Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 54. Immediately after Isaiah chapter
53, where Isaiah tells us so clearly about the death, burial
and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He immediately
tells us in chapter 54, the results of what Christ accomplished in
his death, his burial, and his resurrection. The salvation that Christ accomplished
to Calvary, he accomplished for his people, was a whole lot more,
a whole lot more than him just finishing a legal transaction. Now certainly that's part of
it. God's salvation must be legal. Any true salvation's got to satisfy
God's holiness. But the salvation that Christ
accomplished for his people goes much, much deeper than that.
The salvation that Christ accomplished for his people guarantees a union
with Christ. It guarantees that his people
will be joined to him. And when I talk about a union
with Christ, what I mean is that all of God's elect, all those
for whom Christ died, will be married to Christ. They'll be
joined to him in a marriage union. They'll be joined to Christ so
closely, so uniquely, that they are made one with Christ. They're
made just like their Savior. Now, we understand that truth.
We understand salvation is not a cold, rigid doctrine that we
preach. Salvation's a person. Salvation
is a warm, loving person. And believers have a close, warm,
intimate relationship with Christ our husband. Not with a doctrine,
but with Christ our husband. And that's the title of the message
this evening, Christ our husband. And if you look in verse five,
you'll see where I get that title from. For thy maker is thine
husband. The Lord of hosts is his name.
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall he be called. That's our husband. And God sends
his preachers out with a message of the Christ declared in chapter
53, so that his people will be joined to the Christ that's described,
or they'll have this union with Christ that's described in chapter
54. We preach, we preach Christ. not only so that sinners will
be pointed to Christ, but we preach Christ so sinners will
be joined to Christ by faith, so that we'll be joined to our
husband. So here's our first point, since Christ is the husband
of his people, there will be life. The sacrifice of Christ,
his death, always produces life. Look at verse one of chapter
54. Seeing O barren, thou that didst not bear, Break forth into
singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail a child. For
more are the children of the desolate than the children of
the married wife, saith the Lord. Now I know that this is a prophecy
that the Jews will one day return from their captivity in Babylon.
And when they do, they're gonna grow to greater numbers than
ever before in their history. And that did happen. But there's
a far greater blessing and a far greater truth for us to rejoice
in. Isaiah tells the barren woman, the woman who could not bear
children. She tried and she tried and she
tried, she's barren. She cannot produce a child. And
she's so sad. All she wanted was a baby. And Isaiah tells that barren
woman, you rejoice. You're going to bear children.
What this is talking about here is spiritual life. When we come
into this world, we're born under the law. And under the law, we
have no reason to rejoice because union with the law cannot produce
life. It's utterly impossible. We can't
keep God's law because we're sinners. Our nature is to sin. So all the law can do is give
you and me death. And we're born in bondage to
this law. We're joined to it so that we're
born married to the law. The flesh is married to the law. And we can't separate ourselves
from the law. Our husband, the law, tell you the kind of husband
he is. He constantly points out our
flaws. Every mistake we make, he points
out. He never lets one pass, never
misses one. Now wouldn't you ladies hate
to be married to a man like that? Just constantly pointing out
your flaws that never compliment you. When you do something right,
he never compliments you for it because it's just what you're
supposed to do. But he always points out your flaws. You ladies
would hate that. Hence, my advice to us husbands
is don't be that guy. Don't be that way. Don't be pointing
out our flaws. Don't be like the law. Don't
do that. We hate being married to the
law. It's brutal. And on top of always pointing
out our mistakes, our flaws, our sins, always showing, holding
up the mirror and showing us how ugly we are because of our
sin, the law, our husband, the law, every morning, every afternoon,
every evening, he says, I'm going to kill you. One day I'm going
to kill you. One day I'm going to get you.
Now, wouldn't you hate to be under the rule, to be in subjection
to that kind of man who constantly tells you, I'm gonna kill you.
