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e [Music] [Music] [Music] h [Music] h [Music] brother [Music] [Music] h [Music] for [Music] h [Music] for h [Music] h [Music] in [Music] [Music] who gives this woman to this man in marriage you may be seated well it's a blessing to be able to witness the joining in marriage of Lucas and Ellis so welcome to all the friends and family uh I was delighted after Ellis moved away that Lucas texted me and said he was interested in Ellis and so I'm very grateful that they have been joined together and we'll be joined together this day uh just one announcement or two announcements uh the first is Lucas me want to remind me uh and remind you that there is going to be a reception right after so you're all invited so please come and then the second announcement is for the recessional we're going to sing to God be the glory so make sure to sing loud when we sing uh at that recessional and so with that let's go to our God for an opening prayer let us pray oh Lord Our God we are thankful that you're the one who has ordained marriage and you called it very good and so we are grateful in your Providence that you've brought Lucas and Ellis together and we pray that their marriage would be one that glorifies you and it would be one that honors you and that we as we join with them this day as witnesses that we would Rejoice with them that we would give you thanks for all that you've done for them in the salvation of their souls and in the bringing of them together here today and so we ask and pray that you would be with us we ask and pray that you wouldd fill our hearts with joy and we pray these things in the Name of Christ amen well we're going to stand and sing A Hymn the first hymn is going to be great is thy faithfulness uh so if you're able we are going to stand and sing together great is thy faithfulness oh God my father there is no Shadow with [Music] Chang for will be is my faithfulness great is my fa morning my morning you mercies I see all I have and my Greatful Lord wi and andar fores with all in that to greaty and love my faithfulness PR my Fai glor my morning new mercies I see all I my fa for your dear presence to Che and to God to and blesss all PR is my PR my faithfulness for my morning to mercies I see all I have in and PR my [Music] well you may be seated well when we consider the fact that God ordained marriage for this age uh we see in the scriptures that he ordained it for three purposes and the first purpose is for Mutual companionship ship God saw that Adam was alone and he found and made a suitable helper for him so God was pleased to provide man with a suitable helper the second purpose for marriage is for chaste living and for Purity it is the one place that God has ordained that that ought to be expressed and then the third purpose is for child rearing and it's uh thanks be to God that he does ordain the family as the Blessed place for which children ought to be raised so those were the three purposes that God gave with respect to marriage and what marriage is supposed to be for and about but one thing that's important with all of those purposes is the reality that marriage is for another in a world where people assume that marriage is about making uh the spouse making you happy it's important to know that we ought to consider the other person and die for them or live for them and so Lucas is to die for his wife as the husband and Ellis is to live and submit to her husband that is the charge that God gives in his word with respect to what marriage ought to look like in this world Lucas must love his wife and Ellis must submit to her husband and so we do pray what God has joined together and will join together we pray that man would not separate and so with that we're going to sing another hymn and so if you're able we're going to stand and sing bless the man that fears Jehovah h [Music] table BL strength and beauty full of and prise are [Music] all my sh th sh children children all might [Music] GL well you may be seated and the bridal party can be seated as well well as we meditate on what marriage is it's good for us to look at Ephesians chapter 5 and so you do have Ephesians 522 through 33 uh in your program so I'm going to read it for us and then make a few comments about what Paul says concerning the blessedness of marriage so Ephesians 5 beginning at verse 22 wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body therefore just as the church is subject to Christ so let wives be to their own husbands in everything 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 church not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that she should be holy and without blemish so husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church for we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones 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 and the church nevertheless Let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself let the wife see that she respects her husband amen well God is such a good God that when he made this world he called it very good and God was pleased to give many good gifts to this lower world including the gift of Mary marriage God made man in Eden he made him for worship he made him for dwelling he did make him for blessedness and happiness and he was pleased to give the gift of marriage now marriage in reality is a this age gift Jesus does say there will be neither giving or being given in marriage and the sad part is man has ruined this blessed gift that God has given man has sinned man has brought wickedness into this world and man ruined everything including marriage