Espoused to Christ

In this GoToMeeting session, Tom Fannin discusses the importance of marriage and the marriage covenant outlined in the Bible. He begins by focusing on the story of Adam and Eve, highlighting the compatibility and beauty of their relationship. Tom also emphasizes the need to honor and keep marriages undefiled, as God will judge those who engage in adultery or fornication. Also discussed are the responsibilities of husbands and wives, emphasizing the importance of submission and reverence in the marriage relationship. Tom concludes by emphasizing the spiritual aspect of marriage within the church and the importance of unity and shared spiritual growth within marital relationships. Well, hello, everyone. It's really good to be with you again on another GoToMeeting. And here we are, just now less than a month away from the feast. And I know we're all looking forward in preparing for the feast days. So, I want to begin by turning back to Genesis, the second chapter, and we're going to review the Adam and Eve and the marriage covenant that they had, that God introduced them to. So, Genesis 2, verse 19, it says, Out of the ground the Lord God had formed every animal of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that became its name. And Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the air and to every animal of the field, but there was not found a helper compatible for Adam. So, you know, he hid in the garden. It was beautiful, these things God had created and designed for him. He had all these animals at that time. You know, their nature was different than it is now and just a beautiful setting to be in, but something was missing. There wasn't something compatible for him. So, reading on here, And the Lord God called to deep sleep to fall over Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and afterwards closed up the flesh underneath. Then the Lord God made the rib which he had taken out of the man into a woman, and he brought her to the man. Now, it doesn't say this here in God's Word, but I just believe when Adam saw Eve, I'm sure he was delighted. And certainly, this woman brought to him was more than compatible, a helper, but in his eyes, I'm sure he thought she is beautiful. Right? So, it doesn't say that here in God's Word, but when you think about Isaac and Rebecca, or you think about Jacob and Rachel and others, they recognized the beauty in their wives and that God gave them. And I'm sure Adam felt the same way when he saw Eve here. He's just delighted. And Adam said, Now this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. So, Adam gave the name woman. For this reason shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. The marriage institute given by God. And you see the word cleave, and we'll be looking at this later, but cleave means joined to. Right? The husband and wife are joined to each other. And they both were naked in the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. So, we know again, this is the marriage institute. And, you know, within the church, those of us who have God's spirit, we have a better understanding of marriage and husbands and wives becoming one flesh. And how important that is, this institute that God designed. So, he could have more beings, more human beings through marriage, through having children. So, at some point, have a big family. And that's what marriage is about. Right? Being able to have family in that environment, in that atmosphere, in a right way. So, again, we in the church, we have a better understanding of this design and what this means now and in the future. I want to go back to speaking, where I was speaking of marriage. I want to go back to Hebrews, the 13th chapter, if you'll go back there with me. Because again, marriage is very important. So, Paul writes here in Hebrews 13, verse 4, he says, Let marriage be held honorable by all, in the marital union be undefiled, for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. You know, it's just so important for us to think about the marriages in the physical here in this life. All the marriages that have taken place down through time that are taking place now in the world and the church. But to think about these marriages need to be honored. And they need to be kept undefiled. That's how important they are to God. And we know, as we move forward in the message, there is a future marriage that we're all looking forward to. And it'll be completely this way, completely honorable and completely undefiled. The marriage covenant is holy, it's because God designed it that way, because there's a purpose for it. And you know, we learn in these physical lives we live, those of us who are married, we learn so much from our marriages, spiritual things as well. Within our marriages, we learn about things that we need to be preparing for. Well, we have responsibilities in our marriages before God, don't we? Let's go back to see what Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3, in verse 1, it says, Likewise, you wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, so that even if any are not obedient to the word through the behavior of the wives, they may be gained without a word. And as we go through the message, we'll talk a little bit about submitting. But look at the responsibility of the wife and what the wife is able to do, carrying, moving on here, having witnessed your chase behavior carried out with reverence. So, being able to observe what the wife does, right, in her submitting and her behavior, how important and effective that is. Reading on here, it says, Who's adorning? Let it not be with the eternal adornment of braiding of the hair or wearing gold jewelry or dressing and costly clothing, which we see that, you know, done a lot. It's important. It's part of a woman's beauty and who they are and being able to do this. But here's the important thing. It says, But let your adornment be the inward person of the heart, manifested in the incorruptible