Hey, Curtis, dear friend and
has been since he was a teenager. I thank God for bringing him
into my life. His grandfather, James Watson,
pastored out in Taylor, Arkansas for 40 years. Brother Darwin
Pruitt is pastor now. And his grandmother's parents,
folks there, still very dear friends. And Clay is pastor of
the Sovereign Grace Church in Princeton, New Jersey. And God
is greatly blessing the minister of that congregation. I'm so
thankful to have him here. And a good many in the congregation
are here. They were all here last year. We're happy to have
you all here. So thankful to have you as our
friends and thankful that you've got Clay as your pastor. He's
going to bring the final message of the conference. Let's turn in our Bibles to Isaiah
chapter 65. Isaiah 65. First conference I ever preached
in, Brother Don was preaching. We were both preaching the same
night, the first night of the conference, and I walked up to
Brother Don and I said, what do you do when you feel like that You're just by yourself. He said,
you lean hard. And I'm leaning hard. Pray for
me, I'm leaning hard. Let's look at the last portion
of Isaiah 62 verse 5. The last statement in that verse. As the bridegroom rejoiceth over
the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over
thee. Now at home we've been going
through Isaiah for a number of years, many years, and whenever
I prepare to preach, the first thing I do is I go to whatever
books we're going through, and I'll look at the next passage
in the books that we're going through. And whichever passage
it is that grabs me, that that's the one that's going to be the
message generally. Well, this is the next passage
we come to in our study of Isaiah. And I opened the book, I read
this passage. As the bridegroom rejoices over
the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. But something that
especially grabbed my attention, I knew I'd be preaching today. Eighteen years ago today, I did the smartest thing I've
ever done in my life. I married that pretty woman. And so I knew I got to preach
from this. I know something about rejoicing
over the bride. I can enter into that. That's
a simple illustration. And I can enter into that. Here's
what's amazing to me though. God says as the bridegroom rejoices
over the bride. So shall thy God rejoice over
thee." Isn't that something? Isn't that something? Believer,
what an amazing, joyful statement. Thy God rejoices over thee. I remember that day. I don't
know if I'm more nervous today or then. I'm not real sure. But
I can remember that day, and I can remember Brother Gabe was
one of my groomsmen. My father was one of my groomsmen,
and they opened those doors, and there she stood. And I was
rejoicing. I didn't have any reason to be
anything but glad, just joyful. And the scriptures tell us that's
how God rejoices over His bride. That's how God rejoices over
you who are His bride. Now, when did He start doing
this? When did God start rejoicing over thee? Well, Christ, who
is thy God, began to rejoice over thee whenever God gave his
bride to him in eternity. That's when he started rejoicing
over his bride. We read back up in verse 1, it
says, For Zion's sake will I hold not my peace, and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest. He's doing something for Zion's
sake and for Jerusalem's sake. Who's that? That's his bride. That's his bride. The Hebrew
writer said, you've not come to Mount Sinai, you've come to
Mount Zion. You've come to the heavenly Jerusalem. You've come to the church of
the living God. You've come to that innumerable
company which the Lord rode in heaven before the foundation
of the world. This is Christ's bride. This
is that bride the Father chose and presented to His Son. And
His Son chose her and delighted in her. I remember, I'm going
to embarrass my wife today. I can remember, and I hope this
comes out right, because I'm just trying to help you enter
into this illustration that the Lord gives us here. He gives
us warrant here to compare this to a bridegroom rejoicing over
the bride. Well, I can remember the first
day I met Melinda. I can remember it. I remember
my mother called me. I was down at Ruston, Louisiana.
We lived in El Dorado, Arkansas. She called me, and she said,
Clay, you've got to come to the house. There's a girl here that
your sister has brought home, and she's exotic. Well, I said, I got to go. So I went home. And you know,
one of the things about rejoicing in somebody and one of the things
about first love and new love and all this is that when you
see them and you start having those thoughts and those feelings,
you think about what's going to be, you think about how they're
going to love you. Oh, you're going to woo them,
and you're going to do a lot for them to get to that point. But
you're thinking about that. That's what you're thinking about.
