Ephesians 5, and I want to begin reading in verse 25. This is the place that you and I have come to in our studies of this book. I've enjoyed this book. I've been helped so much from going through it with you, and I trust that the Lord has blessed it to your heart as well. We looked the last time as we studied in this The epistle at verse 25, just the first portion, the first line, husbands love your wives. And we looked at that and saw the three different loves, three different kinds of loves that the husband should have for his wife. And today we want to go on beginning there and go on. So let's read that together. Ephesians chapter 5 and beginning in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives. Husbands, love your wives. Wish everybody loved their wives. Everybody ought to love their wives. No excuse for not loving your wife, is there? It almost humiliates us to have to be told this, doesn't it? Husbands, love your wives. But you know there are so many not loving their wives. We need to be reminded of this. But husbands love your wives, look at this, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the word, that he might present 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 loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but he nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church." Now, that will keep us busy this evening if we look at a few things in these verses. In chapter 4, the Apostle Paul had begun to instruct us on our attitude as Christians. What our attitude should be as we live the Christian life in this world. But the Apostle Paul is very wise. He had a way of speaking to us, such a wise way. I want you to turn back here right quickly in chapter 4, and look here how he begins to teach us of our attitude. The first thing he does when he begins to teach us of the attitude that you and I should have as Christians in this world, he reminds us of who we are. Who we are. A Christian is two people. And we said when we looked at this, this was the difference between a believer and a non-believer. A saved person and an unsaved person. A saved person is two people. He has this outward man and he has this inner man. An unsaved man is just one person. This is his whole problem. He's never been created new. He doesn't have this inner man. Look here how Paul says this in chapter 4, and look in verse 22, Ephesians 4, 22, and that you put off concerning the farmer conversation the old man which is corrupt. He is corrupt. It's not that he was corrupt, he is corrupt. Wherever you find the old man, he's corrupt, according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." But look at this. A Christian not only has this old man that he has to put off, and he has to put down, and he has to keep under subjection, because we all know what he'll do, don't we? Oh, I'll never do that. Now be careful. Be careful. How many times have we been made to eat our word? I'll never do that. And what happens? Keep this old man beat down. The best you can do with him is keep him crucified. Don't let him have his way because he is corrupt. But look at this in verse 24. And that you put on the new man. You mean we have a new man? Yes. How did we come about to have this new man? Well, look at this, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. We've been created anew. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. So what Paul begins here to tell us, he reminds us that you're different than everybody else. You're a saved person. You've been created anew. You're in Christ, a new creature. And then what he tells us is this, by the grace of God, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, by his strength, now you can live the Christian life. He never tells us to be something we're not. He first tells us what we are. He tells us what God has made us. And then he says, now go live that way. Go live in correspondence with this new creature that's created in righteousness and true holiness, this inner man. And look here in chapter 3 and verse 16, what he says about this inner man. I love this. This is such a wonderful thought. Look in chapter 3 and verse 16. And that He would grant you, that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might. by His Spirit. We are in the inner man. See what he said? One of the most discouraging things in this world is when you and I as Christians get it in our heads that God expects us to live the Christian life apart from the Holy Spirit's strength and His aid and His help. It cannot be done. So he tells us here, he tells us here, here's the way we live the Christian life. Here's the way we have this Christian attitude. It's by the strength of the Holy Spirit working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. So he first tells us what we are, that we're new creatures, and then he goes on in chapter 4 and beginning in verse 25. You don't have to turn there. We won't read that. But you remember when we studied that? a Christian attitude, and it all comes down to the attitude, doesn't it? It's not just reframing from a few things. It's the whole attitude. What's her attitude about lying? What's her attitude about cheating people? What's her attitude about being dishonest? What's her attitude about corrupt communication coming from her mouth? What's her attitude about stealing? He deals with all those things. Be kind and tender hearted. Walk after this new creature. Be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He tells us what we are. We are new creatures. And then He tells us to live our attitude. But He does more than that. And I want you to look in chapter 5. He does more than just reminding us who we are. That we are new creatures in Christ. We have this new man. We are new creatures. But he tells us here in chapter 5 in verse 1 and 2, he tells us something else, and this is a wonderful thing. He sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ as our example and our motivating force. He says, I want your attitude as Christians to be like Christians. I want you to live like Christians. But he said to do that, you not only need to be created in Christ Jesus in you, but you need to look to Him as your example and as your motivating force. If I keep hammering on you to do this and do that, you better do this and you need to do that. After all, I'll discourage you to death. But if I tell you, look to Christ, use Him as your example. If I want you to give, give of yourself and give of your substance, you know what I'm going to tell you. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. What an example of giving! Let Him be your motivating force. And here He tells us this in chapter 5, and look in verse 1 and 2. Be you therefore, since you have this new creature, Since God has made you new, be you therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love, and look at this, as Christ also hath loved us. Oh, what a motivating force Christ is. You want to improve on Jesus Christ as a motivating force. You want to walk in love? Then look how He did. Look how He loved. And Paul did the same thing here in our text. But I read to you in verse 25, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. As Christ loved the church. Husbands, love as Christ. He's our example in love. He's our motivating force in love. Love as Christ loved the church. Love your wives. It's hard to love my wife. It's not hard to love our wives. It's not hard to love our wives. It's hard sometimes to be patient with our wives. It's hard sometimes to be tender and kind to our wives. But you know what makes it difficult to do that? You know what makes it difficult to be kind and tender-hearted and long-suffering and patient with our wives? You know what makes that difficult? We don't love them as Christ loved the church. That's our whole problem, isn't it? Love is not difficult. It's not hard to love anybody. Love is not something we muster up. Love is a grace of the Holy Spirit. That's the first fruit, is it not? The fruit of the Spirit is love. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. It's not difficult to love. If it's difficult to love, we need to examine to see if it's the love of Christ in us. It's not something we muster up. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit Himself. Listen to this. When we love, everything else becomes much easier. Because, listen to this, love suffers long. Love is kind. Love bears all things. Love endures all things. Love never fails. Many of these other things are difficult, but we lack love. First and foremost, we should love as Christ loved. Then I'm telling you, everything else will take its place, dear husband. It'll take its place. I've noticed when I've got short with my wife, when I've become impatient with my wife, when I start finding fault with my wife, here's what I've noticed. I've ceased to love her as I should. And these other things become difficult things. Love. First love foremost. Then everything else will take its place. Do you think that it's ever been difficult for Christ to love His church. Do you think He's ever had a hard time loving His church? No, He hasn't. He hasn't. He never has in the past. He doesn't have difficulty loving her now. And He never will have difficulty loving her. Love is not difficult. It's not difficult to love people. The Lord Jesus says this, I will love them Freely. That word means without seeing any cause in them. Freely. I love them because I love them. The cause is found in me. What was it in us that first caused Christ to love us? What cause do we find in ourselves now for Him to love us? Our wives have given us much greater cause to love them than we've given Christ to love us. And our love for our wives has never required us to give for them what Christ's love required for Him to give for us. What do we give our wives, brothers and sisters? Some of our time. Not much of that sometimes, do we? A little consideration. A little long-suffering. We don't give our wives much, do we? It doesn't cost us much to love our wives. What did it cost Christ to love His church? Everything. Everything. In verse 25, He loved the church and gave Himself for it. And what was she when he gave himself for her? What was she? The Scripture tells us plainly this. He gave himself for her when she was without strength, when she was ungodly and even the enemy of God. Listen to Romans 5. When we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. You and I are told to love our wives, who so often is worthy of our love. But Christ loved the Church when she was wholly unworthy of His love. He could never have married His love. Christ never gave Himself to the Church's goodness, did He? but for the church's badness. He gave himself for our sins. He took my sins and my sorrows and made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Husbands, love your wives like that. Love your wives like that. If you can't see anything in your wife to love her, why did you marry her? I bet there's something there. The problem is probably in here with you. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. And if you can't see anything that married your love, then love her like Christ loved the church. It didn't marry His love either. See what Paul is teaching us here. Love your wives unconditionally. Stop looking for their merit so you can love. Stop looking for their service and faithfulness. Stop looking to them at all. Love them as Christ loved the church. And if the wife would reverence her husband, and the husband would love their wife, they'd shut the divorce courts down. There'd be no divorce courts. People would have to go get them a job. Divorce lawyers, Shannon, would have to go get them a job, wouldn't they? And probably make a lot less money than they made off some people. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. And love her foremost. And love her first. Let love go first. Always let love go first. And all of these other things will follow. When you get impatient, I tell you what to examine. Examine your heart. You don't love her as you should. Your love has gotten cold. And when love gets cold, it's difficult to be long-suffering. It's difficult not to snap and want to fuss and get in the last word. Just stop and say, wait a minute, sweetheart. I'm going to the bedroom. I'm going to pray. Lord, give me grace to love my wife. That's what he said. Now, in these few verses here that I've read to you, Paul does something that's amazing. He does something that's absolutely amazing. He shows us the eternal purpose of God concerning the church. This is amazing. You'd think that Paul was going to get off here on these practical things, and he doesn't. But he can't get away from Christ. That's his whole problem, so to speak. He'll go to try to teach us on giving, and he comes right back to Christ and His cross. He goes to teach us on husband, love, and the church, and he comes back to Christ and His love and the cross. And that's what he does in these places. And I want to show you these four or five things right quickly that he does here. And He teaches us the purpose of Christ concerning His church, and He begins, as I've been saying, with His love for the church. Christ loved the church. He loved the church. Now, I'm going to get just a little bit narrow here. If you'll bear with me, I'm going to get just a little bit narrow. He loved the church. Now, some want to dwell on the negative aspect of this. That's their business. If they want to say he loves the church exclusively and nobody else, and they want to dwell on the negative aspect of that, everybody will have to be persuaded in their own mind. But we must say this. And we will say this, that when he says here, Christ loved the church, we must say this, He loves none. Christ loves nobody like He loves His church. He loves nobody like He loves His elect people, His chosen people, that make up His church. If somebody wants to say Christ loves everybody the same, Christ loves everybody without exception, you won't prove it by this verse. This verse gets very narrow, doesn't it? This verse says there's a specific people in this world that Jesus Christ has set his everlasting love upon. And who is it? It's his church. I tell you, I've got a love for that wife, my wife. That woman there, that I have for no other person in this world, she is my wife. She is my wife. I better not love anybody like I love her. Christ has a love for his bride, for his church, like no other. It's unconditional, it's everlasting, it's unending. He loved the church. Ain't that wonderful? He loves her with an everlasting love. And you know something? We tell men this. Don't we tell people this? That if you're not in Christ, then you cannot believe He loves you. Don't we hear this? This is one thing that's got us in the problem that we're facing today. So many people going around and telling everybody, God loves you. God loves you. I love you and God loves you. We've heard that, telling rebels that, that hate God, that trample under feet the Son of God, and yet people come up to Him and say, God loves you. Without seeing whether He does or not, I'll tell you this, you can't believe that until you find yourself in Jesus Christ. Now, ain't that so? There's where the love of God is. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can't know that love and we can't believe it until the Holy Spirit makes it known unto us. And I don't think He makes it known to rebels. It's when we bow to Him and He's revealed to our understanding, then we say with Paul, He loved me. And He gave Himself for me. Who did He love? Who does He love? The Church. The Church. And I'm confident with narrowing it down to there and leaving it there. And if you want to know the love of Christ, then find yourself in the Church. Find yourself in the Body of Christ. And then you'll say, oh my soul, amazing love, how can it be? that thou, my God, hast died for me." And now Paul goes on. He does his stuff there, you see. He says Christ loved us, and what's the next step? He gave himself for us. See what I meant when I said love must go before everything else. First and foremost, love. Love. He loved the church. And what did He do? He gave Himself for it. One of the things that has a tendency to tender the hardest heart in this world, when you see what took Jesus Christ to the cross, was His love. I tell you, there have been some hard-hearted people that have been tendered by this. You see the Son of God hanging on the cross of Calvary? What put Him there? Why did He go there? Greater love hath no man than this. that a man lay down his life for his friends. Love. He loved us. He loved us. It has nothing to do with our deserving it, our being worthy of it. He did it right in the face of our sins. He loved us and gave himself. He gave himself for us. But notice verse 26 now. He doesn't stop there. Look what else he does. Look what else he does in verse 26. See, the first thing we find, he loved the church. He gave himself for it. Ain't this particular? People wonder where we get particular redemption. He gave himself for it. For it. For it. Do you want to know what was purposed by the death of Christ? Right here tells us, doesn't it? Look in verse 26. In order, that's what that word might means. When we use might, sometimes we use it as perhaps or maybe. But the meaning of this verse, in order to sanctify and cleanse it with a washing of water by the Word. What was the purpose behind the death of Christ? Did it even have a purpose? Was it just an example of love? Was that all it was? Oh, how kind. Look how kind the Savior was. All of that is true. But what was the major purpose behind the death of Christ in order that he might sanctify and cleanse her? The death of Christ was on purpose to save the Church. The Church was lost. The church was in sin. His purpose by his death was to save, to sanctify and