I invited him to preach tonight,
but I wasn't sure what time he would get here. And then Sunday,
somebody had requested that I preach. They're coming through. And I
had agreed to that before I knew Angus was coming or I would have
him preach Sunday. I hate that he came all this
way and I'm not going to get to hear him preach. Go with me
now to Hosea chapter 2. Hosea chapter 2. Tonight we're going to continue
with our series on marriage. And as I said last time, now
I'm not an authority on marriage, but God is. And my purpose is
to preach Christ to you, and then I hope that we can, by God's
grace, glean a few practical things that He teaches us about
marriage as we go. And why preach about marriage? Well, first of all, it's because
I love you who I serve, and I want what is best for you. And secondly,
I love Christ whose servant I am, and I want Him to receive the
glory that's due to Him. And I know that whatever brings
Him all the glory is what is best for you. And there's a third
reason I'm preaching these messages on marriage. Whenever I stand
to conduct the service with Rob and Kristen in a few weeks, if
they're anything like I was when I got married, they're going
to be so nervous, they probably won't hear a thing I say. And
so I want them to hear it now. So those are three reasons. Now,
during that ceremony, you both will take vows. And the vows
that we take at our wedding are of utmost importance because
they're vows that you take before Almighty God. You know, the marriage
vow is not simply some nice pretty words that everybody hears you
repeat. It's a vow to God. It's before
God and it is to God. And the covenant that you'll
enter into in that day, the covenant you're entering into is not just
a marriage covenant with each other. It really and truly is
a covenant. with God. Especially when you're
talking about two believers. Because Christ says, whatever
I do to her, I do to Christ. And whatever she does to me,
she's doing to Christ. This is a promise to treat one
of His own like we ought. It's a vow. Now anybody that
takes something like that lightly is a fool. Because this is very,
very, very serious. Very serious. Now the marriage
vow of a husband and wife is not only important because it's
a vow that you're saying you will keep before God, but it's
also important because it glorifies Christ and His covenant to His
bride by which He saves us. So it's not just a covenant you're
vowing to keep before God, it's also a covenant that glorifies
Christ, the vow Christ made by which Christ saves His bride.
Now our text here in Hosea 2, this is Christ's covenant vow
to His bride, the church. You know, this is that familiar
passage that I love to preach from on occasion. It's that beautiful
picture of Hosea and Gomer. Hosea is a picture of Christ.
But this here is actually the word of the Lord. The Lord is
speaking here and He is speaking of His elect church. He is speaking
of His bride. This is the covenant Christ made
in eternity when He entered into covenant and that covenant vow
to to save His people and became our surety. And this is the vow
He makes in our hearts when He comes through the Spirit and
reveals Himself to us and teaches us the gospel and teaches us
the everlasting covenant of grace. So, consider that now when we
read this. This is Christ's covenant vow
to save His bride. He says, verse 19, I will betroth
thee unto Me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in
mercies. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. Now first of all, Christ vows,
I will betroth thee unto me. Now he says that three times. in that passage. He says it three
times. And when I read that, the first
thing I'm reminded of is that the salvation of God's people
is by the three persons of the Godhead. God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. We worship
one God in three persons. And Christ says there, I betroth
thee to Me. I betroth thee to Me. Now when
Christ makes His marriage vow in our hearts, He brings us into
a marriage covenant with Him and Him alone. You know, we have,
when we're dead in our sins, we're trying to make a covenant
with the law. We're trying to make a covenant
ourselves with God. because we're ignorant, we're
lost, we're blind, and we don't understand the Gospel. But when
Christ comes and betroths you to Himself, when He espouses
you to Him in marriage through the Holy Spirit, He makes you
understand that you're betrothed to Him and Him alone. You remember
betrothed is to be espoused. It's actually And scripturally,
it's a legal thing. It's a done thing. You know,
even though it's similar to what we would call an engagement.
