Please turn with me now in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 21. A sermon this morning, as Tom mentioned, will come from Genesis chapter 2. We'll be looking at verses 18-25. Genesis 2, 18-25. But before we turn to that, let's look at Revelation 21. Here at the end of John's visions, 7 sets of 7, we have John seeing His second to last vision, the new heavens and the new earth. This is Revelation 21. And I'll read verses 1-14. Hear now the Word of the Lord. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband, And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, to the thirsty I will give the spring of water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east, three gates. On the north, three gates. On the south, three gates. And on the west, three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. Amen. When John looks first in verses 1 and 2, he sees the new heaven, the new earth, with a new city, a new Jerusalem. He describes that new city, Jerusalem, in verse 2, as a bride adorned for her husband. He reverses this image in verses 9 and 10, in which he says, then I saw a bride, the wife of the Lamb, and she was, verse 10, the holy city, Jerusalem. So whether we flow from the holy city, Jerusalem, to the bride, or whether we flow from the bride to the holy city, Jerusalem, you get the point. The church, is the Bride of Christ. The metaphor hangs together. What is powerful about John's vision, though, is that when he speaks of the Bride's adorning in verses 2 and following, he immediately goes to the Emmanuel concept. The dwelling place of God is with man. In what way is the Church, are we as a congregation, the Bride of Christ? John's first answer is, He dwells with us. Just as a husband and a wife dwell together, so God and His people dwell together. Secondly, he says that they are in covenant. He will be their God, they will be His people. There is a bond of love and a permanence in covenant together. Thirdly, he says, he will wipe away every tear. Death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things have passed away. And isn't that the hallmark of your marriage? Oh, wait, that's heaven, not marriage. You see, it's a metaphor. It captures the theology of salvation but it isn't itself salvation. With that in mind, turn back to Genesis chapter two. Our sermon this morning is from Genesis chapter two. We'll begin in verse 18 and we'll read through verse 25. What is notable in the flow of the story is that God has created the heavens and the earth God has created all that is in them, the living creatures. This story that we are about to read is actually the last act of creation. This is officially the end, the last story in the stories of creation. Next comes the fall. So here then, the last story of creation. Genesis 2, 18 through 25. Hear now the word of the Lord. Now the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock, to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he took one of the ribs, one of his ribs, and closed up in its place with flesh, closed up its place with flesh, and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. They shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked. and we're not ashamed. Amen and amen. Well, I had planned to begin with a story, something to do with Lydia and me and romance and marriage, but you're not getting that today. Instead, yesterday I was at the funeral for my grandmother, which sounds like a much better opening line for a sermon on marriage, right? But it is. because my grandmother knows a lot about marriage. 63 years she was in her marriage, only 13 more to go. 63 years of marriage. But what stood out to me most yesterday in her funeral was the intense way in which all the family members had come together onto the same idea without communicating it. Here's what I mean. My father called me for two weeks leading up to the funeral, expressing concern and anxiety that the family was going to come together and spend so much time talking about what a wonderful woman she was, when she would desperately want us to talk about what a wonderful savior Jesus is. So everyone who spoke, without consulting each other, made it a point to fix all their remarks on Jesus in honor of my grandmother. In fact, when the service was over, there were about two stories that told you something about grandma. Everything else was about Jesus. And that's exactly how she would have wanted it. This is what has happening in our theology of marriage. It's all about Jesus. You see, the theology that is developed in Ephesians 5, the theology that is developed in Revelation 21, is not an afterthought. It is not a plan B. But rather, God in His wisdom gives a good gift to humanity, by which there will be more humans in the world. And also, a living, ordinary, daily experience of the doctrine of salvation. You see, marriage is an image of salvation. This is good news for us. This is gospel truth for us. For those who are wondering about marriage or getting in it, for those who are in it and still wondering about it, for those who have long endured it and have found it sweet. Regardless of your relationship to marriage, wherever that marriage is located, it was given by God as an image of Christ and His church. And