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Before we get these two married,
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they asked me to say a word to you first.
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So what I would like to do is
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first, read to you from the Word of God.
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Now I have to caution you,
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I have done some weddings just recently
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where just simply reading this verse that
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I'm going to read to you,
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from God's Word,
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caused people to be angry.
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You say, oh, what does it have to do with
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that it makes people angry?
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It has to do with a woman's reponsibility to her husband
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and the husband's responsibility to his wife.
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That's all it is.
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It's a text from the Bible that is very suitable for
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just such an occasion as this.
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What could it possibly say
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that would cause people to get so riled up
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and so offended and so bent out of shape at weddings.
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What could we read from the Word of God?
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I'm going to read from Ephesians 5:22 and following.
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And I caution you already,
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this is God's Word.
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What I tell you is on the authority of God Almighty Himself.
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I'm not making this up.
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I want you to know that.
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"Wives, submit to your own husbands,
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as to the Lord.
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For the husband is the head of the wife,
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even as Christ is the head of the church,
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His body, and is Himself its Savior.
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Now, as the church submits to Christ,
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so also wives should submit in everything
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to their husbands.
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Husbands, love your wives
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as Christ loved the church
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and gave Himself up for her
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that He might sanctify her,
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having cleansed her by the washing of water
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with the Word.
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So that He might present the church to Himself
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in splendor, without spot or wrinkle
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or any such thing that she might be holy
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and without blemish."
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Now yes, women, if you're married,
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by the authority of God, you are called
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to submit to your husband.
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You are called to submit to your husband even
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as the church has been called to submit to Christ Himself.
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Now let's look on the other side of this thing.
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Husbands are to love as Christ loved the church.
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In other words, if we're looking for a pattern
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on how to treat our wives,
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how to live with our wives,
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how to dwell with our wives,
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how to love our wives,
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what God wants us to know is
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Christ Himself is the pattern.
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He is the standard.
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His love for a spouse is the mark.
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There's no greater expression of love
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than the way Christ loves His bride, the church.
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Now men, we should stand in awe of that.
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Here's the standard.
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Now let me tell you this,
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the apostle tells us in one place
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that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge.
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Ok, I have some knowledge. You have some knowledge.
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But the apostle says that the love that Christ has
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for His church, it surpasses knowledge.
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So, if I were going to try to explain that love to you
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in perfection today, the apostle is telling me I can't do it.
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Because it goes beyond my knowledge.
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So what I'm about to try to do
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is literally impossible.
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In the fullness of it, it's impossible.
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For me to try to describe to you what that love is
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that Christ has for His church,
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that love that is now a pattern
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for this man as he marries this woman
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and for every other man here that's married.
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To try to describe that is simply,
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by the testimony of the Word of God itself,
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is an impossibility.
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But I just want to try to give you a glimpse.
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By way of trying to help you realize something
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about the love that Christ has for His church.
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Now church isn't a building.
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Some people look at this and they say,
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"Well, this is the church."
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That's not the church.
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The church is God's people.
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The church are those that He purchased with his blood,
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that He gave Himself up for.
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And here, I want to try to describe this love to you
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just a little bit.
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Let me give you an example.
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Let's suppose all of a sudden,
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all of us see at this wedding...
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We look over here, and the wedding's over,
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we all come over to where the reception's
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going to be held.
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And suddenly we see a man standing over there.
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He is the most handsome man that you have
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ever laid eyes on in your life.
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Now, here, I'm trying to describe to you Christ's love.
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The first thing I want to tell you about it is it's unselfish.
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Let me tell you something about this.
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Let's suppose we see a man over here in the reception,
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I mean this guy is handsome.
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To you ladies, he's this drop dead gorgeous guy.
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We see him over there.
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I mean, you have never seen a guy
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that looks this handsome. Ever.
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He may the most handsome guy on the
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face of the earth.
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And you see him and you begin to talk to him,
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and he tells you that he's here with his fiance.
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But he's not with her right now.
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Where is she? Maybe she's inside, she's doing something.
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The ladies' room? You don't see her.
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And what are you imagining?
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You're imagining, no doubt, a beautiful woman
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is going to walk out of this place,
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a woman whose beauty is going to be
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comparable to his.
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But all of a sudden, what happens?
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This bent, broken, diseased, ugly woman
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with sores all over her, I mean just hideous.
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She comes out and his face lights up
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and he looks at her and you can see it in his eyes.
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He loves her.
