Beacon Sunday Service: March 16, 2025

If you guys can rise back on your feet for the reading of God's word, I'm going to be reading Titus chapter 2, verses 13 to 14 this morning. And it reads, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession. Zealous for good works. Let's pray together. Lord, we are gathered this morning just to worship you. And we really seek to do so in spirit and in truth. And whatever is just clouding our vision, hurting our spirits from really giving you the praise that you're due, I pray that you would remind us afresh of the beauty of your grace and the marvel that is the work of Christ on the cross.

And I pray that as your truth goes forth, and as your light shines brightly into the different parts of our heart.

And so I pray that you would speak in a powerful way, that you would use these mortal words that have been prepared simply to do your work in sanctifying your bride. So we pray, asking you to protect this time, guard it and minister powerfully in and through it. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seats.

And my guess is that you've heard the officiating pastor use this joke to garner some chuckles from the guests. Okay, so in my recollection, I've used it myself about three times over the weddings over the years. The joke goes like this. Every marriage involves the wearing of three rings. Nod your heads if you've heard this before. No. Okay. So every marriage involves a wearing of three rings. The first ring that is worn is the engagement ring. The second ring is that is put on is the wedding ring. And the third ring that is put on and worn is the suffa ring. You guys have never heard that. I'm surprised. I've used it, okay, three times. So usually the guests chuckle, like you just did, and at the very least, they smirk or they smile.

But if you think about it somewhat seriously, the universality of that third ring, the marital suffer ring. That's horrible, right? It's no joke, literally. It's kind of cruel. But usually the joke is told the moment is received with some levity. No one is bothered by it. It is kind of funny. And there is some truth contained in that joke. Everybody knows that marriage takes a lot of work, even if you've not been married, you expect it to be work. And marriage can be hard. Some marriages are really rough. Two sinners joining together and becoming one flesh involves humility, sometimes humiliation, perseverance, and again, a ton of work. And though every guest at the wedding knows this, they're typically happy to be there.

And they're hoping and praying for the best for the couple, even though that they know that they're fully aware that the marriage can be difficult. And so they're cheering the couple on. They're excited to celebrate with the bride and the groom. And no matter how much truth is contained in the third ring of that joke, people laugh and receive it well. So the Christian life can be compared to the engagement period before a wedding. It is compared to the engagement period before a wedding. And the Bible describes it as such. The Christian life is a life, similarly, bookended by ring number one and by ring number two. Okay, but the Christian life is one that ends with anything but suffaring. It ends with the absolute abolishment of all suffering.

There is no suffering, none, zero suffering. Why? Unlike human marriage, which calls for the death to self, the marriage of all marriages results in a complete death to sin and a perfect and permanent obliteration of all residual effects of sin. It's hard to imagine. There will be no trace of any consequence of sin, because there will be no trace of sin. And everything will be made completely new. The former things will have completely passed away. And the book of Revelation gives us a brief look at this, just at this beyond wonderful, beautiful reality. Okay? So let's read Revelation 21, 1 to 4. It reads, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away.

There is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride, adorned for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them. They shall be his people, and God himself will be among them, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no longer any death. There will be no longer any mourning or crying or pain, the first things passed away. Amen. And this is a beautiful, beautiful passage. Christ came to earth to pursue and purchase his bride with his blood. Ring number one. Christ will again return to be betrothed to his bride. Ring number two.

So the church then at present is kind of in an already spoken for, but not yet quite one engagement period. And we're gonna be reflecting today on how we are to live in this already but not yet engagement period. And so here's a sermon outline for today. We can think through the passage like this. One, we're gonna be looking at the ring. Okay, the ring. Two, the engagement period, and three, the perfect bride. And if I were to add a little bit more substance to each other points here, I would elaborate it with the following. So the first point will be the ring, the first ring. That's Christ's payment for the church. Secondly, the engagement period, Christ's preparation of the church, and third, the perfect bride.

