The Wrinkles of Christ's Beautified Bride

Well, let's, let's get into our text work in our sermon. you can open up to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 will be. Where we're doing a, we'll be doing a lot of our study this morning.

On September 1st, just a few days ago, my wife and I celebrated a special day in 1994. I asked my wife to marry me. And she said I'd love to. That was 27 years ago.

And so we're thankful for those 27 years. Yeah, we can clap for that. Special day. Recently, Katie and I were having a talk, one of those talks where you're pulling some weeds, trying to iron some things out.

And at one point, I, I offered some helpful advice because that's just the guy I am. I'm a helpful, healthy guy. And I, I said, Katie, you just need to learn to embrace your flaws and mistakes. And she looked at me and she gave me a big hug.

Yeah, that's a joke. Yeah, and Katie wanted me to make sure I told you that's a joke, so no, seriously, I do appreciate my wife who's embraced me in spite of many sins and flaws over these years. And I frequently reflect upon how lucky. I am to be a member here at Cornerstone since 1993.

this church and her pastors and elders have loved me and when I've been full of the spirit and they've loved me when I have grieved the spirit and grieved you and as one of the shepherds. I've had the opportunity to be on staff here and love this church since 1998 to be amazed by you when you're full of the spirit and I've had opportunities to bear griefs with you with the other elders. when you've had griefs and tears and when you've given us grief and, and tears at times, by the way, we have 7 shepherds currently on our elder board, and I was counting up the total number of years of service, it comes to 137 years of service that we have on our current elder board.

That's a whole lot of joy.

Mostly, but mixed with no lack of burdens. And truth be told, tears. And truth be told, if you've been here any length of time, you no doubt have your own joys and tears both concerning yourself and no doubt concerning others in this body. In July, I preached a sermon on the Good Samaritan.

And we ended part of that sermon with a question that went something like this. What do you get when Jesus, our compassionate Samaritan, takes broken, bleeding people and places them in the same inn. To convalesce. What do you think you get?

You get stained by the sins and problems of others, and vice versa. Others get stained by your sins and your problems. Chad Bird says this, he's an author I've enjoyed much recently. He says every congregation is a congregation of sinners, as if that weren't bad enough, they have centers for pastors, and where sinners congregate, there will be no shortage of disappointments.

However, This is all part of Christ's design to beautify his bride with love. This is not plan B or C or D. This is plan A. Christ is the ultimate wrinkle remover.

And one of the ways he goes about removing wrinkles is by putting us together with a lot of other wrinkled, stained people. We grow to see Christ's beautification project. With our eyes of faith, as author Chad Bird says, when we see the flaws in the church as a reflection of our own flawed hearts, we see the flaws in the church as a reflection of our own flawed hearts and when we realize that this community of the broken, the undesirable, is precisely the community where Christ is at work to love and to forgive.

Today's sermon we've entitled The Wrinkles of Christ's Beautified Bride.

You're open to Ephesians 5. Hopefully, and I've been praying this week that the Holy Spirit would impress upon you and me how knowing Christ's love for you empowers you to love and appreciate His beautiful and broken bride. This morning you're gonna hear a lot of contrasting terms, beautiful, broken, delightful, disappointing, saints, sinners. And from our text and some other texts, I'm gonna present to you what I believe are 3 certainties.

And make one appeal, 3 certainties and one appeal. Let's, read our text together. I'm gonna focus particularly on verses 25 to 27. So let's read that in your copy of God's word.

Verse 25 husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, 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. Let's pray. Lord, I just ask that as we look at this text and other texts in your word that you would open our eyes by faith to see your love for us and all of our brokenness and all of our beauty that you have granted to us in Christ's name we pray and all God's people said.

Amen. Certainty number one. Is this Christ is loved his church in spite of her stains. And wrinkles he's loved his church in spite of her stains and wrinkles and we get that right out of the text we just read but I wanna give you a little bit of context as to why we're looking at this text delivered to husbands and previously wives and applying it to the church and it's because the church is the stitching of all of these commands.

