The Perfect Bride

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI and edited by Sjannette Hagoort

Our text is Psalm 45:3-15.

“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.”

One of the highlights for me leading up to someone elses wedding is normally around about an hour or so before the wedding. I have a habit of going to the couple’s houses, wherever they’re getting ready, and I go and pray with them, and I read scripture with them and prepare them for what they’re about to enter into, because it’s such a serious thing. It’s a very precious moment in my mind, especially going to the bride’s house. The groom’s house is normally pretty boring because it takes them 5 minutes to get ready and they’re all just sitting around doing something casual. Apart from having to put ties on people because they don’t know how to tie ties anymore. But going to the bride’s house is always a bit special because it’s quite a sacred place, and there’s no men where the bride’s getting ready. And I walk in and there’s the makeup person and the hair person and the food person, and there’s some mother somewhere losing her mind about something, and there’s people doing stuff and it’s busy everywhere, and, and I walk in and the bride looks at me and goes, “Yes.” And she stands up or she ushers everybody else out, and we find a quiet space and we sit down and we open up God’s Word and we read together and we pray together. It’s a highlight for me.

But what always strikes me is the difference between the man and the woman. The man who gets ready in probably 5 or 10 minutes. The woman who takes the entire morning to get ready because she has to be perfect, right? Her hair has to be done, makeup perfect, garments perfect, everything in perfect sequence of events so that one thing doesn’t mess up with something else. I remember one couple gave me a run sheet, literally this document of everything timed out to 15-minute increments, you know. I was just like, “This is insane.” All in order to come and have a perfect ceremony and a perfect bride, looking beautiful.

It’s a wonderful illustration that helps us understand, because Ephesians 5 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ washes his bride with his Word to present her blameless before his presence. Christ’s work in the church is to perfect her, to wash her, to get her ready for her wedding day. It takes a long time, and there’s a lot of people to include. And what is true for the whole, for the church, is also true for every part. You see, yes, Christ is preparing a whole church for himself, but within that church, he’s preparing individual Christians. And tonight, we’re looking at the final picture of the glorified bride of Christ. And as we look at the glorified bride of Christ, we have the joy of seeing what Christ is busy doing in our midst, in our lives, in our church. And in so doing, Lord willing, we can see what part we have to play, what Christ is trying to do in us.

Our text is conveniently broken up for us into 3 chunks. And so the first thing we see is that Christ gives to his bride or works in his bride inner glory. Inner glory. Inward glory. Have a look at verse 13. The Psalm says, “All glorious is the princess in her chamber.” with robes interwoven with gold.

Now, you might wonder why I said inward glory, inner glory, when this is talking about a princess who’s got beautiful robes on, which is outer, and she’s in a chamber. There’s an interesting translation discussion in this first line here, “All glorious.” If you were to translate it more woodenly, it would be, “All glorious is is the princess within.” There’s no chamber word there. The Hebrew doesn’t tell you what’s meant. The context doesn’t tell you what’s meant. It’s just a translational decision, and the King James just had within, if I remember rightly. And several other translations go one way or the other, and I think it’s actually legitimate to take either position, but for the sake of what we’re doing, I do think within is the best translation, but I want us to take up that it’s this idea of inner glory, not positioned somewhere in glory, location, but rather posession. She possesses glory within.

Why? Well, I’m sure all of us have met beautiful ugly people. Do you know what I mean by beautiful ugly people? They’re people that when you see them you think to yourself, “Wow, that’s a beautiful human being.” Whether it’s a male or a female, that person is just created beautifully. Not all of us have that natural talent, but some people do. But then you spend 10 minutes talking to the person, or you observe them from afar, and you quickly discover what? They’re actually ugly on the inside. Some of the most beautiful people in the world are the ugliest inside. This is not the case with the bride of Christ, for she has an inner glory worked within her.

