Turning this evening to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. I just want to read one verse for you this evening and then we'll look to the Lord for his help in our time together. Verse 32. Verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. This is a great mystery. But I speak concerning Christ and the church. Let's bow our hearts again in prayer, asking for the help of God's Spirit in our study tonight. Father in heaven, as we come to thy word, we are thankful for the power that is in this book. We confess that it is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. And we would know the life-giving power of the Word of God in our midst this night. We would ask that the Holy Spirit would wield the sword of the Spirit, and that He would come and minister grace to every heart. You know the needs of our hearts this night, but the greatest need that we have is to hear Thy voice, to know that Thou hast spoken to us, to have a heart that responds to Thy word, a heart that will obey that which Thou hast given us. Lord, come and help us tonight. We come tonight asking for the moving of Thy Spirit in the midst of Thy people, for we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Next to Genesis chapters 2 and 3, this is perhaps the most important chapter in scripture on marriage. When we come to this chapter, we find that it is the foundation, that is, the foundation is given in this chapter concerning marital commands. We also find that the example for marital commands are given here, as well as the motivation for keeping those commands. This motivation, this foundation, this example, all stems from the work of Christ and His relationship with His church. Sad to say, when many come to this chapter, they don't see the work of Christ and His church. I think sometimes, as husbands and wives, we come to this chapter, and the Apostle Paul is so up front with the command, so, as it were, dealing with the heart of the issue, that it unnerves us. And all we can think about is the command, the command to submit or the command to love as Christ loved. And we don't think at all or very little about what is said here concerning Christ and his church. And yet behind all of these commands, behind this relationship that the husband has with the wife, is this great mystery that Paul is speaking of concerning Christ and the church. Now, I said that the motivation and example for the husband and wife is this relationship. I'm actually just parroting what Paul says. In Ephesians chapter 5, you have the apostle himself saying to the church, verse 24, excuse me, Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let wise be to their own husbands and everything. Here's Paul taking the relationship of the church to Christ, and he's applying that to the wife's relationship to her husband. The next verse, he does the opposite, in that he deals with the husband, and he says, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Again, he's taking the relationship between the husband and the wife, and he's saying, here's your motivation, here's your example. You act like Christ acts toward his church. In chapter 5, verse 29, he says, For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. How is a man to deal with his wife, nourishing and cherishing her? How? As Christ does for the church. And then again in verse 30 he says, we are members of his body, that is the body of Christ. And then he says in verse 31, for this cause, that is that which he has just mentioned, we have this relationship with Christ, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and the two shall be one flesh. All the way through this chapter, Paul is taking us back to the relationship of Christ with his people, and then he's applying it to the husband's relationship to the wife, and the wife's relationship to the husband. Now, the Scripture uses a number of images to portray our relationship with Christ. You have the animal kingdom, as it were, being used when he calls us sheep and he is said to be the good shepherd. In that imagery, he's telling us that he knows us, that he leads us, that he protects us, that he provides for us. You have the plant kingdom being used when he says that he is the vine and we are branches. And in that imagery, we are joined to him and receive nourishment from him, life from him, and we bear fruit for his name. You have buildings being used when He says that He is the temple and we are the stones of that temple. He gives us honor and glory because we are joined to Him. We're in close proximity to the revelation of His glory among His people. We're said to be His body, and He is the head. We're in union with Him, and as the head receives nourishment and sends it to the body, so Christ receives nourishment and sends it to us. We're joining him. We ought to be listening to his impulses and responding to him the way your body listens to your head and responds to that head. And then we have the imagery here before us. Christ is the bridegroom and we are the bride. He's the one who gives us honor by attaching us to himself and to his name. He is the one who enters into this very intimate communion with us, sharing with us his heart and his love, receiving from us our heart and our love and our reverence and our submission. Paul calls this last imagery a great mystery. The word for mystery refers to that which is incapable of being discovered by human nature, but is revealed by God. Here, it has to do with the mystical union of Christ and His church. So says Rogers in his commentary on this passage. It is a mystery that has to be revealed to us, and yet it is a real mystery. It is a mystical union that we have with Christ, but not an unreal union. It is a real marriage that we have entered into with Him. We are His bride as the church. And as individuals in that church, we are loved of him and we are provided for by him. Another commentator said they are made one together. The husband's position as head and his duty of sacrificial love and devoted care for his wife are but pictures, imperfect, but the best that this life can offer of Christ as head of his love, self-sacrifice and concern for his church. The dependence of the wife on her husband and her duty to accept his leadership are a picture of how the church should live and act towards her divine Lord. Certainly your marriage ought to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and his people. But you know, that is somewhat reversing what is going on here. Christ is telling us through the Apostle that his relationship with us as a church is really the standard for our relationships one with another. Yes, our marriages ought to depict his relationship with us, but