March 15th, 2015

[0:00] If you'd open up your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Last week we started in a section in which Paul is addressing husbands and wives.

[0:21] Married couples in the room. Did you come this morning thinking that your marriage is beyond hope? Did you walk into this building this morning thinking that your marriage is missing something?

[0:39] Do you think that you're a failure as a wife? Husband, do you think you're a failure as a husband? Or maybe you just think your marriage is just fine.

[0:51] I mean, everybody's happy. No problems here. Well, last Sunday we looked at Paul's exhortations to wives to come under their husbands' care.

[1:07] But did you know in this passage, starting in verse 22 going through verse 33 of chapter 5, the Apostle Paul spends three times as much holy writ on husbands than on wives.

[1:23] He's got a lot to say to husbands. So let's look at it now. I'm going to start off in verse 22, bring us back up to speed with what he said to wives, and then we'll read through 33.

[1:37] So please read along with me in your Bibles. This is God's Word. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and himself its Savior.

[1:55] Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their own husbands, their husbands. 25.

[2:06] Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that he may present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

[2:33] 28. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.

[2:49] Because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound.

[3:03] And I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33. 33. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

[3:26] Husbands, this morning, I want you to feel what's going on here. It's not me exhorting you. It's not your wife exhorting you. It's God exhorting you through His Word.

[3:40] And here's what he's saying. Husband, love your wife like Christ loves His bride.

[3:52] Love your lady like Christ loves His lady. Now don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying be Christ to your wife.

[4:03] You can't. You can't. Because you're not. You're not Jesus. But what you can be, what you must be, is like Christ in the way you love this woman God has given to you.

[4:26] Husbands, you have a high calling in marriage to be like Christ in the way that you love her. You are to exercise this responsibility entrusted to you in love.

[4:42] So this morning, I want you to see five points. Five points. We're going to pull it from the text. The first point is going to be a little bit of a reminder. So let's go to that first point right now.

[4:55] So five points. Here's the first one. Five points. Remember, marriage is a dance. Last week, I wanted to help you see kind of the big sweep of our Bibles.

[5:13] Creation, fall, redemption. And in creation, in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we read that God created Adam and Eve in His own likeness.

[5:24] And so Adam bore the likeness of God and so did Eve. They are of equal value in God's sight. Equal worth. But what we also saw is that God assigned them roles based on Adam's manness and based on Eve's woman-ness.

[5:43] And so equal value, but differing roles in this thing called marriage. This dance. So Adam was to lead his lady in this dance.

[5:55] But then there was the fall. And the dance was distorted. The roles in this thing called marriage were distorted.

[6:09] Husbands would either abdicate or be tyrannical. Wives would either be a floor mat or usurp. Sin made a mess of the roles.

[6:23] But it didn't stay there because with the coming of Jesus, Jesus came to redeem the roles in marriage. He came to make right what was made wrong.

[6:36] He came to bring order to that which was placed into disorder. And so what we read in Ephesians 5, 22-33, is God's plan of restoration of the roles in marriage.

[6:55] And what we see is that husbands are going to take their cues from Jesus, the head. We are the heads of our wives.

[7:05] And so we are to lead our ladies. And what you are going to see is we lead out of love. And what we read in 5-23 are that wives, you are assigned a role.

[7:19] And your role is the church-like response to Christ. To come under the care of Christ. Come under the care of your husband.

[7:30] What we see Paul doing in Ephesians 5, 22-33, is making Christ the ultimate bridegroom and the church the ultimate bride.

[7:43] And they become our examples as Christian husbands and wives. They kind of determine our steps, if you will, in this thing called marriage.

[7:56] What you are going to see is that this Christ church basis runs throughout 22-33.

[8:14] Point two. And let's now get into the passage. Verse 25, we read this. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

[8:26] Husbands, love your bride like Christ loves His bride. Now what does that look like? Well, it's a Christ-like love. There are two mistakes, guys, that we make in our husbanding.

[8:42] We can fall off the horse on either side. It's either abdicating and we tempt our wife in a certain way. Or we become tyrants and we tempt our wife in a certain way.

[8:54] Both are wrong. Do you know what they both have in common? It's about me. It's about my comfort. It's about what I want. But what we see going on in verse 25 is what God is calling us to.

[9:09] He's calling us out of abdicating and He's calling us out of being a tyrant. He's calling us to be like Christ in the way that we love our wives.

