Transcript for:
2 Corinthians 11:1,2 -My Husband, My Maker- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-05-25

We are in second Corinthians chapter 11 verses one and two today. Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Father, we thank you for your holy word. Lord, we thank you that we belong, that we're in the beloved, that we're Christians, we're in Christ. We thank you, Father, that, Lord, there's a there's a marital relationship that we have with you, with your son. And, Lord, the oneness, the intimacy that we enjoy, Lord, we don't take it for granted. And we pray evermore that that, as the days ahead hit us, Lord, and as we're wrestling and persevering and working through difficulties facing us, let us always, Lord, be able to rest in your love. To be able to rest in this marriage. You're never gonna divorce us. You're never gonna get rid of us. You're never gonna change it up. Lord, your love for us is an everlasting love. And Lord, we just we cherish that love. That's what we've been searching for. That's what you made us for. And we pray this morning that you would remind us of how important it is to love you with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength. And Lord, that that void, that emptiness in our hearts are filled with your love. So bless now we pray. Pour out your Holy Spirit. Be our teacher. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. The Apostle Paul, he like, I've got two daughters. And as a father, one of the things you worry about is as they get older, that some guy underneath a rock will come along, some sort of urchin kind of a guy, and ruin everything that you dreamt of, everything you work toward in trying to hand them off to a husband. And, Paul likens the church of Corinth as this vulnerable virgin bride, and they are being seduced by the false prophets. And the false prophets have come in there and they're they're using smoke and mirrors and a lot of smooth talk, and they're denigrating and tearing the Apostle Paul down. He's the one that planted this church over eighteen month period of time. And, and these guys have come in. They're they're alluring. They're seducing, they're trying to beguile, the church of Corinth into heresy, and into just all other sorts of dangerous kind of a things. And any of you that have daughters or sons nowadays, sons too, the girls can be pretty aggressive. You know, it's it can it can take years to, get them back around once they're seduced, once they go that that direction. And, the devil, you know, he doesn't play fair. And it can happen in churches. It can happen in youth groups. It can happen in places where you're disarmed and you think your kids are safe and and they're not. And you've prayed. You've dedicated them under the Lord. You've done everything you can on your part to make sure that you've modeled the Christian life, and and that they would want that which they're seeing lived out in your home and all. And, all it takes is, I don't know what it takes. I've never been able to understand it, but I know it's real. And it's very, very heartbreaking to watch, someone so beautiful and so much potential, just be taken down and and basically ruined, cheapened, denigrated, torn apart. It's just it's just so difficult. And Paul, he doesn't wanna see that happen to these folks. He wants to see them enter into all that God has for me. As I said, he knows their potential. And, he knows that they're being seduced by these ungodly men. And he's trying to, grab hold of them as quickly as he can. And he's trying to show them something far more superior than these false prophets, and that is Jesus. He's wanting to use the metaphor of a marriage to try and get a hold of them and get them to understand that the Lord loves them like nobody else. Like like, he loves them with with everything. He went to the cross and died for them. And so don't don't, settle for something less than God's best for your life. You know, he's your husband. He's your maker. He's the he you know, and my husband, my maker. And so why would they scorn the love of their husband, their maker for the affections of another? Could it be they have lost sight of their husband's love? My husband, my maker, his love is number one, passionate. Verse one. Would to God you would bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear with me, for I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy. So God has a burning, zealous, passionate love for his bride. He has a burning, zealous, passionate love for you. He's a jealous God. He doesn't wanna share you with anybody else. You are and were made for his purpose, that he would love you for all eternity. He doesn't want you to succumb to idolatry. Loving something, you know, putting that master passion of your life towards something or someone other than him. That's the very definition of idolatry. In the Song of Solomon eight verse six, it says, set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire, which has a most vehement flame. And then in verse seven of Song of Solomon, verse eight, many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned. So God's love for you and I is passionate, hot, on fire. His dowry for you and I that he paid for you and I is the precious blood of his dear son. You're not cheap. You're very expensive. You're very valuable unto God. The precious blood of his only begotten son. He sealed you with his holy spirit. You have the engagement ring. You're marked out. You belong to him. You don't belong to the devil. You don't belong to the state. You don't belong to any pretender. There's only one God in the true and living God. The one who was crucified, buried, raised from the dead, and descended at his right hand as father. He's