he is actually telling us that relationship that exists between himself and the church is real and that our marriages ought to come up to his standard. That is what the apostle is sharing with us here. Tonight I want to do something a little different than what we have been doing rather than go paragraph by paragraph through the sections of Ephesians. Tonight I want us to take all 33 verses and merely look at what is being stated concerning Christ and his people. I know that the application here is that he's going to take what is this relationship of Christ and his people and apply it to the wife's relationship to her husband and the husband's relationship to the wife. I know that. But as I said earlier, oftentimes we come to these commands of husband and wife, and we get so taken up with the command, sometimes so moved, sometimes we feel so guilty by the command, we miss completely what is being said about Christ and His bride. And what he is saying here is very profound. Now, we have in the church today an easy-believism being taught, and because of that easy-believism, Now, many are not too concerned about their relationship with Christ, why they have believed or living a life any way they want to. Who cares what my relationship is with Christ? Well, that often betrays that the person himself or herself really has never been saved if they're not concerned at all about their relationship with Christ. But having said that, the one who truly knows the Lord, he and she wants to know more about what that relationship is. And as they know more about that relationship, that is that vertical relationship between Christ and His people, they find their own hearts are now empowered, their own hearts are now governed by this relationship with Christ, and that enables them to have a proper relationship with their spouses or with their children, or as we look later on in chapter 6, even with those in the secular world. In other words, it's the work of Christ that governs everything. And if we're not clear as to what that work is, If it doesn't interest us, then we will not receive power from that work to be motivated to live a way that's pleasing to Him. I was, years ago, taken back by the statement that Dr. Cairns said once in our congregation. It was customary among the Christians that I associated with that you would say that Christ is first in the life, your family is second, and you are third. And he got up and he said, that's all wrong. Christ is first in the life, but Christ is second in the life, and Christ is third in the life. Christ is everything. And when it comes to the family, oftentimes we come to this passage of Scripture, and we divorce it from our relationship with Christ, and we say, this is the commands to the wife, and these are the commands to the husband, and in trying to keep those commands, the wife and the husband find themselves completely cast down. Completely, as it were, out of their league. This is as if they're drowning in the commands because they haven't taken the time to look at the motivation and the example given to them. Which has to do with their relationship with Christ. It is our relationship with Christ that is first. It is our relationship with Christ that is first in the home. It is our relationship with Christ that is first in our own personal life. He governs all. The gospel that He has made. for us. We must respond to Christ's work with faith and humble obedience. Whether we're married tonight or no, what he's doing here and applying the gospel to the life of a husband and wife is something that can be done in each one of our lives if we will respond properly to what Christ has done. Tonight I want us to group the verses here about what Christ has done for His people in three categories. Very simply tonight, we're going to look at the past work of Christ. Christ's work sanctifies His people from the world. He sets us apart. That is what has taken place because of what He did on the cross. And then secondly, the present work of Christ. Christ's work preserves His people in this world. Right now, He is preserving you from the destruction of this world. And then there's the future work. Christ's work will glorify His people before the world. He will glorify His people before the world. Now, we're going to look at some of the verses here, and we're going to look at the statements that Paul makes in connection with this glorious work. First of all, the past work. Christ's work sanctifies His people from the world. Now, it says here that Christ loved His people. You see that in verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even as what? Christ also loved the church. Now, that sets the church apart. He has a real love for the church, and this becomes the motivation of His setting the church apart. He loves the church. It says here that he loves the church, and yet when we think of what he has said about the church already, and her past sins, and her past relationships to the world, you have to stand back and say, why does he love the church? I mean, when you look at yourself, as described in Ephesians 2, dead in trespasses and sins, a people that were walking after the world, after the Prince of the Power of the Earth, living their life in the lust of the flesh and the lust of the mind, you say to yourself, there's nothing in me to love. I mean, if you were a man looking for someone to love and you saw someone whose mind and heart were completely going the other direction from you, you wouldn't waste your time on them. And yet here is what we have, Christ going after a people who have given themselves over to the prince of the power of the air, who are living their lives in their lust and their passions, who truly are dead in trespasses and sins. Paul characterizes them as children of wrath. Yet he loves us. When we go later on and we look at ourselves in connection to the people of God, Paul says we are outside the commonwealth of Israel. We weren't part of the people. You could perhaps say he loved Israel, therefore he was loving us. We were part of that commonwealth. But Paul is writing to Gentiles. Most of us here tonight are Gentiles by birth. We were outside that commonwealth. And he puts a description upon us outside that commonwealth. We were strangers from the covenants of promise. We were without hope. We were without God and the world. And yet he loved us. He loved us. He loved us when we were imperfect. He loved us while we were under judgment. He loved us not because we were holy and blameless. In fact, his love is what makes us holy and blameless. To quote another author, he said he loved the church not because it was holy, but in order to make it holy by union with