Years ago, every married couple in this room stood in front of a group of people very similar to this one and made some statements we call "vows" to each other: "Do you take this woman to be your wife? Do you promise to love her, honor her, and submit to her? Do you promise to stay with her and stand by her for as long as you both shall live?"……

There were differences in the details of the vows, in the styles of weddings, etc., but we each were in circumstances that presented a strong potential:
· we repeated the right words and said "I do" in the right place
· we heard ourselves promise love, honor, obedience, respect, and faithfulness
· every one of us fully believed we’d keep to promises made
· we believed our marriage would be better than any we had ever seen

Many times, the reality and the ideal don’t match. It hasn’t surprised us this week to find that the ‘marriage’ of God and the church has its ‘ups and downs,’ too.

(Isa 62:5) "As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you."

(Hosea 2:16-20) ""In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master.'  {17} I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.  {18} In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.  {19} I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.  {20} I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD."

(2 Cor 11:2) "I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him."

(Rev 21:2) "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."

What are some things that makes for a successful marriage? (Must happen in our earthly marriages and also in our marriage to Christ).
· Communication
· Accent the positive
· Don’t rundown in front of others
· Don’t make a list for him..make it for yourself
· Faithfulness (discuss sexual purity here and what God has set in place for those who are married).

Reliving the church’s vows (when this sermon was preached, I closed the sermon by having all the members stand and they repeated after me the following vow...it was voluntary and we immediately began singing the invitations song):
"Do you, church, take Jesus to be your husband? Do you promise to love him, honor him, and submit to him? Do you promise to stay with him and stand by him for as long as you live?"….

Christians have made similar vows in principle for over 2,000 years and meant every word they said. They believed Jesus was the Son of God. They wanted to make Him both their Master and Lord. They spoke with sincerity, conviction, and hope.

But, like Israel, the faithfulness hasn’t always followed:
(Jer 3:8) "I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery."

(Hosea 2:2-4) ""Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. {3} Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. {4} I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.

Ephesians 5:25-27:  "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her {26} to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, {27} and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

 The church, the bride of Christ!

 Jesus used vivid imagery to describe the role of John the Baptist

(John 3:29)  "The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete."

 The imagery was applied to Christ and the church in Revelation

(Rev 18:23)  "The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray."

 (Rev 19:6-8)  "Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. {7} Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. {8} Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)"

 (Rev 21:2)  "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband."

 (Rev 21:9)  "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.""

 (Rev 22:17)  "The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life."

 The church in the New Testament days was composed of characters purified from sin and unrighteousness:

(Rom 6:17-18)  "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. {18} You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."

 (1 Cor 6:9-11)  "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders {10} nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. {11} And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

 (1 Pet 1:22-23)  "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. {23} For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."

 (1 John 1:7)  "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

 This relationship imposes separation from the world and a life of purity and holiness:

(Rom 12:1-2)  "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. {2} Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."

 (2 Cor 6:14)  "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"

 (2 Cor 7:1)  "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."

 (James 1:27)  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

 (James 4:4)  "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

 Specific responsibility (an example)

High accountability for teachers

(James 3:1-12)  "Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

 Honest statement that applies to all

{2} We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check.

 Evils which grow out of the improper use of the tongue

{3} When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. {4} Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. {5} Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. {6} The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. {7} All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, {8} but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

 It reveals an awesome, hypocritical contrast

{9} With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. {10} Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. {11} Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? {12} My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water."

 The church has to stand for that which is right

When the purity of the church is corrupted, its identity is destroyed. The line of distinction must be kept clear between the Church and the world.

We must have full assurance that something is acceptable to God

(Rom 14:23)  "But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."

(Rom 14:23)  " and whatever is not from faith is sin."

The approval of the conscience doesn’t make anything right which is otherwise wrong. And we must be concerned with the influence we have on others:

(Mat 18:6-7)  "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. {7} "Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!"

Last modified: July 10, 2008