[9:20] That word love is that classic word agape. And it's used six times in verses 25-33. There is an emphasis on love in this passage.

[9:34] Notice that the command in 25, the exhortation isn't husbands, head your wives. It's husbands, love your wives.

[9:46] Here's what that means. God has entrusted husbands with a responsibility for the welfare of their wives. And that responsibility is to be exercised in Christ-like love.

[10:02] And that agape love is not a selfish love. It's a love that is concerned about the greatest good of another.

[10:14] And so husbands, what we're being called to here is to lead in a certain way in which we have the greatest good of our wives in mind. That's the love we're being called to here.

[10:26] Can I just tell you something, brother? In order for you to love your wife like Christ, you must first know what it means to be loved by Christ.

[10:40] Do you know His great love for you, brother? Do you know He gave Himself up for you? He died for you.

[10:53] And now you're being called to love your wives in like fashion. So, what kind of love? It's a Christ-like love.

[11:03] And that kind of love, I've just been towing it, is a sacrificial love. He gave Himself. It's a voluntary love.

[11:14] In John chapter 10, Jesus is talking about Him as the good shepherd. And about eight times in that passage, He references Himself as laying down His life. In verse 18 in chapter 10, He says this, I lay down my life of my own accord.

[11:30] I do it voluntarily. Brother, you're being called to love your wife not as a strong-armed in, God is angry, but a calling to, a wooing, voluntarily loving your wife, laying down your life.

[11:49] Christ gave Himself for His bride. It's not only voluntary, it's sacrificial.

[12:00] He gave Himself. He's talking about His death. He's talking about the cross. He's talking about coming to an end to Himself for the good of someone else, His bride.

[12:13] It's voluntary, it's sacrificial, it's substitutionary. He gave Himself up for her. He took what was deserving, His bride deserved.

[12:26] You get it? Martin Lloyd-Jones, who was a wonderful preacher and pastor of a bygone era, when he was preaching through this passage, he said something to the effect, what God gives us a pattern of, husbands, is none other than the atoning work of Jesus Christ in the way we love our wives.

[12:56] Husbands, you want a model for loving your wife? Think cross. Think atonement. Brothers, to love our brides like Christ loved His bride is to give ourselves for them.

[13:11] to give up our lives. But you know what? That giving up your life is not the goal. That's the means to another end.

[13:24] We give our lives for something glorious, for something splendid. And we see that played out in verses 26 and 27.

[13:36] There are three that's in 26 and 27. Let me just read them to you. Christ gave Himself up that He, Christ, might sanctify her.

[13:48] The church. That's in verse 26. And then verse 27, Christ gave Himself up that He might present the church to Himself in splendor. And then, also in verse 27, that she might be holy and without blemish.

[14:07] You know what all those that's have in common? They're all purpose clauses, which means this. Jesus gave Himself up for a goal. He gave Himself up for the splendor of His bride.

[14:21] For her holiness. holiness. He gave Himself up for the greatest good of the one He loved. Holiness.

[14:34] Let's go back to that first that. That He might sanctify her. When you hear the word sanctify, I know many of you in this room, when you hear that word sanctify, you think of sanctification, the process of being made more and more like Jesus.

[14:52] That work of God that He does in cooperation with a saint to become like Jesus. But, that's not how this word is being used here in this passage.

[15:04] This sanctify is actually a one-time definitive act in which God calls a sinner out of sin and consecrates that sinner to God in holiness.

[15:18] And so, instead of progressive sanctification, sanctification, you need to be thinking positional sanctification. This is true of you in Christ. You are a holy one.

[15:31] You are a saint. It happened the moment you believed. God set you apart for Himself. And we see how He did that.

[15:42] That He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. Christ sanctified us by cleansing us. It's a moral, spiritual cleansing that's being spoken of here.

[16:01] Cleansing us from our sin. That's what He's getting at. And He did that by washing us with the water of the word.

[16:12] What is He talking about there? He's talking about the gospel. Jesus cleanses us from sin through the message of the cross of Christ. A sinner believes in what God and Christ has done for them.

[16:26] They hear the message, they believe it, and they are cleansed from their sin. Who will wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

[16:40] So in love for us, Christ gave Himself up for us to sanctify us, and He did that by cleansing us with His atoning blood. Behind this is a really interesting practice.