Christ's presentation of the church for himself. And he will present to himself a spotless, radiant, unblemished bride. And we're gonna be looking at that last point specifically next week, and then focusing on the church's sanctification. That's a fancy word, meaning we are made more and more holy. Okay? So this engagement to wedding outline, it fits the Titus passage we're looking at. But before we get into the meat of today's two verses, it's gonna be helpful to do a little review. Okay. So we're focusing on Titus chapter 2, verses 13 to 14 today. But in the Greek, the Titus chapter 2, 11 to 14 is one long sentence. But we stopped at verse 12 last week. And so we ended the sermon last week on a Greek comma.

But what we covered was that the grace of God personified in Jesus Christ appeared, and that changed everything for all mankind. Amen. And it's kind of like when a man goes down on one knee to propose to the woman. That is the moment where everything formally changes. The affections aren't changed, but everything formally has changed, right? The ball's rolling now. That first domino is tipped over, things have now become real. And it's not that the affections are made real, but the reality of the future relationship has just been made more formal. And about half of us are engaged, have been engaged at some point, right? So we understand that. So the grace of God has appeared, and that's what we focus on last week when we looked at verse 11 to 12.

The Greek word for appear is the word epiphane. Repeat after me, epithane. Epiphane. And that's where we get the English word epiphany. And if we say epiphany, what does that mean for us just in our English? We understand it to be like a moment of sudden revelation or insight, right? It's an aha moment. But originally it meant the manifestation or appearing of a divine or supernatural being. So it is a divine interjection into humanity. It's a divine moment that changes everything. Okay. So the first divine moment that changed everything was a proposal. The making of the payment for the bride. The second divine moment, the second epiphane will take place when we hear all the heavens together singing, here comes the groom.

Okay. That's what'll happen when Jesus will epiphany a second time. So the second appearing will not be for the purpose of bringing salvation as a humble servant as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That's already been done. Men don't propose a second time to their fiancees. Right? That's weird. The second appearing will be one in which Jesus returns as a righteous judge and conquering king to make all things new. And at the second coming, he will take away his bride into glory to literally rapture his bride. The marriage of the Lamb will come.

And boom, the marriage of all marriages happens, right? So in today's weddings, usually the bride runs the show, right? In American culture anyway. But biblically, the groom takes charge of everything. So biblically, culturally, the groom took charge of all the beautifying and the readiness for all the wedding prep for his bride. So here's a picture of all of this. Revelation chapter 19, verse 6 to 7. It reads, then I heard something like the voice of a great crowd, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come.

And his bride has made herself ready. So you'll notice that the Bible closes with a wedding and a marriage and the true happily ever after. So the Christian life is basically a life lived in response to that first epiphany, and then one that is lived with eagerness and longing for the second epiphany. You guys following this? Okay. The bride to be has said yes. The bride to be has accepted and is now obsessing over, preparing and beautifying herself for this wedding day. So the Christian life period is live between the two epiphany. And the life that is lived between the two appearances is what our text calls the present age. Okay, hopefully you're following along. So I'm gonna read today's passage again, but I want us to read all of chapter 2, 11 to 14 together for us in context.

So just kind of pay attention with your eyes, and then you'll understand why we're doing so much wedding talk today. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age. Looking forward to, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing epiphany of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. Amen. The entire first quarter of 2006, it's almost been 20 years. The entire first quarter of 2006 for me was spent obsessing over and planning for my proposal.

So I got I got the blessing from Becky's parents. They actually proposed to me. That's a second different story. Okay, they they asked me out, alright? And I was uh at the time scrounging and saving up for a ring. I had a little bit saved, but once the things felt real, I felt bad because it was like not much money. So then I try to save a little bit more to up my budget. And so there was a period where I journaled this. I went without lunch for three weeks. I didn't go to a cafe, which is huge, for a month. And as a seminary student, I couldn't afford much, but I still wanted to give Becky the best. And so I wanted to make a pledge of myself to her with a costly gift, right? And on April 15th, 2006, back then it was tax day, but it was a Saturday.