this makes it beautiful. This makes it glorious. This makes purity worth pursuing. Marriage is an image of salvation. Let's pursue purity. Look at the text with me this morning. Notice first that we are given a theology of marriage that begins, as all of creation has, with the Lord God, the covenant God, the Almighty God. He has spoken the world into existence. He has spoken out the space, the sky, the sea, and the dry land. He has filled it with the living things, the sun, moon, and stars. He has filled it with the birds, and the fish, and the beasts of the field, and the livestock, and the creeping things. And at last He has planted a garden, and in that garden He has placed a human. And do you remember what Moses' refrain, what his chorus was as he told us this story? And it was good. And it was good. And in the end, when the man is in the garden and all is growing and life is thriving and the world is sunlit and beautiful and colorful, God looks down and says at last at the end of chapter 1, it is very good. But now in verse 18, the Lord God looks upon the man in the garden with all that goodness, all that very goodness, and says it is not good for man to be alone. Notice, this is not in any way diminishing the goodness of creation. It is good, indeed it is very good, but it is not good for the man to enjoy all that goodness by himself. It is not good for him to be deprived of the sharing, the having together in common of goodness. Now this is true specifically of marriage, but it is also true more collectively of society. It's not good for humans to live alone entirely. We're designed by God to enjoy the goodness of this world with friends and neighbors and coworkers, with parents and children. We're designed for community. We're designed for relationship. And for this reason, God comes up with a plan. I will make him a helper fit for him. I will fashion something. Notice God's solution isn't, I will find something in the creation. God's solution isn't, I'll repurpose something else. I'll take it from what it was to be, and I'll make it this purpose instead. God starts over. He says, no, I will make something for him. But not just something. He says, I will make someone. who will be fit for him, who will be appropriate for his needs, who will correspond to him. Now within marriage, this is a literal, biological, anatomical fact. Male and female have corresponding anatomy that is appropriate for creating life. Sorry for the gore, it's where we all come from. It's how we all got here. the corresponding reality of male and female. But it's not just physical. It's also emotional, and mental, and spiritual. That God has designed the relationships of humans, starting with marriage, to be this harmony, this cooperation in which we talk to each other, think together, share our feelings, and process our place in this world, but not alone, for that is not good. Notice also, then, that this is God's plan. It doesn't start with Adam discovering this. It doesn't start with Adam deciding this. It starts with the Lord God. Marriage is God's idea. Human relationships is God's idea. Community and society is God's idea. It's not good for people to be lonely. It is good to have relationships. And so to have society, God first created that institution from which all societies come. Marriage. A man and a woman making more humans. But as I've said, all this theology points us to Christ. You see, salvation isn't our idea, is it? Salvation is something that the Lord God came up with. It was His plan. When He looked upon humanity, when He looked upon you and me in our sin and in our misery, He decided and concluded, it's not good for you to be alone there. I will make something for you. I will make salvation for you. But he doesn't just make salvation as a thing, he makes a person who is suitable for you, who is appropriate for you, someone capable of understanding your thoughts, someone capable of understanding your feelings, someone who is tempted in all ways as you are, yet without sin. You see, this beautiful theology of marriage, by which we should order our beliefs about marriage, is also the theology of salvation. That it comes from God, and it's not ours. That we should meddle with it or mess with it. But secondly, notice that with regards to marriage, God not only comes and initiates, it's His idea, He gives it. But secondly, he has to experientially convince the man of it. So the garden is set up one sunny day. The trees and shrubs are beautiful because they're always beautiful. And a parade begins. Not a parade of tractors like in the town I grew up in. Not a parade of floats like at Geneva College on homecoming. A parade of animals. And Adam is sitting there in the garden, and here come the giraffes, here come the elephants, here come the horses and the hippopotamus. And as they come by, each of them notice, brought by the Lord God himself, that God, like an excited father, is bringing all these little treasures past his beloved son. What are you going to name this one? What's this one? And Adam sits there, and beside the Lord God, Adam names each animal. That one's horse, that one's pelican, that one's hippopotamus. He obviously used different nouns. I don't know which words Adam used. But those