Alright, brethren, let's go back
now to Genesis chapter 1. I had to deal with something
weighty in the first hour. Seeing we have received this
ministry, 2 Corinthians 4, so this hour we're going to deal
with something that's beautiful and lovely. The first marriage. The first marriage. I'm going
to try to preach a few messages on marriage. Rob and Kristen are going to
get married in the summer and some of the young people in different
churches I know of are getting married and so I'm going to preach
a few messages on it from the Word. Let's begin here in Genesis
chapter 1 verse 26. God said, let us make man in
our image. After our likeness. Who is this us? Who is this our? He's talking about here. This
is a council being taken right here. They're entering into a
council together. This is the triune God speaking.
Let us make man. Three persons, we worship one
God. in three persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And the importance of this is
before the foundation of the world, the three in one entered
a council and covenant to make a people for himself after his
image. He says here, Let us make man
in our image. Who is this image he is talking
about? Let us make man in our image after our likeness. God
is spirit. How is man going to be made in
his image? Man is spirit. Well, when speaking of the human
nature of Christ, which was to come forth in time, in the fullness
of time, the Holy Spirit said He is the image of the invisible
God. the firstborn of every creature.
Hebrews 1.3 says, He's the brightness of His glory, the express image
of His person. Adam was created in the image
and likeness of Christ. Of Christ who God had promised,
I'll make a body for you, for His Son, and you'll be in the
image. It would be my image, and Adam
was made after that image, after Christ's image, so that Christ
has preeminence in all things. Even the first man that was made,
he was patterned after Christ, who is the image of God. Verse
27, So God created man in his own image. The image of God created
he him. Male and female created he them. Now, God did not physically create
male and female at the same time. This is a summary of the creation
right here. But when God created Adam, His
bride was already in Adam right then, in the image of Christ
our God. He was in Adam then. And when God chose His people
in Christ in eternity, All His elect were in Christ, in Christ's
image before as yet we were ever even born. For we ever even were
made. We were in Christ. But in the
course of time, we see how Adam was made. Now, I want you to
go over to Genesis 2 and let's pick up with verse 7. We get
more particular here. And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life and man became a living soul. Adam was made out of the
dust. That's what Adam refers to, red,
dust, dirt. And Adam was made out of the
dust and God breathed into his nostrils and made him a living
soul. He made him a living soul. Christ's
human nature was conceived of the Holy Spirit. He wasn't made
simply a living soul. He was conceived of the Holy
Spirit and the Holy Spirit was upon Him without measure. He
was made a quickening spirit. So it's written the first man
Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was a quickening
spirit. Verse 8, And the Lord God planted
a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He
had formed. God made all things for that one man Adam. He made
this whole world, this whole creation for that one man, Adam. And He put him in that creation.
He gave it to him and He put him there. That picture is Christ
for whom all things are made. Scripture says all things were
made by Him and for Him and without Him was not anything made that
was made and He is before all things and by Him all things
consist. In verse 15, ìAnd the Lord God
took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it
and keep it.î God put all things under Adamís feet. He was all
powerful. He put everything under Adamís
feet. He gave him dominion over all
Godís creation. The animals all came to Him.
Thereís no sin now. So theyíre not afraid. There
is no death to be afraid of. Sin is the product of death.
They came to Adam and he named every one of them. This man is
brilliant. And he named them. The names
we have now started with Adam. He named them. And he was putting
that garden to dress it and to keep it. Well, our Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to make a new creation. The first
one was marred by sin. He came to make a new creation.
And He came to dress it in His righteousness. And to keep it
in His righteousness. That's what He came forth to
do. And God gave Him dominion over all His creation to be head
over all things to the church which is His bride, His body.
He's got all dominion. Verse 16, And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam had one over him. He had someone over him. And
that was the Lord God. The Lord God, He must obey. See, He was made under a law.
He had to obey the Lord God. He had to obey Him. Now God had
made Adam the federal head. The federal head simply means
the head of the whole family who is legally responsible for
that entire family. God made him so. Men want to
get mad about that, well, you have to take it up with God.