In the book of Ephesians written by the apostle Paul, who's in prison by the way, he uses many different images for the church. He, he talks about the church as a body that we're members of this body we're called saints, we're called citizens, we're called the household, a temple, and by implication in this text, a bride we're called heirs and partakers of the promise, in Christ through the gospel we're called a family we're even called a perfect man. But let's acknowledge that as we're dipping into this section where Paul has given instructions to wives and husbands, these instructions are stitched together with this mystery.

That Paul acknowledges in verse.

32. In fact, look at verse 31 and 32 if you would. Paul quotes Genesis 2 when 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. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ.

In the church, so the things that he's talking about here in these commands to wives and husbands, really come out of and point us back to Christ's love for the church. In fact, we would argue that Christ and the church are primary and then God created Adam and Eve secondarily to demonstrate something, some higher spiritual reality. this idea of mystery is something that it's that which cannot be discovered by mere human investigation, but it has to be revealed or uncovered by God, through the purposes of Christ.

In fact, Paul uses this word mystery six different times in this book, and it always is, is about what God Himself is unveiling through Christ that we couldn't discern through any scientific investigation or what have you.

And so this whole section here, particularly the quote from Genesis chapter 2, but really the whole section is meant to remind us of Christ's love for the church. So that's the context. So the certainty that we're talking about here is that Christ has loved the church. Let's just focus on that first of all, that Christ has loved the church.

Verse 25, husbands are commanded to love their wives just as built upon this stitching, Christ also loved the church. Let's think about that for a second, that Christ loved the church in, in English we, we look at loved and we think of that as a, a past tense. in Greek we have this tense that we call heist, which doesn't always communicate past tense. The big idea of an heires tense, it's really drawing a circle around a completed action.

So when you talk about heiress you're talking about something that is completed and in this context it's something that's completed in the mind of God. So when it talks about Christ loved the church, we're talking about not just something that's in the past but something that is completed within the godhead or within the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The husband, husbands are, by the way, are, are commanded present tense to continually love their wives as Christ has completed his love for his bride or for the church and so we have to keep doing it because our love is incomplete, but Christ's love is complete and all the other verbs and participles that flow out of that first one flow out of this idea of completion.

and so when we talk about Christ's love, what is it that he exactly did?

Well, our con our, our text tells us he gave himself up. What does that mean? He gave himself up. Well, previously in the chapter, verse 2 gives us a clue to that because it uses the same type of verbiage, chapter 5 verse 2 as Christ also loved us and.

Has given himself for us. What does that mean? An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. So the idea of Christ giving himself up.

who pair in the, the Greek is he gave himself up on the cross on our behalf as a substitution, as a sacrifice. chapter 1, verse 7 says in him we have redemption through his blood. What does his blood accomplish? The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

So how is it that Christ's love has been completed or what's one of the things he's done in this completed act is he gave himself up on the cross for us and demonstrated his love for us and dying for us so that our sins could be forgiven. But notice that Christ, he gave himself. He didn't just give anything, he gave himself up for sins. He didn't send somebody else to do the job.

Jesus was sent by the Father to come do the job. He sent himself. This is what makes CH Spurgeon say about this text that Jesus Christ has given himself to us. Not merely has he given us his thoughts and his actions and his wisdom and his power and his wealth, but he has given us himself.

Oh, I do like to think of this, Spurgeon says, and you can just imagine his British accent in the 1800s. All that I can imagine Christ to be must still fall short, fall short of himself. It is himself that we love. I would sooner have Christ than have heaven.

It is himself we love. I would sooner have Christ in his crown. It is himself we love. And I would sooner have Christ than all the golden streets.

It is Himself we love. And it is himself that we belong, that belongs to us, not merely the sight of his eyes, but his eyes themselves, not only the love of his heart, but his heart itself, himself, his godhead, his manhood and complex person of Christ of God is given to the church. Christ gives up himself for us. And notice it's for her.

Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. This idea of for her and for us and for me runs all over the Bible. It's the very essence of the Gospel, Martin Luther says. The idea that God does something for us that we could never do for ourselves.

one of my favorite theologians says this, that a, a miniature creed that we could get out of the Bible is that God gives, we receive. We are receiving creatures. God is a giving God. So Christ has loved the church by giving himself up for you and for me, for this bride.

But notice that Christ loved the church, not in all of her beauty, and when she was running after him and wanting to seek him. He loved the church when she was an enemy. Stained and with wrinkles, that is in her sins, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Notice what it says in verse 26 and 27, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water of the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot, wrinkle, or any such thing and be holy and without blemish.

But what does the church need to be sanctified for? Why does she need to be cleansed? Why do we have to have stains and wrink wrinkles removed? The answer is obvious, right?

It's because we have stains and wrinkles and sins and blemishes. And so Christ comes and loves us and delivers himself up for us because we are stained and wrinkled, and so he loved the church in spite of her stains and wrinkles. he loved us before we loved him. We love him because what?

He loved us first. And just consider the context here, the immediate context around here that demonstrates the wrinkledness and the stains of the Ephesian Church or the church in general. Think about the fact that Paul in this very context is given instructions to wives, husbands and children. Why?

Why is he giving instructions to wives, husbands and children? Is it because they're nailing it and checking off all the boxes? Obviously not. It's because Ephesian wives were not always respectful to their husband.

Ephesian husbands were not always loving their wives. Ephesian children were not always obeying their parents. Ephesian fathers could provoke their children to wrath, shock and awe. Sounds just like us.

It's not just the Ephesian Church, it's the church. Why does Paul tell them in verse 18, do not be drunk with wine. By the way, this is a present tense. Why does he have to tell Christians not to be drunk with wine?

Because some of them were getting drunk with wine like Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord and yet was found drunk and naked in his own tent right after the rainbow. Consider, chapter 4, verse 22. Pastor Carlos Limtiaco preached on this not too awful long ago that, Christians are being commanded to put off the old man, as Wesby calls it, put off your grave clothes, put on the new man, the new man that is that is Christ formed in the Christian. Why do we have to put off the old man and put on the new?

It's because there's still a problem with the grave clothes, even though we've been reformed in Christ. Why does Paul say put away lying? Because lying is still happening in the church. Abraham, who was a friend of God, lied about his wife at least twice.

Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Why do Christians need to have such a command? Well, Moses, who was one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, who spoke face to face with God, yet his anger kept him out of the promised land. Why do, why does Paul say do not give a place to the devil, to Christians?

Cause Christians can give a place to the devil like Peter did, and Jesus had to say to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. Why does Paul say steel no longer? Because there's obviously some problems with people who are stealing, like David, who was a man after God's own heart, yet a man after another man's wife. Why does Paul say, do not grieve the Holy Spirit?

Because Christians were grieving the Holy Spirit. Why does he say put away bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking? Let it be put away with you from you with all malice, because these things were going on in the church. And Paul says in, in, in chapter 5, this is how sons of disobedience behave, but you guys are children of light.

So this is just a short survey of the biblical track record here in Ephesians, and as you just consider the New Testament, there's stains, there's wrinkles in the bride of Christ. This is not past tense stuff. This is present tense stuff, Old and New Testament. I want to give, a, a, a pretty lengthy quote here from a book that has been really encouraging to me lately.

It's called Night Driving Notes from a Prodigal Soul. by a gentleman named Chad Bird, but. He says, here's some of the things that he says. If it were not for the infidelity of the Lord's people, the Bible would be a mighty short book.

Because most of its pages chronicle problem after problem. we've already considered some of the Old Testament. What about the New Testament? Does the church get its act completely together in the New Testament?

Well, the initial concord in the Book of Acts, you, you have, soon degenerates into lies and you have two people dead at the feet of Peter. Disputes rage over kosher food and how Jewish the church should be. Congregations that Paul established are rocked with schisms over leadership, and they're being attacked with gospel denying heresies like in the book of Galatians we're gonna study soon. In the church at Corinth, one fellow is shacked up with his stepmother.