coming again for you. And his love is not waning. His love is not becoming cold or lukewarm. His love is passionate, on fire, intense, an intense love for you. He's doing it all for you, for his bride. This is what this is why he's gone through all this. It's for you. Is your love for your husband, your maker, passionate? Are you on fire for Jesus? Have you, like the church of Ephesus, have you left your first love? You can do a lot of things well, but like in a marriage, is is your love cold now? Or like the church of Laodicea, is your love lukewarm? Neither hot nor cold, just kinda going through the motions. Are you being seduced? Are you being drawn away? Who has the affection of your heart? Who who has stolen your passion for Jesus? How are you seduced? How are you beguiled? How did it happen? What's the way back? Repentance. Repent and do your first works. Come back to Jesus. Come back to him. Don't be don't be in that place where you realize one day, I played the fool. I gave up the treasure of a relationship with Jesus. I turned toward a woman. I turned toward a man who in comparison are like a crust of bread. In comparison to the bread of life, Jesus, who gives it all, who gave it all, who continues to give it all. In Jeremiah 31 verse 14, God says or excuse me, three fourteen, turn, oh, backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I'm married unto you. The nation of Israel turned their back upon God. They're the wife of Jehovah, the nation of Israel. And we're no replacement theology people. His promises of them are yay and amen. He's gonna fulfill all of his promises. He's gonna implement, in Jeremiah 31, an unconditional covenant, a covenant that he fulfills. He's gonna turn their hearts back toward home, back toward him. But this backsliding Israel, because they've began to embrace the idolatrous gods, the liturgy gods of the nations around them, his heart is broken. His heart is breaking because they've they've denied him that passion. We are to love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. Not half heartedly, with everything we've got. Have we been seduced? Are we loves lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God? One of the things that my radar is going up right now is I want you and I to prepare our hearts for an enticement, a seduction, where you're gonna be told you're being told that you're gonna get rich. An enticement of greed. The love of money being dangled. Be very, very careful because that's a very powerful, powerful seduction in our culture. Among evangelicals, among pagans, among cult people, that love of money, that love of pleasure, that's a powerful, powerful seduction That you would trade, that we would trade our love and relationship with Jesus in a life of compromise, believing false prophets that are telling us if we comply, if we give in, boy, it's the golden age ahead. Be very, very careful. Stand strong for Jesus. No compromise. I have to commend you because I've been letting you know that there's many, many pastors and churches and and people that were watching who are who are succumbing to the consequences of compromising by taking the jab, shutting the churches down, receiving the money. Pastors are being hauled away in gurneys. They're having myocarditis and heart problems. Their wives are having trouble. People with the turbo cancers are are dying all over the place. Enormous amount of people because people couldn't trust Jesus to get them through the propaganda, the lies of COVID, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's all coming out now, and you're on the winning side. Even the few of you that did take the jab, you didn't get sick. God God covered you. I know a man and a woman who are about 90 years old. They've taken every jab and every booster there is, and they're fine. I don't know how that works. But I know a lot of athletes or hear of a lot of the athletes, read of people who, in their love for their job because it comes down to who you love. You'll lose your job if you don't do this. Their love for their family, anybody that doesn't love Jesus more than father, mother, son, or daughter isn't worthy of me. So they're gonna hold the levers. They're gonna hold things over you to try manipulate you. You're gonna move away from living a life of faith and trust in Jesus. And you're gonna try and figure it out on your own. You're gonna succumb because of fear or convenience to the lies that are up ahead. It really comes down to love. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him? Not gonna I'm not gonna quit worshiping the Lord at church. I'm not gonna shut the church down. That's absurd. But you're gonna be faced with these things again. And it comes down to it really comes down to love. Do we wanna denigrate Jesus in that way? Do we wanna dishonor him in that way? Filled with fear, unbelief? If we love the Lord, wouldn't we be willing to die for that testimony? To die for the truth? As so many who have gone before us. But if we don't love him, if we're lukewarm, then it's every man for himself. Iniquity is gonna abound. The love of many is gonna grow cold. When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? As an apostate rebellious church against God becomes increasingly more and more lukewarm, the church of Laodicea. They've kicked Jesus out. They've put him outside the church. He's knocking on the door in Revelation three verse 20. He's outside the church. And the church says, hey. I'm rich and increased with goods and need of nothing. I don't need Jesus. I've got it all. I got everything I signed up for. My best life now. Well, remember Lot's wife. She turned. She turned towards Sodom. She turned into a pillar of salt. And Jesus is the one that said in