All right, if you would open
your Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter
five. As you're turning, let me tell
you that Lord willing, next Wednesday we'll be observing the Lord's
table. We'll look forward to that very
much. Ephesians chapter five. We'll
begin our reading in verse 22. 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. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, 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, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought 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, even as the Lord
the church. We are members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. All right, Shawn,
come lead us in our singing. If you would, turn to song number
454. What a wonderful sight. Christ has for sin atonement
made, What a wonderful Savior! We are redeemed, the price is
paid, What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! I praise Him for the cleansing
blood. What a wonderful Savior! That reconciled my soul to God. What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! He cleansed my heart from all
its sin, What a wonderful Savior! And now He reigns, and rules
therein, What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord He gives me
overcoming power What a wonderful Savior and triumph in each trying
hour. What a wonderful Savior! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus! What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord! To Him I've given all my heart. What a wonderful Savior! The world shall never share a
part What a wonderful Savior What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Jesus What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord Okay, if you would now turn to
song 257, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus." "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to take Him at His word, just to rest upon His promise,
just to know the Savior Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, O for grace to trust Him more! O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
just to trust His cleansing blood, just in simple faith to plunge
me Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him more. Yes, too sweet to trust
in Jesus Just from sin and self-decease Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest and joy and peace Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
how I've proved Him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious
Jesus, oh, for grace to trust Him. I'm so glad I learned to trust
Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend. And I know that Thou
art with me, Wilt be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him,
How I've proved Let's open our Bibles now to the book of Genesis. Continue our study in Genesis
chapter 2 this evening. Genesis 2, begin our reading
in verse 18. And the Lord God said, it's not
good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet
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 unto Adam to see what he would call them.
And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the
name thereof. 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 in hell meat for him. And the
Lord God caused 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 should be called
woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, shall a man
leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife
and they should be one flesh. And they were both naked and
the man and his wife were not ashamed. Thank God for his word. Let's bow together. Our father, we bow before you
this evening. We bow seeking a blessing from
your storehouse of grace, mercy that you have for your people.
Father, we've gathered here together this evening with one great need
to hear of our Lord Jesus Christ and to be enabled by thy spirit
to believe him, trust him and rest in him. Father, I pray that
you would enable the name of your dear son, our savior, to
be exalted and magnified And Father, I beg of you that you
give your people, and I have faith to see him, that we behold
him in awe and wonder, to love him more, to trust him more,
to snuggle up close to him, and only ever be found in him. Not in ourselves in any way,
but always in Christ. And Father, what we pray for
ourself, we pray for your people who, wherever they meet tonight,
meet together to worship your name. Father, bless your word.
Cause your gospel to run well tonight. That your name would
be glorified in the land. Father, we continue to pray for
those who are hurting and sick and need your special care, your
healing power, your comforting hand. Father, be with your people,
we pray. We're so thankful for the good
report and you've restored some to us. Father, we're so thankful.
We dare not forget to thank you. But in this flesh, we are poor
and needy people. To whom have we to go but thee?
We lift these cares up to thee and ask that you give us the
grace and the faith to leave them there, knowing that thou
doest all things well. And Father, in this hour, again,
we pray that you'd show us your glory. Enable us to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. For his precious name, we pray
and give thanks. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, Marriage, Christ and His Bride. Tonight we're
gonna look at the story that we just read of the very first
marriage ever took place on earth. I hope we can get some instruction
from this on being better husbands and better wives, or to the young
unmarried, better future husbands and future brides. Maybe Lord
would give us some understanding, some grace of heart to have better
marriages. But the main thing that I want
us to see, by far the main thing that I want us to see tonight
is Christ, our bridegroom. If the spirit would enable us
to see Christ, our bridegroom, we'll be saved. Our hearts will
be comforted. We'll love him more. We'll trust
him more. And that should also show us
how to be better husbands and wives as well. Now, by way of
short introduction, let me make a statement or two that's very
obvious that everybody knows. Almighty God ordained marriage. He ordained marriage in the garden
before man ever fell. When it says here that the Lord
did these things, this is Christ himself. Christ himself came
and performed the first marriage ceremony. Marriage is to be for
life. That's what Adam says here. Marriage
is to be for life. Because Adam probably didn't
know it yet, but we read where the Apostle Paul quoted him in
Ephesians 5. Marriage is given to us as a
picture of Christ. It's a picture of the union between
Christ and his bride. And for the believer, that makes
marriage very, very important. Not only is marriage good for
us, God gave us marriage for our good, for our happiness.
but our marriages are daily pictures of the union between Christ and
his people. You know, we're not all preachers,
but we all can show a picture of the gospel by our marriages.