are the, he names them. And whatever he names them, that's what they are. You see, at this point, it would be very tempting to think Adam could find a helper among the animals, a helper fit for him, for two reasons. One is Moses says that these animals came out of the ground. Adam came out of the ground. They share the same point of origin. Adam was made from dust. These animals were made from dust. Why wouldn't they be fit to work together? Secondly, he says, Adam names them. Secondly, Adam names them. He says their names. This shows Adam knows the animals. He recognizes them. He is familiar with them. He has a kind of relationship with them, a kind of authority and dominance over them that he can name them. But Moses draws us to this conclusion. The man gave names to all livestock and to all the birds of the heavens and to all the beasts of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fitting for him. You see, marriage doesn't work with animals. They don't correspond. Why not? They are not made in the image of God. It is the peace they are missing. Yes, Adam is from the dirt and the animals are from the dirt, but Adam has the breath of God and they do not. Adam has thought and Adam has feeling and they do not. And Adam needs someone to talk to and someone to emote with. There is to be this intimacy of person and of self that is beyond the mere physical reality. Adam could not find a helper fit for him. This theology then migrates into our salvation theology, the reality that we are so prone to search for salvation in this world. and that we will exhaust the massive parade of hopes that go through our little gardens. Maybe I can save myself. Maybe my parents can save me. Maybe my children can save me. Maybe my spouse can save me. Maybe my job can save me. Maybe a vacation can save me. Maybe a sabbatical can save me. Maybe, fill in the blank. What's your story? The Red Sox winning the World Series will save me. We search for all these hopes, and yet the scriptures teach us that just as marriage must come as God's gift, it is what God has given to humanity, and it is what God has given to each human. So salvation is God's gift. It is not found by us. It is not uncovered in this world by us. It is revealed to us and shown to us. What I find striking about this piece of the story is that Adam only comes to the conclusion through experience. I mean, theoretically, God could have sat down with Adam and reasoned with him. Look, Adam, here's what you need in a woman. Let me make her for you. Theoretically, he could have written him a poem or given him a story or all kinds of solutions. But Adam's discovery of his need rests in his experience of the insufficiencies around him. Does that have any echoes to you? I sat with a beloved family member yesterday and he shared some of his sad story and I shared some of my sad story and we both landed on this same truth. Isn't it amazing how slow we can be to learn the grace and love of God and how we insist that he drag us through sin and sorrow till we will wake up to the reality of his grace. experience is sometimes the lesson we insist on. But the third piece of our theology of marriage in verse 21, So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, took one of his ribs and closed up in its place, its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and brought her to the man." Again, notice at the end of verse 22, the prevailing theology. that this is the work of God. The Lord God caused a sleep, the Lord God took the rib, the Lord God closed up the flesh, and the Lord God brought her to the man. This is still practiced in many Christian weddings today. What happens at the start of the wedding? There's music, and people are dressed up, and they're taking pictures, and there's a bunch of very awkward-looking dudes in a line at the front of the sanctuary, pacing back and forth on one foot, unless the photographer told them to stand still. And in comes the bride and the father of the bride. Here is the father of the bride, the Lord God himself, walking his beloved daughter down the aisle. and he brings her to Adam. He presents her to Adam. Here, Adam, is what I have made for you. Notice further that this has come about through a deep sleep. This isn't your ordinary Sunday afternoon nap. This isn't your ordinary middle-of-the-night circadian rhythm going through all the REMs and the cycles of sleep. This is a trance. This is a spiritual immobilization. Adam cannot react. It's a gracious anesthetization so that he can have surgery. but it reappears in Scripture. In Genesis 15, Abram cuts the pieces in half, and the blood of the animals makes a puddle in the middle, and Abram is ready to march through the blood and to bathe his feet in blood as he enters into a covenant of life or death with God. And the next thing is, Adam, Abram falls into a deep sleep. He's inert, he cannot move. He is not passing through the pieces. It is not his death that will save. Peter at Joppa is on the rooftop, and the sweet sea breeze is coming in from the Mediterranean, and he falls into a deep sleep, and he sees a sheet lowered from heaven. No longer will there be clean and unclean. The old covenant is done away. The resurrection of Christ reigns supreme in the