Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 62, passage Brother Eric read for us a moment ago.
I've entitled the message tonight, A Message to Christ's Bride.
Our Lord has a message here of great comfort and assurance for
His bride. Our comfort and the assurance
of Christ's bride is found in who Christ our husband is. Our
assurance is found in His love for us. It's not our love for
Him. We do love Him, but our assurance,
our comfort is not found in our love for Him. It's His love for
us. Our assurance is not found in the fact that we chose Him.
We decided, you know, to let Christ into our heart. No, our
assurance is He chose us. The assurance of Christ's bride
is Christ our righteousness. It's not goodness of our own.
It's Christ our righteousness, our comfort, our assurance is
found in who he is, his character. And we also find assurance in
this, that God himself will speak the message of comfort to the
hearts of his people. He'll send preachers to preach
it, but he's the one who will make it factual. And he will
speak to the hearts of his people. And when he speaks, they'll hear. They'll be comforted and they'll
find assurance in who he is, his love for them. And I have
four points tonight. Isaiah gives us in these first
five verses of the Christ message to his bride. Number one is this. Our message to Christ's bride
is the message of Christ and it's from Christ. Verse one.
For Zion's sake, why not hold my peace? And for Jerusalem's
sake, I will not rest. until the righteousness thereof
go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof is a lamp that
burneth. The prophet says, I've got a
message from the Lord and I will not hold my peace. I'm going
to proclaim the message that the Lord's given me. I won't
rest. I won't hide. I'm going to do
everything I can to keep preaching this message that the Lord's
given to me. I'm determined to preach it. I won't rest. We'll
get to this verse six next week, but this is what he says in verse
six about the watchman or God's preachers. I've set watchmen
upon my walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace
day nor night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silent. If you make mention of the Lord,
don't you quit? You keep preaching him. That's the way all God's
servants feel. They feel that way because the
Lord's given us a message. And you know when the Lord's
given you a message. As I sit in my study sometimes,
I come out and Chancellor, how's it go? And I say, well, I've
got my message, but I don't have a message from the Lord. And
you know when you've got a message from the Lord. It burns within
you so that you must preach it. That's what the Apostle Paul
told the church at Corinth. I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I've determined
to preach it. David said in Psalm 116, I believed,
therefore have I spoken. I had to speak it. I had to preach
it. This is why I believe. And in 2 Corinthians 4, the Apostle
Paul amened him. He quoted him. He said, I believe,
therefore have I spoken. That's why I'm so determined
to preach this message. Now, the message of Christ and
Him crucified is so important. You can't stress how important
it is to hear the gospel. Paul said, necessity is laid
upon me. This is what I must do. And he
went on, he said, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Woe is unto me. So important
that we preach the gospel. But you know, it's also important
that we hear the gospel too. God's message from God's servant.
And we preach. We do the best we can to study
and to preach. But I'll tell you when we'll
hear. I can tell you when we'll be saved. I can tell you when
we'll find comfort and assurance of our salvation. It's when Christ
speaks to the heart. When you quit hearing the preacher
and you start hearing Christ speak to the heart by faith,
that's when you'll find salvation. That's when you'll find assurance.
