Three Most Significant Days of our Lives (wedding)

The Three Most Significant Days: An Introduction

0:05 Excuse me, Messiah, but I am in a room that I speak to you from the Word of God on this occasion that we are gathering together in your coming chair in the joy of their marriage ceremony. And in the next few minutes, I want you to think with me on the subject momentous days. If I were to ask Jim and Lynn, in the next five minutes, to list on a piece of paper the ten most significant days in their brief life history, I'm absolutely confident that one of the ten would be June 8, 1974. And, if time permits, and I raise... I'm going to pass out paper and pencil to everyone here and ask you, in five minutes, to list the ten most significant days in your life. I'm sure that many of you would list your marriage day.

1:04 Perhaps you would list the day of your firstborn son or daughter, a day many of us will never forget. It lives vividly in our memories when, for the first time, we saw that bundle of life that was the living monument of the fact that God had made us one. Some of us...

1:22 might put other days, and there would be a great diversity as to the ten most significant days in the lives of those of you gathered in this place today. What I want to do in the time allowed is to stick you on what, without any debate, are the three most significant days in the life history of every single one of us. Though I would not dare to say what would be the ten most significant days in your life, your life, someone else's, I can assert, without any fear of contradiction, that for every single one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, there are three days that are the most significant in the life history of every single one of us. And what are they? Well, the first one is very obvious. It's your birthday.

The First Significant Day: Your Birthday

2:17 The moment when you were expelled from your mother's womb, and the doctor spat... on you, and you drew in that first breath of air on your own, and you cried as you find in that aftershave lotion ad that vividly reminds us of what it was all about.

2:36 And you put in your appearance, and now registered in Trenton or some other city capital, state capital, in the Bureau of Vital Statistics, is a birth certificate which bears your name, the name of your legitimate mother and father, and the date of your birth. And probably your weight, and they no longer get the length. They gave that up about three or four years ago. I don't know why, but they have on most birth records.

3:03 And it was at that time that you came forth a creature of God's making. You were not a biological accident. But the scripture says it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. Again, the scripture says that God gives to all life and breath, and all things.

3:24 You were made a creature in God's image, a creature accountable to God, a creature marked for eternal existence, either in a state of bliss, or a state of woe. Your birthday is one of those three most significant days. Now, some of us have come to the place where we don't like to remember how frequently that day comes around and faces us again. We'd like to forget how many times that day has come.

3:53 We'd like to remember how many times it has come and gone. But you cannot erase from your experience your birthday. You were born. That's why you're here.

The Second Significant Day: Your Death Day

4:04 But now there's a second, most significant, momentous day in the life history of everyone. It has not yet come for anyone. It is our death day. Our death day.

4:20 And as certainly as you have a birthday, the youngest to the oldest, is going to have a death day. It's a striking thing to realize that down in Trenton, and any other capital where the records are stored, right next to the volume of records that has in it recorded birthdays, there is in another department, a recording of the death certificates, and there's no one there with more than 110 years between the two. Human experience. Human experience alone is sufficient to convince us we'll have a death day.

5:04 And the only certain thing one can say when a child breathes its first breath in the delivery room is that it shall breathe its last breath and die. Not only does human experience bear witness to this, but the Word of God does. For the Scriptures tell us it is appointed unto man once to die. It is appointed once to die.

5:32 And why is this ugly reality of death with us? Why must that momentous birthday end in the sordid, horror reality of a death day? There is no answer but the answer given in the Word of God. The wages of sin is death.

5:52 It is the entrance of sin into the human race which alone can account for the ugly reality of death. For God said to those first parents, our first father and mother Adam and Eve, in the day that thou eatest, in the day that you disobey me, dying thou shalt die. And like a tree whose main tap roots are cut and the leaves made, show some semblance of life for a week or two, but it's only a matter of time before they wither and die. So the moment man sinned, he was severed.

6:28 His tap roots of relationship to God were cut. And he died a spiritual death. And the ultimate journey to the grave was but the withering and the dropping of the leaves until death pervaded his entire humanity. You and I, dear people, have a death day.

6:47 We don't like to talk about death. We talk about passing on. So and so has deceased. But the Scripture says it's appointed unto men once to die.

The Third Significant Day: Your Judgment Day

6:58 Now if this were all, if they were the only two momentous days, birthday and death day, we might wax sort of stoical about the whole thing and say, well, if life was bitter, the death day was a welcome release and the end of it all. If life was full of joy and bliss, we might say, like we do at the end of a lovely day when the family has come together for a family picnic, and the weather's been perfect, and the bees have not bothered us, and the ants have gone on a vacation, oh, it's a shame to see this day come to an end. But all good things come to an end, and so you accept. Well, if all we had was a birthday and a death day, we might look at it that way, but the Scripture says there is a third momentous day that is coming for every one of us.

