Open your Bibles to the book
of Isaiah, chapter 62. Isaiah 62, we'll read the first
five verses. For Zion's sake, I will not hold
my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will
not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and
her salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see
your righteousness and all kings your glory. You shall be called
by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. You shall
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal
diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed
forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed desolate.
But you shall be called Hephzibah and your land Beulah, for the
Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as
a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." I titled this message, A Promise
in Marriage, and I realized I kind of enjoy when a message uses marriage as a picture. Because
I love my wife. This is fun to talk about. And
I'm just, I'm glad she chose to marry me. And we've had many,
many, many good times together. And I found out the longer that
we've been married, the longer I'm with her, the less I can
tolerate being without her. And when I'm at work, I just
want to be with her. When I've had this happen, when
I've needed to stay overnight for work, my thoughts are just on her.
They don't leave my mind. Even when I'm on a different
floor of our house, sometimes I'll just go upstairs just to
peek at her, just to make sure she's still there. And I'm convinced
that man was incomplete until God made woman. It says in Genesis
2, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And if you
want to see a proper marriage, look for one where the husband
honors his wife and the wife honors her husband. And why is
that? Because they are one flesh. One flesh. What he says about
his wife reflects on himself and what she says about her husband
reflects on herself. Didn't both choose to marry the
other? Peter says to give honor to the
wife as to the weaker vessel. That's in 1 Peter chapter 3. Now why would a man do that? Why would a man do that? What
could be the advantage to submitting one's so-called manliness or
social standing, you know, or even your time to the weaker
vessel? Peter says, because we, man and
woman, husband and wife, we are heirs together of the grace of
life. And so, that your prayers may
not be hindered." We are one flesh. One flesh. Can one flesh be split in half? There's a point to all this.
I'm not just up here to talk about my wife. Can one flesh
be submissive to the other? Can one flesh leave itself? The answer is no, you can't.
It's one thing, it's one flesh. Thank God that one flesh remains
one flesh instead of one forsaking the other, whether for riches
or status or beauty. And I'm no longer talking about
marriage between a man and a woman, but of marriage between Christ
and His bride. the church. And I'll repeat what I said earlier
a little bit. I'm so glad that God chose me
and predestined me to be a part of His church. In a sense, to get married to
His church. He and I had not some great moments
together, but all great moments together. All of them have been
good. I've not regretted one moment
that I've had with Christ. The longer I've known Christ,
the less I can tolerate being without Him. The more you understand about
your Savior, the growth in grace, the growth
in faith, the less of yourself you want in this picture, and
the more of Him. When I'm not dwelling on His
Word or worshiping in church, I want to be doing those things. I want to be close to Him, and
the only way to understand Him is by the teachings of the Bible.
So when I'm feeling far from Him, I try to recall Him. I remember those a lot quicker
than I remember Scripture. But some people remember their
favorite passage. In fact, Matt read one of mine
today. Everything God does, He does
forever. But that's some things people
do when they're feeling far. They go back. David went back
to God's precepts, His statutes, all the time because they pleased
David. And when I'm feeling far from
Christ, I might recall even a bulletin article. Especially ones that just... I don't know how else to say
it, but they just hit. Timely. And you do that to see
Him. It's kind of like when I would
just go upstairs to see my wife. You just want to make sure they're
still there. Now, just as it says that woman
was made for man, so the church was made for her Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. The two have become one. and
what God has joined together, let not man separate." Scripture
says. Now here's one of the amazing
things about the marriage between Jesus Christ and His bride. No
one on earth can break up that marriage. No one. Not even the bride. Not even
the bride. Now, why can no one separate
them? Turn to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 33. Just one
book over from Isaiah. You know, for one thing, the
marriage between Christ and His church didn't depend on two people
saying vows and sticking to them. Only Jesus, only God made a vow. Let's read in Jeremiah 33, starting
in verse 14. It says, Behold, the days are
coming, says the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which
I have promised, I have vowed, to the house of Israel and to
the house of Judah. In those days and at that time
I will cause to grow up to David a branch of righteousness. He shall execute judgment and
righteousness in the earth. In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will dwell safely." Now he vowed, God vowed, not
Jerusalem, not Judah, He vowed that he would cause
to grow up to David a branch of righteousness. Who was that
branch for? That was for us, his church.