But with the Lord, betrothing is a legal matter. It's much
more than just an engagement. When He does this to us, we're
married to Him. We're married to Him. And when
He does that, He makes you to know it's to Him alone. Now,
go to Ephesians 5. Hold your place here. And look
at Ephesians 5. And we'll see why He betroths us to Him and
Him alone. He says in verse 30, For we are
members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. He makes you
to know you're one with Him. He has to do this or we'll never
know this. He has to make us one with Him
by entering into us and making us one with Him. And then we
know. Then He teaches us we're one
with Him, inseparably united to Him as we have been, as all
His elect have been from eternity. He makes you know this in your
experience of His grace. And so when He makes you to know
that you're betrothed to Him, you're married to Him and Him
alone, then He also reveals to you this other thing that He
said. He said in Luke 14.33, Whosoever
He be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be
My disciple. He has to reveal that to us.
He has to turn us from whatever it is we have that we think is
going to save us or that we're in covenant with, He has to turn
us from that to Him and make us forsake all. He said in Matthew
10.37, He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not
worthy of Me. So He effectually turns us from
our nearest and dearest relations to have none above Him. He makes
Himself preeminent in the hearts of those He calls. And He does
this affectionately. He makes us willing to turn. When He turns us, we'll
be turned. He makes you willingly turn to
Him and Him alone. Now, the reason He does this
is it's impossible to be Christ's bride. It's impossible to be
in submission to Him, be faithful to Him, if we are torn between
Him and the world or Him and our own righteousness. We can't
have another love but Christ. We can't be torn between Christ
our husband and be looking back to that law as a husband. We have to be turned to Christ
alone as our husband. And so He makes you to know you
have to forsake all else and trust Him alone. Now that's why
some people don't submit to Him. Until He comes and turns you
and affectionately turns you, folks are torn between Christ
and the world. And to be torn between Christ
and the world is to be in love with the world altogether. The
Scripture says, ìLove not the world, neither the things that
are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the
Father is not in him.î So Christ comes and makes you know Heís
married you to Himself, and He turns you to forsake all, and
that youíre married to Him in Him alone. Now, when we have
a wedding, one of the first questions that will be asked at a wedding
is, ìWho gives this woman away to be married to this man?î And
the bride's father will say, her mother and I. And though
it's not spoken, though it's not tradition to speak this,
the groom's mother and father are agreeing to the same thing.
They're both giving the children away. And then the quest will
be asked the groom. This will be the vow. This will
be a question asked to the groom. Do you take this woman to yourself
to be your lawfully wedded wife? Will you forsake all others and
cleave only to her? You see where we get that? Christ
said, I'll betroth thee unto me. And he said, unless you forsake
all, you can't be my disciple. This is the first question. And
likewise, the same question will be asked to the bride. Do you
forsake all else, all others, and cleave unto this man? Now, why do we ask that? Look
back there in Ephesians 5.30. Why is that the vow? It says there in Ephesians 5.30,
we are members of Christ's body, of His flesh, and of His bones
for this cause. shall a man leave his father
and 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. Now that's as true for the woman
as it is for the man. He just mentions the man there
because he's been speaking of Christ being the head of the
church. And the man is the head of his wife. He's the head of
the house. And he loves her by laying down
his life for her and providing for her. And that's how he glorifies
Christ in the marriage union. Because he's providing all for
her. He leaves all and he cleaves unto his wife. And likewise,
the woman leaves out and cleaves to her husband. And they too
become one flesh. An old writer, an old commentator
from the 1400s wrote this. Let me read this to you. He said,
the union between a man and his wife is nearer than that which
is between parents and children. For the wife must be cleaved
unto and father and mother forsaken. Not that the former relation
between parents and children ceases, so as to have the affection
alienated from them, or to be disengaged from all care and
regard for them, but that he shall quit the house of his father,
and not bed and board there, and live with him as before,
but having taken a wife to himself, he shall live and cohabit with
her. See, I've not left father and
mother and clung to my bride as one flesh, nor am I providing
for my bride as Christ provided for the church if I'm still under
dad's roof. He's providing. I'm not providing. Of the friends I've spoken to
who have had problems and have talked to me about them, hands
down, Hands down, the most common cause is not forsaking father
and mother and clinging to one another. Hands down. And most
commonly, by attempting to live under the parent's roof or by
being too dependent upon the parents to help provide. That's hands down the most common
problem. And a close second to that is
is being critical of the spouse to father or mother or anybody
else. See, if you have a little spat
and you run and you talk to mama about it, well, when you and
your husband made up and it's over with, or you and your wife
made up and it's over with, mama's still going to remember it. You know, brethren aren't critical. We're not critical of one another
to anybody. Not to other brethren, not to
anybody. Love doesn't do that. You don't do that to somebody
you love. Scripture says, hatred stirs up strife, but love covereth
all sin. But you see now, do you see the
reason for this? It's because Christ has betrothed
us to Him. He's married us to Him. And He
says, now you forsake all and you're united to Me. We're one
with Christ. And so likewise, He says, now
husband and wife forsake all and you two become one flesh. What's hers is His and what's
His is hers. They're one. They're united.