I proposed. I gave Becky an engagement ring, and then with that, we made the prospects of our future life together formal. So I put a ring on it. Okay? So I sacrificed for it. Don't laugh at that. Even if it was like not as like, oh, it was still like right. It was still beautiful. Okay. And all of the you men understand this. So women understand this. That pledge is not in and of itself love. It's a symbol of the man's love, but it comes at a price. Or at least it should. Verse 14 reads, and it begins with, who gave himself for us. So that's gospel truth. So this is grace. This is unmerited favor. So Jesus Christ made his, made a payment. His bride was bought at a price. Now the bride of Christ was no ordinary bride.

Okay, so you got to pay attention here. Let me describe for you the bride of Christ. She was thoroughly ugly. The bridegroom chose for himself a blemished, wrinkled, damaged, unwashed, smelly, disgusting bride. And the bride's ugliness was not only superficial, hers was an ugliness that came from within. She couldn't help herself from being vile. She was hostile, and she was a deadly combination of both super ignorant and stupid and arrogant in her stupidity. And in the language of Romans chapter 3, she was destructive. Her throat was an empty tomb. With her tongue she was constantly deceiving. Her lips were poisonous. Her mouth was only full of bitterness and cursing. Her feet were swift to shed blood.

Destruction and misery were always left in her wake. She sounds like a crazy person, right? And remember, she wasn't even pretty to look at. She was deformed and ugly. And to make it worse, this ugly, deformed bride to be was an adulteress who flaunted and who gloried in her infidelity. And this was a bride that the bridegroom chose for himself. And the prophet Hosea's life was made a living sermon portraying this. Okay, and I want to read Hosea 1 2. When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, go take for yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry. For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking Yahweh. So she was a cheater. She was a harlot, and she was an adulteress addicted to cheating.

She literally sold herself into slavery by her addiction to harlotry. And she prostituted herself into a life of slavery, even after she got married. And it's so interesting, just a chapter later, we find that she's enslaved again. Hosea chapter 3, verse 1 to 2. Then Yahweh said to me, Go again, love a woman who is loved by her companion and is an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes. That's such a I always read that and I kind of smirk. For raisin cakes? Really? So Hosea says, I bargained for her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. So the prophet Hosea bargained for his wife. When we think of bargain, we think of it as a good word.

But we have to understand it as quite the opposite. This does not mean that he got a good deal. Okay. This doesn't mean that he haggled. Literally, he had to pay a hefty price for what technically was already his.

But the LSB captures that sense, right? There isn't a word that means that in English. So that bargain means to purchase again for something that is already mine. And what did Hosea, or and it's kind of like um, let's say it's a man who's already married to his wife having to buy another engagement ring for her. It doesn't make sense. And what did Hosea pay for this absurd bargain? It says he paid 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. Scholars estimate uh that would have been about a half of years worth of money of your wages. 15 shekels of silver. A homer is equivalent to a hundred liters or about 27 gallons. So Hosea paid six months' wages and 40 gallons of barley, a hefty price for what again was already his.

So he had to pay a ransom. Right? He didn't pay an engagement ring, he had to pay a ransom. Now, even if a lady is physically attractive and gorgeous, if she's a known flirt, cheater, and adulteress, no ordinary man would pursue her to be the mother of his children, to be the keeper of his home, or to be his beloved life partner. He might buy her for his lusts, but not for wifely material, right? She's broken beyond repair. Oh, did I mention that the bride of Christ is also terminally ill and disgustingly diseased? I don't know if a normal ordinary man would ever take responsibility for such a woman, even if he was paid to do it. Would you marry this woman? Even at a payment.

But hallelujah, forever and ever, that Christ is no ordinary man.

