Anticipating the Marriage Feast With Our God and King

Good morning. Turn your Bibles to Psalm 45, please. Psalm 45. Tell you what, whoever chooses the hymns needs to be fired. I don't know who it is, but man. You know, even with that, I think Christ is still worthy of all worship and praise, so let's rest in that. there's a hymnal that I have that has check marks next to songs that congregation quote unquote knows but I think now it's you've sang it once before it might have been like five years ago but you sang it once before so we'll get her down.

Psalm 45 though let's put our minds on Christ who's worthy. Psalm 45, to the choir master, according to the lilies, a mesquite of the sons of Korah, a love song. My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. You are the most handsome of the sons of men.

Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty. In your majesty, ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.

The peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.

From ivory palaces, stringed instruments make you glad. Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. Here, O daughter, consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.

The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. in place of your fathers shall be your sons.

You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. God, may our hearts and minds be open to your word now. I pray, God, that you'd be with me as I explain the text. May I do it in a way that's truthful and clear.

And may the truth impart upon the hearer's heart And may it be all of our desires to hear the truth and conform ourselves to the truth by the aid of Jesus Christ and his spirit that he sends to his people. God in heaven, we need your help. And so please let us be mindful of our neediness and know that it is your promise that you help us in our need. And so help us, Lord, and may you be glorified in it.

In Jesus' name, amen. So the beginning of this psalm is entitled A Love Song. of the Sons of Korah, a love song. When my mind goes to love songs, I was up and coming in the 1990s, all the way back to the 1990s. And love songs back then were influenced by the likes of Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC. I remember there was something called TRL.

Who knows TRL when I say it? All right, we got a few of them. TRL, Total Request Live. And this was a time when you got to vote for a song that you wanted to be number one. And so I forget what time it was at. Sometime in the afternoon, they would go through the songs.

Did someone just shout out the time? Oh, I thought I heard a time over there. I'm like, oh, they know. For some reason, I thought I heard someone shout out the time. But sometime, but they would go from number 10 all the way to number one with the most votes, whoever got the most votes. And it seems like growing up, I remember it was always a battle between Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

They're always at battle with each other. and they always had some very, very corny, goofy love song. And of course, you had Britney Spears that was up there a lot with her love songs. And so, as a kid growing up in the 90s, a love song was very much influenced by the likes of these people. Songs that were entitled, I Want It That Way, Quit Playing Games With My Heart, and Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely.

This is my diet of love songs growing up. This is a love song in Psalm 45. It's not quite like it, though. A little different, but growing up, my diet of love songs from TRL and the world, the music, I had certain convictions of love in my teenage years. One of them, based off of this diet of these love songs I would hear, is that love, falling in love, is to be greatly desired.

It is something that is the most desirable for us is to fall in love. Another thing I learned is that a lot of times it leads to a broken heart, though. You should desire to want to be in love, but a lot of times it leads to a broken heart. And the third thing I learned from these songs is it's usually at the fault of your partner. It's usually their fault why that love has broken apart.

But nevertheless, the underlining thing that I learned is that to find your completeness in another is the most desirable thing. to find your completeness to be completed as Tom Cruise says in another is the most desirable thing And here now being older and wiser I would see that fundamental statement and I would say amen to that I would say amen to that. I think we're made to want to find our completeness in another, to want to find our compassion and our completeness in another, and to seek that and to have a great desire for that, I actually say amen to that. I believe Psalm 45 here teaches, along with a whole breadth of scripture, that your greatest pursuit in life needs to be to find such companion in another, one who will complete you.

But with so much on the line, right, to put your eggs in one basket, to be completed by another individual, to have that compassion, to have that relationship, right? And to be completed in that individual, that individual must be pretty good. Must be quite the individual. If not, you are going to end up having a broken heart. And a lot of those love songs are all about how bad the partner was and all that going on.

And so really, if that is a true conviction, if we are to find our satisfaction, our completeness in another individual, that individual better be good. And here in Psalm 45, a love song, we see that this individual is good. As the psalmist is describing the marriage of a king and his bride, we see that he is enraptured with the beauty of the groom. So usually at a wedding, the bride is the one that's on display.