rather than companionship there's selfishness and loneliness rather than sexual Chastity there is the defiling of the bed with sexual immorality and rather than the thriving of children in the proper child rearing place there is poor parenting and even in the house in the home how one treats one's spouse and how one treats their children is a sanctifying place because we live with Sinners and often there are short tempers degrading words harsh thoughts and neglectful con conduct towards those we should love the most but even for all the hardship that marriage can bring there's a lot of good that it brings as well and one of the most comforting things that it brings is a picture of the age to come especially as Paul talks how it about how it is a gospel mystery it is a symbol of Christ and his love for the church it's a symbol of Christ's love for such an unlovely bride and so marriage does give us that visual representation of the Gospel with the focus more on the bridegroom and his display of eternal love for his bride to present her holy and without blemish and so we'll consider this under two headings they won't be long uh the first heading is going to be the sacrifice of the groom which is Christ and then secondly we're going to see the Splendor of the Bride which is the redeemed church so the sacrifice of the groom and then we'll see the Splendor of the Bride so let's first consider the sacrifice of the groom which we see in verse 25 we see the gospel we see Christ is the one who gave himself up for his bride you see Christ is the one who loves his church it was the Eternal son who took on a human nature to die for an deserving people the son took on a human flesh and suffered in this world and he came to live die and rise again and we see that as he dies upon that cross he sacrifices for his bride he sacrifices for his wife he bleeds for her he's willing to go through physical Agony and torment in body and soul he's willing to go through spiritual torment for his wife this one who is the the infinite sacrifice is the one who dies for those who've sinned against an infinite God the reality is some husbands won't even take out the garbage for their wife or even stop playing Nintendo to come to dinner for their wife and yet Christ is the one who dies for his bride in this way and so we see the love of Christ we see it in his dying Forest this execution of that Eternal decree one of my favorite hymns one of the lines is from Heaven he came and saw her to be his holy bride with his own blood he bought her and for her life he died it is a tall task to be a husband it is a tall task to be the one who ought to die for his bride now the reality is husbands are not Christ but they are meant to sacrifice for their wives like Christ did for his bride he died for her that they might be one but also that the bride might be glor as well and what makes this gospel message so remarkable is that the bride is very unlovely the bride is actually very Wicked it's a reminder of what we were for those who have believed what we and who those who have not believed what you are now and Paul says in the book of Ephesians we the Christians were once dead in their sins they once followed the desires of the flesh they were once children of Wrath and yet we have this one who is Christ who died for such an unlovely bride he died for unloving husbands and he died for wives who don't submit he is a God who is good to die for such undeserving people that's why we need Christ that's why we need the bridegroom we need one to cleanse us and wash us because in reality we do not wear a white dress without him we need that cleansing we need that washing and that washing comes from our Lord and from his sacrifice and from what he has done for his bride so we see that Christ is the one who sacrifices as the groom for his bride and thankfully he sacrifices for her that she might be glorious and so we do see as well the Splendor of the Bride uh in verses 26 and 27 he dies for her for what purpose to cleanse her and to sanctify her to sanctify and cleanse the one he loves to present her holy she is not clean to begin with but we see that she is washed she is Washed by the word and this language certainly alludes back to the Old Testament the high priest would be the one who sacrifices and the one who intercedes and the one who performs the ritual washing and we see that Christ is the one who dies for his bride who pleads for his bride and also washes his bride as well well because if one wants to dwell with God one must be perfect and so we need to be washed and cleansed SM BOS says the church is Christ's bride who must be Sanctified from her impurity before she enters the divine presence of her husband and so Perfection only comes from faith in Christ Jesus and one thing that Christ is going to do aside from sanctifying and cleansing is he's going to present her holy on that day there is a future aspect here that looks ahead to the merriage supper of the Lamb which is what we see in Revelation 19 when the church is going to be presented holy on that day that's why these Earthly weddings ought to be great days of rejoicing and in many ways they're perhaps a foretaste of that great day of rejoicing when Christ comes again and we get to be with our bridegroom World Without End and thankfully we're going to be perfect and we are perfect for those that are in Christ holy and blameless without spot and wrinkle Ed says as he originally loved her in her impurity how deep and Ardent must be his attachment now to her when he sees her uh sees in her the realization of his own gracious and eternal purpose the nuptial union