That's when you'll find comfort for your heart. And that's exactly
why God's servant will not hold his peace. He won't hold his
peace in preaching. And he won't hold his peace when
he's in the study alone either. First thing I do when I go into
my study every day is I pray. And every single day I pray for
you. Part of my prayer every day is
I pray for you. I don't intend for that to ever
stop. I don't intend to begin to hold my peace in that matter. To pray for you, to pray that
as I preach, as the Lord gives me the message to preach, that
Christ will speak to your heart. Because that's where the blessing
is. And the real blessing here in this verse 1 of Isaiah chapter
62 is not just that it's Isaiah speaking, it's Christ speaking
to his people through his prophet. Christ our Savior came to this
earth on a mission. He said his mission was to seek
and to save that which is lost. And he went about that business
that He wouldn't be still, He wouldn't be quiet, He would not
hold His peace. Everywhere He went, He constantly
cried to His people, Come to Me. If you're thirsty, is any
man thirsty? Let Him come unto Me and drink
of the water of life free. Is any man weary? Are you weary
of the law, weary of the burden of the law so that you can't
carry it anymore? Come unto Me. Find rest from your soul, from
all your works of the law. Come unto Me. And our Savior,
He would not rest. There was a time every man went
to his own home, they went to sleep. You know where our Lord
went? He went up to the mountain alone to pray all night long. He would not rest, seeking his
sheep. Look at Psalm 69. Our Savior was constantly working
to accomplish the salvation of his people, constantly establishing
righteousness for them. Constantly doing everything that
it took to save their sinful souls. In Psalm 69 verse 9, this
is the Messiah speaking. He said, For the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach
thee are fallen upon me. Do you know why God's elect will
never be found guilty? Do you know why they'll never
be reproached of God? Because the reproach for their
sin has already fallen on Christ our He had such a zeal for the
salvation of those people that he loves, that he was compelled
not just to work out a righteousness for them, but then he was compelled
to go to the cross, to suffer and to die for them, to put their
sin away. His zeal for his people, the
zealous love that he has for his people literally ate him
up. It compelled him to go to the
cross, to die for his people. And even now, at this very moment,
our Savior does not hold His peace. He died, didn't He? But He didn't stay dead. He rose
again. He rose again from the dead because the sin that was
charged to Him is gone. What happened after He rose?
He ascended back to glory to sit on the right hand of the
Father where He ever lives, making intercession for His people.
Even now, He does not hold His peace. He's pleading the blood
of his sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of his people. He's
pleading his death for the life of his people. He does not hold
his peace. That's the message of Christ. That's how he saved
his people from their sins. And that's the message from Christ. It's the message from Christ
to his bride. It's not to everybody. It's to
his bride. Just like I wrote a letter to
Janet. That letter wouldn't be to everybody. It would be to
my bride. This is the message of Christ to his bride. Do you
find comfort from that? Do you find assurance of your
salvation from that to hear that Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
Almighty God, died for you? That He rose again for your justification
and He ever lives to make intercession for you. If Christ died for you
and He makes intercession for you, can you perish? Of course
not. That gives you peace, peace in
the heart, assurance of your salvation, doesn't it? Well,
second, our message to Christ's bride is the message of Christ's
righteousness. Verse 1 again, he says, for Zion's
sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake will
I not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. Now the
Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth to save a people. a specific,
exact people that the Father gave Him. They were sinful people. That's why they needed a Savior.
They needed saving from their sin. That's why He came. And
they were so sinful that there's not one good thing about them. Not one. They were completely
ruined in sin. Yet the Savior had such a zeal
for those people. He loved them, but they're ruined
in sin. He had such a zeal for them. He had such a zeal for their
eternal good that he would not rest until he had done everything
that was necessary to make them perfect, to make them righteous. Our Savior had such a zeal for
the people that he loved. He was compelled to become a
man so he could be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh,
so he could be our representative and obey the law for us. He was
compelled to do that because He loved His people. And then
He was compelled to be made sin for His people. That didn't happen
against His will. No, He went to the cross willingly. He was made sin willingly for
His people. So that they might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. He had a zeal to make them righteous. Our Savior had such a zeal to
make His people what they're not. that He became what He's
known. He became what they are so they
could be made what He is. He was made sin so His people
could be made righteous. Thank God for that zeal. That's
the only way sinners like us could ever be made righteous.
And contrary to the religion of the world, the zeal of that
Savior and the righteousness that He established will never
be wasted. All of His people shall be made
righteous. All of them. Every one of them
will see Christ and believe on him. Look at verse two. And the
Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory, and
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the
Lord shall name. The Gentiles, Isaiah speaks of
here, are sinners. Gentiles were the worst sinners
a Jew could imagine. They're awful, these Gentile
dogs. That's exactly who Christ came
to say, the worst of the worst. These Gentile dogs, everyone
who's a genuine sinner is going to see Christ our righteousness
and they're going to believe. They're going to be joined to
him. They will see and believe Christ in the heart. They're
going to have a new heart that God gives them, a heart of faith
that will believe Christ and love Christ. They will be joined
to Christ. in union with Him, vital union
with Him. That's how they're made righteous.