While there was nothing remotely attractive or beautiful in his bride. So the bride of Christ, believe it or not, our ignorance makes us think otherwise, but believe it or not, we were deformed, diseased, damaged harlots who would constantly sell ourselves to other gods. Do you know this about you? What was the cost of payment? It was more than 15 shekels of silver and a home and a half of barley. What was the price? Jesus literally gave himself to be crushed and broken as payment for the church. So the sinless one was put to death for the ransom of the thoroughly sin-corrupted slaves of sin. Now, when men propose, they say all kinds of silly things, right? They make all kinds of empty promises.

They make all kinds of lofty uh proclamations like, I will give my life for you, right? I think I said that in my uh proposal, but I have not yet been put to the test on that. But I said stuff like this, right? And a lot of men do. But Christ literally gave up his life to purchase his ugly, diseased, harloting bride out of the bonds of her slavery. He purchased the church with his divine blood. So we are the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. So what's the logical conclusion for this purchased redeemed bride? What's the appropriate response? It says in 1 Corinthians 6, 19 to 20, hey, do you not know that your body is a sanctuary, the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?

You're not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. So the church's glorifying of God is not a prerequisite. It's a response. You guys following this? The deception that is often whispered into our ears, or unfortunately verbalized by like church people, is that a person needs to clean up his act before he can approach God. Have you heard that before? Well, I've done too much to draw near to God, which is not untrue.

But for you to have to clean up your act before you can come to a church, before you have to, before you, like, before you can pray, you have to clean up your act. That is absolute folly. There is no amount of self-cleaning a person could ever to make himself remotely presentable to holy, holy, holy God. Right? We do not clean ourselves up before we come to God. We come to him in surrender so that we could become clean. We repent, we surrender, we let him clean us. Because we cannot clean ourselves. So we don't ever preach a church for you to self-improve. That is not the gospel. No amount of devout or religious activity can make us remotely presentable. Here, let me give you a visual. I have a corpse here.

Corpse. Ugly, smelly. You put expensive lipstick on it. Still a corpse. Right? You can whiten the outside of a tomb. But it's still a tomb. And you've heard Jesus say that. Right? You whitewash tombs. Isaiah 64, 6 reads, all of us have become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind carry us away. We have so much iniquity that we have zero power in and of ourselves to stand against the wind. We're toppled over easy. Our piety, our displays of holiness is always a response. It's never a prerequisite. Amen.

We were unclean, but he healed our iniquity, and he's the only one who can make us righteous. And his righteous deeds have indeed made righteous sinners like us in standing. And so the call is may we live an appropriate response of worship to a payment. And let us draw near his throne of grace with confidence in our imputed righteousness. The Lord Jesus loved us in our ugliness, and his blood has atoned for our sins. Amen? Praise God for this. His blood was sufficient payment to pay off our ransom so that we're released from slavery.

That's what the text says, right? And he put a ring on it. So Titus 2, 13 to 14 reads, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem, ransom us from all lawlessness, and a purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. So those who of us who have said yes to this free gift of salvation, we are now engaged to permanently be united with Christ. You can't lose this. He can't unpropose to you. Okay? So the already but not yet oneness of the engagement period is a state in which we find ourselves. And verse 13 says that we're looking forward to the appearing, the second epe fane, and we're looking forward to the wedding day.

And here is a to-do list of sorts we can deduce that uh that Christ has given to his bride while she awaits the appearing of her groom. Remember. He's everything is groom centered. So the groom has given the church, his bride, a to-do list. The first one is to grow in the knowledge of the bridegroom. When do we start learning about God? After we go to heaven? No. Okay. Though our knowledge of our future bridegroom is presently imperfect and incomplete, our knowledge is already started. Amen? So we have access to the voice of God and to the heart of the groom. We already have access. It's not a permanent oneness marital access quite yet. We only know in part. Eternal life has already started, and we grow in knowing about him and we grow in knowing him.

