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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.
Christ and His Bride
Series Book of Ephesians Series
| Sermon ID | 1017101922212 |
| Duration | 1:00:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 5 |
| Language | English |
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