The Bride Belongs to Christ Alone

Well, as we have mentioned a few times over the last few weeks this morning, we are stepping away from the book of Exodus and we are going to step into a series as we prepare for that time of year that draws near where we have set aside to celebrate the birth of our

Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Now, typically, I wouldn't start this until the

Sunday after Thanksgiving, but next week we have a very special guest speaking for us and so he will be giving you the word next week and then we will come right back to the series the week after.

So this year, as has been the case in my preaching for the last several years, we'll stray away from the typical messages that are structured around the specific passages that are typically taught around Christmas time.

And it's not that these passages are not wonderfully beautiful. It's not that they don't need to be celebrated, but rather,

I believe that when we limit ourselves to these passages at Christmas, we also limit the effect of the incarnation to just those passages.

And I think we miss the purpose behind His coming.

And so over the next few weeks, you will see that we will recall and we will read these passages.

They will take place as part of our normal service, but then we will also in each week as Christmas approaches begin to expand our understanding of the reality of why

Christ came, going beyond just the details that surround

His birth. I wanna give you a little bit of history of why

I have moved in this direction over the last several years. I became convicted several years ago that one of the things that was happening in the modern church, especially around Christmas, was that rather than celebrating the birth of our

Savior and all that His birth meant, we had become complacent into just throwing a birthday party once a year.

And I just felt like we were not digging into the truths of God.

And I don't want you to misunderstand me. It is absolutely right and good to celebrate the birth of Christ.

We must do that. But I believe that it is important that we rightly celebrate

His birth. And to do that, we have to take in to consideration the entire scope of His life and the truth and all that He accomplished and see that His first coming was preparation for His second.

I think we get so laser focused that the first coming that we forget that it's pointing forward to something else.

But this is the space in which we live, the time between the first and second coming.

If we look back and we study the apostles' teachings, we see that the apostles certainly thought that there was an urgency that we teach the whole counsel of God.

In the last 100 years or so, there has been a drift away from the truth this preparation for the last day that the apostles were so urgent to teach us about.

And we have sat back and moved away from preparation to what scripture defines as the day of the

Lord to we're more focused on self -gratifying lifestyle coaching that is supposed to fill us and fulfill us, which in reality,

I think we can all agree, it never really does. This past week,

I was listening as I do each week to Dr.

Sinclair Ferguson's podcast that he does on a weekly basis. And this is the first time

I've actually had someone who almost threw out the same line of thought that I did, but he spoke about in early traditions what was actually spoke about the four days, the four

Sundays leading up to Christmas. Now in our culture, in today's world, most of us will recognize that those are the

Sundays of what is known as Advent. Advent is simply a term that means coming.

And so these are the four Sundays of Advent or the four Sundays of coming. And today, if you go to most modern evangelical churches who practice

Advent, you will see them talk about love, joy, peace, and hope. And all of those things are right and good and true and absolutely a part of the story.

But I think there's a danger that we miss. In the early church as Christmas approached, what they would talk about were the things known as the four last things as it dealt with personal eschatology.

Now eschatology is your churchy word for the day. It literally means the study of the end of things.

That's what eschatology means. Okay, so if you hear that word later, don't be confused. It just means that we're talking about last things.

And there's a broad sense of the last things of all things, but then there's the narrow sense where we talk about the last things that each of us are dealing with.

And so for them, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, they dealt with life, death, heaven, and hell.

It was a very strict push to understand last things.

Now, while we are not going to deal this year with those specific four themes, we are going to take a different approach again.

And we will be looking at how the incarnation of Christ is the pivotal point in the redemptive arc of church history or of history total, but then specifically as it relates to the church.

Is Christ the word made flesh, the divine bridegroom that comes personally to claim, to redeem, to purify, and then to bring to glory

His covenant people. And so our four week journey begins as you take your

Bibles and turn with me to the third chapter of John.

And we will begin our reading in the 26th verse and read down through the 30th.

And so as you find your place there, please stand in reverence for the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, complete, authoritative, sufficient, and certain word.