I know at least that was certainly the case at my wedding. and but we see here that in psalm 45 the psalmist who is witnessing the wedding of a king and his bride we see that he is enraptured by the beauty of this awesome king look at what it says in verse 40 or chapter 40 or psalm 45 verse 1 my heart the psalmist says overflows with a pleasing theme I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. He is ready to bestow this worship, this admiration of this person who is awesome.

One in which we can put all of our eggs in one basket and find our completeness and our union with this person. He is said to be awesome. The psalmist has been raptured with poetic expression of the awesomeness of this character here. Kind of like when in this love song in the 90s, whenever they're freshly in love, the partner can do no wrong, right? It's just, oh, I'm this perfect partner, and just find all your completeness in him.

And then eventually it goes sour, and it all goes the opposite direction. But until that happens, you have this partner is perfect and beautiful, and I can be complete in him. I just want him or her. It reminds me of that beautiful part or the high part of these love songs. Well, here we see the psalmist is overwhelmed by the beauty of this person. We see in verse two, this person is he says, you are the most handsome of the sons of men.

Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. The reason why he's enraptured by this individual, the greatness of him, is because he is handsome. Because grace is poured from his lips, he speaks well. And because he's blessed by God. Blessed by God is something that we hear a lot.

God's blessings. And it's something that if we're not careful, we can hear it and see, oh, he's blessed. Oh, yay, that's good. And then it can just go out the other ear. But everything about life is all about whether you are being blessed by God or cursed by God. your life is either defined by the fact that you're either being blessed by the Almighty on high or you're being cursed by the Almighty on high.

So when we see an individual who is about to get married to this bride and we see that he is blessed by God, that is a good thing. All life is about whether or not you are being blessed by God or cursed by God. And this individual is blessed by God. blessing and cursing is dependent upon your standing with God you are cursed by God when you are at odds with him and enmity with him and everyone in their life when it's not going well it has something to do with their cursing from God but our blessing from God is that when we are right before him and even in the worst circumstance when we're blessed by God we're right with him and it gives us all meaning and so here we see that this individual is blessed by god because he is right with god but we see it moves on what makes this king this person so worthy of enraptured poetic expression is not only that he is blessed but he works blessing in his actions.

He is blessed himself. He is right with God himself. He is right with the Father, with God himself, but he also works that in his actions. His actions is enriched with blessings coming forth from God. If you notice in verse 3, it says, gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty. You see, this person is endowed with the ability, a weapon of warfare, a weapon or a way to invoke a certain change around him.

He's able to act in a certain way. And the way that he acts, we see in verse four, is that he rides out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and uprightness. And he says, let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. So not only does he look the part, but he plays the part. Not only is he blessed, but he also is a blessing as he brings about righteousness wherever he goes.

He has that sword on his hip and his cause as he goes forth is for uprightness righteousness i blessing So again what makes this king what makes this person so full of beauty to the psalmist is that not only is he blessed, but he is a blessing as he goes out in action. Not only that, in verse 5, he's able to defeat foes who are around him. In verse 5, your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.

The peoples fall under you. So not only does he go out and he rides for the cause, he rides for and he fights for the cause of righteousness, of truth, of meekness, of a blessing from God, being right with the Lord, but he also destroys those who are enemies of God, those who are at odds with God, those who are cursed by God. You see, this is a man who not only is blessed, but as he goes forth, he is one of action.

It goes on to say in verses 6 and 7, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is one of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and you hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. So you see there's that blessing from God once more, and it's all rooted in the fact that he loves righteousness, that he hates wickedness, that he works against wickedness, and he works for righteousness.

This is what makes this person so beautiful to the psalmist's eyes. But then it moves forth from the beauty of the king. It moves from the beauty of the individual himself, and it goes to this ceremony that's happening. This ceremony in which this king now is marrying this queen, in which this queen is going to be blessed by the marriage of this individual, this love song of these two coming together in this ceremony of marriage.