jewel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is of great value in God's sight. So, you know, when we think about God and Jesus Christ and what they look to, it's talking about the things here that are inward, the inward things that a wife needs to have, the inward things that a husband needs to have. These are important to God. These are things that are valuable to God and he's looking for. Going on here, it says, For in this way also the holy women of the past who hoped in God adorned themselves being in subjection to their own husbands. Even had Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, and you are her children if you are doing what is right and are not frightened by any intimidation. Likewise, then, moving on to husbands. You husbands dwell with your wives according to knowledge. Well, what knowledge is that? It's not the knowledge of the world, right? It's the knowledge of the truth. It's the knowledge that comes through God's word. It's the knowledge that we have because God's spirit works within us. That's the knowledge we need to be dwelling with our wives with, is with a weaker vessel, giving them honor as women. Keep marriage honorable, right? We give them honor as women and as joint heirs, brothers and sisters in Christ. And we'll think about that and look at that in a little bit. Joint heirs of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be cut off. And so for all the husbands, yes, we certainly don't want our prayers cut off. So we need to be mindful of how we treat our wives and how husbands and wives work together. You know, it's just important because we learn so many lessons from this and we grow and develop spiritually by how we interact and love one another as husbands and wives. And, you know, marriage, the marriages within the church, and that's the main focus talking about marriage here in the first part of the message is these are marriages within the church. Our marriages within the church and how well they're going really are a great reflection on how our spiritual lives are. Because if we find ourselves having a lot of troubles in our marriages, then we probably are having spiritual troubles as well. Just something to keep in mind. And yes, within the church, these are spiritual marriages. And, you know, over the years, in the church myself, I've seen some really, really good examples of marriages, how husbands and wives treated each other, loved one another. The examples they set to younger, younger people in the church, younger marriages, or maybe those who haven't weren't married yet or that were preparing and thinking about marriage, but they set excellent examples to the other brethren in marriages. And I'm sure you've seen some of those examples as well. It's very good to see. Let's go back to Ephesians 4, if you would, Ephesians, the fourth chapter. And I tell you, it just makes you smile when you see a couple in the church that, you know, have a lot of love for one another and they care for one another and you see how they interact with each other. And it's just wonderful how God's designed that and you see it truly at work. But Ephesians 4, verse 3, again, I've said these marriages are spiritual that we have within the church. We're one flesh, but we're also one spirit. Let's read about that. Ephesians 4, verse 3, it says, being diligent to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God of all and father of all who is over all and through all and finally in you all. So God and Jesus Christ dwell in us with the Holy Spirit. We know that. You know, with that mind, what can we accomplish in our marriages? What should we be accomplishing in our marriages? Well, quite a bit, right? Because they're spiritual also. We share God's spirit in marriages. So we should be able to accomplish a lot is my point. Let's go back to Matthew 19. We'll cover something here Christ writes, tells us in Matthew 19. Matthew 19, I want to start in verse 3. And says here, then the Pharisees came to him and tempted him, saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? It says, for any cause. But he answered them, saying, Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. So here is Christ speaking. And we know Christ when he was God there in the Old Testament, he had a very big part in God the Father in this institution. They designed and created it. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate. So brethren, we should never forget that God joins together. God is very much a part of the marriage covenant. And we all want him to be a part of the marriage covenant, right? We don't want him excluded from it. We want him a part of it. Let's read on to verse seven. It said, They said to him, Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away? Okay. He said to them, Because of your hard heartedness, Moses allowed you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it was not so. So we know the children of Israel, yeah, they were hard hearted and they rebelled against God and didn't keep his word, including marriage and the design of marriage. But the question for us in the church to have God's spirit, are we hard hearted? Well, no, we're not. We have a circumcised heart. That's what it talks about. Our hearts have become circumcised. They should be a softened heart, a heart that has understanding, a heart that desires to obey God a heart that desires to obey God and to live life and to change and to have love for one another. Our hearts in the church are hardened. So something to keep in mind, we have a different heart, right? Once we've been called and we've received, we go and receive God's spirit. Things should be different for us. Let's read on down to verse nine. It says, And I say to you, whoever shall divorce his wife, except it be for sexual immorality, and shall marry another is committing adultery. And the one who marries her who has been divorced is committing adultery. His disciples said to him, if that is the case of a man with a wife, it