cleanse the church. One person might say this, that Christ gave himself for all people without any exception. But what does this verse say? He gave himself for this purpose, to sanctify and to cleanse. How can we find out when we look around us in our lifetime If Christ died for a particular individual, you know what's going to happen to that individual? He's going to be saved. He's going to be sanctified, isn't he? He's going to be cleansed. Why? That's the purpose behind the death of Christ. He gave himself for it in order to sanctify and cleanse it. That's the purpose. That's the purpose. It's so sad today, it just saddens my heart when we hear people and preachers, and I don't mean to be negative about this, but when we hear so many talking about that Christ's death was just a hit or miss. That He intended so many good things by His death, but we're just not for sure if those things are going to come to pass or not. But this verse tells us here the purpose of Christ's death. Why did He die? in order to sanctify and cleanse the church. That's his purpose. We have these two things here, these two words. First of all, sanctify and then to cleanse. Sanctify, that word means to consecrate, to appropriate to sacred uses, to set apart, to dedicate or to devote. Holy to God. Now, that's a big definition for such a little word, isn't it? It means to set apart something holy for God's use. Holy for His glory. Holy for His pleasure. That's what the word sanctify means. Christ gave Himself to the church to set her apart holy for the worship and use and glory of God. You remember under the ceremonial law, When Aaron, God called Aaron to be the high priest and his sons, and they set up the tabernacle, and they made all the vessels of the temple, and the scripture says they consecrated those things. They sanctified those things, which simply means they were all set apart to be used in the worship and service of God. They weren't to be used for any other purpose than that. You remember when Nebuchadnezzar, or when Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar it was, wasn't it? The king of Babylon came in and they took all the treasures of the house of the Lord and all the vessels and he carried them off into Babylon. And his grandson, Belshazzar, called for those vessels and drank wine in them. Remember what God did to him? Remember God killed him? He had defiled those vessels that had been sanctified. He had been set aside for the use and glory of God. That is the same concept here. Christ died for the church to set her aside. To consecrate her to God for His worship and for His glory. Do you want me to give you a good example of what it means to be sanctified? It's one of the best examples in the scriptures that I've ever seen, and it's probably going to amaze you when I show you what I'm talking about. You want me to show you the best example that I've found in the Bible for sanctification, for consecration to God? You turn your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 6. Look in Isaiah chapter 6. We talk about being sanctified. being consecrated. Well, look here in Isaiah chapter 6. And look in verse 1. You will not get any more consecrated than this. Now look at this. Look in Isaiah chapter 6 and look at verse 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. That's a pretty good vision, ain't it? You see the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm telling you, that's going to have an effect on you. And look how he saw Him. Set Him upon a throne. A ruling, sovereign Christ. And look at this. He was high and lifted up. And He's trained. You've seen a bride. come down the aisle with her train, following along, and you're amazed at the beauty and the glory of that train. His train filled the temple. And look at this in verse 2, And above it stood the seraphims, those holy angels, I imagine. Each one had six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord at host. The whole earth is full of His glory, and the post of the doors began to shake. They moved at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. And then I said, Woe is me, for I am undone." Now you say, Bruce, what in the world does that have to do with consecration? What in the world does that have to do with being separated for the worship and glory of God? Just this, brothers and sisters, there are very few people who see this. There are very few people who see themselves like he did. I am undone. When God is going to set a man aside and sanctify him, the first thing he does is let him see the Lord. that he's holy, holy, holy, and the next thing he does is let him see himself. I'm undone. And I tell you what, you just set that person aside. You won't find many people like that. I saw the Lord and he's holy. I saw myself and I'm a miserable wretch. And then look what happens. I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and he said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And then said I, Here am I, send me." There it is. There is your consecration. There is your sanctification. Here is a man who is set aside, and he does not care about anything. The favor of man, the riches of man, he has seen the glory, and he has seen himself. And that separated that man. And if you've never seen that by the grace of God, you're not sanctified. You're not consecrated. What an example of consecration. And you'll never be the same. You'll never be the same. And the Lord Jesus gave himself for the church in order to sanctify it. Sanctify it. You see this all through the Old Testament. You see these beautiful, beautiful examples of that. Remember, Joe? I've heard of you. I've heard of you. I've heard of you all my life, by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. I see you. And what did he say? What was his whole attitude? Woe is me. I abhor myself. I abhor myself. There is a sanctified man. He thinks rightly of God. He thinks rightly of Christ. He thinks rightly of