By the way, he repents. In the letters to the seven churches in Revelation, we have several confrontation of churches that strike more of a sad note than a positive note. And yeah, this is, this is just part of the story. Throughout the Bible, we see kindness and faithfulness and self sacrifice.

Yet, oftentimes the same people that are praised. we also find them condemned in another story, right? Like Abraham, who is the ultimate example of faith, and yet he's lying about his wife. Look at the hall of faith over there in, Hebrews chapter 12.

You have the likes of Samson and Jephtha and Gideon that are listed in the hall of faith along with Rahab. So what am I, why, why are we talking about this? It's, it's that believers are sinners and saints. We are holy and unholy, ugly and beautiful.

this is just who we are. This is the body of Christ. Let me just ask a question here. Why doesn't the Bible hide or gloss up the picture of the bride?

It's actually one of the questions in apologetics is you'll have people, reject Christianity because they'll look at the characters in the Bible and say, how could you believe in a God that is basically putting on display all of this sin and saying these are the saints, these are the people that are the heroes of the faith. Why doesn't the Bible gloss up this picture? Well, there's really no need to hide this. In fact, harm, much harm comes by trying to pretty up our church history.

Chad Bird goes on to say the pornographic unreality of a church free of deep and abiding flaws creates unrealistic expectations, and it invites the shock and disappointment that makes many people walk away when that faux image is shattered. Better to be honest, life in the church is life among fellow sinners. So how can you love a congregation that makes you angry? That exhibits the negative qualities of humanity.

How can you learn to love a disappointing church? Chad Bird says, I'll tell you how it happened with me. I began, it began when I finally came to terms with a humbling sobering fact. I want you to listen to the way Chad Bird says this.

Here's the humbling, sobering fact the church finds me just as unattractive as I find her. We come to church so oftentimes, and if you spend very much time at any local church, you're going to find the flaws, you're going to find the places where they are not beautiful, where the church is disappointing, where it hurts you. But guess what? What you are seeing in the church is a mirror reflection of yourself, and that was part of Chad Bird's own journey as he had been so hurt by the church and he began to have this very cynical attitude towards the bride and, and, and would paint her in such despairing tones.

All along, what he didn't realize is he was really seeing his own sins reflected in that very bride. So as we read through the stories of Israel's past and we think through our own church, we need to remember that. The sins that we see on the pages of scripture are our sins. It's our rebellion, our idolatry, our stubbornness.

We are Adam, we are Cain, we are Aaron, we are David, we are Peter. We are, these characters. And we are loved in spite of our stains and wrinkles. That's where we need to bring this back to is Christ's bride is broken.

But in Christ's eyes, it is beautiful. And we need to keep both intention. There's a danger in neglecting the truth that Christ's bride is still broken. But there's an equal danger in neglecting the truth that Christ looks at that brokenness and says.

That's my bride right there. Don't talk negatively about my bride. That's my woman. That's her.

And he's very defensive about his bride. So let's let's look at a second certainty, certainty one. As Christ has loved his church in spite of her stains and wrinkles. But certainty number 2 is this, is Christ's love for his church colors his view of her stains and wrinkles, colors her view.

Now, this is a purposeful coloring. Christ wants his eyes colored by the way that he looks at us. He looks at us through his own blood. Let's look back at verse 26 as it says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word that he might sanctify.

The idea of sanctify is to separate, to set apart, so he loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might separate her. And the idea here I think is it's, it's like when one gets married, he has separated himself to a woman and he separates her to himself, right? when Katie and I, when I asked Katie, would you marry me, and she said I'd love to, and then we started heading towards a wedding, and then April 8th we get married, guess what? We have now been sanctified to each other.

We've made a decision that it's all about you now when it comes to women, and she's like it's all about you and, and, and we set each other apart and so Christ comes and he sets us apart. When you look back at, Fesians one. He has set us apart in eternity past. We're talking about election, that Christ sets his bride apart and decides he's gonna place his love on her, on you.

And notice it says, that he may sanctify her and cleanse her. The idea is having already cleansed her. with the washing of the water of the word, I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on that. People debate about whether we're talking about baptism or we're talking about just the washing of the gospel as it's preached.