And we see that kind of happening now in verse 8 moving forward, in which it says, your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces, stringed instruments make you glad. from the place where he's at in his palaces. It's a place that looks well. Ivory palaces. It's a well-decorated area. And there's instruments going on and it's a festive gathering.

It's a glad gathering. In fact, it says in verse 9, Daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. And so there's this idea that you have the queen and her bridesmaids standing next to the king and there is a ceremony of marriage going on right here. This is indeed a love song in which this beautiful, awesome king is being married to a queen.

And so, since this person is so lovely in all his ways and awesome in his glory, his kingdom is one of righteousness, and he goes forth in that righteousness, there is a cry, there is a call for the queen to leave everything and follow this king. And we see that in verses 10 through 12. Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty.

Since he is your lord, bow to him. The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. You see, this is a call. Leave whatever you had before, O daughter, O queen. Leave your family. Leave whatever you had before, and now attach yourself to this worthy king.

Attach yourself, your love, to this king now. Leave everything behind, and go to this king and marry him. And you'll be blessed. The people of Tyre, which was a rich people, will even seek your favor with gifts, the riches of the people. And then it describes this ceremony more in verses 13 through 15. All glorious is the princess in her chamber with robes interwoven with gold.

She looks the part. She looks beautiful. She has robes interwoven with gold itself. in many color robes she is led to the king with her virgin companions following behind her right her bridesmaids are coming behind her she looks wonderful and beautiful in her attire and they are going forth with joy and gladness in verse 15 they are led along as they enter the palace of the king the procession the the ceremony is proceeding forth in which the queen is leaving her old life behind and she is wedding herself to her love to the king who is righteous and works righteousness.

So not only is that a blessing all together, but also there will be a blessing that comes forth from this union from this time forth forevermore. In verses 16 and 17, in place of your fathers shall be your sons. So instead of the glory of the queen or the king being in the fathers, it is now going to be in the sons that they produce. The union of the two are going to create a posterity that is going to be a blessing.

And it says, you will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations. Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. This surely is a love song, one in which the king is worthy to be united with, in which the queen beckons, come to him, and what comes forth from you will bless the nations, will bless all the world, as they will be highly prized in the world.

So the question then, as we just quickly went through that psalm, the question is, what king are we dealing with here? What ceremony are we dealing with here? John Kelvin, if you've ever heard of him, he's convinced that it is Solomon. And he acknowledges that there is a figure that transcend it, which we'll get to and spend most of our time with that.

But he argues that this is Solomon. that is talking about Solomon being married to a foreign princess which is an Egyptian and it which is saying leave Egypt forget about that past and join yourself now to Solomon and God covenant people and the blessings of their posterity will be better than what you had in Egypt And there's a few things wrong with that. And perhaps we can talk about that more in the afternoon that a lot of people have abandoned this view. That it's not even really talking about anyone really particular in it because there's even problems with that.

The fact is, it's not it wasn't really a blessing that Solomon attached himself to a foreign wife. That was actually against the law of Moses. They were not to marry foreign women. That was not something that was actually a good thing in the law of Moses. So it would be weird for them to celebrate that here. And it seems to me, I'm not even talking about any particular king of Israel because of this thorny issue of verse 6 and 7.

This king, this wonderful lover, this beautiful person that this queen is supposed to go to is called God himself. in verse 6 your throne talking about the king right and how awesome he is it says your throne oh god is forever and ever the scepter the power the authority of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness you have loved righteousness and hated weakness therefore god your god has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions so it doesn't seem to be talking about any particular king that we can see in Israel's history. It doesn't seem to be referring to anyone in particular, but it seems to be transcending a certain individual of Israel. I've got to catch up to my notes here.

It seems to be going beyond just any particular individual, and it seems to be transcending beyond it. The answer to the question, who is this king, who is this queen, is important for us even now. Because we aren't just looking here at a ceremony of two individuals in which it's beautiful, but we're seeing that this is telling a story that transcends two individuals and it's actually talking about Jesus Christ being the king and the bride being married to him.