In the gospel of John in the third chapter, beginning in the 26th verse, the word of God reads, and they came to John and said to him, rabbi, he who was with you beyond the

Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him.

John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.

You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, I am not the

Christ, but I have been sent ahead of him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.

So this joy of mine has been made full.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Our prayer this morning is adapted from the Puritan prayer, the gift of gifts. Most gracious and heavenly father,

Lord, you are the giver of the greatest gift. Indeed, truly the gift of all gifts in the person of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Begotten, not created, our redeemer, our proxy, our substitute, and our surety.

His willingness to empty himself is incomprehensible. His infinite love lies beyond our true understanding.

The knowledge that he came low to raise us above, that he was born like us so that we may become like him is truly beyond our understanding.

The truth that in our condition of inability to rise to him, he draws us near on the wings of grace to raise us to him is love's greatest display.

Lord, to bear witness to the truth that through deity and humanity, though deity and humanity were separated infinitely from each other, he united them in a bond that cannot be broken.

He brought together the self -existent creator and that which he created.

And in so doing, Christ displayed his power or beyond comprehension to look behind us and see that our past was defined as one with no will to return to him, no intellect that could help us recover that which was lost.

And yet it was then that Christ came, God incarnate, to save us to the uttermost as a man to die with the death that was meant for us, to pour out the wrath of God on the satisfying blood of Christ on our behalf, to work out perfect righteousness for those whom he calls his own.

This is the very foundation of wisdom. Lord, as we worship during the next few weeks, celebrating that first advent, let us see in our mind's eye those watchful shepherds and enlarge our understanding to hear the great tidings of joy.

And in so hearing, believe and rejoice and praise and adore,

Lord, that our conscience would be bathed in an ocean of rest, that our eyes would be uplifted to our reconciled father.

Lord, in our mind's eye, let us see into that faithful scene to behold our redeemer's face and know that in him we have been delivered from our sins.

Let us, like Simeon, embrace this newborn babe to our hearts in undying faith and exulting in the truth that we are his and he is ours.

For in him, you have truly given us the greatest of all gifts for which we give you all the praise and the glory.

And we do so in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.

Before we get into the depth of the real topic of the message this morning, it is necessary that we look at the context of the passage that we are reading.

Now, these few verses are part of a larger context that deals with a confrontation that occurs between some disciples of John and some

Jews. And it all begins when the people begin flocking to Christ.

The disciples of John had noticed that Jesus had come into the area and that he was teaching and that he was baptizing and that he was doing so.

And as he was doing so, the people begin to leave John and move to Jesus and to begin following Jesus.

Now, we know as we study New Testament and we understand what we see here that not all of these people are true converts, but what is happening is that the body of people that is following John is slowly diminishing.

And then the disciples of John got into a debate with some Jews. In fact, if you go up to verse 25, it says, therefore, there arose a debate between John's disciples and a

Jew about purification. Now, what's this about purification? Well, the baptism that John was baptizing and the baptism that Jesus was baptizing with at that time dealt with purification.

And so it is likely that the argument here, even though we aren't told specifically, it is likely that the argument here had to do with the person who really had the right to be baptizing.

And so this is why, if you'll notice, and when they come to John, his disciples say, Rabbi, this is the only person in scripture that's called a rabbi other than Christ, the only other time we see this official title, he who was with you beyond Jordan or on the other side of Jordan, that word beyond can be translated both ways, being

Christ, to whom you have borne witness. And if you'll go back to John 1 and read the very end of John 1, you'll see the witness of John the

Baptist regarding Christ, that person, behold, he is baptizing and all the people are coming to him.

What is this all about? And so the foundation here is that John, who was more older and more experienced and the more established of the two teachers should have been the one to whom the people were flocking.

He should have been the one who was the true authority on baptizing. We see though that by John's, we see this information in John's response that the implication for what they were asking is, listen, shouldn't these people be staying with you?

If we put it in modern terms, if we bring it into today's world, shouldn't these people follow you?