I would say yes to both questions. water baptism is a symbol, an external public demonstration of an internal personal reality that comes about because the gospel has been preached, proclaimed verbally is the idea. And so Christ separates us unto himself, having already washed us. The idea there in that verb is you're already washed, right?

Remember when Peter's talking with Jesus and Jesus says, unless you, unless you're washed of me, you can have no part of me and, and then, Jesus, then Peter's like, oh yeah, well go ahead and, and wash my whole body and, and the point that Jesus is making in the text is you're already washed, you've been cleansed. I want you to turn for a moment here to a couple of passages, Hosea chapter 2. We're not gonna take a ton of time on this, but just to demonstrate that this concept.

Of Christ looking at his bride, even in spite of her stains and, and, and letting his love color the way he views her is an Old Testament concept as well.

In the book of Hosea, you've got this prophet Hosea who takes to himself really a harlot as a wife, as a, as a demonstration and a prophecy of, of the Lord's love for Israel, and it's interesting in the early part of chapter two. You have Israel actually trying to get to her lovers, trying to get to her idols, but God blocks her off, walls her in, and puts up hedges where she can't get there, and she's like, I might as well go back to my, my, my husband. And so the Lord turns her around, and as she's coming back, the Lord begins to pronounce things over her.

And one of the things that she says in verse, the Lord says in verse 19, I will betroth you to me forever.

Betrothal, the idea of betrothal here is I'm going to marry you as a virgin. I'm treating you as someone who had never gone off into harlotry, had never had any other lovers. I am going to treat you as a virgin forever. And I'm gonna betroth you to me, in righteousness, whose righteousness?

Clearly not Israel's, it's his own righteousness. Injustice, God is going to defend Israel, who deserves no defense. In loving kindness and mercy, that's his covenant love. I'm going to betroth you, that's the 3rd time that he says that in faithfulness, her faithfulness?

Clearly not, it's his faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. This verse causes John Gill to, to point out that he says, let it be observed that here are no conditions throughout. It is only I will, and thou shalt. This is all God.

This is all God doing all of this. And then you guys may remember there and, it's a strange story in the book of Numbers, where you've got right after the the bronze serpent incident, where there's a bunch of complaining and God sends serpents among them and then they start biting them, but if they look to the bronze serpent, they'll be saved. And then not too long after that. Bali says, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do about all these people that are coming in and encroach on my area.

I'm very worried. I, I know what I'll do. I'll hire a sorcerer, Balaam. Can you please come and curse these people?

And so he wants Balaam basically to perform a pagan seance and try to bring some curses upon. Israel and as you guys know, probably remember the story, the angel of the Lord, probably a, a preincarnate appearance of Christ, shows up and warns Balaam, I'm gonna take you out and you better say what I tell you to say. And then part of what he is commanded to say, and he does say is in chapter 23, I'll just read here in verse 2023 verse 20, behold, I have received command to bless.

this is Balaam.

He has blessed and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen wickedness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. Verse 23, and there's no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel.

It now must be said of Jacob and of Israel, oh, what God has done. Think about who's being spoken of here. This is the same group of people that were complaining and just went through the bronze serpent incident. And yet when Balaam is coming to pronounce curses upon him, the only thing he's allowed to say through the preincarnate direction of Jesus Christ is.

I've observed no iniquity. I don't see it. I see no wickedness. Is is God lost his mind or something?

Is he just not very observant? What is he talking about? It's the same thing we're talking about in the New Testament, that having been washed idea, separated, that Christ separates his bride, he washes his bride, and no longer observes or remembers the stains and spots against them. And so these are two certainties that we need to keep in mind that Christ has loved his church in spite of her stains and, and, and, and wrinkles.

Christ loves his church. His love for his church colors his view of us, the way that he views you. But a third certainty is Christ will continue to love his church until she is without a single stain or wrinkle or any such thing. Look at verse 27.