is better not to marry. So evidently at that time, there was problems there, like we see now with divorce, with people being unfaithful to one another. Continuing on here, but he said to them, not everyone can receive this word, but only those who it has been given. For there are eunuchs who are born that way from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who are made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who is able to receive it, let him receive it. So I guess the question for us then is, can we receive this message, what Christ is saying here? Well, we should be able to. But the most important thing here is, marriage is honorable. And we should keep it that way. We should keep it undefiled. In marriages within the church, we should be faithful to one another. We should be able to work out problems that we have, because we will have problems in marriages. But we have God's spirit to help us with this and lead us through these things. And we're not hardhearted. We can receive and understand these things within the church. Well, as we move forward, there is another marriage we're going to be talking about. Do we in the church look forward then to the marriage to Jesus Christ? Because that's part of our calling. We are a spouse to Christ. Let's go back and see where this is talked about in 2 Corinthians 11. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 1, it says, I would that you might bear with me in a little nonsense, but, deed, do bear with me. He says here, for I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God, because I have espoused, joined, right? Espoused or joined is another word, you to one husband, so that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So, we're espoused to Christ. He says here, he wants us to be presented to Christ as a chaste virgin, right? Chaste means, you know, someone, once you're joined or committed to someone, then you're faithful to them, right? Chaste means you're not participating in extramarital relationships if you're committed to this person. So, reading on here, he goes on to say, but I fear lest by any means has the serpent deceived thee by his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So, he goes on to say here, so for indeed, if someone comes preaching another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different gospel, which you did not accept, you put up with it as something good. So, Paul's saying here, you know, you're espoused to Christ. You need to keep that in mind. You don't need to be getting involved in other things, extramarital things. You need to keep your focus on Christ who you've been joined to, right? And so, we have been joined to Christ in baptism. We died to covenant death. We were co-crucified with him. And when we came out of that watery grave, we were to live in newness and walk as Jesus Christ walked. That's what we agreed to. Now, the physical marriages we're in, there is an engagement or espoused to someone. And, you know, from time to time, we've heard where maybe for whatever reason, the marriage itself got called off. And sometimes that's happened where two people agreed to marry one another. And then, but before they got to the actual event, it got called off. So, occasionally that can happen, but most of the time it doesn't. But, you know, when our espousal to Jesus Christ, it's a little bit different than that. Because when we become espoused to Christ, Christ will be there at that marriage. Christ will continually be faithful to us. So, it's a guarantee that he will be there. And so, our part is to make sure we're there too, right, for that marriage. Let's go back to Revelation 17. Revelation 17, verse 14, it says, These will make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of lords and King of kings. And those who are with them are called and chosen and faithful. That's us, right? Those who will be with Jesus Christ when Jesus Christ returns, you know, after the marriage that the church will have with Christ. They're called, they're chosen. They have been the ones who have kept the covenant, who entered into covenant, who had repented and who had received God's spirit and who are walking with Christ, completely joined with him, right, and faithful to the end. These are the ones that will be a part of that marriage. These are the things we need to be focused on. So, I want to read just a little bit about who our future husband is. We know it's Jesus Christ, right? But do we really think about what Christ is to us? He is fully committed. He's fully faithful as a future husband. Go back to Philippians, the second chapter. Because Christ did things to become a faithful husband. So, in Philippians 2, verse 6, it says, Who, although he existed in the form of God, did not consider a robbery to be equal as God. He and God were equal, the two gods of the Old Testament, we know. Verse 7, But he emptied himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and he took on the form of a servant. And being found in the manner of man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So, this future husband of the church, he became a servant. He emptied himself of being God and became a man, became humble. That's the husband we have to look forward to. Kind of resembles what Peter wrote, that what a husband should be. Let's go back to Hebrews, the second chapter, and read a little bit more. Hebrews 2, verse 14. It says, Therefore, since the children are partakers of flesh and blood, and like men are, he also took part in the same, in order that through death he might annul him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and that he might deliver those who are subject to bondage all their lives by the fear of death. For surely he is not taking upon himself to help the angel, but he is taking upon himself to help the seed of Abraham. Right? So, we know for Christ, for Abraham's seed and heirs. For this reason, it was obligatory for him to be made like his brethren in