What He Will Do with His Own, Part 4

Introduction: The Third Aspect of Christ's Return for His Own

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, August 5th, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now, if you will, please turn with me in the word of God to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5. I shall read a very brief portion of this chapter, verses 25 through 27. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it, that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,

0:50 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 or without blame. Now again, let us ask God to help us as we meditate together upon the word of God. Our Father, we do thank you for the richness of the hymns we have been able to sing unto you, acknowledging afresh that our only standing in your presence is that which we have in Christ

1:33 and because of Christ. And we pray that as we now turn to that word by which alone we discover such wonderful provisions of grace, that the Holy Spirit who wrote that word through the mind and pen of the Apostle would be present to give us understanding and a felt experience of embracing that word to the profit of our souls and to the praise of our Lord. Lord Jesus Christ, hear us, we plead in his name. Amen.

2:09 While we come tonight to the eleventh message in a series of studies which I have entitled The Return of Christ in New Testament Belief and Experience, and in seeking to open up those major lines of biblical truth concerning the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in power and glory at the end of the age, we are praying, we are presently seeking to gain a firm grasp on those things that will happen to all true believers in connection with the return of the Lord Jesus.

2:49 Thus far we've highlighted three things, forgive my messed up numbering this morning, I said we had considered three and we were taking up the fourth, we had really considered two and we're taking up the third. And what we have highlighted thus far is that at the time, at the coming of Christ, all who are truly in Christ shall be fully conformed to the image of Christ to be forever with Christ. And then secondly, we have seen from the scriptures that all who are in Christ at the coming of Christ shall be brought to the judgment seat of Christ to be openly identified, vindicated, and confessed by Christ

3:32 and to receive the rewards of grace. Amen. From Christ. And then we saw thirdly this morning that at the coming of the Lord Jesus, all who are truly in Christ shall share with Christ in the final judgment executed by Christ upon unbelieving and wicked men and fallen angels.

3:58 Now tonight, as a further meditation upon these matters, and in particular a communion meditation, we shall consider together this third category of blessed prophetic insight as to what Christ will do with his own at his appearing. And it is this. All that are truly in Christ shall at the coming of Christ be brought, I'm sorry, let me stick very closely to my notes, at the return of Christ, all who are truly in Christ shall be presented, to Christ, as the perfected bride of Christ.

4:42 At the return of Christ, all who are truly in Christ shall be presented, to Christ, as the perfected bride of Christ.

The Individuality and Corporate Reality of Salvation

4:57 Under the first heading in which we considered the glorification of every individual saint at the coming of Christ, the focus was indeed upon that individual, individual transformation of each and every one of God's elect that will be perfected in conjunction with Christ's return. The purpose of God in his free, sovereign, electing, foreordaining grace clearly stated in Romans 8.29 is that we would be conformed to the image of his Son. And it is, according to verse 30, when we are ultimately glorified that that purpose of God will be

5:41 realized in our experience. And since God's saving grace must be applied individually and specifically to each and every one who will be glorified at the coming of Christ, it is right, it is biblical, it is proper to think in this category of individuality. Individual believers will be perfected in holiness, body, and spirit at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Scripture points to this individuality as a very crucial issue. Jesus commends that

6:21 individual publican who is shut up in his individual world of consciousness of sin and cries out in the language of Luke 9.18.13, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. This man is oblivious to everything else but the living God, and he has stayed as a sinner before the face of that God. When Paul could say in Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified

6:54 with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. I live in faith. Faith in Christ, until foretime when he takes to God, I am still with the I who rightfully live unto you.

7:19 In the hopeful evidence how Christ died as a God, it is an assertion that there is no end to physical life. This life, he wants to live the life he wants to live the life that it is necessary for. In 1 Corinthians 1, there is some of the main terms that are our thought here. One is what is called pure Motorsport.

7:30 geo.net, on the first slide we were given the word pure Motorsport.geo.net and it writes, "' Рис' jamust estarBoxed'».

7:35 But, there is almost zero practice in it. For example, God's calling this this an end of aquaculture. to the biblical doctrine of salvation. However, however, the Lord Jesus as the appointed mediator did not undertake His task only to secure the salvation of an innumerable company of individuals.