And I remember she just fit me. I thought, boy, she's just, I
think this girl's something to this. Well, the Lord God our
Father presented this bride to his son. And His Son in eternity
being God, His Son in eternity being the all-knowing God, looked
at her just like He would make her. He looked at us just like
He would make us in the end. He, knowing the end from the
beginning, looked at His bride just like He would make His bride,
just like it would be in the end. And He rejoiced in His bride. He rejoiced in His bride. Is
there a bride here, let me just say, is there any bride here,
I know this is a backwards world we're living in, and if there
is somebody here, please don't answer this question. Is there
a bride here that proposed to her husband? The husband chooses
the bride. The husband proposes to the bride. We have a couple in our church
that were united through an arranged marriage. And they were telling
me about it one day and kind of laughing about it, almost
kind of like, you know, thinking it was a bad thing. And I thought,
well, that's how God and his people were married. This was
an arranged marriage. God the Father chose the bride
for his son. And Paul said, I've espoused
you to one husband, just one, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. Thy maker is thy husband. He's
the Holy One, He's our Redeemer, He's the Lord of Glory, the Lord
Jesus Christ, our God. He said, I will betroth thee
unto me. He said, I will betroth thee
unto me in righteousness and in judgment and in loving kindness
and in mercies and I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness
and thou shalt know the Lord. You say, well that's what He
did. That's what he did when he came and found Gomer. That's
what he did when he came and found us. Oh, that's what he
did from eternity. That's what he did from eternity. All right, secondly, Christ rejoiced
over us by providing everything for us in this world. Now back
there in verse 1, he says, For Zion's sake I will not hold my
peace. This is Christ speaking. He says,
and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until the righteousness
thereof go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as
a lamp that burneth. Now, like Gomer, we were a spouse
to Christ, but like Gomer, we played the harlot in Adam. She
was married to Hosea, but then she played the harlot, and we
played the harlot. We fell in Adam and in our federal
head we became unrighteous before God's holy law because Adam broke
the law and we were in Adam. And we became unholy in our nature
because we were conceived of Adam and we came forth conceived
in sin. Now, it's by one man's sin entered
the world, the scripture says, it'll be by one man's obedience. It was by one man's disobedience
that many were made sinners. It will be by one man's obedience
that many shall be made righteous. I don't know about you, my bride's
been a faithful bride. But imagine having a bride like
our Savior had, a bride who was unfaithful, a bride who played
the harlot. Did he put her away? No. No. No, he came to where we are. And he walked before God under
the law, made of a woman, as the only righteous servant of
God, the only faithful servant of God, serving God the Father
for this bride. Hosea came there to where Gomer
was and he found her naked, he found her on the auction block,
he found her there and nobody wanted her because she was nothing
but a harlot. And he said, and I bought her
to me. Christ Jesus came to pay everything
his bride owed. Whenever Melinda and I were married,
due to her schooling, she had incurred some debt. And in today's world, you know,
what you're supposed to do is the man has his account, the
woman has her account, and you don't ever mix them together.
No! I didn't have much, but you know
what I did with what I had? I paid her debt. Why? She's my bride. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, in order to pay this debt, our Lord Jesus Christ
had to go to the cross and he had to become this harlot bride. He had to stand there and be
made sin for us. You know, whenever the Lord,
when we sinned in Adam, we were guilty. And when we were born
of Adam, we were conceived in sin. And when God imputes sin
to you in the court of your conscience, in grace and mercy, showing you
your sin, revealing to you your sin, he doesn't just, did he
make you sin by imputation? No, Adam made you sin, didn't
he? And when God charged you with it, it was a just charge. He made you to say, yes, I'm
guilty. He didn't treat Christ as if He made Him sin on that
tree. I don't have to explain it, just
believe Him. Because He told His judges, when
you count somebody righteous or you count somebody innocent,
they better be what you count them. Do we have judges like
that? Do we have judges? What do we
do with a judge if you bring them into a court of law? You
come into a court of law and you're not guilty of the crime.
And the judge says, well, I'm going to charge you with guilt
anyway. Common sense says that's an unjust judge. God came into
this world to redeem a sinful people that His righteousness
might be made manifest. That's what He came for. And
Christ came to this, went to that cross to manifest the righteousness
of God by His faithfulness to the Father. And this is the amazing
thing about it. He was willing to plunge Himself
into sin for His Bride. Adam saw that Bride come to him
and she had disobeyed the Father and for His love for His Bride,
He plunged Himself into sin. That's what Christ did for His
Bride. And He put off the body of our sins when He went into
that grave. He satisfied divine justice for
His people so that that old husband, the law that was so strict to
us, now that husband's dead. And we're dead to that husband.