[16:54] In the first century there's this thing called the bridal bath, in which a bride on her, or the day before her wedding day, would bathe herself to present her clean to her husband, her bride.

[17:08] Paul is pulling on that strength that He might sanctify her. Second that, that He might present the church to Himself in splendor.

[17:19] Now, I want you to see two things here. It's Christ presenting the church to Himself. And what that means is this. This is a work of Jesus.

[17:33] Christ doing a work from beginning to end in His bride. But the other thing I want to point out is this. When this presentation takes place.

[17:47] Whenever it takes place, Christ is going to present to Himself a church in splendor, without spot, without wrinkle, without any such thing.

[18:00] You know what He's talking about? He's talking about when He comes back. Jesus is going to present, to Himself a church perfected. And what that means is this.

[18:14] He's in it for the long haul. He's making us clean. And on the day He comes back, He's going to present us to Himself in perfected glory, in perfected splendor.

[18:27] Which brings us to the last of that. That she might be holy and without blemish. It's in contrast to the without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. Those would be spot and wrinkles. They're imperfections.

[18:39] We try to cover those up. Christ died for His bride so that He could one day present her to Himself in moral perfection, in splendor.

[18:51] The goal of Christ's sacrificial death was the moral splendor of the church. That she would be holy and without blame.

[19:01] maybe you're thinking, man, I thought this was a passage about husbands. Husbands, love your wife like Christ loved the church.

[19:16] Give yourself up for the splendor of your wife. What kind of splendor? Paul spells it out in spiritual terms, holy and blameless.

[19:29] brothers, I know many of you are wonderful protectors of your families, of your wives. Keep on doing that. I know many of you are just outstanding providers for your wife.

[19:44] Keep on doing that. That's right on the money. But if we take our cues from Jesus in this passage, do you know what our greatest aim is in loving our wives?

[19:56] It's their holiness. This is a call to spiritual leadership, brothers. This is a call to lead our wives in such a way that we lay down our lives for their greatest good, to be like Jesus.

[20:14] So brothers, love your wives into holiness. Lay your lives down so that your wife can spiritually thrive in Christ. You're caring for her spiritual welfare above all else.

[20:29] But you can't give your wife something that you don't have. You can't lead your wife somewhere that you yourself are not going.

[20:41] So to spiritually lead your wife starts with your own personal holiness. That's where it starts. And your personal holiness starts and ends with Christ.

[20:55] brother, is Jesus your first love? Are you seeking to obey the greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with everything you got?

[21:10] The greatest thing that you can do, husband, the greatest thing that you can do for your wife is to love your God with everything you got.

[21:21] To love him without any reservations. all sails to the wind loving Jesus. Full throttle love for Jesus. That is the greatest thing that you can do for your wife.

[21:36] That's where spiritual leadership starts. In your private devotion to Christ. Now, if you're pursuing Jesus that way, do you know who's going to notice?

[21:49] Oh, your wife will notice that. She might not know what to do with you, actually. She may just want to come under your care and trust herself to you fully.

[22:04] Allow you to lead her into greater and greater holiness. It might be an adjustment, but it's a good adjustment. Now, you might be thinking this, but my wife is more spiritually mature than I am.

[22:20] My wife is a spiritual giant. I'm just showing up. Well, brothers, here's the good news. It's not about how mature you are. It's about how faithful you are, living out the role God has entrusted to you.

[22:38] You don't have to be a spiritual giant to lead your wife. Look who I am. Your wife's holiness is not dependent on you, brother.

[22:48] your wife's holiness is dependent on Jesus. So, because he's the vine, do you know what you do? Over and over and over again.

[23:00] You point your bride to her Savior over and over and over again. You love her to Jesus. You love her into holiness. There's only one Savior.

[23:13] And to love your wife like Christ is not to be Christ. It's to love her to Christ. Think of your wife's splendor as Christ-likeness.

[23:26] Holiness. And your job, brothers, is to love your wife so that she becomes more and more like Jesus. You're not seeking to transform your wife into your image, but you're seeking to love her into the image of Christ.

[23:44] Christ has delegated you the responsibility and you fulfill it for the glory of Christ as you depend on Christ. I'll tell you what, guys, I think you'll testify with this, that there's no greater joy for a Christian husband than to see his wife spiritually thriving, loving her Savior.

[24:13] so we exercise our responsibility, our headship in love for the welfare of our wives, and at the top of that list is her spiritual health.

