This is Our God, We Have Waited For Him (wedding)

Introduction: A God-Honoring Courtship and the Chosen Text

0:02 as one of the pastors who has been privileged perhaps more than any other to witness the hand of God upon our dear brother and sister from their earliest dates to their commitment to exclusive dating to what we call in our society serious courtship to that big step of engagement and then to the setting of a wedding date and premarital counseling and looking forward to this day I want to bear witness publicly to the praise of God and in the light of the scriptures that say honor to whom honor is due and say that it has been nothing but a sheer delight to witness and be part of a relationship that from its inception has been marked by a sensitivity to the norms of the word of God and to the fact that we are all part of a relationship and to the fact that we are all part of a relationship it has been marked by an openness to biblical godly counsel and if I can state it in the simplest way possible if I were to write a little manual of a practical guide for godly dating leading to a marriage altar I would simply take the steps that I have seen unfold with our brother Tim and our sister Lori and I want publicly to declare

1:30 how powerful God is to us how privileged I believe I have been to be witness and to be part of that God-honoring process and as we sat to plan the wedding ceremony as I always do I asked the couple in the light of 2 Corinthians 4-5 in which Paul said we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Christ's sake I said to them I'm your servant I will be your servant I want to be your mouthpiece I want to be your proxy preacher on the occasion of your wedding what text do you want me to preach upon what notes do you want sounded now I don't ordinarily do that when I preach this Lord's Day I will not have gone to every member in the congregation to get a consensus about what they feel ought to be preached I do consult with my fellow elders but in a very unique way for me to intrude upon their special day and simply to say something that I would like to say would really be a negation of the significance of the ministry of the word on the occasion of their wedding and no sooner did I ask the question what text what themes what perspectives do you desire to have me to articulate for you than Laurie especially

2:59 mentioned a text in the book of Isaiah and then we looked at several other texts and as we interacted the three of us it was agreed that this text would be the text that I would direct your attention to for the next moments together on this blessed occasion it is found in the prophecy of Isaiah and in chapter 25 and verse 9 this is what the prophet declared and it shall be said in that day lo lo lo lo the prophet said this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us this is Jehova we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation so as I began to look at this text in its setting I became more and more convinced that probably in ways that neither Tim or Laurie understood at the time time that it is indeed most appropriate for a wedding occasion. If you were to take the time to read the setting in which Isaiah 25 9 comes to us, you would notice that it comes in a setting in which the living God has been pronouncing through the prophet chapter after chapter after

The Context of Isaiah 25:9: Hope Amidst Universal Judgment

4:26 chapter is sober intention to bring judgment upon the pagan nations of the then existing world. God as it were takes on without fear the nation of the Babylonians, of the Ninevites, of the Ethiopians and Moab, these mighty warlike nations, and in chapter after chapter God says that judgment is going to come upon them. For their sin. And then those pronouncements of judgment come to a climax in chapter 24 of Isaiah in which God speaks of a universal judgment that will come upon all of the nations that forget the living God. But then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. God speaks of the importance of judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against

5:27 that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the nations. And then he begins to weave in this beautiful motif against that dark backdrop of universal judgment upon all of the with these words, O Lord, Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee, I will praise Thy name, for Thou hast done wonderful things, even counsels of old, in faithfulness and in truth.

5:53 And at the end of the second paragraph, it speaks of God's great blessing in which He will swallow up death forever, wipe away tears from all faces, and remove reproach from His people. And then chapter 26 opens up with this tremendous song of salvation and of praise. In that day, this song shall be sung in the land of Judah. So you see the setting of these words that Tim and Laurie have asked me to direct your attention to, it shall be said in that day, this is our God, we have waited for Him. It is a day when there is a tremendous crumbling among all of the nations, a day in which the rock-like institutions of the governments and the stability of those mighty war-like nations is being shaken to the foundation, and yet in the midst of all of that shaking, the true remnant of God's people can rejoice and say, this is our God. And I trust you'll