One day I'm gonna kill you. That's the kind of husband the
law is. But by God's grace, he has betrothed a people to his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They'll be married to him. And
there is life and freedom in Christ our husband. And I'll
show you that. If you look over in Galatians
chapter 4, God in His Word did not leave
us to guess what it is that Isaiah is talking about in Isaiah chapter
54. The Apostle Paul tells us exactly what he's talking about
here, what this is meant to teach us in Galatians 4 beginning in
verse 21. Tell me you that desire to be
under the law, you that desire to be married to the law, you
tell me this. Do you not hear the law? For it's written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a
free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after
the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things
are an allegory. Now these things are given to
us as a picture of a greater truth. For these are the two
covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and
is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all, for it's written,
and here's what Paul's quoting here, Isaiah. Rejoice thou barren
that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest
not, For the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband, than she that is married to the law. Now we,
brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what saith
the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then brethren, we're not children
of the bondwoman, but we're children of the free. Now Paul tells us
that this passage that we just read in Isaiah chapter 54 is
written to show us, to show believers the blessing of being married
to and being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. I described to
you something of the kind of husband that the law is. The
law gives us death. Christ our husband gives life.
And Christ puts that life in His people in the new birth.
That's the picture of the barren woman. This barren woman never
conceived. She never had a child. Suddenly
one day something's different. She feels something strange in
her belly. I wonder what's going on. There's life in there. There's
a seed been conceived. There's life. Ultimately, she's
going to give birth. Now this is miraculous. Here's
what she'd been bearing. Now there's life in her. Life's
been put in that woman. And that is given to us as a
picture. That's a picture of the new man
who's born in every believer. God puts that life in his people. Now listen, this life's abundant. The sacrifice
of Christ didn't just save a few. Christ saved a number no man
can number. So you better get ready to have
a big family be born. Because Christ didn't just save
a few. Look here at verse 2 of Isaiah 54. Enlarge the place
of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation.
Spare not. Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen
thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on
the right hand and on the left. And thy seed shall inherit the
Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Now you
better be building a large addition on your house. You better build
plenty of bedrooms. You better build you a great
big old dining room because many children are going to be born.
Many children will be given life in the new birth because Christ
saved a number no man can number. And every one of them is going
to be born. Every one of them is going to
be given life. You see, God didn't just intend to save a few Jews. He chose that small nation. He
chose the smallest nation on earth at the time. to be his
people. But he chose them to be a picture. He chose them to be a picture
of how he would deal with spiritual Israel. He wasn't ever just gonna
save that little old nation. God purposed to save all of spiritual
Israel. And the church is gonna grow
so large. You better be expanding out, building a bigger house.
The church is gonna grow so large because God's gonna bring the
Gentiles in too. He is such a wonderful husband.
He's got people from the Gentiles, from every nation on this earth,
and He's gonna bring them all in. And I read that, I'll tell
you what I thought. I'm afraid we think far too little
of what our God will do. What is it that God can't do?
And then He does something miraculous, and we're surprised. We ought to preach. Now I said
this to myself as I sat in my study. I ought to preach, ought
to pray, we ought to support the gospel expecting a great
blessing. We're not just hanging on by
the skin of our teeth. We ought to be expecting a great
blessing. Isaiah says in verse two, spare
not. Don't hold back. When you're
serving God, don't hold back. God spared not his own son. Well,
we shouldn't hold back. We shouldn't spare when we're
serving our God either, should we? God's going to save His people
from their sins. He's going to give them spiritual
life. Now, Eric, when we go out and preach, we don't expect that.
We just don't expect God to give His people life because He promised
He'd do it. Being married to Christ is a
fruitful marriage, and it produces a large, happy family. He gives
life. Christ our husband is a gracious
husband. Now our first husband in the
law was a harsh husband. His demands made us live in bondage
and fear. His authority was just, he ruled
by fear. Just constantly being afraid
of being beaten. Constantly being afraid of being
put to death. I want you to listen to Christ
our husband speak to his bride, verse four. Here she's been used
to living in fear, just cringing every time a husband comes into
the room. Listen to what our husband says. Fear not. Thou shalt not be ashamed, neither
be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame, for
thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood anymore, for thy maker is thine
husband. The Lord of hosts is his name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. the God of the whole
earth, so he be called. Now this is our new husband speaking
to us. But now that begs a question. God's people are born under the
law. They're born married to the law. That's their first husband.
