How Jesus Gets a Bride

Introduction: The Marriage of Christ and His Church in Ephesians 5

0:03 Now, I understand from my interaction with your pastors, for I do keep in constant touch with them, that in recent weeks you've had a couple of weddings, to one degree or another, have occurred in this place, and I would be very surprised if in conjunction with those weddings that Ephesians chapter 5 was not read, and if not only read, at least briefly expounded. And I want you to turn with me tonight to that passage in the Word of God, and my purpose will become plain in a few minutes,

0:42 but I want to begin by reading the familiar words of Ephesians chapter 5, beginning at verse 22.

0:55 Wives, be in subjection unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the house. The wife, as Christ also is, the head of the church, being himself the Savior of the body. But, as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything.

1:27 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave his life for the sake of the church. And gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so, ought husbands also to love their wives, as their own wives, as their own bodies. He that loves his own wife loves himself.

2:12 For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church, because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.

2:48 Nevertheless, do ye also severally love each one his own wife, even as himself. And let the wife see that she fear or reverence her husband. Now we're going to...

3:07 We're going to come to this passage tonight not to consider primarily the human relationship of a husband and a wife, but we're going to look at the passage in order to discover together how Jesus gets a bride.

3:27 How Jesus gets a bride. Because in a very real sense, the scriptures tell us that the...

3:38 That rescue mission of Christ, his mission to seek and to save sinners, is really a mission in which Christ is seeking for himself a bride. He is the bridegroom, and he calls out of the mass of lost and hell-deserving humanity, a vast multitude whom no man can number, out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation, and he constitutes them his bride. And so we want to come to this passage in order to see what it tells us

4:20 about what Christ does in order to get to himself a bride. Now, two relationships are obviously addressed in this passage. The addressing of Paul to real husbands, and real wives, is very clear. If you count the number of times the word husbands, or husbands singular, wife or wives are used, there are nine explicit references to the wife or to wives.

4:55 There are six explicit references to husband, or husbands plural. So, if you desire to know something about the will of God for you as a husband, here's where you're...

5:09 You want to know the will of God for you as a wife? Here's where you park. God is explicitly addressing real husbands and real wives in real marriages, and telling them that their relationship is to take all of its contours, and all of its shape, from fundamental gospel realities. In other words, the gospel is to shape, shape your life as a husband, and the gospel is to shape your life as a wife.

5:45 But then there is another relationship equally patent in this passage, and it's the relationship of Christ and his church. The word the Lord, or Christ, is used no fewer than six times, and the word church is used no fewer than six times. And though Paul has been addressing husbands and wives, by the time he gets to verse 32, it's almost like he acknowledges, by the way, I've changed my subject from husbands and wives to Christ and his church. Look at verse 32.

6:22 This mystery is great. That is the mystery of a man leaving father and mother, joined to his wife, the two become one flesh. This mystery is great, but in regard of Christ and of his church. Well, I thought you were speaking in regard of husbands and wives.

6:43 Paul says, I was. But I'm also speaking with equal authority of Christ and of his church. So not only in this passage are we given directives for a God-honoring, Christ-exalting, gospel-illustrating and fulfilling marital relationship, but we are given a wonderful picture of what a true, true Christian is. A Christian is someone who's been incorporated into the bride of Christ.

7:18 A Christian is one united to Jesus Christ. As a wife is united to her husband, we become united to Christ. And so we're going to park on the passage and discover together three things that answer the question, how does Jesus get a bride? And I want us to study it, not for mere detached academic interest, but study it with this end in view.

7:51 Do I have biblical grounds to believe that I am part of the bride of Christ? For if I'm not, I'm a lost sinner under the wrath of Almighty God, sitting here tonight, you are either united to Christ and part of His bride, or you're yet in Adam, a child of wrath and under the judgment of Almighty God. So let's take up our study. How does Christ get a bride?

First: Christ Woos and Wins His Bride by His Sacrificial Death

8:27 Well, the first thing we learn from the passage is this. Christ woos and wins His bride by bringing her to trust and trust, in His sacrificial death on her behalf. Christ does not win His bride by performing deeds of heroism. He wins His bride by laying down His life as a sacrificial victim on her behalf.