Once the law has executed everything it can execute on a man, it can't
execute anymore on him. It's over. It's done. And God
said, I'm satisfied with my son. And there was nothing else to
do. He was satisfied. But he didn't stay in that grave.
He put off our body of sins when he went in that grave. But he
came out of that grave. He came out of that grave and
he arose to the right hand of the Father and he sat down at
the right hand of the Father. Accepted of the Father. Rejoiced
over by the Father. And that's what he says his bride
is now. Rejoiced over by God. Reckon yourselves to be, not
just pretending like you're dead, to be dead indeed unto sin. I don't know how you could say
it with more emphasis. Dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. There's where we are. There's
where we are. But now let me tell you something.
That's not all Christ did. We didn't just become guilty
before the law. wretched inside. We're vile inside. This bride is filthy within and
without. And this text is telling us here
that Christ is indeed risen, he's indeed seated, he's indeed
resting, and all his people are resting in him. But our Savior's
doing something right now. And this is what this world right
now doesn't seem to get is our Lord is living and He's working.
He's walking in the midst of the candlesticks. He's sending
forth His pastors with His Word and He's blessing the work. He's
the one preaching through the Word. Listen to this, verse 1. For Zion's sake I will not hold
my peace, He said. I will, for Jerusalem's sake,
I will not rest until the righteousness there goeth forth, go forth as
brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy
righteousness. All my people scattered in the
four corners of the world, mine elect, they're going to see your
righteousness. They're going to see Christ our
righteousness. And they're going to see your
glory, Christ our glory. Look back up at Isaiah 61.1. Look who's speaking. This is
Christ speaking. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted
and to proclaim liberty to the captives in the opening of the
prison to them that are bound. This is Christ we're talking
about. He's saying this is the work I'm doing now actively in
this world. Christ not only did it work for
us, he does it work in us. When that soldier pierced his
side, two things came out of his side, blood and water. He's righteousness and sanctification. He's righteousness and life.
There's a fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. I'm thankful
for that. That's his cross work. And in whose spirit there is
no guile. There's got to be a new man created.
This bride's got to be robed in. The garment's been made. That snow white robe has been
made for his bride, but now it's got to be put on her. And he
says, ah, look there, and I said 61. In verse 8, I, the Lord,
love judgment, and I hate robbery for burnt offering. Remember
what that burnt offering picture Brother Todd showed us? That
picture's God's satisfaction. I hate it when men are going
forth and declaring that I'm not satisfied. I'm satisfied,
he said. Look here, I'm going to direct
their work in truth, and I'm going to make an everlasting
covenant with them. They're going to know me, he
said. Look down at verse 10. And this is going to be the result.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful
in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He made the robe, and then he came and put it on me. Look at
this. He covered me with the robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Look at that
last part of that in verse 11. The Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise. There's righteousness what He
did for us, praise what He does in us. And He said, I'm going
to cause righteousness and praise to spring forth in all the world.
So He rejoiced in us when He chose us. He rejoiced in us to
do this whole work for us. Now then, He rejoices over His
bride because when He's done this work for us, He gives us
a new name. A new name. Look there in our
text, Isaiah 62, 2. Now shall be called by a new
name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Now, when Melinda
and I got married, before we married, I went and I bought
this pretty little diamond. And I had a name written under
that diamond. And I didn't tell anybody what
I had written there engraved. And on our wedding day, I gave
her that ring. She's wearing it. You got to
look real close to see it, because it's not that big, but it's there. But I had a name written under
it. This is what the scripture says. Revelation 2, 17 says,
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. That's
Christ. And I'll give him a white stone. And in the stone a new name written,
which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it." She's
the only one that knows what's written under that stone. But
I'll give you a hint. I'll let the secret go. It's
my name. She came in that door, Melinda Johnson. Well, she went
out that door, Melinda Curtis. We came in this world with Adam's
name, but all his brides going out of this world with his name,
Christ's name. She shall be called the Lord,
our righteousness. He said, I'm going to give them
a name better than the name of sons and daughters. I will give
them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. They shall
be called, look there at Isaiah 62, 12, they shall be called
the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord. Thou shall be called
sought out, a city not forsaken. Now, here's the fourth thing.