7:42 And you know what that day is? It's our judgment day. Our judgment day. For again the Scripture says it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this come in judgment.

7:56 And the Word of God everywhere teaches that we shall give an account of ourselves to God. Acts 17.31 says of days coming in which God will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ. Not only does the Word of God tell us this, but your own conscience affirms it.

8:17 What is the function of conscience but to be a little trumpet, a little preview, a little previous summons of the fact that we're accountable to God for this life and all of its deeds. And I cannot say for certain what awaits anyone in this building except this, and I shall not be contradicted. There is a death day and a judgment day coming for every one of us. For every one of us.

The Only Thing That Matters: A Spiritual Marriage Day

8:43 And the strange thing is, the only thing that will matter in that judgment day is what? Well, some would say, well, if you've lived a good life, if you've made it financially, if you've gained a lot of friends, and you have an acceptable reputation, or you've been religious, and you believe the right things. My friends, listen, listen carefully, and this brings us around full circle to where we started. The only thing that will matter in your judgment day is whether or not you've had a marriage day.

9:17 That's right. The only thing that will matter in that day is whether you've had a marriage day. You mean earthly, physical marriage? No.

9:28 But a spiritual, heavenly marriage with Jesus Christ, the heavenly bridegroom. For you see, the Bible describes a Christian, one who is prepared to die and go to judgment, as an individual who has been married to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as He is presented in the Holy Scriptures. A Christian is not someone who does not be His wife, though Christians won't be their wives. A Christian is not someone who pays his bill on time.

9:57 He pays his bills, though he does pay his bills. The idea that a Christian is someone who lives a reasonably acceptable and moral life, and is kind and doesn't cheat on his wife. No, no, no, no. That's not what a Christian is.

10:09 Nor is a Christian someone who simply subscribes to some of the basic tenets of the Christian faith. Jesus is the Son of God. There is a heaven, there is a...

10:18 No, no. A Christian is one who is spiritually married to the person of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You remember early in the service I read from Ephesians 5, in which Paul says that Christ is the heavenly bridegroom, who gave His life to win His people as a bride to Himself. And being a Christian is being married to the Son of God.

10:46 Not having some kind of an experience with an undefined Jesus. No, no. The Jesus of Holy Scripture, who is true God in true man, who lived a sinless life, who died on a real cross, on a real hill, outside the real walls of the real old city of Jerusalem, who shed real blood, who felt real wrath when the Father hid His face and shrouded the heavens in blackness, who felt the real pangs of a real hell when He cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? He died a real death.

11:24 He was buried in a real tomb. And thank God He came forth in a real resurrection, back to the right hand of God, where He now sits, wherever that is in the universe of God. I don't know, but He's there. And to be a Christian is to be spiritually married to Him.

How to Be Married to Christ: Awareness of Need

11:42 You say, what's that mean? How does one get married to Jesus Christ? In conclusion, let me tell you very briefly how one is married to Christ. The first thing is, one must be brought to a painful awareness of his need of the heavenly bride.

12:00 Jesus Christ is not a luxury for His people. He has become their bridegroom because they've been brought to the place where they see that without Him they are undone. Did not He say, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance? They that are well need not a doctor, but they that are sick.

12:21 Did not the Apostle Paul say in his letter to Timothy, this is a faithful saying, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? He didn't come for polite people or nice people. He came for sinners. And no one is married to Christ until through the Scriptures applied to the heart and conscience by the Holy Spirit there is that awareness.

12:43 I am a sinner who cannot face a holy God without someone to speak for me. I am polluted, defiled in my nature. My mind is darkened. My affections are perverted.

12:57 I cannot fix it. I cannot fix myself up. I can't put the band-aids on a little religious activity. I cannot go to the medicine chest of a little religious notion and fix myself up.

13:10 I am helpless, hopeless, undone, like the poor blind beggar who hearing that Jesus of Nazareth passed by cried out saying, Son of David, have mercy upon me. My dear friends, have you ever been brought to that painful awareness of your need of the heavenly bridegroom? A need arising out of your own sinfulness that religion and church and all the rest could never meet, that only the divine Son of God could meet? Have you?

How to Be Married to Christ: Discovery of His Willingness and Ability

13:40 Oh, my friend, you've never had a wedding day till you've been brought to your painful awareness of your need of the heavenly bridegroom. But then, secondly, there must be the discovery that he is willing and able to meet that need. Lynn may have felt for some time a deep pang for Jim convinced she needed him, but until she discovered in him from his own actions and words a willingness and an ability on his part to meet her need, there'd been no marriage today. It's a two-way relationship.

14:15 And so there must not only be the discovery that I desperately need the Son of God, but that he's willing and able to meet my need. And how can he meet the need of the guilt of my sin? I've offended a holy God. How can God do anything other than judge me for my sin?