himself. Tonight, we stand in awe of that great love. The motivation of our sanctification, the motivation for Christ setting us apart is the fact that he loves us. Secondly, we can say that he not only loves us, but because of that love, he gave himself for his people. This is the foundation of our sanctification. It is the death of his own son. He gave himself for us. Now, when the scripture speaks of Judas is betraying our Lord, he uses this word. Judas gave him over, gave him over. When it uses the priest, then, betraying our Lord to Pilate, it uses this word. They gave him over. And now when Pilate gives him over to the soldiers to put him to death, it uses this word. The soldiers gave him over. When the Gospel explains what happened between the father and the son, it uses this word. The father gave him over. We see that in Romans 8. He spared not his own son, but he delivered him up. This is the word for us all. When we come here, we find it's the word used of Christ. It's not so much that Judas did this, and the priest did this, and Pilate did this. It's not even so much that the Father did this. The Father did do this in the Gospel. But it's that Christ did this. He loved us so much that He delivered Himself up. There on that cross, He was delivering Himself up for us, the ones that He loved. There was only one way He could help us. And that was by the complete delivering up of himself in death on our behalf. We're speaking here of the cross of Calvary. We're speaking of the atonement of Christ. We're speaking of that blood that was shed and that life that was poured out in order that you and I might be saved. Paul is bringing that to our attention. Christ loved us and Christ delivered himself up for us there on the cross. It's based upon this work of Christ on the cross that He then sets us apart. Do you see that in verse 26? That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word. That He might sanctify. He sets you apart when He died on the cross in love for you. The reality of our sanctification is that Christ sets you apart that you might be married to Him. Every husband here did that long before the marriage took place. It wasn't the day of my marriage that I set my wife apart in my own mind and heart. That took place long before then, and I asked her to marry me, and then we prepared for that. On the cross of Calvary, Paul is saying, legally, he sets you apart. Now, we speak of sanctification as an ongoing work in the heart of man. And that is true, the experience of sanctification. But there is a legal, a positional sanctification that takes place in the mind and heart of God. You see that spoken of in the Old Testament. You see it spoken of in the book of Hebrews. And I believe that's what's going on here. He set you apart. On that cross, He had you in mind. In his great love for you, he sets you apart, and now he's going to do something on your behalf. He's going to save your soul. He sanctifies his people, and in the sanctifying of his people, he cleanses them from their sin. Now, what does it mean when it says He cleanses them from their sin? Well, we know the agent for cleansing from sin is the blood of Christ. You see this in 1 John 1, verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. And yet it speaks here of the washing of water by the Word as being the cleansing agent. If you go back to the Old Testament, you have the sacrifice being offered on the burnt offering. That was picturing the work of Christ in atoning for our sins. But then you would go beyond the burnt offering, and before you would enter the temple, there was this labor of cleansing. And the labor of cleansing was that which was used to wash the hands and allow the priest then to come into the holy place clean. Well, there is a sense in which obviously the blood of Christ has been applied to us and the burnt offering that has been applied. But if you and I are going to be prepared to be married to him, there has to be a further cleansing in our experience. There has to be a conformity to his will. There has to be a coming as it were to the labor and a washing of the hands in that labor. What is the labor? What is the water? He said it is the word of God. And so the Lord has set you apart, and in setting you apart to be His bride, He wants that you would now prepare yourself for that day when you are going to be declared publicly as His. When the marriage supper of the Lamb happens, how do you set yourself apart for that day? You do so by the cleansing of the Word of God. The Word of God is cleansing us tonight. As we studied, the Word of God is cleansing our beliefs. We're getting rid of things that we shouldn't believe. We are adding to our beliefs that which we should believe. We're getting rid of things that we should not do, things that we're learning and we're saying, I can't do that. If I'm going to be his bride, that has no part in my life. And then we are adding things to our life that truly ought to be the behavior of his bride. There's a cleansing taking place. Remember, we have come out of this darkness. We were doing the bidding of Satan. We were, as it were, living according to the lust of the flesh and the lust of our mind. And now he has set us apart as his own. We are the object of his affection and his love. We are the object of his atoning work on the cross. And what does he require out of us? That we cleanse ourselves for that great and glorious day when he's going to present us to himself without spot or ankle. What is the cleansing agent? What is the labor? Well, obviously, the cleansing from sin is the blood of Christ. But the cleansing of our walk takes place as the Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and He applies it to our hearts and minds. This is the work of God's Spirit. The water in Scripture is a picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Obviously, the Holy Spirit is indeed the one who wrote the Word. And so when the Holy Spirit takes the Word, He's taking the words that He has written and He's applying those words to the heart. And what is he doing in your life and my life? What is he doing in this church and every true church? He is trying to get the church of Christ ready for that great and glorious day. Now, that has already begun. If there's no cleansing going on in your heart and soul, then you have to ask, what is happening in this relationship with Christ? Are you part of the bride? Because he prayed that the Father would sanctify them in truth, and then he said what that truth is. He said, Thy word is truth. John 17, 17. Sanctify them in truth. Set them apart in truth. Cleanse them by the truth, by the word. And that's what's going on in our heart and