Stevens Wedding

Marriage Instituted Before the Fall

Here today in the presence of this man and this woman. Who gives this woman to be married? You may be seated. God himself instituted marriage at the beginning in the garden. This happened before sin entered the world.

He said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmeet for him. Thereupon, God created woman of man's own substance and brought her to the man. Our Lord Jesus Christ honored marriage by his presence in the first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee.

He confirmed it as a divine ordinance and as a union not to be severed when he declared, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall be one flesh.

Wherefore, they are no more two but one. What therefore God hath joined together, let man not put asunder. Moreover, the Holy Spirit sets forth the sacred and exalted nature of marriage when he likens it to the mystical union that exists between Christ and the church, saying, this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Accordingly, God has designed marriage for the enrichment of the lives of those who enter into this estate, for the orderly propagation of the human race, for the generation of a holy seed, and for the avoidance of sexual immorality.

All of this to the glory, to the God who keeps covenant. Please pray with me now. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy and it shall be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house. Your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you out of Zion and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.

Yes, may you see your children's children and may peace be upon Israel. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. Husbands and wives have responsibilities befitting God's purposes for their relationship.

The Holy Scripture says, husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. The husband is to love his wife as his own body, to care for her and to cherish her. The Holy Scripture also says, wives submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.

The wife is to submit to her husband, to respect him and to entrust herself to his loving care. Both husbands and wives are to be faithful to one another, to assist each other in all good things, to heartily forgive each other their sins and shortcomings and to love each other as themselves.

Thus united in love, they will more and more reflect in their marriage the unity of Christ and his church. I'm going to ask the congregation to please stand now. After this, we're going to sing together and these songs are found in the order of service that you have been given.

And this is now going to take us into a time of worship. O Lord, we ask for your blessing upon David and Sarah. Bind them to yourself and to one another. May exuberant joy be the aroma of their lives because of your presence with them.

May they be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. May they live in a manner commensurate with the gospel of Christ. May you grant them children. Remember your promise to be God to them and to their children after them.

O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, may your grace overflow in this marriage for your glory and namesake. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we ask for your presence and blessing upon all that happens here today.

And we do this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please take up the insert and find come thou fount of every blessing. Take up your order of service again and find the Psalm 45. Daughter, incline your ear. Psalm 45. The place now where I'm going to seek your consent.

David, I'm going to ask you to respond to this statement if you're in agreement with. David, will you have this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife? The zeal. To live together after God's ordinance and the holy estate of marriage.

And will you love her as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her? Will you comfort her, honor and cherish her? And forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live.

Sarah, I'm going to ask you the same thing at the end. Please respond by saying I. Sarah, will you have this man, David, to be your lawfully wedded husband? To live together after God's ordinance and the holy estate of marriage.

And will you love him, comfort him, respect and submit to him, even as the church submits to Christ? And forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto him as long as you both shall live. Please pray with me.

Most holy and merciful Father, who at once is the God of nature and of grace. Creator, preserver and redeemer of mankind. The fountain of life, of love and of joy and of peace. And whose presence is the happiness of every condition.

We beseech you to be present and favorable to these, your servants. And to fill them with the sense of the solemnity of the vows they are about to make. Enable them, we pray, to remember and to keep these vows.

Looking unto you for assistance. And help them to enter into these sacred obligations with a humble dependence upon your enabling grace. Grant this, oh Father, with the forgiveness of our sins. Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

Christ and the Church in Psalm 45

The little homily is going to be drawn from the psalm we had the privilege of singing just a couple of moments ago. I'm going to read Psalm 45 and then have some brief words. Then we'll proceed to some pressing issues.

This is God's holy and infallible word. My heart is indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I have made touching the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men.

Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee forever. O Lord Christ, gird thy sword upon thy thigh. O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty, ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness.

And thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy kingdom is a right scepter.

Thou hast lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.

King's daughters were among thy honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir. Harken, O daughter, and consider and incline thy near. Forget also thine own people in thy father's house.

So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him. The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. The King's daughter is all glorious within.

Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework. The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing, they shall be brought.

They shall enter into the King's palace. Instead of thy fathers, thou shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise thee forever and ever.

Amen.

The purpose of this short message is to rightly order all of our affections, our priorities. Psalm 45 is about marriage, but it's about the royal marriage. At weddings, there can be a temptation to focus on the lesser things.

The love story of David and Sarah could take center stage, but that would be a missed opportunity. David and Sarah are understudies in the epical drama and love story of Christ and his church. The drama of redemption and marital love is found in the great rescuing, conquering love of Christ for his holy bride, the church.

The warrior king has wrestled the damsel from the clutches of the dragon, and he takes her and he washes her, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish.

He unites himself to her, and this bond will never be broken. The church, the bride, she is filled with life and joy. She flourishes because Christ loves her. Her radiance and her beauty do not fade with age.

