In his sermon titled "A Glorious Church Without Spot or Wrinkle," Scott Brown delves into Ephesians 5:25-27, highlighting the divine love of Christ as the source of the church's glory. He emphasizes the church as the focal point of God's affections, likening it to a bride, a body, and a temple, among other metaphors, to illustrate its sanctity. Brown underscores the church's role as a bastion of truth, guided by the Word of God, which is powerful and transformative. He reflects on the church's heritage, drawing parallels with America's Christian roots and the principles of its founding fathers, such as John Adams and Benjamin Rush, who saw Christian principles as foundational to governance. The sermon calls for steadfast devotion to the church, urging members to prioritize it as the center of their lives. Brown also addresses challenges like gossip and slander within the church, advocating for a culture of love and reconciliation. He concludes by celebrating the church's unique position as a source of freedom, community, and divine truth.

Yes, please open your Bibles to Ephesians 5, fine verse 25. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey Word of God. Ephesians 5 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives 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 the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Let's pray. Father, we are so thankful for your love for your church, extending down into our families and throughout the world. Your love is an everlasting love.

Lord, we pray that you would give us such a clear vision of your loving kindness toward your church, which you have called glorious. Pray, Lord, that you would take these words and apply them to each one of our hearts individually and to us as a church corporately. Amen. Please be seated. So these verses do fit very well into our series on the church.

They specifically speak of Christ's love for the church and how God's saved sinners and how God takes care of those sinners once he once he saves them by the sanctifying power of the Word of God. And I want to use this time to rejoice in what the Lord has done to create the church. He calls it a glorious church. All through this series, frankly, you may have picked it up. I really wanted to say one thing.

This series on the church has been one sermon with many points. And that is that the Church of Jesus Christ is the center of God's affections. And he is a glorious church, it's a bride. It's a beautiful thing in his sight. We all get so messed up when we think about the church because we think about it from from our own experiences and things like that, but God Really desires to shape our minds to think about it rightly.

It's a glorious Church, so I want to spend time in this message to rejoice in what the Lord is doing in the church. You know in the midst of this it's it really was occurring to me particularly yesterday. It's the 4th of July tomorrow Independence Day and I was rejoicing that I get to live in this nation. I was rejoicing at just a reminder that we happen to live in a country which is the last bastion of freedom on the planet. That's where we live.

Praise the Lord. We experience freedoms and blessings and opportunities that people in the rest of the world don't experience. And we have laws, many of them have been derived from the Bible. We have a Christian heritage, we have opportunity, we have people. I love the people in America, I can relate to them when I go and see them in the world.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves of grain for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain. We live in a beautiful land. Some of you have just been driving across this country. Wow, it's so beautiful. It's beautiful almost everywhere.

It's beautiful here. But we have a tremendous heritage that other nations do not have. We have to recognize that. I've just been rejoicing in that. There's a letter that John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on November 4th, 1816.

He wrote these words, the 10 commandments in the Sermon on the Mount contained my religion. The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. There's no other nation in the world like that. Adam said, we recognize no sovereign but God and no king but Jesus. How about a founding father like that?

I praise God for that. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence called The Father of Modern Medicine. Very active in abolishing slavery in America. He said this, the only means of establishing and perpetuating our Republican forms of government is the universal education of our children in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible. That's what all you're doing with your children as you're schooling them.

Praise the Lord. You know, Ephesians 5 proclaims that it's the word of God preached for the people of God used by the Spirit of God that exalts everything it touches, including a nation. Andrew Jackson said, the Bible is the rock on which our republic stands. That sounds like Ephesians 5 to me. George Washington is often said to be a deist, it's not true.

I have I think a six or 700 page book in my library containing citation after citation of George Washington's true faith. Here are the words of one of his prayers. Oh eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit. Daily frame me more and more in the likeness of thy Son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear and dying in thy favor I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life.

Bless oh Lord the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of thee and thy son Jesus Christ. Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Jesus Christ. I'm so glad to live in America. I love this country. It's a glorious country.

We all know the problems, but there's not a nation on the planet like this one. God has shed his grace on America. And the church of the Lord Jesus Christ has God's grace shed upon it. That's why the apostle Paul in Ephesians five calls it a glorious church. And these verses explain this glory, that it is glory.