himself. He is a sanctified man. He is set apart. And he won't worship anybody but the true and living God. And he casts contempt upon himself. You folks are so fidgety. Everybody is just looking at every little old thing. Don't be so fidgety. I'm not Don Porter. I'm not going to jump on to you if something happens. Relax and listen, would you? You're just so fidgety. Bless your hearts. Relax just a little bit. I'll finish pretty quickly, okay? First of all, then, he gave himself to the church in order to sanctify it. And what's the next word? He deals with these two things. Sanctify and secondly, cleanse it. Cleanse it. This word, cleanse, means to purge. by purifying, to purge, purge, to cleanse it, to purge it, to purge it. All these things suggest that the church was sinful, doesn't it? If she wasn't sinful, why did she need to be purged? And purge, I love that word, purge. My son works in piping. He's a pipe fitter and a pipe welder. And when they work, they work in food processing sometimes, and they have to put He welds this stainless, it's a high grade of stainless because they have food running to it. Larry's son and daughter-in-law works there where he's welded one stainless pipe inside another stainless pipe. And he said when he's finished welding, they have to purge that pipe. You know something about that. Turns into air conditioning and stuff like that. You have to purge all the impurities out of that line. That's what this word means. It means to purge out all impurities. Purge. To purge. And there are two cleaning agents that Paul mentions here that the Lord uses to purge. Notice this. He says here in verse 26, that in order to sanctify and cleanse it, he mentions these two things. With a washing of water. The washing of water. That's a cleaning act. But what in the world does he mean, the washing of water? Let me give you three common interpretations of this passage, the washing of water. Some people say this. Some people say this is talking about water baptism. That this is literally, water literally purges the soul from sin. Some say this. That this is water baptism. And it only symbolizes something else that purges our sin. And others say, and I think, at least at this point in my lifetime, this is what I think about this verse of Scripture here. It has nothing to do with water baptism. It has nothing to do with literal water at all. But when he says that he cleanses her with a washing of water, this is just a scriptural way of speaking. You often find this in Scripture. It talks about the cleansing of water. But it is not talking about literal water at all. Let me read you one or two passages. In Ezekiel 36, verse 25, don't turn there, I've got it wrote down here for you. I will sprinkle clean water upon them, and they shall be clean. From all their filthiness and all their idols will I cleanse them. What with? with clean water. Now, the Campbellites would tell you and I that that's water baptism. If that's so, they should believe in sprinkling, not immersion. Do they believe in sprinkling, Larry, or immersion? Immersion. Well, that teaches sprinkling. I will sprinkle clean water upon you. But what if that's not talking about water at all? What if that's just the scriptural way of speaking, like he says in Titus chapter 2, by the washing of regeneration? It's not speaking of water baptism at all, but in regeneration there's a cleansing, there's a washing. But what is it that does the washing? Is it really water? Or is it something else? Well, listen to this in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22. Having that high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water." There that water is again. Do we go out all the time just finding some pure water to wash our bodies in? It's not talking about water. And what can sprinkle the hearts? Well, he tells us that in Hebrews 9, 13, 14. If the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an unhelper, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifying to the purifying of the flesh, listen to this, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience. There that word is. cleanse him, that he may cleanse it with the washing of water. But it's not water at all. It's the blood of Christ that purges your conscience. When we take a shower or a bath, if we have dirt on our bodies, especially grease, you can't even get it off unless you use some soap or grease remover. Water cannot reach our conscience. The only one thing that can reach the conscience and cleanse it is the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us. Cleanseth us from all sin. But he mentions something else here, doesn't he? Here's another cleaning agent that he mentions. Look at this. By the washing of water, by the Word, By the Word. How does the Lord Jesus cleanse His church? By His Word. By His Word. Listen to John 15 and 3. Now you are clean. Now you are clean through the Word that I have spoken unto you. What is it that cleanses a young man's ways? David asked. What is it that cleanses a young man's way? By taking heed according to thy word. You are clean through the word. And you know what? You're clean because he said it. Ain't that wonderful? Ain't that a wonderful thought? Just because he said it, it makes you clean. When he said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us just because he said it. That makes it so. And when you believe it, you're clean. Oh, haven't you ever felt so filthy in your conscience? Your conscience felt so defiled, and you'd sinned, and you'd fallen. But you took this precious promise from His Word, and there it was. You just believed it. And your conscience was purged. Your conscience was clean. His Word. His Word. By the washing of water by the Word. And you know something, this process begins in regeneration. When you hear the truth and believe it, that is where that process of cleansing begins. And it goes on all your life. All your life. Cleansing you by His Word. Look