That's the first task that he's given us. A second one is to get the invitations out. He wants everyone to be invited to the party. So we work on getting all the invites out. Though not all will accept all are invited. It's a big house party, and the bridegroom wants his house filled. And I'm not just talking poetic language. This is what Jesus said. Okay? Luke 14. And he's speaking about a master inviting people to a wedding banquet, and he says, When you give a reception, invite not just the friends. Invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. Hallelujah. And then verse 21, when he doesn't get a favorable response, even then, what does he say? Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the city, the alleyways of these slums, bringing here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame.

And the slave said, Master, what you commanded has been done. And there's still room. It's a big house. And the master said to the slave, and go out into the highways, along the fences and convince them. Compel them. Almost drag them to come in so that my house may be filled. You want to be dragged to this party because you don't know what you're missing, is what's being said. So third, we wear that ring proudly. Ah! Right? We wear it proudly. Okay? So in our culture in the states, we would never say that we made a purchase for the bride. True or false? Yeah, I paid for Becky. Like that's just no, thank you very much. That's very weird to say. But men in our culture propose to their future wives with a little ring, right?

The ring isn't payment, it's simply a visual representation of a symbol of a man's pledge of his heart. You guys, you guys track in this, right? And the engagement ring serves a few purposes in the engagement. Okay. One, it represents the man's pride and his joy. And it's a conversation starter that often revisits the joyous occasion when the man pledged his heart. When the bride walks in, everyone's asking her what? So how did he propose? It's just, it's so like for all the onlookers. Oh, the dudes are like that, right? But all the girls are like, oh, like so sweet. So that's what happens. Okay. And I've been to many engagement parties over the years, and 100% of the time, the newly engaged couple walks into the party.

You know what the woman is doing when she's walking in? She's she's she's showing it off, right? No one gets her left hand stared at as much as a newly proposed to woman. Right after the guy props the question. No one gets the left hand stared at so much. Everyone surrounds her and they say, let me see it. Oh my gosh, it's so pretty. They do all of that. The ring is an inanimate object. But it's a visual representation of the invisible pledge that had been made. It's a visual emblem of the man's love for the woman. It is the visual of a man's joy in choosing his future spouse. That's what it represents. This is an inanimate object, but it represents a lot. That's a it's just pride and joy. Secondly, the engagement ring also means that now this woman is spoken for.

She's off limits. Okay. So though she may not yet be married, she is off limits. We understand in our culture that we do not approach a woman with an engagement ring already on her finger to ask her out on a date. Right? So it's a demarcation line. Okay. And as much as the engagement ring is a visible symbol of a pledge of a man makes for a woman, the church, too, has also been given a pledge. And that pledge, too, is supposed to be visible. It's supposed to be obvious. Okay, Ephesians 1 13 to 14. In him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance unto the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory.

He put a ring on it. And the Holy Spirit of the invisible God, Romans 1 20, was to be visibly and obviously recognized in his bride. The bride of Christ is to walk around strutting. Okay. Now, Galatians chapter 5, verse 19 tells us that the deeds of the flesh are evident, and he gives it gives you a list. Other translations will read, clearly evident, obvious, manifest, quite plain. So when someone is full of just the flesh, he's not a believer, you know. It's very obvious. Why is my man selfish? Why is he jealous? Why does he have fits of rage? Why is he sexually immoral? Why is he perverted? Because he's a sinner. It's very clear. So they are obvious, they are visible, they are judgable things.

The fruit of the Spirit is written in a parallel grammatical form. So too, the fruits of the Spirit are also very evident, obvious, manifest, quite plain, judgeable. And these visible fruits are joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, because again, we've been redeemed from the law against such things. There is no law. Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. It will be very obvious, it should be very obvious to the world, those who pledge themselves to Christ who they are. Right? Not only are the workings of the Holy Spirit supposed to be obvious, the posture of the future bride of Christ is supposed to be on full display.

