Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The First Wedding Day

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

You can’t understand the central storyline of the Bible unless you understand something about marriage. The Bible begins with a marriage in Genesis 2, and at the end, in Revelation, it ends with a marriage and the wedding supper of the Lamb. In some ways, you can understand what the whole Bible is about and what the gospel is about in terms of marriage. In Genesis 2, we have the first wedding. Let’s ask the text a question: how can we be successful in seeking out marriage and in actually being married?  There are three things the text says you need if you’re going to be married well: 1) attentiveness to idolatry, 2) patience for a very long journey, and 3) supernatural humility. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 4, 2009. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Creation and Fall. Scripture: Genesis 2:18-25. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. How can we trust in God's goodness and faithfulness even when the answers were seeking seem elusive? In today's sermon, Tim Keller teaches on what it means to wait on God. After you listen, please take a few seconds to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the Gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Tonight's scripture reading comes from Genesis,

chapter 2, verses 18 through 25. The Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the field and all the birds of the air.

He brought them to the man to see what he would name them and whatever the man called each living creature that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. And while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, where she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. This is the word of the Lord. Now we're looking at over a period of weeks and months.

We're looking at the central storyline of the Bible. We're trying to trace out the big picture what the Bible is about, the whole Bible. We're starting in Genesis. We come to this very famous passage, the first wedding. And indeed, you can't understand the storyline of the Bible, unless you understand something about marriage, because the Bible begins with this marriage.

It begins with a marriage. And at the end, in Revelation, it ends with a marriage, the wedding supper of the Lamb. And in some ways, you can understand what the whole Bible is about and what the gospel is about in terms of marriage too, and we're going to see that tonight. But now, let's start this way. There's so much in this passage, very famous. Almost everybody's heard of it or parts of it or heard it. Let's be practical tonight. Let's ask the text a question. You know, I look out there and I know a number of you are not married, but you are open to it, a number of you are married. What do we need to be successful in marriage seeking and in marriage executing.

What do we need to be successful in seeking out marriage and or actually being well married? How can we seek or be married well? And we need three things, I think, according to the text. There's actually more than that, but it's all we've got time for tonight. There's three things the text tells us you really need if you're going to be married well.

Attentiveness to idolatry. Patience for a very long journey. And supernatural humility. Idolatry, journey, humility. Attentiveness to idolatry. Patience for a very long journey, and supernatural humility. First, a tentative-nistoid-dolletry. This is a wedding.

You know how the father brings the bride down the aisle to the groom? Well, in this case, the father is God. The God is doing the honors, and he's bringing the wife to the husband. And when Adam sees Eve, he literally explodes into art. This is the first piece of art in history of the Bible, according to the world, according to the Bible. This is laying on the reason it's printed out on the page the way it is, is because this is poetry.

This is Hebrew poetry, using parallelism, assonance, wordplay, a chiastic structure. It's a song. He's exploding into poetry and a song. And he's saying two things. First of all, the first Hebrew word actually in the poem is, at last. Now, I know it comes out in the English here as,

this is now, but that word now, which can be translated at last or finally means Adam is saying this is what I've been looking for all my life. Now some of you might say, well hasn't been a very long life has it? All right, all right, but the point is, you know, he's saying at last, meaning this is the thing I've been looking for. This is what I've been looking for all my life. Well, what is it? Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.

Well, that's weird. What is that? Well, it's a poetic way of saying that as I see you, Adam is saying, I now know who I am. I have found myself in you. I'm not just coming to another. I'm coming to someone who has helped me see who I am. At last, finally, by discovering you, I have found out who I am.

That's what you say. And that is powerful. And let's notice for a minute. Let's just spend a moment noticing that here we are in paradise where Adam has a perfect relationship with God, and yet he's responding to romance and marriage like this. And what that means is that John Newton, who you know probably is a hymn writer, amazing grace, but who was actually a great pastor in the 18th century Britain, that he was right when he said,

which he regularly did to newlyweds, you may think your biggest problem, spiritually speaking, is the prospect of a bad marriage. He says, every bit as big a spiritual danger is the prospect of a good marriage. And in one of his letters, he wrote to this young couple, just been married. Now, I'll read it to you, but it's 18th century English. They use a lot of, he uses jargon, I'll have to explain it, but here's what he said.