And since it has that overarching bigger picture in mind, we see ourselves intimately in this psalm as the queen and we are beckoned to leave everything and go to him who is worthy to have as our husband we see that this is actually talking about Jesus the God man who is blessed forever worthy for us to leave everything and grab hold of this king is no mere man he is the God man the kingdom is forever down to right now in our very moment marriage this marriage this ceremony is an eternal marriage in which we all take a part of or were called to take a part of you see we see in marriage when God presented to Adam his wife Eve in the garden in Genesis it was pointing to when God would present the church to the son of God. You see when again Adam was presented his wife in Genesis it was pointing to when God would not bring Eve to Adam but would bring the church to the son of God. So we see that marriage here the ceremony it has a deeper meaning a deeper focus it's supposed to be pointed to a transcendent reality in which we all if we look to Jesus take part of and we see this very clearly in Ephesians 5.

We see this very clearly in Ephesians 5. If you want to flip there, Ephesians 5, this transcendent reality of marriage that is on display in Scripture. We know that marriage itself and having a husband that you put, or a wife that completes you, we see that we know that that is just a shadow of a greater substance, something greater. It's displaying, right and we see that Paul puts his finger right on it in Ephesians 5 22 when he says going on when he says wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church his body as and is himself its savior now as the church submits to Christ so also wives that should submit and everything to their husbands so husbands in Verse 25, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. Therefore, and he quotes Genesis, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. So we see that marriage itself and this psalm itself is pointing to a deeper, a greater transcendent reality of a marriage relationship between Jesus Christ and his bride. And we see that Jesus' goal is for righteousness. Jesus is the greatest of all kings, the most handsome of all men, because his goal is for righteousness and to spread righteousness.

And his ability to do so is found in his actions. And we see that his goal is to spread righteousness in his bride. You see in Ephesians 5, what is the goal of Jesus? is to provide, is to make her sanctified, cleanse her, so that when she is presented to himself, she is beautiful. Just like in Psalm 45, as the queen bows down to her lord and is dressed appropriately, and the king desires her beauty, etc.

Psalm 45, so Jesus, what he's doing in his church as he awaits the marriage with his church, is he's making his church beautiful, to desire the beauty that's within us, that he is doing in us, so that at the marriage feast in the end, we will be presented to him in holiness. If you look at 2 Corinthians, if you look at 2 Corinthians, this is referred to as well. 2 Corinthians 11 2 Corinthians 11 Paul is having quite a time with the Corinthians and he says in verse 1 2 Corinthians 11 verse 1 I wish you Corinthians, this church in Corinth, I wish you would bear with me in a little bit of foolishness.

Do bear with me. For I feel a divine jealousy over you since I betrothed you or I engaged you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. So we see that in this time frame that we are in now, this church age, right, where there is a call, believe upon Jesus Christ and be saved.

And so doing as someone believes upon Jesus, they are entering into an engagement with Jesus. They are being engaged to Jesus for a future reality. And during this time that we walk this earth, we are walking in light of being betrothed or engaged to Jesus. in which what Jesus is doing in you is he's making you beautiful, he's making you pure, he's making your garments filled with gold, so that when you approach him at the feast in the end, at the final judgment, you will approach him in holiness, in purity, in beauty.

We see that in Psalm 45 as the queen looks beautiful in her robes of gold and beauty. this is a deeper significant issue or it's pointing to a deeper truth in which Jesus desires you to wear robes of righteousness to look beautiful as you are brought or presented to him at the altar you'll be wearing robes of righteousness of gold and beautiful you can think of this it's our journey here and now as we walk this earth it's our journey to the groom at the altar at the end with the end being found in revelation 19 just to get the full picture painted we read this last week for a different reason but we'll read it again it's uh it's a beautiful statement of the end of what the church has to look forward to right in revelation 19 6 through 10 if you're tired of flipping around that's fine just listen to me but we see in Revelation 19 6 we get this marriage supper this final feast this final celebration this final ceremony that we're all looking forward to that we're all heading towards in which it says then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb of the king of the one who reigns has come and his bride has made herself ready it was granted to his bride to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure now does that mean literally we're we are wanting to have this fine linen to be clothed in or is that pointing to a deeper reality itself well yeah it's pointing to a deeper reality what clothes do we we do we want to be found in. Clothes of righteousness, clothes of blessingness, clothes in which God blesses people with, of righteousness, being right with God. It says, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints And we talked about how that interesting that it been granted to the bride to wear the garment and then the bride acts out in wearing that garment in which they have righteous deeds.

