actually taking my title from
Ephesians 5.31, which is a quotation of Genesis chapter 2, and I titled
this message, For This Cause. In our first study, we looked
at the garden as a picture of the everlasting covenant of grace. It's like a miniature picture. to me of everything that God
intends to do, he demonstrates in that garden. Everything that
had to do with that future glory, everything that had to do with
that redemptive glory that he would display in Christ, he manifested
in that garden before man ever left that garden. And to me,
it's just a beautiful picture, the everlasting covenant of grace.
And then we talked a little bit about its location in Eden, east
in Eden, it says. And the direction east is given
a lot of significance in the scripture. That's where this
garden was. And when they built that old
tabernacle in the wilderness, Aaron, who represented the priesthood,
and Moses, who represented the prophet of God. So you've got
the high priest and the prophet, two of the offices that Christ
held, and these two were to encamp on the east side of the Tabernacle.
The entire tribe of Judah, out of which Christ would come, camped
on the eastward side. The temple that Solomon built
faced east. When the blood was taken in by
the high priest and sprinkled on the mercy seat, it was to
be sprinkled eastward. And all through the Scriptures,
the wise men came out of the east. They saw the star in the
east. And you could just go on and
on and on with these significant verses that talk about the east. And God has put a lot of significance
in the Scripture. And He doesn't do these things
by accident. They're there on purpose. And
I've looked and looked and looked, and what just finally came to
me was this, that everything that has to do with worship,
which has to do with redemption, which has to do with the fall
of man, which has to do with the covenant of grace, all these
things come from one direction. They come from God. Of God. And you can just go all
through the Scriptures. Of God. This covenant was of
God. And its purity was of God. And of God are we in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And then last week I talked to
you a little bit about the rivers. I titled that message, Rivers
of Pleasure. And everything that's done in
time is done to accomplish the good pleasure of God. If you
go through the Scriptures, and we did last week, and I showed
you several places in there, but the Bible is just full of
it. There's way too many Scriptures to read in a study. You just
need to go home. And that's not what I'm trying
to do anyway. I'm not trying to be exhaustive
here. I'm just trying to excite your interest and trying to get
these things up in view, in your mind's view, where you can worship
God and look at these things and study them. and find God's
blessing in them. But these rivers, they all flowed
into the garden in one stream. And that stream, I believe, is
Christ. Christ flows into that. He flows
into that and carries the good pleasure of God into that covenant. And through him, you go through
Ephesians chapter 1 and you can't find a single verse in there
where we get any kind of a blessing of that covenant apart from Christ.
It just keeps saying, in Him, by Him, through Him, in Him,
all the way through that whole chapter. In Him. You go through
the Gospels, that's what you find. No man cometh under the
Father but by me. So I see Christ. And then when
it leaves that covenant, this is what that whole message was
about, and I was very disappointed in how I brought it, but the
truth of it was still there. These rivers, once they flow
from God, they flow from God, God's good pleasure and God's
good purpose, and they run into that garden. When they leave
that garden, they divide out, and then all things, all things
are made to drink of that river. All things, everything, all things
work together for good. How's that? Because they couldn't. It doesn't work together for
good to them that's going to hell. It works together for good
to them who love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose. It has to do with those covenant
blessings and that covenant people. And once it goes out, everything
is affected. Providence is affected. Every
creature on this earth, the weather, everything drinks from that stream
once it leaves that covenant. carrying out God's good pleasure.
He's going to accomplish redemption. And I was just reading today
over in the book of Isaiah how He said, I give nations for you
and people for you. And He's talking about Christ. He's talking about His providence.
He's talking about how He would destroy a nation for one man,
one of His elect. He'd sacrifice a nation in a
heartbeat just for one. But what I was studying was his
love. His love is just beyond our wildest
imagination. But tonight I want to focus on
something that happened in the garden. And it seems to me to
be the reason for his putting Adam in this garden to start
with. And it may very well be the reason
why God planted the garden to start with. God doesn't do things by accident.
He covered the planet with trees and shrubs and grass and herb-bearing
plants and apple trees and all these things. And He created
the animals and the fish in the sea and the birds in the air.
There was life everywhere. He demonstrated that all through
creation. But now it comes to a particular
place, east in Eden. And it says, And the Lord planted
this garden. When did He plant it? I don't
know. But it said it was of his planting. He didn't just speak
it into existence, but he planted it. That tells me that he did
this by his own hand, just like man. He didn't speak man into
existence like he did the cattle and the beast. He took the earth
in his hand and made man in his own image. And I'm going to show
you here in just a minute, he did the same thing with a woman.