soul. Now, this is the past work of Christ, and it's influencing us now as to what we are about. He has set us apart, and we can be grateful for that. There are those who, before their marriage, are rejoicing. The husband has, in his own mind and heart, set apart the wife and the future wife, and she is looking at this future life with him, and she is rejoicing in that which is coming. And we can say as well, from the reverse, that he is rejoicing in the wife that he has chosen, and he can't wait for that day when they will be consummated as one before God. Well, here is Christ, and He has set apart a people, and you and I are part of that being set apart. It didn't happen in the 20th century. It didn't happen in the 19th century. Really, in the mind of God, it happened back in eternity. But what He's speaking of here is that love and giving Himself that took place on the cross of Calvary. And in that, He sets you apart. And you are the object of His affection. Not everyone is set apart. This is one of the standards we have for approving what is called particular redemption. This love of Christ for his bride is different than any relationship he has in the world. It is not the same relationship that he has with others who are unsaved and on their way to hell. He has a particular relationship with his people. He has loved them from the cross and he has set them apart. And now he is cleansing them by the water of his word. until one day he will present them to himself as a glorious people. Tonight, there ought to be great gratitude on your heart that you are the object of his love. If you're a wife and you're grateful that you're the object of your husband's love, how much more grateful you ought to be that you're the object of his love. Perhaps tonight you say, well, I'm not married, but I'm the object of someone's love. Well, this love that we're talking about now is greater than anything we've ever experienced. on this earth, a love that would take our Lord to the cross to die for us, a love that would take Him into the realm of the wrath of God and receive all the wrath that was due us, a realm whereby He sheds His own blood in order to make an atonement for our sins. No one has ever loved us like Christ. No one. Paul is saying because of that love he went to the cross and because of the cross work you were set apart and because of that being set apart he is now cleansing you by the word in order that you might be perfected on that glorious day in the future. It ought to produce a real gratitude in our hearts. Secondly, we can look at the present work of Christ, and this is his work that preserves his people in the world. This work is described as his being the sovereign over his church. He is the head of the church. Now, some would say that being the head indicates that he is the source of blessing. He is the source of nourishment, and that is true. You see that imagery being used in Colossians chapter 2. But the word head also means the one who is in control of the body. The one who can dictate to the body everything. Your head tells your body where it's going and when it's going. Your head tells the body when it can rest and when it's to work. The head is in control of the body, not the other way around. And the head, that is Christ, is in control of his wife, of his bride, of his body. Both images are used in this passage of Scripture. to help cement this in our mind that this is dealing with his authority over the church. Turn, if you would, back to Ephesians chapter 1, where here it's very clear that it is having to do not so much with the source of nourishment as much as with the source of authority and power over the church. Look at verse 22. Speaking of Christ, that he's above all principality and power, verse 21, he says this in verse 22, "...and hath put all things under his feet." and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." He's this glorious king of a principality in power. He is the head of the body. That is his church. Speaking about the fact that he is the sovereign over his people. You also see this imagery in the reverse when it speaks of the church as being subject to him. Look at verse 24 of Ephesians 5. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, being subject to Christ says that he is the head, that he has the right to tell us what to do, that he has the right to dictate when we will do it, how we will do it, the attitude with which we will do it. We are subject to him. And what a glorious position that is, that we are his subjects. If we're not his subjects, then we're the objects of his wrath. There's only two categories in this world. And tonight we have this glorious head. There's only one head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are his body. We are the subjects of this head. We are the servants of this head. He is the sovereign over his church. But then we find in verse 23, he's also the Savior of his body. And that too is going on right now. As he is the sovereign over the church, commanding the church and ruling over it, he is also the one who is saving his people in that church. You see that in verse 23. He is the Savior of the body. The Savior of the body. He is the head and leading and feeding and guiding. But he is the Savior in delivering and preserving. And right now He has delivered us, and right now He is preserving us. Why? Because He is our Savior. And we have then in this relationship the imagery of a bridegroom who has chosen a bride, and right now He is the sovereign over that bride, and right now He has taken it upon Himself to deliver her from every enemy. He has taken it upon Himself to preserve her from everyone who comes against her. Tonight we have Jesus Christ. as the one who loves our soul and as the savior of his people. But thirdly, we can say that right now he is also the support of his people. In verse 29, it speaks of the fact that he nourishes and cherishes us. Look at verse 29. For no man ever yet hateth his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. The Lord nourishes and cherishes us tonight. We can have those in authority above us, and they don't care anything about us. We can have those who give us commands, and they don't care whether those commands hurt us, or whether those commands help us. You've been in the workplace, or perhaps in the school system, or perhaps in the government realm, and you've had people give you commands, and they don't know you, they don't care about you, they're not even interested in you. But they're giving you commands, and they have a certain amount of authority, and they're using that authority. But not so with the head of the church. This very night he is nourishing you. And this