7:55 That He has done, that He is continuing to do, and that He will complete as part of His mission. For John could see in the vision of Revelation 7, 9, and 10 a great multitude whom no man could number out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. But the Lord Jesus did not die simply, wonderfully, to have a vast accumulation of redeemed individuals. According to the passage read in your hearing, the Lord Jesus died in order that He would have an aggregate of redeemed citizens.

Context: Christian Lifestyle and Gospel Incentives in Domestic Life

8:35 Who would all together comprise His one and only bride. His all together lovely and perfected bride. And so for the time that remains tonight, I want us to look together for a few moments at what the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit tells us of this reality in the verses read in your hearing.

9:04 Now let me say a word about the context of this. The context of this whole section begins in chapter 4 in verse 17 in which in the light of all of the privileges of grace conferred upon the people of God the Apostle says this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind. He is calling believers to a lifestyle. The whole concept of the verb to walk put into common parlance current linguistic expression would be lifestyle.

9:43 He is calling the people of God to a radically different lifestyle from the lifestyle of those who live in ignorance and in unbelief. And in the outworking of that call to this alternate radically different lifestyle the Apostle begins to address the domestic dimensions of that lifestyle. That concern in verse 22 of chapter 5. He addresses wives then he addresses husbands in verse 25 then he addresses children in chapter 6 verses 1 to 3 addresses fathers in verse 4 addresses slaves in verse 5 and then addresses masters

10:27 beginning in verse 9. And so the setting of the passage read in your hearing is this burden on the heart of the people of God. The heart of the Apostle that there at Ephesus in this bastion of paganism of idol worship the center of the worship of the goddess Diana that if anyone were to go into the homes of any of these believers they would see immediately that the whole pattern and chemistry the whole ethos all of the dynamics of those homes were radically different from those of the average family there at Ephesus.

11:10 And it is in that setting that the Apostle is giving specific directions to wives to husbands to children to parents to servants and to masters. And in the course of giving those directions as he always does the Apostle is continually bringing to bear gospel realities as determining both the duty of the body of the believer and the motives that ought to spur him to the fulfillment of that duty. In other words the Apostle is confident that the gospel contains within itself powerful incentives both marking out the path

11:54 in which we ought to go and giving us motivation in the course of going in that path. And this section bristles with marvelous gospel realities. Now I say by way of an aside he is not at all embarrassed in that very setting in which his specific concern for the various categories of domestic station in his concern that the will of God be done and in bringing rich gospel truth to bear both as preceptive and motivational stuff it doesn't bother him at all to stick a precept from the decalogue right smack

12:39 in the midst of it. For in chapter 6 in verse 1 he says children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right honor your father and your mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. We learn from that that though the gospel does contain not only preceptive data the great truth of the gospel has much to tell us about what we ought to do and it has much to tell us about why we ought to do it. It is preceptual and motivational there is no incongruity or contradiction with God's moral law

13:23 and if Paul perceived that the gospel were enough both for preceptual and motivational understanding why in the world does he introduce a word from the decalogue? So when people tell you new covenant believers need only truth that grows out of the gospel open up your Bible to this passage and show them that they are wrong that they are dead wrong that they go beyond the apostle who did not have the slightest reservation in a section that literally oozes with stuff drawn from the gospel that is not that he puts

The Central Issue: Husbands Love Your Wives as Christ Loved the Church

14:08 this nugget from the summary of our moral duty found in the decalogue. Well that's the context now what's the central issue in the verses read in your hearing? Well the central issue is set before us in the opening words of verse 25 husbands love your wives here is the gospel imperative laid upon husbands they are to love their wives having told the wives that they are to be in subjection to their husbands you would think that the counterpart of that would be the duty of husbands to govern their wives but there's not

14:52 one shred of one passage in the word of God that ever commands husbands to govern their wives when you find it show it to me that's the way some of you read your Bible as though your prime duty is to prove to the world that you're the boss in your home God doesn't seem to think that he needs to tell husbands I know first Timothy 3 says the requirement for an elder is that he rule well that's a statement of evaluation it's not an imperative it may have inferential imperatival force but I challenge you and some of you men need to go to your Bibles because you really think that is your calling in life to prove you're the big cheese in your home and that your wife

15:36 is submissive to you no your primary duty and mine according to this passage and many others is to love them husbands love your wives that is the central issue however the standard for that love is not left for husbands to determine thank you Lord you've told me to love my wife give me grace to do it God says whoa whoa wait a minute before you leave my presence I want to set before you the standard by which you are to regulate the expressions of your love by which you are to evaluate the quality and the measure of your love and what is the standard look at the text husbands love your wives

