The speaker discusses the topic of marriage, emphasizing that it is not only about the covenant between two individuals but also serves as a representation of God's Trinitarian relationship, His covenant love for His people, and the eschatological picture of the bride of Christ. The speaker highlights the importance of entering into marriage with a partner who is united with Christ and warns against being unequally yoked with unbelievers. The ultimate goal is to reflect the perfect union between Christ and His church. The comprehensive summary covers various aspects of marriage, including its beauty and enjoyment, its worst form when not aligned with God's design, its best form exemplified in Ephesians 5, and its perfection in the new heaven and new earth.

Well, a heartly good morning to you all. Don't you think the choice of hymns this morning were just absolutely spot on and wonderful and beautiful? Thank you. I don't remember which hymn we sang at our wedding, and I'm feeling pretty chuffed about that because my own wife doesn't remember. But we sang a song to each other and it was based actually on Genesis chapter 2.

I think it was Michael Talbot, This is Flesh of my Flesh and Bone of my Bone. That was the song we sang to each other. And today as we look at marriage, it's not only something that is to be said to those who are married. And I want that to be clear as we start this morning, because marriage, as we shall see, is something far bigger than only two people united because of a covenant they made with one another. So I pray that God will grant us to see that.

Right. Turn with me now again to Genesis, we're in Genesis chapter 2. As you see, as we address this issue from the womb to the grave, we have found ourselves mainly in Genesis, because this is the foundation, This is how God created his world and this is the foundation of all theology starts in Genesis. You remember Genesis 1 verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, now then the Lord filled the earth and when we get to chapter 2 speak specifically about man and let's read together then from verse 18 then the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone I will make him a helper that is 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 And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was no, 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 slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and The rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman, and he brought her to the man. And 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 and they shall become one flesh and the man and his wife were naked and were not ashamed." The premise of everything that we've been saying in this series so far is that this is God's world. We are created by God and we live in His world. We are designed according to God's wisdom. We should therefore live according to God's revealed will and be joyfully submitting ourselves to His divine rule. Those are the things that we got from Genesis chapter 1 verse 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It's His world. We live in His world. Now, as we've seen in the beginning, as God created, He created man. He made them male and female.

So, marriage is instituted by God in creation as part of his design, his unique design for man and woman. God who instituted marriage then also gives then very specific duties to man and woman within marriage. And I'm going to disappoint you today, I'm not going to preach a sermon on what men should do to be good husbands and what women should do to be good wives. So that's why you came. Stay because there's something far more beautiful and far more important for us to understand, so that we can be good husbands and good wives to one another.

But what we will find this morning as we go through the topic of marriage, is to see that when marriage is seen in the pages of scripture, so we're taking a biblical theology approach as it were, and see how marriage is instituted in the beginning and how the picture of marriage just grows and then fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that that will be the encouragement that you and I go away with this morning, because it is beautiful and I am sure you will see this. Marriage speaks of a greater reality and not in one but in many ways. It has built into it the very nature of God's Trinitarian relationship. Our God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit love one another perfectly. It also shows the covenant love that God has for his people in the Old Testament.

And then it uses in the New Testament, the Spirit uses that as an illustration of Christ's love for his church that we've read in Ephesians 5. And through marriage we see how this love that God has for his church is so perfectly shown in the love that Christ has for his church, for his bride, and how the bride, the church willingly and lovingly submits to her husband. But this is not all. There's also the eschatological picture of marriage, the bride of Christ, as we see it then in the book of Revelation. So if you want to understand this, then we will see what is at stake when it comes to how we enter into marriage, how we view marriage, how we treat marriage and how we should protect marriage.

Although we can't say that marriage is necessary for the gospel because salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone, we can however and we must say that marriage is important and it's even crucial as an illustration of the gospel. It starts when we are still single and looking for someone to marry, someone to be a husband or a wife. For a Christian, this is a real testing time. It is difficult. We know that the decisions that we make when we are single and searching for a partner is a decision that's going to last for the rest of our lives because we make a covenant and a promise before God and his people saying that until death do us part.

