| 2 July, 2000 | The Rejoicing Bride | Isaiah 61:10 |
But what made it the most special of all, was the attitude of
the bride. As I watched that young woman get married that day,
she struck me as almost a perfect role model of how the church
ought to be acting about the 2nd coming of her bridegroom, the
Lord Jesus Christ.
The ceremony started out typical enough, the ushers light the
fancy candles up front, the mothers light the candles next to
the unity candle, and then all the men come in and line up , and
then the bride's attendants come down the aisle one at a time.
Standard wedding.
There were the usual cute little kids scattering rose petals down
the aisle, looking all around, very typical.
But when the father escorted his daughter down the aisle, what
I saw struck me as very special.
Maybe not everybody else saw what I did, but anyway; what I saw
really caught my attention.
As the bride was coming down the aisle, it struck me that I have
never seen a woman that looked more eager to be married, for all
the right reasons, than this woman was.
The look on her face was excellent. I realize that all brides
look excellent, I've never seen one that didn't, but I saw something
special in her expression, in her eyes.
She looked like a little girl on Christmas Eve that already knows
there's a pony out in the back yard, and she can hardly wait.
She had her hair done up in ringlets, that fell down in back,
and they were all jiggling. She had the giggles.
Here she is coming down the aisle on daddy's arm, and she's got
the giggles. How neat.
Finally they get up on the platform, and she and Aaron are looking
at each other, and you could see it in both their faces; "Wow,
this is great!"
They were both exactly where they wanted to be, doing exactly
what they wanted to do, and it was incredibly obvious, it was
good to watch.
Both of them looked wonderful, she had a beautiful white gown,
he was all duded up just perfect, and both of them were obviously
delighted in each other.
Turn to Isaiah 61:10; "I will greatly rejoice in the LORD,
my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with
the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels."
God normally doesn't have a whole lot favorable to say about people
going overboard in adorning or decorating themselves to the max,
but in this particular case, God speaks very favorably about it.
Isaiah is greatly rejoicing in the Lord, and he compares it to
the very fancy dress and decorations that a bride and bridegroom
wear.
Why is Isaiah so joyful? Because of what God has given him: the
most perfect clothing in all of creation: robes of righteousness
and garments of salvation.
I believe that one reason God originally created men and women
naked and unashamed was so that later on He could teach us the
most wonderful object lesson imaginable.
When man sinned against God, the human spirit was separated from
God, and died, and sin came to dwell in that part of the human
personality that Paul calls; "the flesh".
At that time, God acted in a way to make Adam and Eve realize
that everything had changed: He did something in their heads to
make them self conscious.
Their reaction was to try to cover themselves, but their desire
for a covering was merely one symptom of their real need; salvation
from sin, redemption, atonement.
The Hebrew word for atonement means; "to cover, to make a
covering". I bet that's not just a coincidence.
God provided a covering of animal skins for Adam and Eve, which
meant that innocent blood was shed, and God also provides a perfect
covering of sin for everyone that receives Jesus Christ as Lord
and Savior.
Isaiah is joyful because God has provided him with robes of righteousness
and garments of salvation that are like the glorious garments
of a bridegroom and a bride.
In Revelation 19, verse 6 we read; "Alleluia: for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth.
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage
of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints."
God gave Adam and Eve just enough clothing, coats of skins, to
get them started on the object lesson.
When we go to a wedding and see the bride and groom dressed so
very fine, it reminds us of how God will someday conclude His
object lesson.
He has already clothed us in robes of righteousness, and garments
of salvation, but we have to wait until our heavenly wedding with
Jesus to see just how fine they really look on us.
Someday, when He presents us to Himself at that glorious heavenly
wedding, we will get to see just how excellent and lovely the
righteousness of Jesus Christ is, and how very good God thinks
we look when we are all covered with it.
So anytime that we go to a wedding and see the bride and groom
dressed so fine, it should be a reminder to us of what God has
already done for us, and will continue to do for us.
We don't really see it yet, but we will see it some day, and in
the meantime, whenever you go to a wedding, and see the bride
and groom dressed in those beautiful clothes, let it remind you
of the beautiful salvation that God has already covered you with,
and dressed you up in.
Something else neat that happened at that wedding was when Laura
gave her father back the promise ring he had given her years before.