God's elect are not made just like they're righteous. They're
not just going to be righteous someday. No, they're actually
righteous and they're actually righteous right now, right at
this very moment because they're joined to Christ. And because
we're joined to Christ, we're everything that He is. God's
elect are joined in such close union with Christ. You can't
tell where Christ stops and where His people begin. Because they're
one. They're one. They're married
to Him. We'll get to that in a moment,
but they're married to Him. So they have become one flesh. You want me to show you that
from Scripture? Look here, Jeremiah chapter 23. I've showed you this
before, but I like reading it often. What name will the mouth
of the Lord call His people? That's going to tell us how close
this union is with him. How real this righteousness is
in him. What name does the mouth of the
Lord call his people? Jeremiah 23 verse 5. Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord. Thou raised unto David a righteous
branch, and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute
judgment and justice in the earth. In his days, Judas shall be saved. And Israel shall dwell safely. Now, everybody here knows that
speaking of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And
this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah Sid Kenyon. That's his
name. Now look over in Jeremiah chapter
33. Verse 15. In those days, and at that time,
will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he
shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, and this
is the name wherewith she shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. Jehovah said Kenneth. The union
of Christ and his bride is so close. We are so much one with
him. that we bear his name, that we
are him. That's the name the Lord calls
us, Jehovah Sidkenu. Brethren, if the Lord calls us
righteous, we are. If the Lord calls us Jehovah
Sidkenu, we are. That's the name God, who cannot
lie, calls his bride. And if he calls us righteous,
we are. Righteous in Him. God can't call
us something we're not, can He? So we're righteous in Christ.
Actually and literally righteous. And that righteousness will be
forever. It cannot be lost. Jehovah Sidkenu
is our name forever. Forever. It'll never end. When
Jan and I were married, she walked into the church that morning
named Janet Conway. and we left that afternoon, her
name was Janet Tate. That's what it's been ever since.
And if I have my way, that'll be her name till she dies, Janet
Tate. I want to tell you this, Christ's
bride will never lose her name, never. She will eternally bear
the name of her Savior and husband, Jehovah's Seekers. The message
for Christ's pride is the message of Christ's righteousness, not
our goodness. I'm not up here telling you you've
got to do all these things to be good and keep your righteousness.
No, I'm declaring to you Christ our righteousness. And if you're
a sinner, don't you find comfort and assurance of salvation in
that? If Christ is your righteousness, you cannot perish, can you? If
you don't have any sin, how can you perish? Christ took all your
sin away, made you perfect in Him. Then you can never perish. You ought to be comforted. You
ought to find assurance of salvation in that. Perfect. Third, our
message to Christ's bride is the message of Christ's glory.
Verse 3, back in our text, Isaiah 62. Thou shalt also be a crown
of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of thy God. Now what is this crown of glory? Look in Jeremiah chapter 13.
This crown of glory is His people. Jeremiah 13 verse 11. For as the girdle cleaveth to
the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house
of Israel, and the whole house of Judas, saith the Lord, that
they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise,
for glory. My people, he says, are to me
a glory. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the salvation of his people. That's his glory. He saved everyone
he loves. He saved everyone that the father
gave him to say. And the glory of Christ depends
upon him saving all those people from their sins. If he loses
just one of them, he loses all of his glory. Our message to
Christ's bride is the message of Christ's glory. This thing's
not left to doubt. Christ has indeed saved all his
people from their sins. And he will, without a doubt,
in the end, present every one of them before the Father follows. Perfect. There's no doubt about
that. That's the message of Christ's
glory. But I want to give you something here I think will comfort
your heart. Did you notice this as we read?
This crown of glory is not on the head of the Savior, is it?
It's in His hand. I looked at that. It's in the
hand of the Lord. And I don't know everything there
is to know about that, but this I do know. I know that crown
of glory is His people. His people, God's elect people,
are in the hand of Christ. They're in that hand of provision
that provides for them everything they need. To overjoy what the
Lord will provide. They're in His hand to provide
for them everything that they need. They're in the hand of
the Great Physician who comforts and soothes His people when they're
so weary, when they're so tired, when they're suffering. That's
the hand of the Great Physician. They're in His hand to comfort
and to soothe. They're in the great hand of
the Father, that hand of protection that always keeps those He loves. No man's able to pluck them out
of my hand, the Savior said. They're eternally secure. That
glory, the salvation of His people is His glory. It's in His hand.
