Be Careful How You Talk About Christ’s Bride

I was in Moscow, Idaho this past week and a gentleman came up to me in a restaurant. He recognized me. He came up to me in a restaurant and he greeted me and I I I knew he was greeting me but I had no idea what he was saying. And then he said, "Do you do you not understand that?" I said, "No, I don't." And um he had greeted me in in Swahili because he had been to Kenya and he learned a greeting in Swahili. And I said, "Oh, okay." And he looked at me and he said, "Well, weren't you living in South Africa?" And I said, "Well, no, actually we were living in Zambia, but neither place speaks Swahili." And it, you know, we we kind of looked awkwardly at one another and then he went on his way. But that that happened that that that happened so often. People just sort of make these generalizations. Another thing that was always a little comical to me is, you know, people would find out that we were living in Zambia and they would say, "Oh, do you know soand so from Uganda?" uh or do you know so and so uh from you know Ghana or wherever places you know more than a thousand miles away from where we lived and I would I would try to help them understand the nature of the question and I'd say that would be kind of like you meeting somebody from Saskatoon Saskatchewan Canada and asking them if they know somebody in Chihuahua Mexico because it's on the same continent it and then they just oh then they kind of register. But then there's the other side of it where people would ask people over in Zambia would ask about the church in America. What's the church like in America? And I I would just have to try to explain to them that we're 50 states that the church in Maine and the church in Texas just you can't answer that question although we try to. And then I would come over here and people would say well well well what's the church like in Africa? Not even Zambia, right? Like what's the church like in Africa? all 55 countries on the largest continent on Earth. And people fully expect an answer to a question that broad because we're used to talking about the church like that. But it gets even more pointed because we have a tendency to make a number of statements about the church. Have you heard any of these? The church is racist. The church is white supremacist. The church was complicit in slavery. The church is misogynistic. The church is homophobic. The church is too political. The church is not political enough. The church is too Republican. The church is too Democrat. The church is on the wrong side of history. The church is irrelevant. The church is boring. The church is, the church is, the church is, or the church is not. We readily make these kinds of statements about the church. And there's a couple of things wrong with those statements. One, making those statements is kind of like saying America is or Africa is. It's painting with too broad a brush. Here's the other problem. When people make the error of speaking too generally about America or too generally about somewhere else, they're rarely as negative as they are when they make generalized statements about the church. Almost always when we make those general statements, it's about something where the church is deficient. The church is deficient here. The church is deficient there. Oh, if the church were only. How many times have we heard that whatever the problem is in society? Oh, if the church was just doing what the church was supposed to do, we wouldn't have these problems. It's all the church's fault. Can't say amen. You ought to say, "Ouch." This is how we talk about the church. Well, Pastor Tom asked me about my title for my sermon this morning. And the title of my sermon this morning is Be careful how you talk about Christ's bride. Be careful how you talk about Christ's bride. We talk about his bride in ways that we would never speak about a man's bride, at least not, and expect to walk away with all of our teeth. And we do it flippantly. And we do it constantly because we think wrongly about the church. We do not hold the church in the kind of esteem that we ought to if we truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. And then there are those who say, "No, no, no. I I love Jesus, just not the church." It's like coming up to me and saying, you know, Bod I, man, I I love you. I I just I I I believe we just should be friends. That's awesome. But I just need you to keep your wife away from me because I don't like her. As we'd say in Texas, that dog won't hunt. How is it that we understand that? That is a ridiculous idea. I love you and I want to have a close intimate relationship with you, but I hate the one that you have united yourself to and a one flesh covenant that we call marriage. Can that be okay? And the answer is absolutely not. Yet, that's exactly what we do with Christ and his bride, the church. We bash her constantly. We badmouth her constantly, all the while claiming that we love Jesus. Why do I use this comparison? Well, because the Bible does. Open your Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 5. And I want us to look at a very familiar passage of scripture, but I want us to flip it around. Normally when we go to Ephesians chapter 5, we're beginning in verse 22, we're we're usually talking about marriage, right? That we we we think about that and that this is about the role of the wife and the role of the husband. But what's the metaphor? What is the relationship that the Bible uses in order to teach us what we need to learn about marriage? The relationship that the Bible uses is the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church. So today, we're going to look at it backwards, and we're going to see what this text has to teach us, has to say to us about Christ and his bride, the church. And my hope is that we're warned to be careful how we talk about Christ's bride. Be careful how you speak about the church. Several truths that we find in this text. Let's read it. First, Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse 22. One of the most familiar passages really in all of the Bible. Ephesians chapter 5, beginning verse 22. But as I read it, I want you to pay attention to the references to Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself his savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their own husbands. 