So what’s meant by this inner glory? I think firstly we understand it to be a reference to the reality of the fact that she has been washed, regenerated, and made new on the inside. Because what’s the problem of the bride of Christ before he begins his work? Well, Ephesians 2 tells us we’re spiritually what? Dead. We’re corrupt. We’re fleshly. Our hearts are bound with sin and lust and all manner of evil. And our hearts do nothing but cry out hatred to God, enmity with our creator, and there’s nothing inside of us that wants to be at peace with Jesus. And so Titus Chapter 3 tells us that while we were sinners, wicked, and evil, He did something. He washed us by the waters of regeneration. He made us alive. He gave us a new heart. He changed us at the very core of our being.

So that if you go to the story of David when he gets anointed, you remember that moment when Samuel turns up and he lines up all the brothers, and he goes through them, and the first brother turns up, and what does Samuel say? “Here’s a king, Eliab. Here’s a king worth having.” Do you remember what the Lord says? The Lord says, “That’s not my king. Don’t look on the outer man, for I look at the heart.” And so it’s as though the Lord has looked at the heart of His bride and His people, and at you and me, and He’s seen corruption and evil and all manner of wickedness. And what does He do? He gives us a new heart, so that we might believe in Jesus, so that we might be joined into the bride of Christ.

This is why Romans 2, when Paul talks about the Jews, he says, “A Jew is not one that’s circumcised outwardly, but a true Jew has a circumcised heart.” Because no outer ritual will join you to the husband, but only a new heart. And that’s a challenge for us today. Have you been born again? Not, are you changing your behavior? Not, are you attending church? Not, are you growing in obedience? But have you been born again? Have you been given a new heart? If you haven’t, cry out to the Lord, because no man, no woman, not even yourself can give you a new heart, only Christ can. But he’s willing to do it. He gives people new hearts. And so cry out to him and say, “Give me a new heart. I want to believe. Help my unbelief,” as the father in the Gospel says. And he will be pleased to do so, because the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked.

But there’s a second aspect of this inner glory. It’s not just the fact that she’s given a new heart, but that rather also she is sanctified on the inside. She’s beautified on the inside. You see, Christianity, true religion is a matter of the heart, isn’t it? So you remember those words that Peter says to wives? “Do not adorn yourself with gold, or fancy hairstyles, or beautiful things on the outside, but adorn yourself with a gentle heart.” Adorn yourself within with quietness and a, a submissive inner person. As my mother has said to me many times, “Logan, it’s very easy to be submissive on the outside. It’s very hard to be submissive on the inside.” And yet what Christ does for his people is he comes, and he begins at the root of the problem.

And this is so important for us, because sometimes we can be tempted with people to be fruit staplers. You might say to yourself, “Well, what’s a fruit stapler, Logan?” Imagine that there’s a big apple tree, and it’s got diseased fruit. And one day your wife says to you, “This diseased tree is ridiculous. Your job is to fix it.” And of course you’re a handyman, and you know how to fix everything because you’re a husband.So your wife goes out, and what do you do? You go down to the supermarket and you buy a 20 liter bucket of apples, and you come home and you take off all the diseased fruit. You begin stapling all the apples on there, and your wife comes home, an hour later after your work, and she looks at the tree and she goes, “Whoa, my husband’s a miracle worker. Look at that. It’s beautiful. It’s got all the things that a beautiful apple tree should have.” But of course, what happens? They begin to rot. Maybe one day, 2 days, 3 days later, the wife starts looking, “Hmm, something not quite right here.” She goes out and has a closer inspection, and she finds staples in the tree.

Can’t we be like this? We go to people and we say to them, “You need to scrub your life up. Stop doing that and start doing this, and stop doing that and start doing this. And if you just do A, B, C, and D, you’ll be all fine.” And we try and staple fruit on people. Meanwhile, the problem is they have a heart problem. This is true even of believers. You see, if we don’t address the root problem, no matter of change on the outside will help. If you love pornography no matter of deleting Facebook or porn accounts will stop you looking at porn. You must put the heart to death. And that’s true of every sin you struggle with.