very night he is cherishing you. The word to nourish is a word that's used later on of nourishing children. You see this in chapter 6 when he talks about fathers not provoking their children to wrath, but to bring them up in the nurture, in the nourishment and admonition of the Lord. This is the imagery of a father loving his child and building that child up. And here is Christ saying that concerning his bride. He loves his bride. He's trying to help His bride. This bride is in the world, under attack. And what is He doing? All the time she's in the world, He is nourishing her. My friend, Christ is not just waiting for you to get there. He's not waiting for this day when He presents the church to Himself. He is actively nourishing us this day. Actively giving us what we need to go on with Him. What we need to make it to the end. He has set us apart. And in doing so, he is nourishing us as his own. One man said this word to nourish has the idea of promoting health and strength. Health and strength. And certainly tonight, any amount of spiritual health that you enjoy, any amount of spiritual strength that we enjoy as individuals or as a church has come from Christ. He is actively loving us. And he's doing so by nourishing us even this very hour. The word to cherish also indicates that he's active on our behalf in this present world. It implies, the very word implies, an imparting of warmth. It is used metaphorically here to have the idea of cherishing or nursing or fostering in someone. It is the word that means to show a tender love or show affection to someone. Here is Christ. He has warm, tender feelings towards you tonight. When we hurt, He feels that. We were thinking on that this morning. That He is afflicted in our affliction. He is intimately acquainted with all of our infirmities. And tonight, this one that we have as our relationship with, he is the bridegroom and we're the bride. Yes, the marriage supper hasn't happened yet, but this whole time he is nourishing us and he's cherishing us. He has this tender, warm affection toward us. Doesn't say he has it to anyone else in the world. Tonight, he has it toward us. And again, I would submit to you that the response ought to be toward him is that, Lord, if this is the way you are toward me, how can I not be grateful? How can I not humbly say to you, Lord, whatever you want, you will get. If you are this great ruler and I am your bride, your body, If you are the Savior of that body and you are the one supporting me by nourishing and strengthening me and loving me, how can I turn you away and say, no, Lord, I will not do your will? You see the argument of the Apostle Paul. He's bringing us to this glorious relationship that we have with Christ, and then he will apply it in the relationship of a husband and wife. But he could apply it in so many different areas. He applies a similar language in Ephesians chapter 5 when he talks about Christ's love and sacrifice. You see this in verse 2, "...and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." Here he's talking about Christ's love, Christ's sacrifice, and what is the application? A humble submission to Christ, a loving of Christ and his people. There's so many ways that we can apply what Paul is saying. But the chief way is to say that I'm going to have a heart full of gratitude to this one who has loved me, this sovereign ruler who has me as his bride and who saves me and who now supports me out of great tender mercy. This is what's going on right now in the church. Right now, as you sit here, He is your head. Right now, He is the one saving you and delivering you. Right now, He is the one supporting you, nourishing, strengthening you, because He loves you. He has these tender affections towards you. Can we say it thirdly? that there is a future work for which we give the Lord praise, and that future work, again, has to do with the body of Christ and the Lord and head of that body, Jesus. He is the bridegroom, we are the bride, and in the glorious work that's yet future, he's going to glorify his people before the world. Would you note that it says here he's going to present the church to himself? That's where he's going with all of this great and glorious work. He is going to present the church to himself. Look at verse 27. In verse 25, it talks about his death. And the reason for that death is that he might sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word. And then he goes another step that he might present. Now, he hasn't presented us yet. This is yet future. All of this is flowing, we can see, from what took place on Calvary. From His love and the giving of Himself, He did that that He might sanctify and cleanse us. Why? That He might, in the future, do something for us. What is it? He's going to present us to Himself. Christ is going to publicly identify with His Church. There are some men in our society that don't want others to know that they're married. They go into bars trying to, as it were, do that which is wicked and evil and they take the ring off their finger so that no one knows who they belong to. Christ is not that way. And when the world is gathered before him, he is going to take his church and he's going to present her to himself. He's going to publicly identify with his bride. At that point, he is receiving his church. He is not having someone else do this for him. There is not going to be a substitute on his behalf. He will be publicly there, taking the bride to himself. Now, isn't that what we do in a marriage ceremony? The husband doesn't have a stand-in. The best man doesn't stand there and pronounce the vows on behalf of the husband. No, the husband does it. He face-to-face receives the bride to himself. Well, here you have Christ publicly taking us to Himself, presenting us to Himself. There's coming a day when you and I will be face to face with Him, and in front of the whole world, He's going to say, these are my people. This is my church. This is the bride that I love. This is the bride that I died for. This is the bride that I set apart from everyone else in the world. This is the bride that I have been cleansing. These are my people. That's going to happen publicly before the whole world. It's going to be a glorious day. Right now, He loves us. We've already noted that. He's nourishing us. And with His tender affection, He's ministering to us. But you can go into the workplace and there's nobody that recognizes you as being the Bride of Christ. I don't know that this government of ours in any capacity really is recognizing that here in Melbourne, part of the Bride of Christ exists. They lump us in together with all religious groups, even Satan worshippers. They're all viewed