[24:32] So here's what that means, guys. Our eyes need to be on Jesus. In order to lead your wife well, eyes on Jesus, hearts for him.

[24:46] Second, very practical recommendation to lead your wives. Pray for your wife. Make time, maybe it's on your commute, maybe it's got some down time every day, pray for your wife.

[25:04] It's Christ-like. Ben was talking about it earlier. Romans 8, Jesus intercedes for us. He's at the right hand of God. Hebrews chapter 7, he is alive to intercede for us.

[25:22] Brothers, let's intercede for our wives. Maybe you're saying right now, well, I just wouldn't know what to pray. Let me give you some suggestions. Start praying that your wife would love Jesus above all else.

[25:37] start praying Ephesians 3, 16-19 for your wife. I find myself praying that for my wife a lot. That God by his spirit would strengthen my wife's inner being, that she would know God's great love for her.

[25:53] And be strengthened by that. Pray for wisdom for your wife, whatever she's facing that day, whether in the workplace or in the home. Pray for your wife for patience, especially if she's raising little ones.

[26:07] Pray for them. Direct them to the Bible over and over again. If Jesus bathed his bride with the gospel, let's be bathing our brides with the gospel, reminding them over and over again who they are in Christ.

[26:29] This is who you are. This is who you are. You're blood-bought. You belong to the king. That's who you are. Not what you look like. It's who you belong to.

[26:42] And you belong to first and foremost Jesus. Young men. Young unmarried men in the room. I was helping move somebody yesterday and I was working alongside two young guys and I said, I got something in your sermon for you tomorrow.

[26:58] Middle school guys, high school guys, college guys, unmarried guys. You don't get married and flip this switch and all of a sudden you're loving your wife like Christ loved the church. You start training yourself now for that.

[27:12] You start loving now that way. Loving your mothers and loving your sisters, looking out for their welfare. Get in the practice of dying to yourself for the welfare of the women God God has placed in your life.

[27:26] You're going to build some momentum into marriage. Sisters, unmarried sisters, I'm just going to give you some humble advice.

[27:41] Here's who to be looking for, for a husband. Someone who's going to love Jesus more than you. That's who you're looking for. He's loving Jesus more than you.

[27:53] He will love you well. Well, we've taken a lot of time on this first one. Let's now move to point three. Husbands, love your wife as Christ loves his body.

[28:07] This is in verses 28 through 30. So, Paul has been spending a lot of time in comparing a husband's love for his wife to Christ's love for his bride.

[28:18] But in verse 28, he seems to change metaphors. He moves from bride talk to body talk. He says in verse 28, in the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

[28:40] It's a comparison. What I love about the Apostle Paul is he's a realist. And so what he's doing here is he's appealing to something every husband can relate to, looking out for his own body.

[28:54] Says it in verse 29, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it. Okay, just a quick note. In verse 28, he refers to the husband's body, and then in verse 29, he refers to the husband's flesh.

[29:12] He's using them synonymously, and there's a reason for that. It's going to come out later. So hold on to that thought. But what Paul is saying here is as you take care of your own body, husband, as you rest it, exercise it, protect it, as you feed it and clean it, did I mention feed it?

[29:32] Take that way of thinking and apply it to how you love your wife. Just as you take care of yourself, love yourself, take care of your wife, love your wife.

[29:43] Behind it's the golden rule, love your neighbor as yourself. Brother, your closest neighbor is your wife. But you know what, there's something about this that kind of falls a little flat because just before he's talking about loving your wife like Christ loved the church, it's like the selfless kind of love and now he says love your wife like your body, it's like Paul, he kind of like went from selfless to selfish.

[30:11] What's going on here? There's more going on here. There are a couple clues in this text to help us see that.

[30:22] The first clue is in the beginning of verse 28, that first clause phrase in the same way. In the same way, husbands, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. That phrase in the same way at the beginning of verse 28 is actually pointing back.

[30:38] Pointing back to what, you ask? Well, the way that Christ loves the church. But you said, well, in verses 25 to 27, Christ loves his church like a bride.

[30:48] He's not talking about loving his church like a body. What are you talking about? Look at verse 23. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body.

[31:06] And there it is. Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies as Christ loves the church which is his body. That's what's under this passage.