That he might another result cause that he might present her to himself a glorious or resplendent church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish. Now we're really looking to the future. The idea of him presenting this bride to himself, even though it's in an heiress tense, it's clearly a future idea. Remember, completed action is the idea of, of an heiress tent, even if it's past, present, or future, it's this idea of completed action.

And so he's going to present this bride to himself. this is the one case where the guy who walks the bride down the aisle is also the guy who marries her. Jesus is both, right? So he's presenting this church to himself, a resplendent or glorious church, splendor.

Not having spot. So she's not at this point. When we get to that future point, she will not have a, a single spot. By the way, the Greek word, I just thought I'd bring this up is spill on.

That's a Greek word for stain, just for the heck of it. Actually in the accusative case but we won't talk about that so so and then no a wrinkle nor any such thing, but she that she should be holy and without blemish and here Paul switches to present tenses which seems to be that this is the way she's gonna perpetually be out in the future. So he's talking about Christ presenting the bride to himself, marrying her, and then she's gonna continue on into the future, be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, completely holy and without blemish.

And so this is the way Christ has loved his bride.

He's loved her in spite of her stains and wrinkles, that love colors the way he looks at her stains and wrinkles, and then he's going to continue to love her on into the future until she is without stain or wrinkle. Those are three certainties that I think we can get not just from this text but from all of scripture, the whole council. And so I wanna move us finally to one appeal. one main application.

And that is this as dearly loved children. Let Christ's love color your view of this stained and wrinkled and beautiful church. How do you view yourself? And then how do you view this church?

And I want to suggest to you it needs to be in that order. That we need to have a right view of ourselves because you're a member of Christ's body and that should impact the way that you view this church. We've just talked about how the Christ looks at this church, and he acknowledges that they're staining here and wrinkles, but he loves it anyway, and he died for it, died for her and, and Christ lets his death and, and, and his sacrifice color his view of you and me in this church in this body, and then he's guaranteed that he's gonna complete the work and one day he's gonna get rid of all of the stain and wrinkles that are still left over.

In our remaining sin.

But look at the beginning of chapter 5 for a moment. This has been one of my go to passages for a while, chapter 5, verse 1. how you have those go to passes, you have certain passes in your life that just jump off the page. You're waiting for God's hammer, you're just waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Here comes the judgment. I knew it was going to happen one day. Right, here it comes. All of a sudden, the Lord's like, I love you.

You're like, what? What? Chapter 5 verse 1, therefore be imitators of God. Don't miss this, as dearly loved children.

Dearly loved children. Children who are dearly loved, that's who you are in Christ. You are a dearly loved child. Now as a dearly loved child, Paul says go out and imitate God.

The way he's treated you. How, how does that work? Verse 2, walk in love, as Christ also loved us and has given Himself for us and offering sacrifice of God, to God for a sweet smelling aroma. Look back at chapter 4, verse 31.

Here's part of how that works out. You're a dearly loved child. You're in this body. Christ looks at you, he sees your wrinkles, he sees your stains, but he says, that's all right.

I've died for that. I'm gonna let my blood cover or color the way I look at you. And by the way, I'm working that out. It's all gonna get done in the end.

And, and so how is it that we as dearly loved children now imitate him? Part of it's right there in chapter 4 comes in the previous context, verse 31. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another.

If you put a period right there, put a period right there and go out and try to do that. All on your lonesome. In fact, let's just do an experiment. Let's just try for the next week, every one of us putting a period right there.

Let's get out there and let's just stop being bitter, stop being angry, stop clamoring and evil speaking, no malice. Let's just always be kind and tenderhearted and let's just forgive each other and then we'll be dandy, right? He doesn't stop right there, just as God in Christ forgave you. You got to finish the sentence.

God and Christ forgave you. We're forgiven. We're dearly loved children. He looks at our stains, and he says, I died for that.

That's my bride. Don't mess with my bride. And he says, go out and treat one another as my bride. Stained and wrinkled, yes, soiled but loved.

Disappointing, yes, but I delight in her, broken, no doubt, but she is beautiful. That's the whole tenor of all of scripture. We may see stains and blemishes in the church, but Jesus does not. He presents the church's bride to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.