Well, how did they get free from that husband to the law to be
married to Christ? You know, you can't just leave
them. You can't just leave your first husband and marry another
because that's not legal. The only way we can be married
to a second husband is if one of us dies. Either our husband
dies or we die. It's the only way. Well, God's
law is eternal. God's law will never die. The
law's demands will never end as long as time is. So the law
is not going to die. Well, then the only other option
is we've got to die. If we're going to be set free
from the law, from our husband, we've got to die, don't we? Well,
I've got good news. God's elect have died. They've
already died in Christ. That's how we were set free from
the law. Look at Romans chapter seven. See, the key to this whole
thing is, is that our husband is our redeemer. The one who
died and shed his blood to redeem us from the curse of the law.
In Romans seven, the apostle Paul tells us what that means. Romans seven, verse one. Know ye not, brethren, for I
speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion
over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath a husband
is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if
the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then, if while her husband liveth she be married to another
man, she should be called an adulteress. But if her husband
be dead, she is free from that law. so that she's no adulteress,
though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren,
ye also are become dead to the law, how? By the body of Christ. When the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ died, everyone who was in him died to the law. We died
in the body of Christ. That ye should be married to
another, even to him who's raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. See, this is gonna be a fruitful
marriage. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin
which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death. But now we're delivered from
the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. We were set free from that first
husband because we died in Christ. We died in our husband. So now
we're free from that law. We're free from being married
to that law and we're free to serve Christ. We're free to have
life in him. Now Christ our husband is our
redeemer. And I suppose the best illustration
I could think of on that is Boaz. Boaz married Ruth. He was her
husband. He was her Redeemer, too, wasn't
He? He redeemed her from everything she lost. Her husband was her
Redeemer. That's our husband, if we believe. If Christ is our Savior, He is
our husband. He redeemed us. Our husband. He didn't just whip out his wallet
or his checkbook and write a check. He gave His life. He gave His
very life to pay the redemption price for the sin of His bride. And He bought her. He bought
her with His precious blood. Now how intimate and loving is
that? And how gracious is that? That
Christ, the Son of God, He bled and died for all to pay for your
sin. Oh my, what a gracious husband
that he give that for his people, give himself for his people.
And he didn't just give his bride everything he had. When Jan and
I were married, she got everything I had. You didn't get much, but
everything I had was yours. Christ didn't just give his bride
everything he had. He gave her everything that he
is. everything that he is. Isaiah
says our husband is our maker. He's the one who forms spiritual
life in us. How do we have life? He gave
us his life. He gave us everything that he
is. He gave us his life. Our husband didn't just give
us a legal document saying now you're righteous. He gave us
himself. He is our righteousness. Look
at the The very end of verse 17, we'll get to this verse next
week, but look at the end of verse 17. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. He is our righteousness. He gave
us what he is. Our husband didn't just say,
he says here in verse 40, don't worry, you won't be put to shame.
Christ our husband didn't just say, I know you sin, but just,
just forget about it. You know, you won't be ashamed.
No, he went further than that. He bore our sin and our shame
and took it away. So when he says, don't be ashamed,
what he's saying is you don't have anything to be ashamed about
because I took your sin away. I took your shame away. The bride
of Christ, it doesn't blush in shame. We blushed in shame before
the first husband of the law, didn't we? But we don't blush
with shame before Christ, our husband, because he bore our
sin away. That law, talk about what a better husband Christ
is. That law, all it did was constantly point out our fault.
Look what you did wrong. Look what you did wrong. Look
what you did wrong. I tried my best. Not good enough. You didn't
do it good enough. Not perfect. Christ, our husband,
covers the faults of His people with His blood so that it's not
seen. Husbands, you listen to me. More
marriages would be happy marriages if we follow that example. Just
do our very best to follow that example and cover the faults
and sins of our wife. We do our best to cover it. She
can follow us anywhere. That's up. And Christ, our husband,
He says, don't be shamed. Took your shame away. And he
says here, don't be confounded. You know what that word confounded
means? It means wounded. Don't be wounded. Don't be wounded by your sin.