This is to picture and glorify Christ who is united to His church. We are one with Him. Mysteriously
one with Him. Now here is the second thing
Christ said back in Hosea 2.19. He says there, And I will betroth
thee unto Me forever. I will betroth thee unto Me forever. Now God's love God's love is
not based on anything in us. We live in a western culture
where we put way too much emphasis on the other person having something
about them to make us love them. God's love is not based on anything
in us. God's love for His elect is according
to His sovereign, free grace in Christ. He didn't choose His
people because He saw something in them that made them better
than somebody else. He chose His people because He
would. His love is in Christ. And because His love is in Christ
from eternity, His love is everlasting. His love is everlasting. His
love doesn't leave eternity and come into time and change in
time. His love's eternal love. Those
He loves, He loves eternally. He never stops loving those He
loves. He said, I've loved thee with
an everlasting love. This is speaking to His people.
I've loved thee with an everlasting love. What's an everlasting love? It doesn't end. It always lasts. I've loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore in loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Drawn thee to myself. Now in
the context of our passage, you know the story here of what happened.
The Lord told Hosea, go down to a land of whoredoms and take
a bride. And he goes down, there's nobody
there but harlots. And he takes this bride. It's
a picture of Christ coming and taking His people for His bride. That's all we were, we're harlots.
And she married Hosea and for a little while was married to
him, then she went after her lovers. And married again and
again and again and again. And she got to where she lost
all her income and she was bankrupt and she couldn't pay her bills
and she was sold into slavery and she's on the slave block
now. Stripped, naked and about to
be sold but nobody's bidding on her because nobody wants her.
And look at Hosea 3.1. Then said the Lord unto me, Go
yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress.
Now watch this. According to the love of the
Lord toward the children of Israel who look to other gods and love
flagons of wine. Who is Israel he is talking about
here? He tells us who they are. They are those who look to other
gods and love flagons of wine. That's all His elect people by
nature. We didn't love God. We weren't
seeking God. We went after our lovers. And
if you go back and read Hosea 2, you'll see she was very religious. Very religious. Just like we
were. Dead as could be in our religion. And yet, the Lord said, go love
her. You see, we betrayed Christ. We plagued the harlot. We went
after our lovers. And yet God the Father said,
go yet and love her. Go yet and love her. Though she's
an adulteress, go yet and pay the price and buy her. And that's
what Christ did. See, God's love in Christ is
everlasting. Scripture says, nothing shall
be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Now that tells you, brethren,
that folks who pass through this world and leave this world never
having been brought in betrothed to Christ, he said, I'll betroth
thee to me. And those that are not turned
by Christ and united to Christ and made to willingly forsake
all, God didn't love them. Because
those He loves, He never stops loving. His love is saving love. His love is redeeming love. Those
He loves, He turns to Himself and He marries them. He makes
them to know they are married to Christ. Now, when a husband
and a wife stand before God, here is another thing that is
going to be asked in the vow. Do you promise to love one another
in joy or sorrow, in prosperity or adversity, as long as you
both shall live? Now, I know that some are divorced. I know some are divorced and
remarried. And with some, there was nothing
you could do about that. Some, there was nothing you could
do about it. With some, it took place before God saved you. And
there may be some that did it with no regard to God's glory
whatsoever. But listen to me, if you're a
believer in Christ, if Christ has called you, and He's turned
you, and He's married Himself to you, and made you willingly
be married to Him by His power and His grace, if God's forgiven
you of your sin, forget the past. People want to dwell on the past.