I was looking at the definition of glorious in Webster's 1828 dictionary, illustrious, exalted, excellent, splendor, resplendent, and majesty of divine attributes. In the dictionary they quoted Exodus 15-11, who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. It's, the definition of this word is to have something that's noble, that's renowned, that is illustrious, it's honorable, it's like the blossom of a flower. I'm just quoting from the dictionary.

But as we have been going about the business of shepherding this church, for a number of weeks you've been here we've had this series on the church and I wanted us to see the glory of what God is doing in the church. And particularly for younger people who grew up here and you've just experienced it, you've just come to church with your parents, I wanted you to understand what we're doing. Why are we doing this? Why do we make such strong appeals? Why do we frame these matters with such a sense of importance?

And because what God is establishing in the world, a church, is glorious And it's helpful that we think of her rightly and to see the priority that there is for the people of God in the local church. And so in this message, what I want to do is I want I want to remind us of some of the ground We've already covered in this series over the last few weeks and I want to restate some of those things because I want I don't want to get by this season without emphasizing that the Church of Jesus Christ is glorious and all of God's people should be gloriously committed to her, her prosperity and her welfare. People take the Church lightly today. It's kind of a sideline in their life. And I've been here every Sunday saying, God didn't mean for the church to be a sideline in your life, he meant it to be the center of your life.

Around which everything else revolves. So in this passage in Ephesians five, we learn what God's doing in his church and he's making his church glorious. She does have spots and wrinkles, we all know that. We all have them and we see them in one another. The great thing about spots is you notice them in others more than you do yourself.

But God is glorifying himself in his church. And you know what, he's doing it in this church as well. Through the progress of souls who come to hear the word of God week by week. And I wanna begin, in one way, this is a one point sermon with several subsets. And it really all flows from Christ authority in the church if you have an outline in front of you can see how this all flows out but Christ authority in the church is the most wonderful kind of authority you can ever have Like if a husband is like Christ is to the church, she's got the most wonderful authority that exists.

That kind of authority is good authority. He's the wisest authority. He's the kindest authority. He's the truest authority. And so that's why we read in verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church.

Christ is head of the church. That's actually the main point, but then there's an application for husbands. But Jesus Christ is the head of the church. What he says goes, and this is the essence of a biblically ordered church. Churches should be ordered by the Bible and by the Bible alone.

And there's just so much to say about this, but when the Lord Jesus said, "'I will build my church and the gates of hell "'will not prevail against it, ' "'he meant that by the word of God, the church would be preserved. That was Peter's confession. It was about Jesus Christ's authority in the church. So Christ is the head of the church. Have you ever been afraid to get in a car and drive with somebody before?

Because you just, you thought you might die. They just didn't pay attention to the road their skills weren't quite right But you can get in the car with Jesus Christ. He made the road, He made the vehicle, and He has complete mastery of everything in the road. Jesus Christ is the kind of head. He is the kind of Lord that you want.

He's the wisest and the most loving Lord. There's no Lord like him. No God like him. So I think all this really flows from the authority of Jesus Christ. When we come together, we're really, we're always proclaiming the authority of Jesus Christ.

When we open this book called the Bible, we're proclaiming the authority of Jesus. Now when we engage this series, if you were here you'll remember The very first point that I made was of Christ's love for the church. Christ loves the church and gave himself up for him. That's proclaimed right here in this passage. And this is such a central matter.

It's a glorious church because of Christ's love for the church. And what I asked back then, I'll just ask it again in case you don't remember or maybe you weren't here. Well, I itemize dozens of ways that Jesus Christ loved his church, really practical ways, ways that actually have implications for us. We're not the savior of the world, but we can make applications from the way that Christ loved the church. But my question was, do you love the church the way that Jesus Christ loved the church?

Are you giving yourself up for her? Do you long for her? Do you speak to her? Do you want to be with her? Well, there were many things that we covered about what's explicitly said about Jesus Christ's love for the church, but he loves his church.