Luke seventeen thirty two, remember Lot's wife. What's that mean? The in the parable of the seed and the sower, one of the types of soil is the weedy soil where the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. Deceitfulness of riches. Riches are not the problem. It's the love of the riches. It's the love of the pleasure when it becomes more important to us than our relationship with God. And when we're tested, we have to choose Jesus over our own pleasure and our own riches. That's the test. Convenience is the operative word in our culture. Well, it's inconvenient. Well, was it convenient going to the cross for you? Remember Lot's wife. Jesus said, whosoever will seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. So give your whole heart to Jesus, not half hearted. No man putting his hand to the plow looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. We're running the race. We're pressing toward the mark. We're not gonna quit now. We're not gonna wimp out now. We've come through some really good trials, some really good testing. There's more up ahead. But the Lord is so pleased when we trust him because we love him first and foremost and he loves us. Without love, we're nothing. For thy maker is thy husband. In Isaiah 54 verse five, the Lord of hosts is his name. Thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. The God of the whole earth is his name. Shall he be called your husband, your maker. Your husband's the creator of the universe. Your husband is your redeemer, the one that purchased you with his own blood. My husband, my maker, his love is passionate. Secondly, his love is predestined. For I have espoused you to one husband. A pre arranged marriage where the father gets together with another father, and, the son meets with the father of the of the bride and pays a dowry. It's a pre arranged marriage as Mary and Joseph were espoused. They were engaged, to be married. And, this espousal is the Greek word harmazo. It means to betrotrol, to woo a virgin, means to join, to fit to be joined only to Christ. So this marriage is prearranged. It's a predestined marriage. You belong to Jesus Christ. Before the foundation of the earth, you were selected. You were chosen. You were espoused. You were betrothed. You were engaged. Before the foundation of the earth, the ransom price, the dowry was paid. Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. It's no accident that you're a Christian. It's no accident that you're the bride of Christ, the nation of Israel, the wife of Jehovah. Again, God using the metaphor of marriage to depict, to describe the oneness, the two coming together becoming one. The intimacy of marriage. And you're predestined, to this. He says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee, in Jeremiah 31 verse three. In first John four nineteen, we love him because he first loved us. His love is irresistible. His love wooed us. His love has drawn us. His love is is that which keeps us too. In second Thessalonians two verse 13, God has from the beginning chosen you. He's predestined espousal to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father chose you. The Father predestinated you to become his son's bride. Isn't it great to belong? Isn't it great to be the bride of Christ, to be in Christ? How many people missed out on the ark? Hundred and twenty years, Noah's a preacher of righteousness. Eight people got in the boat. The animals got in the boat. How many people missed out getting into the boat? And God has selected you to be in the boat, to be in Christ, to be in this relationship. Christianity is a relationship, a love relationship, drawn by his love, kept by his love. Don't let the fire go out. Don't let the passion turn to lukewarmness or indifference toward the things of the Lord. If you recognize, hey, God God, this isn't an accident. Do you do you know how many people in their marriage say they've fallen out of love? We got married too young. They say ludicrous stuff like, you know, well, well, we we just don't have the passion anymore. We don't we don't love each other anymore. And, you know, I I don't know if it was even the right decision to marry this person or whatever, you know. How many people talk to themselves that way? Talk themselves out of, you know, God's plan and purpose for their lives and their marriages. You know, it's it's just silly to go that way. I don't I don't understand that. I I look at Kathy and I think, you know, it's amazing that God predestined her to be my to be my bride. It's it's God's idea. He's the one that put us together. He he's the one that this is his idea. The two coming together and becoming one. And more importantly than that, that Cathy and I would become Christians. That we'd be married to Jesus. That's an amazing truth. The little g god of this world would love for me to deny Jesus that place within my heart, to seduce me and draw me away and give me a baloney sandwich when Jesus is like filet mignon. You know? He's the best it gets. It doesn't get any better than that. You know? I think someone once asked Ruth Graham if she ever thought of divorcing Billy. You know? And I I think she said something along the lines of, you know, no, but I've thought of murder. No man can come on to me, Jesus said, except the father which has sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise him up in the last day in John six forty four. Not even death can separate you from Jesus, your husband, your maker, your redeemer. Not even death. His love's an everlasting love. If you and I were to die right here today to leave this body, we ask them the bodies to be present with the Lord, to be in paradise, to see your Jesus, your husband, your maker, your redeemer, to see him face to face. To know even as you are known. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. In second Timothy one verse nine, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You have been chosen to be the bride of King Jesus forever. It doesn't get any better than that. For thy Maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. The God of the whole earth, shall he be called? My husband, my maker? His love is passionate. His love is predestined. And thirdly, his love is perfected. For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, that passion. I've espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Paul wants that work of the Holy Spirit to be finished. He doesn't want the bride to fall, to to be sullied, to be to be, you know, in a backslidden way. He wants to make sure that on that wedding day that she has been faithful, that she hasn't been seduced by these pretenders. That she's able to be there at that wedding ceremony in that clean white wedding garment, speaking of purity. I've espoused you to one as a chaste virgin that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. So Paul expresses the desire of every father as your little girl is born. I think of Jessica. I think of Britney. And, you know, you're just blown away as a new father. Really? You're like 21, 20 two years old in our case. And, we got married. Kathy got pregnant the second month we were married. And, you know, Jessica come along nine months later and next thing you know, as she's getting a little still a babe, we contact the church and we ask pastor Chuck to dedicate her. We wanna dedicate this little girl back to the Lord. The Lord gives these children to us on loan. They're entrusted unto us. And so the fruit of the womb is his reward, and we have the privilege and the blessing of raising up his kids, raising up these children. And nobody should ever try to do it on their own. It's too big a job. So we recognize as as Hannah did and as she dedicated little Samuel, she couldn't get pregnant. And then she went in and she prayed and and, she was being tormented because Elkanah, her husband, had another wife. And that other wife was prolific in having children. And Elkanah said to her, aren't I better to you than 10 sons? She says, no. No way. No way. Not even close. So she went into the sanctuary and she began to to weep and to pray and to cry out to God. And God, in many cases, will deny us that which we're craving, which we're wanting so badly because God has a greater plan and purpose for us. And so God took Hannah and she cried out to the Lord and Eli the priest came in and said, You shouldn't be in here if you're drunk or whatever. And I'm not drunk. She was praying. Just her lips were moving. And she wasn't as as he supposed. But she was crying out to God that if you give me a child, I'll dedicate him to you. I'll give him back to you. And that's what God wants each of us as parents to do, is to recognize that these children are on loan and we dedicate them back under the Lord. Lord, we ask for your help in the raising them and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And so little Jessica was held in pastor Chuck's arms, and he made a few comments and people laughed and all that. And and I remember the red gown she was wearing and everything and her little lips that looked like rosebuds and and all that. And you're thinking, oh, what innocence. What incredible innocence this this little babe. You know? And pastor Chuck prays over this little girl. And later, we dedicated Britney also. And and, we're we as parents, we we are overwhelmed with the responsibility. Young couple. What do we know about raising kids? My mom's married seven times. Kathy's mom and dad, they divorced after twenty five years. Kathy's had a great mom. I love my mom. She's, she did the best she could, a survivor and all. But we have to, in all humility, recognize that we're brand new Christians, brand new parents, and this is a huge responsibility. So we asked the Lord to help us. We dedicated our little girls under the Lord and we knew that that there was a day of day coming if it was God's will. It's not God's will in every child's life, but a day where they would get married. And that we would hand them off to a husband that God knew before the foundation of the earth. That God was preparing somewhere. And that they too would become one. And and, and so we're praying for their purity. We're praying that they grow on the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We're praying just as Paul is, I wanna present you as a chaste virgin under Christ. And we want our daughters to enter into all that Jesus has for him. We know that being married once and only once to that person that God has chosen is is a far greater advantage than going through person after person after person, trying to fill that void, that emptiness in your life through lust. So he knew she was just entrusted to him for a time. Ultimately, he would be given her away to another. The father humbly asked God for help in raising this child to adulthood. We as fathers, we fear that an imposter would come along to seduce her. But the day has come, the bride has made herself ready. The groom has come to her house in the middle of the night at an hour that she knew not. Her maidens were there with her for there were five wise and five foolish. The five wise had oil, the Holy Spirit in their life. We pray that our children are filled from the womb like John the Baptist with the Holy Spirit. That they'd be being filled with the Holy Spirit their whole life long. The five foolish weren't ready for the coming of the of the groom. In the fetching, in the rapture of the church, the rapture of his