7:07 see readily how appropriate such a text is. For as we look out on every hand, not only do we live in a day when we see the shaking and the overturning of vast nations of the world, we've lived to witness the break-up of the big, giant Russian bear who's been declawed and shrunken. In some ways to a rather innocuous teddy bear. But we have also seen the overturning and the shaking of those institutions which have brought stability to our own nation for generation upon generation. The institution of marriage, shaken and dissolving on every hand. The concept of the nobility of heterosexual commitment for life in the institution of marriage. We've seen that shaken, overturned by many. We live in the day when people magnify the liberty of sexual preference. The governor of this very state, shamelessly saying at

8:13 the recent Democratic convention, we are committed to freedom of choice, not only with regard to abortion, but with regard to sexual preference. And institutions such as monogamous heterosexual marriage that many of us thought in our youth would stand like the mountains there of the Swiss Alps or the Cascades in the eastern and western part of our own nation. We live in a day of tremendous shaking and overturning. And what is a young couple to do in such a day? Are they to enter marriage tentatively, wondering, well, is this really an institution that is permanent? Is it an institution that can actually be passed on? And so the question for us, has the message been lost? Has the message been stolen?

8:57 Has the message been visited? Has the message been read? Has the message been read? Has the that will stand the weight and the pressure of all of the shifting sands of men's opinions and the pressures brought to bear upon that institution, what a wonderful thing to say in this very setting in which this text comes, it shall be said in that day. Not a day of idealism. Not a day when all is well in society. Not a day of great stability. But a day of judgment. A day of overturning. A day of the breakup of things that seem to be permanent.

Principle 1: All Blessedness Originates in God's Salvation

9:36 In that very day, the people of God can say, lo, this is our God. We have waited for him. He will save us. This is Jehovah. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So having spoken for just a moment about the setting of the passage, I want you to notice with me in the time that remains, three very simple but vital principles from this text as they relate to what we are witnessing today. First of all, we see that all that is blessed on this day has its origin in the salvation of God. Everything that is truly blessed on this day has its origin in the salvation of God.

10:29 Everything that is truly blessed on this day has its origin in the salvation of God. Everything that is truly blessed on this day has its origin in the salvation of God. Listen to the words of this text. This is our God. We have waited for him. He will save us.

10:37 This is Jehovah. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. And it is that last phrase that casts, as it were, its influence backward over the entire text in which the people of God say, everything that is blessed in this day, has its origin in the salvation of God. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

11:12 Now the word salvation in scripture means rescue from danger, being preserved from evil, and being kept in a state of vulnerability. And the unashamed testimony of the people of God in this text is that salvation in this day has its origin in the salvation of God. In this passage, when the nations are crumbling, when the judgments of God are being poured out, is this. We are blessed in even this kind of a day because God is the God of our salvation.

11:48 And the joyful testimony of Tim and Laurie is that on this day, the blessedness of all that they know in the way of blessedness, is that they are blessed with the salvation of God. That they have been kept from a life of meaningless pursuit of trying to find that elusive pot of human fulfillment and satisfaction at the end of the rainbow of self-centeredness, seeking to fill the God-shaped hole with everything other than the living God himself. And it is their testimony that I have heard personally, and have heard it reiterated again and again,

12:40 that their greatest joy is not the joy of their wedding day, but the day when God in grace showed them their true state as sinners, showed them his mercy to sinners in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and brought them with all of their heart to repent of their sin, and to throw themselves into the trap of sin, upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ and to find that in a day when young people are confused on the most elementary issues of life, on the most fundamental issues of marriage and male-female relationships, to say that because God has come to us with His salvation, we now know that we have a chart and a compass for our lives. We have a God to guide us, a God to lead us. We need not experiment with one tragic decision after another, living a life independent of the God who made us and before whom we will stand in the last day. All that is blessed on this day has its origin in the salvation of God, that salvation that has come to Tim and to Laurie, enabling them to say in the language of the Apostle, Paul, for to me to live is Christ.