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 might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 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, 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. Here's the key text. Verse 32, this mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. This is a profound mystery. And this profound mystery refers to Christ and the church. But what does this profound mystery teach us about Christ and the church? More specifically, how does it warn us to be careful how we speak about Christ's bride? Number one, we need to be careful because Christ is indeed the head of the church. Be careful how you speak about the church because Christ is the head of the church. And whatever you're saying about the church, you're saying this in the presence of and in reference to her head, who is Christ. Listen to it again. beginning verse 22. 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 is himself its savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. There is no man at the head of the church. I don't care how many meetings they have in Rome, how much smoke, what color smoke comes out. I don't care how many men they name pope, how many men they identify as the supposed vicor of Christ on earth. There is no man at the head of the church. Christ is the head of the church. The monarch in England may be the head of the church of England, but that monarch is not the head of the church of Christ. Christ is the head of the church. This is incredibly important. The church is never going to have a a new era. It's interesting. You know, we're we're in in football season now and people are always talking about, you know, if there's a new owner or if there's a new head coach or there's a new starting quarterback. You know, now we've moved from this era to that era. few basketball fans. I I I grew up in Los Angeles. I'm a basketball fan. I'm a Laker fan. And you know, they talk about the the Kareem era and then we went to the Magic era and then the Shaq era and then the Kobe era and then the LeBron era. Um, no such thing with the church. No such thing with the church. Whatever the era, whatever the season, whatever the epic of history, Christ is, has always been, and will always be the head of the church. And when you talk about her, you need to keep that in mind. Christ is her head. Christ is her authority. Christ is her protector. Christ is her champion. Just that thought in itself would keep a lot of things from coming out of our mouths as it relates to the church. Listen to what scripture says. Ephesians 4 15- 16. Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head and to Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Colossians 1:18, he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. That in everything he might be preeminent, especially in the church. Be careful. Be careful how you speak about the church because Christ is her head. Whatever you think, you sift it through that lens. Secondly, be careful how you speak about the church because Christ loves the church. Careful. He loves her. It's just just think about how fearful we would be to speak about a man's wife whom he loves. Don't don't don't don't don't don't don't don't talk about my wife. Just don't do it. I'm saved, but I remember some stuff. And as much as I love my bride, that pales in comparison to how much Christ loves the church. You think about that the next time you say the church is or the church is not. Christ loves the church. Do you treat the church like that? Do you treat the church like it is loved by Christ, cherished by Christ, the apple of his eye. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Greatest commandment reminds us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. I I see this text, this passage, and and it gave rise to a definition in my mind many years ago. Love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. And Christ is the ultimate picture of this this this act of the will. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done. It's accompanied by emotion. It's not led by emotion. It's not tossed to and fro. There is emotion. There is passion. And it leads to action on behalf of its object. Christ demonstrate his love for us in this and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love hath no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends. And Christ laid down his life for his bride, the church. Now that raises some interesting theological questions. And some of you may already be raising an eyebrow a a as I say this a and your your thought is well wait a minute wait a minute didn't Jesus die for everybody not just for the church well doctrally speaking we hold to what's called particular redemption or limited atonement Christ died for his bride the church his death was sufficient for the whole world but specifically efficient for the church. There's a couple of ways we talk about this. Again, we can't argue this whole thing out today, but I I want you to understand the perspective. First of all, I want you to understand that this passage is one of the greatest arguments in the whole Bible for particular redemption because this passage makes it clear Christ died for his bride, the church. Another place that we look is in John chapter 17 which lays out for us the covenant of redemption. And in the covenant of redemption we see that in eternity past God the father gave a love gift to God the son. And the love gift that God the father gave to God the son was a people. God the son out of his love for God the father died to redeem the people whom the father had given to him. John 17 makes this very clear and the holy spirit the spirit of god which is the the the personification of the love between