He says, permit me to say to both of you, with regard to marriage, beware of idolatry. I have smarted for it. I have found that my choices, mercies, have been the principal occasions of drawing out the evils of my heart and causing me to walk heavily in darkness because the old leaven, a tendency toward the covenant of works, still cleaves to me.

What? You're just what he's saying. What is covenant of works? It's an old theological term for a system in which you earn your salvation through perfect performance. In other words, the reason I go to heaven and get blessed is because I'm living this good life, I'm doing everything perfectly and therefore I get blessed. That's called the covenant of works.

Well, what's he saying? He says, his biggest problem practically in his life has been idolatry with regard to his wife and his marriage, which helps him slip back into a covenant of works. And that means this. He says, there is something so powerful about marriage, so fulfilling about marriage or can be. That unless you deliberately stop it, this is what's going to happen.

You will look to your spouse to give you the things that only God can really give you. You will look to your spouse's love, your spouse's respect, your spouse's respect, your spouse's affirmation, to give you meaning in life and to give you a foundation for your own sense of value. All the things you should only be getting from God. In other words, you'll be looking to your spouse to save you. It'll slip you back into the covenant of works. Oh, you won't say that. You won't say

that to yourself. You won't say that to other people. But you'll be doing it. In fact, you'll be doing it unless you know you're doing it and stop it. Because marriage is this powerful thing. It's this attractive thing. It's this greater thing. Oh, Lord says, John Newton, save us from the wonderfulness of marriage. Lord says, John Newton, save us from the wonderfulness of marriage. Because if you do it, and we will do it, to some degree, in fact, I'll show you in a minute, the idolatry happens even if your marriage is bad. But no human relationship can bear the weight of those kinds of expectations. You will crush your marriage with those expectations.

Nobody can bear the weight of the expectations and the hopes of ultimate joy from the criticism of your spouse will crush you. The problems of your spouse will crush you. Devastate you much more than they should because you're looking to your spouse into marriage to save you, to make everything right in your life. Now there's a whole lot of ways that this plays out. Let me just give you a couple.

When you're married, the way it plays out is that you just feel that your spouse isn't perfect and therefore, and my marriage isn't perfect, I don't like it, and you cannot live with imperfection. You can't settle ever. For anything other than this, just incredible picture you got in your mind of just absolute blissful love because you've got to have it because you're looking to it to give you what only guy can give you. And so when you're not able to actually handle mediocrity and marriage and you just get all been out of shape about the imperfections of your spouse and your marriage and refused to be content

with what the good things that you've got, it's idolatry. Oh well, how to unmarried people do it. Well, there's a lot of ways. One of the ways that unmarried people make an idolat of marriage and think it's gonna save me and fix me. One of the ways you do it is by being incredibly picky as you evaluate spousal

prospects, because you say, oh, I want a marriage and it's going to be like this and it's going to be like this and this person has got to be so this and this. So you're looking for virtually perfect spousal prospects, but there aren't any out there. And you're not perfect spousal prospects. Hypocrite, because you want something that you're not. And that's idolatry. You're just like, oh, it's got to be so incredible. Or maybe the most frequent form of idolatry I know. He's a single person who wants to be married and who so pines after being married that

you cannot enjoy your present condition. What are we going to do? Well, you know, say it's Lewis. This is just plain, this is just plain, common sense. There's a tendency for us to say, so are you trying to say I shouldn't love my spouse too much or hope to love my spouse too much? And see it's Lewis says, it is probably impossible to love any human being too much. You may love him too much in proportion to your love for God, but it is the smallness

of your love for God, not the greatness of your love for the person that constitutes the inordinancy. And you know what that means? Marriage will strangle us unless we have a really great, true, existential love relationship with God. See, you must not try to demote your love for your spouse or the person you think you're gonna marry. You can't at all.

You've got to promote your love for God. See, otherwise it'll strangle you. Don't you see that? So married people, you have to do that or you're not gonna be able to settle for the imperfections of your marriage and for your spouse. And single people, you got to remember that this is Christianity is the only major religion that was started by a single person.

