the reason David, King David concluded his life. He concluded
all of his life by saying this, Although my house be not so with
God. The tabernacle of this flesh,
my home, my house, my relationships with men aren't as it ought to
be. And every one of us can say that.
Although my house be not so with God. Yet. He has made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure." And
David said, this is all my salvation. This is all my desire. This covenant
that Joy and Delphos are going to enter into tonight, if you're
a believer, you rejoice in knowing that there's another covenant.
There's another covenant that God Himself established and that
God Himself fulfilled for the saving of His people. And He's
not depending upon us. He's not depending upon us to
do anything. And I'm so thankful for that.
If any part of our salvation was dependent upon us, we would
not be saved. God had to do it all. He had
to do it all. And He did it all. The second
word I want us to think about tonight is the word union. Union. When God made Adam, he
put him in the garden, and he gave him time to name all the
animals, and in naming all the animals, Adam came to realize
there was nobody in that garden like he was. And so the Lord
said, I'll make a help meet for him. And the scripture says that
God put Adam into a deep sleep and he opened up his side and
he took out a rib, which I think is very significant in that God
didn't take Eve from the foot of Adam to be under him. She didn't take Eve from the
head of Adam to be over him. He took Eve from the rib of Adam
nearest to his heart and to be his equal. And when Adam awoke
from that sleep and saw what God had done, he said, This is
now flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. A man shall leave
his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh." One flesh. What a beautiful picture
of Christ and His church. The Lord Jesus Christ provided
for His church a union before God that makes us perfect in
the presence of God. In Jeremiah chapter 22, the scripture
says, and He, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. And then 10 chapters later in
Jeremiah chapter 33, the scripture says, and she, speaking of the
church, shall be called the Lord our righteousness. After tonight,
Joy, you'll no longer be Joy Martin. You'll be Joy Grubbs. And rightfully so. Taking the
name of your husband is your expression of belief in what
Christ has done in giving to His church His name. The scripture says that we only
find acceptance before God in the beloved. And Paul put it
like this when he said, and being found in him, all that I might
be found in him, found in Christ, in union with Christ, not having
my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's our only hope.
The only hope of standing in the presence of a holy God is
to be found in union with Christ. The life of the Lord Jesus Christ
must be your life. It must be your righteousness.
Men ignorantly go about trying to establish their own righteousness,
being ignorant of the righteousness of God, for Christ is that righteousness
and He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
must be our death. We're only redeemed if we're
found in Him. The resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is our justification before God. The ascension of
the Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of God, is
our hope of glory. Union with Christ is the only
hope that any of us have. of being accepted in the presence
of God. The scripture says that God's
eyes are too pure to look upon sin. He can't have anything to
do with you or anything to do with me if we're not hitting
Christ. Men think, well, I'll just do
my best. No, your best won't be good enough. God requires
absolute, complete perfection from you and from me. That's
what He demands. How are we going to stand in
the presence of God? Only by having union with Christ. Having Him as our representative
before God. It's the only hope that we have.
And so this marriage union reminds us of that. John put it like
this, as he is, so are we. He that sanctifyeth and they
that are sanctified are all as one, whereby he is not ashamed
to call them his brethren. Union with Christ. It's the only
hope we have. We don't have anything to offer
God for His acceptance unless the Lord Jesus Christ stands
in our stead. When Christ, who is our life,
notice how that verse says, we're not talking about the most important
thing in your life, we're talking about your life. When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then you shall appear with Him
in glory." Covenant, eternal, everlasting covenant of grace
is the only hope that we have before God. Union with Christ. This is the mystery. This is
what's hid from the natural man. He can't see it. He can't see
it. Unless the Lord opens the eyes
of our understanding, we won't believe it. What a delight it is for two
believers to join their lives together in marriage with some
understanding of what we're talking about here. The third word I
want us to look at tonight is the word love. Love. It is the thing that brought,
joined Delphi together. It is that which will keep you
faithful to one another. It is that which will keep you
looking out for the best interest of one another. The scripture
says, love seeketh not her own. It is that which will enable
you to bear with one another when you become an irritant to
each other. It is love. It is that which will cause you
to believe the best about one another. For love believeth all
things. And the scripture says that love
never faileth. So God's love doesn't fail. And it is the love that will
keep you faithful until you die. Nurture it. Nurture that love. My prayer for you is that you'll
look back on this day And you'll say, that's the day that we loved
each other the least. That you'll grow in grace and
in the knowledge of Christ. And that God's love in your hearts
will just mature and grow. That's the way His love works. It's just the way it works. Love
covers a multitude of sins. What about God's love? Love,
in order to be love, has to be particular. This is very important. It has to be particular. Delphus,
you just say to Joy tonight, Honey, I love you with all my
heart in the same way that I love every other woman in the world.
Let's see how that works for you. That's ridiculous, isn't it?
It's ridiculous. And yet men think that God has
this some sort of benevolent affection for all men without
any particular focus of that love. It's not true. It's not
true to Scripture. It's not true to reason. If God
loves everybody, if God loves everybody, then I ask you one
simple question. What in the world does the love
of God have to do with anyone's salvation? If God loves everybody,
then you can't say that the love of God has anything to do with
anyone's salvation. The scripture says, Jacob I have
loved and Esau I have hated. God's love is a perfect love.
He doesn't change. And his hatred is a perfect hatred.