everything. He was made like us in everything, it says, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest and things pertaining to God in order to make propitiation for the sins of the people, for because he himself has suffered, having been tempted in like manner, he is also able to help those who are being tempted. So, he was made like man. He's gone through the things that man has gone through. He was tempted in all ways. He suffered, but he was without sin. He was perfect. And just think about this, what we have to look forward to in the flesh here. Now, husbands aren't perfect, but this was a perfect husband. This will be a perfect husband, Jesus Christ. That's who we're espoused to. Right? So, just think he's, the other part of this, he's going to be there to raise us up and he's faithful to that too. So, you know, just this past week, I was there at a funeral, giving the service there. And that's what we preached, that Christ would raise this man up the last day. So, he'll raise all of us up and then he'll marry the church again as a perfect husband. So, kind of makes us maybe think about what kind of, as a church, what kind of bride should we be for Jesus Christ? Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 6 and read what it says here in 1 Corinthians 6, just to put a little more emphasis on what kind of bride we should be. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 13, it says, foods are for the belly and the belly is for food, but God will destroy both in, both it and those. Now, the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. That's what we read later in Corinthians. It's, he all said he wanted us to be presented as chaste. So, the body is not for sexual immorality. So, our bodies are for God or for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God has also raised the Lord from the dead and will raise us by his own power. Don't you know that your, your bodies are members of Christ, right? So, shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be. What? Don't you know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body, for he says the two shall be one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit. And that's what we need to have our minds on, that we are joined again to Christ. And we're one spirit with Christ, one body with Christ. So, something to be mindful of, all of us. I'll go back to Malachi now. Malachi 2, verse 13. It says, and this is a second thing you have done. So, we're, God's talking to the Levites. He says, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, weeping and groaning, so that he does not regard the offering and no longer receives it with delight from your hand. So, what's going on here? As those who are approaching God in the altar with tears and groaning, they're coming there with the wrong attitude. Now, there are times we approach God with tears and sincerity for things going on in our lives, for things we may need to repent of or whatever it may be. But that's not the attitude they were approaching God with here, where God could receive what needed to be received with joy here, with delight. It goes on to say here, yeah, you say, why? Questioning God, why? Well, he tells him why. Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth against whom you have dealt treacherously. Yet she is your companion in your covenant wife. God has to tell him that's that's your companion, right? That's somebody that's compatible for you. That's somebody that's a helper for you. That's somebody you agreed to be in covenant with and be faithful to. You're dealing treacherously with them. And did he not make you one? Yet the vestige of the spirit is in him. And why one that he might seek a godly seed? Therefore, guard your spirit and do not act treacherously against the wife of your youth. The Lord, the God of Israel says, I hate divorce and the over in the covering of violence with one's garment, says the Lord of hosts. Therefore, guard your spirit and do not act treacherously. Brethren, something for us to learn here is we don't act treacherously with our wives and we should not act treacherously towards God and Jesus Christ. Because one thing we have a surety of is Jesus Christ does not in any way act treacherously towards us. I want to go back to Genesis 3. If you would go back to Genesis 3 with me. So I want to bring up here and make it real clear is Satan is against marriage. He would like to see marriages fall apart. He would like to see marriages have problems. And you can certainly believe that Jesus Christ also does not want to see a future marriage. For the ones God has called to the church to be married to Jesus Christ. He wants to see that destroyed, too. Genesis 3, verse 14 says, And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock and above every animal of the field, you shall go upon your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. What did he do to Eve? What did he present to her? Deception, lies. And boy, did it cause problems for Eve and Adam, the rest of their lives, because Eve was deceived into doing what she did. And Adam wasn't deceived. He went right along with it. And boy, what a penalty they faced because of what Satan did here in their choice. He says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman. And what is enmity? Well, it's active, being active in opposition, being continually hostile. That's enmity. That's enmity. It's continued, it doesn't go away. It says in between your seed and her seed, he will bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Prophecy of Jesus Christ, Satan. So again, Satan is against marriage. Satan knows that God designed the marriage covenant and the purpose for it. Again, for husbands and wives to have children and families. And Satan is very well of the design, too, of the future marriage with Christ and in the church. Right? So that's why he wants So that's why he wants these things destroyed. And not to be successful because he knows how important