You baptized him, you're the senior, you're more experienced, you're more established, you have the more distinguished career, you have the greater education.

Remember John's dad was a priest. You have all of these qualifications.

You're the one who people should be following, not some carpenter from Galilee of all places.

Someone in fact that you had to baptize. Now this is the argument that the disciples of John are likely making.

However, if we see the context of John's response to them, what we see is

John pointing out very clearly that there is a difference in the point of view.

And so we're gonna look at several of these responses and then we're gonna hone back in on one specific part for the remainder.

The first of those statements is found in verse 27. Now verse 27 is a verse that is debated by scholars to some degree about exactly who

John is referring to. Some believe John is referring to himself. Some believe that John is referring to Jesus and talking about the role of Christ.

My personal opinion as I study this particular passage is yes, and.

You see, I think what John is doing here is that he is immediately, what was forefront in his mind, based on the rest of the passage, based on what you see in the remainder of the context, is

John's role in things. If you'll notice in verse 28, he says,

I have been sent ahead of him. Verse 29, he is the friend of the bridegroom. John understood his role as the one who was to cry out in the wilderness.

He was the one to prepare the people for the kingdom to arrive.

I would argue that John has always known his role, that John has always been clear.

If you go into Luke's gospel and you look at the first chapter, in verses 39 through 45, as Mary and Elizabeth encounter each other after Mary is with child, after her visit with the angel, we read these words.

Now at this time, Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted

Elizabeth. And it happened that when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the

Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.

And blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the

Lord. John leapt as he came into the unborn presence of the

King of Kings. Secondly, though, I also believe that John is speaking in general terms regarding the mission and work of Christ.

Now, we don't know how much John knew of the details, how much John truly understood of what was going to be happened.

But what he did know was that Christ was sent from heaven. He did know that he was a lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that Christ was the one whom

John was not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal.

John knew that Christ was the Messiah, the son of the living God. In fact, if you look here in verse 28, he says, you yourselves are my witnesses that I said,

I am not the Christ. In other words, I am not the Messiah. And back in John chapter one, verse 32 through 33,

John bore witness saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he abided on him.

And I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, the one upon whom you see the

Spirit descending and abiding on him, this is the one who baptizes with the

Holy Spirit. John understood that Christ had a role and a work that was given from heaven.

But I think the and, yes, John was talking about John.

Yes, John was talking about Christ, but I also think and in a broadly speaking term, the words of John ring true for all people.

This is the reality that God is the sovereign ruler of all things. It is this truth that gives us peace and hope and comfort in life when challenges and when difficulties arise.

This is how we rest in the finished work of Christ. Knowing, knowing that the one who rules and reigns on high will not let his people perish.

This truth is a deep truth that should remind us that none of this is a backup plan.

None of this was plan B. That the almighty creator

God, stepping out of eternity, condescending to become a man is, this always was and forever will be his plan.

That it was his love that he set on his people before the foundation of the world.

If you go into Revelations in the 13th chapter, we read regarding the dragon and the beast that rises out of the sea.

Now we're not getting into representation and what the beast and the dragon, we're not doing that this morning.

What I want you to see is the response of the world to the dragon and this beast.

Revelations 13 verses seven through nine. And it was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.

And all who dwell on the earth will worship him. By the way, him is the dragon.

I want you to think about the passage for just a moment. And it was given to the dragon to make war with the saints and to overcome the saints and all authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to the dragon and all who dwell on the earth will worship the dragon.

Verse nine, but then he finishes in verse nine and he says, in verse eight, and he says, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who has been slain.

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. All the world will bow except the ones whose name are written in the lamb's book of life.

But I want you to see when they were written before the foundation of the world.

In fact, the grammatical structure of this sentence that clause before the foundation of the world actually applies to two things.

One, it applies to when your name was written in the lamb's book of life.

Secondly, it applies to the lamb who was slain. Again, demonstrating that this, this was the plan of the dragon from all eternity.