Secure, eternally secure. We can just find assurance of
our salvation. We can find comfort for our souls
knowing we're in the hand of the Savior. It's not up to me. It's not in my hand. It's all
in His. His glory depends upon Him keeping
us in His hand. And He will. Everything's going
to be alright. We ought to be assured when we
hear that. Everything's going to be alright. He's not going
to allow His glory to be tainted. He won't lose His people out
of His hand. The message to Christ's bride
is the message of Christ's glory. Our message to Christ's bride
is the message of Christ our Bridegroom. Verse 4, Thou shalt
no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed
desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah,
for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. Now earlier we talked about the
believer's union with Christ. And that union is a marriage.
It's a marriage where the husband and wife become one flesh. That's
in Ephesians chapter five with the Apostle Paul. He gave us
the instruction on marriage. He said, now this is a great
mystery. I speak concerning Christ and the church. They have become
one flesh. And the sinner, God's bride,
his elect, the one he loves, they're born in this world and
sin and rebellion and depravity and death and darkness. But oh,
everything changes when she becomes married to Christ, our bridegroom.
By nature, we're forsaken. That's our name. Capital F, forsaken. He's talking there about a proper
name. That's our name. That's who we are. That's what
we are. Forsaken. The word means destitute. Isn't
that us in Adam? We're forsaken. We're destitute. Empty of anything that God requires. We don't have the first thing
God requires. It's not like we have some righteousness,
but it's not, you know, a very good quality. No, we have no
righteousness. Zero. None. We're empty. And
we don't have any way to earn a righteousness because all we
are and all we have is sin. We don't have any life in us.
There's not a spark of life in us. We're dead in trespasses
and sin. We have no joy. We have no peace, we have no
love for God, but everything changes when we become married
to Christ. In Christ, we have everything. We have everything that God requires,
and we have it abundantly. God requires perfection. He requires
righteousness. Christ is our righteousness. I can't get any better than that.
If Christ is our righteousness, it can't get any better than
that. We need life. We're dead in Adam. We need life.
Well, Christ is our life. Well, if Christ is our life,
we have it perfectly and eternally, don't we? We need peace with
God. Christ is our peace. We've declared
war on God. We desperately need peace with
God. Well, Christ came and made it.
He made peace with God through the blood of His cross. If Christ
is our peace, we have perfect peace. There'll never be warfare
again. We need joy and happiness. Christ is our joy. Look to Him. If you want to be happy, look
away from yourself and look to Christ. He is our joy. We have
complete joy in Him. And Christ loves His people.
How the bride, as I stand here and speak to you about everything
we have in Christ, about His love for His people. This is
our husband. The bride just revels in this. I just, oh, I can't
believe it. He loves me. I'm just so thankful
for the love of Christ, our husband. His love is a pure love. It's only for her. His love is
a sure love. It's love that will never fail.
He'll never stop loving you no matter what. No matter what. He'll never stop loving you.
His love is measureless. You can't measure the length
of it, the breadth of it, or the depth of it. Well, you know
what that tells me? His love will never run out.
Even for sinful men and women like you and me, He'll never
run out of love for us. His love is perfect. And it's
his love that comforts the heart of his bride. It gives us constant
assurance of our relationship with him. I haven't loved him like I ought. But our assurance is not in our
love for him. Even though I haven't loved him
like I ought, he gives assurance He loves me. That's our assurance. That's our comfort. Herein is
love. Not that we loved God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. If God loves us, you take assurance
now. If God loves us, we can never
perish. He sent his son to die in our
place. He's not going to let us perish.
no more be called forsaken. But another meaning of this word
forsaken is refused. God refuses men because of our
sin, doesn't He? And by nature, we've refused
God. We've rebelled against Him and
we've refused Him. Well, what we need is a mediator.
We need a mediator who can bring the sinner back to God, who can
bridge that gulf between God and the sinner. That mediator is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's our sin that separated us
from God. So Christ came and he took the
sin of his people away. He took that separation out of
the way by being made sin for his people and putting their
sin away at Calvary. And at Calvary, he cried to be
sure we'd know it. At Calvary, Christ our Savior
was forsaken of his father. He cried, my God, my God, why
is thou forsaken? We know why He was forsaken.