world now. All alike are saved in Christ. These deep sleeps are moments of divine intervention. And so it is with marriage that we pass as a human species into this sense of God is at work in our world. How many of you have a story of meeting and or falling in love with your spouse? How many of you love to tell that story? That was gonna be my opening illustration, but anyway. We have those senses of providence. That it wasn't we who were in control. It wasn't we who were running the show. That it was God providing for us a good gift. Adam is asleep. It is not what he is doing. He is unable to do it. He cannot deliver this. He cannot make it work. This is our theology of marriage. But so it is our theology of salvation. The third thing before I go to the theology of salvation is that while he slept, he took one of the ribs and closed up the place with the flesh and took the rib and turned it into a woman. For this reason, God shows the utter unity and equality between a male and a female, a man and a woman. The old phrase goes, woman was not made from man's head that she should rule over him, nor was she made from his heel that he should walk on her, but she was made from his rig that she should be beside him, face to face, shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm. But what is more, it shows us the theology of their oneness. Adam was made from dirt. Animals were made from dirt. In fact, the only living creature in this creation story not made from dirt is Adam's wife. She is made from him. That we should have this theology of marriage that humans come from humans. That we should have this theology of marriage that a man and a woman united together in love and commitment produce more humans and that's God's idea, not ours. It is brilliant and it is beautiful. It is the giving of my flesh, my life to another human. And if that doesn't have any echoes of salvation, what does? That Christ should come and be human with us. And Adam gets this theology. In verse 23, Adam takes up a poem. He takes up a song by which he celebrates this theology of marriage, this sense of incarnation, that something has come in the flesh that is full of life and hope and help. The man says, this at last. By saying this at last, Adam is agreeing with God that there are no animals for the job. No bulls, no goats, no rams, no lambs, no turtle doves. You can kill them all, they'll never atone for sin. This, at last, is the helper. This is what Adam is saying, but he's saying it of his wife. That parade of animals was helpful. I cannot find a helper suitable for me and them. It is the gift of God. He leads me to this. Secondly, Adam says, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This will become a refrain that is used throughout scriptures. When Jacob shows up after years away being raised in the promised land, and Laban goes out excited to see him, Laban grabs him and says, you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. When David has been driven out of the land by his son Absalom, and he has defeated Absalom and he is on his return, Judah as a tribe rises up and says to David, you are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. It is the epic, poetic expression in Hebrew for utter unity, for utter commonality. We are family. We are one. You are my bone. You are my flesh. You are like me and I am like you. The I and the you are one. And again, is this not a theology of salvation? That we are united to Christ deeply and intimately. My sin is His sin. His righteousness is my righteousness. His death is my death. He is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. so that he would be my savior. Then Adam says, she shall be called woman, for she is taken out of man. I debated on whether or not to use the Hebrew. I'm gonna use the Hebrew because one, it's easy. You can handle it. And two, you can then use it. It's fun. Man, in Hebrew, ish. I-S-H, really easy, ish. Woman. Ishah. I-S-H-A-H. That's it. Ish, Ishah. That's what Adam says here. I am Ish, she is Ishah. What is the meaning of this? I'm the male one, she's the female one, we're the same one. She was taken out of me, and we are one. We share thoughts, we share feelings, we enter into this depth of commonality and union. And in this, he gives us this theology of marriage. For indeed, each one of us was taken not out of a man, but out of a woman. This is the first and last time a woman comes out of a man. For the rest of history, all other humans came out of a woman. And thus, Adam permanently embeds, through his poetry, this theology of existence, that to be a human is to be someone who came from the union of a man and a woman. The two become one flesh. You can actually, we now know, break this fact down into like a molecular or cellular level. You are 46 chromosomes, 23 from mom and 23 from dad, yeah? Did I get the math wrong? Here's the theology embedded in our genetics that the two have become one flesh. This new human. And how much more do we celebrate this theology in our salvation? That there is Jesus and there is sinner, and when you put those two together, there is a new creation in Christ Jesus. There is a saint, saved by grace and bound for glory. There is a child of wrath, but you unite them to Christ, and