The words of John in John three, verse 27, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven are just as true for us today as it has, as it was of Christ and of John.

The second brief section that we want to take a few moments to look at comes in the latter part of verse 29 in the first part and in verse 30.

And we're gonna come back to the clause, the first clause in verse 29, that's where we're gonna spend the majority of our time.

But I wanna address the other two. The second part of verse 29 and verse 30 are a continuation of what

John has already referred to somewhat as he has dealt in verse 28 with the fact that these men were themselves the witnesses of what

John had already said regarding Christ. And then he goes on to elaborate these things being, these statements that he made were recorded for us in John one, verses 19 through 36.

As John continues to elaborate, he refers to himself as the friend of the bridegroom.

Now this is important language. It's important language. If you think about our customs today in marriage, we have what is known as the best man, right?

And the responsibilities of the best man vary based on today's world, but basically in most of us, our context, it would be the guy that's supposed to stand up as the best friend, the guy who's behind the groom and make sure you don't lose the rings, right?

That's the scope of the responsibilities. In biblical times, however, marriage ceremony and custom was completely different.

In fact, marriage ceremony and customs lasted much longer than they do today, usually about a year.

And during that process, there were some very strict rituals and ceremonies that had to be observed.

And at the very end, at the very conclusion of all of the rituals and ceremonies, it was the responsibility, after the pomp and the circumstance were over, it was the responsibility of the friend of the groom, the friend of the bridegroom to bring the bride to the house that the groom had built for them to live in.

And so his job was to ensure that the bride made it to the door and then they were to remain outside until they received confirmation from inside that the marriage was truly consummated.

Once they received that, they would then be the enunciator of that proclamation.

They would be the one that would spread the word that the marriage has been completed, that it has been finalized.

This is what we see when John talks about the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of his voice.

His joy has been made full because the consummation has occurred. And so as he does this, he demonstrates to us his role.

His role was to prepare the way. His role was to be the one who cried out in the wilderness.

His role was to bring the people prepared for their Messiah and having done so, as he tells us in verse 30, it was time for him to decrease while Christ's increases.

So that brings us around to this passage that we see in verse 29, this statement that begins that verse.

It's a very simple statement. John doesn't do a whole lot of elaboration, but what

I want you to understand is that there's much more to this statement than meets the eye.

His statement to the Jews was simply, he who has the bride is the bridegroom.

And you may read that and go, well, duh, that's kind of the whole point, right? The groom has the bride, the bride has the groom, they too become one flesh.

But this mystery is much deeper. And over the next few minutes, what

I wanna show you is that this reveals a very important truth regarding the church.

First and foremost, that the church belongs, the bride belongs to Christ alone.

You'll notice all of John's language surrounding this was a language of deference, a language of this bridegroom stepping into the center stage while he steps back out of the light and takes a shadow.

But there's much more here than just these words that we read in John, or even what we read about the church being the bride in the rest of the

New Testament. But to get there, we actually need to go backwards.

Because one of the things I think we do as churches is we have the idea that the church is a new creation that stems from the ministry of Christ.

Now, the church as we know it today was truly founded as the apostles went out, but the foundation of the church, the understanding of the church, the knowledge of the church goes all the way back.

And so in Genesis chapter two, you may be familiar with that specific chapter, comes right after God said that everything was good.

And in Genesis chapter two, we see the expanded version of the creation of man and woman.

And there are those who will argue that this is a different account, it's not.

It's just an expansion on what we saw in chapter one. And so as God created

Adam, you'll recall, he made the statement that it was not good for Adam to be alone.

And we pick up and we read these words beginning in the 21st verse of Genesis chapter two.

It says, so Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept.

And he took one of his ribs and he closed up the flesh at that place. And Yahweh God fashioned the rib which he had taken from the man into a woman and he brought her to the man.

Then the man said, this one is finally is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

This one shall be called woman because this one was taken out of man.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife and they too shall become one flesh.

Now, it is extremely likely that this is not the first time you've heard that passage.

