Hephzibah - Nathan Yoder

I bring you greetings this morning in the name of

Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is again good to be

here in his house to worship him. Invite you to

turn in your bibles to Isaiah chapter sixty two. This week,

we have looked at a few of these verses repeatedly.

This morning, we'd like to spend a little time with them.

In Isaiah sixty two, we find a unique word that

you probably didn't use often this week, excepting when we

were reciting or reading this portion. This morning, we want

to consider that word, that idea in greater depth than

in greater detail. I've simply entitled the Messa with that

word from verse.

Four, the word hefsava.

That's the title for the morning message, and we have

a question that we need to answer today on why

that word and the rest of the message. Will spend

time doing that, but I'd like to read the setting,

like to read this chapter, and then we'll look at

a few ideas from it, and of course other scriptures

as well. I invite you to stand as we read

Isaiah chapter sixty two. For Zion's sake, will I not

hold my peace? And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not

rest until the brightness and the salvation. There Let me

start that phrase over again, until the righteousness thereof go

forth as brightness in the salvation. There off is a

lamp that burneth, and the gentiles shall see thy righteousness,

and all the kings thy glory, and thou shalt be

called by a new name, which the mouth of the

Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of

glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal

diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no

more be termed forsaken. Neither shall thy Land anymore be

termed desolate. But thou shalt be called Hethzebah, and thy

Land Beulah. For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy

Land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth

a virgins, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as

the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God

rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen upon thy walls

o Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night.

Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence,

and give him no rest till he establish until he

make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Drop down to

verse eleven. Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end

of the world. Say ye to the daughter of Zion.

Behold thy salvation cometh. Behold his reward is with him

and his work before him. And they shall call them

the Holy people, the redeemed.

Of the Lord.

And thou shalt be called sought out a city, not forsaken. Amen,

you may be seated.

Mm hm.

We may also turn to Psalm forty eight later as

an alternator as a secondary text, but we'll start here

with this one.

Now.

There's there's several things that come to mind as I

look at this portion, and by the way, you probably

have picked up on it. Maybe you had enough curiosity

that you looked at the word hefsiba and what it means.

My center column tells us, and the scripture itself refers

to it. The word hefziba simply means my delight is

in her. And like I said, there's probably center columns

that give that. I find it interesting in other languages

when I preach in Russian or Ukrainian, I don't preach

in Russian or Ukrainian when I preach in those locations

and an interpreter. I have discovered that the Russian Bible

does not have the word hefsiba in it, and it

simply at that point in verse four, it simply says,

thou shalt be called my delight is in her. Of

course that's in Russian. It needs to be translated. But

the word isn't there. And why the King James translators

put this unique word there and then put the definition

in the center column.

I don't know.

They didn't ask us for advice, and we'll take it

from there. That's beside the point. But that's the meaning. Now,

there's of course a twofold meaning in here.

This scripture was written by Isaiah.

And there's many things in the prophets that I don't

profess to understand. I'm not sure the prophets understood them

when they wrote them. The Bible simply tells us that

holy men of God spake and wrote as they were.

Moved by the Holy Ghost.

Whether they understood it or not, how could they have

How could Isaiah have understood some? I mean Isaiah fifty

one or this portion speaking of Zion. Now, I think

most prophecies have a two fold meaning. I think this

scripture was meaningful to the Jews as it was written

for their inspiration, as Isaiah preached and wrote and spoke

of these things. But there's a secondary meaning for us,

for Zion today or for the church now. The church

today is criticized by many. For many people, church is

just a weak and inconvenience something they have to do,

you know. It's they can't go fish on Sunday. People

look down on them, so they go to church or

whatever the case may be. Some people see. In fact,

I've had people tell me they don't go to church

there's too many hypocrites there, and I suppose there might

be some hypocrites here. I never get it all perfectly

right either, in spite of my best intentions. But one

thing that occurs to me is that if a hypocrite

keeps you from going to church, it just might be

that the hypocrite is closer Heaven than you are. And

so I wish people would understand that as they think

of that. And then there's the idea that some people

say the church is dead, there's no life there, and

I'm always a little puzzled with that, because the church

isn't made up of sheet rock and pews and carpet.