bride, Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. In my father's house are many mansions, he said. Dwelling places. I'm building a room off of my dad's house, and I'm gonna come fetch you in the in the in the night, and you're not gonna know I'm gonna come as a thief in the night, and you're not gonna know just when, but you be you be ready. You be ready. And we in the church, our love hasn't waned. Our love is still passionate. Our love is still fervent. We're still wanting to serve the Lord. We're occupying till he comes. We're about our Father's business. We're looking for Jesus. We know he's the only answer. He's the only one that makes sense in this world, in this place and time that we're living. And we know that his coming is at the very door. And then we're taken, we're enraptured, we're caught up to heaven for the marriage ceremony. And John the Baptist, the friend of the bridegroom, and others are there. And they're witnessing and bearing witness of Jesus being joined with His bride, the church. And then we're gonna come back with them in His second coming, down to earth for the marriage supper of the Lamb. And we're gonna live and dwell for a thousand years with him. We're gonna serve as kings and priests, and his wife has made herself ready. She's got the engagement ring on. Her lamps are full of oil. She's sealed. She's marked. She's espoused to him. She's raptured to the groom's house, the father's house in heaven. Standing before the father in the presence of all these holy angels and and various best men and things like that. The stain of sin is gone. The stench of her harlotries are washed in the blood of the lamb. She radiates his love. Her husband, her maker is her redeemer. He has perfected his love. God's gonna perfect his love in you. You're gonna know even as you are known. All marriages go through different seasons. We, when we're first married, we're just so enraptured with love. We can get by on love. We don't need rent money. You know, we could sleep in the car, whatever. You know? It'll it's gonna work out. We're walking by faith. And then we we have a baby or two or three and bills and and lost a job or maybe a miscarriage here and there. And, man, our heart is breaking. It's just not as easy as we thought, but that love of Jesus holds us together. We know he loves us. We know that all things are working together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And our love for one another continues to grow and deepen. It may not be as Valentine's every day, but, man, we're we're still in love, deeply in love. We don't wanna let that love go out. We don't wanna let it dissipate. We don't wanna fall out of love. We want that love to be perfected. We wanna reach the finish line. We want to, you know, not go through divorce and not go through adulterous affairs and and things that the children of Israel did to God in their idolatry. We as the bride of Christ wanna be a faithful, as a chaste virgin, you know, espoused, engaged, connected, joined together with only Jesus. In Ephesians five twenty seven, he has presented his bride to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. She is holy and without blemish. She's enraptured in His love. The bride of Christ, a chaste virgin under Christ. I heard as it were the voice in Revelation nineteen six, of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. He's all powerful. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him. For the marriage of the lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. Are you ready? Are you joined to Jesus? Do you cherish his love? Do you love him? What do you think God wants from you? If you were to do a poll in going to church, well, what's the church want? What what what's God want? He just wants your love. He just wants you. Not your money, not even your service. He just wants you. He wants your heart. He wants your love. He initiates. He woos. And he just wants us to respond in love. That we love him with all of our hearts, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength, not half hearted. His wife has made herself ready. How how do you make yourself ready to be being filled with the Holy Spirit? To say no to the things of the world, the seduction of the world. The false gods that are trying to captivate you, to steal your heart away from the Lord. Some of you guys, some of you gals are on the Internet. You're watching television, reading, whatever it may be. Different means of ideas come into your heart and mind. Game platforms, wherever. At school, maybe even in church. And the devil sent people along the devil with the blue dress on, and and she's trying to seduce you, lure you. And you're feeling like your wife or your husband's not showing you much attention anymore. The love is not as passionate, not as hot, not as fervent, just kinda going through the motions. A turkey sandwich is better than a hug, you know, nowadays. Right? Make me a sandwich. I don't wanna be there, man. I I told Kathy I told Kathy last week. I said, you know, honey, I really think that we should have a son. And she says, you're crazy. Do you know do you know how old we are? I said, no. I have no knowledge of how old we are. She says, there's there's no way. And I honey, we I want a little Isaac. I gotta have an Isaac. I gotta have my son. And she's like, Rick, I don't even think that's possible. And I said, well, what about Abraham and Sarah? What about Abraham and Sarah? It was you know, it was it wasn't possible, but God made it possible. She's like, Rick, who would raise him? We're almost dead. You know? I'm like, honey, I really think we should try. It'd be fun to try, wouldn't it? Let's try. Let's be passionate. I want a little Isaac, but I've got all those grandkids. Right? Yeah. There you go. But my wife, she's still a hottie. She's still hot. She's still the love of my life. I chase her all over the motor home. She doesn't have very far to go. Back her in a corner. Don't ever let the love go out, dry up. Husbands, take knowledge of your wives. How did God make her? What makes her tick? What are the things she enjoys? Don't ever let that passion dissipate. Don't ever try to dominate and rule over her and quench her and break her spirit. Why would you want that? Why would you wanna break her spirit? Crazy. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he sayeth unto me, right, blessed are they which are called into the marriage supper of the lamb. Oh, how happy to those who are called to the marriage supper of the lamb. Are you are you watching? Are you looking for that rapture, the the fetching, the Lord to take you up to heaven for that marriage ceremony, the Bema Seat judgment where he lavishes gifts upon you, gives you a clean wedding garment and all, and he wants to show you off. He wants to show you off to all the angels and all the people that are gonna be there after seven years at the marriage supper down upon earth, the home of the bride. And Jesus, in Luke 12, he lifts up his outer garment and he pulls it tight with a belt and he begins to serve you. He begins to serve you at the marriage supper of the lamb doting over you. Maybe singing over you according to Zephaniah three, dancing, singing over you, joyous marriage ceremony, marriage, you know, reception with everybody there. The devil's defeated. The demons are defeated. Jesus is one. He's overthrown all the kingdoms of the world who are gathered at Armageddon to stop him from returning. And he returns with 10 thousands and thousands of his saints, his bride coming with him in the clouds. And every eye is gonna see him, and he destroys the Antichrist and the false prophet with the brightness of his coming, the sword of his mouth. They grab hold of the devil, the serpent, Lucifer. The an angel grabs hold of him and puts him into the abyss for a thousand years. And King Jesus has the wife of Jehovah on one side and the bride of Christ on the other. And the Gentiles repopulating the planet for a one thousand years. And you're the object of His love. He's loved you. He continues to love you with an everlasting love. If you've ever doubted his love, if you ever dare doubt his love, remember the cross. I have loved you with an everlasting love from eternity past to eternity future. His love is never gonna wane. His love is never gonna dissipate. His love is never going to stop. God is calling you today. The call continues to go out. I've loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Revelation twenty two seventeen, the spirit and the bride say come. The spirit and the bride. The the the church is letting people know, come. Come to Jesus. The Holy Spirit saying, come to Jesus. Let him that hear us say, come to him that is athirst. Are you athirst? Are you trying to fill your heart with the things of the world? God made you and I with a God shaped hole in our heart. A God shaped hole that only he can fill. There's a void. There's an emptiness. There's nothing this world can do to fill that void, that emptiness. The devil's gonna try and trick you, try to seduce you, try to draw you away from Jesus. He's the only one that can make you whole, that can fill that place in your heart. He designed for himself to be that one living and dwelling within you. The passion of your life. Take the water of life freely. Whosoever will, let him come to his husband, to his maker. For thy maker is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. The God of the whole earth shall he be called. Not the devil, not the new world order, not the false prophets, not all the pretenders. The true and living God who prove that he's your God by saying, destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. There's no sign gonna be given you. But the sign of the prophet Jonah's, Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. He told the thief on the cross this day, you'll be with me in paradise. Jesus emptied hell out. He emptied it out of the Abraham's bosom. And the wicked dead remain in a holding compartment, not for a glorious great day like you and I, but for the great white throne judgment. Where for all eternity, they're gonna feel the emptiness of not being united, being one with God, being married to Jesus. They're estranged. They don't belong. They're not there by their own choice. They've rejected their husband. They've rejected their maker. Though your sins be a scarlet, they'll be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they'll be as wool. Let him perfect his love in you. Those of you that have been running this race, as I said, Kathy's mom and dad, they divorced after twenty five years. How could you you're almost there. You're almost to the finish line. What what are you doing? My mom, she didn't last very long. Seven different marriages. She didn't get it. So there was this void in my life where I was desiring intimacy. I was desiring purpose. I was desiring a family, a relationship, a meaningful relationship. And I didn't know how to do it. But I moved in with a friend of mine for my senior year, my buddy, Andy. And, I spent my senior year there. And so I got to observe close-up a a family operating, a husband and wife, and the kids and all. And there wasn't all that screaming like there was at my house. It wasn't all that chaos. There was a lot of laughter and love and and they didn't know Jesus, but man, they knew how to love. They had a love that that the world the world can do it to a certain degree. But they don't have the tools that we have. They don't have