He gave himself for her right here in this text. He humbled himself, he became a servant, he took on the form of flesh, and he went about poor, making many rich. He was pouring out to make others rich, being the substitute for the punishment that sinners deserved. He loved the church. The Bible says that the devil's like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

But don't forget, in the book of Revelation, The little lamb kills that roaring lion. And he's stalking you, but there's a lamb walking beside you because he loves you. He loves his people, he loves his church. He walks with his church. He even sings with his church, as it says in the book of Hebrews.

When we sing together, the Lord Jesus is singing with us. And he's saying, here I am in the midst of those that I saved. I'm not ashamed to call them my brethren. So the church is a glorious church because Christ loves the church. And I wanted to be here over these weeks just to say love the Church of Jesus Christ.

Reset your priorities if you need to. Secondly, the Church is the community of the converted. That was the second point that I made. The Church is the community of the converted. This has everything to do with God's mercy towards sinners and we were establishing this from 1st Corinthians 6, 9 through 11 which which speaks of the fact that what God does is he takes adulterers and idolaters and homosexuals and thieves and drunkards and revilers, and he changes their lives.

So much so that in Corinth, the apostle Paul says to those people in Corinth, a very wicked pornographic city, He says, such were some of you. You're not that way anymore. You've changed. I remember one of my friends saying that to me when I was in my teens. You've changed.

True. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified. The church is the community of the converted. What a blessing it is to be converted. Well, you still have your spots and wrinkles that the Lord's working out.

Next week, we're gonna talk about that. But for now, this is a community of the converted. You know, when you look into the eyes of your Christian brothers and sisters here, you're looking at somebody whom God has changed their life and they've never been the same again. You probably didn't know them before they were converted. Oh boy, if you knew them before, yikes.

But now they're just, you know, they're changed. Praise the Lord. We really are amidst a family of people who've changed. What a blessing. Thirdly, this glorious church has an infallible source of truth.

This glorious church has an infallible source of truth. God sanctifies, heals, changes, hapifies his church by his word. And that's why in our services we give significant time for the reading of the word of God. We think it's the word of God that does the work. We don't think the personalities do that much work.

We don't think, you know, that anything is as powerful as the word. And that's why we read the word, we sing the word of God. You know, when people pray around here, a lot of times you're hearing scripture flying out of their hearts. It's the word of God that is the center of it. I only have confidence in the word of God to do the work of God here in this church of God.

I don't have confidence in anything. I don't have any confidence in myself, But I do have confidence that when we open the word of God and we speak of the words of God that something good can happen. That's why in the Baptist Confession, which we subscribe to as elders of 1689, it reads, the holy scriptures are the only sufficient certain and infallible standard of all saving knowledge faith and obedience Oh, they left out sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, but you know what I mean The word of God is powerful. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. It goes right down to the innermost depths of your heart.

And it tells you how to be saved. It tells you how to live. It tells you how to be single and married. And It tells you how to die. It tells you everything that you need to know.

In one way, there's really only one mark of the true church. It's the word of God. It's the saturation of the word of God. That's the singular mark of a true church. I mean, James says that we were converted by the word.

We were brought forth by the word of truth in James 1.18 and in 1 Peter 1.23, Peter tells us that we've been born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible through the Word of God, which abides forever. It abides forever. That's how we're saved, by something that doesn't pass away. It's a glorious church because it has an infallible source of truth. I'm so thankful for the Word of God.

How many times has the Word of God rescued you? Rescued your emotions? Rescued your tongue? Rescued your thinking? Rescued your relationships.

The Word of God is powerful. It's a glorious church. I want us all to understand it's such a glorious church because of what Jesus is doing with this church. Fourthly, we talked about the necessity of steadfast devotion to the church, and we dove into Acts 2, 42, which explain the pattern of the early church and all the churches that followed, and they steadfastly devoted themselves to the apostles doctrine, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Steadfast devotion.

And all of course along in this series, you've heard me appeal to you for steadfast devotion to this glorious church. These are just the things that characterize Christianity. This is what Christians do when they get together. Everything flows out of the apostles' doctrine. It flows into the fellowship and into the prayers and into the taking of the Lord's Supper, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, the prayers.