And I have five pictures of Christ, our bridegroom and salvation
in him that I'd like for us to see tonight. And the first one
is this. It's not good that the Lord Jesus
Christ dwell alone. Verse 18, the Lord God said,
It's not good that the man should be alone. I'll make and help
meet for him. Now, remember last week we looked
at the Adam, the two Adams. Adam is a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ. When God said it's not good that
the man be alone, he meant that about Adam, but also about his
son. You know, you think of Adam in the garden. God said it's
not good that he be alone. And as far as men go, All you
got to do to see the truth of that statement is look at a man's
bachelor pad, or look what happens when a man's left by himself.
His wife's got to go out of town for a few days, and look what
happens. It's not good that man be alone. Men need a woman's
touch all throughout our lives. It's just hard to tell how dull
and drab it would be without our wives to give us a woman's
touch in our life. But this statement that God made,
it's not good that the man be alone, applies to both men and
women, men and women. We cannot be the best version
of ourselves without a spouse. We need to be cared for. We need
somebody to care for us and to show us love. And what's more,
we need to care for somebody else. We need to show love to
somebody else. That's what God made us to do.
That's what he's showing us here in Adam. We all ought to see
that we do that for our spouses, care for them, show them love.
And when God says, I'll make a help meet for Adam, what he
meant is I'll make a help sufficient for Adam, sufficient. You know,
wives can be so helpful to their husbands. Any wise husband, I mean, any
man's got any brains whatsoever, will listen to his wife. She's
a help sufficient for him. Our wives can tell us things
that men just do not seem to know that women seem to always
know. Women can point out things to
make their husbands more gracious and kind and to make them understand
emotional things, to tell us when we're going down the wrong
track. That's a help sufficient that men need. And husbands can
be a help sufficient to our wives by giving our wives the love
and the affection, the protection that they need. That's being
a help sufficient for her. All this has given to us, remember,
is a picture of marriage. In eternity, the father said
this when he looked at his glorious son, the son of his love. In Proverbs 8, the Savior talks
about dwelling alone with the father. He was daily the delight
of his father. The father looked at his son
in delight and he said, it's not good that my son dwell alone. The Lord Jesus Christ is so wonderful
and so glorious. He should not be alone, but he
should have a bride. He should have a bride that sees
him, that loves him, that needs him. It's not good that he'd
be alone. So the father said, I'll make a hell sufficient for
him. I'll make him a bride. Now, unlike
our wives being able to help and keep us out of trouble, you
and I can't add anything to Christ the Savior, you know, help him
do something better than he's already doing it. Everything
he does is perfect, but we do add to his glory. We add to his
glory when we're saved by him, when we live depending on him,
when we live loving him, when we live needing him. You know,
sinners, are the perfect fit to be joined to the Savior, aren't
they? Because he's everything that we need. And the father
said, it's not good that my son dwell alone. Well, if it's not
good that Christ dwell alone, then it was good that the father
chose a people to be joined to his son, wasn't it? That was
good. I want you to listen to what Brother Fortner said in
his commentary on this. He said, the Lord graciously
took care to provide help for fallen needy man before he fell
and became needy. That's what God did for us. Before we were ever created,
the father graciously took care to provide a savior for his people. The goodness of God. You think
of the goodness of God and the salvation of unworthy sinners.
God's so good. How good is it of God to take
sinners like you and me and marry them to his son? betrothed them
to his son. How good is it of God that he
would enable sinners like you and me, by faith, to be able
to see and to admire Christ the bridegroom. Just to be able to
look at him with the doe eyes of infatuation. I've seen some
young couples when they first meet and they're young. They
start to date, and I just see the way they look at each other.
I think, oh, that boy's in trouble. I mean, that boy's in trouble.
The look of infatuation. That's what these preaching services
are to the pride of Christ. If God enables us to do it right,
to lift Christ up and say, look, look, look and live, look at,
and just to look at him with those dull eyes of love. Oh, that first love, that love,
oh. How good is it that the father gives his people eyes to see
his son that way and to look to him, love him and trust him.