at the consummation in verse 27. Look at this. See what I said when this teaches us the eternal purpose of Christ's concern in His church? It begins with the love of Christ in verse 25. It goes on to the death of Christ, redeeming us by His blood. Then in verse 26, and here's the purpose behind that death, to sanctify us, to consecrate us to God, to cleanse us from all our sins, to wash us. And now look at the consummation of that purpose. Here's that word again. to present us to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish before him." There is the consummation. There is the fulfillment of that purpose. That he may present it to himself. When you and I have a wedding down here, the father usually gives the bride away, doesn't he? Or some friend will give the bride away. It's not so with Christ's bride. He's going to give her to himself. He himself shall present her to himself. Nobody else is worthy to do that, Glenda. Nobody else is worthy to prepare and is able to prepare her To present her to Himself. A glorious, a glorious. I can't even enter into this. I'll be honest with you. I just want to read you two or three scriptures in closing. Look in Revelation chapter 21. That He may present her to Himself a glorious church. Let me read you two or three verses of scripture. Look in Revelation, look in chapter 21. And look at this, a glorious church. Look at this, Revelation 21, and look in verse 1 and 2. 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 sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared, prepared, as a bride adorned, decked out, dressed up for her husband. That's the church. Now look over in verse 9. And there came one unto me of the seven angels, which had the seven vows full of the seven last plagues. And he talked with me, saying, Come here, and I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. Ain't that a wonderful way to describe heaven? A great and high mountain. That's why no trouble can get there. It's too high for them to come up there. And he showed me that great city, the brightest, lacunar city, the church. Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. And look at this. Having the glory of God. The glory of God. The church is being so conformed to the image of Christ that someday when you look at the church, you know what you're going to say? Well, there's the glory of God. That's what she's got on her. Who put the glory of God on her? Her husband. He prepared her. He sanctified her. He cleansed her. He's going to present her to Himself, and she's going to be glorious. You just get a very, very little glimpse now. I look out over you, bless your hearts, dear children of God, I don't see the great glory of God upon you very much. Just in your love, in your faith, in your giving, in your prayers, in your faithfulness. But someday, someday, when He presents the church to Himself, You'll see her then when he's finished with her. And she'll look just like him. Glorious. Glorious. One more passage and we'll close. Look in Psalms chapter 45. Look here in verse 7. Let's begin here in verse 7. Look at this. We know I want to read this because it shows you who is speaking here. Hebrews chapter 1 tells us this is the Son of God speaking. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest iniquity, wickedness. Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thy garments smell of myrrh, thy garments smell of myrrh, and alluse and case thee out of the ivory palaces whereby they have made thee glad. were among thy honorable women, upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear, for get also thine own people and thy father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall shall be there with a gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is a wrought work. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework. The virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee." Thy gladness, with gladness and rejoicing, shall they be brought, and they shall enter into the king's palace." All glorious, all glorious. Not having spot, he said, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. We know something about spots and wrinkles, don't we? Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror lately? Real close where you can see yourself. What do you see? Spots and wrinkles. You know what that comes with? Old age. I've not always looked like this. There was a time when my countenance was so fair and my skin so smooth, but now I've got spots and I've got wrinkles. Some of you have got two or three chins. Ain't it the truth? You know what he said? There will be no spots. There will be no wrinkles. You know why? There will be no aging. You will have the beauty of your youth. You will never age again. No. No spots or wrinkles or any such thing. No pains? No such thing. No sorrow of heart? No such thing. No tears? No such thing. No death? No such thing. Nothing. But holiness. He shall present her to Himself. A holy church. A holy church. You know anything about that? Oh, we know so little. Let's be honest with ourselves. Brothers and sisters, what do we talk about holiness? What do we know about it? Oh, we long to be holy. Make us holy, Lord. Make us like You. In that day, we'll know something about what it means to be holy. Never sin again. Never again have to go to the Lord sobbing, saying, Lord, cleanse me. I've sinned again. Never have to go apologize to a neighbor because you've had evil thoughts and evil words. Never sinning again. Sin and sins will molest no more. Never again. Holy, holy, holy. Oh, if you're in the church, brothers and sisters, if you're in the church tonight, glorious things are purposed for you. There's coming a time when you'll shine as the sun in His strength. You'll be as the angels of God in heaven. You'll know no need. You'll be holy as the Lord is holy. Oh, I want to be in that church, don't you? I want to be in His body. God grant that all of us be there. Let's pray.