These are things that the true church does. And these are the things that actually human beings need. I mean, we need, God knows what we need. This is what we need. You know, making a beeline to the worship of God, to the people of God is the most life-giving thing you can do.

You know, a lot of times when people fall into trouble, some disheartening thing happens to them and they're so discouraged they say, I'm just not gonna go to church today. That's the worst thing you can do. You need to flee to where the truth is, where the love is, where the brethren are, where there's somebody who's praising God, maybe you could get dragged along their contrail. We need that. We actually need one another to lift us up.

I do. I need the songs. I need the songs every Sunday. It's a glorious church. Fifth, the rich metaphors of the church.

Now we, I've collected this up into one category here, but I hope you caught the richness of the diversity, of the beauty of the metaphors of the church. The church is so wonderful. You know, one word can't even contain it. Well, I'm using this word glorious to try to contain it, but that doesn't even hold all the water. But you have the divine design of the church that's communicated in the metaphors for the church.

And they help us understand what and why God was doing what he was doing when he established the church. And every one of them is a metaphor of Christ's love for the church. You know, it's an assembly. It's a thing that people assemble to. It's why you can't stop assembling as Christians, no matter what the government says.

It's an assembly. It's by its very nature. You cannot violate that. God wants his people to gather together It's a worshiping community. It's it's it's described as a household It's described as a building Ephesians 221 the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

We're like a building that's being built into a holy temple where God resides. It's a body. It's like a body where all of the interdependent parts are necessary. For we are many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function. But we're individually members of one another.

The church is a temple, and God inhabits the temple. 1 Corinthians 3, 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwells in you? That's us. But how serious this is.

If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy which temple you are." Isn't that amazing? We're gathering, we are collectively a temple of God, all of us together. It's really, it's amazing, isn't it? We're also a holy nation.

Nations have laws. Nations have boundaries, boundary lines. They have cultures. And the church has laws and it has boundaries there are some who are in and there's some who are out and The church has a culture. We've talked a lot about that over the years what kind of culture are Is God creating in his church?

The church is a holy nation But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. First Peter two, nine and 10. The church is called a flock, a bunch of sheep. Enough said, we're sheep being led by a shepherd, but we're still sheep. But God takes care of his sheep.

He goes after his sheep. He loves his sheep. The church is a vineyard where the members are abiding in the vine and they're fed, they're nourished by the hand of God and they bear fruit. The church is a kingdom of priests in 1st Peter 2, 9. You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.

The church is a structure built of living stones. The church is a family. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth in 1 Timothy 3, 5. And, finally, well, there are a lot more metaphors, but I'll stop there. I'll stop with this one.

And this should tell us something about the valuation of the church in the eyes of Jesus. The church is a bride. A bride. She's not the old lady, She's the bride. She's a beautiful bride Stunning everybody in the church is a bride That's how God thinks of his church His bride His bride has spots and wrinkles His bride is being sanctified But his bride has been paid for by his sacrifice.

So, you know, we're doing something when we gather as the church. We're on a project that God has designed. He's told us what it is and why it is and what we're supposed to do. And he tells us what he is intending to do with it. And we're playing a role in each other's lives.

We see one another, we are connected to one another for God's glory. It's a glorious church. Sixth, the strength of the church. The apostle Paul prays a prayer that I preached on from Ephesians 3, 14 through 21. We walked through this prayer in detail.

This prayer really discloses the strength in a local church. Ephesians 4, 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God all this happens by being strengthened with might through his spirit that's 316 and this this is a prayer for the Ephesian church. It was a prayer for a local church in the city of Ephesus. Just like this church is a local church in the city of Wake Forest. He was praying for a local church with people who had come out of the world in Ephesus.

And it speaks about what it means to know God in the midst of the congregation and that is and that is that you are exposed to the height and the depth and the breath and the length of Christ's love. You know our work here in this church is to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ. I hope you hear it every Sunday. I know you hear it every Sunday. That's why we exist.

And Paul prays for a reason in chapter three verse 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. In other words, when God's sanctifying his church, there are all these people who are coming, they're worshiping God, they're setting their hopes in God, and the powers and the principalities are going, huh, we tried to beat that. We can't beat him. You're demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ through the powers and the principalities because they have no love. They hate everybody they engage, but not Jesus.