9:02 Look at the text of Scripture, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for it and squeezed into those words loved and gave Himself up for it is the full rich doctrine of Christ's substitutionary sacrificial death under the wrath of God, on behalf of His people. He loved the church

9:43 when it yet lay under the wrath and the curse of God. When that which comprises His bride was yet in union with our first father, Adam, Christ loved the church. And I shall never forget when some months ago I read this statement. If we, if we are in Christ, we have been loved as long as God has been God.

10:20 How long has God been God? From everlasting to everlasting you are God. No wonder the prophet could say you have loved us with an everlasting love. As long as God has been God in the mystery, of the trinity of His being, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, His heart has gone out in love to that which would constitute the bride of Christ.

10:55 Christ loved the church and in His love for that church He gave Himself up for it. In the language of Romans 8.32, speaking of the Father, He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. The Father delivered Him up to the hands of wicked men.

11:24 The Father delivered Him up to the powers of darkness. The Father delivered Him up to His own pure and righteous and holy wrath, so that Paul can write, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being, being made a curse for us. Christ in His infinite eternal love embraces His unique position as the only appointed substitute and sacrifice for sinners and He gives Himself up for us. The Father gives Him over.

12:05 The Son gives Himself over. So the same apostle can write in Galatians, 2.20, the Son of God who loved me and what? Gave Himself up for me.

12:22 And when Christ is going forth to get a bride, how does He woo and win that bride? He does so by revealing through the Word and by the Spirit that in His own death is the only hope, hope for guilty, hell-deserving sinners. And that by His triumphant resurrection, God has forever validated that He has paid the price for sinners and that in Jesus Christ there is full and free forgiveness. And the wooing power of Christ

13:05 is the wooing power of His cross. The Lord Jesus tells us that in John chapter 12. Turn there for a moment.

13:17 John chapter 12.

13:27 And notice verse 32. We can back up to verse 31. Our Lord is speaking. Now is the judgment of this world.

13:37 Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Our Lord is conscious on the eve of His crucifixion. He's going to engage the powers of darkness in some form of hand-to-hand combat. And the prince of this world will be cast out.

13:55 Now notice. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself. Often this text is used and we pray, Lord bless the preacher as he lifts up Christ and draw men. That's a good prayer, but that's not what this verse is talking about.

14:16 Look what follows. I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw, all men unto Myself. But this He said, signifying by what manner of death He should die. It was in Christ lifted up upon the cross in the horrible mystery of forsakenness when God blackens the heavens in those dark hours from the third to the sixth, from the sixth to the ninth hour.

14:50 And toward the end, toward the end of which our Lord cries out in that mysterious cry, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me? And it is in the giving up of Himself to be the sacrificial Lamb on behalf of His bride, His bride that lay under the wrath and curse of God and standing in their room instead, He absorbs, throws into Himself all of the fierceness of the unleashed fury of the wrath of God and being lifted up. It is in His cross

15:33 that there is the power of His wooing and winning His bride. If I be lifted up, He will draw unto Me. And this is why when we turn to the New Testament, the Gospel, which is the power of God, unto salvation, Romans 1.16, it has a synonym in Romans 1.18.

16:01 It's called the Word of the Cross. And the Apostle goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 1, it is in the preaching of Christ crucified, that message which is offensive to the Jew and a stumbling block to the Greek, but he says, this Christ has crucified becomes the power and the wisdom of God to all who when God is working to bring people into that body called His bride, it is the proclamation of Christ crucified.

16:43 This is why the Apostle coming to Corinth said, I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him as crucified because He was out to the enterprise of gathering Christ's bride and He knew that Christ woos and He wins by the power of His sacrificial death. It is when the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word of God opens our eyes to see that Jesus crucified for sinners is just exactly the kind of Savior I need

17:28 and that there is no cause in me for God. To forgive me and accept me and turn away His wrath, all of the cause is in Christ. Our hearts go out in trust and confidence in His sacrificial death on our behalf incorporated into that who wins His bride, bringing her to trust. Sacrificial death.

18:11 Has that happened to you? Has the priest become the very instrument of divine power to loose you from your attachment to your self-righteousness, your attachment to I'll make it on my own religion? Has it loosed you that you can build to heaven with the runs of your own efforts and have you come saying in the language of the hymn writer nothing, nothing I bring simply foul

18:54 to the fountains and fly wash me, Savior.

19:12 Sacrificial death.

