What can be more beautiful than Christ and His church? So what can be more beautiful than that which is a picture of Christ and his church? The bridegroom and his bride. I thought some years ago that I would like to end up my life and end up the ministry thereof by preaching through the Song of Solomon. So I've been a little bit hesitant to preach through the Song of Solomon. But really, that is a wonderfully beautiful book. But it is a picture of Christ and his church, and the Apostle Paul gives us a short version of that, if you will, in this fifth chapter of Ephesians. And that's what it's all about. It's about Christ and his church. That's what he says in verse 32. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and his church. There are many things in the Bible that kind of have a dual meaning. The Proverbs are full of dual meanings. Much of the Psalms has a dual meaning. And whenever I say that, what I mean is simply that it applies both to this life and the life to come, this world and the world to come. But principally, of course, it's all talking about this world of salvation. And what that leads to in that world which is to come, the new heaven and the new earth wherein all things will be perfected. There will be nothing lacking at all in the new heaven and the new earth, and the bridegroom and the bride will be joined again perfectly together in every respect. Now, there are things that have to be admonished, reproved, and rebuked. concerning the church, not the bridegroom, but the bride. Isn't that amazing? No, not really. Because the bridegroom is the perfect one. He is the personification of truth. But the church, there's still some spots and wrinkles to be taken out, isn't there, ironed out? It's what we usually think of as just ironing it out. That's the reason there is a necessity for admonition and for reproof and rebuke and instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished, under every good word. That's why the apostle admonishes Timothy, right? Be instant, in season, out of season, and do what? Reprove, rebuke, admonish with all law, suffering, and doctrine. And there's a reason that he admonished Timothy to do that, and the reason was, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Now, the true church, that's never spoken of. When I say the true church, I'm talking about those that are truly born of the spirit of Christ. Well, that spirit which is from above and what spirit is that? That is the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the Holy Ghost. It is the spirit of holiness. That spirit which is from above is first pure. Right and then. Sir, it is peaceable and then. It's easy to be. entreated. You don't find that very much among professed Christians today, but you do find it among God's true people. But again, my point is this, and this is what it really is all about, is the love of Christ for his church. And he is depicting that by the marriage union between a husband and a wife. But again, in the whole of the Bible, what do you find more of? Praise? No. You find reproof, tribute, admonition. It's always, well again, I use that term selectively, I guess, but the Bible is full of that reproof and rebuke and admonitions. In fact, it mostly is from a negative standpoint. And you know, the way Christ loved his church, he says to Peter, for instance, oh, Peter, you just make little mistake there. No, it's get thee behind me, Satan. Thou savourest not the things of God. Does the Bible ever speak to you that way? It does to me. But it's instructive, isn't it? And the point is that Christ, when he does that, he is expressing, he is manifesting his great love for the church. And no wonder that people, for the most part, They do not like the Bible. They do not like the Word of God. Because it does not praise them. It does not congratulate them. It does not pat them on the back. It does just the opposite of that. And even when Christ speaks and he says, after ye have done all of these things, say what? We're unprofitable servants. For we've only done that which was our duty to do. So as we read these things, it's an admonition here in the fifth chapter of Ephesians, it's not so much a rebuke, is it? But it is an admonition. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. Now last Lord's Day, you made this comment several times, and we'll do it again today. That's the qualifier there. as unto the Lord. That's how you're supposed to do it. That's the way the church is supposed to do it, right? As unto the Lord. He is the Lord of the church. He has been, always will be, the Lord of the church. Now again, The world as such, including the world of religion, even the world of professed Christian religion, does not like that. They will not have it. And even the Jews, again, what is said of the Jews, he came unto his own and his own received him. No, they rejected him. In fact, it was said, this people will not have him to rule over them. They just weren't going to have it at all. That is the spirit of rebellion, and we find that over in the Old Testament, right, in 1 Samuel there, the 15th chapter, I believe it is. And rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Rebellion. But that's not God's people, is it? God's people want to know how they can reflect The very person of Jesus. The church wants to know how they can reflect the very person of Jesus. He is the manifestation of the father. He is the way, the truth and the life. So why submit yourselves under your own husbands as unto the Lord? And again, we have the example of Sarah over in 1 Peter chapter 3. We'll not turn over there. But he's saying there that the husbands can be won by the wives Not by word, but by what? By example. As they live Christ, this is, Brother Jerry, a witness, is a testimony there. And so what is the example? Sarah called her husband, called Abraham, Lord. And we know by the example of her life that this wasn't just words, but it was indeed Sarah living the truth, that she was a daughter of