And they hate it. It's a glorious church. Seventh, assurance. This really had to do with the exclusivity of the church. The church is one body.

If you recall, we came to this verse in Ephesians chapter four, the church is one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. That means that there are not many paths that lead to God. There's only one path that leads to God, only one. There's only one body. You're either in that body or out.

And so the body of Christ is not inclusive, it's exclusive. It's only composed of those who've been washed and cleansed and sanctified, and are being sanctified. Because all paths don't lead to God. And so we took some time to ask the question, do you know if you're in or you're out? And I have had many, many conversations, particularly with younger people who really wondered if they were in or out.

They wanted to follow the Lord. They believed. And they still didn't know if they were in or out. They wanted to be in, but they didn't know if they were in. So we spent several weeks going through the whole doctrine of salvation and assurance of salvation.

And I was asking lots of questions during that time. You know, are you waiting for some dramatic moment? You know, do you believe in salvation by electrification? Are you Are you waiting for some awesome, amazing, you know, throw you to the ground like the apostle Paul, lights flashing, you know, you almost pass out, you weep for an hour, for two hours, you know, are you waiting, are you waiting for, Is that the sign that you're saved? Or are you waiting to be deeply remorseful enough to be saved?

You remember what I said? You can't, you don't even know how deep your sin is. You can't even repent to the depth of your sin. You can't be remorseful enough. Nobody ever was remorseful enough.

Nobody ever repented as deep as their sin, because we're blind to our sin. But God saves sinners who are blind to their sin. So we spend a lot of time about the doctrine of assurance. We don't believe in salvation by remorse. We don't believe in salvation by remorse.

We don't believe in salvation by electrification. We believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone. It's a glorious church where God takes sinners and he just moves them along. See, it's actually, it's a very slow process, but it's real. It's a glorious church.

Eighth, worship. The worship of God in the church. I want us to understand how serious God takes worship, and we spoke about the regulator principle of worship, why that principle even exists, and the truth is, God destroys nations, and he actually kills ministers who mess with his worship. The Bible tells me so. And so it's very serious that we humble ourselves and do what we can with all that we know in the sincerity of our hearts to regulate the worship as best we know how according to the scriptures.

Now, we don't think that we do that perfectly here in this church, but we want to. You know, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3.15, I write to you that you might know how to conduct yourself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So, you know, everything in church life goes back to the sufficiency of scripture. And we talked about that the most common approaches to the worship of God is first of all the creative principle. You can worship any way you wish as long as you use Bible words and meet felt needs.

Second, the normative principle. Whatever is not explicitly forbidden in Scripture is permitted, which means you can pretty much do whatever you want in worship. And thirdly, the regular principle, whatever is not commanded in Scripture is in worship is forbidden. You know, we talked about this reality that all of us face at different levels and have at different times, and that is we come into the church with our picture of the church, the way that we think it should be, and I quoted a remarkable statement by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, Life Together. And he said, when you come into the church, your wish dream for the church must die.

Let your wish dream for the church die. The quicker you can let it die, the better off everybody will be. And you want to pick up God's dream for the church. And conduct yourself according to his ways, his commands, his regulated worship. In other words, fall in line with that.

Don't act like such a big shot when you come into the church. Come and humble yourself and follow God and be regulated by God. Let your wish dream die. But it's a glorious church when the people of God humble themselves and just fall in line with what things God has designed for the church. It's a glorious church.

Number nine, The family at church. We've got a lot of families here. I thought it would be helpful to address that because The Bible The Bible has families Little ones and old ones in the gatherings of the church all the way from the beginning to the end. So that's why we do it. Children should be here.

And frankly, the church is the most important place you'll ever take your family. And a local church is postured to saturate your family with the word of God so that they might be saved, so that they might see the beauty of the Lord, so they might see the gloriousness of the church. And there are just dozens of opportunities to orient your family around the knowledge of God. And I wanted to just encourage those of you who have families to have a maximalist view of the worship of God. You know, do everything you can.