16:21 even as the verbal equal sign husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up to the for it and here the standard for a husband's love is nothing less than the love exercised and manifested in Christ loving the church enough to give himself up for her and according to verse 29 in his love to continue to nourish

17:04 and to cherish her for no man ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it even as Christ also the church and there is the humbly lofty standard set before every one of us as husbands love your wives even as with that self sacrificing that giving love willing to lay down its life for its object packed into the words gave himself up to the to what and to whom gave himself up to the hands of wicked and cruel men gave himself

17:49 up to the powers of darkness gave himself up to the wrath of his own holy father the issue that caused him to recoil in Gethsemane was that frightening cup the cup full of the wrath of God against the sins of his people he gave himself up and had once for all given himself up he continues to nourish and to cherish us in all the realism of the ugliness of our remaining sin in all the realism of the perversity of our remaining corruption in all of the things that

18:33 he sees that are yet ugly and grotesque and distorted and deformed in us he never once thinks of putting us away he nourishes and he cherishes us and in the setting forth of Christ's love for the church as the pattern of the love of husbands for their wives the spirit of God has given us one of the most profound insights with respect to the ultimate desire of Christ in giving up himself for us in love and we have one of the richest statements concerning the great redemptive

Christ's Purpose: To Sanctify and Cleanse His Church

19:17 goal of Christ tucked away where he is bringing forth this great truth in conjunction with the practical duty of husbands to love their wives and I want us to unpack that in the time that remains if one can even begin to think of unpacking such a glorious reality note then why Christ gave himself up for the church in the original there are three purpose clauses the little Greek word hinnah introduces a clause of purpose three of them in this passage note the language husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved

20:01 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 Christ gave himself up in order that and what lies the other side of the in order that the first and the second contain independent thoughts the third is an explanation for you linguist

20:45 of the second purpose clause so basically two central units of thought brought together by these three purpose clauses you children what we're doing is this if we could be sent back two thousand years and brought to stand at Golgotha and see what the disciples witnessed from a distance and what Mary and John apparently saw closer at hand and we were to behold the Lord Jesus upon the cross look up at the darkened heavens and see his blood spattered contused bruised and beaten body and we were to say Lord Jesus why are

21:30 you doing this his answer would be I've loved my church and I'm giving myself up for my church but Lord Jesus why in order that and here's the answer it would come to you from the cross of Christ itself here is why Jesus died notice the first one Christ gave himself up for the church that he might set it apart for himself and cleanse it in conjunction with the word and promise of the gospel he gave himself up for it

22:14 in order that he might sanctify it having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word and these two thoughts are joined together they are synchronous they are the workings of God's grace on the threshold of being brought out of a state of wrath into a state of forgiveness out of a state of nature into a state of grace and here we are told that Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church with this end in view that he might sanctify it that is set it apart unto himself but in its native state

22:59 when it was unfit to be set apart unto himself set it apart unto himself having cleansed it with the washing of water in conjunction with the word and I will not burden you in a communion meditation with some of the linguistic and the debate issues of is this a reference to baptism or is it not it is my judgment shared by many competent exegetes that what the apostle is saying by the guidance of the spirit is this Christ loved the church in all of its filthiness in all of its hell deservingness in all of its pollution in all of its ugliness he loved it

23:44 with a view that in dying for it he might set it apart for himself having cleansed it from its guilt and defilement in a radical and fundamental way in the work of converting grace so that when Paul writes to the Corinthians he can say such were some of you having mentioned some of the vilest of sins but you have been washed you have been sanctified you have been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God it is that washing that comes in conjunction with that initial work of grace in which God

24:28 dethrones the reign of sin in which God takes us out of the realm of wrath and bondage to sin and to the devil and we are translated into the kingdom of his own dear son and Christ died in order that the church that he loved in all of its unloveliness would be set apart unto him sanctified having cleansed it with the washing of water in conjunction with the word the word and promise of the gospel some see in this an allusion to what you heard several Lord's days ago from Ezekiel chapter 16 you remember when God

25:13 likens his covenant relationship to Israel to that of a husband a husband who set his love upon his bride when she was a disgusting unwashed babe thrown in a ditch there the imagery is beautiful of God washes her and cleanses her and then prior to the marriage there was a tradition in Israel of the bridal bath in which the bride who was in reality a virgin takes a bath that symbolizes her being presented to her husband in the purity of her virginity it could be that the apostle has that in mind but this much is clear