the fruit of the spirit, which is love. But it captivated me. It had a an evangelistic persuasion in my heart and life. And and my teacher, mister Womer, he made us made us write a paper of what do you wanna be when you're older? What do you wanna do when you're older? What kind of career? And I wrote in there, I wanna be married once and only once. Now that may sound pious. It may sound conceded or whatever, but, you know, that's what I wanted. I didn't want to go through the horror that I saw my mom go through. And I know some of you on your second or third marriage, just get it right now. I don't wanna I I don't want the second or third one to be the one that works. I want the first one because we are Christians. Many of you weren't Christians in your first marriage. You weren't walking with the Lord. As you're walking with the Lord now, you have the tools. You have everything you need to live the life that God's ordained for you. And marriage, the family, is one of the greatest persuasions, the greatest evangelistic persuasion or influence of people around you because people are empty. They're empty and they're trying to fill the void and the emptiness of so many things. And many people who are married are not intimate at home. They're not one. They're not close. She's not his best friend anymore. And they're on the Internet, and they're chatting with other women and other men and other people and things. They're being seduced. They're being drawn away. And Jesus doesn't want that to happen to you. He doesn't want you as a Christian who's married to him to fumble the ball and ruin the metaphor, ruin the picture. Your marriage typifies in evangelistic way what God desires for each and every person, and that is to enjoy the intimacy of oneness. The two becoming one. And when you live out as a family, when you live out that marriage, and the bumps and the bruises and all of it, and your love is so strong, there's such a strong bond of love. That's what God's trying to communicate to folks is that my love for you is forever. It's an everlasting love and with loving kindness have I drawn you. I've wooed you to myself. You're in the right place. You don't need to be confused and thinking, well, did I marry the wrong guy? Did I marry you know, that's the devil lying to you, trying to seduce you, trying to carry you away. And my job as a pastor, I'm trying to get you to the finish line. I'm I'm heartbroken when I hear of marriages falling apart. I know the destruction that's there for the children. I'm heartbroken when I hear you succumbing to heresy, to false doctrine, false teaching. I know potentially what can happen to your walk in relationship with the Lord. It breaks my heart. So we try our best to strengthen you, build you up, help you in your marriage, help you in your family. Calvary Bremerton may not have all the entertainment things and all. But I would liken it to a church that simply wants you to be strong spiritually. I want you to be the strongest spiritual people around here, have the strongest marriages, the strongest relationships with Jesus based upon love, based upon an intimacy of getting to know him through the study of his word, operating living in the power of the holy spirit. No smoke, no mirrors, no self help stuff. Death to self every day. Christ resurrect resurrecting us. Christ living through us in that love relationship with him. As Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. He knows the way that I take him. When he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold. I go and I visit my dad and he's married to my mom for twelve years. And then he tried they tried everything they could. Gave me a great a great childhood from four to 16. And to this day, if you talk to him, he says, if I'd have known Jesus, it would have made all the difference in the world. He didn't know Jesus. They did the best they could. If you don't know Jesus, his love for you is an everlasting love. And with loving kindness, he's drawing you right now. You can't do it alone. You need Jesus to help you. You need Jesus to fill that void and that emptiness in your heart and life. If you're playing games, if you're being seduced, only you know in the quietness of your heart right now, repent. Think about the consequences if you follow through with what you're thinking of doing. Think up ahead. What what are the ramifications of you cheating on your husband or your wife and going off with another? Are you being seduced? You being drawn away? Are you being lied to? Are you lying to yourself? What happens to your kids? What happens to the grandkids? What happens to your relationship with everyone you know? How do you come back from that? Do you want to try and come back from that? Wouldn't it be better to look at it as there's a problem vertically? It's not horizontal. It's not between me and my wife. It's my relationship with God. There's something wrong. I've left my first love. I've been playing games with Jesus. I'm lukewarm. So seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things be added unto you. Seek the vertical first. You get right with God. Don't worry about your spouse. You get right. And then he'll work on her. He'll work on him. But you gotta get right. It's a vertical problem. For thy maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. Let him perfect his love in you. Let him take away the sin. He's your husband. He's your maker. He's your Redeemer. He made you, He chose you. He redeemed you. Purchasing you with his precious blood upon the cross of Calvary. All others are impostors. Give yourself to only him. Love him with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. When I think of Kathy, man, I'll tell you what a faithful