He said of Pharaoh, even for this same purpose, I raised you
up that I might show my power in you. And he endured with much
long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. God's speaking of the reprobate. He says, I endured them Those
that I made to destroy. Yes, I am saying with the authority
of God's Word that God makes men to send them to hell. That's
the truth. And if you don't believe that,
then you've got a God that's not consistent with the God of
Scripture. The God of Scripture's love is
very particular. It's particular toward His elect. that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared
unto glory." This is a marriage made in heaven. This mystery
of Christ and his church, God of his own will and purpose chose
a particular people and he placed them in Christ before time ever
began. and he loved them with an everlasting
love. And so John says, oh, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the children of God? You see, the unbeliever hears
what I'm saying now and they say, well, that's not fair. And
the believer hears what I'm saying right now and they say, why in
the world would God ever love me? Now there's the difference. Which question are you asking?
1 Corinthians 13 verse 4 says that
his love envieth not. Now I used to have a God that
envied me. I did. I used to worship a God
that envied me. He loved me as he did all men. He sacrificed his son for all
men, but his hands were tied, and he couldn't do anything unless
I let him have his way. And so my will, in fact, was
sovereign. My will was omnipotent. And God wanted to come into my
life, but he couldn't unless I allowed him to. He had every
reason in the world to envy me, for I had power over Him. That's not the love of God. That's
not the love of God. Our God envies not, does He?
He's loved us with an everlasting love. Jeremiah said, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. There's never been a time, never
been a time when God didn't love His people. He's always viewed his church
in the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. He said this, God said this,
I change not. And that's the only reason that
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I am the same yesterday, today,
and forever. We worship a God who is sovereign
and who is immutable. And His love is particular, and
His love is everlasting, and His love is effectual. It's effectual. When He's ready to make you willing,
He's going to make you willing. And you're going to come. That's
just who He is. John put it like this when he
said, herein is love. Here's the definition of love.
Not that we loved God. We don't define love by our love
for God. That's so fickled and it's so
faltered. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as a propitiation
for our sins. Here's the evidence of God's
love, that He sent His Son. to lay down His life, not for
the goats. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John chapter 17, He said, I pray not, Father, for the world, but
I pray for them which thou hast given me out of the world. He
was praying for His bride. He laid down His life for His
bride. He draws us with cords of kindness,
and when our time of love comes, He makes us willing, and His
love no doubt, is irresistible. Irresistible. Why am I spending
so much time on this? Because it's our understanding
of God's love for us that enables us to love Him and to love one
another. He's the source of true love. And anything else is nothing
more than just human emotion. That's all it is. It's not God's
love. Fourthly, covenant, union, love,
and forgiveness. Today is a high point in Delphi's
and Joy's life and it should be. It's a day we rejoice with
them over and all is well. And if they were young and dumb
like some young people I've married over the years, they might think
this honeymoon is going to last forever. But they know better.
They know better. They know there's going to come
times when they're going to irritate one another. There's going to
come times when they're going to offend one another. They know that it's
hard enough for one sinner to live with himself. You put two
sinners under the same roof and you've got double trouble. They know that they have selfishness
and pride and stubbornness that's going to cause offense to one
another. They also know themselves to
be the chief of all sinners. They know that whatever offense
might be caused by the other toward them, that the offense
that they have caused by their sin towards God is infinitely
greater. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. forgiveness. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
came to do. He came to bear in His body upon
the tree the sins of His bride in order to satisfy the demands
of God's holy justice and put away those sins once and for
all. So he said, I have separated
your sins from you as far as the east is from the west and
I remember them no more. Oh, what liberty, what freedom
there is in knowing that our sins have been put away. that
God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
gave up the ghost, cried from the cross, it is finished. Everything necessary for your
salvation, I've done it. We're back to the covenant. By
virtue of the covenant that I made with the Father, I fulfilled
that covenant. By virtue of the fact that God
has placed you in me, you're dying in me. By virtue of the fact that God
has loved you particularly and eternally and effectually with
an everlasting love, your sins are forgiven you. Christ himself
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The
self-righteous man who's under the covenant of works goes about,
ignorant of the righteousness of God in Christ, trying to establish
his own righteousness. That's why men are religious.
They're trying to earn favor with God. The child of God who's been given
by the grace of God some understanding of the mystery of the gospel
knows that all of their hopes and all their salvation is in
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the
Bridegroom. And He's done everything necessary
for that eternal wedding feast. Will you bow with me in prayer,
please? Our Heavenly Father, we're so very thankful for the
good news of the gospel, the mystery of Christ and his church,
the truth of your covenant, your union, your love, and your forgiveness. We ask your blessing on each
of us here that we would be given eyes to see and hearts to believe.
And we ask your blessing on Delphus and Joy that you would remind
them who they are in Christ and grow them in your grace as they
exemplify Christ and His church. For it's in His name we pray,
Amen. Are we singing now? Okay, I don't know what's going
on. Number 62 from your hardback
template. Number 62. Crown him with many crowns. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee. And hail Him as thy matchless
King through all eternity. Crown him the Lord of love, behold
his hands and side. Rich wounds yet visible above,
in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully
bear that sight, But downward bends his wandering eye at mysteries
so bright. Crown Him the Lord of life, Who
triumphed o'er the grave, Who rose victorious to the strife,
For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. Crown Him the Lord of Heaven,
One with the Father known, One with the Spirit through Him given,
From yonder glorious throne. To Thee be endless praise, For
Thou for us hast died, Be thou, O Lord, through endless days
adored and magnified. Please be seated. The Lord initiated his relationship
with this church. He's the one who sought us out. He's the one who called us to
himself. And so it's proper in understanding
that the man may want to share his house. and sickness and illness, to
love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love
and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish,
to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love
and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish,
to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to
cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love
and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love
and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to
cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love
and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love and to cherish, to love
and has been used symbolically for
centuries to seal the fort. to make another and the blood
of God to demonstrate to us in Christ. So if you would help
us if you would place this ring towards your finger, and if you
would do that for me, that this ring I leave with him, and hereby
seal my vows, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Amen. based on the pattern of Christ
and His Church. It's not great, but God is going
to do it. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.