The book of Genesis is an amazing
book, as all the Bible is. But I guess it's amazing because
we see so much of Christ in Genesis, so much of ourselves. And that's
what the Bible is all about. If you were to distill it all,
the Bible would describe us as we are in ourselves, in our pitiful,
shameful, ruined, lost condition and helplessness. And then it
describes the glories of our God and Savior, who in spite
of what we are, found everything in Himself to save us for Himself
to His great glory by His Son. That's the message of Scripture.
God gives it to us slowly. He starts in Genesis, goes all
the way through the book of Revelation covering thousands of years. And He gives it to us slowly
in our experience too, doesn't He? Sometimes you labor in the
Word and you wonder, what does this mean? What does that mean?
And you pray and you ask for help and it still seems like
you don't understand it. And then maybe later you hear
a sermon or you read something and you're reading it again for
the umpteenth time and it suddenly begins to dawn on you. That's
the way the Lord works, slowly, little by little, line by line,
here a little, there a little, laying down the principles of
the truth of glory. in His Word and He unfolds His
Son to us and makes His glories known. So we're going to read
here in Genesis chapter 2 today from verse 18 to the end of the
chapter. This is about when God created
Adam and Eve in more detail than it was given in the summary of
chapter 1. Beginning at verse 18 it says,
And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should
be alone. I will make him and help me for
him. And out of the ground the Lord
God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air,
and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. He looked at each one and he
decided the characteristics of it and its purpose for which
God created it. And he assigned it a proper name. God delegated that to Adam. It's amazing if you think about
the wisdom and understanding it took to do that. We have a
hard time thinking of names for our dogs. But Adam named every
animal according to its purpose and characteristics. Verse 20,
And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and
to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found
and help meet for him. So Adam was alone when God first
created him and then he named all these animals and birds and
everything. But he himself was alone as a man. Think about that.
All these animals had a mate. God had given a commandment that
they multiply and replenish the earth. And he could see that. Adam understood that. And he
was a man. He wasn't a beast. There was
no one he could communicate with. No animal that he could explain
himself to. He couldn't share his thoughts
with the animals and have them understand it. You know how people
do. We do that. You look at your dog and those
big warm loving eyes and you start to tell them things. They
don't understand a word you're talking about. But they listen.
Smiling. But Adam didn't have anyone like
that. No one to share himself with. No one to love. No one
to love him. No one that he could give himself
for and give himself to. He was alone. And the Lord had
said, it's not good that the man be alone. And said, so in
verse 21, here's how God did this. And the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept. And he took one
of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the
rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman. and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh. She shall be called woman, because
she was taken out of man. And then he prophesies, Therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother, And shall cleave
unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And they were both
naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." They hadn't
sinned. There was nothing to be ashamed
about. So God made a wife for Adam. And not just a wife for
Adam in making this woman, but he made a woman, a wife, for
every man who would marry a wife that would come after Adam. That's
what the prophecy is referring to. Not just Adam, but he was
a pattern of how God had created the woman for the man. There's
two things to note here in particular. First, God made the man, then
he made the woman. Second, God created the woman
for the man, not the man for the woman. Now I mention that
because this is all before Adam and Eve fell into sin. So this
is a truth, this is God's ordained purpose for the earth, for the
world, for all of us who live in it. It was His purpose from
before the fall. Jesus says in Matthew 19, this
is what God did from the beginning, from the beginning. It was holy. God did it. And all his works,
as we remember from Psalm 45, 17, all his works are holy. All of God's ways are holy. All his works are righteous.
So whatever God does is right, it's holy, it's good, it's perfect.
And God made the woman for the man. In Hebrews 13 it says, "...marriage
is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled." Marriage is what
God created. God married Adam and Eve. He created her for Him. But not
just her for him. He created Eve for Adam. It calls her a helpmeet here.
A helpmeet. Someone who is best suited to
help him. The woman is a complement of
the man. You see that physically, don't
you? You see the strength of the man. And you see all the
characteristics of a man and a woman are complementary. They're
not at odds. They're meant to support one
another. And this is the teaching of Scripture. Unfortunately,
this is the very thing. This is the thing, the most beautiful
thing in creation. I'm speaking now of just creation. The most beautiful thing, the
last thing God did in creation here. This is the very thing
that has the most violent attack by the perversity of men in this
world. It's the constant reproach of
jokes and comedians, isn't it? You've heard these words all
the time. She wears the pants in the house. Those things are
derogatory. They're opposed to the truth
of God. And men make jokes about it and
they pit husbands and wives against each other in order to create
a context for their comedy. God doesn't make comedy out of
this. He made it holy. He made it for His purpose. Now
I want to read from Ephesians as well, before we get into the
details here. The creation of the woman for
the man. What a wonderful thing. I've
entitled this message, Marriage. Marriage. It was the first marriage.
God married these two. And a beautiful thing it is.
In chapter 1 of Ephesians, if you look at this in chapter 1,
I'm going to read this without very much commentary, but I want
you just to see the majesty, I don't know how else to describe
it, the majestic heights to which God in His Word takes us to see
His eternal purpose. in His Son and in His people. Ephesians chapter 1, we're looking
at verse 16. I began mentioning verses 15
and 16 to you. This is what Paul prayed for
the Ephesians. He says that in verse 1, and
to the faithful in Christ Jesus. But here in verse 17 he says,
this is his prayer, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you This is what he's praying
for. The spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. In the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God has to give us His Spirit and reveal Christ
to us. And this is the highest thing
that Paul prays for the Ephesians, for the whole Church of God.
Verse 18, he begins to elaborate. He said that the eyes of your
understanding being enlightened Because we have to have them
enlightened, don't we? We're in the dark until God turns
on the lights. That you may know what is the
hope of His calling. The hope that means that which
we anticipate with expectation because God has promised it in
His Word. And it's a hope of His calling,
because when He called us by the Gospel, He revealed that
hope to us. That hope is eternal life in
Christ. It's a perfect standing before
God, in Christ. Holy before God, blameless, without
fault, in Christ. The hope of His calling. And
what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
God has an inheritance, it's His people. Verse 19, "...and
what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power." When He speaks
of these people, He's speaking about those who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, who love the saints. He goes on, "...which
is wrought with this power which is to us-ward, The power which
He works by His mighty power, He says, which He wrought in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own
right hand in the heavenly places. Far above principality and power
and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only
in this world but also in that which is to come. The Lord Jesus
Christ By God the Father has been set over all things. Now, He now reigns. Nothing is
not subject to Him. Everything is in His control
and in His power. And He rules absolutely with
His Father on His Father's throne. Verse 22. Listen to these words
very carefully. And God the Father hath put all
things under His feet. And gave him to be the head over
all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of
him that filleth all in all." Now those words are amazing,
aren't they? What do they mean? Well, I'm
not going to spend too much time. I want you to notice first, this
is the mention by the Apostle of the Church of God. The Church
of God are those who believe, those who have been called by
God, by the Holy Spirit, given eyes to see with faith the Lord
Jesus Christ and His work for them. His redeeming work, His
saving work, His work that purged them of their sins, made them
holy by His one offering, perfected them before God by His one offering. And their eyes are opened to
see Him. And in seeing Him, it says when Eve was created for
Adam, and she looked upon Adam, this is her husband, this is
my head. This is the one God has created me for. And so he
says here that the Lord Jesus Christ, having dominion over
all things, is the head, and his people are his body. That's amazing, isn't it? It
teaches us, in something that we can put in tangible terms,
our head and our body, and relate that to the union between the
Lord Jesus Christ and his people. From the head flows all of the
intelligence to the body. And the body is subject to the
direction of the head. You see that? Now, turn to Ephesians
chapter 5. He also mentions the church in
chapter 4 and how the church is the body of Christ. But here
in chapter 5, I want to pick it up at verse 21. Ephesians 5 verse 21. Remember,
the subject here is the marriage God made between Adam and Eve. And also between every man and
every woman ever married and what that means and why God did
it. Because God had a purpose. You
know, we don't do everything purposefully. We sometimes do
things haphazardly. God doesn't do things that way.
Everything God does has a specific purpose and has an intended end. And everything that God intends
to accomplish by what He does is always fulfilled. This is
the scripture replete with this, and I can give you several references,
but I won't do that now. Look at verse 21 here. The apostle is speaking to the
church in general. First, he says, "...submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God." Now, he would
set aside all differences between us, and he says, "...in the fear
of God." I notice that in the world today, in Congress, it's
very evident, there's strife, there's division, and there's
not a unity there. And things are accomplished in
government largely by pitting sides against one another. And
they lay out their wants and their demands and then they fight
it out through arguments and all sorts of accusations and
slander and senseless spewings forth. And finally they come
to a compromise and no one's really happy but they move forward.
That's not the way God works. That's not the way the church
works. That's not the way the family is supposed to work. It's
supposed to be submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of
God. God made us. He made us for Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ, in Colossians
1.16, made all things. And He made them by Himself and
for Himself. And here, the Lord says, we,
in the Church of God, are to submit ourselves one to another.
lifting ourselves up in pride one against the other, but submitting
ourselves in humility. Why? In order to edify one another
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are servants, Paul
said, for your sakes. God has put in us a treasure. We're just earthen vessels. But
we preach Christ and Him crucified. This is from 2 Corinthians chapter
4. But here He's underscoring this
and I'm bringing this out because when He begins to deal with marriage,
He first starts with our relationship to God and He directs us to Him
in everything. So that we wouldn't be looking
for our interests. And we wouldn't be looking how
much we can get out of it. But we're looking to see what
God says. We're looking to honor Him. We're
looking to do what He, what pleases Him in all of this. And so we
see that in the next verse. He builds on this. Verse 22.
Wives. Submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the
Lord." Now that last phrase is very important. He tells the
wife what to do. Submit yourselves to your own
husbands as unto the Lord. Don't just, you're just not an
absolute slave to your husband. You're not supposed to say, well
I'm just going to do whatever this man says. because he's my
husband." That's not correct, even though that might be applauded
by those who applaud humility and those kinds of things. God
says, no, the woman, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink,
as it says in 1 Corinthians 10.31, do it all to the glory of God.
Honor God. Honor the Lord Jesus Christ in
all that you do, so that what you do, you do in His presence. In His sight. And you do it for
His honor. Not your own. For His honor.
You live for His honor. Now that seems like, well that
just empties me. That just makes me nothing. And
it makes, it just puts it all on Him. That's right. That's
exactly what it does. But in doing that, that is exactly
the place of rest. and fulfillment and joy in life. It's not in getting. It's not
in taking. It's not trying, striving in
order to obtain things. It's looking to Christ and finding
in Him my all and giving myself in everything for His glory.
That's the church. So he says, wives submit yourselves
to your own husbands as unto the Lord. So when the wife was
made by God in the beginning, she was made second. She was
made out of Adam. She was created for the man before
the fall. And then she was brought to the
man and she was made in order to help him. In order to help
him fulfill the purpose for which God created the man. That was
why she was created for him. So when a man and a woman are
joined in marriage, it's in order that the woman might, by her
subjection to the man, help him fulfill the purpose for which
God made them both in marriage and made them both to the glory
of Christ. She's to live in all that she does. Her motive is
to Please Christ, and doing it in this context. Now this is
two things. You see, there's a doctrinal
part of this and a very practical part of it. And they're inseparable. We like to say, well this is
the truth, and then we go on. Or this is the practice, and
then we go on. But God joins them together. He puts them together
so closely knit together, that you look at the wife and the
husband together in this relationship, and you see the doctrine. Or
if you look at the doctrine, the truth of what marriage means,
then you immediately go to the illustration, a living illustration. God has put a sermon, He has
created, in the beginning to teach us what marriage is all
about. And so if we deviate from this,
then we are not fulfilling the purpose for which God created
us. To give the Lord Jesus Christ this honor. And wives do this
in submission to their own husbands. Not in absolute submission as
a slave, but in submission unto the Lord. The woman is not to
disobey Christ in submitting to her husband. That wouldn't
be doing it as unto the Lord, would it? Can she disobey Christ
and submit to her husband? Would that be doing it as unto
the Lord? Of course not. Remember Ananias
and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5? Sapphira, the wife, walked
in second after Ananias had died. And she was found guilty of lying
to the Holy Spirit. And she therefore also died.
Because she and her husband conspired against the Spirit of God in
lying. She was guilty. Why? Because
she disobeyed Christ. Her husband might have done that,
like Nabal. Remember Nabal in the Old Testament and Abigail?
He was, his name is Nabal. Folly is with him. Because that's
his name. He's a fool. Because he had a
wise wife, but his wife was subject to him except in this foolishness.
She went out to David. She brought all these provisions
for David and his men. And yet you see that she was
actually doing it as unto the Lord. So these things are meant
to teach us how to behave. But how does a wife submit herself
to her husband? I want to think about this for
a little bit. Just a little bit. I don't want to spend too much
time on the wife. It's important that we understand
first the truth of it. That she submits herself to the
Lord because God created in the beginning the woman for the man,
second, and for the man. But most importantly, in the
next part, you see, for the husband, I'm sorry, submitting yourselves
unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, verse 23, 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. So God compares
these things. The wife is to pattern herself
after God's original design. And the wife is to pattern herself
after the church, which is subject to Christ. The wife is to the
church as the husband is to Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the marriage, in God's purpose, is the husband. And the people
of God are his wife. And in the actual picture of
that, in our living picture of it, the husband represents Christ
and the woman represents the church. So when God gave this
to the wife to do this, He's teaching her that in her fulfillment
of this, she's representing this picture that God put in place.
And it's a wonderful thing that he would do this. It's wonderful.
But the wife, how does she submit to her husband in everything?
Is her submission absolute, mindless? Is it passive, where she just
does whatever her husband says, like a mindless person? She's
so meek and so lowly that she doesn't have any identity. Is
that the way it is? Not at all. Not at all. The Lord
expects the woman to give all of the things that she has been
given. Everything that she's been given, her intelligence,
her strength, her talents, her beauty, everything. In support
of her husband, and in doing so, she has by faith an eye toward
her fulfillment of the picture God put in place. This is Christ
submitting to the church in an outward way. So that my children
can learn the truth of scripture by watching. and listening to
God's Word. This is an amazing thing. And
so she submits this way. Her submission to her husband
is part of her submission to Christ. It's an expression of
her submission to Christ. She submits to her husband as
to the Lord. So let's go on in verse 23. There's
a lot of objections to that, by the way. A lot of objections
to that, especially in our day. You've heard them, haven't you?
It started in the 60s, I think. Maybe before then. Actually,
it started with Eve. Did you know that? Remember what
Eve did? Here she was in the garden, and
there's that tree. The tree of knowledge of good
and evil. And here's the serpent. He comes
along and he tells Eve, he says, Hath God said, you shall not
eat of every tree of the garden? And that was the first thing.
He cast doubt on what God said. And then she said, well, she
explained to him that God had said, don't eat of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, but they could eat of every other
tree. And then he says, and then she added this, she said, and
the day that we eat we'll surely die. He says, no you won't surely
die. And so she looked on that tree, she saw that it was pleasant
to the eyes, good for food, desired to make one wise. She took the
fruit and she ate it. What did she do wrong there as
a woman? She did a lot of things wrong,
but as a woman what did she do wrong? She did not go to her
husband. She did not listen to the counsel
of her husband. She did not seek help from her
husband. She acted in independence of
her husband. And you know what happened. The
entire human race was plunged into ruin and sorrow. Because
then she turned around and gave the fruit to her husband. And
what did he do? Well, he's supposed to be the
head. He's supposed to make the decisions.
He's supposed to be the one who takes God's word and leads her
in order to glorify Christ. And what did he do? Oh, hey,
I'll take that and I'll eat it too. He stepped aside from his
place as the husband. And she took on the place of
the husband. In usurpation of that role. And he abdicated it. This is
exactly what happens today. Throughout the world. Women cry
out, they're not equal. They're not allowed to be equal.
And feminism and all this stuff. It's not about equality. God
didn't create them the same, did he? It's amazing how people do what
the devil does. We're equal. Whoever asked the
question about being equal. God never... He didn't ask the
mouse and the lion and the elephant about equality. He just did it. This is what God did. But notice
this. Anytime someone tries to step
out of that role in which God has placed them to act outside
of that. It's complete ruin. It's a mess. You see, the woman
is as equal as she can be in submitting herself to Christ
in the fear of the Lord, in submitting herself to her husband. And the
man is as equal as he can be in doing all that he does for
the glory of God. But in this attitude that the
woman has to the Lord under her husband, it's a God-given attitude
that she might glorify Him in this picture of salvation, which
marriage is. And so it's a wonderful thing.
She did all these things. She stepped out of her role as
her wife and she tried to be the boss. God never meant that
to be so. I know that that is not a popular
thing to say in this world. But it doesn't matter. That's
what God says. Guess what? You can beat your head against
the wall and you are not going to change it. But if you submit
to God's word, you will find such happiness in your life. It's not what you would think
naturally. It's not what you would think,
your gut, this is what I want to do. Anytime you just act out
of what you want to do, just think of a child left to himself.
What do they do? They ruin themselves. They make
a fool and shame out of their lives. God has given us this
in order to guide us. But He doesn't just teach us
as little baby children who can't understand. So you just have
to say, don't do that. No, no. Do this. No, don't do
that. That's not the way God... He
reasons with us. He reasons with us out of His
Word in order that He might give to us a motive of love to Him
and see the beauty of what He's done here. So let's go on. Verse
23, 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. Now
again, we're looking at this in two ways. We're looking at
it in the way God designed it in the physical world. Because
God always starts with the earthy. First the earthy, then the spiritual,
then the heavenly. And so He's teaching us this
so that we might see the purpose of God, the eternal purpose of
God behind it. And He's revealing to us things
here that were really hidden from the foundation of the world.
What an amazing thing, what an amazing time that we live in.
That we have the revelation of God's eternal purpose right here
in Holy Scripture. For the husband is the head of
the wife even as Christ is the head of the church. And He's
the Savior of the body. He adds that. It would have been
enough to say, the husband is the head of the wife, even as
Christ is the head of the church. Therefore, the woman ought to
submit to Him. But no, He says, because He's
the Savior of the body. He's the Savior. What does the
Savior of the body do? What does the Savior of the body
do? The Lord Jesus Christ does everything to save His body,
His people from their sins. Is there any part of our salvation
that we do? Did we do something to save ourselves? Did we contribute anything? Did
we add to what He did? When Jesus Christ cried from
the cross, it is finished, was there something left to do? Or
did He enter then into rest? Did He enter then into His glory
and sit on Heaven's throne because He had finished the work of our
salvation? No, He finished it and He did
it all. Hebrews 1.3 says, "...when He had by Himself purged our
sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."
That's the summation of our salvation. Christ, and Christ alone, is
the Savior of the body. The body? What's the body? The
body is the church. He gives us the word church and
then he compares it to the body and the head. There's such an
intimate union between the Lord Jesus and his people that he
says it's like the head and the body. The head and the body. We think of ourselves as separate. My wife and me. But the Lord
looks at us as one. One body. That's amazing, isn't
it? One body. One head and one body. Because this reflects the truth
of Christ and his people. Think about the union, the intimacy
that must exist between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. Is there anything that the head
would do to hurt the body? Of course not. In fact, in verse
28 and 29 he says, look at this, in verse 28 he says, So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. That means the Lord Jesus Christ
loves his people as he loves himself. For no man ever yet
hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, even as
the Lord, the church. He nourishes and cherishes his
own body, a man does, and that's the way he's supposed to treat
his wife, nourishing and cherishing her. Not saying, come on, do
what I say. but nourishing and cherishing
her. Think about how the Lord Jesus
Christ motivates His people to follow Him. Does He bring the
law out? Does He say, do this, don't do
that, and bind us under heavy burdens? No. He points us to
His love, His eternal love, and His work that saves us from our
sins, that perfects us before God. And He says, look, Look
at what I've done. Stand still and see the salvation
of God, of the Lord." And we stand still and we're amazed.
Who did this? Why did He do it? He did it for
His glory, by His own power, out of His grace, for His goodness. And we think, what a Savior.
How wonderful He must be. And we submit ourselves to Him
in gladness of heart. So he says, as 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. Just as Christ saved his people,
what is the husband supposed to do? He's supposed to act as
the protector and the provider and the guardian of his wife. To nourish and cherish her and
love her in tenderness. He's supposed to think of her
as the Lord Jesus Christ thinks of his people. And he explains
that in the next verse. Look. Therefore, as the church
is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything. I've explained that. I'm going
to go on. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. You know, feminists would say,
well, Paul was a, he was against women, he was some kind of a
Old Testament Jewish puritanical, we don't, you know, all these,
they keep heaping up these names. They have new names today, misogynists,
or whatever they want to say. But notice how the Lord doesn't
do that at all. The Lord actually holds the woman
up to the highest possible level. She is one in body with the Lord
Jesus Christ. How could that be a low view
of women? So he says, husbands Why submit
yourselves? Because women are prone to try
to take control of the husband's role. That's just the fact. And
they're not supposed to do that. They're not supposed to make
the decisions in the home. The husband ultimately is supposed
to make the decisions. He's supposed to set the objectives
and the goals. And the wife is to give all that
she can in order to support him in that. Now he might delegate,
he might ask her, and she might offer advice. That's supposed
to happen. He welcomes it. But ultimately,
ultimately, the decisions are left with him. And he answers
to God for it. And she's supposed to submit
to that as unto the Lord. But anyway, we go on. Husbands,
love your wives. Love your wives. And the word
here is agape. It means to love as God loves
His people. God's love. Herein is love. 1 John 4 verse 10. Herein is
love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's the love of
God. What is this love? How do we define it? Is it the
love you see on television? Is it the love you see on Valentine's
Day? Romance. Hearts. Floating around. Is that love? What is love? How do we know
what love is? Herein is love. Herein is love. Listen. Husbands, love your wives
even. He doesn't stop there. Aren't
you glad? As Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. This verse contains a wealth
of truth, a world of truth. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Who did
the Lord Jesus Christ love? The church! And what did his
love for the church cause him to do? To give himself for it. What gift did he give? Himself. And how much of himself did he
give? All of himself. What was his
aim in giving himself? Well, let's read it. Look at
the next verse. "...that he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, that it should be holy and without blemish."
Now, when we think about the wife here, is the church, what
is this woman like? Well, she's not naturally in
herself anything to look at. In fact, she's quite shameful. Look at Romans chapter 5. And here is the love of God.
This is the love of God. Romans chapter 5, he says in
verse 6. For when we, that's the people
the Lord saved. When we were yet, what? Without
strength. We had no ability to do anything
profitable for God. We had no ability to keep the
commandments of God. No ability to stop sinning. No ability to understand spiritual
things. We were without strength. Like
a lame man, a paralyzed man, lying there. Even worse than
that, like a dead man. When we were yet without strength,
in due time, in God's appointed time, Christ died. For who? The ungodly. That's amazing. She wasn't beautiful at all.
She was ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
for the church in order that he might sanctify and purify
it. And he did that by his own blood.
His blood justifies us before God. His blood washes us from
our sins. And His obedience in shedding
His blood to have His church is our own righteousness before
God. God clothes His people with the
obedience of His Son. And then they're beautiful. Then
they're perfect. Then they're holy. Then they're
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. And the reason the
Lord Jesus gave Himself for the church is so that He might present
her to Himself as a pure, chaste, virgin, beautiful in His own
beauty. We had none. We couldn't produce
it and we never can. But the Lord set His love upon
His people. How long ago did He do that?
When did Christ set His love upon the church? Jeremiah 31.3
says this. In fact, I'll have to go back there
and read it to you because I'm going to just take you there.
Jeremiah 31. Look at this together with me.
He says, Jeremiah 31. Verse 3, He says, "...the Lord
hath appeared of old to me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love." An everlasting love? How long ago did God's
love for His people begin? It never had a beginning. Everlasting
means there was no beginning to God's love. Whoever the Lord, whoever, whatever
the Lord thinks, He has always thought. Whatever the Lord does
is eternal. He never, there was never a time
when God purposed to do something, when God began to purpose, He
always purposed it. There was never a time He didn't
love His people. Never a time when He was not
the one set up from everlasting to be their Savior. He was always
the head of His church and so He loved them from everlasting.
His person and His purpose and His work all are eternal. And so back in Ephesians 5, husbands
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church. The love
of the husband for the wife is to be a love that gives And gives
for her sake, gives for her sake, gives as the Lord Jesus Christ
gave himself for his church. This is amazing, isn't it? Love
that we think of as love is, I'm going to do this for you
so that I get something from you. That's pretty much the summation
of what love is in the world. I want something from you. You're so attractive to me. It
just makes me want you all the more. What can I do to have you? Well, you nice to me, and I'll
be nice to you, and we'll get along, and everything will be
okay, and you get what you want. And it's kind of like that. I
don't know, maybe that's a vulgar way of talking about it, but
that's pretty much the love, the way people would describe
love today. But love is not like that. Not
God's love. Love gives and never looks back. Christ gave himself. He gave himself in entirety.
From eternity and in entirety. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ loved the church. I think about that. Of course
I always think about these things before Sunday. So I was looking
at these things. I was looking at Denise and I
was thinking, man... I am so far from any of this. So far
from it. And yet, I want for my wife all
that Christ has for her. I want her, as Paul prayed for
the Ephesians, that the eyes of your understanding would be
enlightened, that you may know Him and the hope of His calling,
and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
I want her to know Him. I want her to be with Christ.
I want her to see Him in His beauty and have Him alone as
all of her desire and to subject herself to Him in heart and mind
and soul and body and all that she is. I want that for her,
to the glory of Christ. But there's still that part of
me that's sinful that also wants her for me in so many ways. But
the Lord Jesus Christ wanted the church for Himself. He is
both God and man. He gave Himself for it. And let's
go on reading here. In verse 28. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. No man ever yet hated his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth, even as the Lord the Church."
The husband is to not only protect, guard, guide, but provide for
his wife, just as Christ did for his people. He provided everything,
didn't he? He didn't look to her for anything.
He clothed her in his own righteousness, washed her from her sins, gave
her his own spirit, taught her his own mind, and brings her
to himself. There's a song that captures
this well that I like when I hear it. I always think about about
the scripture. It was written by a man named
Paul Overstreet. You might have heard this song
by him. He says this in his psalm. He says, I have walked with my
arm. Now think about this both. You
can think about it both ways, but don't just think about it
in terms of a man and a woman. Think about it in terms of the
Lord Jesus Christ and his people. I have walked with my arm around
your shoulder. I've placed a golden ring upon
your hand. What would that golden ring be?
That would be the covenant love that He's put upon us that reminds
us of His eternal love which moved Him to give Himself in
His blood for us. Now my heart is telling me I
should be bolder and take you to the highest place that you
have ever been and say it all again. I'll pledge my love to
you on top of a mountain What mountain would that be? That
would be the mountain of Calvary. And I'll say it loud enough for
all the world to hear. In John 17, 23, the Lord Jesus
prays that the world may know that you have loved them even
as you have loved me. I'll say it loud enough for all
the world to hear. The cross of Christ is preached
throughout this world. At the end of time, He'll hold
His church up to the world. This is the one that I loved.
This is the one I prepared for myself. This is the one I gave
myself for. Clothed in my own beauty. Made
her holy. And now this is the one that
is going to be with me throughout eternity. And we'll let it echo
through the deepest, darkest canyon. In Revelation 3 verse 9 it says
it this way. He says, I will make them to
come and worship before thy feet and know that I have loved thee. We'll let it echo through the
deepest, darkest canyon and I will be your companion till the mountains
disappear. The Lord hath appeared of old
to me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore,
because I loved you with an everlasting love, what did that love do?
He gave himself for us. And not only that, but he drew
us to himself. He says in the next phrase, I
have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. Not with the whip. of the law,
but with the loving kindness of his own accomplishments. And this is the love of Christ
for his people. He says in Hebrews chapter 13,
verse 5, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Not at all
will I leave thee. Not at all will I forsake you.
Never. And we know that Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Lord says in
Numbers chapter 23, He has not seen iniquity in Israel, neither
has He seen perverseness in Israel and Jacob. Because when the Lord
sees His people, He sees them in His own righteousness, and
He sees them holy and perfect before Him in love. In Jeremiah
50-20 it says, In that day and at that time there will be a
search done. And there will be no iniquity
found in the people of God. And in Song of Solomon, chapter
4, verse 7, it says... In fact, let's turn to that one.
We'll close with this. Listen to the way the Lord views
His people. Song of Solomon, chapter 4. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His people. And He's saying
this in truth, because He doesn't lie. The fact of the matter is
that before God, this is the truth of eternity. The Lord Jesus
Christ says, Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in
thee. You see how the Lord sees his
people? In themselves? Totally corrupt. Totally vile
and guilty. Helpless, ungodly, sinful, and
enemies of God. But then he sanctified them. He perfected them forever by
his one offering. And he made them holy to God.
And He presents them to Himself absolutely spotless. In His holiness,
He can find no spot in them. And He rejoices over them with
exceeding joy. Jude 1, verse 24. Let's pray.
Father, we thank You that You have an eternal purpose. And
that purpose is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. And He is worthy. And He alone
is worthy. And he by himself has perfected
his people for himself, made them holy, as righteous as he
is righteous by his own blood and righteousness. Thank you
for this gospel that tells us what he has done. Help us to
live in this pattern of a husband and a wife according to the truth
of scripture. Help us not to go against the
truth that you've revealed to us. Help every woman who is married
to submit herself to her own husband as to the Lord. And help
every husband here to love his wife as Christ loved the church.
And help all of us, whether married or unmarried, to submit ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ as His own church, His body. And may
we live for His glory, and may He be glorified in all that we
think and do. especially in our salvation,
for all that we have and all that we are was given to us by
him. In his name we pray, amen.