The church is made up of people, and when you

say the church is dead, you better check your pulse

and see if there's anything there, because it's the people

in the church that we're referring to when we make

those kinds of blanket statements that really shouldn't be made.

But even for Christians, you know, some Christians find church

a little bit like taking olive oil. It's good for you,

but it's kind of glad when it's down, when it's

past or some people find church a.

Little bit like shredded wheat.

It's healthy and it's okay if you put enough honey

with it, but again it's it's you know, they're expected

to be here. But then there's people that look forward

to church. They find it peaches in cream or pecan

ice cream on apple pie. You know, you can hardly

get enough of it. It's just delicious. It's a blessing.

I wonder if this morning we I thought of suggesting

the song I Love Thy Kingdom Lord, And I wonder

could you sing that honestly, I Love Thy Kingdom Lord,

the House of Thine abode, the Church, thy blessed Redeemer,

sealed with his own precious blood. And the songwriter goes

on to say, for her, my tears shall fall for her,

my prayers ascend to her, My cares, and toils be

given to cares, and toils shall end. Is that how

you feel about the church this morning? In this portion

of scripture? Notice us what he how he describes it.

It's it's amazing the things that he that he has

in here the and we might ask, how can how

can these things be? But if you just just a

brief explanation, look at verse three, and I'm there's no

question in my mind that he's speaking of the church

in these verses. And he says, the church is a

crown of glory, the Church is a royal diadem, and

uh uh. He goes on to describe this by a

new name. He said, the church is going to be

called by a new name, which the which the Lord

is going to name. He in verse five compares the

church to a bride. There's men here who have brides,

who married a bride. And as you compare that, I

don't know if there's any young men here who are

looking forward or who have plans for soon to be

united with a bride. But that kind of thing becomes

a priority, and kind of everything kind of slides into

background for the focus that is there with this bride.

But here he says, as a young man, marrieth a virgin,

he says, as a bride. Now, the pressing question on

my mind this morning is why why? Now I want

to understand the why. Let me just introduce it first

in this way.

He says. Here, my delight is in her.

And when we think of the God of the universe,

why wouldn't he have said, my delight is in and

then you can fill in the blanks the universe, the stars,

the vastness of the creation. It's an incredible creation, and

it's an amazing creation.

He could have said, my delight is in the light

that I created.

That somehow, though it's in a factor of light years

that are orbs and galaxies that are millions of light

years away. In the last few thousand years, the light

is here. Can you explain that? I can't accepting that

God just made it that way, But it's delightful to

think about. And he could have said, my delight is

in that. He could have said, my delight is in

the beauty and symmetry of the creation. Didn't say that.

He could have said, my delight is in the unity

of the Trinity. That's an incredible thing, the Trinity and

the unity that is in the Trinity, and the fellowship

and the joy and the glory that was there. And

he could have said, my delight is in the fellowship

with the Spirit and the Sun. Didn't say that. Could

have said, my delight is in heaven, the preparation of heaven.

Didn't say that. He said, my delight is here.

The God of the universe, the Creator, said my delight

is here here at Housing Mennonite Church, at Faith Mission Fellowship.

My delight is in her.

Soak that up this morning, and I hope you never

forget it. He had a universe full of possibilities that

he could have been delighted in. Now there's another idea

here that I think we need to consider, and that

is the Bible talks several times in Philippians, and one's

Peter about having the mind of Christ, and we need

to have the mind of Christ. And the idea there

is that as we have the mind of Christ, that

we think the thoughts that God thinks that we find precious,

the things that God finds precious that we love to

work the work that God wants us to do. There's

a I'm working towards a unity there. If we have

his mind, then our thought processes will be his thought processes.

And the things that he finds funny, we find funny,

and the things that he finds sinful we find sinful.

And we begin to find a synchronization there between our

will and his will, our thoughts and his thoughts. There's

a blending that goes on there. And once we have

when we have the mind of Christ, we begin to

think the things in Scripture make sense in a new

way because we see them in the same light that

the Holy Spirit saw them when he penciled them. And

these things connect with our spirits, and they vibrate, they synchronize,

they mesh with the ideas in our own thoughts. This morning,

when I think of Jesus of God saying my delight

is in her, we will never be closer to.

The mind of God, or.