You know that. Traditional societies believe you are nobody unless you're somebody spouse. But our faith was started by a single man. And another great leader of the, you know, found of, another one of the great founders of Christianity, St. Paul, has an interesting place in the second Corinthians where he says, you want to be married? Great! You're not married? Great! And that was unique in antiquity.

Because in ancient times, in traditional marriage, not married, great. And that was unique in antiquity. Because in ancient times in traditional cultures, you're nobody unless you're married. But Paul says, the relationship that every single Christian has with God through Christ is so intimate and so great. And the relationship that Christian brothers and sisters have inside the church, the family of God is so great, that no one who single should be seen as being a second-class person.

You are fully human as a single person, after all, the person who saved us was single. I mean, all this works against idolatry. Use it. But that's only the first thing we need. The second thing we need is besides a tentative and his idolatry, is we need patience for the long journey. A very long journey. Verse 18, then the Lord God said, it is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now this little word, a helper suitable.

Let's look at this. And let me show you what I mean, why I'm saying that this is telling us that marriage is a long journey. The word helper, the Hebrew word that's used here, that's translated the word helper, is regularly used in the Bible, in Hebrew, to refer to military reinforcements. So, you know, here's an overwhelmed little army, and there's, you know, you're outnumbered five to one, and you're about to be destroyed, and income's what, reinforcements, that's help. Military reinforcements, in fact, God,

several times uses that term for himself, and says, you were about to be wiped out, oh, the Israel army, but I came in and I smoked everybody with blindness or I knocked them out and I saved you. You would have been destroyed without my help. Help is a military word, help is a strong word, help is a divine word, and God has the audacity

to use it to refer to Eve. But the woman brings into the man's life is a strength, but here's a certain kind of strength. You see that word suitable? Some translations say try to translate it like this. I will make a helper fit for him. I will make a helper meet for him. That's the old King James, a help meet. I will make a helper that is suitable for him. But there's actually two Hebrew words there that the word suitable is trying to translate. And the Hebrew word literally says, I will make a helper like opposite him. Like opposite? When I wait a minute, make up your mind here. Is it like or is it opposite? You can't be like an opposite. Oh yes, it can. If it's a compliment. See, two pieces of a puzzle fit together, not

if they're identical. If they're identical, they don't fit, right? On the other hand, they can't just be different in general. They have to be rightly different. They have to be like opposite. They have to be like opposite. They have to be perfectly complementary. Now, here's what we're being told. God is sending in Adam's life, and therefore God is sending in the Eve's life by definition. Somebody with enormous power, but power which is very different. Like opposite.

And this help does what? Well, the poem tells you what's happening. Into your life, in marriage, comes a person of a different gender, a person with mysteriously profound differences that are really almost impossible to define as soon as you start to try to define the difference between male and female. It just never quite fits. And yet there it is.

And it's irreducible, and it's inexorable. Into your marriage, into your life comes a person with a very radically different view of you, of the world, a person of different gender, of equal power, equal resources, but incredibly different, and you're thrown into an incredibly tight, close relationship. You know how close? One flesh. I mean, she'll leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.

Not word flesh is not what you think. It's not talking about the bodies. You know, when God says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. He's not saying I'll pour out not talking about the bodies. You know, when God says, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. He's not saying, I'll pour out my spirit on all bodies. He says, I'll be going out my spirit on all persons. And what it is saying is that marriage puts you into the same space. You literally occupy the same space. You hold things in common. You're raising your family together. Two people, very different. Like you, not you, opposite you, put together

into the same tight location and what's gonna happen. Butting heads. Constantly butting heads. It has to be, there's a military word. Or let me put it like this. And I've used this illustration before, but I hope this will be even more eliminating under these circumstances.

34 years of marriage, me and my wife. So often, though I still, you know, neither listen, neither I nor my wife are particularly gender stereotyped. I am not a particularly masculine type guy. My wife's not a particularly feminine kind of girl. Okay? And yet, you get into marriage and you find you see the world differently

and you see each other differently. And I see things in her and she sees things in me that I would never see, but she sees because she's a different gender and she's in close. And I see things in her. And I see things in the world. Now, after 34 years of conflict, of arguing, of headbutting, it's military, you know.