19:16 That message has not wooed you and won you and brought you into a love relationship with Christ. You're lost as the do you face it the better?

Second: Christ Secures the Voluntary Submission of His Bride by Sovereign Power

19:37 It won you. Brought you into a trusting love relationship with Jesus. But then secondly, Christ secures the voluntary submission of His bride He not only woos and wins her by bringing her to trust in His sacrificial death, Christ secures the voluntary submission of His bride by an act of sovereign power. Look at verses 23 and 24 of Ephesians chapter 5.

20:21 For the husband is the head of the wife now notice as Christ Christ of the wife. The church the Savior of the body but the church subject to be to their husbands and everything. These two texts make it unstakably clear that everyone who belongs to Christ's church

21:05 in reality and remember the church is His bride that He's out to woo and to win the text says the church is subject to the church to get subject to Christ. You will who is incorporated into it by the mighty working of the Holy Spirit is brought to voluntarily cheerfully submit to Jesus Christ and in the text

21:49 the church gets subject to Christ collectively when every individual brought into that church is brought in goes out to win a bride. He's not going to have a contentious rebellion He's not going to be rebellious self-willed when He goes out to get a bride. He woos her and wins her to trust in His sacrificial death and by the power of His Spirit He secures her voluntary submission and act. Notice again wherever He is

22:33 Savior verse 23 He is also Head wherever He's Head He's Savior look at the language as Christ is the Head He is also Head of the church being Himself the Savior of the body where He is Head another text in the Bible to smash this notion you can trust Christ and His sacrificial death and be ready to go to Heaven but not submit to Christ as Lord

23:17 and therefore not be ready to live this text alone smashes it where He's Savior He is Head and He's Savior now how does that come to pass if we know anything of our Bibles we know it doesn't come to pass because we flip some switch in ourselves the Bible's picture our native condition in relationship to the government and authority of God and Christ is not a pretty one like sheep on the stray one of us

23:58 to what His own own thing in the language of Scripture says in Romans 8 7 the carnal mind that is the mindset with which you were born and I was born devoid of the Holy Spirit the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not

24:43 subject to the law of God my kids were young and they'd come up and say Daddy can I do this I'd say yes you look like you have the physical ability and they'd start to run up but where are you going? to do that? I said no no you said can I? and I said yes you seem to have the ability oh you know what I mean Dad may I?

25:12 I said well then use the right word can and may mean two different things and when the Scripture says the carnal mind it is not subject to the law neither indeed key it means there is nothing within the carnal mind itself that can change its disposition of rebellion that's our state 2 Corinthians 5 15 and they that live should no longer live unto themselves but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again we want to be our own head our own master our own Lord

25:57 Christ is out to get a bride what does he do? he not only woos and he wins out of the mass of lost helpless hell deserving humanity of people who come to see the beauty of his sacrificial death on their but the Holy Spirit subdues that native rebellion brings them into fellowship with Christ's death burial and resurrection in such a way that they die to the dominion of sin they die to a self wealth governing life the Scripture makes it abundantly

26:41 clear that when Christ wins people to himself to make them part of his bride he secures their voluntary submission to his government by an act of sovereign power where is that clearly taught in the Scripture well you remember on the eve of the Lord's death he instituted the Lord's supper and he said this is the new covenant in my blood shed my blood to effect and bring to pass the blessings promised in the new covenant and what are they

27:26 let's turn to Ezekiel 36 just briefly to see one of the central blessings of the new covenant Ezekiel chapter 36 look at verses 26 and 27 a new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within

28:11 you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my ordinance ordinances and do them I will give you a powerful internal delight in obeying me I will give you an inclination to walk in my statutes I will give you a powerful internal delight in obeying me I will give you an

28:55 inclination to plant your feet in my precepts I will give you a delight in following me yes there still will be remaining sin and there will be a wily devil in a seductive world but if I have given you the blessings of the Lord I will give you a powerful internal delight in obeying

29:40 me I will give you an inclination to walk in my statutes I will give you an inclination in obeying me yes there still will be remaining sin in my precepts I will give you a delight in following me yes there still

30:25 will be remaining sin in my statutes I will give you a delight in obeying me yes there still will be a delight in obeying me I will give you a sweet blessing in my statutes I will give you a sweet blessing in my statutes I will give you an

31:04 inclination in my statutes in my obeyitions that word in my statutes in my statutes and me there will times

31:48 be well good sí and God is person and ality and aspect to him as the church is subject to Christ. He is head savior. And if he's not your head, he's not your savior. But then thirdly, when Christ is out to get a bride, he not only woos and wins his bride by bringing her to trust in his sacrificial death, he not only secures the voluntary submission of his bride

Third: Christ Makes His Bride Suitable for Marriage by Making Her Holy

32:32 by an act of sovereign power, but look at our passage. Christ makes his bride suitable for marriage to himself by making his bride holy like himself.