there is a child of God. Because this is our theology of marriage, because this is our theology of salvation, it should utterly transform how we relate to each other as males and females, as humans, as married persons or unmarried persons. And I've tried to move slowly and methodically, partly because I'm exhausted from yesterday's travels and efforts, and partly because I want to weave together in your imaginations, in your hearts, this theology of marriage and salvation, so that you know there is significance to marriage. It is a special relationship. but it is also and most importantly significant because it is an image of salvation. Meaning whether you're in it or not, you should honor it. Because it is an image of salvation. How then do we honor it? How then do we work this theology in our lives? There are five statements Moses then makes that I'll move through quickly. But these five applications of this theology of marriage all tease out the same theology of salvation for us. Let's apply this to our lives. Think with me on this for a moment. Verse 24. Therefore, because of this theology, Because of these truths, that this is what it is to be a human, this is what it is to be a man, this is what it is to be a woman, this is what it is to be in the image of God together on earth, not alone, but in community and society. Therefore, because of this theology that God has given us this gift, a man shall leave his father and his mother. The first step of entering this relationship is creating independence. is creating a separation from the ones on whom you have depended. Now, I do gotta add the caveat, the fifth commandment hasn't ended, okay? Just because you're married doesn't mean you can dishonor your parents. But it does mean that you are now established as having stepped out of your parents' home in a level of independence. This is why in most human societies, certainly Western societies, you have to have a job and maybe even a car and a home before you can get married. Because we want to see that you are no longer dependent on your parents. We want to see that you can provide for needs and feed hungry people and pay bills. A man should leave his father and his mother. There should be a resilience and a strength and an independence that contributes to this relationship. A departure from the old to the new. How much more in our doctrine of salvation? where Paul repeatedly says, leave the old self and embrace the new self. Leave the sinful man and woman behind and become a new creation in Christ Jesus. But not only this departure, a holding fast. Moses says that a man should leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife. This is a clear theology that not only must men and women grow up throughout their childhood into independent and competent and responsible adults so that they can marry and care for each other, so once they do, they must hold fast, cling to one another in marriage. This is the beginning, this is God's vision. Jesus himself will explain in Matthew 18, divorce was because of the hardness of your heart. It was not part of the original design. There was a holding fast from the wedding day to the death day that that marriage should be clung to and held to, to the very end. Come what may. We hold fast. And this is our theology of salvation as well, is it not? That we cling to Christ and we cling to Him to the end. And this is how we are saved. But then thirdly, they shall become one flesh. By departing from the parents' oversight, by entering into this covenant where they cling to one another, a man and a woman produce one flesh. Children. It is not universally the case, it is not everyone everywhere, but it is generally the case. And it is certainly the case for Christ and his bride. That they produce fruit. that they produce one flesh, that there is a union, a coming together of two humans, that life might continue, that humanity might continue, but so much so, so more, Christ who is united to us, whose spirit dwells in us, in order to produce in us the oneness, that we are conformed to his image, that we are righteous as he is righteous, holy as he is holy, loving as he loves, hating as he hates, thinking as he thinks. The fourth one is that the man and his wife were both naked. There's no place in marriage for masks. There's no place in marriage for secrets. There's no place in marriage for hiding. Marriage was made to be that space, that safe space for nakedness. Again, there is that literal biological element that a man and a woman are alone and naked together in their marriage. And in that sexual union, There are babies, humans, but how much more as you go through the rest of the list that their union consists of naked thoughts, that they speak to one another their minds. Here's what I'm thinking. What are you thinking? I cherish your thoughts. I want to know what you think. This is a hallmark of marriage. They are naked with their emotions, they share their feelings, and they receive and invite and welcome the feelings of others. Not others, their spouse. This is the hallmark of marriage, that they enter into this vulnerability and this intimacy of person, and the two become one flesh through this process. Some of you, many of you, who have gone through