Our husband, the law, how did it treat us? The law constantly
beat us, constantly wounded us, didn't it? Just such a cruel
husband. Christ our husband, what did
he do? He says, don't be Don't be wounded because he was wounded
for his people. He was wounded for our transgressions.
And by his stripes, all of our wounds, all of our bruises, all
of our putrefying sores are healed because he was wounded for us.
Christ our husband has redeemed his people and he's given his
wife his life. Just like Eve, the first wife,
she was taken from a rib. under Adam's side. Christ's bride
was taken in the same way. When that Roman soldier pierced
the side of our Savior with that spear, his bride in a picture
was taken from his side. When his side was pierced, out
flowed blood and water. Out flowed blood to justify,
water to sanctify. Christ's blood was taken from
his side and made just like him. by his sacrifice. Our husband,
the law, constantly pointed out our sin. But Christ, our husband,
completely removes the sin of his people. Now, if Christ died
for you, you don't have any sin. That's what justified means.
You have no sin. Now, I know that's hard to understand.
Because we still have the experience of sin all the time, don't we?
We live in a body of sinful flesh. But God says you don't have any
sin. If Christ died for you, God says
you don't have any sin. God says, I don't remember the
sin of my people. Their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. He doesn't remember many more
because Christ took them away. And the day's coming, Isaiah
says here at the end of verse four, for thou shalt forget the
shame of thy youth. You shall not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood anymore. There's coming a day when you
who believe will not remember your sin anymore either. You
won't remember it. Now I'm sure in glory we will
remember our sin. We sing to him who loved us and
washed us from our sin. But in glory, sin will be so
completely removed that we'll forget what it's like to live
in sin. Just like this woman Isaiah describes,
she had this horrible husband who finally died. She finally
got away from him. She's married to this wonderful
man and she is so wonderful, she just forgot what it was like
to be married to that thug before. In glory, we'll just, Sin will
be so completely removed from us, we'll just forget what it's
like to live like we're living now. This is Christ, our gracious
husband. That can only be accomplished
by grace. We're born in subjection to that first husband of the
law. And our gracious husband, he allows his people, the people
that he loves, the people that he set his affection on, he allows
them to live under the rule of that horrible, awful husband
for just a little while, so that he can display his grace and
make us married to Christ, our new husband. That's what he's
talking about here in verse seven. He says, for a small moment have
I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In
a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord
thy Redeemer. God allows His people to live
under the wrath of the law for a time, just a time, so that
the law can show us what we are by nature, what our sin deserves.
God allows the law to show us what we are, to show us our sin,
to show us our guilt. But you know, the law can't do
anything to remove that sin and that guilt. So God allows us
to live under the law to show us our sin. The law doesn't know
anything about grace, doesn't know anything about mercy, doesn't
know anything about kindness. The law only knows justice. But
Christ our husband, when the time comes for him to come and
redeem us from under the curse of the law, he knows all about
grace. He knows all about mercy. He
knows all about kindness. Christ is the fountain of grace.
He's the fountain of mercy. And you know what else? He's
the fountain of kindness. All of God's kindness is in Christ.
Look at Titus chapter three. God's kindness never did appear
until Christ appeared because his kindness is all in Christ.
So in that way, Christ is the fountain of kindness. Titus three,
verse three. For we ourselves also are sometimes
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after
that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through
Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. God's kindness appeared in Christ,
sacrificing himself to wash us from our sin. So our gracious
Savior, who's the fountain of grace, the fountain of mercy,
the fountain of kindness, in his time, he gathers his bride
to him, and he gathers her in great mercy, in an everlasting
kindness, never ending kindness. Now thirdly, Christ our husband,
he's got a bride. And he chose that bride for himself.
He chose her. And he chose her in love. God's
election of a people. I tell you, that's the great
display of love, electing love, that God chose a sinful, wretched
people to be the bride of his son. People talk about election
like it's something hateful. My bride wasn't chosen in hate.