marriages are. You know, I, I like to think about the kingdom and, you know, soon here we'll be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, right, which pictures of a millennial time. And, you know, in that thousand year period, Satan is going to be put away. We know that. Think about what it's going to be like when he's put away and the enmity we talked about here will not be around either. And there'll be all these marriages in the thousand year period. And a lot of them we'll get to observe, right? Observe how they formed and how they happened. And, you know, young people will will truly enjoy one another and they'll grow up and they'll find someone that that is a helper and that's compatible for them and enter into a marriage that's honorable and that's been undefiled in every way. And boy, won't it be a joy to see all these marriages in the kingdom and then what they'll produce. It'll just be a great time. And so we'll we'll have our part in a lot of those, won't we? Something to look forward to. But marriage is such a wonderful thing, isn't it? Let's go back to Revelation 12. You know, I want to I want to read this from a standpoint of what the church is going to be up against, what it's saying now and also having an understanding that things will intensify. Revelation 12 and we'll just start in verse 7. It says, And there was war in heaven, Michael, and his angels warred against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels warred. But they did not prevail, neither was their place found anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent, who was called the devil and Satan, who was deceiving the whole world. And he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. And I heard a great voice in heaven say, Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brethren has been cast down, who accuses them day and night before our God. But they overcame him through the blood of the lamb, through the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives until death. Therefore, rejoice, you heavens, and those who dwell in them. It says, Woe to those who inhabit the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows he has only a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man child, the church. So there will be more persecutions and problems in the future, testing and trials, and Satan is going to come after the church. There's a lot of things we're going to have to face as a church. So we need to be mindful of this. But his goal is to ruin the future marriage. So again, something we need to be mindful of. We are remembering the words of Christ, help us. What Christ says he will do for us. He, again, is the future husband. Let's go back to John 17. John 17, in verse 14, Christ's prayer to the Father, he says, I have given them your words, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you would take them out of the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. A direct prayer to God for us, that he would keep us from the evil one. So we have to remember that promise, that God will look after us. Now, there's certain things we have to do, and we'll read one of those things later, but that God again would keep us from the evil one. But we are in this world. While we're here, let's turn back to John 14. John 14, in verse 30, he says, I will not speak with you much longer because the ruler of this world is coming, but he does not have a single thing in me. Yet he comes so that the world may know that I love the Father and that I do exactly as the Father has commanded me, arise and let us go. So Christ says, Satan has nothing in him. Well, he also has nothing in us through Christ, through the grace given to us through Christ. He has nothing in us because our sins have been covered, they've been forgiven, and we're the children of God. So we need to remember this. But we need to remember too, we need to be obeying God, keeping his commandments and building his mind and Christ's mind and letting them work in us. We're free. We are free. I want to be turning back to Philippians, the third chapter. Now, as we look at this, there are some within the church that are not free. They also want to destroy our marriage, and we have to be mindful of those who have been planted and put into the church. And I'm talking about tares that Satan has planted. I'm talking about false brethren. I'm talking about hirelings, ministers, I'm talking about hirelings, ministers that are not true ministers of God, but ministers or agents of Satan. They want to destroy our marriages too, particularly the future marriage. Philippians 3 and verse 16. It says, nevertheless, in regard to that which we have attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Brethren, be imitators together of me, and bear in mind those who walk in this way, as you have us for an example. So, you know, Paul's talking about him and others. They were an example. And of course, we should be examples to one another as well. For many, while contrary, I have often told you of them, and I tell you now with weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, for they mind earthly things. But for us, the commonwealth of God exists in the heavens, from where also we are awaiting for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our vile bodies, that they may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the inner working of his own power, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. So, yeah, there are those within the church that they're not really a part of us, but they mind earthly things. They don't have God's spirit within them. And they can't have their effect on us. So, something we need to be mindful of. Jude 4 blinks this out. We'll read that in Jude 4. Jude 4, it says, But certain men have stealthily crept in, those who long ago have been written about condemning them to this judgment. They are ungodly men who are perverting the grace of our Lord, turning it into licentiousness, and are