either premarital counseling or marital counseling with me, know that I like to refer to this emphasis in communication. All of you may assume that you entered your marriage speaking English. You are wrong. You entered your marriage speaking your specific form of English. Your spouse spoke a different one. And you discovered that pretty quick, didn't you? Yes? You started having conversations where you were told something, and you quickly realized it wasn't what you thought you were told. But I thought you asked me to. No, I didn't. And vice versa. We need to strip off our assumptions and lay naked our intentions and learn a new form of communication. Indeed, the two have to become one flesh in communication. That we learn to talk one to another in a way that you can understand and I can understand and we can walk away from the conversation understanding together. How much more our theology of salvation. then we have to learn to talk to Jesus. We have to learn to be naked in prayer before Jesus, telling Him our thoughts and our feelings, showing Him our sin and our sorrow and our struggle, letting Him know who we are and being intimate and vulnerable with Him, our Savior, Jesus Christ. But how much more are we to learn to pray using His word? that His Scriptures should train us in such intimate communication, that His Scriptures should teach us such careful conversation with the lover of our soul. The last one. What do we do with our marriages as a result of this text? What do we do with our salvation as a result of this text? And we're not ashamed. In the garden, the man and the woman are there. And they are naked. And they are not ashamed. No fear. No guilt. No disgrace. In one sense, I want to describe that to you. I want to unpack that image for you. In another sense, I don't know how. I don't know that I've ever been naked and wholly unashamed. I've known sin all my life. I've known guilt all my life. I've known shame all my life. Can you ever replay in your mind sins of your youth that you just wish God had a magic eraser and could make disappear? Do you know that feeling of shame that creeps up in your soul when you see those sins in your memory? One day, that memory will be very different. You will be with your Savior in glory, not a garden, but in glory, and your conscience will be naked and unashamed. No condemnation, no guilt. And marriage is given to us as an image and a picture by which we can experience this. Again, there is the literal physical element of a man and a woman alone together, naked and not ashamed, loving one another, whatever they see. But there is also the spiritual and emotional reality. Have you ever hurt your spouse? If you've been married for more than 24 hours, my guess is yes. Have you ever felt his or her forgiveness and then released from shame? Isn't it beautiful to taste salvation face-to-face, earth-to-earth? Isn't it beautiful to see that God has given us this gift of marriage by which we have so many reflecting and refracting images of how Christ loves us, His bride. That He knows our every thought, our every feeling. We are, as a statement of fact, naked before Him. But we need not be ashamed. He died for every sin and every shame. Let me sum this up as best I can. You see, what Moses is urging us to see in this story is a call to pursue purity. The purity of oneness. That whether we're married or not, we live like a one-woman man. That's Paul's word in 1 Timothy 3. That we live like a one-man woman, having eyes to a marriage, whether we're in one or not, because we're in one with Christ. And that we should embrace this vision of who we are as humans and who we are as Christians. There's a beautiful image in this that we get to live through and thus experience as Adam did in the garden. so that we might know our doctrine of salvation in a daily way and draw out this metaphor and this image. The last connection I'll make, and this is one of the reasons I was switched by opening illustration. Yesterday was my grandmother's funeral, memorial service. We wept, we stood around remembering. Yesterday, not exactly, not literally, it was October the 8th actually. October the 8th, 2024 was her wedding day. She got home to glory and she saw her husband. I don't mean Donald, I mean Jesus. And that's what she would tell you too. This marriage is a momentary thing. This marriage is an image. of the great glory of heaven that is coming, of the salvation that is in Christ, so beloved in your thoughts and in your words and your looks and in your actions, pursue that purity that reflects both well on marriage and on salvation. Please pray with me. Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this beautiful passage. We give you thanks for this beautiful world. We give you thanks for our beautiful Savior. And pray that that which we have this day learned and understood, you would write it on our minds and on our hearts and bring it forth into our lives. to the building up of your church and the advancing of your kingdom. Remember us for good, O God, that we would preserve, protect, and pursue our purity, being one of heart, one of mind, devoted utterly to Christ and to one another. We give you thanks for these things and ask these blessings in Jesus' name. Amen.