And this is Leslie Curran saying hello and welcome in the Saviour's name to our Gospel Broadcast. I'm glad you're joining us today and here to let the Bible speak is the Reverend John Greer. It is my pleasure to be on the air with you once more and I want to welcome you also to another Gospel Broadcast.

I pray that you will be blessed today through the Word of the Lord. In Isaiah 62 verse 5 we have these words, the words of the Lord himself, as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride so shall thy God rejoice over thee. It is amazing to find in scripture the many figures and symbols that the Lord uses to speak of his love for men, his relationship with those who become his people.

And one of them is marriage. We have the Lord speaking here as one who rejoices over his bride just as a bridegroom rejoices over the young woman whom he takes to himself. The Bible reveals to us many features concerning the marriage institution.

For example, it is an institution that was ordained by God. In Genesis chapter 2 we have recorded for us the series of events that reveal that marriage is a divine institution. The creation of Adam, the forming of Eve for the distinct purpose of being the help that Adam needed and the wife that he required.

And therefore God not only made Adam who was the first man and also the first husband on this earth but he also created the woman and he brought the woman to the man. We find therefore that marriage was ordained by Almighty God and is to be treated with all due respect and all solemnity. The first marriage therefore was performed by God.

Genesis 2.22 says the Lord God brought her onto the man. The very language indicates the truth that the marriage of Adam and Eve was by divine initiation and by divine performance. What solemnity and sacredness therefore God stamped on the institution of marriage by his own performance of the first marriage on this earth.

God placed therefore a fence around the marriage ordinance. Genesis 2.24 therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. With reference to these words the Lord speaks in Matthew 19 verse 6 wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh.

What therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder. The Lord God himself has revealed and signified therefore that he has placed a fence around the marriage bond and that bond is to be severed only by death. God has also revealed that marriage is a chief means of preserving a stable God fearing society.

In referring to the principle of the monogamous relationship and marriage that is one man and one woman the prophet Malachi says and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed and therefore when marriage is honored when it is pursued by the couple and children are born it is the way in which as I said a stable God fearing society is preserved and is upheld and that is certainly something that we need to factor into our thinking in these days and with all our effort and all our influence seek to stabilize society by showing young people that they must obey God and come together as man and wife and bring up their children in the fear of the Lord. Now these are all basic principles of the marriage institution but apart from these the Bible also reveals that marriage is ordained of God to be a means of portraying and symbolizing the relationship that there is between the Lord and his people. For example in John 3 29 John the Baptist says he that hath the bride is the bridegroom and he refers to Christ and his church.

Ephesians 5 25 in writing on the subject of marriage Paul states husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So marriage is a symbol of the sacred union that there is between the Lord and his people. Furthermore one aspect of a bridegroom's relationship with an attitude toward his bride is the feature of the joy that he has over the bride.

Again Isaiah 62 verse 5 says that the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride but this feature of marriage is mentioned in order to reveal that this is the Lord's attitude toward those who become his. Especially this is seen in the literal rendering of this of this text and it is this with the joy of the bridegroom so shall thy God rejoice over thee. So the Lord is depicted as a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride showing the evidence of his delight in those who are his people.

We therefore can see that God has a delight in those who are saved. He rejoices over them. In fact here in Isaiah 62 in verse 4 we have a particular name used the name Hephzibah which means my delight is in her.

But the question arises how is the Lord able to delight in those who make up his bride those who are the lamb's wife because they are but guilty sinners and this is true those over whom God rejoices in and of themselves are but sinners. Sinners by nature sinners by practice with original sin and personal sin on their account guilty before

“Leslie Curran welcomes listeners to the Gospel Broadcast, introducing Reverend John Greer, who shares a biblical message on God's love and marriage as a divine institution. Drawing from Isaiah 62:5, he explains how God rejoices over His people like a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. Marriage, ordained by God in Genesis, symbolizes the sacred union between Christ and His church. Reverend Greer highlights that sinners, though guilty, are accepted by God through the righteousness of Christ, who fulfilled the law and bore its penalty. He urges listeners to trust in Christ’s redeeming work, receive salvation, and be clothed in His righteousness for peace with God.”

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God fallen and depraved without any righteousness not even the least shred of righteousness to call their own. So how can God rejoice over such? How can he take them to be his own and call them his bride? Well the Bible gives us the answer to that question.

It is because those who are joined to the Lord in that spiritual marriage are clothed in special garments that give them acceptance with God and cause his delight to be in them. In Isaiah 61 back a chapter in this prophecy from where our text is found in Isaiah 61 verse 10 you have the prophet Isaiah saying this I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bride deck of himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. So here we find the prophet Isaiah rejoicing in salvation and he speaks of the Lord his joy is in his God and he says this he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation covered me with the robe of righteousness and he goes on to refer to the marriage bond and to show that just as a bridegroom is adorned and a bride is adorned for the wedding day so God adorns the sinner.

God clothes the sinner in a particular way and it gives to him special garments. They're called here the garments of salvation the robe of righteousness. This is marvelous language because we're being shown the answer to the question as to how the Lord can look upon anyone with acceptance and how the Lord can delight in a poor guilty sinner.

Well here we are shown that the Lord is able to do so because he gives sinners the garments of salvation he gives sinners the robe of righteousness. We go right on into the New Testament to Revelation chapter 19 verses 7 and 8 and we read let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife hath made herself ready and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen clean and white for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Here is a picture of the very end of all things the great day when the Lord comes and when he gathers his people home and what's called the marriage of the lamb takes place and here's this specific language his wife that is the church hath made herself ready and she's ready because she's arrayed in fine linen clean and white and then we're told the meaning of all this it says very specifically the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Now what is this well it's a garment that has been spoken of but it's spoken of symbolically and it's a picture of the righteousness that the Lord gives to his people as the prophet Isaiah put it when we read in Isaiah 61 verse 10 here is the robe of righteousness here are the garments of salvation in view and the righteousness that is given to those who are the people of God is of course the righteousness of Christ himself that he has provided and procured for all who trust him by his own perfect obedience the perfect obedience that he gave to the law the full obedience that he gave to the law and we rejoice today that Christ did just that the law of God must be satisfied the law of God must be perfectly obeyed in order for a sinner to enter heaven and that's what Christ did when he was on this earth during all of his life he walked in obedience to the father his delight was in the will of his father and he did it with all his soul and he gave this perfect obedience he could say my work is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work he says i came not to destroy the law but to fulfill and today therefore we rejoice that Christ has obeyed the law fully and that satisfaction has been made and therefore on that basis there's a perfect righteousness and involved in it the provision of it there is the Lord's death because not only must the law be obeyed with regard to its command but the law's penalty must be fully extinguished and it can only be extinguished by death because the law demands death the sting of sin is the law and therefore the law demands death and the law requires a full payment but Christ also has done that so Christ has done two things for sinners he's given obedience to the law and he has suffered the wrath of God the penalty of the law and in doing so he provides a perfect righteousness for men and the only way for you to be accepted by God therefore is to trust in that righteousness and receive it by faith alone that it becomes yours that you will then be clothed in the garments of salvation and be covered with the robe of righteousness your guilt removed out of sight cleansed away purged from you and you the recipient of all the righteousness of Christ and you can obtain that today if you will come to the Savior and trust him for yourself I trust that you will do so fall down before him call upon him out of a heart of brokenness and trust in his redeeming blood and this day know the covering of his righteousness and peace with God