It is not a private thing to be a bride of Christ. Living a Christian life in secret is akin to an engaged woman purposely choosing to take the ring off whenever she goes out in public. Imagine that. A woman who gets proposed to and she says yes, but every time she goes out in public, she hides the ring. Or whenever she's out somewhere, she just kind of covers it up. There's something wrong there. Galatians 524 describes the putting on of that first ring as crucifixion. No crucifixion is private. If it was private, it would be called torture. It's not an execution. It's just literally like someone being cruel in private. Every crucifixion was public for everybody to see. No crucifixion is left for interpretation.

They would even have a sign of why the person is being crucified hanging over their heads. You guys tracking along? Okay. So on those who are the bride of Christ who have pledged themselves to Christ Jesus, who now belong to Christ Jesus in the flesh, we wear our crucifixion. We display our crucifixion.

Galatians 2 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me visibly, obviously, tangibly, judge, judgeably, right? And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me, and here's the word gave himself up for me. These were Jesus' words. Okay, Luke 9 23 is also a well-known passage. And he said, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. You guys have heard this verse before. A woman who is ashamed of her ring can maybe mean one of a few things, right? The first, she doesn't want to be exclusive. She's a harlot. So a woman who is afraid to mark herself off from the world is because she doesn't want to be exclusive.

She wants him for this, she wants him for that. She wants that guy for something else. She doesn't want to be exclusive. Or second, maybe she's embarrassed by who she's engaged to. And I would I would imagine there are people in the world like that, right? Embarrassed. Oh, like I don't want to say no to him because he's such a good guy, but on the social strata, he's like pretty low. So she's embarrassed. Or three, she proudly believes she's embarrassed at the size of the rock. She proudly believes herself to be worth more than the payment. Well, this was not enough. So she's embarrassed. So just as much as you'd rarely see an engaged lady ashamed of her ring, because that would be abnormal.

Why'd you say yes, right? The posture of crucifixion is not something the bride is to be ashamed of.

Amen. That shame means there's something else happening. In verse 26 says, Whoever is ashamed of this, I will be ashamed of you. I gave up my life, shed my blood for you, and you don't want to identify with that. That means you are not of the elect. You've just outed yourself. So we have been crucified with Christ. And we boast in this. Amen. The crucifixion is our chief boast. It's actually our only boast. Repeat after me. Crucifixion is my only boast. If you're a Christian, that is your only boast. Galatians 6 14. But may it never be that I would boast, except. What's the word accept mean? It's exclusive. This is the only thing I'm gonna boast in. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me.

It's dead now. Ambition, money, pleasure, all of that publicly is dead, not just privately. It is dead. May everybody know that it's dead in me. I don't care about my fame. I don't care about my wealth. I don't care about my status. I'm done with that publicly. And the only boast is I have been united with Christ in his death. And I've been united with him in his resurrection. And I will be united with him as a resurrection.

The crucifixion shouldn't be made visible only through a cross necklace or a cross hanging outside of the church building. It has to be made visible in our lives.

Right. Fourth, on this to-do list for the church, as she prepares for the wedding, is she is to beautify herself. No bride wants to be go from here to more funny looking or less beautiful for the wedding. You guys can you guys can easily imagine that, right? The bride is to beautify herself. So many brides before the wedding day, what do they do? They go on diets, they work out hard, right? Like they grow their hair longer so that when you actually have to cut it, I don't understand how this works. I just assume, right? And there's more to work with. Okay. They take care of their skin. They avoid certain foods. I make them break out. Why? On the wedding day, everybody's gonna be staring at them.

And the pictures are captured forever. So every bride, I'm gonna use the word zealous, is zealous in preparing herself for her wedding day. She beautifies herself. So in our cultural context, the weddings, all weddings are very bride-centric. Right? Sorry, men, that's just the culture in which we live. Okay? Pushing against that is unwise. Alright, so we bride centered is our wedding today. Everyone standing in the wedding party is reminded always to have their bodies facing whom? The bride. You are even turning your fair your posture away from your friend, the groom, and you turn it toward the bride when she walks in. That's that's normal, right? The bride that's at that center at the wedding, everyone else is a decoration at a modern day wedding.