That will never be be higher or more noble than

when we utter those same words, when we have that

same passion, when we have that same love that He

had five times. In Scripture, God's people are referred to

as the apple of his eye? What does that mean?

Deuteronomy thirty to ten. He found him in a desert land,

in a waste howling wilderness. He led him about, he

instructed him, He kept him as the apple of his eye.

We could look at four other scriptures that are very

similar to that.

What does that mean?

It simply means that the church is precious to God.

It is an entity that is very precious to him,

the very apple of his eye, the center of his heart.

It is the passion of his very being, the Church.

And I ask again why I want you to think

about that this morning. Why with the God of creation,

who we had unlimited possibilities to be delighted with. And

by the way, I was going to ask you this

early on, what are you delighted with? What turns your

crank and floats your canoe? What makes you excited? What

grabs your attention? That's a question you should answer in

the soberness of your heart, because there's all kinds of

possibilities that would come forth if you were honest, and

if I'm honest, there's things that delight us. There's things

that intrigue us, there's things that impress us, there's things

that catch our attention, and God's the same way.

But he said, the thing that catches my attention is

my church.

Why would he say that? That's the question we need

to answer this morning. The final verses in this chapter

bless me deeply, where he says, the Lord hath proclaimed

unto the end of the world, Say ye to the

daughter of Zion.

That's us.

Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him,

his work before him. We are called a holy people,

the redeemed of the Lord, sought out, not forsaken, chosen

by him. That's us. It's an incredible privilege, and people

shrug and walk away. I can't under I don't understand that.

In my wildest imagination. Psalm forty eight turned with me

to Psalm forty eight. I don't know if I should

even take time to go here, but there are just

a few things I need to point out here. We

need to get into the New Testament. Psalm forty eight

has similar sentiments. He starts off here, great is the Lord,

and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.

The mountain of his holiness. This mountain of his holiness

is Zion. It is the church. He says, it is

beautiful for situation. It is the joy of the whole earth.

Is Mountain Zion on the sides of the north. It

is the city of the Great King. God is known

in her palaces for a refuge. And we could read

on down. I'm gonna have to skip a number of

these verses. Let's go down toward the end verse eight.

As we have heard, so have we seen in the

city of the Lord of Host, in the city of

our God, God will establish it forever forever. Did you

catch that word? This church is not just here today,

gone tomorrow. You might be God forbid, but it's possible

for any of us to step off. But when Jesus

Christ comes back, the church is going to be the

one that he comes back for. And if you're not

in it, you're not going with him. He's coming back.

For his church.

It's that vital. That's what he's telling us. In verse eight,

we have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in

the midst of thy temple. And on down through verse eleven,

Let Mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Jude be

glad because of Thy judgments. And then I love the

last three verses. Have you done this, he says, Walk

about Zion, go round about her, tell the towers, or

notice the towers thereof mark ye, well her bulwarks, consider

her palaces. That you may tell it to the generation following.

For this God is our God, forever and ever, He

will be our guide, even unto death, even to the end,

Brothers and sisters, I know how it's going to end.

Sometimes you read a book. I don't know if you've

ever read a book and you're only halfways through it

and the main character is in trouble, but you are too.

It's eleven o'clock or twelve o'clock. It's high time to

shut the book. But you're wondering, what in the world

is going to happen? I mean, the planes running out

of gas and there's no place to land. How will

this what's gonna happen? Do you peek back at the

last chapter, Lord, and behold the main character is still alive. Ah,

you can shut the book and go to sleep. You

don't know how it's gonna work out, but you know

it's gonna end okay, And you will pick up on

that tomorrow.

You know kind of thing.

That's the way the churches, brothers and sisters.

I know how it's gonna end.

Jesus Christ is gonna come back for his people, and

we get to go with him. And those that are

not in the church are not gonna go. And I'm

not talking about just a physical body here, but those

that are the children of God. When I think of

this Psalm forty eight, I think of the song A

Mighty fortresses are God a bulwark, never failing, our helper,

he amid the storm, the flood of mortal ills, prevailing

for still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.

His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel

hate on earth.

Is not his equal.

Did we, in our own strength confide our striving would

be losing? We're not the right man on our side,

the man of God's own choosing dost ask who that

may be?