God made him the federal head, the legal responsible head of
his entire family, of every person who would be born of him. By
God making him the federal head, it was Adam's responsibility
alone to obey the commandment of God for all his people. That's how God ordered it. There was nobody else alive when
God gave him this commandment. It's Adam's responsibility alone
to obey that commandment because Adam is the head. He's the husband. He's the head. Well, Christ is
the last Adam. Only two men were ever like this,
the first Adam and the last Adam. And the last Adam was made under
a law. He came forth, not one law, he
was made under the whole law God gave at Sinai. That's how
much better he is than Adam. He was made under all this law. And he was legally responsible
for everybody in his house. He's the head. He's the husband.
He's legally responsible. He has to come forth and pay
their sin debt because they fell. They fell in sin. He has to pay
that. He's legally responsible for
them. Verse 18, And the Lord God said, It's not good that
the man should be alone. God made Adam after his image.
God is love. It doesn't say God loves, though
He does, God is love. He is the thing itself. He is
love. And a love has to have an object.
And Adam was made after God's image. Adam has perfect love
in his heart, but he's got nobody to love. He has nobody to love. And God said, the Lord God said,
I will make him a help meet for him. I'll make him a help fit
for him. In eternity past, God the Father
said the very same thing of His only begotten Son. When God set
Him apart, sanctified Him to be the Christ, God chose a bride
for Christ. Chose a bride for Him. Because
He said it's not good that the man, be alone. And because Adam
had disobeyed God, he plunged his whole family into sin and
death. So that meant Christ's bride became defiled. She became
under that law of... She became under the obligation
of that law like a wife is under obligation to her husband by
law. And so the only way that she can lawfully be married to
Christ is if that law is satisfied and honored like a husband that
dies and the wife has no more obligation to him. That first
tub has got to be removed. And the only one that can do
that is Christ. He is the only one that can do that. So how
is he going to create this bride for Christ? He gave Christ the
glory. You see, God had a two-fold purpose. Not just to save this people
and make His elect to be His people. He didn't just have that
purpose. He purposed that in the process
of doing it, He would bring all preeminence to His Son. And so He gave His Son the glory
to go forth and take care of all this for His bride. The elect
who God chose is who I'm talking about when I say His bride. So
that's what Christ did. We see it pictured here in the
first Adam. Genesis 2.21, And the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam, and he slept. Now this was no ordinary sleep.
Only God could cause this sleep. Only God could cause this sleep.
Adam fell into this deep sleep. Well, That sleep that you see
on the cross, which death is often called a sleep, that was
no ordinary sleep either. Only God could cause that sleep
on the cross. And Christ said, Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take
it again. No man taketh it from me, but
I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. this commandment have I received
of my Father." You know, nobody took Christ's life. Christ, when
He gave up the ghost, when He said, I commend my spirit into
your hands, Father, He released His life Himself. Not before justice was satisfied,
but He did it. When He satisfied justice, He
did that. Verse 21, God took one of Adam's ribs and closed
up the flesh instead thereof. God performed an operation only
God could perform. Could man do this operation?
There was no man to do this. Well, the operation Christ performed
on Calvary's cross, there was nobody. He is God in human flesh
and He is the only one who could perform that operation. Nobody
else could do what He did. There was no man that could do
what He did. on that cross. He laid on Him the iniquity of
us all. Brother Ravi just read it. The
iniquity of all His people. The Lord, the margin says He
made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him. And due to Him bearing
our sin, God opened His side. God wounded Him, bruised Him. He was wounded and bruised for
our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. Christ bore all the punishment
that His bride owed. He bore that punishment. He bore
the shame of the sin. He endured the shame of the sin. and he endured all the feeling
of that sin, he endured all the burning arrows of that sin, and
his mouth was dried up like a pot shirt, and he bore all the punishment,
all the sword of God's justice for that sin. He did that for
his bride. He did that for his bride. And
so now that bride has no more obligation to that former husband.
The law is satisfied. The law is honored. Everybody
for whom Christ died, that law has been satisfied completely. That law has got nothing to say
to any member of His bride, His church, His elect. It has nothing
to say to any one of them because Christ dealt with it. Christ
dealt with it. Paul said in Romans 7, that which
held you is dead and you are dead. That law that held you
is dead and you are dead. You died. You were punished.