And in this becomes the bride's ability to be presented to Christ in beauty. That we would be given righteous garments being justified, declared righteous by Christ our King. And then we walk in this new garment and as we enter the marriage ceremony we are then presented in holiness because of this playing itself out. We're granted this clothing and we walk in this clothing and so as we approach the king in the final feast, in the final ceremony he looks at us and he desires our beauty.

So our lives now, you could say It's us walking to the altar. We are on a journey to the altar in which Christ, our groom, stands smiling at our holy attire. That's a beautiful thing because if you see a husband who's watching his wife, future wife, come down, he is filled with pride. He's filled with joy. He's filled with longing and yearning for this beautiful woman.

And we see this is the same thing that's going on now. The journey is we're walking down that aisle to our king. He desires our beauty. He has provided us and he longs for us. He wants us. And so to find your fulfillment in the intimacy of another should be your greatest desire.

It should be your greatest desire. You know, you look, it's like a very typical thing. You hear love songs. It's always this obsession to find love in someone and to find that fulfillment. Again, I think it's rooted in our hearts because we were meant to find that intimacy ultimately in Jesus Christ. He is meant to be your groom.

He is meant to be your husband. You are meant to get that intimacy from him. We are all meant for that, to have that great intimacy in which we see that this person here, The intimacy that I have with him in marriage will complete me in all the ways that I long for. Sadly, when we don't have that proper teaching of what marriage points to, we settle with the shadow of trying to find all our happiness in a foolish boy or girl.

Never satisfies, because it's not meant to satisfy that way, but it's supposed to point us to the marriage of the groom, who always satisfies. And as our marriage points to that, then that marriage becomes satisfying. don't want to get lost in the tangent here, but one of the common issues in marriage, and it's a lot of times to the wife, to the husband, but I'm not trying to pick on them, but the wife wants to find her completeness in the husband, and sets her husband up as a Christ himself, saying, I will find my completeness in you, my happiness in you, and that was never meant to do that. It's supposed to point to the one who does, and the husband, and the groom, he's the one that gives you that satisfaction.

And as a husband faithfully mirrors that, he becomes an accessory to that, but he doesn't become the completeness itself. We're all meant to find that completeness. We're all meant to have intimacy deeply that a marriage points to, but it's supposed to be in the substance of Jesus Christ. He is our groom. the only one who will not let you down is king jesus he is blessed his kingdom is blessed he faithfully brings forth this blessing everywhere in which he uses the intimacy of marriage with us to make that blessing happen.

If you notice in Psalm 45, what does the outcome of that marriage, what is it supposed to do? Well, it's supposed to create a posterity of blessing to the nations in which the offspring that produced or the church the people made righteous and beautiful in Christ what it does is it creates a beautiful nation across the world in which it's a blessing to the world. And we see this exactly what the church has been in the world in the last 2,000 years, a blessing to the nations.

We see that we are to approach Jesus, and we are to leave all behind. We are to leave our family behind. We are to leave where we came from. And we are to attach ourselves to this groom and wait and see the blessings that come forth from that union. And that's exactly the cry, right? This is the challenge for us today, right now, for all of us.

It's found directly in Psalm 45, 10, and 11. Look at it in your Bibles. As we recognize that Jesus is the king in this psalm, we recognize that the daughter or the queen is the church itself. we see that the challenge then becomes a challenge for us even right now, even for you as you're sitting in this pew. Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear.

Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty since he is your lord. Bow to him. It's this idea that this king is marrying a foreigner, and that foreigner cannot have fidelity to that foreign life anymore. This foreigner is coming into a new identity, a new family, a new kingdom, and in which there is no putting your foot in one kingdom of the old and another foot in Jesus' kingdom.