Christ, Jesus.

It is he Lord Sabeth, his name from age to

age the same, and he will win the battle.

I could read the entire thing there.

I think I will cease and continue on as I

think of the of Zion. We were looking here now

at old Testament. We're going to go into the new.

But when Jesus came. He started his ministry by saying,

repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is here. It is now,

it has come, it is at hand, it is today.

And that was the That was the ushering in of

a new era. It was the beginning of church life.

And of course we say the Church was born in

Acts chapter two at the Pentecost, and that's probably true.

I don't have a I don't deny that. But what

Jesus was saying when he was saying the Kingdom of

Heaven is at hand, he was talking about a kingdom,

not Israel, not that little country on the east side

of the Mediterranean Sea. He was talking about a kingdom

that spans national boundaries. You can go anywhere in the world,

and where there are people who name the name of Christ,

there there are people in the Kingdom of God. And

it has been a joy of mine to be able

to experience that. It surpasses national boundaries, it surpasses racial boundaries,

it surpasses languages.

The disciples were puzzled. He said, I don't get it.

How can this be?

And Jesus spent John fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen teaching them

just before he went to the Cross, how these things work,

how the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is organized. You know,

there's many people that talk about going to the kingdom.

I believe what the purpose of the church is to

bring the Kingdom here. The Kingdom is here today in

our midst and we have an in the possibility of

interacting within that kingdom in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Now I want you to go with me to Ephesians

and an Ephesians. We're going to spend most of our

time with a few ideas here in the Book of Ephesians.

And remember we're still working on that question. Why why

would the God of the universe say, my delight is

in her? We're still answering that question. Now there are

three there are three pictures that are common and I

would dare guess they've been addressed and talked about here

in this congregation that we find in the Book of

Ephesians and Colossians and Philippians, and that is the Church

of Jesus Christ is likened to a body, it's likened

to a building, it's likened to a bride. These are

not new ideas, these are not original with me. But

I'd like to bring in a few dimensions that may

help us to understand why he says, my delight is

in her in Ephesians, chapter one and verse seventeen and following.

When I suddenly saw this, it was like to put

me into spiritual orbit. Here there is a prayer of

of Paul. He says in verse sixteen. He doesn't cease

to give thanks to them and make mention of them

in his prayers. And then here is his prayer that

the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory,

may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation

in the knowledge of him. And he goes on to

pray that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened,

that they might know what is the hope of his calling,

and what is the riches of the glory of his

inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness

of his power to us, we who believe according to

the working of His mighty power, which he wrought in

Christ when he raised him from the dead and set

him at his own right hand in heavenly places. I

want you to notice that the focus is turning from

what Paul was talking about in the church he prays

for them, and then his focus is turning to the

Lord Jesus. Let's go on here, he says. He talks

about the resurrection of Christ in verse twenty, and how

that God set Christ at his own right hand in

heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might

and dominion and every name that is named, not only

in this world, but also in that which is to come.

And Hath put all things under his feet, Jesus' feet,

and gave him Jesus to be the head over all things,

to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of

Him that filleth all in all. Now, there's a number

of things here we need to explore. One is the

idea of the fullness. The Greek word for that is pleroma,

and it's a very interesting study. It's used thirteen times

in the New Testament, if I remember correctly, and he

talks about the fullness when the fullness of time and

the fullness. There's various ways that the word is used

in the fullness, but it simply means the completion, yes,

the completion of something in the completeness, in the fulfillment

of time and the fullness of time it's the gospel

or the doctrine of the pleroma. Now Here in this

verse we don't have I think we normally and commonly

accept the fact that Christ is the head of the church.

It says it right here, he has put all things

under his feet and gave him to be the head.

And in Colossians one eighteen it says the very same thing.

He is the head of the body the church, who

is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and so on.

And as a head the head, your head is constantly

processing data it takes in, and it gives command and

control to the rest of the body. When you're if

your brain stops working, we'd be in big trouble, would

we not. And you couldn't even stay sitting on your seat.

The our brain directs everything. Okay, So remember that Christ

is that head of the body. And oftentimes the discussion

kind of stops there. But look what it says next.