He made this woman. He made this woman. But that's
what I want you to see anyway, that this garden is of God's
planting. It was there for a purpose, and
He put man. He gave him rule and reign over
the whole earth, but He took him and put him in this garden,
knowing what he would do. And while he was in this garden,
now let's read it here in Genesis chapter 2, and we're going to
find the account of these things. This is the account of making
the woman. and her being brought to the
man, and they two being joined together by the hand of God in
marriage. I want you to see this. We find this account here in
verses 21 through the end of the chapter. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept and took one of his
ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. and the rib
which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman." That
word woman means she-man. It means womb-man. Woman. And you can't go in your
Strong's Concordance and pick this word here out of Genesis
and come up with that. This word is derived from Four
or five other words. And if you're in your Strong's
Concordance and you're following these things and looking for
definitions of these things, you might want to keep that in
mind. It'll say, from this number. Go back to that number. That
number will say, from this number. And that language is a complicated
language. And you have to get an overall
view of everything that it's saying, not just what it says
after this one little particular place. But anyway, that's what
this word means. man and brought her unto the
man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they
shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, And we're not ashamed. Now, let's go back to
verse 21, and I'll give you some things as we go through here
to think about. And I might appear to be rambling
tonight, but I hope to get to an application of this down the
road. So first of all, I read these
words, and the Lord God caused. Caused. And I just paused there
and looked at that. There's all kinds of causes,
aren't there? We were just sitting here talking about him a few
minutes ago. A man has to be willing, don't he? He has to
be willing. God's not going to drag him into
glory and him kicking and fighting the whole way. He's going to
be willing. In fact, the Scripture said he shall be willing in the
day of my power. But my point is this. He must
be willing. Now, God's not going to take
him against his will. He's not going to do it. Brother
Barnard said this, he said, God's going to save you against your
will with your full consent. And that's exactly what he does.
Exactly what he does. He makes you willing. And there's
other causes. The gospel has to be preached.
I've showed you that in the scriptures. It's all through the scripture,
the preaching of the gospel. How shall you hear without a
preacher? You're not going to hear. You
can't hear. You're not going to call upon an unrevealed God. These things have to be. There's
all kinds of causes and things in time. But there's only one
beginning cause, and that cause is God. There's not going to
be any light until God says, Let there be light. Then there's
going to be light. There's not going to be any firmament
until God commands it to be so. There's not going to be any land
to see. There's not going to be any trees.
Not going to be any animals or fish or birds in the air. Not
going to be lights in the firmament and stars and all these things.
Not going to be unless God says. Unless God says. And so I read
these words, and God caused. He caused a sleep. He caused
a sleep. Sunday we talked about that eternal
union with Christ and that union being the basis of everything
that happened in God's redemptive purpose and grace. One lady said, well, that was
deep. Well, I didn't mean it to be deep. I just want you to
understand. We don't really understand this.
There's no way in the world you can understand an eternal union.
There's no way. Just believe it because God says
it and rejoice in it. What a wonderful thing that he
puts you in union with him before you had a chance to mess it up.
And that's exactly what we'd do with it if he did it to us. But there was all sorts of means
and events and emotions and things that had yet to take place, but
yet they had their beginning in this everlasting union. in
the purpose of God. And so it is with the bride of
Christ, but God is the first cause. He's the first cause. He caused the garden to exist,
and he caused man to be in it, and he caused it to be in the
east, and he caused those rivers to flow into it and flow out
of it. And now he's causing Adam to fall into a deep sleep. And
I read everything that I had in my library and everything
I had on my computer, and I didn't find anything at all about the
sleep. But I have often wondered why the significance of the three
days and three nights that the Lord laid in that tomb. Have
you ever thought about that? I mean, has that question even
entered your mind? Why three days? Well, I know
the first reason is because that's how God calls His prophets to
declare it. Just like Jonah was three days
and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son
of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And so I know that that is a
cause. But I think there's more to this
little lapse of time than that. And here's one of the things
that come to my mind, and I'm not going to argue with you doctrinally
about these things. I'm just going to tell you my
thoughts on them. And my thoughts on it was this. I know the natural reasons Adam
was put to sleep. God was going to take a rib from
him. You can't just open a man's chest up and jerk a rib out.