We know that These decisions are important, they have long-term consequences. So we don't want to mess this up. But it's not easy, is it? If you are in that phase of your life, and I still do remember that part of my life, it's not easy. A lot of emotions, a lot of pressure, a lot of temptations, how flesh is weak, and often draw us away from God's revealed and perfect will for us in the matter, because of all these things that are at play, and it's not easy for a young man or a young woman during that time in their lives.

And yet it's quite exciting time in their lives as well, is it not? So that's why Paul writes to us in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14 the following and this is a verse that I want us all to remember. And I think most of us know it. Paul writes and he says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

Or what fellowship has light with darkness? This is not just a throwaway comment that the apostle Paul makes here. He's not just saying that to spoil your fun or to create some kind of prudish puritanism outside of God's word and God's wolf and God's picture for marriage. When Paul says that, he uses what God says about the union that believers have with Christ to argue that any sexual relations outside of marriage is tantamount to defiling God's holy temple. And even in marriage, when a husband or a wife is an unbeliever married to a believer.

I know this is shocking. Young men and women please in the name of God's holiness, please steer away from this grievous sin. First, young men, pursue your future wife with purity and with honor, thinking of her as an image bearer of the living God. And then young woman, do not give yourself to any man before marriage. You belong to Christ, And He will share you only with one other man, and He must be a husband that also belongs to Him.

This is what God's Word says. Christian man and Christian woman, let me ask you, who are you? Who are you? Aren't you a new creation? Aren't you saved and sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ, by His Holy Spirit?

Aren't you, if you are in Christ, aren't you united to Christ Jesus through his perfect sacrifice for you? You've been bought with a price. Think therefore upon his purity. Think about His majesty. Think about His perfect holiness when you consider who you're going to get married to.

Have His holy presence in mind and then consider the relationships that you are in. If that person is not saved, if that person is not united with Christ, then he or she is still in a state of unrighteousness. They are impure, they are like darkness. As a matter of fact, they are unholy, they are defiled by their sin and not even able to stand in the presence of God while you can. They are the exact opposite of Christ Jesus.

So how can you, who are united with the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing His holiness, how can you go and take that which is unrighteous, unholy and unite that with Christ? You see what Paul is saying? He doesn't just want to spoil fun, He's speaking about the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not fall for this temptation. Does this take away some of your options?

It most certainly does. It certainly does. But if you do marry someone who is in Christ, if you find that man or that woman who loves the Lord Jesus with all their heart, God will bring you together and it will be one of the most beautiful and most wonderful things that there can be, as we shall see, because it represents true marriage. Wait and see and experience the joy of what God has prepared for you in having a spouse who is also united with Christ. He will draw, she will draw you closer to Christ Jesus as you then both walk together in grace and obedience of his.

Let me just make one more comment on this before we go on. You know we spoke about the duty of parents to raise their children in the ways of God. If you, and I'm speaking to that young person, if you plan to one day love your children, I know you do, listen carefully, if you would love to love your children properly, then would you, knowing how precious their souls are, want them to grow up with one parent who will never pray for them. One parent who will never read the Holy Scriptures for them. One parent who will not sit next to them in church.

One parent that might actually be so anti-God that they will teach your child not to love Christ. Can you see the consequences? Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness or fellowship of light and darkness it has none so therefore again we can speak to those to whom that applies But now I want to ask you again as a church please pray for our young people. Pray for them. It's not an easy place to be if you still remember if you're older and if you're younger you're not there yet.

Pray! Pray that God will provide for you that person whom he has chosen in himself so that you can have a relationship, a marriage relationship that glorifies him. Okay, let's look at marriage now. As I said, in a biblical theology way, we will see how it is being introduced to us here in Genesis, and then we will also look at its spiritual significance as it's then widened in the Old Testament, and then finally we will end up in Christ Jesus in this world and the world to come. So we've got a journey ahead of us, but I'm promising you it will be a good one.