It says he gave him to be the head over

all things to the church, which is his body. And

then he says that the Church, which is his body,

is the fullness of Christ. Now in my Bible it

says him that filleth all in all, but that him

that filleth all in all is Jesus Christ. And so

when we take a look at that, we say that

the it says here that the Church is the fullness

of Christ. Now, I don't want to do violence in

any way or demeaning to, of course, to our Lord Jesus,

but I want you to understand this as I believe

it teaches it.

Right here.

Now it says Christ is the head. If we took

your head and removed it from your body, and we

would have your head, what would we have? It would

be an incredibly incomplete entity. Okay, And here it says

I believe it is that way. It says Jesus Christ

is the head. But if you and of course, these

things are given as parables, as pictures, and we dare

not take them too far, because in one sense Jesus

Christ is lord of all, he is self sustaining, he

is complete in himself, etc. I understand that. But in

the picture that is given here, Jesus is the head,

and a head is woefully incomplete without the body. And

it goes on to say right here that the Church

is that body, and that Jesus is incomplete, he is

lacking without us, we are the body of Christ with

him as the head, and we are the completion of that.

And as we get hold of that, suddenly we begin

to say, Aha, that's why God the Father said, my

delight is in her. Because the Church is the completion

of his son. It is so designed. Even the Trinity,

of course, was complete in themselves. And yet as the

purposes of God included humankind in bringing many sons to glory,

God so chose that his followers, his children, would be

the very fulfillment, the completion, the fullness of his son.

And suddenly we say, Aha, that's why he said, my

delight is in her. His son was incomplete without us.

Can you imagine that? Wrap your mind around that, that

we have the opportunity to be the fullness of Jesus Christ.

If we look at chapter four, we find well, that

just takes it a step further. Yet, chapter four, verse

fifteen and sixteen, he says, but speaking the truth in

love may grow up into all things, may grow up

into Him in all things, which is the head. And

that's what we want to do. Brothers and sisters, we

need to grow up. Some of us are little immature.

We struggle with things we ought not to struggle with.

But he says, we want to grow up in Him

which is the head, even Christ. And then verse sixteen

describes the rest from whom the whole body fitly joined

together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according

to the effectual working in the measure of every part,

make an increase of the body onto the edifying of

itself in love.

And so.

When the church completes that picture where Christ is the

head and we are the body, and there's a unity there,

he says, there's growth and there's reproduction, and it makes

increase of itself, and others can be a part of that.

In that way, it's a beautiful picture. There are enemies

that are against this body that we grapple with in

the church. One of them is the minimalist. The minimalist

is an enemy. The minimalist says, do I have to

Is it a salvation issue? Do I have to dress

this way? If I don't, can I not be a Christian?

The minimalist is it a salvation issue? Well, I'd like

to just draw a picture from husband and wife and

home in the same way, wife says, honey, can you

help me with the children, and husband responds, is this

a divorce issue?

Do I have to?

Will you leave me? If I don't? Will you help

wash the dishes? Is it a divorce issue? What kind

of a marriage would we have? What kind of a

home would that make? And you can use your own examples.

Is this will you leave me if I don't? What

a horrible way to live? There are multitudes that treat

Jesus that way? Do I have to? Is it a

salvation issue? What if I don't feel like can I

still get into heaven the body of Christ. Let's look

at the second example, the building Ephesians two, verse nineteen,

and following Ephesians two and verse nineteen, the building idea. Now,

therefore you are no more strangers than foreigners, but fellow

citizens with the saints and of the household of God,

and are built built, built.

Here we're talking building.

We're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all

the building fitly framed together groweth unto end holy Temple

in the Lord, in whom you also are building together

for a habitation of God through the Spirit. So we

have a building here. We're in a beautiful building, a

very satisfactory building for our worship time. And he likens

the church to a building. Well, what's significant about that? Well,

he says that we're built upon the foundation of the

apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone. Now,

ponder this building with I don't know where in this

building the chief cornerstone is lot of corners here, but

let's just say that somewhere where this thing was started,

they dug and they found a shore footing, and there

they laid a beautiful cornerstone at the corner of this building.

And then we all walked away and we said, hah,

we're done. It's just look at that cornerstone.

It's amazing.

That thing is solid. It won't wash away, the rains

can come and the freezing temperatures. That stone is there.