Oh, what a savior. I'm glad he's not alone, aren't
you? All right, number two. I want us to see the wise rule
of Christ our bridegroom. And again, this is seen in Adam.
And you know, God made man to rule the earth. First, look at
verse 27 of chapter one. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created
he them. And God blessed them. And God
said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth
and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living
thing that moveth upon the earth. I don't want to become political,
but now God made man. to rule the earth. That's what
man is to do. Now I know that we often do a
very poor job of it, don't we? We do a very poor job of managing
and ruling the earth. We're talking about marriage.
We often do a very poor job of ruling our homes, and I'll tell
you why. It's because of sin. Because
of our sin nature, the sin that's in us. But that was not Adam
before he fell. That was not Adam. No, Adam was
brilliant. He was a brilliant man. God brought
all the animals to Adam and Adam named them. All the species,
all the subspecies. I remember studying that in biology,
whatever you studied that in high school. That was so far
beyond my ability to comprehend. I cannot imagine how anybody
can memorize all that stuff. You know, there's species and
subspecies and all these things. Adam did that without a computer,
without pen and paper. He's brilliant. He just named
the animals. He kept track of them all. He
named all those animals. He's a brilliant man. Brilliant.
And we know that Adam lost a lot of that brilliance after the
fall, don't we? Immediately. Immediately after the fall. He
hated his wife. He tried to blame his sin on
God. I mean, Adam, he lost... It just seemed like he lost all
of his smarts, but spiritually he did. But he lost a lot of
that brilliance. But even after the fall, can't
you see the brilliance of the human mind, what God has made?
I mean, you think people are smart today. You think how brilliant
Adam was. You know, people want to make
Adam the first man out to be some ignorant, you know, caveman.
Adam was not an ignorant caveman walking around, dragging his
knuckles on the ground, grunting. Adam was a brilliant man. That's
who God put in charge of his earth. Now the subject tonight
is marriage. Husbands are to be like Adam
and to take rule of our homes and do it wisely. I've listened
to some messages on, on marriage. I hear, you know, uh, preachers
talk to husbands like, you know, take charge of your home at my
home. It sounds like you're grabbing everybody in your home around
the throat, you know, and just, that's not the way it's supposed to
be. Husbands are to rule our homes wisely. Adam was so brilliant. We're to rule our homes wisely
for the good of our wives and for the good of our children.
Not to order them around, make them our servants, but for their
good. Husbands, listen, we're not to rule as tyrants. We're
to rule in a self-sacrificing love, putting the needs of our
wives and our children ahead of ourselves. That's exactly
what Christ our bridegroom did for us. We read it where Paul
said, husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church.
How did Christ love the church? He loved it so much he gave himself
for her. He sacrificed himself for her.
He put her needs ahead of his own comfort. And husbands, I'm
telling you the truth. We make it a whole lot easier
for our wives to submit to our rule. We'd ask God to give us
the wisdom and the love to rule well, to rule loving and self-sacrificing
love because that does not come natural to a human being. But
now the real blessing here for us is to see the wise rule of
our savior. He has all wisdom and we know
he has all wisdom because his name is wisdom. He is the wisdom
of God. Christ is the wisdom of God in
this way. Only in Christ can we see the
wisdom of God, how God could save a sinful people, how God
could be merciful to a sinful people, how God could forgive
the sin of a sinful people, yet still be just and still be holy
and punish their sin. You can only see that in Christ,
our sacrifice, Christ, our substitute. And this is the one that the
Lord has put over his church. He's the head of the church,
Paul said, And I'm telling you, the Lord Jesus Christ rules his
home well. Whatever he says goes. And it's
best. It's best. We read earlier where
Adam, whatever he named the animals, that's what they're called. Well,
whatever Christ calls his bride, that's what she is. Now, she's
lost in Adam. She's defiled in Adam. You just
can't paint her ugly. Defiled enough, we just don't
have language to describe how horrible sin has ravaged her. Yet Christ calls his bride holy. You know why? Because that's
what he made her. What he calls her, that's what
she is. Christ calls his bride righteous. This is the name wherewith
she shall be called. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our
righteousness, She's called by His name, because that's what
He calls her. He's made her His own. Christ calls His bride,
and you know, if you care to read the book of Hosea sometime
at your leisure, and see poor Gomer, all the things that she
did, that's a picture of us spiritually. There's not a man in this room,
there's not a man who ever listened to the recording of this message
who'd choose Gomer to be his wife. That's what Christ our
savior did. He chose the worst, the harlot. And he looks at her and he calls
her my delight. He calls her Mary. He calls her
Bula because that's what he made her. Now that's the bridegroom. You
got any problems submitting to his rule? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. What a comfort. What a joy. to live under his
wise and gracious rule. The apostle Paul said, the Lord
nourishes and cherishes the church. The prince of glory, the son
of God, cherishes his church. Every woman's dream. That's every
woman's dream. And that's what the believer
has. A wise, loving bridegroom who cherishes the church. All
right, number three, the life of Christ's bride comes from
his death. Look at verse 21, Genesis chapter
two. And 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 for man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
I guess you could call this the first surgery that ever happened
on earth And God did it. He performed this surgery on
Adam. He put Adam into some sort of a coma or something. And he
took a rib from Adam. I mean, he went in there and
took a rib out of his body, closed up the flesh thereof. I'm sure
there was no scar or anything like that. You know, there's
no sin to mar that body. And God performed this surgery.