The Savior was forsaken by His Father because of sin. Because
sin had been charged to Him. The Father made Him sin and the
Father in justice forsook Him. But the blood of the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ put that sin away. The Father raised
Him from the dead. Brought Him back to glory. No
reason for Him to be forsaken anymore. Sin's gone. And now,
There's no reason for God to forsake us if Christ died for
us, none whatsoever. Our substitute was forsaken so
that we'd be accepted in a beloved. And Christ, our husband, gives
constant assurance to his people, the love for his bride, telling
us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I was forsaken for
you, so you will never be forsaken by me. That marriage is a two-way
street. The Holy Spirit gives that bride.
She's not an unwilling bride. No, she's a willing bride, a
loving bride. The Holy Spirit comes and gives
her a new heart, gives her a new nature that won't forsake God. God causes a new man to be born
who loves God, who believes Christ, who comes to God in Christ lovingly
and willingly. He won't forsake me. I'll tell
you what, I'm not going to forsake him either. By God's grace, the
new man won't do it. This marriage is a two-way street.
No more will we be called forsaken. And he says, by nature, you were
called desolate. That's our name, desolate. That's
who we are and what we are. The word means destroyed or ruined. That's what we are in Adam and
Eve, ruined. Something that's ruined can't
be remodeled. It can't be rebuilt. It's ruined. There's nothing good left. That's
us, ruined in Adam. There's no life in us, no spiritual
life in us. There's no righteousness, no
goodness. We're ruined. But Christ comes and he gives
his people a new nature. He gives them a new nature and
the new birth, causing a new man to be born in the spirit.
Now that new man, he's not the old man remodeled. He's not the
old man fixed up. He's a new man born. who never
existed before. He's born from new seed, spiritual
seed, the Word of God. He's got a new father. God is
his father. He's not born from Adam's sinful
seed. He's born from the incorruptible
seed of God the Father, His Word. That man's got a new nature,
and he's got a new name, the name of our husband. We looked
at Jehovah Sidkenu, that's one of our names in Christ, and here
he gives us two more names that Christ, gives his bride. The
first one he calls her Hebzibah, my delight is in her. That's an amazing statement.
Christ, our husband, finds delight in his bride. He finds delight
in the bride that he saved with his blood. He finds delight in
the bride that he suffered and died for. I can't explain that. I've thought
and thought and thought about that for the past number of days.
It's easy for me to see how we can delight in the Lord. Isn't
that easy to see? He's delightful. He's perfect.
Of course we can delight in Him. But He says that He delights
in her. The only explanation for that
is love and grace. Look at Numbers chapter 14. That love, how he delights in
his bride, brings comfort and assurance to Christ's bride.
Comforts are art. Numbers 14 verse 8. If the Lord delight in us, then
he will bring us into this land and give it us. A land which
floweth with milk and honey. Now you know that promised land
is a picture of heaven. And what God did for national
Israel because he delighted in them, he will assuredly do for
spiritual Israel because he delights in her. He's gonna bring her
to glory, to be with him forever because he delights in her. He's
gonna delight in her for eternity. And then the other name the Lord
gives his bride is Beulah, married. A believer is joined to Christ
just exactly like a wife who's joined her husband. They're one
flesh. The believer is one with Christ. We are the body of Christ. He's
the head and we're the body. What an honor to be in the body
of Christ. And when a man marries a woman,
everything changes. Everything he has is hers because
she's joined to him. Everything Christ our husband
has and everything he is, is ours through union with Christ. We're joint heirs with Christ.
Everything he has is ours. When a woman marries a man, she
leaves her father's house. She's taken out of her father's
house and she goes to the house of her husband. A believer, thankfully,
is taken out of the house of Adam. He's taken out of the world
and he's taken into the household of Christ. God has translated
us, transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of his dear son. We've got a new address. We married
our husband. Now that brings great joy to
the hearts of the believers. Does that thrill your soul? To
no longer bear our worthless name in Adam, but to bear his
precious name, to have these names he calls us, my delight,
married. That thrills our soul, doesn't
it? But do you know that thrills
the heart of the Savior too? Look here at verse 5. For as
a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.