I heard Brother Henry use this illustration. If God saved a
murderer today, he can't go back and do anything about the fact
he murdered somebody. And you can't go back and do
anything about the past. If God says He remembers our
sin no more, don't remember Him anymore. Forget it. No believer
ought to hold that against another believer. If God says they're
forgiven, who am I to bring up their sin? Who's going to lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God to justify. It's
Christ that laid down His life, but is now risen to the right
hand of God and makes intercession for His people. Now that being
said, understand this. And this is important to understand
if you want to see the gospel in this. With God, there's no
such thing as divorce. Understand that. Moses gave some
leeway on some reasons that folks could divorce. And the Lord says
in the New Testament for fornication, which is adultery and other sexual
sins, and for abandonment. But before God, there is no divorce. Now understand
this, before God there are marriages for life before God. Listen now,
go to Malachi 2, I'll show you this, Malachi 2. Right here in
Malachi 2, last book of the Old Testament, God told Israel that
they divorced the wife of their youth and they married another.
They went to strange gods is what they did. And what he meant
by that is they left God and the covenant he made with them
and they went after a strange god. And he said, you left the
wife of your youth and you dealt treacherously with her and you
went after another. But he said before God they were
still married to the wife of their youth. Because God was
witness to their covenant. He was witness to the covenant
oath. Now look here, Malachi 2.14, that's what he says here.
Yet you say wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth. What did we just say
a while ago? We're going to stand before God
and make this vow about being, when we marry a spouse, we're
going to stand before God and make this vow. Well, in eternity,
Christ made this vow before God to save His people. And he says
here, he is using Israel to illustrate it, ìThe Lord hath been witness
between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou
hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion, and the
wife of thy covenant.î You see that? You have dealt treacherously
with her, but she is still your companion, she is still the wife
of your covenant. ìAnd did not he make one?î God
made Adam one bride. He made one bride for Adam because
he made one bride for Christ. He chose his people and gave
them to Christ, and Christ entered covenant oath to save his bride
before God. God witnessed that. He says,
yet he had the residue of the Spirit. And wherefore one? Why
did God just make one bride for Christ? Why did He just make
one bride for Adam? That he might seek a godly seed. that he might seek a godly seed.
Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none build treacherously
against the wife of his youth. For the Lord, the God of Israel,
says that he hateth putting away." What's he talking about here?
God made one bride for Christ that he might seek a godly seed. And Christ entered covenant marrying
that bride from eternity, saying He would be surety for her and
He would go and save her and produce that godly seed, those
godly children. So even though we dealt treacherously
in Adam and sinned against God and went after our lovers, our
self-righteousnesses, and our idol gods, and our worldliness,
and all the lovers that we went after, even though His elect
fell in Adam, God said, I'm witness to the covenant that was made.
You're still married to Christ and you're still His wife. Even
though we became married under that harsh husband, the law,
and obligated to the fulfillment of that law, that law had to
be poured out on us because we sinned and the wages of sin is
death, and we were married to that husband. But God said, I
behold you in Christ, married to Christ, And I behold that
covenant. So you see, now let's bring this
to where we live. Sometimes we like to get all
in a huff, you know, over our spouse and we like to blame our
discontent on our spouse. You ever heard that? You know,
well, he's changed and this and that and he doesn't do this or
that like he ought to do this or that. Listen to this. My responsibility, my responsibility
as a husband to my wife has nothing whatsoever to do with what kind
of wife she is to me. None. Absolutely none. That doesn't loose me from my
responsibility whatsoever. My responsibility to her has
nothing to do with what kind of wife she is to me. Do you
see the Gospel in that? What kind of wife were we to
Christ? That didn't have anything to do with that responsibility
He entered into when He entered in covenant to save His bride.
When we played the harlot, when we fell in Adam, when we turned
our backs on God and we lived in rebellion all our days, not
knowing God and hating God with enmity against God being all
our heart was. The way we treated Christ had
nothing to do with Christ's responsibility toward us to be our husband.
