Be Careful How You Talk About Christ’s Bride (Eph 5 22-33)

I was in Moscow, Idaho, this past week, and a gentleman came up to me in a restaurant. He recognized me and came up to me in a restaurant and he greeted me. And I knew he was greeting me, but I had no idea what he was saying. And then he said, do you not understand that? I said, no, I don't. And he had greeted me 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 you know, we kind of looked awkwardly at one another and then he went on his way. But that that happened. 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 so and so from Uganda, or do you know so and so 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. And then they just and 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 would just have to try to explain to them that were fifty 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 fifty five countries on the largest continent on Earth. And people fully expect an answer to a question that broad because we 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 really 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 to generally about America or to 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. They say, a man, you ought to say our this is how we talk about the church. Well, passion 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 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 and the kind of esteem that we ought to if we truly love the Lord Jesus Christ. And in there are those who say, no, no, no, I love Jesus, just not the Church. It's like coming up to me and saying, man, I love you, I just 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 bad mouth her constantly, all the while claiming that we love Jesus. Why do I use this comparison, because the Bible does. Open your bibles with me to the Book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter five, 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 the Ephesians chapter five, we're beginning in verse twenty two. We're usually talking about marriage, right that we think about that, and 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 gonna 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 pride, be careful how you speak about the Church. Several truths that we find in this text. Let's read it first, Ephesians chapter five, beginning in verse twenty two, one of the most familiar passages really in all of the Bible, Ephesians chapter five, beginning verse twenty two. 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 and 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, man should leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two should become one flesh. Here's the key text, verse thirty two. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. This is a profound mystery, and it's 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, getna Verse twenty two. 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 It's savior. Now it's 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 colors smoke comes out. I don't care how many men they name pope, how many men they identify as a supposed vicar 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 incredible, be important. The Church is never going to have a new era. It's interesting. You know, we're 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. A few basketball fans I grew up in Los Angeles. I'm a basketball fan. I'm a Laker fan. And you know, they talk about the Kareem era, and then we went to the Magic era, and then the Shack Era, and then the Kobe era, and then the era. No such thing with the Church, No such thing with the Church, whatever the era, whatever the season, whatever the epoch 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 Ephesian It's four fifteen and sixteen. Rather speaking the truth than 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 one eighteen. He is the head of the body the Church. He is the beginning, the first born, from the dead, that in everything he might be pre eminent, that in everything He might be pre eminent, especially in the church. Be careful, be careful how you speak about the Church, because Christ is her head. Whatever you think you sifted through that lens. Secondly, be careful 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 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 see this text this passage, and it gave rise to a definition in my mind many years ago. Love is an act of the will, a company by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. And Christ is the ultimate picture of this, this act of the will. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. It's a company by emotion. It's not led by emotion, 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, this and that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Greater love have 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 as I say this, and your thought is, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Didn't Jesus die for everybody, not just for the Church. Well, doctrinally 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 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 seventeen, 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 seventeen makes this very clear. And the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, which is the personification of the love between the Father and the Son, actually applies that redemption to the elect in time. A 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 three sixteen, 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 all. We've gotten sons, 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 what does that mean? 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 love the way it's translated here in the Home and Christian Standard Bible. I think in terms of degree, it does as good a job as any translation. John three sixteen. 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 one John chapter five one John five to one, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. The same phrase everyone who believes but here's the question. Who's going to believe John six forty four. 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. Well, 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 gonna raise up everybody that the Father draws, Because the one who the Father draws is 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 in sixteen eighty nine, Chapter three, paragraph five. 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, have chosen in Christ under 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 wasn't, you know, in the ocean, drowning, going down for the third time, having God throw me a life reserver 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, like 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 a spurgeon who said that we all pray like Calvinists. Hey, man, regardless of what we believe, here's what we don't pray. If you have a lost loved one, if you have a lost love, you don't bow your head and you don't say Lord. I just really hope that they exercise their will. I really hope that they would know 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 think it makes us arrogant. We think it makes like I'm special, like I'm No, it doesn't. Same chapter in the Confession, paragraph seven. 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 thereunto, 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 obeyed the Gospel. Humility. I do not deserve this. This is a result of Christ loving his bride and dying to redeem his bride, who was a gift to him from his father. Christ is ahead of his church. Christ loves his church. We all to be careful speak about her. Not only that, but we ought to be careful because Christ is actually perfecting his church. He is in the process right now of perfecting his church verse twenty six 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 and splendor, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Turn in your bibles towards the end. Look at Revelation nineteen, looked down begin it 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 peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah for the Lord, our God. The almighty rings. Let us rejoice and exult 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. It's good. This the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. That's what Christ is doing and with and two 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 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. Their goat farms. 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 Second Timothy chapter four. Second Timothy chapter four, beginning of verse one. This is very important to keep 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 second tiventy four, beginning of 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, and 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 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 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 buddy of Christ. It's not just the bride of Christ. It's the body of Christ Verse twenty eight 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 man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast for his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. We are his body. Calvin writes this in the Institute's 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 seventeen twenty through twenty one. Again, this is therein Jesus High priestly prayer, this picture of the Covenant of redemption, clearest place we find it in scripture. Part of that prayer is Jesus says in verse twenty, 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 forse Corinthians twelve, twelve and thirteen. For just as the body is one and as many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we're all baptized into one body. Jews, Greek, slaves, free, all were made to drink of one spirit. We could go on and on and on, passage after passage. What is baptism. Baptism is a picture of our youth union with Christ. We're buried with Him in baptism. Sorry to all my friends who sprinkle. It's the symbol of his death. We're buried with him in baptism and then raised to walk, not just the 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 and dwells 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 two that become one, and then from that union that there's life and generations come. And he says that's when he says this mystery is great, But I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. It's amazing that he calls a husband and wife to this wonderful union. But newsflash, 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 trust 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 loves you because his death has been accrued to you because you came to him and repentance to the 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? Do you see how different that is in 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 pride. 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 her 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 then so do it, may she become more precious to us. We pray this, and we ask it in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.