Let's go on to other projects.

No, we don't do that in a building.

The cornerstone is there, Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, but

the fullness is not there. It's woefully incomplete. The building

isn't there because the cornerstone is there. And even if

we look at the rest of the foundation of the

apostles and prophets and those that have gone before, from

the First Testament and the Second Testament. The stone, the cornerstone.

There's many scriptures we could look at. We don't have time.

But Herod's temple had huge stones. I happened to have

seen one of them. But they say jo Sephas says

that in Herod's temple there's a stone there in the

foundation that's thirty eight feet long and eighteen feet wide

and twelve feet high. I did a little bit of

math as to how much that stone may have weighed.

Weighs over seven hundred tons. How did get there from

out of town, brought in and parked there underneath the

foot or of Herod's temple, I don't know. But Jesus

may have been referring to that when he said that

he is the chief cornerstone. But again, that corner stone,

though it is strong, though it is sure, though it is,

is not the building. It's not the Finnish product. And

I think that's what our good God was thinking of. Well,

he was thinking of the finished product built up on

that cornerstone, where Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, and we

together our inhabitation of God through the Spirit. It is

together that we are the house where God lives and dwells. Now,

it is true that Jesus in dwells each believer, but

that's not the church. That's not the complete picture. And

Jesus in dwells the local church, but that's not the

complete picture. That's not the entirety. I believe the habitation

of God is the church, the church that when our

Lord Jesus comes back, will be caught up together with

him in the clouds to be with him forever. Now,

it's all the building. It talks about that here, does

it not? In whom all the building, fitly framed together

groweth unto end holy Temple in the Lord. But at

the same time, does that mean we don't have work

to do?

Of course we do.

There's the big picture temple habitation of God through the Spirit.

But there are individual temples habitations of God right here,

and God wants to work within this habitation. And then

of course there's also the individual and God wants to

do his work as he lives in our heart and

in the big picture temple. There are individual temples that

do that work. And within the habitation. There's individuals that

make it up and do the work and carry forth

the purpose of God. I find it interesting in Ephesians

chapter one, if you look at verse four and following,

there's several principles there, and he uses plural words all

the way down through here. I love that Verse four.

He says, Chapter one, verse four, according as He hath

chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,

that we should be holy and without blame before Him

in love, having predestinated us according to the adoption of children,

and verse six to the praise of the glory of

His grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved,

in whom we have redemption through His blood. And of

course we could make that personal. I could say I

have redemption through his blood, and I do praise God.

But the focus of this book of Ephesians is that

we together are forgiven, and we are a habitation of

God through the spirit plural. One of the curses that

we grapple with today is individualism. If it doesn't go

my way, I'm out of here. All go somewhere else.

We maybe I should just leave it there. Individualism is

a problem. He looks at the building that is fitly

joined together, where there are many stones that are joined

together in the wall that make up a habitation of

God together. Let's look yet at the bride before I

wish somebody had unplug the clock as we look at

the picture of the bride. We looked at that in

Isaiah sixty two. Let's consider the picture here. It's in

Ephesians five. The idea of the church being a bride

is not just in the New Testament. Already they're in

Isaiah sixty two. There was the picture of the bride

in the psalms Psalm forty five, the where it talks

about the daughter of Zion, the King's daughter is all

glorious within and so on. He's talking about the Church,

the bride of Christ. The book of the Song of

Solomon is a twofold meaning it's a love story between

Solomon and the Shulamite. It's also a love story between Christ,

or between God and his people, the Church. In Matthew

twenty two, the king made a marriage for his son,

and again it's a foreshadowing, it's a pointing forward to

what's happening now here. In Ephesians five, this here is

a of course, a beautiful picture, and it's often referred

to at weddings as a as a picture of husbands

and wives. And I'm not going to criticize that, but

that's not what he's talking about here. Of course he

uses he brings that into focus, but that's not the

that's not the point of this portion here. If you

notice in verse twenty three, he talks about the husband

is the head of the wife, even as Christ. There's

the focus. The point is, he says, as you read

this point this portion, the focus is on Jesus Christ

and the church, where he is the groom, and the

church is the bride, the bride of Christ. And he

makes a number of unique comparisons of that relationship. And

then he says, indeed, husbands can learn and wives can

learn from this picture. But the picture is of Christ

in the church. That's what Ephesians five is about. He's

going to read this portion, maybe just a few ideas

from it. For the husband is the head of the wife,

even as Christ is the head of the church. He

is the savior of the body. And therefore, as the

church is subject done to Christ, so let the wives be.