It's also extremely likely that most of us here are familiar with it, that we've read it, that we've studied it, we've heard it, we've seen it used.

We know that this is the institution of marriage by God. Clearly demonstrated for us in the second chapter of the book of Genesis, much more implications that we can go into at a later time if we were ever to do a series about real marriage between a man and a woman.

But in this case, specifically in verse 24, we see something more than marriage occurring.

Now, it's not one of those things that just leaps out of the page. It's one of those things that you must understand as a student of scripture to begin to pull this out.

Paul does it beautifully for us as he writes to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter five, verses 31 and 32, where he says, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

Sounds familiar, right? It should. Genesis chapter two, verse 24.

But then Paul adds these words. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

So when we look at Paul's confirmation in the letter at Ephesus, that the first union actually prefigures for us the union that would occur between Christ and the church,

I would argue it even goes deeper than that. I would argue that this not only prefigures the union between Christ and the church, but that within the text of the entirety of the

Old Testament, we literally see the church defined as we know it today.

The Old Testament itself expects the church as we understand it today.

We begin by looking at Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 16. Moses wrote, so circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer.

Moses is recording the words of God here a little bit later in Deuteronomy in the 30th chapter of the sixth verse. He says, moreover,

Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed to love

Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, so that you may live.

Now, without jumping into a long drawn out explanation, what

I want you to see is what's being said. God is speaking to Moses.

Through Moses, He is delivering a message to the people of Israel. And to the people of Israel, He is delivering the message that says that the people of God, God's covenant people, who already had the expectation to obey

Him as part of the covenant, who were already marked, the males were all circumcised as a demonstration of the covenant, who were already marked in this way, that there was more to it, and that literally what

He's really after is this circumcision of the heart.

It's a change. It's an alteration. They were physically identified.

That was the outward person. They were born into this. Young men on the eighth day were circumcised as part of the covenant people.

But the true Israel were not those that were just merely marked on the outside, but had been transformed on the inside.

That there was a changed heart that was the true identifying characteristic.

This identified the people as God's inward. It was an inward and a spiritual heart.

In fact, if we look at Scripture at the close of the

Torah, you need a reminder what the Torah is. It's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

So the rest of the Old Testament, all of the prophets, the histories, the

Psalms, in all of this text, what we see time and time again is a distinction between physical

Israel and spiritual Israel. Now, this is important.

Paul speaks of this in Romans 9, verse six, where he writes, but it is not as though the word of God has failed, for they are not all

Israel who are descended from Israel. Paul gets this idea,

Paul gets this concept, Paul gets this principle by studying the Old Testament.

You remember, Paul was an expert in the Old Testament. You can go back and look at Paul's pedigree.

He had the best curriculum vitae of all of them. He knew it, inside, upside down, backwards, sideways.

And from that, he develops this understanding that not all Israel are literally descendants of Israel.

Micah, in chapter two, verse 12, proclaims, in that day, declares

Yahweh, I will assemble the lame and gather the banished, even those upon whom

I have brought calamity, I will make the lame a remnant and the outcast a mighty nation, and Yahweh will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever.

Well, even if you take this piece out, if you just look at the covenants, if we go back and we look at the covenant with Abraham, we see the nations displayed.

Genesis chapter 12, verse three, I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Later in Genesis 17, four and five, he says, as for me, behold, my covenant is with you and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

And no longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

Genesis 22, verse 18, in your seat, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have listened to my voice.

Notice, it's not about a nationality. It's about one people, God's people, pulled from all of the nationalities and from all of the families.

Pick your copy of God's word for a moment. Flip over to Psalms 87 with me.

Now, Psalm 87 is an interesting psalm. It's a psalm that moves from one place to another, as many of them do.

But in this particular psalm, we move from what God is thinking, that's verses one, two, and three.

You see, Psalms 87 is a very short psalm, seven verses. Verses one, two, and three is what

God thinks of Zion. His foundation is in the holy mountains. Yahweh loves the gates of Zion more than the dwelling places of Jacob.

Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. That's God's opinion of Yahweh, I mean, of Zion.

That's Yahweh's opinion of Zion. I'll get it right in a minute. This is what God thinks of Zion.

Now, if you go down through verses five through seven, we read about the inhabitants of Zion.

It says, but of Zion, it shall be said, this one and that one were born in her, and in her, in her, and the

Most High himself will establish her. Yahweh will count when he registers the peoples.

This one was born there. And singers, just like the dancers, will all say, all my springs are in you.

This is the inhabitants, their response to being one of the people in Zion.

But then we see verse four. So in the middle of this transition between what

God thinks of Zion and this statement regarding the inhabitants of Zion, we get verse four, which is essentially a list of nations.

But I want you to see what this list says. I shall mention

Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. That word know is extremely important.

Behold, Philista and Tyre with Ethiopia. This one was born there.

Now, that's a little hard for us to comprehend, so let me kind of help everybody understand what's going on.

First of all, let's look at the list of countries that he names here. First of all, he lists

Rahab. Well, if you're not familiar, Rahab is also Egypt. You remember

Egypt, right? The one we've just spent all this time talking about how God pulled his people out of bondage of Egypt.

That's Egypt. Then we have Babylon, which I honestly think needs no introduction.

If it does, you haven't studied any of scripture. But Babylon is obviously the sinful nation that in the revelation, right?

John uses Babylon to represent the entire world concept that is against God.

Then we get to Philista. Now, you may not be familiar with the term Philista, but you are certainly familiar with the people from Philista.

You know, the Philistines? The ones who fight in war against the people of God.

You recall maybe that there was this whole battle going on, this one little wiry kid picks up some rocks, chunks one at one of them, busts him in the head.

Y 'all remember that story? Of course, I'm paraphrasing, right? Then you have

Tyre and Ethiopia. Tyre is repeatedly denounced in scripture by the prophets, and Ethiopia is shown to attack

Judah on multiple occasions. So what you see represented here are the worst of the worst.

That's what you see. But what God says about the worst of the worst is that there are people even in those places that he will call his own.

Notice, I told you it was important. Among those who know me.

That know there is not just the intellectual knowledge, this is the biblical understanding where it means that they literally know and believe.

They will be a part of this gathering. And then if that's not tough enough for these

Jewish people to hear, the next statement in verse four, this one was born there, says that they were literally born as citizens.

That they were native -born citizens of Zion. Now I wanna share something with you a minute in case you're maybe not tracking with me.

Zion is the city of God. Zion is the place of inhabitants of the people of God.

When this psalm was written and this was proclaimed to the people of God, the

Israelites, they thought they were the only ones getting in. It's kind of like the old joke that they used to tell about Baptist, right?

Baptist gets to heaven and Peter's walking him through and he's gotta be real quiet because he thinks everybody's gotta be real quiet because he's the only one that thinks he's there.

Nobody else made it. The Israelites had that same opinion that nobody else was getting in.

But what God demonstrates right here is that these are citizens, native -born citizens.

Isaiah and Micah both speak of nations streaming to Zion.

Isaiah in chapter two, verses two through four. Now it will be that in the last days, the mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the head of the mountains and will be lifted up above the hills and all the nations will stream to it and many peoples will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the

God of Jacob, that he may instruct us from his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For from Zion, the law will go forth and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem and he will judge between the nations and will render decisions for many peoples and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations will not lift up sword against nation and never again will there be war.

Micah prophesied in chapter four, now it will be in the last days, the mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the head of the mountains and will be lifted up above the hills and the peoples will stream to it and many nations will come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh and to the house of the

God of Jacob that he may instruct us from his ways and that we may walk in his paths for from Zion will go forth the law and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem and he will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty distant nations and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will there be, will they learn war.

In chapter 19, Assyria of Isaiah, Assyria and Egypt are called God's people in 19 verse 25 where he says, blessed is

Egypt, my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands and Israel, my inheritance.

Zechariah 2 .11 says that many nations will join themselves to Yahweh in that day and will become my people.