Don't do the minimum, Go after it. And before we gather, prepare your children for the worship of God and the word of God while we're gathering and after we're gathering. Max it out. Be a maximalist for the worship of God. The places you take your children, they will influence them for the rest of their lives.

I was here to say, make it a wonderful adventure. Be a great tour guide. Don't be a dull tour guide in the Church of Jesus. It's glorious. Make it as glorious as it really is.

You know, immerse your children in this culture of thanksgiving and praise, this culture of mercy and kindness, this culture of relationship and gathering together, eating together, you know, all the things that we do in the church. Make it a generational fellowship. One of the biggest problems in churches like ours is the adults. They're so age segregated. They just want to talk to their own peers.

They're such, you know, there's just such a peer-drivenness, you know, among the adults in the church. But then their children don't get included in a lot of the good things that could be included. It's a culture of intellectual activity and pondering the meaning of words and it's a culture of fellowship and I mean David said that he did it for his happiness, Psalm 84, 4. Happy are those who dwell in your house. They are still praising you.

He said, I have loved the habitation of your house, the place where your glory dwells, Psalm 26, 8. It's a glorious church. The worship of God is the most important thing that happens in the world. Tenth, gossip, slander, and busy bodies in the church. This had to do with the government of the tongue.

Oh, no man can tame the tongue, as one of our elders said, but God can. Well, it's difficult. We had this membership covenant, and I walked us through the membership covenant, because it has this brilliant section on the government of the tongue. But it's all, our membership covenant is really a document that basically says, love one another the way the Bible says. That's what our church covenant basically says.

It teaches us how to talk to one another with prescriptions and prohibitions in our covenant. And, you know, that we have covenanted together, first, to cultivate Christian sympathy and feeling and courtesy of speech. Second, to strive to avoid all scriptural prohibitions such as tattling, backbiting, and unrighteous anger. Third, to refrain from speaking evil of one another. Fourth, to be slow to take offense.

Fifth, to think the best of one another. Sixth, and always be ready for biblical reconciliation and mindful of the rules of our Savior to secure it without delay so far as it depends on us. So seek to be reconciled, make short accounts. Here's a voice from the devil. Are you ready?

Here's a voice from the devil when somebody's offended you. Well, if I tell them, they won't listen anyway. That's the devil speaking. Are you God? Do you know everything?

You know exactly how they'll respond? No you don't. But you're commanded to go and be reconciled to your brother, but don't give the excuse, well, they won't listen anyway. I don't know how many times I've heard that. I've thought it myself.

I've said it myself. It's wrong, it's from the devil. Because it breaks up the processes that God has placed in the church for reconciliation. So maybe you're thinking, oh, I really do need to talk to that brother or sister, but they just won't listen. Pair us the thought.

It's a glorious church. It's more glorious than we are in our thinking. And then finally, well let's go back to Ephesians 5, 26. Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. Now I plan next week to elaborate on these matters of sanctification and cleansing and this gloriousness of the church, the holiness of the church.

So these are some of the things I wanted our church to understand before, particularly the young ones went any further. I hope you've taught your children these things. I think they're very important. So yeah, it is the 4th of July tomorrow and let's Let's rejoice in the nation that God has placed us in. This last bastion of freedom in the world.

Do you know the church is the last bastion of freedom in the world? The church is the place that has the best laws. The church is the place that has the best culture. The church is the place that has the best laws. The church is the place that has the best culture.

The church is the place that has the best heritage. It has the greatest opportunities. It has the most loving people. It has the most beautiful bride. It's a glorious nation.

That's the church. And tomorrow, I hope you celebrate the nation with its spots and wrinkles that God has given you to dwell and I'm so delighted to live in this nation. And I'm so thankful that we are actually given a day off to consider our heritage. We have a glorious heritage for a glorious church. And it's characterized by all these words that you have in your outline.

Love, conversion, truth, devotion, beauty, strength, assurance worship families gossip slander and glory America America, God shed his grace on thee. America, America, God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law. May it be so in this church and in this nation. Isaiah 62-3, he shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. Would you pray with me?

Father, your ways are so good. I praise you for them. We see our flaws, some of them, and in one another, but you're a God of grace, You're a God of glory, and you have a glorious church right here in this building. Amen. Thanks for watching!