woman. What a gift from God. What an incredible, incredible love that she's loved me with. A love that emanates from Jesus. Kathy and I couldn't do it without Jesus. But Jesus has put a love in her heart that no matter how big of a jerk I am, no matter how crazy, how weird, wherever I've taken her, whatever I've done, she still loves me. My grandkids, couple of them came up to me and said, you know, papa, if I ever win the lottery, I'm gonna buy grandma a house. And I'm gonna put it in her name because you lost grandma's blue house. The girl still loves me. She loves me with her. People dissolve relationships. They dissolve marriages for much, much less than I've done to Kathy. But it's God's idea. We're in God's will. We walk by faith, not by sight. And he's gonna complete that work that he's begun. And no matter what happens, no matter what we've gone through, the marriage is alive. The marriage is based upon God's love. He's the author and the finisher of our faith. And he's gonna get us to the finish line. And we're gonna see Jesus. And Kathy and I are gonna be brothers and sisters, I guess. I asked her if she'd marry me in the millennium, if she'd let Jesus do the ceremony there in Zion. She said, dude, our contracts tell death do us part. That's it. I tried. Now I'm trying to have a son. And you know what? I think she believes me. I've been telling my grandkids we're gonna have a son. We're gonna have little Isaac. And they're like, really, papa? Really? And I'm like, yeah. Go home and tell your mom that. And, Britney was at the ball field and and I said, yeah. We're we're gonna have little Isaac. And Britney turns around and looks at me. Dad, don't do that to me. Because she's gotta explain to all the kids. You know? So it's a lot of fun being a grandpa. Alright. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your love, Lord. In this world that's so filled with hate, so filled with a false love, a false so much falsehood. Lord, we thank you that we can learn from the church of Corinth. We can picture the marriage. We can picture the Apostle Paul like a father. We can see the metaphor, the symbolism, and we see Christ as as in actuality, literally the the groom and we the bride of Christ. We see the nation of Israel, the promises given to her as the wife of Jehovah. And Lord, we know you play for keeps. That Lord, you are gonna bring us to that celebration of the marriage supper of the lamb. And we're gonna be rejoicing and rejoicing and rejoicing in your love, Lord. Your everlasting love. Lord, never let us fall short. Never let us settle for anything less than than your love, Lord. Help us to seek you with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength, Lord, as we as we love you. Lord, let us put off the distractions, the phones, the internets, all the social stuff, the electronics, all these things Lord that compete for that place within our heart. Let us spend time seated at your feet worshiping you, Lord. Reading your love letter that you've written unto us, the bible. 66 books telling us how very much you love us, lord. Cause us to enter into all that you have for us, lord. We don't wanna be lukewarm. We don't wanna be guilty of leaving our first love. We don't wanna fall out of love, lord. We wanna be passionate. We wanna be on fire as we see that day approaching. You soon return. If there's anybody here this morning, you don't have a relationship with Jesus. You don't know what it is to love. You don't have that fruit of the spirit that we have, those of us that are in this relationship with Jesus. He promises to come into your heart and life as you receive him. He promises to transform you from body and soul to body, soul, and spirit. He's going to give you the capacity to love even enemies. He's going to give you the capacity to love like you've never been able to love before. And he's going to be the love of your life for all eternity. Anyone here this morning? You're dry. You're thirsty. You're craving something. That something that is a someone. That someone is Jesus. That's who you're craving. He's wooing you. He's drawing you by his spirit even now. Anyone here, you wanna receive Christ, you're turning from your sins. You're crying out to God. God, be merciful to me a sinner. He hears the cry of that heart. He hears the cry of your heart. You're undone. The world just doesn't satisfy. Maybe you're going through a divorce and you're here this morning asking the Lord, how how how can I get it fixed? How can we make this right? And the Lord's saying, focus on me. Don't worry about the marriage. You focus on me. You purpose in your heart that I'm your first love. Love me more than you love your spouse, and I'll do the rest. You gotta love Jesus with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. Is that the cry of your heart? Just lift your hand up as you receive Christ this morning. Anyone here this morning? Anyone here on Facebook that's listening at home, listening by tape? It's real simple. You cry out to God. You say, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Turn from your sins. Pray and receive Christ into your heart. In John one, as many as received him, to them gave he the power to becomes the sons of God, even to them to believe on his name. What's it mean to believe? You're depositing all your trust upon him, not yourself, upon him that has finished work upon the cross of Calvary, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his soon return. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You're calling upon him. He's your husband. He's your maker. He's the God of the whole earth. He's your redeemer. And he chose you before the foundation of the earth. Come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.