is at length cons IM ated amidst the peeling Hallelujah of Triumph and congratulation and what's so blessed about that marriage is that marriage cannot be broken there's going to be no more divorce because of the great bridegroom and what he does for his bride one thing it's important to remember as well as the church is the bride it's important to remember that the glory that we receive is a reflected Glory it's looking to Jesus Jesus is the one that we look to he is the one who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000 it's so different from our modern marriages it's good for us to rise for the bride it's good for us all to look at her but the bride is or so but the bride is looking at who the bride is looking at the bridegroom and that's exactly what we're going to be doing World Without End one of my favorite hymns one of the lines is the bride eyes not her garment nor her dear bridegroom's face I will not gaze at glory but on my king of Grace not at the crown he gith but on his pierced hand the lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel's land this is what marriage mysteriously symbolizes Christ dying for his beloved and making her spotless before him on that great wedding day it's going to be a great day of rejoicing and hopefully today is a great day of rejoicing ing as well not just in the salvation of Ellis and Lucas but also in the bringing of them together well with that I'll have ask the bridal party to come stand back up and we're going to do a prayer before the vows so let us pray our great God we're thankful that we can ask and you do give us the help and strength that we need and we can ask according to your will and we do ask today that you would help Lucas to die for Ellis and you would help Ellis to submit to Lucas we pray oh Lord that you'd help them to bear and forbear with one another and you'd help them to take these vows seriously we also pray as well oh Lord that when they fail these vows that they would seek forgiveness quickly with one another and with you we know that these are good things that we ask we know that these are good things that are according to your will and so we ask and pray oh Lord that you'd help them and Aid them and strengthen them by your spirit in their life so bless these vows that are about to be taken and we are thankful for this opportunity to be here to witness such wonderful things so be with us now and be with them now by your spirit we pray in the Name of Christ amen and so Lucas will go first so Lucas please repeat after me I Lucas I Lucas take you Ellis take you Ellis before God and before these Witnesses before God and before these witnesses to be my lawfully wedded wife to be my lawfully wetted wife to have and to hold to have and to hold from this day forward from this day forward For Better or For Worse For Better or For Worse for richer or for poorer for richer or for poorer in sickness and in health in sickness sickness and in health to love and to cherish to love and to cherish till death do us part till death do us part or the Lord Jesus Christ returns for the Lord Jesus Christ returns Ellis repeat after me I Ellis I Ellis take you Lucas take you Lucas before God and before these Witnesses before God and before these witnesses to be my lawfully wedded husband to be my LLY wedded husband to have and to hold to have and to hold from from this day forward from this day forward For Better or For Worse For Better or For Worse for richer or for poorer for richer or for poorer in sickness and in health in sickness and in health to love and to cherish to love and to cherish till death do us part till death do us part or the Lord Jesus Christ returns or the Lord Jesus Christ returns now they're going to pledge their love to one another these are the ID do so Lucas do you Lucas take take Ellis to be your lawfully wedded wife I do and Ellis do you take Lucas to be your lawfully wedded husband now we're going to the exchanging of the Rings rings are a symbol and a token of the vows that have just taken place Lucas belongs to Ellis and Ellis to Lucas it is a sign of their constant Faith commitment to and Abiding Love for one another it is a sign and symbol of The Unbroken and enduring un that God has ordained and so with that I'll take the Rings so Lucas could you please grab Ellis's ring and place it on her finger as a symbol and token of your love for and pledge to her and repeat after me Ellis Ellis this ring I give you this ring I give you as a token and pledge as a token and pledge of my constant faith of my constant faith and Abiding Love Abiding Love Ellis take Lucas's ring place it on his finger as a symbol and token of your love for and pledge to him and repeat after me Lucas this ring I give you this ring I give you as a token and pledge as a token and pledge of my constant faith my Conant and Abiding Love and well by the power invested in me I am pleased to pronounce them husband and wife and I'm pleased to introduce for the very first time Mr and Mrs Lucas [Applause] [Music] Hall glor has to the world that he gave us the praise the Lord praise the Lord Earth he his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let to the father Jes the son and him the glory BR he re the meres of to every the pro of goder who truly Jesus the prise the Lord praise the Lord the Earth his praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people to the father Jesus the glory great he he great he and great ouring through Jesus the son and will be our our trans Jesus PR the praise the let the Earth pra praise the [Applause] let to the father through Jesus the and him the glory great he [Music] so