14:03 That salvation which is not self-originated, that salvation which is not communicated by man nor through the sacraments, but the salvation described in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace have you been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast. And so today...

14:29 With you, Tim and Laurie, we say, this is our God, we've waited for Him, He will save us, this is Jehovah, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. All that is blessed on this day has its origin in the salvation of God. But then secondly, this text teaches, all that is blessed this day has had its origin, its fruition, in the way of waiting upon the God of salvation. Not only has its origin in the God of salvation, but it's had its fruition.

Principle 2: Blessedness is Realized Through Waiting Upon God

15:14 It has come to manifestation in the way of waiting upon this God of salvation. Notice how two times in the text that phrase, waiting upon God, is set before us. We have waited for Him and He will save us, this is Jehovah, we have waited for Him. And what does that mean, to wait for Him?

15:43 Well, it means, first of all, that one is determined not to take things into his own hands with reference to any facet of one's life. It is the opposite of self-will. Self-promotion. Self-sacrifice.

15:59 Self-sacrifice. Self-promotion. ocean, making our own plans and then pursuing them at any cost. To wait upon God means that I recognize that God alone knows how best to order my life and to joyfully embrace that I am not to live unto myself, but unto him who died for me and rose again. Further, it means that I'm determined to see his path as marked out in the scriptures. It is not only saying, not my will but thine be done, but recognizing in the language of Psalm 119, 105, thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my pathway. To wait upon God means I am not only determined to take my directions from God, but I'm determined to find those directions in the word of God and in the whole matter of seeking to set a standard for my life. As Tim wrestled with the question, what shall I look for in a life partner? And as Laurie

17:08 wrestled with the question, what shall I look for in a life partner? They didn't go to Vogue magazine and to Mademoiselle and to Playgirl and to Playboy, but to this blessed book to see what this book says about a virtuous woman, about a worthy man, a man worthy of the trust and submission that God requires of a Christian wife, a woman worthy of being loved and nourished and cherished as one's own body. And I bless God that I've been privileged to see that process of waiting upon this God of salvation, determined to take those directives that are ordered by him, to embrace the standards that are revealed. And thirdly, determined prayerfully to wait God's time to give us the very things God's word has caused us to desire. Determined to wait God's time to give us the very things God's word has caused us to desire. Philippians 4, 6 and 7, be anxious for nothing. Don't get antsy to have even the things God

18:33 has made you desire. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. And again I say to tribute God's grace in the life of our brother and sister, it is a wonderful thing to stand here to say with a good conscience, that God has made this day, that all that is blessed this day has had its fruition in the way of waiting upon the God of salvation. They would want me to exhort all of you who are yet in the single state, and you believe you have desires for marriage framed by the word of God. What is God's word to you? Wait upon the Lord. Wait, I say, upon the Lord.

19:33 Psalm 37, verses 4-7. 4, 5 and 7, God reiterates this again and again. You are not to be anxious, but you are to learn the discipline of bringing even God-given desires into subjection to God's wise providence. And for those of you who are parents, you've got to do the same. You've raised those daughters and those sons with the view that they would be godly husbands and wives. And you say, Lord, when? We've tried to insulate them from careerism. We've tried to insulate them from ungodly and worldly standards. Lord, how long before you give them the desire of...

20:21 From this text, lo, this is our God. We have waited for God. And no one ever waited for God. And then upon retrospect said, what a shame that I waited so long. But we could fill this room with people who would drip bitter, salty, bitter, bitter, bitter, bitter, tears down their cheek, saying, would to God I had had the patience to wait. Then thirdly and finally, from this text, we also learn not only that all that is blessed this day has its origin in the salvation of God, all that is blessed this day has had its fruition in the way of waiting upon God, but we learn a third thing, that nothing would