Absolutely nothing. Aren't you thankful God hates
putting away? Aren't you thankful it's that way? Because it was
that way, God still regarded His covenant and He still regarded
us married to Christ and Christ still loved us and came forth
and laid down His life for us. but God who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were
dead in sins. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, what we were to Him
The harlot bride we were to Him had nothing whatsoever to do
with His love toward us. So, you know what that also means? None of us can blame our spouse.
And that don't lose us from our responsibility to Him at all. If we're going to honor Christ
and love our spouse like Christ loved us, not whatsoever. One more thing about this, let
me give you this too. Our love for our spouse affects
our love for our brethren. Our love for our spouse affects
our love for our brethren. Have you ever noticed in the
midst of speaking about brotherly love, over in Hebrews 13, in
the midst of talking about receiving strangers into your house and
different things to encourage brotherly love. In the midst
of that, Hebrews 13, verse 4, the Holy Spirit says, Marriage
is honorable in all, in the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge. What does that have to do with
brotherly love? He is saying brotherly love flourishes when
our love at home flourishes. That's what he's saying. Brotherly
love to one another will flourish as our love at home flourishes.
He's saying here that my love to my spouse even affects my
love to my brethren, to the church, my love to Christ. Let our marriage
vow to our spouse be held in highest honor and highest esteem
in all things, remembering that the marriage bed is honorable. And it means, let the husband
not neglect his wife or the wife or husband in the marriage bed. Because if I don't love my wife
and I don't devote myself to her, I won't be loving my brethren. I won't be loving Christ. I won't
be devoting myself to my brethren or to the things of Christ. And
whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. I'll prove I'll prove
if I reject her and I reject Christ and I reject my brethren
and I fall away, I'll prove I never had the love of God in my heart
to begin with. So, everything Christ did for His bride, His
love for His bride affected all His brethren. Because everything
He did when He walked this earth, look how it affected everybody
He came in contact with when He walked this earth. Because
everything He did, He did to show forth His grace and His
mercy and His love for His bride. And because He loved His bride,
everything He did when He walked this earth, He did for the good
of those He came in contact with. Everything. It affected all his
brethren and all men that he came in contact with because
he just went about doing good because he was in love with his
bride and doing everything for his bride. You see that? So he's saying there in Hebrews
13, if my love for my bride is flourishing at home, I'm going
to love my brethren and I'm going to love Christ. And if it's not,
it's going to have an effect, a negative effect on my brethren
and on my love to Christ. The old timers used to say, I
can remember, I think it was John Newton, I can't remember
now for sure, but John Newton, somebody asked him, did he think
this other brother was a believer or not? And he said, I don't
know, I've never lived with him. Because at home is where we,
you know, we can put on a good front here, but what's at home? How do we treat our wife? How
do we treat our husband? If the love of God's in the heart,
everybody's going to benefit. If God's rule in the heart and
God's love's in the heart, you're going to love. It's what makes
a husband and a wife. not be able to be angry with
one another. So what makes a husband and a
wife not to be bitter towards one another? Because God's got
the reins in the heart. It's not just a fleshly thing,
it's God's rule in the heart. And He's ruling it by making
you constantly look to Christ and see what Christ has done
for you when you were unlovable. And constraining you by His love
for you when as yet we were dead in sin. In other words, if I
get upset with this woman, I can't stay upset with her. Not because
I'm just so good that it's easy for me to forgive. It's not.
Nobody makes her as mad as I do. Am I right? And I won't say that. But that's true. You know that. You know that about your spouse.