If you are my people, then I will dwell in your midst and will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me to you.

Zechariah again in chapter eight, verse 23 says, thus says Yahweh of hosts, in those days, 10 men from every tongue of the nations will take hold of the garment of a

Jew saying, let us go with you for we have heard that God is with you. Over and over and over scripture demonstrates

God's people are one but they are one chosen from every tribe, every nation, every tongue and all done before the foundation of the world.

Now I could continue to labor that point but I truly hope that you will do your own study but that it has been clearly demonstrated that what we would define as the church,

God's people redeemed by Christ are not just defined in what the

New Testament says but also in the Old Testament as well.

You may recall from our study through Exodus, Exodus 19, verses five through six calls Israel a treasure possession, a chosen people, a holy nation, a kingdom of priests.

Sounds familiar, it should. First Peter chapter two, verses nine through 10 says you are not a nation but you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light for you once were not a people but now you are the people of God.

You have not received mercy but now you have received mercy. So the idea, the true

Israel, the Israel that is formed in the hearts of those who have had their hearts circumcised, both

Jews and Gentiles was the plan of God since creation. These people who were truly

God's true covenant people are also described for us in the

New Testament as the bride. But what I want you to see again is that it is not just the

New Testament that describes the church in this manner. It is also the old.

Listen to Isaiah 54 verse five. For your husband is your maker.

The husband of Israel is God whose name is Yahweh of host. And your redeemer is the

Holy One of Israel who is called the God of all the earth. And then we have Jeremiah and Jeremiah 31.

A lot of people are very familiar with Jeremiah chapter 31 but most of them jump all the way down to verse 33 and they miss some things in between like verses 31 and 32 which say, behold, days are coming, declares

Yahweh, when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which

I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them, identifying

Israel as the bride of the Almighty. You may recall this passage from earlier,

Hosea chapter two verses 19 through 20. We read it at the top of the service. And I will betroth you to me forever.

Indeed, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice and loving kindness and in compassion and I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and in righteousness, then you will know

Yahweh. These verses demonstrate a few principles that is necessary to understand.

First, in reflection of the things that we have already talked about, again, it shows the truth that the people of God are defined by spiritual transformation.

But that is the occurrence that defines the people. Secondly, that marriage with God is the end point of covenant history.

This is the goal. Now, I don't mean marriage in the sense of we think of marriage between a husband and a wife, but this union with God that we see demonstrated for us and described for us in Revelation chapter 21, that this is the consummation of the redemptive plan of Almighty God.

This is why the incarnation of God is so crucial.

This is where we begin to see that God, as He became flesh and dwelt among us, is the key to seeing and understanding the union between Christ and the church.

John in our specific text specifically identified Christ with the bridegroom.

Now, you know, he never uses words. He never says, but Jesus is. But if you go back and you look at the passage, you'll see that what he wrote was, he who has the bride is the bridegroom.

But this is after his disciples came to him, speaking to him of Jesus.

And so the he that he is referring to is Jesus. Jesus, who has the bride, is the bridegroom.

We go over to Matthew's gospel. We read in Matthew's gospel these words.

Then the disciples of John came to him asking, why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?

Now, do you notice anything in common with the disciples of John? They're always asking questions. This time they're asking them of Jesus.

And so they came to Jesus and they said, why do we and why do the Pharisees fast, but your disciples aren't fasting?

And Jesus replies, can the attendants of the bridegroom mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast. Now, this passage without a deep study and understanding may leave us a little dumbfounded.

Like, what is Jesus talking about? Well, Jesus is talking about the same thing that John is talking about.

Both of them are issuing what is a staggering claim that the

Jews in attendance would have understood. What we see is this self -identification by Jesus as the bridegroom,

John explicitly placing Jesus in the role of the bridegroom. Why? Because Jesus makes this claim.

He is calling himself, he is calling himself, he is identifying himself as the bridegroom of God's covenant people.

And to do so is to identify as Yahweh himself. He took the name, he took the role.