You died. You paid the wages of sin in
Christ. If you are God's, if you are His, if He laid down
His life for you, He paid that debt for you and released you
from any obligation to that law so that now you can lawfully
be married to Christ and bring forth fruit by Christ. Genesis
2.22 now, let's read here. And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man made He a woman and brought her unto the man.
God made the first woman from the rib that He took out of Adam's
side. He made woman from the rib He
took out of Adam's side. And God made Christ's bride out
of Christ's wounds on the cross. He made her perfect. He made
her righteous. He made her holy by His wounds
on Calvary's cross. What God's doing there with Eve
is He's making a woman in Adam's image, which is the image of
God. And what Christ was doing was
making His bride after His image, which is the image of God. That's
what He was doing. And therefore, this is why Ephesians
5.25 says, Husbands, love your wives. even as Christ loved the
church and gave Himself for it. God didn't make the bride from
Adam's head. I heard somebody give this. I'm
going to give these. These are good. God did not make
the bride from Adam's head. Adam is her head because Christ
is the head of His bride. And therefore the bride is to
submit to her husband in all things. Ephesians 5.22 says,
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. And God didn't make His bride
from Adam's feet. Adam was to love her, not to
walk on her. Christ rules His bride by loving
her, not by trampling on her. What rules you as Christ's bride? What really rules you? The love
of Christ for you. That's what rules you. That's
what motivates you and moves you and that's how the husband
is to love the wife. Men, do we rule over our wife
like Christ loves His bride? Do we obey Christ when He said,
do this? Do we love our bride as Christ
loved the church? When I lose patience, there's
three things that breaks my heart. Number one is remembering Christ's
loving rule over me. That's the first thing. He does
not rule me like this. That's what comes to my heart
by His grace. He doesn't rule me like this. And the second
thing is I fail to honor Christ. When I haven't loved my bride
like Christ loved me, I'm not honoring Him. And the third thing
is, I've hurt my bride. I've hurt my bride. And what's
worse is, she's Christ's bride. I've hurt His bride. And then
God made woman from a wound in Adam's side. Christ is equal
with God. Scripture says he is equal with
God. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Christ
sits where? At God's right hand. He is equal
with God. God is still the Father and Christ
is still the Son, but they are equal. Everything that belongs
to one belongs to the other. And that is how it is with Christ
and His bride. Christ is over us, but Christ
has made us one with Him, equal with Him. We are joint heirs
with Christ. Everything that belongs to Christ
belongs to us. We've been made the righteousness
of Christ, the righteousness of God. We have His righteousness. We're equal to Him in righteousness. Not in His glory. He is the head. He's over us. But we're equal
to Him. Everything that's His is ours.
And therefore, husband is the head over his bride, and she's
to submit to her husband, but he's to remember that she's equal
with him. Everything that belongs to him
belongs to her and everything that belongs to her belongs to
him. It's not her bank account and his bank account, it's our
bank account. And so that goes for everything
else. God took that rib from under Adam's arm. The husband is to protect the
bride because Christ protects His bride. Under that arm of
protection, Christ protects His bride. He won't let anything
happen to His bride. He said, I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you. And He won't let anybody else
draw us away from Him. He's going to keep us from the
evil. And so, the husband is to protect his bride. God took
that real from close to Adam's heart. The husband's heart is to be
for his bride alone because Christ's love is for his bride alone.
He said, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. He only has one love, that's
the church. His elect, Christ's bride. But
look at verse 22 again. Not only did God make Adam's
bride, it says also God brought her to Adam. Not only did God
make Christ bride through the death of Christ, but God brings
each member of Christ's bride to Christ. Christ said, ìNo man
can come to Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him.î
The Father is going to bring all the members of this bride
to Christ. ìNo man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me draw him.î And therefore He said,
ìAll that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me.î They canít
resist. They come in. And he said, and
I'll raise them up at the last day. Whoso findeth a wife, Proverbs
says, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. It's favor from the Lord. A prudent
wife is from the Lord, Proverbs said. God's gift to the first
Adam was his wife, Eve. That was his gift to her, was
his wife, woman. God's gift to his sons, his bride,
is God's elect. That's His gift to Christ. Listen
to this. The man was not created for the
woman, but the woman for the man. Christ's bride was created
for Christ. Christ's bride was created for
Christ to be a help fit for Him. Listen to this. The love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. And that he died for all, now
that we're dead, they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. You see, we've been made by Christ
for Christ. So we live unto Christ. In everything, we live under
Christ. Christ's bride is God's gift
to Christ. Now, let me ask you something.