She grows more beautiful as the radiance of his glory shines over her. Her loyalty, her love, and her commitment grows. His love never relents. He never grows tired of loving her. He is always patient with her.

He instructs her. He binds up her wounds. He restores and renews her when she falls or despairs. David and Sarah, your marriage has the duty and obligation, yea, the privilege of telling the story of Christ and his love for the church, and the church's honor and adoration of her saving king.

I have only two categories for consideration. The first is the king, and the second is the king's bride. With the psalmist, our hearts overflow with a good theme. In the title, we learn that this is a love song to the king.

David and Sarah, your marriage is to be a love song to the king of kings. He is fairer than the sons of men. One of our favorite hymns in Protestant churches is Fairest Lord Jesus. It's based on Psalm 45.

Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, son of God and son of man, thee will I cherish, thee will I honor, thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown. We want your lives and your marriage to sing that praise to Christ.

The psalm, in its immediate context, is about a royal wedding of a Davidic king. I favor the ancient interpretation that the psalmist is writing about the impending marriage of Solomon to the daughter of Pharaoh.

It certainly could apply to any king descending from David. But like many psalms, the ultimate object is Jesus Christ. There is a look to the future. Whatever was going on in the composition of the psalm, it speaks of greater things.

And today, this is the beginning of things, but we're speaking of greater things. Greater things about you and your life and your marriage in the future, but even more so, the greater things of the consummation of all things when the bride of Christ is finally consummated with bridegroom Christ the king.

I want us today to look into the future. Imagine, it's hard to, but David and Sarah as old, having loved well, having children that rise up and call their mother blessed, children that adore and respect and honor and carry on a faithful legacy of their father and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Weddings aren't about today. They're about the future. The bigger future is the future in Christ. Today, the immediate context of our assembling together is for the covenant union of David and Sarah. For David and Sarah and for all in Christ, there is a greater splendor to come.

A greater splendor on display today. Greater than the wedding and marriage of David and Sarah. Just like whomever was written about in Psalm 45, it really pales in comparison to the union, the royal wedding of Christ and his church.

Let us now fix our gaze heavenward where Christ is. And with great expectancy long for that consummation, the divine wedding of the king and his bride, the church. Of all the attendant blessings of the marriage covenant, nothing surpasses the privilege of reflecting Christ and his one flesh union with the church.

And in fact, one of the great advantages of Christian marriage is its higher purpose. The greatest love story is the love of God for his people. This is the redemptive drama that should captivate us at weddings.

The king is fairer than the sons of men. Grace is poured upon his lips. He is blessed forever. A sword is girded on his thigh. No one is more powerful than him. His glory and majesty shine more brightly than the sun.

His power is wielded with virtue. He majestically rides in truth, humility, and righteousness. His strength is gentle and benevolent. He is tender with those whom he loves. He sends piercing arrows into the hearts of his enemies, and they fall in judgment.

And gloriously, sometimes he's so filled with grace that he makes his enemies his nearest and dearest friends. In fact, he makes them part of the family of God. In verse 6, we read that it says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. Those words are familiar to us because they are quoted by the author of Hebrews in chapter 1. You love righteousness, it says, in our psalm and in Hebrews, and hate wickedness.

Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. The king is worthy of our complete and lifelong adoration and praise. Like our king, our bridegroom today pursued his bride.

That picture, now, we should say we should take it. We should magnify it and amplify it and see how zealously Christ has pursued his bride, the church. That should resonate with us, all of us who have a love, who have been married.

The way we love them, the way we pursue them. Christ has pursued us in a greater fashion than that. The deep longing David has to be united to Sarah is eclipsed by Christ's longing to be one with us. And like David, our king takes his bride to himself in love.

David, I charge you to love Sarah after this pattern. And to all husbands and aspiring husbands, to love your brides like Christ loves the church. Christ is fair because of his holy virtues. He is beautiful because of holiness.

David, be a man who hungers and thirsts for righteousness, that you may be filled. Let what is most known about you, most prominent about David Stevens, be Christ-likeness. In your life and marriage, let Sarah in the watching world see the righteousness of Christ in your life.

Let grace drop from your lips. May your words ooze with holy sweetness. Gird up your sword. Invoke the name and word of God and walk in his ways. Protect Sarah from the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Defend her spiritually and physically. Love and lead her in gentle strength, reflecting your king. Be a man of truth, humility, and righteousness. Love righteousness and hate wickedness, first of all, in your own heart.

Now we consider the king's bride. The church is made up of the king's daughters. The royal divine wedding party is a corporate body. The church is made up of individual members, but it is not individualistic.

This is an important consideration for both Christians generally and for spouses. Our lives are to be characterized by love for others. The husband and the wife are to think corporately. They are to seek the good of the other.

This should be seen in our churches, in our marriages. It's not what we can get, it's what we can give. In our psalm, the royal bride is taken out of Egypt and false idolatrous religion. The church, too, has been called out of the world and brought into the family of God.

