Proverbs 18 22 who so findeth
a wife Findeth a good thing and obtaineth
favor of the Lord Now we know from the scriptures That a wife
a husband and wife or a picture of Christ's Church Christ himself in that relationship
between Him and we who are called his bride in the Word of God
And we're told that when a man finds a wife he is to love her
as Christ also Loved the church and gave himself For the church Now that's the the message of
husband and wife in the scriptures, and we know that in this world, you might think it's a different
picture, but just because we mess often, we mess that arrangement
up, doesn't change the truth of it. God gave man, a wife in the garden. He said, it's not good for a
man to be alone. And he gave Adam a help me Eve
to be his wife. And that is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ and his church all through the scripture, especially
Ephesians five, where you're familiar of how that Paul deals
with that there. Think of this. First, I guess, as a principle
in life, you'll notice in the text, it doesn't say a good thing. The original language says, whoso
findeth a wife, findeth good. Findeth good. Think about that
as a God-ordained principle of life, like train up a child in
the way he shall go, and when he's old, he will not depart
from it. Think of it that way, whoso findeth a wife findeth
good. People pursue careers and fame
or fortune in this life and many, because of that and other reasons,
despise the idea of being committed to one person for life. But God
has declared his blessing on this and not that. And we should see it that way,
of course. God has declared his blessing. It's an interesting
study to go through the word of God and see what all God says
is good. Because what you think is good
and bad might be another thing. What God says is good is good.
And he says, when a man finds a wife, he findeth good. I might have missed it somewhere.
I hate to ever say something or other is not in the Word of
God, because I don't know about you, but reading the Bible is
one thing, but by the time I get through reading it, I've forgotten
what I read a year ago or however long it was. So it's hard to
say, I don't, that I know for sure it's not in there, but I'm
pretty sure, it doesn't say anywhere that he that findeth wealth findeth
good. For he that getteth rich findeth
good. Pretty sure it doesn't say that. Of course, money can be a blessing
from the Lord. But it's interesting, God does
give people money, if you have any, and you do, we do, we're
all rich in here. Whether we think we are or not,
we are. God gave you that and that's
a blessing from the Lord. He does give that, but in and
of itself, good. We're warned about money. But love somebody. To love. We're not warned about that,
we're just told straight up. That's good. I mention money because there's
really just a few things that matter to people in this world.
And that's, of course, one of them. So we're warned
about riches, but we have this word concerning a wife. As I
mentioned, the Lord in the very beginning said, it's not good
for man to be alone. So think about this,
something being good doesn't necessarily mean that the absence
of that is not good. It doesn't necessarily mean that,
but here it does. To be alone is not good. But to find a wife is good. When you get old, or even older, like me, I'm not old, but I'm
older. When I'm 65, I'll admit it, I'll
confess I'm old, but not yet. And we ain't long from there,
any of us. But when you get older, everything
else in this world fades. I'm old enough to know that a
little bit. All of the things that you've
always wanted to prove to yourself all your life, those things will
lose priority, as they should. Say unto yourself one of these
days, Maybe you don't think of it that
way, but that's what we all say all the time. One of these days.
I know that didn't turn out like I wanted, but one of these days.
I know I don't have what I need now, but one of these days. Saying that to yourself before
long is just gonna remind you that these days are very few. And that thought, one of these
days, is gonna become a hollow prospect. What it comes down to is those
that you love. That's what it comes down to. If you love the Lord, of course,
that's That's everything, isn't it?
Because we love him because he first loved us. But as far as just this temporal
life is concerned, it comes down to those that you love. They're
gonna become more precious and almost nothing else will. Very
few things in this world become more precious. to the believer
as the years go by. Very, very few. Those are the
things you want to hold on to. It seems when you do get older
and those that you love matter more and more. It's then it's when people might
think, you know, that love grows old along with us. But it seems
to me that then is when you really begin to understand something of what this word good
is, what God has given you if he's given you somebody to love. Now, I like to say that Vicki
fell in love with me at first sight because let's face it,
I was pretty irresistible. And there is some truth to that. I wish she was, I was hoping
I was gonna score some brownie points this morning. Not that
way, I wouldn't, would I? But she's not in here, but I'll
tell you. Our text tells us what happened. The last part of our
text tells us what happened. When you find love, There's only
gonna be one thing you can attribute that to. You're gonna say, the
Lord did that. The Lord did that. He did that
for me. And when Paul in Ephesians 5
was writing concerning husbands and wives, he said, what I'm
talking about here is Christ and his church. I'm not saying that Christ and his church is
kind of like a bride and his wife, or a husband and his wife. What he's saying is that the
husband and wife should be like Christ and his church. That's
what's really at the center of this. And that is what we're talking
about. God saying that it's not good for a man to be alone is
a glorious picture of God's eternal purpose of grace. In finding
a bride for his son, you remember the parable that our Lord told
in Matthew 22, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain
king that made a marriage for his son. in honoring his son, and you'll
see that parable's all about the honor of the son. Everybody
that's there's gonna honor him. And the father's gonna see to
that. But the way that the father honors
his son is by making a marriage for him. God saw that it was not good
for Christ to be alone in glory. What an amazing thought. And
so God made a bride for him. The love that Christ has for
his bride is like no other. We are to imitate it. We are
to be aware of that in our relationships. and imitate that and strive for
that and desire that and to pray for that. But there's no love
like that. That's why instead of the scripture
saying his love is like that of a man for his wife, Paul tells
us there in Ephesians five that our love is to be like his for
his bride. God commended his love toward
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Read the story in the book of
Hosea about Hosea and Gomer about this, because that's what
the Lord said to Hosea at the beginning of the book. He said,
I'm going to show you something about my love for Israel, for
my elect, for my people. And he did. His love for us is the only true
definition of love. Men have tried, but when God said here in his love,
you're about to find out what love is. And it's what he says about that
is that he loved us and gave himself, gave his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. So if the Lord
has blessed you with a wife or to be the wife of a man that
counts you as being favored of the Lord, then it wasn't written in the
stars. It was written someplace much
more wonderful than that, in the heart of God. And if not, if that's not a relationship
that you have now in this world, then the greater meaning of this
as a believer is yours nonetheless. Look to the Lord as your heavenly
husband who loved you as himself and wants nothing more than for
you to be with him to behold his glory. You know, we see that in earthly
relationships of husband and wife. My wife doesn't have to
do anything to impress me, to please me, to achieve some level of wifiness
or whatever you want to call it. I just want her to be with
me. I want her to be with me. The Lord Jesus Christ is with
you now. When everyone in this world forsakes
you, he said, I won't. And we can be content in whatsoever
state we are because of that. Because he said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. and he will be with us forever. It's a blessed thought that crosses
my mind every now and then. And it's one of those things that's
so kind of obvious, I guess, that you overlook it. Somebody preached it in a message
somewhere, I don't remember. But every once in a while, it
crosses my mind that since the Lord came where I was, I will
never be without Him ever again. Never without Him. I am His and He is mine and always will be.