The Love of God in Christ: Jesus and His Bride (Part 1)

I thank You for having cleansed me and for having cleansed my brothers and my sisters. We’re in Your presence. And we’re here to receive what You have done. Anoint my words through Jesus Christ. Anoint all our hearts and soften them to believe. We have seen the greatest story we have ever dreamed of. Bring us out of the story into the experience. Amen.

Well, I think you know how these things go. You hope to get it said at a certain time, but it keeps getting bigger and bigger. We would be here till past midnight if I tried to cover everything I had hoped to cover tonight. So, sisters and brothers, we will get half of the main point this evening. You’re going to have to keep a believing heart for the rest of the week. I’m going to repeat the verses of Scripture that I gave last night. Hebrews 2:14 and John 12:31 have to do with the enemy. Colossians 2:15 and John 12:31 have to do with His Kingdom. Galatians 6:14 tells us about the Lord dealing with the world. 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 8:3 also tell us about His dealing with sin. 1 Peter 2:24 and Isaiah 53:6 tell us about His dealing with sin.

You notice that most of these verses are from the epistles. The epistles are sort of a commentary on the gospels. Galatians 5:26 tells us about His dealing with the flesh. Galatians 2:20 about the self. Romans 6…always Romans 6…deals with the old man. Galatians 2:20 goes all the way and tells us about what the Lord did with the whole human race. And Colossians 1:20 mentions the entire creation.

Okay, those were the passages of scripture that I read last night. I also read another one from Hebrews. I have a lot of verses to read this evening. It’s going to take a little while. Would you turn with me to John 11:5? Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. John 13:23, there was reclining on Jesus’ breast, one of His disciples whom Jesus loved. John 20:2. And so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” John 21:7. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord.”

Ephesians 5. I think we’ll read verse 25 first. Husbands, it does not say “philo” your wives, but it says husbands, “agape” your wives, which is a rather incredible statement because it lifts it completely out of the relationship of husband and wife. It’s much deeper than what a man and a woman would have in just plain old love. Husbands, agape your wives just as Christ also “agape’d” the church and gave Himself for her. Now come back and read verses one and two of the same chapter. Ephesians 5:1-2. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. Therefore, imitate God as beloved children and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Okay, these are verses of Scripture that tell us something. What do these verses tell us? Basically, it’s that Jesus Christ is capable of falling in love with individual people. He is Divine in that He could love more than one, and yet, in His eyes, they were all just one. Jesus Christ could fall in love. Okay, this is rather interesting. Matthew 9:9, And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax office. And He said to him, “Matthew, follow me.” And he rose and followed Him. And it happened that as he was reclining at the table in the house before many tax collectors and sinners, behold, many taxpayers and sinners came and joined Jesus and His disciples at the table, tax collectors and sinners. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when He heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are ill.” Now, that’s answer number one, but it’s not the whole answer. But…that’s point one. Here’s point two. But, go and learn. Go and learn what this means. I desire compassion and not sacrifice.

Now, the word in the Old Testament here was not love, but it was a word very, very, very close to it. We can almost say I desire love, not sacrifice. I love, I desire affection and not sacrifice, for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. Now, there’s almost a paradox here. I have a very distinct impression that Jesus did not mean, “I’ve come to help the old grubby sinners,” but rather, “I’ve come to get a bride, and she’s fallen. I have no choice but to take her out of the sinful human race. But those who don’t know they’re sinful aren’t qualified. I can’t call those people; that’s impossible. So, I can’t call the righteous. Only the sinner can be My bride.”

Okay. Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And I get the impression from this verse that this particular fellow who asked the question was beginning to wonder why He fasted all the time. Why do we fast and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast? And Jesus answered them and made it very clear. The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the day will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. But as long as the groom is there, there’s no place for fasting.

Now, there are two more that kind of go in with this, and this to me kind of gets funny. This is Matthew 11:16-19. But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplace who call out to the other children and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a dirge…that’s a funeral march…and you did not mourn.’ John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.

There’s a parallel passage in Luke 7:34. I think I like to read it too. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gutless man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners,’ yet wisdom is vindicated by her children.” Okay, brothers and sisters, there are now about four more verses left to read. We have read about Mary and John, Martha and Lazarus. I think we have two more people we should read about. Well, let’s stay in Matthew 27:55-56. I’m going to read this because it might not make sense if I do it in any other way. And many women were there looking on from a distance who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to His needs. Do you understand what is taking place here? He is being crucified, and a far distance away was a little group of women who had followed the Lord as long as the apostles had followed Him. Among them was Mary Magdalene, along with Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, and the mothers of the sons of Zebedee. So, there were four or five of these women.

Let me read this, and I’ll tell you what it is afterward. There’s no need for you to read it to go with me. It’s Mark 16:1. And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices that they might come and anoint Him. This was after He was dead. Now let us read Luke 7:37. And behold, there was a woman in that city who was a sinner. And when she had learned that He was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume and, standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head. And the Greek says, And she kept on and kept on kissing His feet and anointing them with the perfume.