He gives us two more names here to show us that he's going to
make his church, his bride, fruitful and he will not lose any of his
children. He says in our text Isaiah 62,
4, thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, Neither shall thy land
any more be termed desolate, but thou shall be called Hephzibah,
and thy land Beulah. For the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married." That's what Hephzibah means,
the Lord delighteth in thee. And Beulah means thy land shall
be married. He says, for just like a young
man marries a virgin, just like he leaves his mother and his
father and he's united to his bride, he says, to his bride,
he says, I will make all your sons and your daughters be united
to you. I will make you fruitful. I will make you fruitful. He's
called this bride to himself. He's taken her out into the wilderness.
He's taken away the corn and the wool and the oil and the
flax, and he's allured her and he's wooed her to himself, and
now He's not only robed her in this righteousness. He's not
only given her this new name. He says, now I'm going to make
you fruitful. It wasn't very long after Belinda
and I were married that the Lord blessed us with children, two
beautiful children. But the Lord has a, he has children. We don't even know how many children
he's got. And he makes his bride fruitful.
He says, you're not going to be desolate. You're not going
to be forsaken anymore. Our Savior went to the cross
and he was forsaken in the room instead of his people. And he
says to his bride, you'll never be forsaken again. You were desolated
in sin. You were ruined in sin. But I
went to the cross and he was desolated in the room instead
of his people. And he says, and you'll never
be desolated again. But I'll make you fruitful. I'll
make you fruitful, he said. He said, all the Father gives
me have come to me. He says there, I'll set watchmen
on your walls, and they'll never hold their peace day or night.
We've been hearing from them all weekend. But the watchmen
have no ability to do anything for this bride. They cry, they
speak, they don't hold their peace. And he says this in verse
7. He says, not only do you not
keep silent, he says, don't give him any rest. That's what he
says to his watchmen, don't give him any rest. Why? Because we're utterly dependent
on him to do everything. And he's promised this, for Zion's
sake I will not hold my peace and I will not rest. I will not
rest. He's the one. This is of Him. It's of His power and of His
glory that the excellency of the power may be of Him and not
of us. He said, but I'll make her fruitful. You know, the Lord's
people, we're just talking about this the other night in here,
when the Lord calls His preachers and sends them forth, He gives
His preachers. But he doesn't gift these preachers
in the way that most people think he gifts them. He gifts them
with gifts that would make them disqualified before the world.
Moses said, Lord, I've got a speech impediment. Before you called
me and after you called me, he said, I made your mouth just
that way for that reason. David said, my brothers think
I'm too pretty to be a soldier. I made you that way just for
that reason. Jeremiah said, I'm a child. separated you from your
mother's womb. Paul said, Lord, I've got these
infirmities in my flesh. He said, I gave them to you.
Glory in them, because the power is of me and not of you. He makes
his bride fruitful, makes her bring forth these children. Senator,
do you hear his voice? Do you hear his voice? He woos
his bride. He said, I'm going to bring her
out there in the wilderness and I'll lure her. Now, you've heard the
simplicity of Christ Friday night. You've heard of the particular
effectual redemption that Christ accomplished. You've heard of
His distinguishing grace. We've heard of His mercy and
His delight in His people. Has He allured you? Has He wooed
you? Has He called you to His side?
You'll know it if He does, because He doesn't have a problem doing
it. Oh, I tried to woo my bride. I tried every way in the world
to woo her. Some things worked and some didn't. You young fellows, talk to me
when it's over. I might can help you out. But Christ has no problem
with his bride. No problem. He calls her to himself
and makes himself altogether lovely to her. And he says to
her, I'm going to be for you and you're going to be for me.