But, that love of Christ constrains you to know, that's somebody
Christ died for. He said, much as you've done to the least of
these my brethren, you've done it to me. Next time I want to
try to be upset with her, when God brings that home to your
heart, He makes you think, would you do this to Christ? Because
Christ says, if I do it to her, I'm doing it to Him. Because
they're that one, and His people are that one. And that's what
he's talking about here. This love is going to constrain
the heart to where you're not only going to love your spouse,
you're going to love your brethren. And it's because you have a love
in your heart for Christ. And he's put there. So this is
not something that can just be fake. We're not talking about
this sentimental thing the world calls love. We're talking about
something that is the product of God. Now if I'm having trouble, Loving as I ought to love. Where
about to look? To look to Christ. Now look at
this last thing, this third thing here. Christ vowed to lay down
His life for His bride. And He did so. He didn't just
say He would and then when it wasn't all for better and the
worse actually came, He decided He wouldn't. No, He laid down
His life for her even in the worse. It was for better or for
worse with Christ. He laid down His life for her
in the worst. Look what He said. He vowed to
do it. Verse 19. Yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness,
and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth
thee unto Me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord. In righteousness and judgment.
What does that mean? Well, there was a law that had
to be established in perfect righteousness. Before God could
do anything for me, before He could do anything for His people,
He had to do something for Himself. His law had to be honored. He
had to establish His law in perfect righteousness, and His justice
had to be honored. Judgment had to be settled. The
wages of sin is death, and God will by no means clear the guilty.
That means the soul that sinneth, it must die. That means every
sinner God saves, God is going to first execute that sinner.
They're going to die. They're going to die. I don't
just mean physical death. They're going to satisfy the
wages of eternal death. That's the death that never dies.
That's the death that sin will be punished with. That second
death. They're going to die that second
death. Everybody God saves has died that second death. How so? Christ the Lord came to where
we are. He came to where we are. And
for His bride, He took the sin of His people. And the Lord laid
on Him the iniquity of us all. And because He was made sin for
us, the Lord made Him a curse for us. Which came first, the
curse or sin? Sin came first. And then he was
made a curse. Christ had to be made sin and
when he was made sin, because of that, justly God made him
a curse and poured out the punishment upon him. And by doing that,
Christ totally fulfilled the law in love for his bride so
that every bit of it is honored. What did he say the fulfillment
of the law is? Love. He loved his father and he loved
his bride as himself by laying down his life for both. That's
the positive fulfillment of the law. And He did so fulfilling
the negative fulfillment of it, burying our justice in our room
instead. The judgment that we deserve,
He bore that in our room instead. And so now, that old husband,
the law, has no more claim on us. As Paul said, he's dead to
us and we're dead to him. So the law has nothing to say
to us. You can read it in Romans 7. A woman is married to her
husband, she is bound to her husband as long as she lives.
If she goes and marries another while he is living, she will
be called an adulteress. But if her husband is dead, she is free
to be married to another. And he said, we have become dead
to the law by the body of Christ that we might be married to another,
even Christ, that we might bring forth fruit unto God by Christ
Jesus the Lord. And that law wherein we were
held is dead to us. We are dead. We're dead to it
and it's dead to us. It means it has no more claim
on us, it has nothing else to say to everybody for whom Christ
died. So He said, I'm going to betroth
thee to Me in righteousness and in judgment, and then in loving
kindness and in mercies. That means at the same time as
He justified us, He was showing us loving kindness and tender
mercies. He not only went to the cross
and bore the sin of His people, but He did so showing us mercy. And it's for the sake that He
satisfied that law that now God can show us mercy. Because mercy
and truth are met together. You just think about that. Have
you ever just sat and thought about that? There is no way any
of us could have figured out how to make that happen. It's
impossible for us to make it happen. There is no court in
this land, it's not humanly possible, for the law to be totally satisfied
so that a man is executed and dies, and at the same time show
that man mercy so that he can live. We can't do that. We can't do that. Everything
about what God did to save us is mysterious. Great is the mystery
of God in this. God was manifest in the flesh.
He was made flesh. You think that's a mystery? He
was made under the law. God who gave the law. God who's
above the law was made under the law. And then, He who knew no sin
was made sin. And He was made a curse. And
now, in Him, mercy and truth are in harmony, perfect harmony.