When somebody gives us a gift, if you've got any manners, if
I've got any manners at all, you don't look at that gift and
criticize it. You don't criticize that gift.
You wouldn't do that. If somebody loved you enough
to give you that gift, you wouldn't do that. Brethren, Christ would
never do that to His bride. He'd never find any fault in
her. He'd never criticize her. What does He do? He adorns her. He puts beauty on her. And He
adores her. This is my bride. And brethren,
seeing that how the wife is a gift of God to the husband, We are
not to criticize God's gift and find fault with God's gift. We
are to adorn this gift and we are to adore this wife that is
God's gift. Adorn and adore her as a gift
from the Lord. You see the picture here? Everything
is patterned after Christ and His bride. Now Genesis 2.23.
She brings her to Adam. And Adam said, ìThis is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man.î Thatís what the word ìwomanî means,
ìtaken out of man.î Adam said, ìWe are now one flesh.î Thatís
what he said, ìWeíre one. Weíre one flesh.î Now thatís
patterned after Christ and His church. Christ and those that
the Father gave to Him before the world was made. Ephesians
5.28 says, So ought men... Now listen to this. So ought
men to love their wives as their own bodies. What Adam is saying
there is, this woman is my body. She's my flesh. We're not separate. We're one. She's my flesh. She's
my body. And so, the Lord says, "...saw
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." You see what He is saying? One flesh, even as the Lord,
the church. For we are members of His body,
of His flesh, and of His bones. Christ has so committed Himself
to His bride, to every sinner He saved by grace. He so committed
Himself to us that for Him not to save one member of His body
would be like Him entering glory with a hand severed, a member
missing. He won't be complete till all
the members of His body are assembled together and are one. Isn't that
beautiful? That's why God made the institution
of marriage between a husband and a wife is to picture that
pattern. and to show us that that's how one a husband and
a wife are. They're one. They're not two.
They're one. So that man, when he gets ready
to do something that would harm that woman, he needs to remember,
would I harm my flesh? Would I do this to my own body?
Because if I do this to her, that's what I'm doing. I'm doing
it to my body. She's my member. And that's patterned after Christ.
We're one with Him. We're members of His body and
of His flesh and of His bones. Now look at verse 24, ìTherefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh.î The man is to
leave father and mother, and this goes for the woman, and
they are to cleave to one another. He still loves and cares for
his mother and his father, but now he is cleaving to his own
bride. Now he is one flesh with his
own bride. Now he is the head of his own house. He is the leader
of his own house. He is making the decisions over
his own house. He is the provider of his own
house. So if there is a conflict of any kind between father, mother
and wife, who is he standing with? Wife. He is standing with
his wife. If there is a conflict between
her father and mother, who is she standing with? Her husband. Why? Is that just some arbitrary
thing God did? Why? It's patterned after Christ
and His bride. When we are brought to Christ
and united to Christ, we forsake all. We forsake all. And we depend entirely upon Christ
to provide all righteousness for us, all holiness for us,
everything we need to be saved. We depend entirely upon Him to
provide for us. We depend upon His judgment to
lead us in spirit and in truth. And we stand with Him. We stand with
Him. When our dearest loved ones say,
well, if you loved me, you wouldn't believe that. I don't believe
that. They depart and they go away. We stand with Christ. We stand with the Gospel. We
stand with His people. We stand with Him. And that's
why a husband and a wife stand with each other. They cleave
to each other. One flesh. Ephesians 5.32 says,
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and
the church. Let me ask you something. This
is a great mystery. Can you explain how Christ and
His church are one? It's a mystery, isn't it? We've
been warned from before the world was made. In the eyes of God,
it's so. And whatever God says is so,
is so. But it's not something we can logically explain and
try to make sense of and all that. But you know, that's not
what faith is. Faith is not science. Science
is logically being able to explain everything from a set of facts. Faith is the substance. Faith is the evidence. It's the
substantial evidence of things that are not seen, of things
that can't be explained. How was Christ made flesh? Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. That's why these men that I talked
about in the first hour, they're accusing me of saying Christ
was made a sinner. I'm not saying that. But when
I say it, it's much more than a legal transaction. that there
was some much more involved in this mysterious... I can't explain
it. They accuse me of preaching mysticism. And I've heard them
in the same message turn right around and say, well, but this
can't be explained. It's a mystery. Well, there's
a word for that in Scripture too. It's called hypocrisy. Blaming
somebody for something you turn around and say the same thing
about. You see what I'm saying? This is a mystery, brethren.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular sow love. See
that word, so love? Love after this manner. For God
so loved the world, it means after this manner God loved.