I mean, He's going to put him to sleep. He's going to cause
him not to feel that pain. There are natural reasons why
he did that, but I'm not viewing this for natural reasons and
causes. I'm trying to see the spiritual in it. And what I see
spiritually here is that God caused him to go to sleep and
to take away all doubt. Anybody who reads this can't
question that this woman was made by the hand of God. She
was taken from the man, but he didn't have anything to do with
it. Huh? He didn't have nothing to do
with it. He was asleep. He was asleep. And I tell you
this, there's a lot of things that took place at the death
of our Lord. A lot of things took place. He
talks about justification and sanctification and all sorts
of things that took place when our Lord died on that cross.
But He laid in that tomb for three days. For three days. And I believe he laid there.
I know he laid there. He could have of his own power.
He says that early in the book of John. We'll be looking at
that not too long from now. And he said this, he said, I
have power. I have power to lay my life down
and take it up again, didn't he? He could have just got up,
told that stone to move, that stone would have moved, and he
could have walked out of there on his own. On his own. But then you would never know
that God justified His elect and accepted all that He did.
Of course, justice put Him in the tomb. You see what I'm saying? The only way you're going to
know if that justice was satisfied, if that righteousness was adequate,
the only way you're going to know is for God Himself who put
Him in the tomb to roll the stone back and raise Him up. And so
there was a scene. And it says this. I think it's
in 1 Corinthians 11, if memory serves me right. It said, He
being risen from the dead has become the firstfruits of them
that slept. Is that chapter 11 or chapter
15? I forget. But one or the other. The firstfruits
of them that slept. Here's the evidence. Here's the
first one. The first begotten from the dead
is Christ. And when he woke him up, he knew. He knew. We know. We know because
God raised him up. We know that the bride has a
good hope by grace because he raised him from the dead. He
declared him just. He accepted his words. No doubt. No doubt. Because God raised
him. God raised him. And so there's a sense here in
which Adam, and why I'm looking at this in the spiritual sense,
that this woman was taken from his side just like the bride
of Christ was taken from his side. And she was taken by water
and blood, blood to justify her and redeem her and water to cleanse
her. But here's what I'm getting at.
The Lord raised him out of this sleep, caused him to ascend,
sent his angels, and he ascended with his angels up and he seated
him right at his right hand. And he said, here's your bride.
Here's your bride. Fully justified. Fully cleansed. Fully sanctified. Here's your
bride. Here's your bride. All things complete. It says
he sat down. He said, you don't sit down unless
the work's finished, do you? He sat down. And Adam slept while
this bride was being made ready that there could be no doubt
of whose hand she was made. And I tell you this, whatever
this woman had, she owed it all to God, didn't she? Everything. Everything. She had no claim
to anything. And I'm using this woman, and
rightfully so, I'm using her as a picture of the church. There
was no marriage, folks, outside of Adam and Eve. There was no
marriage. This is the marriage. This is
why marriage is holy and why it's sanctified in the eyes of
the Lord, because the Lord joined these two together. Why in the
world would He join them together? He could have created Adam. He
made Eve. He could have made a million
more. He didn't need a woman to make people. That's not what
this is about. This is about redemption. This
is about a picture of what he's going to do. Of what he's going
to do in this marriage. And that's what makes, that's
what sanctifies marriage. That's what makes marriage a
beautiful thing. And that's why all through the
Scripture when he talks to Israel, he likens her unto his bride
that was a harlot. Because she went off and did
what she wanted to do. She went off and sold herself
to her lovers and so on, just like religious folks do today,
and not religious as far as that goes. And I saw this too, and I don't
want to dwell on this, but when she came before him, she had
no scars. She was perfect, but he had one. Don't you imagine if you was
her being taught of God? These two knew some things. I'm
going to show you that here in a minute. Don't you imagine there
was a conversation that took place and she noticed, what's
this scar for? That's where you come from. That's
why you're here. God took you. He took you from
me. And Adam saw in Him what was
taken from him. All right, here's the second
thing I want you to see. This is that woman that God made, created from a man, now listen
to me, to receive his seed. She will be the very means whereby
the elect of God will have their being both naturally and spiritually. This woman. This woman. Isn't that what he likens the
gospel to? It's seed. The word is semen.