the father and the son actually applies that redemption to the elect in time. Couple of places that we go to that give us problems with this. One place that gives us problems with this and people always bring up is John 3:16. Mainly because of our earliest understandings and memories of the translation kind of the King James, right? God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever right believes in him should not perish but have eternal life whosoever it's a wonderful word it's a wonderful word but but what does that mean does does that mean that Jesus laid down his life and he paid for the sins of every human being and then just went to heaven and sat there and hoped and hoped and hoped that someone would come. Listen to this. I I I love the way it's translated here in the Homeman Christian Standard Bible. I think in terms of the Greek, it does as good a job as any translation. John 3:16, for God loved the world in this way. He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. So that everyone who believes in him by the way. That same phrase is used in 1 John chapter 5. 1 John 5:1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. It's the same phrase, everyone who believes. But here's the question. Who's going to believe? John 6:44, Jesus says this, "No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him." No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. Whoa. But the father draws everybody, doesn't he? He draws everybody and just not everybody responds. Let's finish the statement. No one who comes to me, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. Who's he going to raise up? Everybody that the father draws. Because the one who the father draws is the one who will come. Christ died for his bride, the church. He came specifically to redeem a people. Our confession puts it this way. Second London Baptist Confession, 1689, chapter 3, paragraph 5. those of mankind that are predestinated to life. God before the foundation of the world was laid according to his eternal and immutable purpose and the secret counsel and good pleasure of his will hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his mere free grace and love without any other thing in the creature as a condition or cause moving him there too. It's all of grace. It's all of grace. I wasn't smart enough. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't seeking enough. I wasn't I I I I wasn't, you know, in the ocean drowning, going down for the third time, having God throw me a a life preserver so that I could just grab it. I had to grab it. I had to grab it. No, I was dead in my trespasses and sins. Not dying. I was dead in my trespasses and sins. And here's what I know. Not a doctor. Don't play one on TV. But I know this. Dead men don't grab things. But I was made alive together with Christ through the miraculous work of regeneration. I was made alive and having been made alive by God's grace. By God's grace, he granted me repentance. He granted me faith. I have nothing to boast in. Nothing whatsoever. That's what particular redemption does. It takes all boasting away. By the way, even people who argue that they don't believe in particular redemption or limited atonement. I love it. I believe it was Spurgeon who said that we all pray like Calvinists. Amen. Regardless of what we believe, here's what we don't pray. If you have a a lost loved one, if you have a lost love, you you don't bow your head and you don't say, "Um um Lord, I just really hope that they exercise their will. I really hope that that they would No, Lord, save them. Open their eyes. Remove the scales. Rip out that heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Grant them eyes to see because we know we know it's a supernatural work of God. It makes us uncomfortable to talk like that. We know it's a supernatural work of God. By the way, one of the reasons it makes us uncomfortable is because we we think it makes us arrogant. We think it makes like I'm special. Like I I'm I'm No, it doesn't. Same chapter in the confession, paragraph 7. The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men attending the will of God, revealed in his word, and yielding obedience there unto may from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God, and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the gospel. Humility. I do not deserve this. This is a result of Christ loving his bride and dying to redeem his bride was a gift to him from his father. Christ is ahead of his church. Christ loves his church. We ought to be careful how we speak about her. Not only that, we ought to be careful because Christ is actually perfecting his church. He is in the process right now of perfecting his church. verse 26 in our text. That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her with the washing of water from the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Turn in your Bibles toward the end. Look at Revelation 19. looked down again at verse six. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters, like the sound of mighty peels of thunder crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. Look at this. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. That's what Christ is doing in and with and to and for his bride right now. That's what's true about his bride. That's how he sees his bride. And if we understand this, it will change the way we talk about the church. But but but wait a minute. I look and I see this and I look and I see that. Let me hasten to say not everything that goes by the name church is church. Amen. In fact, many of the prominent examples that we have today are not churches at all. They're goat farms. But but just because they are prominent, that doesn't mean that somehow the church is not doing or being what the church has been called to do. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. Second Timothy chapter 4, beginning at verse one. This is very important to keep it in mind because we do see things that are awful. And when we see things that are awful, we need to call them out. But it's one thing to see something that is awful and call it out. And it's another thing to attribute the awful thing to the authentic church of God. 2 Timothy 4 beginning at verse one. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and by his kingdom preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience and teaching. Verse three, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. I've been asked, I don't know how many times, why is it that these false teachers and these charlatans have churches with thousands of people in them? Why is it? Why is it? My answer is because the Bible is true. Not because there's something wrong with the church. The church is everything Christ says she is. But those are not churches. They're goat farms. Filled with people with itching ears. And at times, if we're not careful, we're influenced by them. And we want to shave off the edges of the gospel so that we can be more appealing. And we we we must not. Instead, we must continue to just be the bride of Christ. Just be the church. It's enough. It's enough. We're being prepared for Christ. Finally, we need to be careful how we talk about the church. Not not just because Christ is her head. Not just because Christ loves her, not just because he's purifying her, but because he's one with her. We've already alluded to this, but the church is the body of Christ. It's not just the bride of Christ. It's the body of Christ. Verse 28 in our passage. 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. 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. We are his body. Calvin writes this in the institutes. Christ designs so to honor marriage as to make it an image of his sacred union with the church. Christ's sacred union with the church. We are united to Christ. John 17:20-21. Again, this is this is there in Jesus high priestly prayer. This picture of the covenant covenant of redemption. Clearest place we find it in scripture. Part of that prayer is Jesus says in verse 20, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they may all be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you. that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. There's that as we sang about that mystic sweet communion. 1 Corinthians 12:12 and 13. For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body. Jews, Greeks, slaves, free. All were made to drink of one spirit. We could go on and on and on. Passage after passage. What What is baptism? Baptism is a picture of our union with Christ. We're buried with him in baptism. Sorry to all my friends who sprinkle It's a symbol of his death. We're buried with him in baptism and then raised to walk not just in newness of life, but we're raised to walk in Christ. We are in Christ. Our baptism symbolizes that we are in Christ. Our life is hidden in Christ. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. the spirit of God indwells us. And so when we talk about the church, we're not just talking about the bride of Christ. We're talking about the body of Christ. And it's beautiful because Paul alludes to this amazing one flesh union where where two become one and then from that union there there's life and generations come and he says that's when he says this mystery is But I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. It's amazing that he calls a husband and wife to to this wonderful union, but news flash, we won't be married in heaven. The union between a husband and wife is a temporal picture, a temporal example of a greater spiritual reality. And that greater spiritual reality is our union and communion with Christ that will have no end. Be careful. Be careful how you talk about Christ's bride because he is her head. He loves her. He's perfecting her and he is one with her. You remember that the next time you say the church is or the church is not. Remember that. But also think about that when you consider your own spiritual condition. Are you a member of the body of Christ? Is Christ your head? Have you turned from trusting in yourself and being the Lord of your own life and fled to Christ? Have you repented of your sin and trusted the finished work of Christ to save you from your sin and the finished work of Christ only so that you can say he's your head? So that you can say he he loves you because his death has been acred to you because you came to him in repentance and faith. Can you say that he is perfecting you? That you've been justified and you've been adopted and now you're being sanctified and on your way to being glorified because of the work that Christ is doing in you through the washing of the water of the word. Can you say that? And can you say that you are united to Christ through faith? You see how different that is than just saying I go to church or grew up in a Christian family? Is that you? Young man, young woman, boys, girls, is that you? Is that you? You have to go beyond your union with your family and your union with your church family to union and communion with Christ so that you can say he's your head. He loves you. He's perfecting you. And he's united to you because you've placed your faith in him and in him alone to redeem you and to save you. My prayer is that this is true of us and that if it has not been true of you up to this point that you would flee to Christ even now and be found in him. But for all of us, my prayer is that we'd be careful how we talk about Christ's bride. Let's pray. Father, how we do praise you and thank you for the mercy that is ours in Christ. How we praise you and thank you for our union with Christ and our union with one another as members of the body of Christ. Grant by your grace that we might keep this in the forefront of our minds and that we might consider it when we speak about the church. That we might be ever so careful to speak about the church as though we know and understand how precious she is to Christ. And in so doing, may she become more precious to us. We pray this and we ask it in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.