Marriage as it is instituted we find in Genesis. We already saw that God created man, he created them male and female, and then told them to multiply and to fill the earth and to have dominion over all the living creatures. It's only within God's design of man being male and female that God's purpose for them to fill the earth can be physically fulfilled. Now as we know the two, male and female, must come together to multiply. They had to become one flesh and that is what we see here in Genesis chapter 2.

Now what we also see is that this union is a monogamous union. It's not polygamy. Genesis chapter 2 verse 23, we read, Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She, not them, not they, she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, not his wives, and they shall become one flesh." Why was it not to be a polygamous union or one of many unions?

Because it was to communicate something far beyond the physical union between a husband and a wife. It communicates God's nature. There is an inseparable eternal union between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And that is seen in how God created man and woman in his image together. There is an inseparable monogamous union between God and his elect, his people.

There is an inseparable monogamous union between God and his elect in the world to come as we shall see God doesn't share us with anyone and we should most certainly not share God with anyone So let me take you through a little journey then with the time that we have left and I pray that this will sketch for you the picture that we have here in Scripture of what marriage transmits to us. Because it is amazing. It truly is amazing. May I ask you just to set you up for this. I want you to zoom out as it were and to forget about your marriages for a second.

Alright. The application will be there but just forget about your own marriages, just for a second. And think about what God is communicating through marriage as an institution. That's where we want to go. So First of all, marriage in its beauty and enjoyment.

We will look at Song of Songs this morning. Then we will look at marriage in its worst form. So we will go to several passages, Hosea, Ezekiel 16 if you want, and Jeremiah 2-5. And then we will see marriage in its best form, that's Ephesians 5. And then we will see marriage in its best form.

That's Ephesians chapter 5. And then we will see marriage in its perfect form. And that's the end of the world. Marriage in its beauty and enjoyment. All right, Song of Songs.

Never preached on that. Probably too uncomfortable for me to do that, but you can go and read it. It's a beautiful, beautiful book. Because marriage is described as something beautiful. And it engages all our emotions.

Our emotions when they're up there and our emotions when they're down here. We have an eight chapter love song in the Bible and it is full of descriptions that we really do find uncomfortable to read in public But what he does though it tells for us the story of the love between a man and a woman as God has intended it to be It's full of descriptions of one another that you will do well not to use today. Let me read for you, I know it sounds comical, but if you're a young man and you just found someone that you like, Go to Song of Songs chapter 1 verse 9 and read it out to her and say, I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. You're a horse. Song of Songs 4 verse 2, Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bears twins.

That's good to know, no gaps. And not one among them has lost such young. Can you imagine a young man finding that girl that you're lying and say, please open your mouth. I just want to see if all the teeth are there. But it also speaks of a beautiful and a most precious truth That is the truth of marriage.

There's this phrase that we find in the Song of Songs that says, my beloved is mine and I am his. My beloved is mine and I am his. So put this together and we learn that the pursuit of marriage and then marriage itself is exciting, it's full of joy, it's mixed with anxiety, moments of happiness, moments of longing, moments of sadness, and it all comes together in that union that God has designed for it, but at the end when the two become one, the bride can say what? My beloved is mine and I am his. But marriage can also be terribly painful when it is not engaged in according to God's design.

So that's the second point, marriage in its worst form. The Old Testament often uses the analogy of marriage to describe the broken relationship between Israel and God. I won't say much about it, but what I want to do is I will read to you these passages, and some of them are long, so please keep up with me. And I want you, as I read them, to think about a husband who's maybe been married for three or five years, to the love of his life. And the way in which the Bible describes it in these prophets is that the wife has turned away from her husband, she has found for herself other men, and we see the relationship between the husband and his bride broken.