Principle 3: The Greatest Joy is Others Knowing This God of Salvation

21:20 bring more blessedness to the bride and groom. This day than that many of you would come to know this gracious God as the God of your salvation. I've asked Tim and Laurie in, if not these exact words, this is the gist of it, what would bring you your greatest joy on your wedding day? And it's not having a wedding ceremony and a reception and even going off on a honeymoon. But their greatest joy on this, their wedding day, would be that if some of you who are here, if some of you who do not know this God of salvation, who is the only answer to who and what they are and why they are here and the way they are approaching their future, that God would use the occasion of their wedding day to get you in the way of seeking the Lord while He may be found, calling upon Him while He is near, that you might come to know this God of whom the prophet speaks. Of whom Tim and Laurie speak with joy as the God of your salvation, that you would

22:35 be able to say, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. But you may say, well, Pastor Martin, if that's their thing, I wish them no ill. If they feel they need the crutch of this relationship with God to make it, fine. I hold no grudge against them. I hold no resentment. And to you for preaching these things at their wedding, if that makes them pleased and happy and makes the people in this church glad. But leave me free to go about things my own way. Well, I'd love to be broad-minded and say, fine, fair enough. You leave me to do my thing. Leave them free to do their thing. You're free to do your thing. But you see, I would not be true to your soul were I to say that. For in this very setting, God says,

23:27 listen carefully, chapter 26. The same setting. He hath brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it down and brings it low to the ground, brings it even unto the dust. This God who is salvation to His people and who brings them joy says He's going to bring down the proud. Verse 11b. It says that His fire shall devour His adversaries. Verse 14.

23:59 He will destroy them that forget Him. And verse 21. For behold, the Lord comes forth out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain. You see, this God who blesses His people with His presence and with His guidance is the God who is determined to judge His enemies. Verse 14. Those who in their pride and their arrogance have said, I don't need this God. I can make it on my own. I can live by my own standards for personal conduct, for marital preferences and choices, and whether or not I'll be committed to the covenant of marriage as God says I should be if I enter that relationship. God says His adversaries will be devoured, His enemies destroyed, those who practice iniquity shall be punished. And I would not be true to your soul did I not say to you that this God of salvation in whom the people of God rejoice in this text is the God of judgment. The God who takes seriously your determination to live without Him. Your determination to say, I'll not wait

25:18 upon God. I can make it through life on my own. I don't need the crutch of religion. My friend, it's not a crutch. You were made for God.

25:29 It's part of the whole communion with him. The very essence of eternity apart from God, that place which the Bible calls hell, is God's Amen to the decision of everyone who says, I'll live without God. He says all right. Then you'll live with me for our eternity. And there it's not whistling and dancing but weeping. May God grant that on this day, the occasion of Tim and Laurie coming together as husband and wife. And declaring, Amen, Amen. that this day our blessedness is rooted in the knowledge that God through Christ is the God of our salvation.

Exhortation to Seek God and the Coming Marriage Supper of the Lamb

26:12 We're here today in the will of God because by His grace we've waited upon Him. Oh, make their joyful. And this day say, no longer will I put down what I really know in my heart of hearts is true, that their God is the true God. And the God of whom you've been speaking, Pastor Martin, is the God with whom I have to do.

26:37 I will begin in earnest to read this book. I will in earnest put myself under a ministry that points me to my sin and to the only hope of sinners in the person and work of Christ. Because there's a great marriage day coming. It's called in the Bible the marriage supper of the Lamb.

26:58 And everyone who has taken the posture of a guilty, helpless, hell-deserving sinner, thrown away, to this guilty soul upon the Lord Jesus, will be found in that day gathered at that marriage feast forever. May God bless this meditation upon His word and cause us to reflect upon it for our good. And know, Tim and Laurie, that we, the people of God, do rejoice with you, that God is the God of your salvation, that you have waited for Him, and He has smiled upon you and brought you to this hour, and may that smile continue throughout all the days of your life, that you will be living monuments of the grace and kindness of this God and our Heavenly Father.