And yet, this is what Christ delights to do for his people, so that we would be the opposite of what Jesus describes in the Pharisees in Mark 7. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is having an argument with the Pharisees and the scribes who are complaining. Why? Because some people, being the disciples, aren’t following the rules of the elders, like washing their hands properly. Jesus comes to them and he says to them in 7:14;

“Hear me, all of you, and understand. There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, and he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled?” Thus, he declared all foods clean. And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

What’s the problem here? Yes, these actions are the problem, but the actions are just an overflow of a heart. And so, the only way the overflow changes is if the heart changes, and yet that’s exactly what Christ does for his bride. He isn’t happy just to staple fruit on us. There’s another great example of this in the Gospel according to Luke Chapter 11. In Luke Chapter 11, we get the woes of Jesus upon the Pharisees, and in Luke 11:39-40, Jesus says, “Now, you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools. Did not he who make the outside make the inside also?”

You hear the woe there? What’s the problem? It’s not that the Pharisees are doing bad things. They’ve actually got excellent behavior and if you had seen them, you would have thought them holy. But the inside is full of corruption, and so, brothers and sisters, what Christ does for this bride as we see her glorified is her heart, her desires, her motives have been made new. I mean, don’t you just hate the fact that with Paul in Romans 7, you want to do the right thing, but you do the wrong thing, and you don’t want to do the bad thing, but you do it anyway? Don’t you hate the battle with sin that you feel like you’re always losing? What we’re seeing here is a picture of a bride who has been so sanctified within that she never wants to sin again, that’s a hope for glory that’s coming, and it’s a work that Christ is doing today within you and within me. This is why old sins that used to cling to us so much over time slowly fade away. There are sins that I battled with as a young man that I don’t battle with any longer because Christ is sanctifying my heart, and so too for us as a church. You see, Christ’s work of beautifying begins within, and so you must be born again, and you must be sanctified within. It’s like David says after his sin with Bathsheba, “Create in me a clean heart.” Now he’s saved. He’s an elect child of God, but, “Create in me a clean heart.” This is why we cry out for a clean conscience because so often it’s our heart that betrays us. And so we see here in verse 13, the inner glory and beauty of this bride given to her by her husband, Jesus Christ.

But secondly, we see an outer beauty, an outer glory given to her by her husband, by Christ. And so the passage says from the second half of verse 13, she is robed, interwoven with gold, so she’s got a beautiful gown with tracings gilded with gold edgings on it. She’s in many-colored robes as she’s led to the king. She’s robed in splendor. It’s not just inner.

Now, it’s interesting, this is very early, of course, but in, in the first couple of centuries one of the huge problems the church faced was a thing called Gnosticism and, and this comes out in other heresies as well, but one of the marks of Gnosticism was a separation of body and soul. So, your body doesn’t really matter. The real you is your soul, and that’s the thing that really matters. And so you can, you can fornicate and you can do whatever you want with your body because it’s not your soul. And what we really need to focus upon is the soul and so I can do whatever I please with my body. But that’s not what we see with the perfected bride of Christ, is it? She is beautiful and glorious on the inside and she is arrayed in splendor on the outside too.

You see, the, the inner work of Christ manifests itself in the overflow of the heart so that the overflow of the heart is what? Righteous. The very thing that he condemned the Pharisees and scribes for has now become the reverse for his bride. Their inner heart is clean and so the behavior and actions are clean. And I think we understand this in 2 ways. Yes, we do understand these robes as the imputed righteousness of Christ, the fact that Christ gives to us his perfect righteousness, his perfect holiness, and in the end, we will be arrayed in splendor in the glory and righteousness of our savior, but I don’t think that’s primarily what’s intended here. I think what’s really intended here, because the king doesn’t come and dress her, what’s really intended here is the work of the saints, the works of righteousness.

