One announcement that I will draw to your attention is not in the bulletin, that we will celebrate communion next week instead of the first Sunday of February, sort of as an accommodation to the Missions Festival. So I would encourage you to prepare for that as you come next week. We are very fortunate today to have Ricky Jones, who is the campus minister for Reform University Fellowship at Mississippi State, to preach. And so I'm going to ask Ricky to come forward. Read the scripture and pray that the children be dismissed at children's church. Greetings. I'm very glad to be back with you. I am very loud as well. There are some churches who refer to me as the loud guy. It is appropriate that I'm here a couple of weeks before your missions conference. It's been a while since I've been here. Last time I was here was about 8 months and 80 degrees ago. So it's a little different and I'm a little shaggier. But I have been here before and I'm thankful to be back. I am a missionary of this church. I'm the RUF campus minister of Mississippi State. I'm very thankful. for your support. It has been a great time for us there this year. The ministry has grown considerably over the four years I've been there. It's more than just numeric growth. I think the Lord has really blessed our ministry. I would love for you to come and visit. I wish you could come on a Sunday night and sit in my living room and hear the stories of how God is awakening people some people who have lived in the church their whole life, and some who have never been to church in their life. And it's been a great time there. I do live in Starkville, Mississippi. I have one wife and four boys, two minivans, a dog and a cat. My boys didn't make it this morning. We left a little early for them. They're eight, six, four, and two. And we were all very asleep when I left. I would love for y'all to, I wish they could come, I wish y'all could meet them. I'll be reading today from Ephesians chapter 5 verses 22 through 33. I'm supposed to read first, then dismiss everyone in the children's church? Okay. Not everyone, just the children. Some of you saw your chance, didn't you? Ephesians 5, verse 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now, if the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, wives should love their husbands as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ. and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Please pray with me. Our Father in heaven, we woke up this morning and it was cold. And we're cold. And we don't like that. And it causes us to not respond to things the way we usually do. It makes us want to bundle up and focus on protecting ourselves and keeping ourselves warm. And it affects the way we greet each other. It affects the way we treat our families. It affects the way we come to Your Word. And we need Your Spirit to open us and to warm us and to remind us of the story that we're a part of. So, will You come? Will You awaken us? Will You speak to us? Well, we ask these things because we believe that Jesus wants them. Amen. As the children are dismissed, Children's Church, I will make a confession to you. I read Newsweek magazine. I didn't know that was something you had to confess, but I found out not too long ago that that is something that some people aren't too crazy about. But Newsweek, my wife reads it cover to cover, as she reads most things cover to cover. And I go over the quotes of the week and the mishaps and see who's up and down on conventional wisdom. That's about as far as I get. But a couple of weeks ago, there was a quote in the quotes of the week that absolutely pierced me to the soul. It was by an Iraqi student, a college student, and he said this about the upcoming election on January 30th. He said, even if it costs me my life." Okay. When I say something like that, it's usually along the lines of, I will eat even if I have to die trying. And that means, you know, even if I have to wait in line. Even if it's mildly difficult. When someone from Iraq says he's going to do something even if it costs him his life, he means, Even if I have to embrace someone who has got bombs tied to his chest, even if I have to stare down someone who has a sword and has been known to use it to behead people, I will vote even if it costs me my life. This election for us is a line between life and death, and we have to choose life. And as I saw that, and as I was struck by it, what occurred to me was, why is that such a big deal for him? What would make him willing to say that and mean that? And I started thinking about where he is in the story of his nation, in the story of a nation that goes back thousands of years, and how this is a turning point, and the first opportunity anyone's ever had to vote, and how we don't feel that way. Because we vote all the time, it seems like every other month. It's one more vote, and we think to ourselves, I will vote even if it means I will be late to work. No. No, not then. I will vote even if it means I will be late to dinner. No. You know, because we're just a long way from the story. And we've forgotten that in the story of our nation, there have been people who have died to win the right to vote. We've forgotten that when George Washington and his contemporaries said, we will vote, they did so at the cost of their own blood. We have forgotten that even in the 60s, when people in this state went around to register voters, they did so at the cost of their own life. And so we're separated from the