25:58 Christ died to have a church that was set apart to himself having cleansed it in conjunction with the word that word which sets forth Christ and the virtue of his blood as the only way for sinners to be cleansed in the sight of God but thou noticed the second purpose clause and let's just skip over the first to get the feeling of how central it is Christ loved the church gave himself up for it in order that verse 27 he might present the church to himself a glorious church not having

Christ's Purpose: To Present a Glorious, Spotless, Blameless Bride

26:42 spot or wrinkle or any such thing and the third purpose clause notice follows on the second as explanatory of it in a positive way but that it should be holy and without blemish so not only do we learn from this passage that if we ask the Lord Jesus why are you dying he answers I'm dying in love for my church that I might set it apart for myself having cleansed it in conjunction with the word and promise of the gospel Lord Jesus any other purpose in view ah yes the Lord says Christ gave himself for the

27:27 church in order to present it to himself as a pure bride in glorious splendor he loved the church gave himself up for it in order that he might present the church to himself a glorious church and what does glorious mean not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blame Christ gave himself for the church in order to present it to himself as a pure bride in glorious splendor in the original

28:12 the use of a personal pronoun that's not needed in Greek grammar the subject is bound up in the form of the verb and when you want to emphasize that he she they or it did it you use a pronoun and what is in the original here is Christ himself he gave himself in love gave himself up in order that he himself might present the church and then you have the reflexive pronoun unto himself a glorious church he died that he himself might present the church to himself

28:57 in a state that is worthy of our pure and spotless heavenly bride and what will she look like when his redemptive purpose comes to its culmination Paul uses this word that he might present the church to himself glorious glorious what is glory glory is the outshining of the perfections of God where God manifests himself in a concentrated display of who he is and what he is that's called the glory of God the heavens declare the glory of God God's glory

29:41 is the outshining of his perfections and when Christ's purpose in his death is fully realized in the church for whom he died only one word will describe it the church in that condition glorious glorious everything about the church will bespeak the wonders and the perfections of God God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit what will she look like in the moment of her presentation by Christ to himself glorious glorious and what will that mean in specifics well

30:26 look at the text there will be no spots now that word spots could refer to blemishes on the skin or it could refer to blemishes in the garment and there is not enough use of this word in the New Testament or even in secular literature to come down linguistically and philologically with any dogmatism but this we know no spots if the spots mean ugly disformed spots upon the face or the hands or if it means spots upon the garment that would be unbefitting the glorious bridegroom when it says he shall himself

31:11 present the church to himself glorious that means no spots no imperfections no blemishes upon her face or upon her garments and then it says no wrinkles you women remember the first time you discovered your crow's feet and you said oh father times beginning to crack me down your skin began to lose some of that fresh youthful look and the crow's feet came in some of us had deep wrinkles in our brow when we were still teenagers my old Swedish grandmother used to say to me Albert the wrinkled brow bespeaks the serious mind

31:56 never forgotten her saying that there they are deep wrinkles furrows and no matter what kind of facial cream you use and if you believe the nonsense that some of the so-called natural food products people push you can get rid of them all I just heard something yesterday they tracked down some group in China where 90 year old women looked like they were 18 buy our stuff for $30 a bottle and people do it but sooner or later the wrinkles

32:34 not a thing upon the bride that will bespeak anything but perfect freshness perfect holiness and wholeness and perpetual youthfulness in the bride glorious no spots no wrinkles and it's as though Paul anticipates and says yes Paul but what about an arthritic thumb and L what about an arthritic elbow and he says and no such thing if you don't get the message no spots

33:19 no wrinkles I'll give you a nice big broad category or any such thing anything that could be called imperfection anything that could be called the sign of the loss of youth and freshness and beauty no such thing nothing in the whole category of imperfection and then by the use of a strong adversative Allah but I've said no spots no wrinkles nothing in the category but and here's the glorious positive statement it shall be holy and without blemish

34:04 or I prefer the rendering holy and bling you see in that initial work of God's grace he sanctifies us he sets us apart from the dominion of sin from the deliberate willful heartfelt slavery and loyalty to sin he cleanses and washes us in that initial labor of regeneration spoken of in Titus chapter three the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost the and he puts in our hearts a desire to pursue holiness without which no man shall see the Lord and we desire to be