Now, every single day when I get out into the world and I, things happen to me, I have a split second to react. What am I going to say? What am I going to do? What am I going to think? And you know going to do? What am I going to think? And you know, for years, for years, even halfway through my marriage, I only thought like a man.

But now, after years and years ahead, but here's what happens. Something happens, and for a split second, you not only know what you would do, what you think, how you would respond, but you know how Kathy would think. And you know what Kathy would do. And for a split second, because it's so instilled in me,

I actually have got a choice. Which of these approaches would probably work better. And my, you see, my wisdom portfolio has been permanently diversified. And I'm a different person. And yet on me, I haven't become more feminine, but what's happened is, in fact, probably many ways I've become more masculine as time has gone on. And yet what's going on?

She came into my life and now I know who I am. And I've become whom I'm supposed to be, only through the headbutting. Only through having a person who's like me, not me, opposite to me, in close. Looking for a new way to deepen your faith and understanding of Christianity this summer? If you are, we'd like you to consider the new city Catechism devotional. Based on the historic Catechisms of the Christian Church,

this devotional offers 52 weeks of thought-provoking questions and answers that explore the foundational beliefs of the faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. Commentaries are written by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Timothy Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther.

The new City Catechism Debotional is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now here's what worries me, a great deal about marriage in our culture. We are consumers. We are trained to be consumers. Consumers do a cost-benefit analysis. And

you do it in your head automatically. You don't even realize how much you've been trained to do it. And you want a product that satisfies. You don't want a product that fights back. You want a product that does exactly what you want, exactly what you want, customized. See, you don't want someone who's like you, not you, opposite you. And I'm afraid we get into our marriages and we say, this isn't right. It's supposed to be blissful. This is supposed to be beautiful. It's supposed to be wonderful. Why this is supposed to be beautiful, it's supposed to be wonderful.

Why are we always having these confrontations because marriage is meant to, or you'll never become the person God wants you to be? You'll never finally get there. You know, it's not just Eve who's brought into Adam's life as with her gender resources to help him be who he's supposed to be. Go to Ephesians 5, you realize that it's the same thing as Genesis 2 reversed.

Husbands of your wife is Christ of the Church. Give yourself for her. Helper become mushy ought to be. Make her a radiant person. Find ways of helping her overcome her flaws. It's the same thing. He's using his gender differentiated resources to bring her to who she should be, but it's a long journey. Will you have the patience to stick with it?

See, this is the reason why one of my favorite quotes now that I always read every time I can, when I'm preaching on marriage, Stanley Howard was puts it like this. He says there's an assumption out there in the culture that there's someone just right for us to marry, and that if we look closely enough, we will find that right person. See, that's the consumer mindset. This overlooks a crucial fact about marriage. It fails to appreciate the fact that when you get married, you always marry the wrong person.

We never know who we marry, we just think we do. Or even if we first marry the right person, just give it a while and he or she will change. For marriage being the enormous thing that it is means that we are not the same person after we've entered it. You get that? You know, you're looking, oh, I want to marry only the right person, the right person.

So you're trying to evaluate who that person is, but how do you know who that person is going to be when you get in there? Because once you get in there, marriage is so incredibly powerful, it's going to change the person. You always marry the wrong person as it were. You always marry somebody who's going to be butting heads with you. Where will you get the patience to stick with it and to understand what the confrontation is

therefore? Marriage is not designed to bring you really so much into confrontation with others with your spouse. It's actually designed to bring you into confrontation with yourself to show you your sins, to show you what's wrong with you, to show you ways to change. But otherwise you never would find. So don't you see, remember how you Lissys during his Odyssey, at one point he had to navigate his boat right through the center between the Silla and the Caribdus? And you see the Silla is idolatry because that's Romantics, naivete, you know, this incredibly

beautiful high view of marriage, which is so unrealistic, and the cryptus is the disillusionment of actually finding out what marriage is like and being afraid of it and being cynical about it because it's always so much work. How are we going to get what we need to avoid to have a vaccine against the idolatry but to the same time of patience so that marriage will in the end pay off? The third point, a kind of humility that only the gospel can give you. It's indicated here in the very, very top and the beginning where it says, the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. Now most commentators will tell you

that that is a very surprising statement. It's first of all surprising because it's a departure up to now everything he's God's been saying is, it is good, right, it is good. It is good. He keeps saying, he saw this and it was good. He made this and it was good. This is the first thing to which he says, not good.