story. And the further we get away from the story of something, the less important it seems to be. The further we get away from the history that defines something, the less important it seems to be. And what the Apostle Paul is telling us in this text is that everything has a story. Everything that's meaningful in life has a story. And we have to be reminded of what that story is. He reminds us that the story begins at creation. And it involves, very soon after creation, the fall, and not just kind of an abstract, yeah, man and woman sin, but the entire world was ruined. And it was plunged into despair. And God looked at it and He said, I'm sorry that I made man. And it grieved Him to His heart. And instead of casting us away, He began the work of redemption. A work that would include Him bringing His own Son and sacrificing Him and establishing a kingdom and growing that kingdom. to the point that we look forward to a day when the trumpet is sounded and we hear a voice crying out, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And we're part of that story. And Apostle Paul tells us and is teaching us here that marriage is part of that story. Now, understand what he's saying here. He is not saying, he is absolutely, positively not saying that marriage is an illustration of the gospel. So, if you want to know how much Jesus loves you, then look at marriage. He is not saying that. That is the exact opposite. That is, to borrow a phrase from Knox Chamberlain, whenever I get in Jackson, I always think about seminary days. It is precisely not what he is saying. He is saying that the gospel is the pattern. It is the prototype of marriage. If you want to understand anything about it, you must understand about the model. If you don't understand the model, you have no idea how to make it work. You have no idea what is involved. And that's clear, that's true even from a just cursory look at history and the world. Look at what marriages are like in countries and cultures that have never been impacted by the Gospel. You know what marriage was like? You know how women were treated in China before the Gospel came, before Western civilization invaded and did all those mean things that Western civilization does? You know what marriage was like? They would take women, when they were babies, and they would wrap their feet So their feet would never grow. So they'd be voluntarily deformed for life. So they physically could not leave the house. That's one way to do it. That's one way to keep your wife faithful to you. I don't recommend it. That's what they did. You know what it was like for the Native Americans? You know why Syphilis destroyed Native Americans The Europeans arrived. Because whenever a Native American man saw another man that he envied, that he looked up to, that he thought had some kind of power that he didn't have, he would take his wife and force his wife to sleep with that man and try to steal his power. You know why AIDS has destroyed Africa the way it has? One of the major reasons is because in Africa they believe whenever you're ill and you're sick and there's something that's wrong with you and they can't heal it, what you really need to do is go find a virgin and have sex with her. And the story is the same. Wherever the gospel has not gone, there is no understanding of how marriage should work, of how to love each other. And so what I want us to do in this text Let's take one more look at the story, and I'm not going to draw a lot of applications about your marriages, I don't know you that well, but I want to remind you of the story. I just want to remind you of the story. Where does the story begin? He says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. It reminds us of Philippians chapter 2, where we hear that Jesus, who though he was in the very form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. But He made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God is highly exalted on Him and bestowed on Him a name that is above every name, so that, in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. What is the gospel? The gospel is a story about Jesus loving His church so much that there was nothing too big to give up for her. That He gave up glory. He gave up the power, the freedom to do whatever His will desired so that He could become a baby and be absolutely dependent for all things. He gave up extravagant, inordinate—not inordinate, perfectly inordinate— Complete wealth so that he could live a life of poverty. He gave up a life of extreme joy so that he could know what suffering would feel like. He gave up perfect fellowship with his Father so he could be abandoned by all men, betrayed by his closest friends, and ultimately forsaken by his father as well. There's nothing that he would not go through for his wife. There is nothing he would not give up for her. What was your favorite DVD that you got for Christmas? My six-year-old got The Princess Bride. I love the story. I hope you know it. It's a great story. It's the ultimate love story. It's the story of Wesley, who, for his bride, for his true love, what did he do? He went off to make his fortune. For his true love, he stood toe-to-toe with the dread pirate Roberts. For his true love, he scaled the cliffs of insanity. For his true love, he fenced the world's greatest swordsman. For his true love, he hand-wrestled. He entered into hand-to-hand combat with the world's biggest giant. For his true love, he matched wits with the world's greatest criminal