32:51 You got that? Christ makes his bride suitable for marriage to himself by making her holy like himself. Look at the passage again. Verse 25.

33:07 Husbands, love your wives. Even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it. Now notice, three that's. In order that.

33:19 Why did he give up himself for the church? The emphasis here falls not upon his death, turning away the wrath of God. His propitiation for sin, turning away the wrath of God. That's taught in many places, but it's not the emphasis here. Christ

33:39 gave himself up for it. To what end? In order that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word. In order that he might present the church, his bride, to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but in order that it should be holy and without blemish.

34:11 Look at those words. In order that he might sanctify, cleanse, wash, present it to himself without spot or blemish. Think for a moment. What was the condition of his bride when he loved her and gave himself for her?

34:33 She was besmirched, defiled, filthy, unfit to be his bride. If ever there would be an unequal yoke, it's the Holy Son of God uniting himself to the likes of you and me.

34:52 God says to us, be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship hath light with darkness? A temple of God with idols? Think of it. How can

35:03 Christ take us into this intimate love relationship as his bride when we are defiled, and filthy, and besmirched with our sins? Because he died to do something about that condition. He gave himself up for us to sanctify, to cleanse, to wash, and when he's done, what will we look like? Look at the passage.

35:37 That it should be holy and without blemish, no spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Where did those words occur earlier in the epistle? Well, look at chapter 1 in verse 4. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him. He chose

36:06 us with the intention that when he was done his work for us and in us, we would be nothing less than replicas of the moral perfection of Jesus. For whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. So when we come in Revelation 19 to that picture of the marriage supper of the Lamb, there the Lord has a bride that he can enter in to the consummate delight of his spiritual intimacy with them because they have

36:51 been made just like him. Beloved now are we the sons of God that it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Now listen carefully. Though God completes that work when he gives us resurrected bodies, and if we pass through the door of death, we will join the company of the spirits of just men made perfect. But listen to me

37:28 carefully. When God is preparing that bride for his Son, that will look perfectly like his Son at the marriage supper of the Lamb, he doesn't wait to begin the work when they die.

37:44 He starts it when he saves them. So that in every genuine work of grace, the dominion of sin is broken and the heart of the truly converted man or woman, boy or girl, is set upon being holy as he is holy. And when the dominion of sin is broken and we are put as it were into the narrow way of gospel holiness, we then progress in the pursuit of that way as you heard so clearly and biblically in recent days in that four message series on sanctification. And

38:27 with those who are in the way, God promises that he will complete the work for many of us, half of it, when our spirits pass into his presence through the door of death. The other half, when the Lord returns and raises our bodies and gives us bodies like unto the body of his glory. I want you to turn to Romans 6 and verse 22 to show how all of this is compacted into one verse.

39:00 One verse. Romans 6 and verse 22. But now, speaking to Roman Christians, having been made free from sin and become slaves to God. That's a description of their conversion.

39:23 He says, when you were converted, you were made free from the dominion of sin. You were made free from the willful, deliberate servitude to sin, and you became what? Bond slaves to God. You acknowledge that God owns me. He bought

39:43 me with the blood of his Son. He has every right to govern my thought, my words, my relationships, my entertainment, how I spend my money, where I go, where I don't go. I, I'm a slave of the living God. He says that's true of every true Christian.

40:06 And if you're not a slave of God in Christ, you're not part of the body of Christ. You're still a rebel, standing out in defiance of the living God. But now, if the change is real, look at the text. But now, being made free from sin and become slaves to God, you are having your fruit unto holiness or sanctification.