And Moses said, Lord took that rib and from that rib, he made
a woman. And that word made means to build. It means to establish. The Lord
made a woman. And He made her different from
a man. And aren't we thankful? Aren't
we thankful? We don't need any more men or
women acting like men. God made her different from a
man. The Lord made the woman from Adam's rib. And you've heard
this so many times, but we can't point this out often enough.
The Lord made the woman from a rib in Adam. from right underneath
his heart so he would love her. She's to be loved. He didn't
take the woman from Adam's foot that he might trample all over
her. No, from his side, to be loved and cherished and protected. He didn't take the woman and
make her from a bone in Adam's skull to rule over him. From
his side, to be cherished and loved. And I'm telling you, husbands,
if we bear that in mind, just that one Simple rule, that's
why God, how God made the woman to be cherished and protected.
If we keep that in mind, we would automatically rule our homes
with love. That almost all women, I know
not all, there's some who would take advantage of it, but almost
all, and especially believing women, especially believing women,
you ladies who are here, will find it easy to submit to that
kind of rule, wouldn't we? If it's done in love. And I don't
blame a woman for not wanting to submit to the selfish rule
of a self-important tyrant. I don't blame her for that. But
believing women ought to find it easy to submit to the loving
rule of her husband. And husbands, that's on us. Now,
that's on us. I really do believe this. If
we gotta be all the time reminding our wives that she's supposed
to be in subjection to me, it's not her that's doing something
wrong, it's probably me. Probably me. We do well to remember
that. And that's part of what's being
pictured here with God making Eve from Adam's rib. But there's
something much more glorious here. It's a picture of how God's
elect, how the bride of Christ gets her life. God's elect have
life. that comes from the death of
Christ our bridegroom. Eve never could have been made
unless Adam was put into this deep sleep by God. God put him
into that deep sleep, didn't he? And that sleep is a picture
of death. How is it that Christ died? The
Father put him to death. And out of that death comes the
life of God's elect. Believers are made, made, they're
established, they're built from the death of Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ actually died for the sin of his people. Their
sin became his sin and his father killed him in justice. His father
slaughtered him to satisfy God's holy justice. Now, since Christ
died for the sin of his people, his blood purged away their sin. It washed their sin, it washed
them white as snow. God's justice is satisfied because
of the death of the substitute. So now, God's justice, the same
justice of God that demanded the death of the substitute also
demands his people live. God's justice demands it. You
think of that. Not just God's grace, also God's
justice demands God's people live. They have no sin. Christ took it away. Then they
must live. Sin's what causes death. If there's
no sin, there can't be any death. The death of Christ demands God's
people live. God's justice will never allow
two deaths for one sin. Never. It wouldn't be just. So
His justice demands God's people live. And it came from the death
of Christ. And in His death, the Lord Jesus
Christ made His people. He made them. He made them righteous. He established righteousness
for them and made them the righteousness of God in Him. He was made sin
for them that they might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
made them righteous. He made them his church. He built
his church. He built his church upon him.