Everyone else is ornamental. You guys following? Even the groom. He's there to make the bride look good. In modern day wedding. The groom is still an ornament to modern day weddings. It's just he's the main one. He's the main ornament. Right? You guys understand how weddings work, right? But in the context of the world of the scriptures, weddings were groom-centric. Are you guys following? That's why, in the poetic language of the Bible, the most beautiful and glorious things are often compared to the groom. Grooms are the ones who wear the trains. You ever see the vision of God filling the temple? The train of his robe, right? Grooms wear the train. So one of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 19.

And this is how God, or this is how King David describes the movement of the sun across the heavens. Okay? So he's he's describing it like the movement of the sun is like the back door of the sanctuary being flung open, the music being played, and the pastor in the front saying, ladies and gentlemen, I now invite you to stand for the entrance of the groom. Okay? The doors are flung open. And this is what he says, Psalm 19. In them, the heavens, God has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber into the party. Right? The bright orange lights of a sunset or sunrise is like the glory of the bridegroom. So the church is to be zealous in beautifying herself to make the bridegroom look.

Right? The bride is the main wedding ornament. And what is she primarily to beautify herself in? Again, not as a prerequisite, but as a response. She is to beautify herself with good works. She is to be zealous for good works, so that her groom, when he walks in, everyone's stunned. He has purified for himself a people for his own possession. A bride who is zealous for good works. And remember, the theme of good works runs through the whole of the letter. And again, it is not a prerequisite, it's a response. Okay. The letter even closes with the theme of good works. You guys see it? Titus 3 14 is the second to last letter before the grace be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Okay, before that, this is the last verse.

Our people must also learn to lead in good works, to meet real pressing needs that people have so that they will not be unfruitful. To whose glory? The future groom. The bride beautifies herself with good works for the glory of her head, her bridegroom, and by her good works, even the enemies of the groom will bow the knee and give him praise. It says in 1 Peter 2 12. By keeping your conduct excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing which they slander you even as evildoers, they may be because of what? Your good works. As they observe them. They can't deny it. They will glorify God on the day of visitation. Lastly, the bride of Christ during this engagement period in preparation. It's actually the groom making her beautiful.

She's going to be made beautiful by the bridegroom himself. Christ perfects his bride for himself.

He washes her thoroughly through the washing of water with the word until she has no spot, no wrinkle, no blemish, no trace of sin. You guys know that passage in Ephesians 5, right? And that's called sanctification. And we're going to be looking at that next week. Okay? So that's the third point. It's just safer next week. But I want to close this sermon with a question. Is this you? Is this you? Again, not as a requirement, but as an appropriate response. Are you wise? And what I mean by that is when the bridegroom returns, and he says he's gonna kind of come at a time that's unannounced. When the bridegroom returns, will you be prepared with your lamps and your flasks of oil?

Or are you gonna be caught outside looking in? Like, give me give me some of what you have. Give me, give me, give me some of what you have. And that's the point of the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew chapter 25. Right. The Lord has given of himself to redeem us from all lawlessness, to purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. May we live up to that calling. And may we sport his ring proudly. Amen. Let's pray. Father, help us to understand deeply our unworthiness and our ugliness from which you saved us. If we really understood how far we were away from you, I imagine that we could not but help to prostrate ourselves in gratitude before you.

And whatever trials and hardships that you use to get our attention again and again and again and again, Lord, we thank you for just your steadfast love. We thank you that even when we go harling harloting ourselves. Yeah, that you, your love knows no bounds, and that you bring us back. You purchase for ourselves or for yourself again and again. Help us to grow, to endear ourselves to you more and more. Help us to praise you more and more. Help us to grow in our knowledge of you so that others might grow in knowledge of you through our lives. In Jesus' name we pray.