We must stress the righteousness of Christ, and there’s been eras where that has been all but deleted, but we must not go the other way and so over-stress the righteousness of Christ that we forget that Christ is working obedience and righteousness within us. It’s his work, he is sanctifying our outside too, but it is a work of righteousness. In Revelation 19, there’s a fascinating little phrase. “Hallelujah,” next verse, “Let us rejoice and exult” Verse 7, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.” She’s ready for the marriage. How has she gotten herself ready? It was granted her, given to her, to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. Now, that sounds a lot like imputed righteousness, right? It was given to her to wear pure linen garments, but observe what’s stated next. The linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Isn’t that interesting? Why? Because by faith when we come to Christ he grants us works. This is Ephesians 2, right? You were dead in your sins, made alive in Christ, aved by grace through faith alone, and now you are the workmanship of God. He is not just saving you and justifying you, he is sanctifying you and transforming you into the image of Christ by works and deeds of obedience. You see, the works and deeds, they are the overflow of what Christ has done within. Everything in the inner person is a work of Christ. Everything in the outer is a work of Christ. And yet, as we walk in Christ, the manifest evidence, the fruit that grows rather than stapled on, is righteousness and good works.

There’s a wonderful example of how this rolls out. The interplay between the inner and the outer in Colossians. You see, what we must remember is that this work of Christ in renewing the inner person overflows into obedience in the outer person, and we see this in Colossians 3 very beautifully. So, in verse 12, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Notice how it starts. It begins in the heart. It begins in inner motives. Compassionate hearts. It begins with the inner person, and it overflows to all of the rest of the obedience, all of the rest of the acts that are commanded. And so, it works a little bit like watering a plant. Now, children, I don’t know if you’ve done this before, but if you take a plant and you get food coloring, and mix it in the water, and then feed that to the plant, the plant will actually change color. And so this is a little bit what it works like. As we water ourselves in the heart with the work of Christ and sanctifying us, it, it bleeds into the rest of us, and all of our outer man begins to grow in righteousness and good works, and we honor Christ in the way we live.

And as Christ does this, what is he doing? He’s perfecting the inner and the outer so that on the day of his return, his cri—his bride would be sanctified fully. Not just a clean heart, not just a clean body, but heart, soul, mind, and strength fully devoted to her husband. And so, we’re called to obedience. Why would we do these things? Well, because it’s to the glory of God. Do you remember those words in Matthew 5? We talked about being a light this morning, shining in our mission. Well, when Jesus says, “You are a light, you are a salt, you are a city upon a hill,” that light is our good works. Because he says, “So that men may see your works and glorify your Father in heaven.” And so this is a call for us, isn’t it? It’s a call for us to obedience. It’s a call for us to take up the Word of God and obey our Lord, obey our husband as he seeks to transform us.

This, this is captured very beautifully in Titus. In Titus Chapter 3, we’re told that “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” So, the grace of God has appeared, Christ has appeared, bringing salvation, bringing new hearts, making people new. Why? For what purpose? Training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, people who give themselves up and are zealous for good works. See, this is, this is Christ as our husband. Thi—this is his goal for us as a church. Do you want to be—do you want us to be a powerful witness to this community? Do you want our testimony to burn brightly in Karaka? No amount of door-knocking or even Bible giving out will make up for godlessness. But holiness, obedience avails much, so give yourself to obeying your husband, and he will make you new inside and out.

And so, we see Christ giving his bride an inner beauty and glory and an outer splendor too, but then we see Christ giving this brighter, a co—uh, you might call it a communal glory, a communal glory. Have a look at the text with me again. It says, in the second half is verse 14, as she comes, she’s 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.

So, we’re picturing future things, right? We know that. But we’re learning from future things, and so we’re picturing a bride made perfect inside and out as Christ washes her with the word and transforms her into his own image one degree by another, and when that’s done, when that is consummated, what we see is not just one person, you know, as if the church sort of gets m—morphed together. But we see a, what Ephesians uses is “a host of captives.” Ephesians 4 tells us that, quoting from a psalm, tells us that Jesus, when he came, he ascended to glory with a great host of captives. And 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 puts it this way. It says that he, he rides forth in triumph. He goes forth in a triumphal procession. And the picture we’re getting given is that, as the church marches through this age towards glory, the, the aroma of Christ as she lives out godliness and good works, and she burns her testimony, the, the smell of Jesus, the knowledge of God radiates, and the brightness of her holiness shines, and people see her. They see the bride, and they say, “Oh, I want to be a part of that.”