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And you look and you can barely hold down your food
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she is so grotesque and disgusting to even lay your eyes on.
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Folks, I am trying to come somewhat close
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to the love that Christ has for His church.
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Listen, His love is unselfish.
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In other words, He does not take a bride
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for anything that He sees in her.
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Folks, I am describing to you what a sinner looks like.
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The fact is that those Christ sets His love on
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are diseased inside.
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There is filth, and there is sin,
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and there is decay, and there is death.
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Christ, when He sets His love on His church,
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He doesn't set His love there for what He can get.
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And let me tell you, that is a love that is not like our love.
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Because even the most righteous man
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sets his love on a woman and marries a woman
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for something that he sees in her.
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But with Christ,
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He has an unselfish love.
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Christ has chosen to come to this earth
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and to save sinners.
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That is His church.
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Saved sinners.
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What love is this?
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It is a love that doesn't have an equal.
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It is love that surpasses knowledge.
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Look, He does not set His love on people
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because of beauty He sees in them.
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In setting His love upon people,
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He has determined by that love
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to make them beautiful.
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To make what is ugly beautiful.
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Is that not what we read?
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He takes an ugly bride.
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I'm not saying that about Priscilla.
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What I am saying, is that's what's true of the love of Christ.
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What I'm saying is, it's easier - far, far, far easier,
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for Andre to love Priscilla,
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than for Christ to love me.
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And what He saw in me, when He saved me.
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And when Christ takes an ugly bride, like me,
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it's in order to beautify that bride.
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Because He says it's in order to cleanse her
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by the washing of water with the Word
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so that He might present the church to Himself
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in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
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that she might be holy and without blemish.
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Christ loves to impart His loveliness to the object of His love.
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Look, to be loved by anybody is a joy, right?
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I mean in this world, in this life,
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one of the most precious things we have
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is to be loved by somebody.
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When you find people who are loved by nobody,
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they're miserable people.
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To be loved by anybody is a precious thing.
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But the fact that infinite God would love sinners,
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that God the Son would choose to lay His affections -
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and look, if I told you that Christ came along and
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pitied wretched sinners, we could say,
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"Well, we understand that."
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But if I told you that He showed mercy to sinners,
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well, that's another thing.
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But when I tell you that Christ Himself came
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to delight in, to actually set His most, His deepest,
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His profoundest affection and love on those who are wretched...
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Folks, if you're here today,
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and you don't know this love
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I feel sorry that you don't know this love.
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Truly sorry.
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If you could but imagine the sweetness of that love.
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And I just want to say one thing in ending here,
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how much did He love her?
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Yes, it was unselfish love, but let me show you
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to what extents he went to love her.
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I don't doubt that Andre hasn't made sacrifices for Priscilla already.
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And God will call him to make many others,
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but what is it that Christ sacrificed?
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If we can say another thing about His love for His church,
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it's sacrificial.
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What did He do?
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He gave Himself up.
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Folks, if you've ever thought of the love
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Christ has for His church as cheap
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or if it's a light thing, you need to consider this:
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When it says He gave Himself...
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it means that in order to purchase His bride,
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He had to walk through
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the most unimaginable horrors.
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The night before Jesus Christ went to the cross,
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He recoiled in horror so much so
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that He sweat great drops of blood.
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He said, "Father, if it's possible, take this cup away from Me.
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If there's any way else to purchase this bride."
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And His Father said there is no other way.
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There is no other way to purchase that bride.
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There is no other way to show the extent
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of the love that I have for My people
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but to endure what You must endure.
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And what did He endure?
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He gave Himself up.
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He gave Himself to the very wrath of God.
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He gave Himself to suffer what sin demanded.
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And He paid it to the fullest.
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He drank that cup of wrath empty.
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Folks, that is love.
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Sacrifice, unselfish.
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Why?
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To purchase that bride and to purify her.
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To make her like Him.
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And to take her where He is.
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He came from glory to get His bride.
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Whom did He come to seek?
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He came to seek and save sinners.
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And to take them to Himself.
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And take them back to glory with Him.
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That is love.
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And there is no other love like it in this world.
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What a standard!
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What a standard!
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We just stand in awe of it.
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We just stand in awe.
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And God gave us human marriage as a little picture
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of that great relationship that He, the King,
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the Great Husband, has for His bride, the church.
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Folks, that is Gospel. That is good news.
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That is glorious!
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That is the best message for sinners
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on the face of this earth.
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And in it we see the picture of marriage.
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Which is where we want these two to be very quickly.