34:49 holy as he is holy in thought and word and deed but our great shame and grief with the apostle is the good that I would I do not and the evil that I would not that I do oh wretched man that I am but when he presents his bride to himself no spots no wrinkles nothing in the whole category of imperfection but that it shall be holy utterly thoroughly ethically morally holy every atom of our redeemed being will be thoroughly purged from every last vestige of sin and thoroughly infused by the Holy Spirit

35:34 with an unalterable principle of righteousness and righteousness there will be no eating of forbidden trees in heaven in the consummation we shall be holy and utterly blameless the eye of the heavenly bridegroom who said in the book of the revelation that his eyes as a flame of fire the introduction to every single church and its message was I know thy works I know I know and the bridegroom as he presents the bride to himself no friend of the bridegroom going to do it no father of the groom himself is going to present the bride to himself and

36:19 his eye looks at his bride from the top of her head to the sole of her feet and looks utterly through her as though she were transparent he smiles and says I find nothing blameworthy I find nothing blameworthy it shall be holy and without blame that very construction is used in Ephesians 1 in verse 4 in conjunction with our election where Paul blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus who has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world here's the construction that we should be holy and blameless holy and without blemish before him but

37:04 it's very interesting in Ephesians 1 passage it's in the plural that we should be holy thinking of us as a gathering of individuals but here the construction is in the singular that it that she the bride shall be holy and without blemish as surely as God's election is individual and those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world are individual sinners and it is right for us to think in those terms we must not stop in those terms we must recognize that the Lord Jesus in going to the

37:48 ordeal of Golgotha in the deeper ordeal of Gethsemane in the deeper ordeal of Golgotha he had this purpose in his heart he looked forward to his wedding day he had his wedding day in his heart when he hung upon the cross his wedding day was the joy before him enabling him to endure the cross despising its shame the language of the writer to the Hebrews the Lord Jesus died that he might present his church to himself a glorious

38:33 bride no spots no wrinkles nothing in the whole category of imperfection but utterly perfect in , thoroughly pervasively irreversibly holy and blameless I quote from the commentator Peter O'Brien whose commentary on Ephesians has been blessing my own soul in my own devotions in recent days he writes on this second and third purpose clause what is meant by the church being glorious is now described in physical terms using the image of a lovely young woman Paul states that she will be without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish

39:18 not even the smallest spot or pucker that spoils the smoothness of the skin will mar the unsurpassed beauty of Christ's bride when he presents her to himself hers will be a splendor that is exquisite unsurpassed and matchless for the present the church on earth is often in rags and tatters stained and oddly despised and rejected Christ's people may rightly be accused of many shortcomings and failures but God's gracious intention is that the church should be holy and blameless language which speaks of a beauty which is moral and spiritual

40:02 both words have already appeared in Ephesians with respect to the purpose of God's electing grace it was his purpose that every individual believer should ultimately be holy and blameless but not as an unidentifiable aggregate of individuals but as his beautiful bride upon whom he set his love under the impulse of which love he gave himself for us and continues to nourish and to cherish us the final question we ask when and where does the presentation take place Pastor

The Timing of the Presentation and Communion Meditation

40:47 Martin it's obvious you've assumed that the presentation takes place at the parousia at the epiphany at the apocalupsis at the coming of the Lord Jesus and you are right and I'm dogmatic because the scripture is unambiguous in answering the question when will this happen look at first Corinthians chapter one and verse eight we look at three texts first Corinthians one and verse eight let's back up to verse seven where he's commending the Corinthians telling them the things for which he thanks God with reference to them you came behind in no

41:32 gift waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ that's his second coming who also shall confirm you unto the end that you be unreprovable when in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ and we would not be mishandling the scriptures if we put in brackets the word wedding in front of the day the wedding day is the day of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ when even believers who had to be rebuked for many abnormalities and irregularities of Corinth Paul says I give thanks that you Corinthian

42:17 bunch who are really saved and even saved in Christ when God is done with you even he can't find any fault with you you will be unreprovable in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thessalonians 5 23 and 24 second witness to the fact that he will make the presentation in the day of his return the God of peace 1 Thessalonians 5 23 himself sanctify you wholly may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ faithful is