[31:19] Under verses 28 and 29. Even though Paul has been talking about the church as the bride of Christ, he now introduces the church as the body of Christ with that phrase in the same way.

[31:31] It's never left his thoughts. So what we see here is Christ as a model. He's appealing to us husbands to love our brides as Christ loved his church.

[31:47] In this case, his body. In verse 29, we read this, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it. Just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body.

[32:02] Do you see what Paul is doing right there? He is exhorting husbands to love their wives as their own bodies just as Christ loves his body, the church.

[32:16] And so when it talks about hey, husbands, nourish and cherish your wife like you do your own body, just as Christ did the church. What we can say there is Christ nourished and cherishes his body, the church.

[32:32] So husbands, nourish your wives. That word nourish is going to show up again just around the corner in Ephesians 6.4. It's the only other place it shows up in the New Testament.

[32:45] And in that context, Paul is telling parents to do this, to raise your children in the discipline, nurture, and instruction of the Lord.

[32:59] And the idea there is that we nurture our children into maturity. We nurture our children into adulthood. We bring them up to live out the fullness of who God has made them to be.

[33:13] That's our task as parents. But when we look at it here in this verse, we've got to remember Paul's not talking to parents, he's talking to husbands.

[33:26] And he's using the framework of bodies. So here's what he's getting at. It would appear that Paul wants a husband to nurture their wives as they do their own bodies into health.

[33:41] Physical, emotional, spiritual health. Think of how Jesus nurtures his own body. The church. He provides for all of our needs. He has our greatest good at heart.

[33:52] He wants us to thrive under his headship. vitality. Think vitality. Husbands, you're being called here to lovingly exercise your responsibility as head so that your wives thrive.

[34:13] We don't exercise our headship to squelch our wives. That's not the picture here. We leverage our responsibility as husbands. we love our wives so that they become what God has fully called them to be.

[34:30] We want our wives to thrive. Sisters, married sisters, are you feeling God's love for you right now? Do you get a sense of what God wants for you in your husband?

[34:44] He is looking out for you. not looking to put you under someone's thumb. Not only are husbands to nourish their wives, we are to cherish our wives.

[34:58] In that original sense of that word, it actually means warmth, as in tenderness. This word also shows up in one other place in the New Testament.

[35:08] It's in 1 Thessalonians 2 7. And Paul starts by saying this, but we were gentle among you like a nursing mother taking care, cherishing her own children.

[35:20] So when we hear that word cherish, brothers, we think tenderness. We think warmth. We think gentleness. We exercise our responsibility gently, tenderly, just as Christ tenderly cares for his body, the church.

[35:44] Christ nourishes and cherishes us because we are so intimately connected to him, he thinks of us as part of him.

[36:02] That's how much he loves us. And so what we're getting told here, brothers, is this. We are so intimately connected to our wives, we must think of them as part of us just as the church is part of Christ.

[36:23] We are to love our wives as Christ loves his body. Point four. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loves his church and is one with his church.

[36:45] In verse 31, Paul quotes Genesis 2.24. 2.24 happens, this is one of my favorite passages of scripture.

[36:56] Remember this? Adam is naming all of the animals, he bear, she bear, he giraffe, she giraffe, he gorilla, she gorilla. Remember that?

[37:08] And there's no she man. he's like, he man, where's the she man? He gorilla, she gorilla, no she woman, she man, there's none of that.

[37:21] Remember what God does? Falls asleep and he pulls out of Adam one of his ribs and he forms Eve out of his ribs. Do you remember that?

[37:32] And then do you remember what God does? He presents her to Adam and in my little imagination, this is how I think it went. You ready?

[37:45] Adam wakes up, oh man, and before him is something amazing. I think he would have said the equivalent, Hebrew equivalent of whoa.

[38:01] Whoa, God you're good. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And then he says, she came out of man. Whoa, man, whoa, man.

[38:19] You get it? It is Adam naming Eve in utter joy. He's no longer alone.

[38:31] He is a helper fit for him. And God provided her. for him. And so Genesis 2 24 is the summing up of what God did in Genesis 2.

[38:45] It is the biblical foundation for marriage. It's shot through your Bibles. It reads, therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

[38:59] Paul has been talking about Christ's love for his bride and Christ's love for his body as a motivator for husbands to love their wife as their bride, as their wife, as their body.

[39:14] But by quoting Genesis 2 24 here, Paul is bringing it all together in a climax in his way of thinking. He's bringing together these thoughts of both bride and body.