God did not need a branch of righteousness because he was
and is already righteous. He vowed that the branch shall
execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. Why does the earth
need righteousness and judgment? And that's plain to us, that's
plain on the face of it. But the earth needs it for us,
His church. You see a pattern here. He vowed to save Judah and Jerusalem,
pictures of His people, and that they will be known as Jehovah
Tzidkidnu, which in the Hebrew means the Lord, our righteousness. That's at the last part of verse
16. It says, and this is the name
by which she, the city, his bride, the church, shall be called the
Lord our righteousness. Who is the bride's righteousness?
That would be God himself. Would you want anybody else's
righteousness if there was a choice? God is holy and just and righteous. If anyone tells you differently,
they're trying to make God lower and to make man higher than he
is. Take the common marriage vows
as an example of this. When we, the offspring of sinners,
say our vows, we vow that we will stay with our spouse. for richer, for poorer, and in
sickness and in health. We promise to stay with our spouse
until death parts us. In other words, we promise to
practice fidelity in our marriage. We promise that we shall not
leave our spouse for another and commit the sin of adultery.
We promise not to leave our spouse for someone who has more riches. We promise not to leave our spouse
if he or she is overcome with an illness. We promise all these things in
front of a church, friends, the preacher, family as witnesses
because we're born liars. We have to have witnesses to
tell us, hey, you promised. We invent lies every day. In
Jeremiah 17, it says, the heart is deceitful above all things. Even marriage. Even marriage. It's deceitful above promises.
It's deceitful above vows. But God cannot lie or be false. When we, the Church and Bride
of Christ, arrive at our wedding, It's as if the ceremony and the
vows are already done. They're already over. And this
is because those sweet promises that the Lord made toward His
people were promised before time began. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. Matthew
chapter 25. Jesus spoke in parables much
of the time so that Scripture would be fulfilled
that even if they hear, they won't hear Him. Yet in verses 31 through 34,
He speaks in allegory. He speaks in allegory. He speaks
of a time in eternity after the earth has ended and this promise
that he speaks of is for every one of his people. So starting
in verse 31 of chapter 25, it says, when the son of man comes
in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then he will
sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered
before him and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd
divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then the king will
say to those on his right hand, come you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. That last sentence contains not
just one promise, but three promises. First, the sheep. Those are his
people, as I've repeated before, his bride, his church. They are
blessed of my father. Don't misunderstand what he means
by blessed. He's not promised the health
and riches. The blessing of God is to know
the Word of God and keep it. And to believe in Him whom God
the Father sent. That's the blessing. There's
no grander blessing than that. Once you know Christ, what's
the use of gaining riches? If not to give it in the furtherance
of the work here on earth. of spreading the gospel, of maintaining
a church. Once you know Christ, what's
the use of having health? If not to be well enough to take
the brethren's burdens upon yourself when they cannot withstand them. And we may pray for our health
and there's nothing wrong with living healthfully. But do not
let your heart be troubled that the state of your health has
anything to do with God's love toward you. Some people are sick most of
their lives. Some people are in great shape most of their
lives and there are measures of that in between. God has not
made a lesser or greater promise to any of them. It is just one
promise. Healthy or unhealthy, richer
or poorer, God will not withhold his blessings from his bride. She will receive all that he
has promised to give her. Now the second blessing in this
verse, he's promised that those sheep on his right hand shall
inherit the kingdom prepared for them. Not only has he blessed
his people with every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places
in Christ, but He has also prepared a kingdom for them." He didn't
say a hut. He didn't say a house or just
a parcel of barren land, but a kingdom. And a kingdom on earth is better
than my house. It's better than your house. buildings. But a kingdom in heaven
is better than the greatest kingdom on earth. The Bible says that
the city in that kingdom will not need a sun or moon because
the Lamb is its light. You ever heard of that type of
kingdom on earth? There's not one of those. It won't ever get
dark. The people that live there have
the light for eternity. And we will rejoice with others
whom God has saved in a city that dwells in light. The third
blessing in this verse, he has promised that the work, the kingdom