mastermind. For His true love, He drank alkane powder. For His true love, He experienced the fire swamps. For His true love, He went through torture and death. And with the help of Miracle Max, He even came back from death. For His true love. Doesn't that sound familiar? Doesn't that sound like how Jesus has loved us? You know what parable, and you're not really supposed to say this when you're a Christian, but what the heck. You know what parable I grew up hating? I hate, Ed, past tense, the pearl of great price. You know, the parable of the guy, in my mind, you know, he's going out, I guess he's looking through oysters, he finds one, the mouth won't even close, there's such an enormous pearl in it, He sells everything he has to buy this pearl. And for years, I just kind of had this image in my mind of him bringing the pearl home and setting it on his coffee table and looking at it. And then I began to realize, well, he couldn't have done that because he wouldn't have had a coffee table. He wouldn't have had a home. He sold everything for the pearl. And I just grew up hating that parable because it just felt like it just beat me to death. Why haven't you sold everything? You haven't done enough. No matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, that parable was always waiting there with a whip to beat me. You didn't do enough today. Finally, one day I realized, I'm the pearl. You are the pearl. Jesus is the one who sold everything, who left everything to purchase you. I like that parable now. And let me ask you a question. Do you feel like somebody who has been loved that much? Do you live like somebody who has been loved that much? Is your life stained with the knowledge that the God of the universe loves you that much, and therefore you can trust Him? Even when your stock plunges? Even when your pink slip is waiting? Even when your kids fail you, even when you graduate high school or college without a fiancé, you can trust Him because He has loved you that much. Do you live your life with that knowledge? Do you love like someone who has been loved that much? Is your life a response to that kind of love? Do you look for opportunity to be with the lover of your soul? Do you view worship? Do you view time in the Word? Do you view opportunities to do mercy ministry? Opportunities to be with someone who loves you that much? He's loved us that much. But it doesn't end with Him loving His bride. He says in verses 25 and 26, "...as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing with water with the Word." He hasn't only loved us, but He gave Himself up for us to cleanse His bride. He gave Himself for us to cleanse us, to remove from us the stains and the shame. He put Himself in our place. Isaiah 53 says it like this, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed Him stricken. smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. And upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with His stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray and have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is before its shears, is silent. He opened not his mouth." You remember Gethsemane, don't you? You know that was for you. Does the story of Gethsemane bother you? The story of your hero? of your groom, of your Savior weeping and rolling around the ground and begging the Lord, don't do this. That's not really what we want in a hero, is it? We want Aragorn rattling his saber. We want Braveheart telling us that death has nothing to make us fear. We don't really like Gethsemane very much. But when you think about it, it's completely different, isn't it? There's only two real reasons why you could face death and not be afraid. You face death unafraid if, one, you just have no idea what it's going to be like. And you're like, oh, it can't be that bad. Let's see what's next. Or if you have God-given assurance that after death you are awaiting the embrace of your Father. If you have either one of those two things, you can face death afraid, unafraid. But Jesus didn't have either one. He knew exactly what was coming. And it was not an embrace. He stood before God, the same God that Moses stood before and absolutely trembled, the same God that Isaiah stood before with the altar in between them and He still came undone. And He stood before God without covenant, without altar, without covering, dressed in your sin and in my sin. And He faced it alone. And He faced the horror. And He faced the unmitigated pain. He faced the Holocaust that was coming. And the glory of our salvation is not that Jesus somehow went to die for us to cleanse us without fear. The glory is that He was terrified, but He drank it down anyway for you, to cleanse you, to wash us, to make us radiant. And again, we have to ask ourselves, do we live like people who have had that done for us? Do we view our sin like that was done for us? Do we still live the life of the 12-year-old who's obeying mommy, but really thinks that the unbelievers out there are having a lot more fun? And we're kind of mad that God doesn't want us to go play on the amusement park. Or do you see sin for what it is? Are you thankful that your groom has cleansed you? And does it break your heart to find something in your life that offends your lover? That's for us. He gave Himself for us, He loved us, and He dresses and beautifies us. He dresses us. In verse 27, he says, "...so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish." It's a fascinating story here. Jesus goes from