During that part of the wedding where the father gives the bride
away, she turned to her father and as best I can remember it,
this is what she said:
"Dad, when I was 16, you gave me this Promise Ring as a symbol
of my promise that I belong to you until such time as I would
marry.
And now, on my wedding day, I return the Ring to you. I have kept
my promise."
Over in 2 Corinthians 11:2, Paul tells the Corinthian church;
"I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ."
The Corinthians were listening to false teachers, and Paul was
worried about them being spiritually unfaithful. He continues;
"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh - some false teacher- preacheth another
Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit,
which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not
accepted, ye might well bear with him."
Before you got saved, Satan did everything he could to keep you
from trusting Jesus Christ and receiving Him as Savior.
After you got saved, his tactics changed. Now he tries to get
you to leave the faith, and go off in some bogus direction. Spiritual
unfaithfulness.
Paul warns in different places of those that preach another Gospel,
those that preach a different Jesus, those that would get you
involved with a Spirit that is not the Holy Spirit.
Imagine how angry, how indignant you would feel if I stood up
here and told you a story about a young couple that were engaged
to be married, good kids with everything going for them, and then
some creep decided to spoil things.
What would you think if you learned that some Don Juan took it
upon himself, just for meanness, that while the bridegroom was
away trying to get everything in order, this unscrupulous man
came and began distracting the young woman, flattered her, beguiled
her, deceived her, and finally seduced her?
You would think that evil seducer needed to be horse whipped,
or worse, and the young woman was a fool, right?
If the young woman knew what that evil man was planning, she would
have been on her guard, she would never had listened to a word
he said, and she would have thrown something at him every time
he came around, right?
Satan plans that same kind of corruption against you and me, every
one of us. Maybe you never thought about it that way before, so
I'm telling you now.
Satan would desire to seduce you away from Jesus. Be suspicious
of anything that looks like a spiritual deception, because it
probably is.
Remember that counterfeit money doesn't have Ronald McDonald's
picture on it, it looks almost like the real thing.
Satan is willing to let his spiritual counterfeits contain 98%
truth, if he can get you to follow 2% worth of lie.
Because he will do it again next year, and next year, and in just
a short time, the Jesus that you are following is no longer the
Jesus of the Bible, but a Jesus that the world, your flesh, and
the devil have substituted in His place.
Stay in the Word. Keep your eyes on the real Jesus. Be suspicious
of anything that would lead you away from Him. Keep yourself spiritually
pure and faithful.
The next thing that really drew my attention happened when the
bride and groom spent a moment of special time together with the
Lord.
While somebody was singing a song, the bride and groom knelt together
at an altar toward the rear of the platform and shared communion
together, just the two of them.
None of the other wedding party, nobody but the just the two of
them.
There is always time for close communion with Jesus.
No matter what else may be going on in your life, whether it is
good times or bad times, take time away from what ever else is
going on and spend time with Jesus, just the two of you.
Your life will always have a lot of distractions, both good and
bad; take time to make time to get away with Jesus.
I won't tell you that it doesn't matter what you do or how you
do it, because some times alone with Jesus are better than other
times, what works for me might not be what is best for you.
Just remember to make time. Remember to take time. You can tell
the difference when you do, and you can tell the difference when
you don't.
The rest of the wedding proceeded like most weddings, rings were
exchanged, vows were said, the unity candle was lit, getting toward
the end.
One of the last things that happens during the wedding ceremony,
is the time when the bridegroom gets to kiss the bride. I was
impressed. That man put one on her.
Got a round of applause from the congregation, he should have
gotten a standing ovation, it was first class.
In the Song of Solomon chapter 1 verse 2, the bride says; "Let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better
than wine."
Wine in the Bible is frequently used as a symbol of earthly pleasure,
and if we think about the bride of Christ (that's us) preferring
His love and attention over all the pleasures that the world has
to offer, that makes a good contrast.
What is our goal and aim in life? To get all that the world has
to offer? Tempting isn't it? We live in a culture that makes it
seem very possible.
Or would we rather have the love and attention of Jesus, and be
preoccupied with Him? What do you want?
We all need to get our minds fixed on the right kind of pleasure,
what we really want. We need to have our minds made up, and our
hearts fixed on Jesus as our chief desire. That is the pleasure
that we need to want.
We all know what happens after the bridegroom kisses the bride,
they turn and face the congregation and the minister says; "
It is now my pleasure to present to you Mr. & Mrs. Aaron See."