So how do you, how do you love your brothers and sisters like that? Let's just stick with Cornerstone right here. we got, we got centers for pastors, we got centers for congregants. There's a lot of beauty in this church, so much beauty.

It's amazing. I just feel lucky every week. Sitting at the the leadership meeting last week looking around at this room of people that are just serving Christ with joy and I, I'm just tears are coming to my eyes thinking of people who just love doing things for the Lord. I don't understand why people like to make food for other people.

That's befuddling to me. It stresses me out. If you were to throw me in that kitchen and say, get in there and make food for 200 people, I just put me in my grave. I would just.

I don't know how to do that it would stress me out, but you see people like loving it and there's people running around this church vacuuming and setting up, flags and taking, picking up Brian and just loving each other. There's so much beauty it's just amazing. It just, it, it blows our pastors away and at the same time, we look out and, and this is a, let's just be honest, can we be real for a moment? Can I, can I be honest with you guys?

We'll just keep it amongst us. There's brokenness here, right? There is, you and I, we've all had some disappointments. If you've been here for any length of time, you've been disappointed.

Right, let's just be real. there's times where people have hurt you, people have not done for you what you were expecting, you have not done for them what they were expecting. What do you do with that? Well, we can get bitter, we can withdraw, we can distance, we can say, how dare they treat me that way?

Or you can say, what? That's his life on planet Earth. Before Christ comes back. And I'll tell you what, there's this misnomer out there that Christians are always better behaved than unbelievers.

They're just always better at everything. They're smarter, they're more beautiful, they're more kind, they never get out, been out of shape, they always behave better than unbelievers. That has not been my experience. That's not always true.

Sometimes, I'll just be honest, sometimes, I, I meet some believers and I meet some unbelievers and I'm like, man, why can't you behave like that? Sometimes unbelievers, they're, they're made in the image of God too, right? Depending on how they're raised and God's common grace and this and that. I know a lot of good unbelievers.

What makes us the bride of Christ is that we're not all better than the world. What makes us the bride of Christ is that our sins are forgiven. And that Christ looks at the stains and wrinkles, and he says, I don't see that. And by the way, I'm working that out because I love them.

Now, you love each other. In all of that. This is good news. This is good news for us.

On Sunday mornings, we show up here at Cornerstone. And we may see stains and blemishes in the church, but Christ does not. He presents the church, his bride to himself. Without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

You may show up on any given Sunday. And, and what you're seeing for those who have believed in Christ and, I, I just know when I look out at this church there's a, there's a couple things I know. One is I, I know a whole ton of people here who just love Jesus. They believe in Christ.

They place their faith in Christ. They've been a blessing to me. They've been a blessing to my family. They've been blessing these pastors.

And we praise the Lord for the, the, the fact that we were saved by grace alone through faith alone. At the same time, my theology, I've seen it bear out as a pastor. Over years, is that some of the most godly people I know. Are people who have been overtaken by sin.

Some of the most godly people I know are people who get deceived by the devil and their own lack of ability to perceive properly. And I'm one of them, you, you guys can. I remember one year. What was it?

I forget how many years ago it was, but we did, we were having our annual. performance review is what you call it, right? You guys have performance reviews where you, you, your boss decides, looks over how you're doing. Well, we have, our pastors get performance reviews here.

And, and so I got a performance review one year and let's just say I needed to improve in some areas. And, and so, a couple of elders were assigned to come talk to me. And, man, I'm, I won't, I don't want to pick on the album, but man, this guy, I knew I was gonna start crying sometime. And these guys just love me enough.

To tell me things I couldn't see. And, that's what makes the, the church a a beautiful place. Is, the, the fact is, is all of us are at places where there's times where we just don't see things that's not just congregants, that's pastors. And, and I, a couple of the elders, Alvin, JJ, a few other guys, Pastor Milton over the years, all these guys, we've been in each other's lives, we get up in each other's business.