the same as we are viewed. But there's coming a day when he's separating his people from the multitudes, from the false professors, from every religious group. He's separating them and he's going to publicly identify with his bride and present that bride to himself. It'll be clear on that day for whom he died. Would you note, secondly, that he will purify this church from all sin? We have already said that right now there is a cleansing from sin by the blood of Christ, and there is an experiential cleansing by the washing of water of the Word. He will be successful in presenting this church without any defilement. Look at what it says in verse 27, 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." He's going to present it to himself holy. H-O-L-Y. Set apart, sanctified, purified. And then in a negative fashion, he describes this holiness as being without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, blameless. Blameless. Many more ways can Paul say that there's going to be no sin. The word here for first word that is used is the word from which we get our word spots, spilos, Greek word, a spot, a speck, a fleck, a stain. Smallest of spots, the smallest of stains, perhaps stains that you would see on your clothing and it wouldn't bother you, bother the Son of God. There will not be a speck. of defilement on his bride. Would you note also, there'll be no wrinkle. Some have said that this might be dealing with the wrinkles that we have in the face, the fold, as it were, of the face. In that regard, it would return with the idea of a spot you would have as you grow older, spots in the skin and wrinkling in the skin. Here the terms would be used to describe a physical beauty and health and symmetry, or we would say in the spiritual realm, a spiritual perfection. There's not going to be any bride like this bride. There won't be anything in this bride that's going to mar her beauty as she stands before Christ. And then the word blameless. This is the language used in the Old Testament of sacrificial animals, that they had to be flawless. There couldn't be anything deformed in them. And now he uses this to describe his bride as she will be blameless. She'll be without any type of defilement. Three different ways, as he describes us, were without spot, without wrinkle, were without blemish. If that wasn't enough, he says, are any such thing. Any such thing. I would tonight that we could say that the church was like that now, but we're not. Right now, he is working on us. Leaders in the church, people in the pew, he's working on all of us. Throughout the nation, he's working on the church. Throughout the world, he is working on his bride. Not everyone in the professing church is really part of that bride. We know that not everyone is a true believer. There will be the weeding out between the sheep and the sheep and the goats. But among the sheep, he is now perfecting them and they will in that day be holy in his sight. That's where we're heading. You may wonder why you sin and can't get away with it. Why when you sin and you put your head on the pillow, it bothers you and you've got to deal with it. You may wonder why when you seem to sin and get away with it, all of a sudden you're caught by someone and you're brought back into line. It is because you have a bridegroom in glory. And He is nourishing you and cherishing you. He loved you enough to die to remove those sins. And He doesn't want those sins defiling you now. And they won't be with you when He presents you to Himself without spot and wrinkle. We understand tonight something of the purposes of the Father when it says that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And then it describes us that we should be holy and without blemish before Him. Without blame. But now we're understanding some of the purposes of Christ. As He died on that cross and loved us and gave Himself for us and set us apart, as He has been sanctifying and cherishing us and nourishing us, why is it there's coming this glorious day He's going to take us to Himself? And when He does that, there won't be one spot, one wrinkle, one blemish found among the people of God. You and I can't do that work. We're wrestling, we're fighting, we're trying to deal with our sins, we're trying to overcome them. But to try to bring in perfection, it's not within the realm of our ability. I'm not saying that we have an excuse for our sin. I'm just saying what the Scripture says, if a man say he hath no sin, he deceives himself and the truth is not in him. Is there grace to overcome sin? Any sin you're fighting with, there is grace to overcome it. You're not bound by sin. But you and I are dragging around an old nature, and the old man is warring, as it were, with the new man, or to use the language of Paul, the law of sin is warring with this law of our mind, and that we're captive to that law and we're fighting with it. The flesh is warring with the spirit, to use his language there in Galatians 5, and that battle's going on. But he will perfect it. He began this relationship. He died on the cross and set us apart. He's working in our heart. He's loving us. He's nourishing us. And he's not going to stop until he has a perfect bride to present to himself. It's going to happen. When that happens, there will be a glory to the church that has never been seen heretofore. There were times in the Old Testament and in times in the New Testament when the Spirit was outpoured and there was a glory manifested in the Old Testament or a glory manifested in the New. When even the heathen had to say, this is God at work among His people. Certainly that was the case in Ephesus. When the Spirit was poured out there under the ministry of the Apostle Paul, there were those among the heathen that had to say, this is the Lord at work. This is the working of God. But that was but a small part of the glory. The real glory is yet future. And it says here he's going to present us to himself a glorious church. A glorious. There's going to be a splendor. There won't be anything in the garments that is going to detract from the married supper of the Lamb. We will be presented in glory. Hod said that this is glorious, which excites admiration. The church is to be an object of admiration to all intelligent beings because of its freedom from all defect and because of its absolute perfection. It is to be conformed to the glorified humanity of the Son of God. Now, Hodges is here combining this imagery that we have in Ephesians 5 with the imagery in Romans 8 and verse 29 and 30. Turn there, if you would, just for a minute. Romans 8 and verse 29 and 30. Verse 29 says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that we might be the firstborn among many brethren. He has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son. It is for that reason he can say in verse 28, For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, that is, there is a change in their hearts, and to them who are the called according to the purpose, his purpose, which means his dealing with God's love for them, If you love God and He loves you and He's working out His purposes in your life, everything is working together for good. Why? Because those purposes are driving you to complete conformity to the image of His Son. And that will happen. Now, how does He liken that in verse 30? He likens that to glorification. He actually uses the word. We will be glorified, verse 30. For whom? Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Complete conformity to the image of his Son is glorification. It's going to happen. Paul says in verse 23 that this is coming right now. We're groaning right now. We're waiting the adoption to with the redemption of our body. We're waiting for that. But it's coming. It's coming. And when he presents the church to himself, he's not presenting the church to himself, it still has corruption in her. He's not presenting a church to himself that is still mortal. He is presenting a church to himself that has put on incorruption, that has put on immortality, where death has truly been swallowed up in victory. He's taking that church and he's presenting it to himself. She has no spot. She has no blemish. All she has is this glorious splendor. That day is coming. Now, if you believe tonight that this is describing your future, If you believe tonight that what we have been reading describes what is now the present aspect of your relationship with Christ, if you believe tonight that what we have been reading describes the past relationship Christ had with you when he died on the cross and set you apart, then there is nothing you won't do for him. I'm not saying if you know these things, because we can intellectually know these things and it not move the heart. I said, do we believe it? Do we believe that He loved us and died for us and He set us apart? Do we believe that He is actively nourishing and cherishing us as a head cherishes the body? Do we believe that He is going to present us to Himself publicly before the world, that we will be without any imperfection at that time and all be removed and we will be part of this glorious splendor? Do we believe that? What right do you have to believe that? When we come and we look at ourselves, we have no right to believe that this is our lot, because as we saw in Ephesians 2, none of those things should be true of us. We are under the wrath of God. And yet, tonight, we do believe these things because the Word of God is revealed to us. This is truth. And if this is truth for us, It enables our hearts to give ourselves freely to our bridegroom and say, Lord, whatever you ask of me, I will perform. Now, here in this passage, what he's going to ask of us is that the wife do this to the husband who is imperfect, and he's going to ask the husband to do this to the wife who is imperfect. But on what basis is he asking? The basis is the fact that the husband and wife are both part of a church who have this glorious relationship with Christ. Christ is going to do all of this for the husband and wife. So you ought to do this because I'm asking you. You ought to be this way toward one another, not because the spouse is perfect, but because you have this relationship with Christ and you're responding to his love, his cherishing. The glorious future is planned for you. Many of the books that you read, written by Christians, will come to this passage of scripture, and they will deal with the commands that are put upon the wife, and they will deal with the commands that are put upon the husband. I have no problem with that, because they're just, as it were, giving us what are here before us. The problem I have is that they have left out what we've been talking about tonight. And I would submit to you, the commands that are put upon the wife and the commands that are put upon the husband here are very hard to keep. Unless you understand what Paul is saying about your relationship with Christ. Because if you're only going to respond to your husband in a way that shows that he's perfect, he's wise, so now I'll submit, now I'll show him reverence, then you won't submit. You've put an if clause in this passage of Scripture that doesn't belong here. You're saying only when he measures up will I treat him the way that God says. But that's not what Paul says. You submit because you're part of a church and the church submits to Christ. And if as a husband you say, I'm only going to love this wife when she measures up, when I see that she doesn't have a spot or wrinkle, when I see that she's a better wife than she was the day before, then I will start loving her. When really you're saying selfishly, when she starts treating me the way that I want, then I'm going to start doing the commands that Paul gives us. That is not here either. That if is not found in this passage. There are no ifs here. That the wife has an if, and if he doesn't do this, I don't have to do that. Or an if where the husband can say, if the wife isn't this way, I don't have to treat her the way God commands. No. You have in this passage a relationship that transcends the relationship between the husband and the wife. And Paul is saying, here is the glorious relationship with Christ. Now, because you have that relationship with Christ, He's washing you, He's changing you by the Word. What does the Word say to you concerning your relationship with your spouse? We find then that we have great motivation and great example given to us in this relationship between Christ and His people to help us in the relationship that we have, husband and wife. And I will submit to you, that the motivation between the husband and wife is not as great a motivation as this motivation between Christ and His people. So that if you focus on this motivation between Christ and His people, He will open your heart to be motivated to live the way you ought to with your spouse. Brethren, that is Paul's way of reasoning on every command that he gives. He is limiting it now to the husband and the wife. But we can show this earlier on in Ephesians. We can go to Romans. We can go to Colossians. And what He does is He shows us that we have this relationship with Christ. Now, based upon that relationship, this is what He demands out of you in your other relationships. You and I, if we don't understand our relationship with Christ, if we don't believe the glory of it, then we're going to find