He's the foundation of it. And I'm telling you, it's a well-built
church. It's a church made out of living
stones. Peter calls God's people living
stones. They're stones that the Savior
made to live. And he stacked them up, built
them up in his church, put them exactly where they belong. And
it's a well-built church. It'll last forever. Because that's
what the bridegroom made it. He established it that it will
never be moved. He made it that way by his death. By his death is our substitute
and sin bearer. Then the fourth thing. Salvation
comes from union with Christ. Verse 23, and Adam said, this
is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She should be called
woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife
and they shall be one flesh. I like to think about this. The Lord put Adam in this deep
sleep. He took one of his ribs, he closed
Adam's body up and from that rib he made a woman. Adam wakes
up and the Lord brings Eve to Adam and he presents her to Adam. You think how awestruck they
must have been. I mean, just awestruck. I have
no doubt that Eve was the most beautiful woman who's ever lived.
God made her with his own hands. He made a beautiful woman. Adam
must have been the most handsome man to ever live. Yeah, he's
made from the dust of the ground, but God made him with his own
hands. I mean, he had to be the most handsome man to ever live.
And Adam and Eve were awestruck when they saw each other. It
was love at first sight. Well, that's exactly how Christ
and his bride look at each other. I want you to turn over to Song
of Solomon, chapter four. I would never have thought this. I would never have been brave
enough to say it unless God's word said it first. Even though
you and I are not lovable by any stretch of the imagination,
we're not lovable, we're completely defiled by sin, by nature, we're
enemies of God, enemies of his son, we hate him. Yet Christ,
our bridegroom, looks at his bride with such love, I mean
such love, that overtakes him. Song of Solomon four, verse nine.
This is the Savior speaking, he says, thou hast ravished my
heart, my sister, My spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse. How much better is thy love than
wine and the smell of thine ointment than all spices. The Savior's
heart is ravished when he looks at his bride. He looks at what
he made her. Now, not what she is by nature,
not what she is in Adam, but he looks at what he made her
His heart is ravished with love for her. And Christ's bride is
awestruck. Just awestruck at every glimpse
of the Savior. Isn't your heart ravished? Just
ravished to think that He could love me. That He would love me
enough that He would sacrifice Himself for me. Doesn't that
just ravish your heart? make you adore Him in awe and
wonder? Our heart is just ravished to
think, what did the Savior have to endure? What did He have to
do? What did He have to put up with?
What did He have to endure to save the likes of me? I'll tell
you how it started. He had to become a man. He had
to become a man. a human being, a God spirit.
He didn't have a body. He didn't have flesh and bones
and a body like we do. So God had to become a man. He
had to take on him flesh and bones and blood to become a real
man so he could be our representative. Now being in this flesh is all
we've ever known. So we don't, we just, we can't
even imagine how humiliating it was for the son of God to
inhabit a body and limit himself to this body just like we are.
But that's what he did. And you know why he did it? You
know why he humiliated himself to do that? Because he loves
his bride. His heart is ravaged when he
looks at her and he must have her. So he must become what she
is in order to redeem her. And that's what we see a picture
of here in Eve being made from Adam's rib. Adam said that his
wife is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. And Jane and
I do, maybe every married couple do. Every once in a while, it
just strikes us how we're one flesh. The longer we've been
married, the more it seems like one we've become. Boy, when Adam
said this, he's talking literally, didn't he? She really is bone
of his bone, flesh of his flesh. She's made from one of his bones.
That was literally true for Adam and Eve. Now get a hold of your
seat. I love this. That's literally
true for Christ and his bride too. They're literally one flesh,
one. He's the head and we're the body.
And that's where salvation is had. It's had through union with
Christ. Eve, she was physically made
from Adam's rib, but she was always in Adam. She was always
in Adam, her federal head. Look back at chapter one of Genesis. We read this verse a minute ago,
verse 27. So God created man in his own
image. In the image of God created he
him. Male and female created he them. Now that's on the sixth
day. That's when God made Adam. Eve wasn't made until chapter
two. He didn't create two people. So why does he create he them?