God. Husbands, wives, remember, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. And here's the reason, for the husband is the head of the wife, As Christ is the head of the church. But again, here's the qualifier and he is the savior of the body. Now, how is he going to save you? By instruction, right? for all scripture is given by inspiration of God for what purpose? For reproof, for review, for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness. The Word of God. It is a light under your feet and a lamp under your path. The word of God. It is your life. Therefore, as the church. is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, then, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it." And again, there's the qualifier. As Christ loved the church, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. You know, one of the things about, I think, marriages today is that it's not the husband giving himself to the wife. Brother Bruce, there's too much selfishness in the marriage, especially, again, in the first place, in the husband. It's too much selfishness. Well, you got to have a day out or a night out with the boys, right? But, of course, now the ladies, the women, the wives got to have a night out with the girls, you know, and all this kind of foolishness like that. I guess it's one thing I can say, even before God saved me, when my wife and I got married, I mean, I don't know where I got it from. Maybe it was from my parents, my grandparents, or the fact that I was raised in a church. But when I married my wife, I mean, I married her. I didn't want to be anywhere else or with anybody else. I wanted to be with her. And for most of our lives, up until the fact that I started going to the Philippines, I can honestly say that I could probably count on one hand the times that we were separated or not together except for going to work. I loved to be with her. It was a pleasure to be with her. And that's the way it is with Christ and his church. Christ gave himself for the very reason that he needed a bride. And his joy was to save that bride. Who for the joy that was set before him, right? Endured the cross, despising its shame. But it's for the joy that was set before him. The father gave him a bride. And he gave himself for that bride. And so what is it that Christ did? What has he ever done that was not for the sake of the church? Was there ever anything that he did for a selfish, purely selfish reason? From their sins. That was his whole purpose, wasn't it? And that came from the fact that I come, O God, to do thy will. So what was the will of the Father? That Jesus might be the propitiation for the sins of his people and rise again from the dead and to succor his people now and in eternity. And this is the role of the husband. It is to save his wife. And I can add that through his wife, the family, his children. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. The husband's responsibility is to his wife, to his family, to his wife first and foremost, And the family is an extension of that, right? And so that's his responsibility. Now again, are husbands perfect in doing this? No. Not any more than the wives are absolutely perfect in submitting themselves to their own husbands. But again, there is this thing of repentance, isn't there? And we grow, live and grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, and this is His command, isn't it not? Now I said this, I believe, last Lord's Day, and I'll say it. Again, I lost my train of thought, so maybe I will say it, maybe I won't say it, but Christ's love is perfect. Mine has not been perfected yet, but it's being perfected. we are being sanctified, are we not? That's the whole idea of this whole, this thing of preaching, is the sanctification of the body of Christ, Ephesians chapter 4, right? Until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Jesus Christ unto a perfect man. Right now, this is the instruction, this is the commandment that we have. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. It is a very, very sacred thing this responsibility of a husband. Everything that he does should be, every thought that he thinks, really, and everything that he does should be centered around this very thing, that it is to the salvation of his wife, and again, through extension, his family. Because that's Christ. That's Christ. And the reason that he might present it to himself a glorious church. Husbands, why do you? What is your purpose? with your wife? What is your purpose if you guide them in guiding them and directing them and instructing them and even admonishing and reproving and rebuking? What is your purpose in that? Is it to present them as a glorious Why? That it might again reflect the very image of Christ and his church. We could go a long ways, could we not? In the preaching of the gospel, just by presenting ourselves as we should, with one another. Now, in verse 21 here in this fifth chapter of Ephesians, it says submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Is that depicting the right relationship between Christ and yourself? not any of us to be high and lifted up, not to think more highly, Romans chapter 12, right? Then we ought to think of ourselves, but submitting ourselves one to another. Each one really thinking what? better of others than himself. Now, Brother Bruce, that takes a little bit of unselfishness, doesn't it? A lot of it. Yeah, it does. A lot of it. And so does this, right? I mean, it takes unselfishness for a wife to submit herself unto her husband, and for a husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church and give himself for it. But so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. And here's what he says. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. And that was the whole marriage thing in Genesis, wasn't it? He's now flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone. For this reason, or for this purpose, a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they too shall no longer be twain but one flesh, right? But there is a head. You understand what that is saying again, that the church is one with Jesus. I can't even begin to find words to express what that really means. But we're not different from him. We're like him. Because we are part of him, and he is part of us, rather. We are no longer twain, but one. I think the Apostle Paul expresses it in the 2nd chapter of 1st Corinthians. We have the mind of Christ. We no longer have our own mind, but we have the mind of Christ. We think like Him. Now, once again, Christ is absolutely holy. I, as a husband, I'm not absolutely holy, at least in this body. I believe I am absolutely holy in the spirit. But I'm not absolutely holy in this body. But nevertheless, we're still, as a husband, we're still the head. We're one flesh. But there still is a head, which the Apostle Paul, again, uses the body to show, again, a picture of Christ in the church, right? In verse Corinthians chapter 12, again in Romans chapter 12, uses the same picture, doesn't he? But there is a head. And that head, for the church is the Lord Jesus Christ, that head, as far as the family is concerned, is the husband. And so it is. We're members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause, again, a man shall leave. His father and mother shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. It's a great mystery. but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Now, so what kind of scenario do we see here? We see, again, that the man is the head even of the family, the wife, and the family by extension again, as Christ is the head of the church. Now, we read this the other day, but we'll read it again. First Corinthians chapter 11, verse 6, for if the woman be not covered, what is it? Let her be also shorn, for it is a shame for a woman be shorn or shaven. let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he is what? He is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman was created for the man. Now, again, the woman was created as a what? A helper that was meet and right for the man. Now, again, what is he talking about here? He's really talking about Christ and the church, is he not? In this very verses here in chapter 11 of 1 Corinthians, it's Christ in the church really what it's coming down to. Because the church was created for who? For Christ. Not Christ for the church. First of all, Christ wasn't created at all, was he? He was the creator. But the church was created for Christ, and he is the head. But again, if that is not being depicted in a marriage, then it's no picture of Christ in the church at all, is it? I think that's what I was going to say a while ago. is that I used to think that all marriages were a picture of Christ and the church. But believe me, if most of the marriages today are a picture of Christ and the church, we sure don't have a very good picture, do we? But a godly marriage should and it will be a picture of Christ and its church. Now, again, in 1 Timothy, and these are verses that we all know, it's not anything that's new to us, but in 1 Timothy chapter 2, I don't know where to start, we'll just say with verse 9, in like manner also that women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array, but which becometh women professing godliness with good works. So what are those good works? Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression." Now, what is one of the big problems in professed Christianity today? Well, it is people trying to tell Jesus, trying to tell God. what's right and what's wrong, right? It's people that even though they read the Bible, what do they say? Well, you know, I don't believe that. That's not right. I just don't think that's right. It can't be that way. They are constantly telling God. And most of the women today are doing exactly the same thing with their husbands. They're telling their husbands. They're not listening to what their husbands are trying to teach them, if they're trying to teach them at all. And that's one of the tragedies. Most of the men, again, have abdicated their responsibility to be the savior of the body. too easy just to say, oh, yes, and just go along. Let the women do what they want to do. A while back, I think I was in over here at Lowe's, and some man was there, and I said something to him about what he was doing, and he said, well, he's His wife wanted this and that and the other. And I made some remark, and he said, well, you know what they say. If the wife is happy, everybody's happy. Well, that's kind of the way it is in religion today. That's the way they think today. If the church, quote unquote, is happy, then God ought to be happy. But no, that's not it. God is not going. I don't care how riled up the church gets, I don't care how much they fuss and how much they carry on and how much they rebel against the authority of God, he's not going to change. He's not going to bow down to them. He's not going to kowtow to them. He is not going to say, okay, you have your way and I still love you. Just the opposite. If you really want to get rebuked and reproved, then just rebel a little bit. And I guarantee you, God will accommodate you. But can that happen in love? It's the only way that God, well, let me rephrase that. It is one of the best ways, if not the best way, that God can illustrate and demonstrate his love toward you if he reproves and rebukes you. If he doesn't do that, what are you? You're a bastard and not a son. Folks, we need to understand these things a little bit. And we need to get this idea out of our head that somehow, if God doesn't give us flowers and candy and all this nice sentimental stuff, that somehow he doesn't love us. Folks, we're sinners in the sense that in this flesh, Their dwell is no good thing. And so there's going to be reproof and rebuke, and there's going to be chastisement. All the days of our lives, it's going to be that way. And what are we going to do? Are we going to get puffed up? Well, God's a whole lot better at it than my parents used to be, but when us kids, us boys, would get kind of puffed up about, you know, they told us to do something and we didn't much like to do it, and we kind of pouted around, they'd tell us, well, I'll give you something to pout about. But in Psalm 141, he says, Incline not my heart to any evil thing, to practice wicked works with men that work iniquity, and let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me. It shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me. It shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head. And then he says, for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities. Boy, what a statement. What an act of humility is that. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived. But the woman being deceived was in the transgression, as we already studied back over in the third chapter of Genesis. For this cause, your husband shall rule over you. But then he goes on again in verse 15, notwithstanding, she shall be saved in what? preaching, in teaching, in exercising authority? No. She shall be saved in childbearing. The place of the woman, the place of the wife is in the domestic setting. Now, he says, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. Now, it doesn't mean that if a woman bears children, she's going to automatically go But it does mean that if she is saved, this will be her sphere of responsibility, activity. And this is where she's going to please God. She's not going to please God as a preacher. She's not going to please God as a teacher of other men, and especially her husband. She's not going to please God in those things. She's going to displease God in those things. But how many people believe that today? Now in Titus, chapter 2, verse 3, the aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becoming holiness not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be what? Sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet and chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, And what is the last phrase? That the word of God be not blasphemed. That's a pretty strong statement, is it not? How important is it that a woman then remain in her God-given sphere of service. And how important is it that a husband remain in his God-given sphere of responsibility? Because it takes two, doesn't it? It takes both of them to show forth a picture of the love of Christ for his church and the union that is between Christ and his church. But how many want to do that today? You know, it saddens me. It grieves me at my very heart to see how many people today are putting on this Facebook thing. They put on there, you know, the young people and they're praising the young people because of their college educations and And because of their athletic abilities and all of these kind of things, worldly things, But you know, I don't see, I don't see, I don't think, I don't remember the last time I saw one of them encouraging their daughters to become faithful wives and mothers, nor young men, to become faithful, strong husbands. that give themselves unto the betterment of their wives and their families. But none of that does away with the fact of the Word of God, does it? Nothing excuses us for not following the commandments of our Lord. Now, we're about out of time, but a lot more could be said, I believe, about these things. One thing, though, that Again, a godly marriage, there's nothing more beautiful in this world than a godly marriage. And we don't have time to do it this afternoon, but of course in Proverbs 31, The question is asked, who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. And this is another thing, you see. Godly women in the Bible are also most beautiful. Have you ever wondered how beautiful Eve was, especially in her undefiled state? Have you ever wondered how beautiful Sarah was? And what about Rebecca? What about Rachel? What about Bathsheba? A beautiful woman is a sight to behold, but especially if they are spiritually beautiful, there probably is not a more beautiful thing, unless it would be marriage itself, than a beautiful, godly woman. Well, that's true. It works both ways, doesn't it? It works both ways. But it says in verse 11 here, it says the heart of her husband does safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good, excuse me, and not evil all the days of her life. His heart shall safely trust in her. What does that mean? It means that he is confident that she will be by his side, helping him in whatever enterprise that he endeavors to get involved in. and especially those things that pertain unto the praise and honor and glory of God. He will not be afraid to approach her because they are one. Her mind is going to be like the church's mind towards Christ. We have the mind of Christ. The wife has the mind of her husband. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. The church. The church is going to do good toward God. Toward the Savior. All this fallacy that's going on today about, well, we can't do good. We've already covered that somewhat this morning. We can't do good. That's not biblical. There's nothing biblical about that whatsoever. The Apostle Paul is quite clear about that in Ephesians chapter 5. Let no man deceive you, in verse 6, with vain words, but because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. What is he talking about? Fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talking, jesting, whoremongers? unclean persons, covetous men who are idolaters. That's what he's talking about. Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." And then he says, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Well, what is acceptable unto him? Well, it says it right here. It's goodness and righteousness and truth. And so it is, what is acceptable in a marriage? If wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord, and husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. May God then grant unto us the grace, the mercy, and the grace to present unto the world a perfect picture of Christ and his church.