He said, you love after this manner, that the wife treat the
husband even as himself, he treat his wife even as himself, and
the wife see that she reverence her husband. Because that's the
manner after which God loved. God loved the world by giving
His only begotten Son so that His little eggs scattered throughout
all the world would be brought to believe on Him and have freely
given to them everlasting life. That's what Christ was telling
Nicodemus. You must be born again. You got to be made a new creation.
You come here talking about you know me and you see me and I'm
this and that. You don't see the Kingdom of
God because a man don't see the Kingdom of God until he's born
again. You can't even see Christ until you're born again. You
can't enter in until you're born again. And that's what he's telling.
But after this manner, this is how God loves. God is so loved
after this manner. And He loves that bride even as Himself. As His own flesh. And that's why We're to reverence
Christ as our husband and submit to Him in everything. And that's
why husbands and wives are to fulfill these mutual obligations
towards one another. Now here's the best part. This
right here is the best part. Look at Genesis 2.25. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and were not ashamed. How could that be? If I saw anybody
here naked or you saw me naked, we'd both be so ashamed. What
causes that? Sin does. Sin causes that. Shame. Because we have evil thoughts. That's why. But you see, they
were not ashamed because neither had any sin. Neither Adam or Eve had any sin
at this point right here. They were righteous before the
law and holy in the heart. Now, Christ hadn't made them
so. If Christ had made them so, He
would have been eternally so. But God, in that He created them,
they were righteous, they had never broken the law, and their
hearts were pure. They had never been defiled yet.
Now that's patterned after Christ and His bride. By Christ, by
us being in Christ and Christ being in us, we have no sin. We are righteous in Him. We are a partaker of the same
holy nature with Him. And so Christ is not ashamed
of His bride. And we are not ashamed of Christ. Sin is removed. When is a man
going to not be ashamed of Christ? Sin is removed. When he knows
it. When he knows it. Do you reckon
when Robert beholds Kristen coming down that aisle in that wedding
dress that he is going to be ashamed to confess before everybody
there, this is my bride? Do you reckon? You reckon when
she sees him down there all decked out in that tux, she's going
to be ashamed and say, this is my husband. Christ said, With the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. When He makes you see
He's put away your sin and made you perfect and made you holy
and He sees no sin in you, you're not ashamed to come to Him now.
You're not ashamed to step out in the light before Him because
you're not going to be rebuked, you know. He's put it away for
you and your love constrains you to come to Him and you say,
I'm not ashamed of you anymore. I'm going to confess you before
the world that you're mine. And that's what baptism is, confessing
to the world. This is mine. I'm married to
Him now. And Christ said this, Whosoever therefore shall confess
Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is
in heaven. He said, but he that's ashamed
of Me, I'll be ashamed of. You see, Christ is not ashamed
of His bride. She's perfect. And she's not
ashamed of Him because He made her perfect. And He is our perfection. Now following that pattern, brethren,
Christ and His bride and husbands and wives, we follow in that
pattern of Christ and His bride, husbands and wives are to be
naked and open with one another, honest with one another, faithful
to one another, so that there is no sin between us to make
either one of us ashamed of the other. That's how we live toward one
another. Just like we live to Christ.
What did Paul say? I endeavor to live free in my
conscience before God and men. I don't want to do anything that
God can charge me with. Fault. I see plenty that I do. And I mourn over that. But I'm
not willingly wanting to run into it anymore. I listened to
Brother Henry preach on this last night. And he said something
at the very end of the message that just blessed my heart because
it's so contrary to what these fellows are saying. They ain't
preaching what he used to preach. Just flat out. He said something
so beautiful. He said, you know, we're robed
in Christ's righteousness. There's no doubt about that.