We see over and over as one writer states, the gospels repeatedly presenting

Jesus in roles and with rights and with privileges that the Old Testament reserves for God and for God alone.

This is why studying the bride of Christ is appropriate at Christmas.

Because in the incarnation, in Christ's first birth, the very first advent, we have the eternal creator of all things emptying himself by taking on the form of a slave.

And in the words of both John and Jesus, we see him place this claim on the bride of God.

But not only that, as we move forward in redemptive history, this bride is identified as the chosen people of God that the called out ones, the church, the ecclesia are the bride that has been demonstrated for us in all of prophetic scripture.

It didn't start in the New Testament. You need to see that this is

God's plan and this is God's moving from the very beginning. This is important because it helps us to recognize that the church wasn't some afterthought.

This is the problem that we have in America today. Why so many people don't attend churches because they look at it as an afterthought.

Oh, well, God just did this in the end. Jesus, you know, he came and he did this. And so they set up these churches to indoctrinate people.

That's not what it was about. God was moving through all of redemptive history to bring us to this point.

So as we kind of draw these things together in closing, we need to behold this weight of what

John the Baptist declared in these very simple words.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom. In those few words, the forerunner of Christ pulls back the veil a little bit.

He begins to show that this redemptive story, the one that began in Eden, that was unfolded through the covenants, that was echoed throughout the prophets, revealed in the

Psalms, stands fully and completely revealed in the incarnate Son. From Genesis to Revelation.

God's intention never changed. His movement never changed. He would have a people for himself transformed in heart, gathered from every tribe and tongue, made one through his redeeming grace.

And the one who secures this, the one who lays claim to this, is

Christ and Christ alone. We take this time of year and we get very sentimental about family and friends and coming together and the lights and the twinkling things and all of the decorations.

And it becomes a glorious time for family and seasonal tradition. But hear me, this birth that we celebrate is the incarnation of the eternal word.

It became flesh. He became flesh and dwelt among us. The bridegroom himself came to gather his bride.

He came to redeem. He came to purify her, to clothe her with righteousness and then ultimately to present herself to him in glory.

The church is the people God promised, preserved, transformed, and then by the blood of Christ purchased.

John's own example in this passage confronts us with the proper response.

He must increase and I must decrease.

Christ is indeed the bridegroom and if we are indeed his people, then our lives must be shaped by this.

Our joy, like John's joy, becomes complete when

Christ is exalted and we gladly take a lesser place so that his glory may shine.

So as we enter this season, as we celebrate together the birth of our

Savior, let us do so with eyes lifted beyond the manger to the cross, to the resurrection, to the ascension and to the promise of his return.

For the child, the child wrapped in cloth is the bridegroom who will one day clothe his people in white.

The question that should rest upon our hearts is are we living as those who are truly the bride of Christ, decreasing that he may increase and being made ready for the day of his glorious appearing?

Let us pray. Gracious, gracious Father, Lord, we come before you humbled by the wonder of your eternal purpose, a purpose that began before the foundation of the world and that was revealed in fullness through the birth of Christ, your beloved

Son. We thank you that in Christ, the true bridegroom, that you have gathered a people for yourself.

We praise you that you have circumcised our hearts, that you have transformed our very nature, that our names have been written in the

Lamb's book from all eternity past. Lord, as we in the coming days meditate on this mystery, we think of the incarnation during this season.

Let us not settle for shallow sentiments or draw us into the vastness of your redeeming love.

Teach us like John to rejoice greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Shape our hearts so that Christ would increase in us, increase our desires, our priorities, our affections, and that we would surrender all that remains of self and decrease and give us strength and make us faithful as your bride, that we would be pure, devoted, longing for the day when

Christ presents himself to us in splendor. Guard us,

Lord, from complacency, from worldly distraction, from self -exaltation.

Fix our hope on the return of the one who came in humility and who will return in glory.

Prepare us, O Lord, we ask, for that final wedding feast where we ask all of these things in the blessed name of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our bridegroom and our king.