being the groom to being the bridesmaid. He's both. He's the groom that's waiting, and He's the bridesmaids who, by His Spirit, are preparing the bride. They're getting her ready to make her beautiful. They're pressing out every wrinkle. and shining on. He does that. He dresses us. He takes away our shame. He covers us. And He wants everybody to see how proud He is of us. It's a fascinating picture. I don't know if you've ever been dressed. I've been dressed before. I had a friend, and I went to Vanderbilt. I was kind of on a redneck affirmative action scholarship thing. I didn't really fit in there. But they let me in. I snuck in. I was just kind of surrounded by people who spent more on their vacations than my family made in a year. A lot. But they were all my best friends. One of my friends offered me one time, he said, you want to come to the football game down in Alabama? I said, I don't want to go to the game. I don't know anybody down there. I don't have a car. I don't have a ticket. I'm not interested. And he looked at me and he said, I've got you a ticket. I'll drive you down. I'll buy all your meals. I got you a place to stay and a date." Okay. I guess I'm in, you know. So I ride down with him, and we're getting ready to go to the game the next day, and I'm wearing the only thing I've got, you know, my Walmart shorts and a T-shirt, and he walks in in the uniform of an Alabama resident with his khaki pants and his tie and his coat. And I look at him, and I start shouting things that I won't share with you. And he, um, I said, you didn't tell me you were dressing like that. It's a football game. He said, well, it's a football game in Alabama. I thought you knew. I said, how was I supposed to know? So he went to his brother's closet, and he started pulling out clothes. And he dressed me. But I couldn't, his brother was six foot four. It was really funny. So I had to wear my shorts, man. I had the shirt. I had the tie. I had to wear my shorts. And when I finally got dressed, I walked out and He'd gone and put shorts on, so He'd look like me. He dressed me. He covered our shame. And that's what Jesus offers us. For our sake, He made them to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. He offers to dress us. And we have to receive it. During Christmas, the church where I attend, for the call to worship, you know, or the prelude or whatever you call the music before worship, started playing, Oh Come All Ye Faithful. And I was out in the foyer, like usual, talking. And I remember thinking, well, that's not for me. When they play Come Ye Sinners, I'll be right there. But Oh Come All Ye Faithful, I'll just be staying out here with the sinners. But it is for us. Because dressed in Christ, we are faithful. With His faithfulness, we have been robed, and He's beautified us, and He's offered it to us. He describes it in Ezekiel like this. The Son of Man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem, Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, your mother a Hittite. As for your birth, on the day you were born, your cord was not cut. nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. No eye pitted you to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were of horde on the day that you were born. And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live. I said to you, Live, and I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, your hair had grown, but you were naked and bare. When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age of love. And I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declared it to the Lord God, and you became mine. And I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather, and I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with your ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring in your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty. For it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God." He has dressed us. And it's there for the taking. We only receive it. What makes that so hard? You ever have somebody offer you forgiveness you didn't want? One day in the kitchen, when my oldest was very young, he was about two, and we left, Bianca had poured some orange juice and she just left the carton on the edge of the counter the last time we did that. And so my two-year-old went over and tried to get some more and pulled it down and just boom, boom, boom, you know, it's just going everywhere, all over the kitchen. And so Bianca sees it, she takes off running and she hits the orange juice and slides across the kitchen and goes straight into the dishwasher and it's, the noise and everything scares my son so much he starts crying. And Bianca's afraid now. She's got orange juice all over her, but she's afraid. She's scared her child. She starts saying, It's okay, Brunage. It's okay, Brunage. It's my fault. It's my fault. And he looks at her and says, It's okay, Mommy. I'll forgive you. And we just laughed like you just did. Because it wasn't really a forgiveness we were looking for. And there is a pride that is so strong that it will refuse to even be forgiven. We have to be willing to admit that we have nothing to wear but the clothes that Jesus offers. Please pray with me. Lord Jesus, We confess that we are often far too pleased with ourselves to want to wear your clothes. And we don't believe that you have loved us. Will you give us the grace and the faith to live lives of people who have been loved like that. Will you remind us? Amen.