We're covered by His righteousness. But it's more than that. We're
created anew in the heart by the righteousness of Christ.
And when you have that love in your heart that God puts there
in that new man, you don't have to have a covenant of law to
make you honor Him in what you say and do. It's what I've been
trying to say to you when I say that, you know, if Melinda or
I had to have a list up on the wall of laws on how we're to
love each other, and we had to go to that list and read it every
day to find out how we're to love each other, you'd have to
say, there's not any love in that heart. But because there
is love in the heart, we don't need that. We can live to each
other. And when Christ has created that
new man in righteousness and holiness, now you can see Him
in righteousness and holiness and see He is your righteousness
and your holiness. And now you can live to Him and
you don't need all these rules and regulations and law to make
you do it. You're doing what you want to
do. That's what love does. Love always does what love wants
to do. And that's what we do. Let me show you two more things
and I'll be done. 1 Peter 3, 7. I think this is
important. 1 Peter 3, 7. And just look at the end of verse
7. It says, Wait a minute. I have done it
again, y'all. Hold on one second. Oh, no. 1 Peter 3, 7. That's right. Look at the very end. He says
that the husband and wife is to fulfill all these responsibilities
to each other as being heirs together of the grace of life
that your prayers be not hindered. This word is to the husband and
the wife who are heirs together of the grace of everlasting life
in Christ Jesus. That's who this works to. You
know, Adam and Eve were both made by God, both knew God and
both worshipped God in truth. And a Christ-honoring marriage
is one where husband and wife are each made by God in Christ
so that above each other they love Christ and seek to honor
Him. They are not ashamed to confess
Christ. An unbeliever who has never confessed
Christ before men is ashamed of Christ and he won't hear this
message and he won't understand it and he will not know how to
treat his wife. It will be for his fleshly pleasure. Everything he does. If he beats
her, that will be for his pleasure or whatever. No believer ought
to go against God's command and marry an unbeliever. Those two
were made by God. And we are made by Christ. Now,
after hearing how husbands and wives are to do for each other,
He says, do this that your prayers be not hindered. And this is
so important. The man who is treating his wife
in an ungodly manner is dishonoring Christ our husband. So he can
pray all he wants to, but God is not going to hear him. God
will not hear him. Why? God honors those who honor
Him. And the way we honor Him is by
honoring His Son. Christ said that plain as day.
And God lightly esteems those who dishonor Him. And the way
you dishonor Him is by lightly esteeming His Christ. And we do that when we lightly
esteem our bride. And the same goes for the wife.
So you see what I'm saying? This thing of husband and wife,
people that don't know God don't know a thing about it. Because
it's all patterned after Christ and His bride. The way Christ
treats us honors God. And the way we treat Christ honors
God. Because this is a union God's
made. And He set the pattern. And that's
what's honored to God. Now I pray God will make us follow
this pattern. It's so beautiful looking at
Christ and His bride. Alright. Let's pray together.
Lord, we thank You for Your Word. Thank you for the beautiful picture
of Christ. Thank you for making us one with
Him. Thank you for paying all our debt. Thank you for keeping
us. Thank you for making us stand
with Him even when our dearest loved ones won't do so. Thank You, Lord, for everything
You've done to show us in this relationship of a husband and
wife, Christ is receiving honor and glory. Make us to be faithful
to our spouses that we might truly honor Christ. And make
us, Lord, just as we see this pattern, and this pattern teaches
us how to live toward each other, Lord, let us see Christ in everything
you do, in everything you've ordained in this earth, every
relationship, everything that we're involved in, that we might
know how we truly are to live and be constrained only by His
love in our heart. This is the true rule we're under.
Faith which works by love. And that's by looking to Christ.
The law is not of faith. Make us look to Christ and be
constrained only by His love. Make us so love our brethren
that we're willing to wait on Christ to teach them. And when
we ourselves don't see something, we're willing to wait on Christ
to teach us, rather than split and divide and bicker. Make us peacemakers. Forgive
us, Lord, our sins. We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen.