What is I beloved more than others?
Ah, let me tell you about him. That man sounds like he knew
the Savior there that wrote that, Wade Robinson. Kind of reminded
me of Adam when Eve first appeared before him. The sky took on a
little bluer blue. Genesis chapter 2 is where we
are tonight. We've been clearly seeing Christ
throughout the first two chapters of Genesis. These types of Christ keep on
presenting themselves to us, or God keeps presenting them
to us. The creation of man by Christ and for Christ I continue to be amazed, too,
at God's timing in our studies through the scriptures. We've
been looking at Colossians, how all things were created by him
and for him. Well, here in Genesis 2, and
I did not plan it this way. But we'll see how Adam's bride,
or wife, was created out from him and for him. It's amazing. God's providence is amazing.
He keeps—see, at the mouth of two or three witnesses, a thing's
established, isn't it? Old Testament prophets, New Testament
apostles, a thing's established. All right, the creation of man
here we're going to see in Genesis. Look at chapter 1 first. Verse
26, God said, Let us make man in our image. Who's the us? Well, that's God, that's Christ,
that's his Holy Spirit. That's the three in one. God,
Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Let us make man in our image. Our image. What is the image
of God? God has no image, does it? God's a spirit. Huh? Whose image did Adam have? Christ. See, in him dwelt all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body. And I strongly believe, beyond
a shadow of a doubt, that Christ incarnated several times throughout
the Old Testament. He appeared to his people, didn't
he? You remember the time of Melchizedek,
the angel of the Lord when he appeared to Abraham, and so forth? Many times he appeared. And so
the image of God is what? Somehow or another, it had something
to do with Christ. Christ. Christ is the bodily
image of God. So man was the image of Christ.
Christ is called the Son of Man, isn't He? Well, no, He's the seed of woman.
We call Himself the Son of Man. So Adam must have resembled something
of that, of a glorified man such as Christ Himself. Huh? God never—God saw Adam, and He
said, oh, he's good. That's good. When God makes something,
it can't be improved upon. When He said, no, that's good,
He doesn't mean, well, it could be better. No, that's as good
as it gets. Right? No. The first Adam, oh, he was good. He was good. He was beautiful.
He bore the image of Christ. He sure did. But when he fell,
he lost that image, didn't he? He lost that beauty and became
ugly. Well, the second Adam came down. The second Adam came. All right. And read on. It says, Let us make man in our
image after our likeness. That has to be Christ, doesn't
it? You ever thought about that? I hadn't until I studied it.
It has to be. God's Spirit. Even that doesn't
have a body. The image of God, then, had to
be Christ. Something to do with Christ's
image. And he says, let them, man, male and female, let them
have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air,
the cattle, over all the earth, every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. Have dominion over all. And doesn't that remind you of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who has dominion over all, all things
created by him and for him? Though God enjoyed what He created,
He created it for man, didn't He? And everything that's created
is created for Christ, as Scripture says, for Him, for His glory,
for His enjoyment. Christ gets enjoyment out of
His people. He enjoyed the joy that was set
before Him. He enjoyed saving us. He enjoys
providing for us. And someday it says He's going
to enjoy us. His little children are going
to actually enjoy it. Yeah, that's what it says in
Revelation. I didn't write it down, but maybe we'll stumble
across it. It says he will enjoy it. Verse 27, So God created man
in his image. In the image of God created him,
he him. Male and female created he him. He keeps saying in the image
of God, doesn't he? Brother Henry, it has to be Christ. And it says
male and female in the image of God. Well, in Christ the scripture
says there is no male and female, right? In other words, Adam and
Eve somehow together resembled God. Together. As one, they resembled. In Christ there is no male and
female. In Christ, though, we see him
as our Father and our We see Christ who is the Father, and
we see Christ as the Mother who prevailed in birth for us. Now look down where we left off
in chapter 2, verse 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should
be alone. I will make him and help meet. I'll make a wife for him." This
is for Adam. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to make this bride, or this woman, for man. I want you to turn over to 1
Corinthians 11 and see this, where Paul defines this a little
more here. You see, Eve was created for
Adam. God Almighty created male and
female in the animal kingdom, and he said it's not right or
good that man should be alone, he needs a helpmeet, too. That is, one is before him, one
to love, one to enjoy. one for him, for his glory. The woman is the glory of the
man. Look out here in 1 Corinthians
11, verse 7, it says, Man indeed ought not to cover his head.
Ought not to cover the head, should you? Huh? You ought to
hold up the head, expose the head. You know what I'm talking
about, don't you? I'm not talking about this head.
I'm not covering the head. No, no. We ought to hold up the
head. Some don't do that. For as much as he is the image
and the glory of God, man is that image, but the woman is
the glory of the man. Woman is the glory of the man.
Man is not of the woman. See that verse 8? But the woman
of the man. Neither was the man created for
the woman, but the woman for the man. Why is that? Huh? Well, it's a picture of
Christ is what it is. That's the whole reason for it.
Not so men can gloat and see their little lady. I'm over you. That's not the reason at all.
It's to show us that Christ has preeminence in all things. He's
over the church. That's the only reason. The only
reason. And the woman here in Genesis
2—turn back there again—the woman was created for the man, and
she was betrothed to him. She was betrothed—that's an old
word that means she was given to the man as a bride. So God purposed to make a wife
for Adam. And before the world, before
God created this thing, Adam, his wife, was already betrothed
to him. All right? And back in these
olden days, back in the, not these days, but days of old, in a couple, you know,
hundreds or thousands of years ago, they used to betroth brides
to husbands like this. They wouldn't ask the bride. They really wouldn't even ask
the parents of the bride. The bridegroom's father picked
out a bride, handpicked a woman. Aren't you glad it's not like
that now? But he did. They did back then. The bridegroom's
father, especially if he was a wealthy man, a powerful man,
he loved his son, and he said, I want to a good little woman
for my son and he would hand pick and choose a bride for his
and she didn't have anything to say about it. She was here. I mean it didn't matter how old
she was. He might pick one from say like Hannah's age or earlier. Say she looks like she's going
to be a good one. And choosing her and giving her
to his son. And that's exactly what God Almighty
did for His Son, isn't it? He chose a people before the
foundation of the world and betrothed them to Christ, to Christ. And they were created and saved
for, recreated and saved for Christ, for Him. by him, they would say by him,
and for him. God Almighty, and it says here
in Genesis 2, it's not good that man should be alone. Well, Christ
was not alone in any sense of the word. And it's not as if
Christ needed anybody, right? Oh, no. No, he is all, he's complete
in and of himself. He didn't need us. It's not like
that Oral Roberts said, you know, that God was lonely, so he created
man. That's blasphemy. But God in
wisdom. And Adam was really not lonely,
was he? Adam wasn't complaining, was
he? No, no, he had God. He didn't need anybody, really. But God in his wisdom saw that
man would be complete, and the whole aspect of marriage is a
beautiful picture, a glorious picture, in the wisdom of God,
in the wisdom of God, and the aspect of male and female, mankind,
male and female, you know, they both have their beauty, their
certain particular peculiar beauty about them, don't they? Man and
his strength and his providing power and protecting
power, and woman in all her delicacy and beauty and her and both sides
of this thing of mankind is beautiful, isn't it? Beautiful. Both glorify
God in his wisdom. But this is the picture of salvation.
God saw how that he could get more glory, more glory. That's the reason for the fall
of man. God get more glory unto himself. He got glory before
the fall, but he saw how that in his wisdom he could get more
glory. and man falling, and God saving him, and more glory to
his son. His son is all glorious, and
before man was created, the angels and the cherubs and the seraphs
worshipped him, didn't they? They worshipped him and gave
him glory. God saw how that, I'm going to create a bride that's
going to worship him, and she's going to give him more glory,
and the angels are going to give him more glory. He's just going
to get all glory. All the glory that he can possibly
get, he's going to get. I'm going to give it. I'm going
to see to it. And God, in wisdom, devised a purpose, a plan, so
that his son could be glorified. God chose a people for his son,
betrothed these people to his son before the foundation of
the world. And what the Father wants, he
gets. There he is. Any possibility that his body
won't marry Christ, that they won't enter into the marriage
supper and be married? Not if they're betrothed. Like I said, depending on the
power of the man. If he was a king now, if the
king had a son who was a prince, and he decided he wanted your
daughter Whitney, if he said, Sarah is going to marry my son. Rick and he could head to the
house here. He could head to Wolverton Mountain. It wouldn't matter. She's going
to be his, right? His king. What the king said,
go fetch her. Fetch her. What if she don't
want to come? I'll make her willing. She'll
come, all right. She'll marry my son. She'll be
glad she did. I got a good son. He'll make a fine bridegroom.
And so he betrothed people to his son, and they were considered
by law before they were ever born or married. Don't you like
that? They're given, given to the son
by the father. They're married, as good as married,
as good as married. It's not waiting on them to say,
I did it. No, no, no. In the eyes of the law, betrothal
was, they were married, right? So as the father said it, dictum
factum. And the father and the son covenanted
in this marriage vow. You see, he didn't ask us. He didn't ask us. The father
and the son got together and said, son, is this wife going
to suit you? Will you marry her? And the son
said, yeah, I'll marry her. The father said, well, she's
yours then. The bride had no say. No say. But boy, they're glad. They're
glad. And the father agreed to give this people to Christ and
receive them later unto themselves. The Son agreed to love them,
be surety for them, like we've taken those marriage vows we
took then. We agreed to protect her, provide
for her, care for her. Till death do we part. Well,
Christ agreed to do all that and more. He said, Death won't
part us. I won't leave her then. Oh, no. That's when we'll be forever
united. Never be separated. Divorce is not in our Lord's
vocabulary. He said, where is the rotten
bit of divorcement that I've given unto you? Remember that
scripture? Where is it? He knows no such word. No. So the Son agreed to love them
and come down here and do everything to provide for them a perfect
righteousness. Fulfill all things for them.
Build a place for them. Build a house for them. and marry
them, and they'll live happily ever after. And you know, like
I said, Eve had no say in God's plan for Adam. She had no say.
And we're no part in God's salvation. This was between God and His
Son. But that suits me just fine, because I'm just a dumb blonde.
Excuse me, Sherry. I'm just a dumb old sinner, you
see. If he asked me, would you, I'd say no. Right? You're a free will. I'd say no.
Wouldn't you? You know I didn't mean anything
about blondes. But my mother's a blonde. But
I'm just a dumb old sinner. If he'd asked me, what do you
think about this? I'd say, I won't have that man
reign over me. I'll have you know I'm a women's
liber. I'm a free willer. Sounds a lot like the saying,
doesn't it? Women's lib and free will—same thing, isn't it? That just came to me. That wasn't
from John 10. All right, Genesis chapter 2, look at verse 21.
It says, "...and the Lord God," look how the Bible was created
for the Bible. Verse 21, "...the Lord God caused
a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept. And God took one of his ribs—in
other words, he opened up his side. He wounded Adam and took
a rib out of there and enclosed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God
had taken from man, made he a woman and brought her to the man. Isn't
that beautiful, Deborah? Isn't that beautiful? You know
what that's talking about, don't you? You know who that's talking
about? Deep sleep and a wounded side. Deep sleep and a wounded side. Why did God do it this way? Why
did God do it? Why didn't God just create the
woman out of dust? That's the way he created the
man. He just formed the dust and breathed into him. And he
became a living soul. And why didn't God do that with
a woman? Betty, you ever thought about that? Why didn't he do
that with a woman? Well, if he had, she'd have been equal to
him, wouldn't she? But since she was taken from
him, see, that makes her coming from him. In him, she lived and
moved and had her being, you see. She owed it all to him,
to Adam. She owed her very life to him,
coming from his wounded side. Not equal to him at all. She
prayed for him, and by him, and from him. And she was in him
at one time, and came from him, from his side as being from him. Even so, Christ must have the
preeminence. We're not equal to him. at all. He must have the preeminence
as one by and in whom the church lives and moves and has her be,
the one whom she owes her very life and existence to, subject
to him in all things. So Adam slept, and God took a
rib from his side. And here's one of the type Can't walk on four legs is my
pastor would say. Adams experienced no pain in
that. There was no pain. There's no
pain before sin, right? There's no pain, no blood. No
blood, no bloodshed. Oh no, life of the flesh is in
the blood. He didn't lose his blood. Somehow God supernaturally
opened his side, no blood, no pain for Adam, just a deep sleep,
sewed him back up, no scar. No scar. And that's where the
time ends, because our Lord prevailed in pain. His wounded side. His wounded side. It caused him
great pain and much shedding of blood. Yea, all his blood
was shed in great pain. Great pain. It was death. And
it wasn't just sleep. It was death. Death itself. Christ suffered for his bride. Then Eve came out of Adam's side,
and Eve was pure and spotless, a new creation, a new generation
of man. And that's us, coming from Christ,
a new creature in Christ, coming from Christ, a new generation,
coming from Christ, the firstborn, the firstbegotten, and we come
from him, from his wounded side. Christ's bride, though, really,
when he found her, she wasn't pure and spotless. She was defiled,
like Gomer. Wasn't she, Nancy? She wasn't
pure and spotless, and you see these women who've been married
seventeen times, wearing white robes, white garments. You know, that's supposed to
be a symbol of virginity and purity and all that. When you
get married, you wear this white garment. A woman who hasn't been
married at all doesn't deserve to wear that. And neither does
Christ's bride. Right? We all get black. Black. That's what He said about that
Shulamite maiden. She's black. I'm black. But He loves me. Hosea's gomer,
she was, she wasn't pure and spotless and undefiled. She was
living in sin and adultery. Far from her betrothed's husband. Far from her. And for Christ
to have this bride of His, He had to go fetch her. He had to
go fetch her. He had to go win her. He had
to go buy her off the auction block. He had to pay a great
price for her. And the price was His shed blood.
He had to buy off that auction block of sin and debt, pay all
her debt. She was deep in debt, and he
had to pay all those debts. So Christ came to this earth
looking for his bride, and he found her in sin and misery and
debt. She didn't know him, but he knew her. She was in debt
to God's laws. He'd broken it on every point.
She was condemned to die, be sold into slavery to the devil.
So Christ, in love to her, fulfilled the law for her, imputed his
perfect righteousness to her, redeemed her from sin, debt,
and misery. In effect, what he did was took
her off that block and out from under
that bondage and penalty, and he himself put himself up there
and was sold to sin for her. He paid for her sin, paid it
off with his precious blood, took her punishment, bore her
guilt, shed his blood, died on the cross under God's wrath against
sin, and then as he hung there on that cross, as he hung there
on that cross, a soldier came by with a big spear, and you
know what he did? He ripped his side open. And Christ's precious
body, the bridegroom's body, was hanging on that cross. A
soldier came by with a big spear and ripped his guts open. And
it says, out came something. Blood and water. What's that? That's redemption and sanctification.
Something else came out of that side, that ribbon side. His church. His bride. The shedding of blood. His pure she became pure. That spotless, holy, undefiled,
debt-free, washed in the blood. There's a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged. God, that fountain was flowing,
deep and wide. And God Almighty took every one
of His sons and dipped them in it. Come here. Dipped them. And
while it was flowing, dipped them in that blood. Washed them
all off. Now y'all look better. Y'all
look better. Then Adam awoke, look at it,
verse here in verse twenty-three, verse twenty-two, the rib which
the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her
to the man. Do we come to Christ of our own
free will? We're brought to him, aren't we? We're called. To him
he called, he justified. To him he justified, he glorified.
He brings us to Christ. brings us to Christ. They shall
all be taught of the Father. Everyone who has heard and learned
of the Father cometh unto me, Christ said. They'll come to
me. They'll be brought to me by faith. And look what Adam
said in verse 23. Adam awoke from his sleep and
said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,
and she shall be called woman. because she was taken out of
man. Her very name was taken from
man. Now, I realize modern women don't
like this, but boy, I sure do. It's beautiful isn't it? You
women do, don't you? You're not silly women like these
silly women today. But you love this. You see what
a beautiful picture of Christ this is, don't you? And you remember
that text in Jeremiah 31 that says, Christ, He says, When I
awoke from my sleep, He said, I satiated the weary soul, replenished
every sorrowful soul, were born of God by the death of Christ. It says, Upon this I awaked and
beheld, who for the joy that was set before us endured the
cross, despised the shame, who was killed for us, he said, thought
nothing of it, despised the shame, and says, upon this he awoke.
Three days later, Christ arose from the grave, and it says,
his sleep was sweet unto me, when he saw what he had accomplished,
the joy of his bride, his lovely bride, when he saw what he had
done. He says, the Scripture says in
Isaiah 53, 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be
satisfied. Adam was satisfied, wasn't he?
When God brought this woman to him, the most beautiful woman,
glorious, spotless, pure, beautiful. The image of God and the image
of Christ, he brought this woman to Adam, and Adam was satisfied,
wasn't he? Huh? He didn't say, send her
back, I want her right here. Oh, no. She was probably blonde,
Jerry. He said, oh, I'm satisfied with
what God has done. Totally satisfied. When he awoke
from that sleep, he was satisfied with what God had done. And he
felt such love and kinship for her, he called her after his
own name. What are you going to call her, Adam? God presented,
Barbara, God presented her like He did the animals to Adam to
see what He'd call her. Isn't that something? What are
you going to call her, Adam? I'm going to call her Woman. What are you going to call her,
man? Woman. I'm going to call her by my name.
She's going to bear my name. She's bone of my bone. Flesh
of my flesh. We're one. One. One man. We're one. A man and
a woman are one man. Woman. What are Christ's people
called? We're brought to Christ. The
scripture says, Fear not, I have redeemed thee, I have called
you by my name. I've called you by what we call
Christians. Christ and his bride. Christ
and his Christians. His Christians. Disciples of
any of what were first called Christians. Christ and his bride. Alright, let's look at the consummation
of this marriage. Verse 24. Look at it. In our Genesis 2 verse 24, "...therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave
unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." What's this cleaving? Well, you know exactly what it
is. It's the marriage act. It's the bed. It's the conjugation,
conjugal act. It's intercourse. It's what it
is, where the two come together and cleave together, actually.
Flesh comes together and they cleave and they actually become
one. Joined together in a union. A union. But do you know what
it required first? This union first required a separation. Notice that? Look at it again.
It says a man's going to leave his father and his mother to
cleave to his wife. Well, Henry, Christ left the
father, didn't he? and the Holy Spirit to come to
cleave to his wife. And the same thing. A woman's
got to do the same thing, doesn't she? She's got to do the same
thing. She's got to leave her loved
ones and to cleave to her husband. Well, Christ left his Father's
throne to come down and receive his bride under himself, and
we too. The bride must forsake all, he
said, except you forsake all that you have. You can't be my
bride. I'm not going to marry you and your mother. No, I've called you. I'm marrying
you. Show me you, prove your love
to me. Leave that mother, that father, and come to me. Prove
your faith in me. Put yourself, submit yourself
to me. Prove your trust in me. Submit
yourself totally unto me. Forget your daddy who took care
of you all these years. Come to me. I'll take care of
you. I love you. Escort him to her
faith and love for him. She will, won't she? She will.
Don't think a thing about it. Don't think a thing about it,
and she'll leave. And we have to do the same thing, too. We're
married to another. We leave our father and our mother.
It's Christ we now love and serve. He's our Lord, our Master, our
Head, our Husband, and the whole thing. And it says they're cleaved,
right? It requires separation. The man
leaves his father and mother, and the wife leaves her father
and mother. They're too cleaved together
in this marriage act. and they become one flesh. And
that's what finalizes the marriage union. In this beautiful act that's
holy and undefiled in my sight, a picture of Christ, and y'all
become one flesh, and out of this union we're going to have
a holy holy fruit of this union, cleaved together. Now that's
what finalizes the marriage union, the joining together. That's
what truly makes them married. That's what makes marriage my
specialty. You listen to me, you young ladies
and young men, you listen to me. This is the consummation. It's the finalization. It's the
glorification. It's the blessedness. It's the height of the love. It's what I can't put into words.
Waiting around for that one, and you truly love them, and
they love you, and they preserve themselves for you and you for
them. And you enter into this bond of holy matrimony, it's
supposed to be called, holy matrimony before God. And then that final
act is just icing on the cake. It makes it that much more special.
When you realize that she loves me and saved herself from me
and he from me and so forth. We're one. Two and three don't
become one. Four and five don't become one.
Two become one. Right? Two become one. We'll deal a little bit more
with that in a moment. But what this means, cleave, it means,
the word cleave means to join, couple, yoke together, cling,
hold fast. Those are pictures of Christ
and his people in it. Cling, hold fast, join together. And that's where Hebrews 13,
verse 4 says, Marriage is honorable and all, and to be undefiled. Holy. Why is it holy? Why is
this act holy? It's not holy outside of marriage.
It's filthy to God. It's abominable. That's the reason
God says more about fornication and adultery than any other sin.
Has more to say about it. He said fornicators and adulterers
won't... Why? It's a perversion of Christ and
his bride. It's a perversion of that which
God made holy to begin with. He said it's holy between two
married people. It's holy. Because it's a picture
of the union of Christ and his bride. Now listen to me. Don't
get discouraged or upset over your past or even your present
or whatever. But just listen. This is about
Christ. This is why it's this way. God
forgive you your past, forgive you your present. But join yourself to Christ and
go and sin no more. Join yourself to your husband
and wife and go and sin no more. All right? This is a clear picture
of Christ. Christ comes to—listen to this.
Listen to this. This is beautiful. Listen to
it. All right? Christ comes to you personally,
in the form of the gospel, in the signs of the gospel, but
he comes to you personally. It's the wooing, you know? Henry, did you woo her? Did you
whisper sweet nothings in her ear? Did you? I know you. I can see him now. He was a good-looking
fellow. Believe it or not, Stan, he was
good-looking at one time. He was, I saw, you've seen some
early pictures of him, slim, trim. Wasn't he Roberta? You still think he's good looking
though. He is, he's handsome. But get that little lovely lady
that you wanted so bad, get her in the parlor. Bring those roses
to her. No, when you sit on the second
seat, you just get it all the time. That's all right. But he knew her. I can see it
now. Sitting there, and it was so
decent back then, wasn't it? Don't you wish it was that way
again? So decent, and clean, and pure, and still had some,
still some love in it, not lust. Loved that woman, and sat there,
and held her by the hand, whispered sweet nothings to her and gave
her gifts and all that. You know, Christ does the same
thing in the gospel. He doesn't whisper nothing. It's
sweet everything. It's truth. It's glory. It's
beauty. And he whispers it in your ear.
He might not have said it to the person sitting beside you
when he came in the garden, right? He whispered it to you. A still,
small voice came to you and whispered to you. You need me, don't you? Yeah,
I want you, too. Let's get married. What do you
say? Huh? What do you say? And he
comes to you and woos his bride? Christ woos his bride. Yes, he
does. Sometimes it takes years. It
doesn't take him—he can do it in a moment, you know, but he
spends years sometimes. You know, Hosea kept giving all
those gifts to her. She thought it was her lovers,
you know. She attributed it to all her lovers, didn't she? Remember
this story? She said, well, she'd wake up one morning, there'd
be a box of candy. Well, my lovers have done it now. Your husband. He brought those things. Nobody
else. In all our lives, you know, he was good to us. Good to us.
Good to us. That's the goodness of the Lord
that leads you to repentance. Goodness of the Lord will make
you sorry for being such an adulteress. on how could I have loved or
given myself to anybody or anything else but him, huh? Now I'm yours
forever, till death do we unite." And Christ comes and He wounds
you, and then finally, Henry, and you were looking forward
to it, you gave her that first kiss. It's a sweet one, wasn't
it? Wasn't it sweet? And you remember,
Stan, you remember kissing for hours on end, huh? See, your
lips turned inside out. You're laughing because you know
it's so, don't you? You now think, how in the world
did we do that? Right? And so, though, because of her
kisses, she'd say, kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. His
lips are sweet to me. Well, that's what Psalm Solomon
said. That's what the Shulamite maiden
said about her beloved. What's your beloved? And the
gospel is the sweet embrace of Christ and the kiss of Christ.
It's the kiss of the Father on the neck of the Son. It's the
kiss of the bridegroom on the lips of his bride. It's sweet,
isn't it? Mmm. Have you tasted his kisses? Sweet kisses. Mmm. Let him kiss
me. The kisses of his mouth seek
grace poised from his lips, sweeter than honey. Huh? Sweeter than honey. And Christ
breathes new spiritual life within him. Breathes. And then he, Christ,
actually enters. Christ in you. He's incorruptible
seed, you see. He takes His incorruptible seed.
You see what a beautiful picture this is? Do you see what it's
all about? Why it's for? You see the wisdom?
the glory of Christ Christ, and plants His incorruptible seed,
which is His Word. It's quick. It's powerful. His Word creates love, creates
love inside for us, faith in us, a new creature in Christ. Trust, peace, joy, understanding,
hope, the two become one, spiritual ecstasy in the arms of the Savior. Face to face, heart to heart. That's what this cleaving, the
two become one in heart-to-heart, face-to-face, actually joined
together. That's a picture of Christ and
his Beloved in the arms of the Savior, two like one, same desires,
and this cleaving, this consummation, the two have same desires, love
to one another, to make the other happy. Huh? To make the other
happy. Same desire. And they're both
going to get enjoyment out of this. They're both going to get
enjoyment. And their real enjoyment is seeing
the other one happy. That's making love. That's truly
making love. Not just fulfilling animal desires,
but making the other one happy. Wanting the other one's joy and
pleasure, not your own. Isn't that what Christ came to
do? Isn't that why he did what he
did? Isn't that our reasonable service? Isn't that what we want
to do? Please him in all things? same desire, same will, same
mind, Christ in me, the hope of glory. I am my beloved's and
he is mine." And this is the final act that joins us together. I look at chapter 2 again, verse
25, and it says, And they were both naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed. Christ came down here, hung on
that cross, naked. Didn't it? And he was not ashamed. This is about the most humiliating
thing a person could go through. Can you imagine Charles being
hung before men, women, and children? Just hung up, stark naked, for
everybody to come by, laugh at you, spit at you, gaze on you. Humiliating, wasn't it? Hebrews
12 says that he thought nothing of it. It says he despised the
shame. That's what that word means,
despised. Those of the joy that was set before him, endured the
cross, despised the shame. That word despised means he thought
nothing of it, didn't think a thing about it. He no more thought
anything about hanging there naked for his people. He wasn't
ashamed. He's not ashamed. For this cause,
he's not ashamed to call us brethren. If this was to save my wife's
life, I wouldn't hang naked. And Christ did, didn't he? And I'm telling you, I better
not be ashamed of him either, had I. I better not be ashamed. Even believers shall not be ashamed,
not be put to shame, nor will be ashamed. And like I said,
this is why fornication of adultery is strictly forbidden in the
scriptures. They're a perversion of what God intended for marriage
as a pure type of Christ and his church. Y'all understand
that? You young people understand that? All you unmarried young
people, you understand that? That's the reason. That's the
reason. And the reason for a believer
to marry another believer, too. It's the reason for a believer
to marry a believer. How can two become one flesh
if they've got different desires and different can'ts? Life can't
fellowship with darkness. You can't give yourself to Christ
and then join yourself to somebody who doesn't give a flip for Christ.