She was chosen in love. A bride is chosen and courted
in love so that she's drawn to her husband. And our gracious
husband is so gracious, he chose the worst sinners to be his bride. He didn't go around looking for
the best looking woman in the room. He looked for the ugliest
the most wretched one, the one that couldn't add anything to
him. That's the one that Christ chose to be his bride. He chose
the woman who'd been forsaken by everybody else. Look here
at verse six. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth
when thou wast refused, saith thy God. He chose this one that
was rejected, forsaken by the law. The law was the husband
over you. She married him first, but he
rejected her. He kicked her out. But Christ,
after she was refused, after she was rejected, he chose her
in love. Now you think about this. The
Lord Jesus, how wonderful is he? How handsome is he? How beautiful
is he? Could have any woman he wants. And he chose the unwanted. He
chose the ugly. He chose the sinful to be his
bride. And he loves her. He chose her
and he loves her. The love of Christ is all for
his people. Contrary to what this world says,
God does not love everyone. God loves his people. He loves
the people he chose out of Adam's fallen race. They didn't choose
God. God chose them. They couldn't
choose anything, they're dead. Now they choose God now, but
they didn't choose God till God gave them a new nature and a
new birth. God doesn't love everyone and
Christ didn't die for everyone. Christ didn't die to give as
many people as might decide a chance to be saved. Christ died for
his bride. He died for those people that
he loves and only her. He died to redeem her that He
might have her. All of His love is for her. Saturday evening, Matt and Wendy
are going to get married. They're going to promise their
love to one another. Now suppose Matt said, Wendy,
I love you with all my heart. All my love is for you. I love every other woman I see
the same way. Wendy's going to say that ain't
going to cut it. That don't work. Well, you think Christ is that,
I don't even know the word, that low? His love's better. Christ loves better than a man's
love every day. Christ's love for his people
means something. All of his love is for that bride
that he chose, that he died for. And it's that love that made
him choose her. It's that love that compelled
him to die for her. And it's that love that makes
him use all of his power and all of his might to preserve
her and keep her so that she's brought to be with him forever.
He chose his bride in love. And then lastly, this is important. Christ, our husband, is a faithful
husband. Luke verse nine. For this is
as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that the
waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For
the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee. Either shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. Now God is a covenant God. God
will deal with men in a covenant, either the covenant of law or
the covenant of grace. Now covenant, it means promise. If we understand that, we can
understand the covenant of law, covenant of grace. It means promise.
Now if you desire to deal with God on the basis of the covenant
of the law, God will meet you on that ground. If you choose
to come to him, he'll deal with you. And this is so if you keep
the law perfectly every second of your life, I promise you God
will accept you. God will never refuse perfection. If you keep the law, God will
accept you. But if even one time you break
the law, God will send you to hell for eternity. To defend
at one point is to be guilty of all. God's promised that. And He will keep that promise.
So what that means to you and me is this. If we try to come
to God based on the covenant of the law, we're going to be
damned because all we can do is sin. But if you desire to
deal with God on the basis of the covenant of grace, if you
desire grace for the guilty, God will deal with you on that
ground too. The covenant of grace is simply God's promise to give
grace to everyone that Christ died for. And why shouldn't he? Christ satisfied God's justice
for his people by his life of obedience to the law. And he
gave that obedience to his people. Why wouldn't God accept them?
They have a perfect obedience in Christ. He imputed it to them.