At this point, two really neat things happened at the same time.
In Isaiah 62:5, we read; " as the bridegroom rejoiceth over
the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."
Aaron had her by the hand, and he was one happy dude. You could
see it all over his face. He was just standing there...beaming:
it was all over him.
And she was just as good. She's got her one hand in his, and with
the other one, she's going; "YES!"
Is that what we want? Are we looking for the time
when Jesus will come and take us to be His Bride, and we'll be
going; "YES!" alongside Him?
Or are you going; "Well, I don't know if I want Jesus to
come and take me to glory just yet, I finally got enough money
saved up for the down payment on a new Toyota, I always wanted
me a new Toyota..."
God is rejoicing over us, are we rejoicing over Him? Is He what
we want, is He what makes us rejoice?
We need to set our hearts on the things of God, and God Himself,
instead of anything else, because nothing else can even come close.
1Corinthians 2:9 tells us; "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him."
Part of our problem is that we have never seen what God has in
store for us. So we wonder what's really there.
I hear tell that there is an enormous treasure of gold in the
Vatican. How many of you here today have ever been to the Vatican?
Anybody remember a TV show years ago called; "Let's make
a deal"?
OK, let's make a deal. You can have all the gold that's in the
Vatican, or you can have what's behind this door; how many of
you would prefer to take what's behind this door?
Why? You've already said that you've never seen the Vatican, how
do you know there's any gold there? How do you know the Vatican
even exists?
For that matter, how many of you have even seen Rome? So how do
you really know that Rome even exists?
Somebody told you? Did they lie? No. Somebody told me about heaven.
Did they lie? No.
The promises of God to us are so sure and positive, that when
we read them, we need to go; "YES!" They are ours
right now! We've already got `em!
After the wedding was over there was this nice reception, and
I was wandering around, and I went up to Art, the father of the
bride, and asked him; "Where are Aaron and Laura going on
their honeymoon?"
And he told me; "Michigan." Michigan. Michigan? Why
would anybody go to Michigan any time, much less on their honeymoon?
I didn't really know what to say about that. It kinda' didn't
register. And that's the way the world responds when we talk about
looking forward to being with Jesus.
How many of you want to go to heaven but you don't want to leave
right now?
Kind of like you'd love to be with Jesus but you don't want to
leave Tennessee and go to Michigan, do you? Um Hm.
How wonderful if
we could all have the attitude that Paul had;
Philippians 1:21 tells us; "For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain.
But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet
what I shall choose, I know not.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and
to be with Christ; which is far better:
Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you."
It's perfectly OK to want to stay here because there are still
things that we need to be doing, loved ones that we need to be
close to, work that still needs to be done.
But what if Jesus just came and took us all away and you didn't
have to worry about all those things, wouldn't that be great?
That would be wonderful.
We don't know for sure that we will be the ones that get that
privilege, but some Christians will.
Back before there was anything else, there was a relationship.
There was a relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and
there was love in that relationship.
That relationship was so excellent that God wanted to expand it,
and He wanted to include us, and He has, and He will.
God plans a wonderful relationship for all of us with Himself.
I think that's why He created men and women like He did, and created
marriage, because when we do it the way He intends, it gives us
a little picture, a sort of object lesson of what He plans for
us.
There are a lot of problems in the world we live in today. Problems
with people, problems with relationships, problems with marriages.
People make jokes and disparaging remarks about marriages and
about their spouses, but God doesn't think it's a joke.
God thinks it's the best object lesson He could give us about
what it might be like to be with Him.
God still holds up marriage as something good, something that
can teach us about a more wonderful relationship still to come.
Most every married person, maybe not all, but probably most, no
matter how difficult their marriage, has probably had some good
times in that marriage.
Take the best that a human marriage relationship has to offer,
multiply it a thousand times, and put it on a whole different
level.
That's what it will be like when Jesus comes. That's what God
has in mind for us.
We need to be looking for His appearing. We need to be waiting
for a wedding.
We need to have the giggles. We need to keep our promises. We
need to be excited about it. We need to be ready to go.
God has wonderful plans for all of us that we don't even have
a clue about. That's fine, we can trust Him with the details.
But we need to live with that expectation that it's going to be
lots better than any of us can ever imagine. Even so come quickly,
Lord Jesus.