This sounds very familiar, doesn't it? This challenge to leave everything and join yourself now to this new cause. this challenge to bow to this king and he will be beautiful or he'll see you as beautiful or upright or righteous or blessed. We see that in Matthew as the king himself teaches this very same doctrine. Look at Matthew 10. Jesus gives this same challenge to his bride, to those who he is calling out to be beautiful. in Matthew 10, 34.

And when she says, do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. Even that imagery there of Psalm 45 in which he's girded with a sword to bring about his cause of righteousness. He says in verse 35, for I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother. and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. You see, Jesus brings in a new kingdom, and he marries a bride in which he says, and now your allegiance no longer is to what you came forth from, but now your allegiance is completely to me. And by the way, that's going to be at odds from where you came from. Since we are born in Adam, since our natural descendants come from Adam and the sinful system, whether or not you like that or not, That is the truth.

When we have wed ourselves to Christ, we are now in a new family, and those two families don't get along at all. And so the challenge is to leave that behind, because this king is beautiful in all his ways. You see, if this person, if Jesus Christ, isn't as beautiful, isn't as beautiful as what it is said he is, it would be insane to leave everything.

If Jesus Christ isn't as beautiful as what scripture says he is, it would be absolutely insane to leave your family behind and to go to Christ. But since Jesus is that beautiful since he does provide all fulfillment and righteousness your call the call for you is to leave anything that would get in the way of your allegiance to him and go to him and Jesus recognizing this he says and of course it doesn mean always that your family is always a hindrance but his point is is that a family that you come forth from there are really intimate ties with that, isn't there? Very intimate.

And he says, and if those deep-rooted ties stop your allegiance to me as your new king, you had better tear yourself from it. That is quite a thing to do. But when our eyes have been opened to the beauty of this king, we say, Amen, I shall do it. He says in verse 37 of Matthew 10, Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. So what is the call? for us to take up our cross and follow Jesus to the altar where he is waiting for us, for him to behold the beauty that he's created in us, in our righteous deeds made possible by the righteous garment that he's given us, for him to desire our beauty, to follow him to the altar as we await that great festive ceremony of the marriage supper with the Lamb. We are to follow Christ where he is to be found at the altar waiting for us.

So this time period, this life that we have now, is a life in which we are saying, I'm done with this world. I want my new husband, Jesus Christ, and I shall walk as I go to the altar where he is at. This is the calling of the queen in Psalm 45. The beauty of the king laid out. He is beautiful in all his ways. his kingdom is a beautiful kingdom in which righteousness reigns being right with god and it spreads through his action so the call is oh daughter oh people leave your old life behind and attach yourself in marriage to this king and through his righteousness through his work he will desire your beauty by bowing down to him and following him and so therefore that is the call for us as the bride of Christ.

This is a love song in which it truly is something to be most desirable, to find our fulfillment in this groom, in this lover of ours. He is the one that provides us everything that makes us complete. Everything that we need in life is found in Jesus. And so we are to see this love song finds its completeness in Jesus, and we find our completeness in Jesus as we long for that great day in which we are married to him that is completed in him may our days be filled with a holy anticipation of this day may we see every day in light of that great eternal reality in which will be presented to him in holiness and may our affections and desires be found in Christ who is waiting for us at the altar God in heaven we thank you for providing us Jesus Christ as our marriage partner.

We thank you for marriage. We thank you how it points to this great intimacy we are to have with another individual. And Lord, we know the substance is found in the fact that we are to be intimate in that way to Jesus Christ. Lord, it's him who makes us beautiful. Through that intimacy, we know that we are given a righteousness that is foreign to us but given by the king who works it in us.

And I'm so thankful then we can serve him and worship him and bow down to him and it is our joy to leave everything for the sake of him. And so may we be people who anticipate that day in which all this is consummated fully and truly in the marriage supper of the lamb in which all things are complete. And we know, Lord, this is only possible by you keeping us.

So we thank you for this king who's powerful enough to keep us until that great day. May we give ourselves to him completely and trust him. In Jesus' name, amen.