And when Christ died as their substitute, his death satisfied
the law. God satisfied. So he'll have
mercy on his people. Why wouldn't he? That's his covenant
of grace. Now we're speaking here about
marriage. That's what marriage is. It's a covenant. It's a promise
made between two people. When Jan and I stood down at
the foot of the church there and Henry was there, he made
us promise. I promised you some things. That was my promise to
you. You promised me some things. I was glad. But sinful men and
women will often break that promise. They will be unfaithful. Christ our husband will always
be faithful to his people. Now that's precious. He'll never
be unfaithful to you. You trust Christ right now. You trust Christ. He'll never
violate that trust. Never. Trust him. Oh, he has a promise. He promised grace and mercy and
love to his people. He's faithful. He'll keep his
promise. That's the first example of this
covenant. Or I'm sorry, he gives us two
examples of that. The first one is Noah. Talks
here about the waters of Noah. God promised Noah. I think about
Noah's experience, you know, in this ark and all these animals
and Man, he had to be glad to get off that boat. I mean, he
had to be so glad that there was dry land and sunshine and
green grass, and he stepped off that ark. I mean, my soul, all
those animals, and he had to be glad to get off there. And then it had never rained
before Noah got on that ark. God made Noah a promise. He said,
no, I'll never flood the earth again. I'm gonna give you this
token of my promise. I'm gonna put a rainbow in the
sky. I just bet you, the first time it started raining after
Noah got off that ark, he was scared to death and he was looking
for that rainbow. Is God going to keep his promise
or is this thing going to get flooded again? I already started
tearing up that ark for firewood. It's not going to hold any water
no more. He's looking for that rainbow. Is God going to be faithful
to his promise? Well, how many years it's been
from Noah to right now, God's kept his promise, didn't He never
has flooded the earth with water again and he never will because
he promised. Now he's going to destroy it
by fire because he promised but he won't destroy it by water
because God will do what he promised to do. God's promise of mercy
is just as sure as his promise not to flood the earth again.
He's promised, I'll never be angry with my people for their
sins. because the father's already
poured out his wrath for our sin on our substitute. There's
no reason for him to be angry anymore. He promised, I'll have
mercy on my people. It's just as sure as the earth
never being flooded again with water. And the second example
he uses is mountains. Now to us, nothing seems more
unmovable than a mountain. Those mountains, these different
mountains all around the world have been there since God created
them. There they've been. I've seen
the Rocky Mountains twice. It's just one of the most impressive
sights I've ever seen. You want me to tell you what? You're
never going to see the Rocky Mountains in Kentucky. You're
going to have to go where they are, because they will never
be moved here. Impossible. Can't be done, can
it? But God says, you think those
mountains are so sure? One day I'm gonna remove them.
When he returns, he's gonna remove every mountain, every hill, every
valley. He'll move them, but his promise
of mercy and grace to his people is more sure, has a more solid
foundation than the Rocky Mountains. Those mountains will fall. You'll
never fall if you're in Christ. You'll always be accepted. God's
promise of grace is more stable than the mountain. So salvation
is through union with Christ our husband, isn't it? And I
thought of this illustration in closing. When God sees his
people, he always sees them in Christ. He always sees them as
a couple. And the illustration example
I thought of is Dale and Jackie. What a pair. I mean, they're
always a pair. You almost never talk about just Dale, do you?
You almost never talk about just Jackie, do you? Almost never.
It's just Dale and Jackie. Rolls off the tongue. They're
inseparable. When God sees his people, he
doesn't see two people. He sees one. He sees Christ. And He sees us in Christ because
when we became married to Christ, we literally became one with
Him. We became one flesh. We're His
body. We're His flesh and His bones. And we are eternally secure in
Him because of the character of our husband. He chose her. He gave her life. He gave her
life in love. He promised her His grace and
He will always be faithful to her. Our security is in the character
of our husband. I hope that will be a blessing
to you. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank You for such a husband,
that He would join Himself to His people. and make us what
He is, that we're eternally secure in Him, in His person, in His
love, in His promise, in His righteousness, in His faithfulness.
Father, we thank You. How we thank You. Cause us to
love Him more, to serve Him more, to think more of Him. What a
wonderful Savior. And Father, we pray you'd reveal
yourself to your people. Call them out. He promised that
you're gonna call out your people, that you're gonna give them life,
that you're gonna do it for many, many people. Father, call out
your people here, we pray, that they might not be joined to us,
not that we would have more numbers, but that those people would be,
your people, would be joined to Christ our Savior. That's
our prayer, for His glory, the glory of His name, we pray.