And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy
God rejoice over thee. Now we all can understand how
a new husband rejoices to be married to his wife. Invariably,
he's outmarried himself She didn't change her mind and he rejoicing. Oh, how he rejoices in that bride
that he loves. That verse says Christ, our husband
rejoices over his bride in that exact same way. He rejoices over
her. He rejoiced when the father gave
her to him in eternity past. He knew what they were. He knew
what they'd be. He knew what it would take to
redeem them, but he loved them. And he rejoiced when the Father
gave her to him. He rejoiced to humiliate himself
and come into this world clothed in human flesh so he could save
her. And he rejoiced in that. He rejoiced
to become bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh, to be identified
with her. He rejoiced because he loves her. He even rejoiced
to go to Calvary to put her sin away. He despised the shame. He just... That's nothing. for the joy that was set before
him to redeem her. He rejoiced to redeem her. He rejoices when that bride is
found in the new birth, just like that parable in Luke 15.
The shepherd rejoices when he finds a lost sheep, doesn't he?
That woman rejoices when she finds the lost coin, and the
father rejoices when that prodigal son comes home. Christ our Savior
rejoices when his lost bride is found. when that dead bride's
given life. And he will rejoice over that
bride for all of eternity. One of our loved ones who knows
the Lord dies and we mourn, don't we? The Savior rejoices. Our bride's come home. This is
one that I love has come home. I know something about a young
husband rejoicing over his bride. You think it will never get any
better than it is right now. You get married and there's a
celebration. You go off together on your honeymoon
and you think, it just can't get any better than this. And
you find out, indeed it does. It gets deeper. It gets richer.
Jan and I have a sign that hangs in our hallway. We used to have
one outside and the weather faded it and finally destroyed it,
so this one we got, we hung up in the hallway of our house.
It says, grow old with me, for the best is yet to be. And we
like that sign, because we expect for our love to continue, to
grow deeper and richer and fuller. I remember the afternoon, I remember
this well, June the 20th, 1987. We drove off, we left for our
honeymoon, her dad had a blue Lincoln Town Car. He let us take
on our honeymoon. I thought, boy, this is the life,
you know. This is never going to get any better than this.
I've heard people tell me many, many, many times it will. And
I believed them. I really, I believed them. It's
going to get better than this. But I couldn't see how. I just,
I had no experience. I didn't have any cup to put
that in. I didn't understand how this is ever going to get
any better. But it is. It absolutely is. I thought of this illustration.
We were down at Janice Mom's recently. You drive through those
mountains, there's streams everywhere. And you go through and you pass
these beautiful streams. They're going over the rocks
and the white water. They're beautiful. And the sound
they make is pretty. But if you got down in, there's
not much water there. It's pretty shallow. And we went
out one day, we're driving, and all of a sudden, we come around
the corner, and there is this gorgeous lake. The trees were,
you know, Dan, like that picture you took, like a, you know, there's
the trees, and it looks like a double weir. I don't know what
you, but it was gorgeous. You know, all that shallow water,
that's beautiful, going over the rocks, but it's kind of shallow.
You know where it all went? To that lake. That same water,
but it's deeper. It's cooler, it's richer. That's
how the love for a husband and a wife grows. Now, I hate to
compare my love to the love of Christ our husband, but that's
the illustration that we have a husband and wife. We think
now, I couldn't be more thrilled, I couldn't enjoy, I couldn't
be more thankful for the love of Christ my husband, than I
am right now. There are many days. That's all
that gets me through the day. You just wait. The best is yet
to be. In glory. That love is not going
to keep growing deeper and deeper and deeper. We're going to enjoy
it perfectly for eternity. The best is yet to be. That's the message of Christ.
I hope that'll bring comfort and assurance to your heart.
Let's bow in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
this precious portion of your word, these precious promises
of your love to a people who are so undeserving, who are so
unlovely, yet you promised your love to her. How you came and
took away her sin, made her beautiful in your beauty and your righteousness,
which you put on her. Our thankful that you promised
that you'll never leave or forsake your people. That truly the best
is yet to be. How we thank you. Father, until
that day. That you bring us home where
we enjoy that love and that perfectly to see you face to face, no more
through the eye of faith, no more through a glass darkly,
but face to face. Father, until that time, cause
us to be faithful servants that hold not our peace, that don't
rest, that constantly preach this gospel, the gospel of Christ
to his bride, that we constantly seek thee, look to thee, and
rest in thee, that we would enjoy all the the riches of your mercy
and your grace and your love to your people now, until that
time that you call us home to enjoy it perfectly. Father, how
we thank you. Bless your word to your glory,
to the hearts of your people, we pray. For it's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give thanks, we ask this blessing
on your word.