And the Lord uses that to speak about the broken relationship between him and his people. So put yourself there for a moment and let's read this. Jeremiah, in Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 1, we read, The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not sown. Go on to verse 23, how can you say I'm not unclean?

I'm not gone after the bales. Look at your way in the valley. Know what you have done. A restless young camel running here and there, a wild donkey, used to the wilderness in her heat sniffing the wind, who could restrain her lust. None who seek her need weary themselves.

In her month they will find her. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 1, if a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Will not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers and would you now return to me?" declares the Lord. Verse 6, the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, Have you seen what she did?

That faithless one, Israel? How she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, after she has done all this, She will return to me. But she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah, she saw that, and she did the same. Verse 9, because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.

Uzziah, if you want to turn there, otherwise just listen. Isaiah chapter 2, in verse 2. Plead with your mother, plead, for she's not my wife and I'm not her husband. That she put away her whoring from her face, And her adultery from between her breasts. Lest I strip her naked, and make her as in the day she was born, And make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom, for their mother has played the war. She who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. Verse 14, therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. That's the husband calling out, come back. Verse 15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of Achor, the door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband, and no longer will you call me my Baal. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord." Isaiah chapter 3 verse 1 to 3, and the Lord said to me go again love a woman who is loved by another man, and he is an adulteress, speaking of his own wife, a woman who is loved by another man.

Even as The Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes and raisins. So I bought her with fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a latheks of barley. And I said to her, You must dwell as mine for many days. Who shall not play the war or belong to another man? So I will also be to you." Can you see what's going on here?

A loving husband who loves his wife and in the beginning it's all fine. The days of youth and when you were still a bride, we were so in love until you've turned away from me. And now the Prophet is using this example to say that God's people are acting like that. Oh how Adam's race has fallen. Even when God after the fall extended grace and mercy to mankind, betrothing himself to them, caring for them like a good husband would care for his wife, she did not answer his love.

She rejected his love. She took what she could get and then she decided I'm going to go after another husband. She went after another man, breaking that monogamous relationship between her husband, that relationship that was supposed to be pure and holy. You see? The imagery that is portrayed in marriage becomes very stark when we take it down to our own lives.

What does it look like? Fornication and adultery are so abhorrent because it's a slap in the face of God's sacrificial love towards his people. That's why marriage needs to be honored. When a Christian man or a woman pursue a relationship with an unbeliever, it presents the same sinful attitude. You cannot serve or bow yourself before bail and say at the same time, I love and bow myself before God.

This is what all mankind is doing. They bow before false gods. We're all created in God's image and designed to bow only before Him in worship. And yet sinners turn so quickly from their Creator God and they find union with the world and Satan and false gods. When you read Hosea again and Jeremiah and I didn't read Ezekiel but you can do that at home Ezekiel 16 you will notice that God despite the unfaithfulness of his bride will call her back why Because he is the loving sacrificial husband who is going to love his bride.

And the story of marriage develops further as we shall see now when he actually unites his bride with himself. So we looked at marriage in his beauty and enjoyment in Song of Songs. We looked at marriage now at its worst when one partner is not keeping their marriage union holy and pure in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Now I want us to look at marriage at its best. That's in Ephesians chapter 5.

I don't know how many times I've preached from this passage. I think almost every wedding I will go to Ephesians 5 and very often the people who get married ask me to go there. We find here the duties that husbands have to love their wives and the duty that wives have to submit to their husbands. But because we are children of the 21st century, that doesn't apply to us, does it? That's how we see the world today.

We look at this and we frown. How can a wife be expected to submit to her husband? That's outdated, we pass that. And again, one can probably understand why the world will think so, but the church should not. I understand why the world thinks like that.

Is there abuse in marriages? Is there? Of course there are. Sadly there is. So it is therefore then reasonable, if you think like the world, to expect from a wife to submit to her husband.