Because every human being would ever be born was in Adam. Starting
with Eve, starting with Eve, they're all in Adam. God created
us that day too, you and me, in Adam. In Adam, our representative. Every believer, now the same
thing is true about Christ our Savior. Every believer was in
Christ long before we had any physical being whatsoever. We
were in Christ. The Father always saw us in Christ. That's union with Christ. Now
we talk about the father seeing his people in Christ. He sees
his people as his son, as his son. You know, when, you know,
Jan and I say we're one flesh, but when you see me and Janet
come and you see, you say there's Frank and Janet, don't you? See
two people. When the father sees his people,
he doesn't see his son and then that ragtag bunch of people just
kind of, you know, latched on to his son like a bunch of leeches,
you know, and they're there and, you know, he just grudgingly
accepts him because he's in his son. No, he doesn't see Christ
and his people. All he sees is his darling son. They're one. They're one. And
our Lord, trying to teach this to us, used the illustration
of the vine and the branch. He told his disciples, he said,
I'm the vine and the branches. Now if you look at a vine and
a branch that comes off a tree and a branch, it's all one. It's seamless. You see that trunk
of that tree growing up and that branch. It's seamless. It's just
all one. You don't see. Jane and I seem
like we've been going back and forth to Lexington and all over
the place here recently. Gone to the age, Sean, we look
at the trees. We look at the color, you know, of the trees.
And we don't say, oh, look at that tree and the branches and
the leaves. We say, look at those trees.
It's all one. It's all one. And since it's
one, there's no joint. I have seen this before. Somebody
cut off a branch from one tree and stuck it into another one,
you know, trying to, whatever you call that, make it, you know,
grow together. But you can see the joint. I
mean, there's a hole in the tree. There's a branch stuck in there. It's not one. You can see it's
not one. The vine and the branch are one. They're seamlessly joined
together so that the branch is whatever the vine is. The branch
is full of whatever the vine is full of. It gets its life
from the vine. It gets its nature from the vine. You don't see a branch growing
off of an apple tree growing pears on it. The branch gets
its life, its nature, from the trunk. That's the way the believer
is. The believer is seamlessly joined
to Christ. We're one with Him. Even the
Father doesn't see where Christ ends and we begin. It's all one. Literally one flesh, one body. And we get our nature. The life
of our spiritual life, we get the nature of that from Christ. It's spiritual life because he's
spirit. It's eternal life because he's
eternal. We're righteous because he's
righteous. We're holy because he's holy. We're accepted because
he's accepted. I thank God for salvation through
union with Christ. Salvation being found in union
with Christ means this. It means all of salvation is
dependent on Christ and none of it's dependent on me. And
that's just the way I want it. That's just the way I need it.
In marriage, this union where they become one flesh, you know
marriage is the most important relationship that we'll have
on this earth. Adam says we're to leave our
father and mother and to cleave to our wife. Now, don't take
everything you ever read in scripture and take it to an extreme. That
doesn't mean that you're to leave your father and your mother and
never talk to them. And you know, that doesn't mean
that they're unimportant. That's not what that means at
all. It means that we're to cleave to our wife. She's to be our
first responsibility. Well, for the believer, I mean,
you just can't even, I don't think you could overstate this.
Our relationship with Christ is the most important relationship
we'll ever have. Our life depends upon it. You
can't have life without it. And if you know Him, can't you
say, I want to cleave to Him? I mean, it's not something like
you tell me I have to do this. I want to cleave to Him. Don't
you? I want to hang on to Him for
a little more. But I'll tell you what's more important than
that. I want Him to cleave to me. I want Him to cleave to me
in order to redeem His pride. Christ the son did leave his
father. He did. Now, even when he was on earth,
he said he was in heaven, he was with his father. But can
you think of a time when he was without him? I can't. At Calvary, he cried, my God,
my God, why has thou forsaken me? Why did he endure that? Because
he's cleaving to his wife. That's the only way she could
have life. That's the only way that she
could be redeemed. And after that death, that burial
and that resurrection, remember when God came and took Eve and
presented her to Adam? Look at Ephesians chapter five
again. One day, in the not so distant future, Christ
is gonna present his bride to his father. And I want you to
look how he presents her. Verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Now,
why did he do that? Why did he love her and give
himself for her? That he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word that he might present it, that
he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. By his death, Christ made his
people to be the opposite of everything they are in Adam.
And that's the way he's going to present him to the father.
One more scripture. Look here at Colossians chapter
one. First 20 Colossians one verse
20 and having made peace to the
blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself
by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven, and you, and I always, when I read, I think, and even
you, even you, Frank, even you. They were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and
unblameable and reprovable in his sight. Now, you and I think,
well, we're sinners. I see plenty sin in me. Plenty
sin in you, you see plenty sin in me. How can that be? Well, because that's what Christ
made us. And I'm telling you this, if
we're holy and unblameable, unreprovable in His sight, we are holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable. That's what Christ has made His
people to be. It's through union with Him, because that's the
way He is. So that brings me to my last point. Christ makes
His people Righteous. Righteousness is in Christ. Verse 25, back in Genesis chapter
two. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. Now Adam and Eve
at this time were innocent. They were not righteous. Righteous
in the sense that they could not sin. They were innocent.