[39:29] for this reason a man and woman leave their father and mother in order to get married and become one flesh, one body.

[39:42] So remember that 28 to 29 switch from body to flesh? This is where Paul was heading with that. Genesis 2 24. Brothers, love your wife.

[39:55] You are one with your wife just as Christ is united with his bride, the church. There is an awesome surprise in this passage.

[40:11] Would you look at verse 32? He just started, quoted Genesis 2 24 and then he says this, this is a mystery. This mystery is profound.

[40:23] And you're left kind of saying like, huh? What? What mystery? What are you talking about? Huh? What's so mysterious about Genesis 2 24? It's very clear. It's very compelling.

[40:34] A husband and his bride becoming one in body? That's very clear, thank you. What's so mysterious about that? Well, look at the rest of verse 32.

[40:45] This mystery is profound and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. What are you talking about, Paul? When Paul uses the word mystery in his letters, it has to do with making known something that's been secret on a large scale.

[41:03] In Ephesians, he's been talking about in terms of Jews and Gentiles, that God had kept secret, that his plan for all along was to create a whole new people group out of Jews and Gentiles by uniting them in Christ.

[41:16] It was a mystery made known in Christ. And in Romans 11, he talks about another mystery, the partial hardening of Israel until the fullness of Gentiles come in.

[41:29] The mystery is a secret. It has to do with a big sweep of salvation and God bringing stuff into clarity in Christ.

[41:42] And so the mystery Paul is talking about here in Ephesians 5.32, it's the making known of another kind of a secret. I've told you, Genesis 2.24 is the foundation for marriage, a lifelong exclusive covenant between one man and one woman.

[41:58] And what God does throughout the Old Testament is he takes Genesis 2.24 and uses it to describe his relationship with his people. He describes himself as a husband and his people as his bride all throughout the Old Testament.

[42:16] He's exclusively devoted to his wife, Israel, and his wife, Israel, is to be exclusively devoted to him. We see it in passages like Jeremiah 2.1 and 2.

[42:27] Jeremiah 31.31 and 32. Isaiah 54. Hosea 1-3. It's a tragic example. Israel is a whore, unfaithful to her husband.

[42:40] It is a hard thing to read. If you haven't read Ezekiel 16, oh, you've got to read Ezekiel 16. It is a beautiful picture of God's redemptive love for Israel whom he makes a bride.

[42:55] His bride. All throughout the Old Testament, God refers to his covenant people as his bride. Which brings us back to the mystery of Ephesians 5.32. Here's the mystery.

[43:07] Made known. Christ claims to be the bridegroom. He says, I'm him. New covenant in my blood.

[43:22] I am the bridegroom now. That's the mystery. The church is his new covenant bride. Jesus is saying it's about me.

[43:36] The union between Christ and his body, the church, is a mystery made known. Jesus is claiming to be the fulfillment of this picture in the Old Testament.

[43:48] So here's what Paul is saying about Genesis 2.24. Genesis 2.24 has always been pointing to Jesus in the church. It always has been.

[44:00] It was always aimed at Jesus in the church. It was going to be fulfilled in him. God knew it when it was penned. That's why Paul says, and I am saying, he's putting his apostolic stamp on this.

[44:18] when we realize that Genesis 2.24 has always been pointing to Christ, we realize a couple things. First, Christ, the second Adam, is reversing the failure and fallout of the first Adam's marriage.

[44:34] Second, when you think of Genesis 2.24, you need to be thinking Christ in the church. It's pointing to him. It's a big picture, isn't it? third, our marriages are living examples of Christ's redemptive love for his bride.

[44:55] Do you know about the passion play that takes place in Zion? It's a huge scale event. And what the passion play is, is a live living out of Christ's redemptive work.

[45:10] Brothers and sisters, your marriages are live passion plays of Christ loving his bride. The key to Christian marriage is Christ.

[45:27] Oh, I've gone long. Sorry. Husbands, let me just boil down to this. Brothers, the greatest thing that you can do for your wife is love Jesus.

[45:39] Wives, the greatest thing that you can do for your husband is love Jesus. And so when you have a husband and a wife both loving Jesus with all their hearts, you know what's going to happen?

[45:54] You're going to have a marriage that thrives. And you're going to have a marriage that speaks a word about Christ and his church. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[46:04] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.