Everything else was a benediction, a good word. This is the first malediction, the bad word. This is bad. So that's surprising. But what's really surprising about it is it's inexplicable. How could you be unhappy and paradise? Why would Adam be lonely? Why would he be unhappy in paradise? And there's only one possible answer really. God deliberately made him to need someone besides God. Oh, don't

get me wrong. We all need God. And he made us to meet need him need and that's the foundational relationship But think about this. This is a several theologians have put it like this This is the most humble act you could imagine. This is the most unself-centered act you can imagine God made human beings to need not just him but other human beings other relationships other selves other hearts how humble God, how unself-centered of God, how other-oriented of God, how sacrificial in a way of God. Oh, it's nothing compared to what we see later. And here's what we see later.

When in the Bible, God says repeatedly in Isaiah, Jeremiah, H, Jeremiah, when he repeatedly says to us, I'm the bridegroom and you, my people, are the bride. You know what that's teaching? I am the bridegroom says, God, you are the bride, my people. It's teaching two things. First of all, it's teaching that you need to have God in your life, not just as someone you believe in, not just as someone you try to obey,

you need God in your life as your spouse. He's the ultimate help meet you need. He's like you, but not you. He's like you because you're in his image, and that means you're personal and relational. He's personal and relational, but he's not like you because he's holy. And there is no other help meat that you need in your life like God. You'll never become the person you're supposed to be

unless he comes into your life not just as a kind of abstract principle of love or somebody you kind of obey in a general way. He's got to be in your life as your lover. He's got to be in your life intimately. There's got to be interaction. There's got to be prayer. There's got to be listening to his word. all that's got to be there. Why?

You need him, that's the main help you need. He's got to be in your life, he's like you and not you. And you'll never become the person you ought to be unless that's the case. So we need to have that relationship, he is the ultimate spousal relationship we need. But the second thing that this thing teaches when he says, I'm the bridegroom and you're the bride, is teaching us that he has given us his heart. You know that. He would not say that. A groom does not ask a woman to marry him unless he's lost his heart as it were. His heart's bound up with her.

And this is God's way of saying, I have given you my heart and how you act and how you live and how you treat me. Now, hurts me. Think about this. The Bible says that when you say, oh, I believe in God, but you really live for your career. Or you really live for this or you live for that. That's called spiritual adultery. You've given the deepest passions and love of your heart

to someone besides God. And the Bible says that God has a sense of betrayal and grief far greater because he's perfect and holy and his love is perfect. Far greater than you would feel if your spouse was unfaithful to you, your human spouse. And by the way, this is the room that that's happened to, and you know how bad it is, and therefore you know how incredible it is for God to say, what you have felt is nothing like the grief that I feel when I look at every one of you every day.

Which means we are the spouse from hell. And God is in the longest lived, worst marriage in the history of the world. And that's the reason now do you understand? Now you can understand the whole history of the Bible. Why did God come to earth in the form of Jesus Christ? John chapter 1 says, he came to his own, but his own received him not. He was trying to get us back. He was trying to get his wayward bride back.

But we didn't just spur him, we nailed him to the cross. And some of you may be in bad marriages, and you think, oh, my spouse is crucifying me. But in God's case, it really happened. It really happened. And when he was on the cross, looking down, realizing what it would take for him to stay and love us to the end, guess what? He stayed.

Here's the ultimate spousal love. Here's the man, here's the spouse who has no illusions, he doesn't expect us to be perfect, he knows we're not perfect. He's loving us not because we're lovely and not because we're going to give him so much affirmation. He loves us to make us lovely. He loves us for our sake, not for his sake, and so he's the perfect spouse and he's the perfect help me. And he's come into our lives, and he was going to the cross, and he's died on the cross for our sins.