But the focus is on the church. Submitting that's where

the focus is. In verse twenty five, he says, husbands,

love your wives even as Christ loved the church and

gave himself for it. And as we work our way

down through here and we begin to see what Christ

has done and how the church responds to that. Of

course we take lessons for husband and wife and how

they should live together as well. We go back to

our question again and we ask, why did God say

my delight is in her?

Now?

The church is the bride. Picture a wedding without a bride.

I mean, the people are all there, and the singers

are singing, and the groom and the groom's men are there,

but no bride. What would a wedding like that be like? Well,

it would be a pretty pathetic sight, would it not be?

And so, of course the bride must be there or

it's not a wedding. And here he pictures us as

that bride. And again, Jesus Christ is the groom. And

these are pictures, these are illustrations, But Jesus Christ is

the groom. And what would a wedding be like with

just the groom? And so we see the church as

the completion. The church makes Christ complete both in headship,

in building and in bride in relationship. And there's many

things that we notice. Verse twenty five talks about Christ's

love for the church. Christ's love for the church. I

don't know that we can really, I can't wrap my

mind around Christ's love for us.

To think of him.

Leaving the glories of heaven. We sometimes say, what does

that all include? Like I said, I we really don't

know what all the glories of heaven were. Sometimes we

hear of comparisons. We hear, you know what if I

would need to condescend to be a bug to save

the insect world. Oh, that'd be a horrible condescension, would

it not. Let me tell you something, Christ's condescension for

us was far more graphic and far more demeaning than

you becoming a grasshopper, far more demeaning. He was God,

the creator of the universe, and he chose to leave

that glorious spot.

And come down and be.

A helpless baby though he, like the songwriter says, he

and he made the wound that inhabited that he inhabited,

and was born in helplessness when he had all the

power of the universe at his disposal.

Think of that.

Condescension because he loved us, because he loved us and

was in the process of preparing a bride for himself

Revelation nineteen. I was going to turn to that. It's

a beautiful picture of the final wedding feast, and he

says how that, he says, the hosts of heaven are

going to cry allelujah, for the marriage of the Lamb

is come. And his wife hath made herself ready, and

to her was granted that she would be arrayed in

clean linen and be part of that incredible marriage celebration

that will go on forever and ever. As I think

of these examples, and I think us.

Completing Christ's body.

And us being literally the habitation for God, for Jesus Christ,

where he himself is the cornerstone, He holds it together.

It is a solid, firm foundation. It's a solid building

because of the foundation that is there. But we are

the completion of it. And in that great wedding analysis,

he is the groom, we are the bride, and it

as the bride completes the wedding. And by the way,

the emphasis is on him, not on us. He made

the provision. We prepare ourself and join with that. All

of a sudden we begin to think through accurate the

answer of why would our good God say, when he

had all the disposal of the universe at his fingertips,

might delight.

Is in her. Let's kneel and pray, mm.

Hmmm, a Father, which are in heaven, thank you that

we can come to you as a father, the Lord

of the universe and creator of all, yet that there

can be a personal relationship. We are a special good

this morning by the idea that your delight, we are

so undeserving of that.

There's nothing that we have done to earn or merit

that that kind of love, that kind of compassion.

Lord, I pray this morning for this habitation here. I

pray that this church may be a faithful representation, a

faithful body for our head Jesus, a faithful building built

upon that foundation, a faithful bride, a part bride, of course,

but a faithful bride looking forward to that grand finale

of the marriage supper of the Lamb, where we will

be with you forever. Lord, I pray that you would

just give us a new appreciation and passion for your

body the church, and Lord, I pray that it may spread,

that it would spread throughout the world.

And that many more would find.

The joy of Jesus, the joy of living together in

community as part of your habitation, as part of that

glorious church called us waiting for your return. May you

continue to direct our thoughts further as we ponder these

few ideas in Jesus' mind, a man