43:02 he who calls you who will also do my friend you don't honor God by saying I'm not worthy of that as I said this morning your worthiness has nothing to do with the saving intention of the Lord Jesus Christ the third witness is 2nd Corinthians 4 14 2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 14 knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also with Jesus and we have seen in our previous studies that occurs at his second coming and shall present

43:46 us with you and we may add and with all of the people of God of all ages now composing one glorious beautiful spotless wrinkle less bride holy and blameless before him so we see that at the return of Christ all that are truly in Christ shall be presented by Christ to Christ as the perfected bride of Christ and dear child of God what in the world is wrong with us if we don't long for our wedding day

44:30 has not something skewed our affections twisted our perspectives that we don't daily pray even so come Lord Jesus even so come Lord Jesus when your work is so accomplished in me and in all of your redeemed that I will be part of your holy spotless wrinkle less blameless bride he died to have it in he gonna have what he died for the scripture says he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied as we come to the table tonight

45:15 remember the words of first Corinthians eleven as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup this memorial bread in memorial cup you do preach forth the Lord's death what till he come in other words we're to eat and drink anticipating our wedding day we're to keep it before us it was in his heart when he came from heaven it was in his heart when he lived and labored among us it was in his heart when he allowed them to bind him and drag him off to Caiaphas and up to Pilate and on to Herod and back to Pilate and out the Via Dolorosa

46:00 and hung him on a

46:07 self might present us to himself glorious no spot no wrinkle nothing in the category of imperfection holy and blameless my unconverted friend wouldn't you love to be a Christian and know you're going to be a part of that you don't need to remain in your filth in your defilement in your hell deservingness that's where we were he didn't say now get your act together and I'll see if I find something lovable and lovely in you most of us could testify we've married because we saw something loving and lovable in our spouse isn't that true I don't think there's a person here who said oh

46:52 no I married because she was ugly she was nasty she was the most unreasonable no no you saw something that drew out your love did you not and you gals you may not tell your husband that but there was something about him that you thought if you stretched the word was handsome attractive desirable I doubt there's any married person here who cannot say that which led me to a wedding day was something lovable and lovely in the object of my love you saw us like unwashed babies lying in a ditch weltering in our blood and if you're offended by that language tell your offense to God he uses

47:37 that language in Ezekiel 16 he said your navel was not even cut why did he love us you know what the answer is because he chose to love us that's why earlier in this epistle Paul says I pray that you may come to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge well what a bunch of foolishness to pray that will know what you can't know but that's the way he prays that you may know the love of Christ which passes knowledge he's praying that they'll come to a deeper understanding and faith suffused grasp upon the magnitude of that which can never be fully

48:21 encompassed even the love of Christ for his own as we come to the table dear people remember the words of John beloved now are we the sons of God but it does not yet appear what we shall be especially what we shall be as the perfected bride but we know that if he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and everyone that hath this hope in him continually purifies himself even as he is pure and though we are confident in all that needs to be done

49:02 and blamelessness he will accomplish at his coming the heart of every Christian says oh Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit and by every means of grace help me to attain as much of that as a redeemed sinner can obtain in this life while I confidently expect the completion of it at the return of the Lord Jesus if we come to the table with that disposition I say it reverently the Lord Jesus present with us by the Spirit smiles and said this is the people whom I'm going to perfect in the wedding day I see the fruit of my grace already at work in them causing them to yearn and long to

49:47 be what I will make them in that day may we make the heart of Jesus glad may none profane the sacred elements that are simply bred in the fruit of the vine

50:03 make them while deliberately living in a course of life that is a contradiction of why he died is to partake unworthily it is to treat lightly the body and the blood of Christ is the language that the apostle gives may God help us that coming to the table we shall remember him who loved us gave himself for us in order that he himself might present us to himself glory no spot no wrinkle no such thing but holy and blameless in his presence let's pray

50:45 oh Lord Jesus we're ashamed of our narrow constricted hearts your heart has been laid bare to us in the gospel the overwhelming magnitude of your love is affirmed to us in what you have done and in what you've revealed in revealed concerning all that you will yet do forgive we pray our low unworthy views of what you have purposed to do in dying for us and help us here at this table of remembrance

51:29 to know a fresh sense of your love and a fresh commitment that we as those who have this hope in us will in new ways by your grace purify ourselves even as you are pure we pray for those who know you not that the things they've heard tonight will make them restlessly jealous until in Christ they know this hope with us seal then your word to every heart we ask in Jesus name amen