That's what it means. It's seed. She'll be the very means whereby
the elect of God will have their being both naturally and spiritually. Naturally, she is called Eve
because she is the mother of all living. Spiritually, he calls
her Jerusalem, who is the mother of us all. Isn't that what he
says over there in Galatians? The mother of us all. He says,
But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother
of us all. She is the bride of Christ, joined
to Him in an everlasting union. She receives the seed of Christ
and nourishes it and carries it and prevails until sons and
daughters be born. And she will be the means whereby
the Savior and Redeemer will be born, receiving from the Holy
Ghost that promised seed who would crush the head of the serpent. All this in this woman. Now,
let me give you three things here that ought to do your heart
some good. First, this woman was presented to Adam as one
taken from him. The Lord did that. Adam knew
what was going on when the Lord put him to sleep, because he
talks about it. He talks about it in this verse.
He said, She is now bone of my bone. How in the world would
he know that? Because God told him. God told him. He knew what
this thing was all about. The woman was presented to Adam
as one taken from him. She was of him and for him. That's what I want you to see.
Over here in 1 Timothy 2, verse 9, Paul urges godly women to understand
their place. and the purpose of God in them,
in their creation, and to act accordingly. Now, watch this.
1 Timothy 2, verse 9. I'm not going to read you the
whole chapter. I just want enough verses to
make my point. In like manner also that women adorn themselves
in modest apparel, with shamed faces and sobriety, not with
brooded hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh
women professing godliness and good works. Let the woman learn
in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence." Why? Why? Here's the reason. For Adam
was first born, and then Eve. Now, look with me over here in
1 Corinthians chapter 11. What I'm showing you here is
that God has set an order in creation, and this order has
to do with this redemptive glory. It's not just a matter of who
a man is and who a woman is, and he's a husband and so he
has to be the head of the wife. It's not just a church rule.
It's not just a religious statute. It has a purpose. and the purpose
of this order of God has to do with the redemptive glory and
his sovereign authority. And those who know God understand
this, and they order and strive to walk in it and submit to it. Now, watch this here in 1 Corinthians
11 through 8. But I would have you know that
the head of every man is Christ. He is the head. That's where
we get our instruction. That's where we get our authority
from Christ. He's the head. And the head of
the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Christ
said, I come not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me. He was perfectly obedient to God in all things that he
did as the mediator, as the God-man. He was in perfect subjection
to him, even at the cross when he hung there. And the wrath
of God was poured out on him, and here he was. He had no defense. He had nothing left to do. And
yet, in faith and perfect obedience, at his very death, under the
wrath of God, he said, into thy hands I commit my spirit. We can't do it under perfect
circumstances. He did it with the wrath of God
poured out on him. God is the head of Christ, and
Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman. Now
look here in verse 8. Again, here is that order, and
he urges them to carry this order and walk in this order in all
that they do, but especially in public worship and things
that have to do with God. Verse 8, For the man is not of
the woman, but the woman is of the man, Neither was the man
created for the woman, but the woman for the man. She's not
only of him, but she's for him. That's why she was created, for
him. She was taken from his side by
blood and water. Adam looked at her. He saw himself
in her. She was bone of his bones and
flesh of his flesh. She was made of his ribs. She
wasn't taken from his head. to rule over him, and she wasn't
taken from his feet, that he might trample on her. He was
taken from his ribs. He was taken from under his arms
so that he might protect her and provide for her. And he was taken from his rib
over his heart that his desire might be to her. And that's the
heart of my message tonight. God put in their heart a desire. for one another. A desire. He loved this woman, and this
woman loved him. And I'm going to show you later
on in a message, if the Lord will give me grace to preach
it, that what he did, he wasn't deceived like Eve was. He purposely
ate that fruit knowing the consequences. Why did he do it? Because he
loved her. He loved her. In Romans chapter 5, where he's
illustrating the love of God, reconciling us while we were
yet sinners. Here it is. Here it is. Here's
this love, and Adam was a picture of it. Adam was a picture of
it. It's the only place in the Bible
where he actually says, and he was a figure of me. He says it concerning Adam. And then look at this. Here's
the second thing. She was presented to him first of all. She was
presented to Adam as one taken from him and for him. God brought
her to him. Secondly, she was presented to
him as a new creation. Wasn't anybody else around like
this? Just Adam. And the Lord brings him a bride. I can't even imagine. I sat in
my study today and I thought, there's no way you can do that.
There's no way you can put yourself in his place when God brings
in this bride. Because she is perfect. Perfect. There's not a flaw. There's not
a scar. There's not a blemish. There's
not a hair out of place. Whatever color her eyes was,
it had to be the greatest color there ever was. She was a perfect
bride. And presented her to the man.
Boy, just like that, he loved her. He loved her. Their hearts
was joined together. Their hearts was joined together.