You can't do that. You can't do it, man. You cannot
serve God and mammon. You can't be married to this
one son who had. God has saved some people after
they've been married, and you see the difficulty that it is. It's almost impossible, but for
the grace of God, the marriage won't last. Why? You've got two
different people, totally different. When God says you stay with that
unmarried husband or wife, it could be, and God saved them,
then you really will have the same mind and heart, won't you?
But for those who are unmarried, this express command comes from
God, don't be yoked together. Don't cleave to, don't come,
don't marry an unbeliever. Can't be done. You'll give your,
those that are married, care for how they may please their
husband or wife. Those that are unmarried may
care for how they may please their Lord. Well, those that
are married to a believer, they can do both. Yes. I'm telling you the truth,
aren't I? I'm telling you the truth. Well, here's the—and we read it over
in Revelation, and let's quit with this—Revelation 19. Look
over here, we'll see the presentation or reception. After a marriage,
there's always a reception, isn't there? There's always a reception. And look over here. In Revelation 19, I heard, as it
were, the voice of a great multitude. It's going to be a great and
glorious gathering, a wedding party, a reception. Oh, my, we're being honored.
The great Lord, too, as the voice of many waters and as the voice
of mighty thunder, and what were they saying? They were singing,
Hallelujah to the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and
rejoice and give honor to the Bible. Oh, no. Oh, no. You see, our generation's
got this thing backwards, hasn't it? What do we do in a marriage? We have a marriage ceremony.
Here's this poor little tailor. He's sitting there thinking,
what am I doing? What have I done here? Everybody's staring at him. Well,
he ain't much, or his job's not much either. He doesn't have
much money. How's he going to support himself? And he knows
they're saving him. And here comes the bod. They
start the organ, and everybody stands. And here she comes. Whoo! Look at her. Isn't she glorious?
Isn't she beauty? Here comes the bod, you know. Comes down the aisle all dressed
in white, and everybody's making open the bride. That ain't the
way it's going to be in heaven, let me tell you that. The bride's going to be standing
over here, big and lowly and humble and bowed down, and not
cowed, but bowed to half, mind you, thinking, I'm not worthy
to be here. I'm not worthy to be here. And
then they're going to open the doors. And in comes the bridegroom.
And then everybody's going, the band's going to start playing,
and the singer's going to start singing. And the bride's going
to say, Lord, he's mine. Yeah, he's yours. All mine? Yeah. I'm going to marry you. Here comes the bridegroom. You
see, that's the way it's done in heaven. Let us be glad and
rejoice and give honor to him. See, this is the marriage supper
of the Lamb. This is the bridegroom whom the
bride rejoices when she sees. The marriage of the Lamb has
come, and where his wife hath made herself ready. How do you
do that? Well, Christ made us ready, yes,
but humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. Humble yourselves,
as Scripture says. And it says, let us be glad,
in verse 8, until her was granted, this is how she's made ready,
her was granted, she is to be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white, fine linen as the righteousness of the saint, or
that is, the righteousness Christ gave to the saint. And here it
is, verse 9, it says, and here's the toast that's made. Write
this, bless or obey what you're called, chosen, brought. to the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are true sayings of God, true
sayings of God. And then you have that picture
of him coming in, verse 12, his eyes were with a flame of fire,
and his head with many crowns. He had a name written that no
man knew but he himself, and his clothed with a vesture dipped
in blood, a name called the Word of God. armies in heaven following
him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, and out of his
mouth a sharp sword. Verse 16, he had on his vesture
and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, Lord of Lords,
the Bridegroom. And a toast would go out, like
I said, a toast for we made unto the Bridegroom under him that
loved us and washed us from our sin, this old bummer. came and
did what he did, bought us with his own precious bread. Unto
him, unto him, unto him. We'll be toasting him throughout
eternity. Unto him, unto him, the head
of the church is bribed. All right, stand with me. Our heavenly Father, we give
all praise and glory and honor to him whom it belongs to, Christ,
our husband, our master, our Lord, our head, our Redeemer,
our Savior, all in it all, Christ the Lord. Unto him be all glory,
both now and forever. Amen.