And when he did that, Martin Luther says, now you understand the gospel. Martin Luther has a great little essay that he wrote years ago, obviously, we called the freedom of a Christian, and in it he tries to give the essence of what it means that you're saved by grace, not by works. You're saved by faith, not by works.

And he says, there's no better way than understanding what Jesus Christ did when he died on the cross far sins and says, now believe in me, listen, from the freedom of a Christian. This is incredible. Martin Luther says, the third incomparable grace of faith is this. It unites us to Christ as a wife and a husband are made one flesh. Now when two people are married, it follows that all they have becomes theirs in common, good things as well as evil things. So that

whatsoever Christ possesses, that now belongs to you. And whatever belongs to you, that Christ claims as His. And oh, if we compare these possessions, we shall see how infinite is our gain. For Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. And we are full of sin, death, and condemnation. But let faith step in, and then sin sin, death and hell belong to Christ. And grace, life and salvation come to us. For if he is a husband, he must needs take to himself that which is his wife's.

At the same time, in part to his wife, that which is his. And therefore, we the believing, the believing, by the wedding ring of faith, become free from all sin, fearless of death, safe from hell, and endowed with this eternal righteousness life and salvation of our husband, Jesus Christ. Oh, who can value highly enough these royal nuptials? Who can comprehend the riches of the glory of his grace? Do you not see the importance of faith, which is a wedding ring, and that it alone can fulfill the law

and justify without works? If you know that, if you know that our spouse, Jesus Christ, died for us, that he had the patience to stick with us to the end, that He didn't come and love us to make because we were lovely but to make us lovely. That's everything you need. For two reasons. First of all, there's the patience you need for the journey, because the main thing you need, the main thing you need to really stick with a marriage is you need to over and over and over again. Look at at your spouse and say you wronged me but my great spouse Jesus Christ I wronged him and he kept covering me and he kept forgiving me so I'm loved enough by him that I can offer the same thing to you and that's the only way that you'll

have the patience for the journey but here's the other thing it's the only way that you'll have the patience for the journey. But here's the other thing. It's the vaccine against idolatry. Because if you look at your spouse and you say, he or she isn't very incredible, is he or she? And if you look at your own life as an unmarried person and say, why cannot I be married? Now look at this spouse. This spouse is the only spouse, Jesus Christ, who is really going to save you. He's the only one who can really fulfill you. The great wedding day in which we fall into his arms is the only wedding day that will

really make everything right in our lives. And it awaits you if you put on the wedding ring of faith. So don't get too upset about the flaws in your current life. And you know, single people, here's one last thing to say. You say, well, how am I ever going to become myself, and get all the figure out who I am if I don't get married? Well, look, think about this. When you get married, it pulls you away from all the brothers

and sisters out there in the church. It does. I mean, there's a lot of men and there's a lot of women out there that can be your friends, people with, you know, people of the different gender as well. When you get married, it gets you into a deeper relationship with one person of the other gender and it pulls you away from all kinds of other relationships with men and women. And therefore, there are a lot of ways in which God can get you help through the body of Christ that you can't get once you're married.

It's up to God to know what you need to grow in grace and what you need to grow into the person he wants you to be. Only he knows whether you should be married, only he knows whether you should not be married. So let him rule your life. Hey, the Bible begins with a wedding. And this wedding's original purpose was to fill the world with children of God and it failed. It failed.

Why? Because the husband in that wedding, the husband in that marriage, failed to step in and help his wife when she needed him. But at the end of time, they'll be another wedding, the Marisuppar of the Lamb. And its purpose is to fill the world with children of God. And it will succeed with the first marriage failed. You know why? Because the first husband failed, but the second husband will not, the true Adam, Jesus Christ, he will never let his wife down. He hasn't, he

won't. Let us love him for that. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for giving us insights into the gospel through the metaphor of marriage. And we thank you that now as we protect the bread and the cup, we actually have a foretaste of that wedding feast and we just need to get closer to you and have a closer walk of love with our true spouse, Jesus Christ, so that we can be in all of our relationships who we need to be. And we ask that you would meet with us now. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it. Some more people can discover the hope

of the gospel. Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 2008 and 2009. The sermons and talks you hear on the gospel on life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.