It’s like the young man we saw on the video this morning. There he is, a Muslim in a hostile country, and he hears the news of the Son of God, and he begins to speak with a believer, and he says, “Ah, yes, I want to be part of this. I want this peace.” You know, next week, we’re gonna have 3 profession of faiths. Why? Because 3 young hearts have seen the glory of the husband, and they’ve said, “I want to be part of the bride of Christ. I want to be one with Christ for all of my life.” It’s the fulfillment of the prayer of Jesus Christ. You remember that high priestly prayer in John 17, and towards the end, right at the end in verse 24 as he’s praying to those who will believe through the word of the apostles, he says to them, “I pray also that they,” speaking of you and me, “they might be with me.” That they might be with me. What’s, what’s Jesus’ desire for you? His desire is that you would be gathered with him in—it’s the fulfillment of those words. It’s the fulfillment of Revelation 14, where we’re told that the virgins, those who have not spoiled themselves, are gathered around the throne of God.

Now, in case you’re wondering if that means you shouldn’t get married, or if you’re wondering you’re in trouble because you are already married, don’t worry. When it speaks about—virginity in this, it’s talking about purity. Made clean. Not adulterated by the world, but ready for her husband. Set apart for one, and that’s what you will be made, and that’s what he’s doing in your life.

And do you see the importance of this for us as a church? Our goal is not just to sanc—be sanctified. Our goal is not just to grow in Christ’s likeness, but to draw in the world, to draw in the masses, to draw in the people of this world who so desperately need hope, and comfort, and life, and see what they’ll get. Because how do they go into the presence of their husband? Do they go in with misery? I mean, maybe you’ve heard of forced weddings, forced marriages, especially in Muslim countries. It happens in other nations too. Can you imagine being forced as a 13-year-old girl to marry a 60-year-old man and you’re his 8th wife? Would you go into that wedding day with joy? Does anyone enjoy being married to this filthy world? If we’re honest, no one does. And yet every single person who is married to Christ enters in with joy and gladness.

Do you long for joy? A place where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more heartache, no more death, where every ache and pain is alleviated, there’s no more looming darkness ahead of you? Well, that’s what lies forward for the bride of Christ, and you have the joy of being part of it. A—and this is captured so beautifully in the Book of Isaiah in a series of different prophesies. Let me just quickly read them to you because they capture it so beautifully. In Isaiah 35—verse 10, it says these words: “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isn’t that a beautiful picture? A—and in Isaiah 51, Isaiah 51:11, “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” And you say to me, “Didn’t you just read the same passage twice?” No. It’s the same passage twice, isn’t it? In case you doubted the first one or the second, in Isaiah 55:12, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” that a stunning picture? All of creation erupting with joy and praise at the redemption of God’s people.

This is what awaits us. It’s the fulfillment of Revelation 19, isn’t it? The marriage supper of the Lamb, when all of God’s people will sing, “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Hallelujah, for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come,” and the angels will say, “Blessed.” Do you remember that? “Blessed are those who were invited to sup with him,” and I guess it’s another challenge. Will you sup with him, or will you be cast out of his presence into the darkness?

My thinking, this is captured as we come to a close and, and think very, very briefly. I will just make statements about how this motivates us. There’s a very important parable in Matthew 22. The, the people of God—sorry. God Himself holds a wedding feast, and He invites different people and some say, “Oh, I’m busy. I don’t feel like coming. I just got a new farm. I just got married. I’ve got all manner of different things to do.” And then the feast is set, and the hall is filled. And the king came in to look at the guests, and he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how, how did you get here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called, but few are chosen.”

And I guess the question for you, and the question for me, is, will we come prep—pre—prepared, sanctified by Christ, made new, and welcomed into his presence? This is Christ’s work, brothers and sisters, and this should motivate us, firstly, to press on to holiness. Press on to holiness as we think about what He’s doing in our life. Secondly, it should motivate us to call others to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Thirdly, it should motivate us not to miss out, not to miss out. And lastly, it should motivate us not to be unprepared.

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