And he makes her faithful and he makes her fruitful. Well,
One last thing. For 18 years, I've grown deeper
and deeper in love with my bride. It's just gotten better. My preacher, our preacher, told
us when we got married, he said, if Christ is the head of the
house and you love Christ more than you love each other, it'll
be a happy house. That's true of his church. That's
true of his church. And it has been. But one of these
days, death's going to end this union. It's going to sever all our earthly
ties, and they're going to all end. But death will never sever
this eternal union of marriage we're talking about here. When
death comes, that'll be the beginning. That'll be the beginning. As
a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, The Lord's going to rejoice
over his people. Look at verse 3. Thou shalt be
a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in
the hand of thy God. You know what I did? I've never
done this. Well, let me back up. No, I've
never done this. I went and bought her jewels
for our anniversary this time. some jewelry. Do you know what
the Lord is telling us here? He's going to make His bride
His jewel. He's going to make His bride
His jewel, robed in His righteousness, in His holiness, inside and out,
everything that He's done. And this is what the scripture
says. You notice it's a crown in His hand and a royal diadem
in His hand. And the scripture says, He shall
present it to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without clemency.
He's going to present her to Himself that way, a crown in
His hand, a royal diadem in His hand. And from then on, brethren,
look at Revelation 19. It's getting better now, don't
you think? Hasn't it gotten better ever since he called you? And it's getting better and better?
Well, it's just going to get better and better and better. Look at this, Revelation 19,
and look at verse... Six, I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, hallelujah for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. And because he does, brethren,
this is going to be so, let us be glad, and rejoice, and give
honor to him. For the marriage of the lamb
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. Now how did that
happen? We just, everything we've been
reading about here, He did it. How did she make herself ready? It was granted. It was granted
by Him. It was granted that she should
be arrayed in fine linen and clean and white for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints. Christ our righteousness. And he said unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Look at Revelation 21, last scripture. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away and there was no more sin. This
ain't it, folks. This is not what it's about.
This heaven and this earth is going to pass away. This heaven
and this earth There's a building down there in Taylor, Arkansas
where I married my wife. Brother Darvin and the church
there, they just sold that building. That's where I was married. That's
where she's baptized and where I was baptized. But that building can pass away.
I got the bride. Well, this heaven and this earth,
just the It's just the altar where we're getting married.
And it's going to pass away. But Christ the Lord, He'll never
pass away. And His bride will never pass
away. Look at this. He said, And I, John, saw the
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Who's that New Jerusalem? There's one over there. There's
one over there. There's one over there. There's
one over there. All these citizens that make
up this bride adorned for this husband, by this husband. Thank
you so much. I pray the Lord will bless it.
And I pray that I've been blessed by this conference. Thank you
so much. Thank you, Brother Don. Stay a few minutes. Stay a few
minutes. Aren't you glad you stayed to
the end? Now, I've got two things to say. I know another part of the secret
of the marriage. This fella here. Not just the
exotic appearance. She was changing brakes on the
car. And well, I want you to hear this. I want you to hear
it. You're 12, aren't you? Come back
in about four or five years after why I told you that. This man
here, one of the biggest men I know. One of the biggest men
I know. Thank God for you, buddy. Thank
you. And I want to do something a little different. Put Celeste
on the spot. Will you prepare to sing McShane's
hymn for me? Hope you're just missed with
that. Before she sings it, I want to read a benediction to you,
and I want you to read it with me. in Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6. We have been reminded now for
three days again how good, how gracious our God has been and
is to us. How good and how gracious he
shall yet be to us. and all because of his acceptance
of us from everlasting in his darling son. Isn't that amazing? Now listen to this, Numbers chapter
6 verse 22, the Lord spoke to Moses, this is what he said,
speak to Aaron and to his son, On this wise shall you bless
the children of Israel, saying unto them, God said to his holy
law, through Christ our great high priest, by whom the law
had been fully satisfied, bless my people this way. The Lord
bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. And he says to the law and the
priest, to the law and to Christ who satisfied the law, put my name upon the children
of Israel. And I will bless them. I will bless them. Now look up here. Here stands a man, 65 years,
who has known nothing but God's blessing. Even when I knew nothing
about it. blessed of God. And in these days since, he's
given me grace to know something about it. Oh, how blessed of
God I am. And God has said, I will bless
him. I don't have anything else to
look forward to. Just blessedness. Just blessedness. Surely goodness
and mercy are going to chase me right into the house of God. Just blessedness. I've said that
to prepare for what you're about to hear. Some of you have never
heard this, one of my favorite hymns by Robert Murray McShane,
How Much I Owe. We'll be dismissed with that,
and I hope you will all stay and have hot dogs and hamburgers
with us one more time.