No, it's not reasonable if there's abuse. Are they disruptive wives in marriages? Of course there is. Is it then unreasonable to expect the husband to love her? Well, from a worldly point of view, yes, it's unreasonable.

So in a world view, with no place for God, one can understand that the concepts of love and submission as it is put forward for us here in Ephesians are completely out of touch with modern man's idea of what marriage relationship should be. Of course, as a matter of fact, let's just get rid of marriage altogether. Who needs it? Let's destroy this very institution that God has placed for us in Eden to communicate greater truths than the actual marriage and just Let us just demolish marriage altogether. Sleep around, don't get married at all, just live together.

Don't be faithful when you are married. Have an open marriage. Make marriage between two men or two women. Just live it out as your fleshly desires desire. But I said this part of my sermon will focus on marriage in its best form, so let's get there.

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. Verse 32 says this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and his church. In the Bible we have types and anti-types, or we have analogies that are used. Usually the type is the picture of the anti-type, so the anti-type is the reality. We often go to this passage and we say, well, the type is Jesus and the anti-type is marriage.

It's as if marriage is more important than Christ. It's not what it says, It's the other way around. As much as we preach this during a wedding ceremony, it is not only about Mr. So and Mrs. So, who are going to be called Mrs.

And Mr. The same surname at the end. It's not about them only. It is about the greater picture. This is what Paul says, this is a profound mystery, because it relates to Christ's love for his church.

God intends for husbands to love their wives because marriage always intended to point to the greater husband from the beginning, from Genesis. Jesus Christ is united with his church. His union with his bride is being manifested in how he loves her. He gave himself for her, he sanctified her, he cleansed her, he washed her, And he sacrificed himself for her. The wife on the other hand, what does she need to do?

Well, she needs to submit to her husband as unto the Lord. So wives, as you submit to your husband, you're not only submitting to that ugly man who's next to you. No, you are submitting to the Lord. Our marriages should be lived in the physical realm of this world, but it must transcend our earthly thinking. When you are married today, I want to ask you to think about your marriage, not purely on the horizontal level this morning, but think about what it represents.

Husbands should not only love their wives because of a song of song experience and the wonder that it might be, you know, the emotions and the physical attraction. He must love his wife because in loving her, he proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same is true for wives. You are not only submitting to your husband because Song of Song says, his eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a pool. Oh, I love his blue eyes.

His legs are alabaster columns set on bases of gold. Did you see his calves? His appearance is like Lebanon. Choose the choice of the cedars. Is that what marriage is about?

No. You submit because in doing so, you, dear wives, are demonstrating the undoing of Eve's defiance against God. You are seeking union with your husband because God made him the head. She is submitting because in submitting to him, she proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what is the gospel?

The Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God saves sinners. He loves them with a sacrificial love that sanctifies her and cleanses her. He unites her with himself, marriage, by covering her with his blood, and now she can say this, my beloved is mine and I am his. Can you say that about Christ Jesus this morning? Can you say that you are united with Him?

Can you say that He is my beloved and I am His? Because this is what marriage is supposed to point to. But if you listen carefully, You would have noticed that I titled this part, marriage is in its best form. My final point is, marriage in its perfection. Let me ask you, how is your marriage relationship this morning?

Don't answer. We don't want that in the public, do we? Of course, it's not always easy. Let's be honest. Why is it not easy?

It's because my dear wife has married a sinner. And I have done the same. We are sinners, we are still going to struggle and as a husband wanting to love my wife I will not be able to love her as Christ loves this church. I will strive to do it, I would have moments of sacrificial love and then I would have many moments of selfish indulgence in my own flesh. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Can you relate? Wives who so desperately want to be those who submit to their husbands as unto Christ? How easy do you find that to do? Let's take the profound mystery therefore that Paul spoke about in Ephesians. He says this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church.