And I just remember being, just brought to tears by things some of the guys were sharing with me and it was just shared in so much love and care and kindness, but it was truth. It's like, hey, you, you need to grow in this area, you show up at elders meetings with presentations, you got so many arguments against any poss possible way that could go against the presentation. Nobody could argue with it. It's like, ouch.

But those are the things you need to hear. And, and for us to think that somehow we're beyond the stains, we're beyond the spots that nobody can confront us, that's a, that's a bad place to be. All of us as the bride of Christ need to be continually open to the fact that we don't see it all, we can't see it all, we're still stained, we still have spots. And you're loved and so if somebody comes to talk to you about sin or things you need to grow in, that's OK because you're loved and that's been forgiven in Christ and let's say even if only half of what somebody says to you is right, half of it's wrong, or maybe they, they do it in the wrong way or maybe they completely missed the boat, we're called to love one another as Christ has loved us, keep the balance that.

that this church is beautiful and it's broken. Is this making sense? And, and I, I, I think there's, there's room here for all of us if, if we, if we really grasp this concept and this theology. It will on the one hand, it'll give us a lot of hope for ourselves.

On the other hand, it'll also keep us from disillusionment with the body of Christ. We're not making excuses. Here's the one caveat I give we're not trying to make excuses for sins in the church that is OK to go out and be mean to people. It's OK to bully people.

It's OK to be a bigot. It's OK to say, hey, be a Christian and run out and just run roughshod over everybody. No, that's not OK. But the point is, is that Christ has called, Christ didn't call a bunch of great looking perfect people into the body.

I, I hate to break it to you, but he's, he's bringing in the lame, he's bringing in the blind, he's bringing in the sinners, he's bringing in the broken. And he's bringing in people who have had addiction in their background, who've been sexually abused, people who've had abortions, people who've had drunkenness, people who are self-righteous who've grown up thinking that they're the bee's knees and they need to be humbled, and it's all over this body. But all over this body.

Christ looks at you and he looks at me and he says.

That's, that's my bride. I love her. Now, maybe you don't, well, in on this, maybe, maybe you're listening to this and you're like, I, I'm not part of that. I don't, I don't know what you're talking about.

I'm. I'm on the outside looking in. The great news is that really anybody can become part of this bride because Jesus says, all you who are labor and heavy laden, just come to me and I will know why he's cast you out. You just come to him with your burdens, you come to him with your sins, you come to him, with your problems and you say Jesus, would you take me?

And anybody who comes to Christ and says Jesus, would you take me that Jesus' answer is always the same, yes and yes. It's only yes in Christ whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So do you, do you, do you sense that your sins have entangled your life and the decisions that you've made in your life have painted you into a corner where you're like, man, how did I get here? That's just the nature of sin.

It's the nature of our hearts. We're, that's the way we, that's the way we roll. But Christ comes into all that mess and he's the one that gets us out of that corner. He's the one that says, I died on the cross for you, and I'm gonna bring you with me.

Christians are not people who just walk around and we're just better than everybody else. We're people who know that we are not, but Christ is better. Christ is righteous, and he's said that he will throw us on his back and take us there. Let's pray.

Lord, we do thank you for this time for us to. Both partake of communion, a visible sermon, and then also to hear from your word. And we just pray, Lord, that You would help us, help our husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. We know that our love is incomplete.

Well, his is complete. but we can, in light of the fact that we are dearly loved children, Lord, you are calling us to get in there and, and love wives who are both beautiful and broken. Help us to love our children and help us to love one another, help our pastors to love the sheep, help the sheep to love the pastors. Help us to love the lost.

Lord, we pray, Father, that you would, we thank you so much for your mercy upon us, that you look down upon us and you see that we are but flesh. And that you take up our offense, Lord, you're the one that stood before Balaam. And defended your people, you're the one who will crush the head of the serpent. you're the one who even stood against Paul and said, why are you persecuting me, Paul, and then knocked him down and saved him as your own.

We pray, Father, you do that very thing this morning, Lord, that you would call whoever you have set your love upon this morning, that you would call them and whoever would call upon you would be saved. Lord, we believe, help our unbelief. We thank you for Jesus. Who has died for us in Christ's name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.