ourselves having a difficulty keeping His commands, whether it be the command of a wife to a husband, or the command of a husband to a wife, or parents to children, or children to parents, or the command that we've been given to honor the government of which we are a part in this nation, whatever the command. It will become a command that's too great to bear, because we've lost sight of the relationship we have with Christ. Christ talks about His yoke being easy. Christ talks about His burden being light. You will not find the yoke of Christ easy, you will not find the burden of Christ light, unless you first come and refresh your heart and your mind and your soul with His great love for you and what He is trying to accomplish in your life. And when you see all of that, you will find whatever He places upon you by way of burden, that it is truly light. that it is a delight for you to keep. Loose sight of His love for you and His relationship with you in all the commands, even the smallest of commands, becomes a burden too great to bear. What the Apostle Paul is giving us tonight is gospel reasoning, gospel counseling, gospel dealings with our hearts. And he's applying it to every area of our life. He already has been doing that all through chapter four and chapter five. And now he's bringing it home to bear on our relationships, one with another in the home. But it's still Christ. He has not said, all right, I talked to you about these spiritual things in your salvation. Now, let's leave that alone and let's talk about the home. There's none of that here. Right. What he is bringing to bear is the glorious gospel. What we have looked at tonight, past, present and future work of Christ. You could write a whole book on systematic theology just on what we have touched on tonight. And Paul is reaching into that glorious relationship and he's now taking and he's applying it to a husband's relationship to his wife and a wife's relationship to her husband. He's already applied it to how we forgive one another. He's already applied it as to how we walk. He will apply it as well to how we treat our children, how our children ought to treat us. For the Apostle Paul, Christ was first, Christ was second, Christ was everything. Tonight, if you will see him that way, you will find motivation, not just for these commands between a husband and a wife, but you will find motivation for all the commands that are given to you. And that is His love for us moves us to love Him and to obey His word. Let's bow our hearts in prayer. A shallow view of the cross will certainly hinder our motivation toward our spouses, but it really hinders our motivation to all the commands. We don't need a shallow view of what Christ did. We need to understand it more and more and bathe our minds and our hearts with it in order that it might give us power to obey Him, so that we will obey Him regardless of what others think, regardless of what the world thinks, regardless even of what other Christians think, regardless of what the pastor thinks. We're going to obey Him because we love Him, because He loves us. Tonight, can you come and say to the Lord, Lord, I'm grateful, I'm thankful for what You've done for me in the past. what you have been doing here in my life, even right up to the present, and for the things that you have promised me, can you come tonight and say, Lord, I'm thankful, I'm grateful. I will yield myself to thee and be whatever you want me to be. Perhaps tonight you come and you say, I've never come and trust Him. Well, you're having a hard time then yielding yourself to Him. In sanctification, you need to yield yourself to Him. In salvation, come and lay hold of Christ. Come and say, Lord, I want You to be my Savior. I want You to be the one who delivers me now and will deliver me in the future. Come to Him tonight. Seek Him tonight. Don't put your head on the pillow tonight until you know that you're part of this body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. and that one day you'll be glorified with him. I am your servant for Christ's sake. If I can help you in the matters that we've been discussing tonight, not just today, but on any day of the week, give me a call. If you want help tonight, I'm here. We'll open the book. We'll look at what the scripture says. But it's Christ that we need. It's Christ that we need. Come to him. Glory in him. Thank God for what he has done for you and will do for you. Father in heaven, we have come tonight to the passage of scripture whereby you have told us something of Christ's love for us, something of his relationship to us as a bridegroom to a bride. Lord, that we should be the bride. Lord, who are we? We have rebelled against thee. We have fought with thee. There's every reason why we should be cast off and not be the bride. And yet, Lord, you have had mercy upon us in your rich mercy. You have spoken to our hearts and regenerated us that we would accept Christ. You have cleansed us by the blood of the Lamb. You are now cleansing us by the word of God. You are nourishing and cherishing us in order that one day, one glorious day, you're going to present us to yourself without spot or wrinkle. Lord, who are we that we should be such beneficiaries of love? When David said that concerning your love toward him, he then said, Lord, do it according to thy word. And this night we would say the same thing. Lord, do what we have read according to thy word. Continue to nourish us. Continue to cherish us. Continue to be the head of this church and we thy body. Continue, Lord, to move upon us with the understanding that one day, one day you're going to present us to yourself as a glorious church. Give us a lively faith. Give us a hopeful faith. Give us a faith that is willing to burn the bridges to this world behind us, that we not go back over those bridges again, but that we would love thee with all of our being, that we would understand who thou art and what thou hast done and art doing, and that, Lord, they would motivate us day in and day out. Be that the healing of our marriages. Be that the healing of all our relationships with other people. Let the relationship we have with Christ be supreme. And Lord, tonight we would ask for those who are gathered here without Christ. Lord, let them tonight begin this relationship with the Savior. Let there be a real repentance and a real faith in Christ. May they know what it is to be born from above and in that new birth to cry unto Christ for salvation and to know that he has heard and answered. Lord, do that gracious work in the heart. Do it for the glory of thy name. Do it for the welfare of the soul. For we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.