She has put off the filthy rags and is now clothed in fine living in the righteousness of Christ. In this wedding, we have David leaving his father and mother and cleaving to his wife. Sara leaves her father's house and establishes a new home with David.

But parents, I have a word for you. This is not a day of heartbreak for you. As we learned last evening, both families have a strong Christian testimony. This is a day of rejoicing for you. Those prayers for David and Sara offered in childhood have been heard by our God.

Your children are marrying in the Lord. God has kept his covenant promises and blessed you, and this we should rejoice. The divine King greatly desired his bride on account of her beauty. Sara, today you are outwardly adorned with beauty, and David is enraptured with your love.

This white gown is a symbol of purity and virtue, but today you are an object lesson for us. The church needs to be adorned with the beauty of Christ and his holiness, his righteousness. Congregation, look at the wedding.

The wedding party and all the attendees are dressed for the wedding. As believers, we put on fine clothes and come to the wedding feast, and it's only because of Christ that we have the suitable attire.

We can come to the marriage feast of the Lamb because of Christ and his righteousness. So you're a testimony, a picture, a living picture of the reality of Christ in his church and how he makes her pure.

The royal daughter is all glorious within the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the king in robes of many colors. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you with gladness and rejoicing.

They shall be brought. They shall enter the king's palace. Sada, let your inner beauty as a follower of Christ even overshadow the outward adornment of this, your wedding day. May your righteousness be a crown and joy to Christ and to David.

Be known as a beautiful woman in Christ. Congregation, again, wedding party, look at yourselves. Look at your adornment. Use it as an object lesson to see the whole company of Christ's church gathered around his throne and let us worship him.

Well, the church's number continues to increase. David and Sada, may your covenant faithfulness cause your name to be remembered in all generations. May your children's children speak of your great faith and obedience.

May the Lord grant you godly seed that you might instruct them in the way that they should go, that they would not depart from it. May the name David and Sada Stevens be great in the land as they worship the king.

David and Sada and all who are married here today, may your life, your faithfulness, your children, your marriage be a living love song to the king. Please pray with me. Oh Lord, we thank you that the lesser though glorious speaks to greater.

We pray that David and Sada would learn from the perfect school of Christ about how to be a husband and a wife. We pray that the church here assembled would renew their commitment and covenant to worship you and to walk in obedience and be a righteous people.

And now Lord, we pray your blessing upon these vows. We pray that this would cause David and Sada's hearts to sing when they make covenant with.

You and one another.

We ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Exchange of Vows and Rings

David, I'd like you to speak after me.

David, take you Sada.

I, David, take you Sada.

To be my wedded wife. And I do promise and covenant before God.

And these witnesses.

To be your loving and faithful husband. In sickness and in health. In plenty and in want. In joy and in sorrow. As long as we both shall live. I, Sada, take you David. To be my wedded husband. And I do promise and covenant.

And I do promise and covenant.

Before God and these witnesses. To be your loving and faithful wife. In sickness and in health. In plenty and in want. In joy and in sorrow. As long as we both shall live. Repeat after me. Sada I give you.

Sada I give you this ring, this ring, as a token and pledge of constant faith.

As a token and pledge of constant faith.

And abiding love and abiding love and with this ring.

And with this ring.

I be wed.

As a token and pledge.

As a token and pledge.

Of constant faith and abiding love, and with this ring I be wed. I'm going to ask everyone to pause for a moment now. Most merciful and gracious God, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, we beseech you that you would set the seal of your approval upon this marriage in which our brother and sister have.

Entered into this day.

Grant them your fatherly blessing. Work in them the grace of your Holy Spirit. Enable them to fulfill with pure and constant affection the vow and covenant made between them. Guide them in the way of righteousness.

Guide them in the way of peace, that loving and serving you with one mind and heart all the days of their life, they may be abundantly enriched with the tokens of your everlasting favor in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In all of life's experiences, lift up your countenance upon them, that they may be thankful in prosperity and patient in adversity. May their marriage be fruitful for this life, but more importantly, Lord, for the life to come.

Grant them wisdom and strength to build a home that will bring glory to your name at the coming of your kingdom. May they live together many years, and in the hour of death, may they part in the blessed hope of celebrating forever with all the saints of God the marriage of Christ and the church he loved.

Hear our prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Pronouncement and Benediction

I'm going to ask the congregation to stand now. The blessing is for the beautiful couple, but it's also for God's people. Receive now the blessing of our God. Now may the Lord bless and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you.

And be gracious to you.

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you.

And grant you peace.

Amen.

By virtue of the authority committed unto me as a minister of the church of Jesus Christ, I now pronounce you husband and wife in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

David, you may now kiss your bride and wife. Lord, our God, fill you with his grace and grant you that you may live long together in all godliness and holiness.

Amen.

It now gives me great pleasure. It is an honor to introduce to you.

Mr. and Mrs. David Stevens.