personally denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. There are people who have crept in, who you can say Satan has planted, and they're turning the truth, they're turning the things, the grace of God, the things we are built upon, into licentiousness, causing some to turn, turn away, turn away from the covenant, turn away from the truth, turn away from this commitment. We have to be espoused to Christ. Going on to verse 12, it says, These are subversive stains in your love feast, feasting in person together with you. Fearlessly they are feeding themselves. They are clouds without water, being driven by the winds, trees of late autumn, without any fruit, uprooted, and they're twice dead. So it's given to all men to die once, right? What we read in Hebrews, then there's a judgment. These are twice dead. And while we're here, let's read verse 19. It says, These are the ones who cause division, they are psychic, not having the spirit of God. So we have just to be mindful of those that are within the church that, again, would like to see this future marriage destroyed. Let's go back to James 4. So we talked a little bit about submitting earlier. Who do we submit to? All of us in the church. All of us in the church. James 4, verse 7. Therefore, submit yourselves to God. The future bride is God's children. We submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. So yeah, we do sin. And at times we do have problems within our minds, sometimes double-minded. But we need to clean that up. We need to repent. We need to continue on with this conversion, this process we're in, you know, to be called, to be chosen, to be faithful. And enter into the kingdom. But the point is here, we need to draw near to God. We need to submit ourselves to God. And if we do, God will take care of all these other things for us and help us. I want to go back to Ephesians 5 now. And we're going to read here about Christ in the church, in marriage. Paul writes here in verse 22 of Ephesians 5. He says, Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as to the Lord. Okay, that's the responsibility of a wife again. For the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. For even as the church is subject to Christ, in the same way also let wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your own wives in the same way that Christ also loved the church and gave himself for. Wow, that's a big responsibility for husbands, to love your wives in the same way that Christ loved the church. He gave his life for the church. He gave his life to be a future husband. So that he may sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing of water by the word. Hell is a process here in all this. Again, we learn through our marriages, but also we're learning through the marriage we have with Christ, the espousal. That he might present it to himself as the glorious church. So just think about that. In verse 25, we read, Husbands are to love their wives the way Christ loved the church. But now it's talking about the church that he's going to present to himself, the glorious church. Right? There is a glorious church that's coming. There's a glory that's going to be revealed into us and we're going to be spirit, this glorious church that Christ is going to marry. Not having a spot or a wrinkle or any such thing, but that it might be holy and without blame. In the same way, husbands are duty bound to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man has ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, even as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall be one flesh. But as we move into this next verse, Paul raises this to another level. So yeah, we're talking a lot about here about husbands and wives and how their conduct should be with one another before God and Christ and how Christ loved the church. But he says here in verse 32, it says, this is a great mystery. But I am speaking in respect to Christ and the church. That's what Paul's talking about here, but it's not a mystery to us. All of us that have God's spirit, we understand what Paul's talking about here in their importance of the relationship. So finishing up, it says, nevertheless, let each one of you love his wife, even as himself, and let each wife see that she reverence her husband. So why submit and be subject to Christ? All of us. Well, in submitting to Christ and submitting to God, we can properly love them and they can love us. We can be cleansed. Right. That's what it talks about here. We can be sanctified. We can be nourished. We can be cherished. And eventually we can be like him. Where we can see Christ and God the Father face to face. And we will know them exactly like they have known us. It'll be a totally different relationship then than we have now. But that's why we submit so God and Christ can do all these things with us and prepare us to be a bride, truly spirit, holy then, a perfected bride. And keep in mind that Jesus Christ will not marry the flesh. He's going to marry the spirit. Let's first finish up here in Revelation 19. Revelation 19 in verse six, and it says, I heard a voice like that of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and the sound of a mighty thundering saying, Hallelujah for the Lord God Almighty has reigned. Let us be glad and shout with joy and let us give glory to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. And it was granted to her that she'd be clothed in fine linen, pure and bright for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he said to me, right. Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. So when that day comes and this marriage occurs, will God be there to present the bride to Christ? Well, I think so, but we'll see in that day. But the important thing just to remember, all of us to remember this, we are a spouse to Christ. We have something very much forward to look forward to. So let's just keep our minds on preparing as a bride and then looking forward to that day.