There was harmony there. There was harmony there. Oh,
I don't even have words to describe what must have took place. when
God brought that bride and presented her to his son. All that God
required to be taken from him had been taken. All that God
determined to be done had been done. And now he sends forth
his spirit by the ministry of the gospel, and he calls his
bride to her husband. And she comes to him as a new
creation. Think about that. A new creation.
We come, when we come in faith, what's going on here? What's
going on? You know, I stand up here week
after week after week, and sometimes I look back and I can see eyes
just, you know, raising eyebrows and stuff like, boy, it went
right over my head. But I'm telling you this, faith
is not a system. Faith is a person. This bride
was presented to a person, and she loved him, and he loved her.
And I'm telling you, when the gospel calls men, they come and
they hear and they find out who they are and what they are, and
not only what they're capable of, but what they're guilty of
and what they practice and what they're going to continue to
practice. And then He shows them what they are in Christ, a new
creation. Boy, they lay a hold of Him.
But I tell you what the problem is, they don't know who they
are, not yet. And you'll never lay hold of
Him until you do. You find out who you are, boy,
you'll see Him, and you'll begin to see His beauty, because His
beauty has to do with redemption. That's what was going on here
in this garden. Redemption. The redemptive glory of God.
It's being illustrated in this man and this woman. And He gives
them a desire, and they said, for this cause, for this cause,
He goes on to say. Oh, just over and over and over
He says it. Listen to this over in Colossians
chapter 1. In verse 18, he says, And he
is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through
the blood of his By Him to reconcile all things to Himself. By Him,
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death." Now listen, to present you. Ain't that what happened
here? God took this woman, a new creation
by the hand of God, all together of God. altogether of God, and
brought her and presented her to his Son." Now, listen to this, "...having made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things to himself,
and you that were sometimes alienated, enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you wholly unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Perfect. Perfect. Look over here
in chapter 2 of Colossians. Colossians chapter 2, verse 1.
He said, I would that you knew what great conflict I had for
you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have seen
my face in the flesh. He is talking about as a minister
of God. that had seen him, that he made acquaintance with, talked
to, preached to, witnessed to. He said, I've got great, great
conflict, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together
in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding
to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and built up
in him, established in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you
through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after
the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. and you are
complete in him which is the head of all principality and
power." Now, listen close to these two verses, "...in whom
also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without
hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism," that is,
confessing that inward work of grace, "...wherein also ye are
risen with him through the faith of the operation of God." who
raised him from the dead. I can't begin to explain to you
regeneration, but that's what takes place. Regeneration. He takes this old vile sinner
whose heart hates God, whose mind is enmity against God, whose
heart and will is altogether for himself. He despises God. He is ignorant. He walks in darkness.
He is an enemy. He hates Christ. He is as guilty
as those who nailed him to the tree. And God, just like that,
regenerates that man. And that man is a new creature.
And he stands before Christ, all the accomplished work of
Christ for him and given to him in faith. Not a faith you can
produce, but a faith which is the operation of God. God operated
on him and took her from his side and presented her to him. And that's what happens in faith.
That's exactly what happens in faith. Oh, we're new creatures
in Christ. Listen to this, Colossians chapter
3, verse 10. He said, you have put on the
new man. And all these scriptures that I'm reading to you are scriptures
whereby he urges them to good works, urges them to serve God,
lays these things down as motives. And he says here that you put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all in all. New creatures in Christ by the
faith of the operation of God. And it is a faith not of works,
he says in Ephesians 2, not of works, lest any man should boast,
but where he is workmanship. And then she is presented to
her husband. a new creation, and then thirdly,
their desires were for each other. Now, here's where I'm going with
this, right here. Their desires was for each other. Now, turn
with me to Ephesians chapter 5. I started tonight talking
about God as the cause, the first cause of all things. Now, watch
this here in Ephesians chapter 5. Let's begin reading here in
verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. I think we are brainwashed in
our day by Hollywood incentive that all sorts of things have
to be done to manifest a man's love for his wife, there is no
manifestation greater than when a man gives himself to a woman. He gives his life to her, no
matter what. He gives his money to her, benefits. He gives his comfort to her.
He gives his love to her. He gives all of his affection
to her. He provides for her. He protects
her. He gives himself. Husbands, love
your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Gave himself. That he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word that he might present
it to himself. This is what happens. This is
what God does. presents it to himself, a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself." She's a part of it. That's exactly what Adam said.
She's now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. He saw himself
in her. But what is the hope of glory
costing you? Christ in you. No man ever yet hated his own
flesh, but nourisheth and cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church.