that he's promised, the blessings that he's promised, all of it
were prepared for us from the foundation of the world. It's
not in its first stages. He's not prepping it. He's not
just now pouring the foundations or getting the roof up, racing
to meet a deadline. None of that is happening. He
hasn't been waiting to pour, as it's kind of popular nowadays,
just like a sack of blessings down from the clouds on people. Far from any of that. It's not
reality. These blessings and this kingdom
are completely finished. Completely finished. There is
no work left that needs to be done. We who are called according
to His purpose do not need to work for this. It's not like He got 99% and
wants us to do the last 1%. God has completed and perfected
it already. And do you think that God, to
get you to believe this, do you think He had to wear you down
so that you'd be more amenable or receptive to these blessings? That you had to come to a certain
point in your life to be made, quote, ready to receive His promises? And by the way, you who were
dead in trespassings and sins, these blessings are, in a word, ready to go. I've
never seen a man, a dead man, a dead man, do anything, much
less tell God that he's ready to be saved. of all the people at a funeral
that get to speak, the dead guy's not one of them. God the Father promised this
blessing and all blessings through Jesus Christ, His only begotten
Son. That vow has never changed, and it never will. God did not
make a mistake. when he made that vow. Now, the
next story I'm about to tell, I've told it before, I'm going
to tell it again. Because it makes her look good and me not
so good. But it makes her look good. But
I messed up the marriage vows at my own wedding. I was sick the night before and
I wasn't feeling great, feeling kind of hazy. Anyway, Sarah, the preacher, and I had
decided on a set of vows with a response of, I will. He would read the vows. We would
say, I will. And I'm pretty sure we had that
decided first, but then something happened when I was out of it,
and they changed the vows. And the response would be, I
do. Instead of I will, it would be I do. So when it came time
for the vows, only two of the three of us were in agreement
about that response. Now, because I was the husband,
and this is tradition, I was the first to say the vow. So the preacher said his part,
and I, with all confidence, replied, I will. I will. And he then turned
to Sarah and read the vows. And mine didn't make sense. And
our friends told us afterwards, I didn't make sense. Anyway, he turned to Sarah and
read the vows. And do you want to know what she said? Instead
of responding with, I do, and being correct and in agreement
with the vows that we had all decided to do, allegedly, she
stood by her error-prone husband. And she said, I will. the wrong words. I didn't know
it at the time. She did. And the preacher did,
too. Now, in a sense, I told you that to tell you this. In
a sense, Jesus came down off his throne because his bride
was in error. His bride was in error. Instead
of staying on his throne of righteousness and being correct and in agreement
with all that he had declared to be just he stood by her and
he would not leave her side. When she fell, he took it upon
himself to lift her out of the ditch to clean her up and wash
her sins away. He knew that he could not bring
his bride home to his holy and just and righteous father without
first putting away her sins. She had to be holy and just and
righteous. And so with everlasting and eternal
love in his heart, he allowed his body to be broken and his
blood to be shed for her. In closing, turn to the book
of Revelations chapter 21. When Jesus finally presents His
bride, this is what it's going to be.
Revelations 21, verses 22 and 23. The writer says, But I saw no temple
in it, for, this is the city, for the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb. are its temple. The city had
no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the
glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light." When Jesus finally presents his
bride, she will be described as having a light clear as crystal. That's in verse 11 of the same
chapter. In verse 10 of that same chapter, she is called Holy
Jerusalem. Comprised, recall, of former
adulterers, thieves, coveters, and murderers. Key word is former. And also former enemies of God.
The only reason this city is holy is because the bridegroom,
Jesus Christ, vowed that he would present her to himself a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she
should be holy and without blemish. You can say, like me, that she
said the wrong words. She messed up, she sinned at
the altar. Yet God did not leave her nor
forsake her, but took her sins upon himself in front of the
entire assembly of the whole world. This wasn't hidden. All mankind. And he bore the
punishment for her sins to put them away forever. And so her light became clear
as crystal, and her streets like glass. And she no longer dwelled
in darkness, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were her
temple, and the glory of God illuminated it. Let the Lord
be praised and receive all the glory. Bruce, will you close
us, please?