14:33 The answer is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Being sinless, he had no sin to atone for on his own, but he assumed the load of our sin and took it with him to the cross, and there he was bruised of his own father. The Scripture says it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and the Father's justice was meted out upon his son. Then he raised him from the dead, saying, I'm fully satisfied.

15:03 That's my receipt, that the dead is paying in full for all who will trust in my Son. And because he lives, he's able to break the shackles that bind us. And I talk of the people today bound with lust, bound with pride, bound with an attachment to things, covetous, grasping, bound by your own pentacles of sin. Oh, my friend, Christ is a living Lord and is able to set you free.

15:33 And that's why on the occasion of this wedding, I found it my greatest joy to preach of Jesus Christ, the mighty emancipator. For the Scripture says of him, the Spirit of the Lord robs upon me. He hath anointed me to do what? To open the prisons of endless abound, to open the eyes of the blind, to set at liberty the captives.

15:56 Oh, some of you who've been set free, we cannot help but long that you be set free. What are you bound by today? I'm bound by nothing. Oh, my friend, listen.

16:04 Yes, you are. Your thoughts never rise higher than your belly and your physical appetites. Your ambitions never rise higher than your house and your home and your kids. You live like a beast.

16:13 You never think of eternity, never think of the glory of God, the cross of Christ. Oh, my friend, you're bound to be set free. Oh, my friend, you're bound to be set free. Oh, my friend, you're bound to be set free.

16:25 You're bound to be set free. Oh, my friend, you're bound by this world and you need to be set free. Christ is able. He died, He rose, He lives, He's God.

How to Be Married to Christ: Taking and Giving

16:38 But then there must be in the last place not only the stumbling of your need of Him, His willingness and ability to meet the need, but there must be a taking of Him to be yours and a giving of yourself to be His. What have Jim and Lynn done today? They've said, I take and I take and I give. I take and I give.

17:02 And that's how we're married to Christ. And by the mighty work of the Holy Spirit we are brought to that place where we say, I do take Jesus Christ to be mine. I take His obedience to be mine, His death to be mine, His power to be mine, His grace to be mine. The Scripture says, as many as receive Him, that's what it receives.

17:24 Not receiving some doctrines about Him in detachment, but receiving some doctrines about Him but receiving Him in whom all the doctrines adhere and out of whom they flow. Receiving Him, but it's not only taking Him to be mine, it's giving myself to be His. He says, if any man will come after me he must say no to himself, take the whole cross and follow me. If any man loved father, mother, brother, sister more than me is not worthy of me.

17:59 A Christian is not one who simply tries to take the whole thing. No, no, my friend. To be married to Christ is not only to take Him to be mine but to give myself to be His. That means all that I am is His.

18:18 All that I am is a human being with my ambitions, my energies, my faculties, my gifts, my appetites, my home, my wife, my gifts, everything to be His. And He will not allow you to take Him to Christ. If you've taken Him and you've given yourself to Him, the Bible says if any man be in Christ He's a new creation. All things have passed away, all have become new.

The Reality of Union with Christ

18:48 What would you think if in about two minutes time when Jim and Liv come and stand here and I was just about to say I now present unto you Mr. and Mrs. that they would have turned to each other and said well we've had a wedding ceremony now let's take it care of. On the license and all the rest.

19:09 If you go your way I'll come out and see you again sometime. If anyone wants to know if we're married produce a certificate. Show them we went through with it. How does that sound to your ears?

19:24 Can you imagine the shock and the horror if they said look we've had a wedding ceremony we've done it now you go your way I... It's ridiculous.

19:33 The whole end of the ceremony is that they might be joined together to share life as one. I am a weak decision I take Jesus he takes me he goes his way I go my way and if anyone ever asks me I'll prove I'm a Christian that I made my decision. My friend listen if you've not been joined with the Son of God so that he is your life you're not a Christian. You're not Christian.

A Call to Spiritual Marriage and Final Warning

19:58 You're not a Christian. And you're not ready for that death day and that judgment day. And would it took God that this day and the day when Jim and Lynn were joined together would be marked as the day when someone in this place said I will not rest until I know I'm married to the Son of God. I had one of those momentous days it's behind me my birthday.

20:23 Two are ahead of me my death day my judgment day. I must have a wedding day with the Son of God. Oh may God grant that you shall. And my friend listen if you don't and you come to your death day and judgment day unprepared there's not one of you who will be able to talk to this preacher that day and say look I sat in a church in Caldwell June 8, 1974 you had an opportunity to tell me about death and judgment in Christ and you couldn't do it.

20:53 Not a one of you will be able to point the finger at this preacher. You may now be offended that I have dared to preach to you so faithfully. My friend you won't be offended in that way. You may show God why did I not heed the earnest entreaties of the preacher in the last three days.

21:15 Three of them are slated for every one of us. Birthday death day judgment day all that you might prepare be prepared by having a marriage day with the Son of God.