For we are members of his body and of his flesh and of his bones."
Now, this here, what I've just read to you here in verse 30
and the rest of this chapter here, is a quotation from Genesis
chapter 2. But he changes his language just
a little bit. He says, What cause? What cause? For this cause shall
a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. What
cause? What cause? What caused Christ
to give himself to the church? What caused him to lay down his
life? What caused him to suffer this kind of shame and humiliation,
to come down from the throne of glory and be made in fashion
as a man, and then humble himself as a man and become obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross? What caused him to
suffer such humiliation and such shame, such pain? Pain we'll never know. Degradation. Little peanut men
coming up to him and challenging every word that he spoke. Ungodly
hypocrites coming to him. He called them vipers. He was
just surrounded by a bunch of snakes spitting poison at him
constantly. What caused it? For this cause,
what caused it? He loved her. He loved her. Oh, he loved her. was an everlasting love. He loved
her. He said, not anything you know
about. Only way you can know it is to
experience it. Isn't that what he said over
there in John? I mean, that's the meaning of what he said. Not that you loved him, but that
he loved us and gave himself for us. How do we know that love? I look to the cross. I look to
the cross. And I look at myself and I look
at him. And I see that love. And through that love, love is
shed abroad in my heart. I told you once the story of
just a little fella. I wasn't very old. And this friend
of mine found some money on the bus. And he came to me. There was a little pencil sharpener
up in front of the room. There was probably 20 of us in
the classroom. Old school, little town. He got
a pencil sharpener, called me up, and I come up there, act
like I had sharpened mine. He said, we're rich. I said,
we're rich? He said, yeah. He said, I found
some money. He had this little sack. It looked like a lunch
sack. And it had about, I don't know, $15 or something in it. I mean, for two little kids.
I mean, we just lived about second grade, I think. So after school that day, we
went by, they had a western auto store there in town, we went
by and just divvied the money up, went in there, and I come
home wearing these big cap guns, six guns, and cowboy hat and
stuff. I said, where in the world do
you get all that? I said, oh, this friend of mine gave it to
me for my birthday. Well, my birthday was in December,
and this was, you know, way up in the spring. So she knew something
was up. Well, anyway, this turned out
to be money that some cheerleader or something had gathered up
for the band and for school. And so we had to go take all
the stuff back and take the money back. And they went with us.
And I got to this house where this cheerleader was and she
was in tears because she lost this money and her daddy just
was really on to her because he told her to protect that money
and so on. And she was careless with it
and lost it. Boy, I was just, I didn't know what to do. I was
just shaking and trembling and this fellow was talking and he
began to raise his voice and it got to the point where I was
just, the tears just flowing down my face. And they were doing,
I look back on now and understand that they probably had the whole
thing made up. But what I remember about the event the most is,
is when I was just shaking. I was just shaking, just, just
didn't know what to do. I was just shaking. And my daddy
stepped in front of me. And he said, just put it on my
bill. I'll pay for it. I stand good for it. You know, I feared my daddy when
I was little. But he always provided for me.
But I never knew that that's the first inkling I ever had
of love. And I often wonder there, in
Romans chapter 5, where he talks about the love of God being shed
abroad in your heart. And that's what he's talking
about. When these times when the Holy Ghost takes you and
bears those sins and bears that guilt down on you, and there
you are trembling before Him, and then He shows you that love,
and it's shed abroad in your heart. Or you dig yourself a
big hole and get in it, and He gets you out. And when He does,
that love is shed abroad in your heart. You become patient because
you know that these trials and things, you know why God's allowing
these things to be. For that love, that love. Oh,
the love of God for this cause, this cause. This is what this
marriage is all about down here in this garden. This is about
that redemption of God. It's not just the work done on
the cross. That's a glorious work, but it's
a work done in the heart. Accomplished. Done in the heart.
And it's real. It's not just accepting some
facts and learning some doctrine. It's experiencing grace in the
heart. It's a demonstration of God in
the heart. That's what went on in the garden.
Oh, he brought them two together and they loved one another. How
do I know that? Because he ate that fruit. He
took it. And he wasn't deceived. Oh, God help us get hold of this.
I'm telling you, there's no other motive given in the Scripture.
Paul said, the love of God constraineth us. The love of Christ constraineth
us. There is a desire, I'm telling
you, there is a desire when the Holy Spirit of God works on a
man, and that desire is for Christ. He loves Christ, and he gives
himself. He gives himself. He don't leave.