40:36 The drift and the tenor and the whole pattern of your life is a life unto sanctification. Yes, you still sin. There are days of coldness. There are periods of barrenness. Yes, but the

40:52 overall pattern is what? You are having your fruit unto holiness and the end eternal life. The end eternal life for whom? Those that are having their fruit unto holiness. And the only ones

41:08 that can have their fruit unto holiness are those who've been made free from sin and become the slaves of God. But if you've been made free from sin and become a slave of God, you are having your fruit unto holiness and the end will indeed be eternal life.

41:28 You sit here tonight and you say, oh, yes, I believe I'm part of the bride of Christ. Let me ask you, is there evidence that God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are at work in you making you fit to be part of that bride that will have no spot and no wrinkle or any such thing? You see, one of the marks of being truly converted is God's stamps in your heart when He saves you. A passion to be now what you will be then.

42:13 And that's what's so frustrating because you want to be perfect. You say, if I could only have one day when I didn't sin, that would be heaven on earth. Isn't that true? He stamps you with a passion to be now what you will be then, though He's not promised to give you the grace to be now.

42:36 What He'll make you then. So as old Rabbi Duncan said, nobody's perfect. He says, those words are the pillow of the hypocrite. They are a bed of nails to a true Christian. I'm not perfect,

42:56 but those I want to be. And God giving me grace, I'll strive to be. Trusting Christ, looking constantly for the grace of the Holy Spirit. Christ is gathering a bride to Himself.

43:15 Not of people who are indifferent to the very purpose for which He died. He died in order that He might sanctify and cleanse and wash and present a bride to Himself without spot or wrinkle. If that's not your passion, you're not part of the bride. Face it.

43:43 For the day of judgment will strip you of your shallow profession and your empty notions that you're a Christian.

Summary and Application: Are You Part of Christ's Bride?

43:59 How does Christ get a bride? We've looked at the passage. He gets that bride by wooing her and winning her by opening to the guilty sinner the glory of the meaning of His death. That He, the sinless one, so loved us to lay down His life and to die under the wrath of Almighty God that our sins might be justly pardoned and righteously forgiven.

44:34 And that woos us and draws us to trust in this crucified, risen Savior. But in that drawing, the Holy Spirit does a second thing. He brings us to voluntary submission to our heavenly Bridegroom as the Church is subject to Christ. He is head as well as Savior. And

45:01 then He makes us suitable for marriage to Jesus by beginning to make us like Jesus. And that becomes the passion of our hearts to grow in the knowledge of Christ, in conformity to Christ, in the use of the means that Christ has given to us. I ask you, that's how Christ gets a Bride. Are you a part of that Bride?

45:34 Do you fit the description of those in Ephesians 5 whom the Holy Spirit describes as constituting Christ's Bride? If not, I beg of you, face your true condition. Go to God and cry for mercy. And for the number of you, that I believe have solid grounds to sit here and say, and you've said it as I've preached, O God, that's what you did for me.

46:06 I walked up, down in front of the cross for years, and Christ crucified meant nothing to me. But by your grace, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see my desperate need of that for which Christ's cross was the exact and suitable remedy for my life. Thank you, Jesus, for wooing me by showing me the meaning of your death. And in that wooing, you realized how stupid and how utterly irrational it was to run your own life.

46:42 And you said in principle, Here, Lord, I give myself away. It is all that I can do. And you sit here tonight, gladly owning that Christ is your Master. When you sing 294, I think it is Jesus, Master whose I am. Purchase

47:02 thine alone to be by thy blood, O spotless Lamb. Shed so willingly for me. Let my heart be all thine own. That's where you're at. That's where

47:16 you're at. And your greatest struggle is with your sin and with your dullness and with your waywardness. And you long to be more like Christ, day by day. Take courage, my friend.

47:33 You'll be sitting with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's the people. He's one to Himself. And He's going to keep you.

47:43 He keeps all 76-year-old men. He keeps them by His grace. By His grace. And one day we'll sit down, read it tonight before you go to bed, Revelation 19.

47:56 The marriage supper of the Lamb, not only dressed in robes of imputed righteousness, but it describes the beautiful dress of the saints as their righteous acts. In other words, they were a people pursuing holiness, and they're found at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let's pray. O Father, we thank You for Your Word. O how

48:28 we praise You for the clarity of that Word. Seal it to every heart gathered here tonight. Thank You for helping Your servant. Pray that the last day will reveal that that Word did not return to You void, but prospered in that to which You sent it.

48:49 Hear us. In Jesus' name we plead.