Because if you are the Church this morning, then this analogy leads us to see ourselves, all of us, as the wife of our one husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. So let me ask this question, church, how submissive are we to our Lord and our husband? How well are we doing as a church? Now I love Shaw Baptist Church, I mean of all the churches in the world this is where I want to be. Seriously.

But I know things about myself and about many of you that makes me think that this is not it yet. We struggle to submit completely, wholeheartedly to the will of God. As the bride of Christ, our church is not perfect. And if you've been here for any length of time, you would say Amen to that. How submissive are we to Christ?

So is the perfect, wonderful picture of marriage already fulfilled? We are there. It's the best you could get because of the union we have with Christ. But we're still in the flesh. We're still on this side.

As good and wonderful as the gospel is, it will only be fully enjoyed once we are relieved from this body of death, as Paul says. Now, Let's go to the marriage in its perfection. Revelation 19, we have this beautiful picture in verse 7-8. He says, "'Let us rejoice and exult and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And then chapter 21, 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, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride at dawn 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 they be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have gone away." All that pain and crying in your own marriages, it'll be gone, Because this is the imperfect picture of the perfect that awaits for every believer who is in Christ Jesus. That one day you will be in his holy presence. Let's go back. In the beginning God said, I created male and female, and they shall become one. And in that oneness, it lasted for, I don't know how long, until Eve rebelled and managed to get Adam to give away his headship.

Just like that. And since then, it has been a struggle. It's been a struggle. And we see it replicated through the relationships that God has with his people in a covenant relationship. Be my bride.

I will give myself to you. I will protect you. I will care for you. I will provide for you. And they go on and they find the bowels and false gods and other things to worship and we have pictures of yes is going well, My beloved is mine and I am his.

And yet very soon we find her there wondering where is my husband? Where is my beloved? Why hasn't he come to me? Anxiety. And then we are here in our marriages.

How easy is that? It's not easy. Even with the best intentions, we fail. We're not for the grace of God. Why?

Because it's grace. It's grace. What we see instituted in Genesis will be reinstituted in the new heaven and the new earth, but with a difference. All of God's people will be in his holy presence, and we will be in His presence alongside our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will point to her and say, this is my beloved bride whom I died for, I cleansed her, I sanctified her.

And he will point to her and say she is mine and I am hers. Isn't that something that I think should encourage us in our marriages? We will enjoy perfect union with Christ. His love will just overwhelm us. Our devotion and our submission to Him will flow unhindered, because there will be no sin.

You see how important it is then for us to understand God's world, to know that you live in His world, and then to live in humble submission to His will for you, because if you do, if you understand this, you will know that there is great blessings in this world and most certainly in the world to come Brothers and sisters is one thing that I cannot wait to say and we can say it even today We can say my beloved is mine, and I am he's Can you say that this morning? Can you say that Jesus, you are my beloved? I am yours completely, and you are mine. Think about that. Now we say that in faith.

Can you imagine that moment when we turn from this world to the one to come and without any sin, any hindrance, Any fleshly desires counter to His glory, you will stand there in front of Him, and you would look and you would say, and can it be? Can it be that He would love me so much to unite me with Him for all eternity? I am his and he's mine. Man, I cannot wait. Can you?

Well, we should. Until he returns or take us home. We live now in faith. So let our marriages reflect that. Don't struggle with the little things that are so difficult and and oh man work through those things of course forgive and love and be patient all those things we know but I think the saving thing for our marriages is look to the Lord Jesus Christ and think what is at stake.

And if you are dating an unbeliever, I'm going to tell you straight from the pulpit, from the Word of God, stop it. Stop it. Do not unite our holy Lord Jesus Christ with something that is not holy. Pray for them. We pray that they will all be saved.

We pray that they will all come to Christ and then pursue that. But until then, do not unite unrighteousness with righteousness. That which is holy to that which is defiled. We cannot do that. Is that harsh?

You bet it is. But Christ's holy name is at stake. Amen.