God can have pure, perfect mercy upon His elect and it's not in
any way harming His justice whatsoever. And He's poured out strict justice
on us and in no way harmed His mercy whatsoever. Both of them
have been fully honored, mercy and justice, have met in harmony,
righteousness and peace, have kissed each other. And then He
said this, I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness
and thou shalt know the Lord. There we were. We finally were
born into this world and we grew up. We got to be about 14 or
15 and we knew more than mom and daddy knew. And we got wilder
and wilder and wilder. I'm just telling my story. I
don't know about yours. We got wilder and wilder and
wilder. And if it wouldn't have been for the fact that God loved
this no good sinner from before the foundation of the world,
if it wouldn't have been for the fact that Christ poured out
His precious blood for me, I would have still been running as far
away from God as I could. But even when His people were
running away from Him and didn't want to have anything to do with
Him, in faithfulness He came to where we are and He wooed
us to Him. and turned us to Him and showed
us what a faithful husband He is. And He made us fall head
over heels in love with Him and submit to Him in marriage. That's
what He did. And He made us know the Lord.
When do you know the Lord? When you know Christ. When do
you know the Lord? When do you know the Gospel?
When you know Christ. When do you know the Word of God? When
you know Christ the Word. When do you know your Savior?
When you know Christ. How do I know I know Christ?
When you know Him. That's all I know to tell you.
When you know Him. Now that gives some weight, doesn't
it? To when you stand there and you vow, I'm going to love them
for better or for worse. For better or for worse. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
Himself for it. that He might cleanse and sanctify
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 should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. And he that
loveth his wife loveth himself. Now, do you see how important
God's Word is to God? When God says He's going to do
something, God does it. Because He is truth. And God's
Word is important to God. Do you see how important God's
Word is to you and to me? God's Word is vital. We are saved
by promise. We're saved by a promise. That's
why Scripture says the person that doesn't believe on God,
don't believe on Christ, is calling God a liar. He don't believe
His promise. We're saved by promise. We're
saved by God's covenant promise, His covenant Word. Knowing this,
brethren, you and I who believe right now where we are. I'm not
talking about the past. I'm talking about right now going
forward. That ought to make us take our marriage vow The utmost seriousness. The utmost
seriousness. Let us cast ourselves on God's
mercy. I don't know where it's going
to be in there, but when I say, Rob, repeat this after me, and
Christian, repeat this after me, somewhere in there it's going
to say, God will. Give me the strength. Something
in there. Because you can't make a vow and say, I'm going to do
anything. It's going to have to be God giving you the grace
to do it. We ask God for the grace to be faithful to Christ
and faithful to our spouse. Listen to this. If a man vows
a vow unto the Lord or swear an oath to bind his soul with
a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to
all that proceed out of his mouth. He said, When thou vows to vow
unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools.
Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst
not vow than that thou shouldst vow and not pay. You know, in
the Word of God, I studied and studied and studied this. God
doesn't tell you what to vow and what not to vow. He just
tells you about when you do. Pay it. He shows us what Christ
vowed. We've been looking at that. So
it's important for believers to marry believers because it's
only going to be a believer that's going to enter into this. It's
only going to be a believer that's going to be turned by the Lord
and constrained by the Lord to honor this. to see Christ and
honor this. The Son of God. Now listen to
this. Only believers are going to be constrained to look to
Christ and love Christ and when they consider their own vows,
consider it in light of God's promise. And this is the truth.
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, was not yes and no, but in Him was yea. For all the promises
of God, every vow, every oath God has made to His people in
Christ is yes and in Him. Amen unto the glory of God. Everything. Now listen to this
vow. Listen to this. Christian, listen
to this. Rob, where is Rob? Rob, listen to this. Do you promise
in the sight of Almighty God and these witnesses, to take
this woman to be your bride, to be to her a true and devoted
husband, that you will love, honor, and protect her in joy
or sorrow, in prosperity or adversity, and leaving all others, will
you cleave to her and her alone as long as you both shall live?
Christ said, I will. And may God give us grace to
look to Christ, our only strength, and behold our believing spouse,
perfect in Him, so that with more and more and more love,
we may be able to say, I will. I will. That's the marriage vow. That
gives it a little more weight than these pretty little words
folks say on it. You see Christ's glory in it? I pray He make us always remember
His vow. And make us faithful to our own.
Alright. Brother Eric.