They were innocent because Adam had not sinned yet. We'll look
at that in a week or two. And that's why they were not
ashamed to be naked They were innocent. They didn't have anything
to be ashamed of. Now, you and I live after the fall and it's
not that way anymore. You know, we want to be covered
with clothes. Isn't that the dream we all had
when we were in school? It was a dream I always had.
I always would dream I woke up naked in biology class. I mean,
it was just the most It was a horrible thing. It was horrible. Just
horrible. It was just full of shame, you
know. We'd be shamed of being naked in public. There's something
wrong with people. I mean, there's just something
wrong with that. You know why we're shamed? We're not innocent
or righteous. That's why we're shamed. We're
sinners in modesty. You know, I know modesty has
gone out the window in our day, but just let me tilt the windmills,
let me tell you this. Modesty of attitude, modesty
of conduct, modesty in our clothing is becoming to a believer. It's
becoming to a believer. And you know, we need, everybody
feels the need to be covered with clothes, and you know, nice
clothes make us feel good. I mean, they just do. I guess
I'm a weirdo, but even when I was a kid, I liked to wear suit and
tie. I mean, I wanted to wear it,
not just to church. I didn't want to do that at school.
I mean, jeans and t-shirts was the only thing I owned other
than a suit. I just wanted nice clothes. Even as a boy, I wanted to do
that. We know what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his people.
He didn't just restore us to what we were in Adam and the
garden. He made his people more than innocent. Adam and Eve were
innocent, but they could sin. They were innocent. Christ has
made his people better than that. Now, he has made us innocent
of sin in this way, that he's taken our sin away, but it's
better than that. Christ has made his people righteous,
so they cannot sin. If Christ just restored us to
what we were in Adam, we'd fall all over again. If we were just
innocent, we'd fall all over again. We'd sin and rack up another
sin debt just immediately. Christ has made his people righteous,
so they cannot sin. So the believer is not ashamed.
The believer is not ashamed to appear before God, because in
Christ we're not naked, we're clothed. Clothed with the righteousness
of Christ. Look at Romans chapter 10. We'll
end here, Romans chapter 10. We talk about being clothed in
Christ's robe of righteousness, That doesn't mean that we've
got a robe on that just covers all of our sin, all of our shame.
It's all still there. It's all still filthy. It's all
still there to be shamed. And we just got a robe, you know,
hiding it from anybody's view. God sees through all that. Just
a robe of righteousness that covers our filth wouldn't do
us any good. We have to be made righteous
through and through. And that's what Christ has done
for his people. Romans 10 verse 11. For the scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." If you trust Christ,
you trust Him to be all you need, you trust Him to be everything
that God requires of you, you trust Him to be all of your salvation,
then you've got nothing to be ashamed of. Because He did it
all. He's done everything that God
requires of you. He's taken away all the sin that
causes your shame, so you've got nothing to be shamed of.
If you believe in Christ, you've got no shame, because he's made
his people righteous. Now, I'll grant you, that's a mighty poor job of trying
to show all of the glory of Christ our bridegroom. but if God will
give us just a little glimpse of it, I believe we'll go home
with that dough I love. Don't you? I hope so. All right,
let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for a perfect
bridegroom, who in a way that we can't understand,
would set his love upon sinful men and women, and redeem them,
redeem them by his blood, the blood of his death, his sacrifice,
to make them holy, unblameable, and reprovable without any spot
or wrinkle of sin, and make them just like him. Join himself to
them that they might be redeemed. Father, how we thank you. And
Father, I pray you'd take your word as it's been preached and
apply it to the hearts of your people, that we might see the
glory of Christ our Savior. and leave here and drive home
trusting him with nothing to be ashamed of. For it's in his
precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, please stand
and turn to song number 53, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds. so How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. Dear name the rock on which
I build my shield and hiding place, my never failing treasury
field with boundless stores of grace. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king. My Lord, my life, my way,
my end, accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought. But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. Till then I would thy love proclaim
with every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul in death.