Faithful Love

Being the Bride of Christ  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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What His bride does because of His love: Submission through faithfulness

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Introduction

A funny thing happened this week...
As I prepared my sermon, my greatest concern was not having enough of a sermon on time in order to adequately preach the Word. When I finished my preparation, it became abundantly obvious to me that I’d just discovered three sermons! So, get comfortable!
Actually, I’m going to make this message a three part sermon over the next few weeks, because I believe this topic is so vital for us to adequately cover.
Thus, at some point I’m going to stop preaching, then pick up pretty much where I leave off next week.
So far, throughout this series we’ve looked at what Christ has done and what He is continually doing for His bride, the church.
Last week, we started looking at what the bride should do in response to what Christ has done and continually does for us, continuing to use Ephesians 5:22-33 as our guide, specifically keying in on Ephesians 5:22-24.
We saw that:

Because Christ is the head of the bride, the bride submits to Christ.

Then we looked deeper into what it means to submit to Christ and saw that there are at least three ways the bride submits to Christ. We started with the truth that the church submits to Christ by being devoted to Him. Our illustration of devotion came from Psalm 63.
This morning, we are going to see the next way the bride submits to Christ:

The church submits to Christ through faithfulness to Him.

Last week I encouraged you to remember that within the picture of the church’s submission to Christ, we see aspects of a good marriage as well. Last week we saw devotion, this week we see faithfulness. In reality, a marriage without devotion and faithfulness will not last!
Christ Jesus is always devoted to His people and is always faithful to His people, as we’ve already seen. But, if His people are not devoted and faithful to Him, than a disaster is coming for us as His people.
Our illustration of faithfulness this morning will come from Psalm 37.

Body

Introducing Psalm 37.
Psalm 37 is one of David’s psalms, written when he was an old man. He is likely writing it with his son, Solomon, in mind, passing on wisdom to his beloved son.
It is one of the wisdom psalms, meaning it reads much like a proverb.
With any wisdom literature like this, it is important to recognize that they are general truths not guarantees from God (i.e. “generally speaking, if you do this, you can expect this, but that’s no guarantee either.”)
Proverbs and wisdom psalms are written to be memorable, so they can be easily committed to memory then practiced in a believer’s life.
Interestingly, it is an acrostic, meaning that each successive verse pair (roughly) begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
This was done to celebrate the gift of the Hebrew language, given by God to His people and to continually remember God’s provision for His people. That’s vital throughout this psalm, as we shall see.
The major focus of this psalm deals with a question that many throughout history have asked: why does it appear that the wicked prosper and God’s people suffer?
That question isn’t necessarily answered per se, instead David’s response is a better one, namely, what a faithful believer ought to do, even in the face of injustice.
How does all this relate to faithfulness?
It’s relatively easy to be faithful in the good times…it’s when difficult times come that faithfulness can, and often does, falter.
That is what David is ultimately addressing for Solomon, and that is the lesson we can take from it as well.
How can we live faithfully to Christ, even in times of difficulty?
Psalm 37:1-11.
Fret not...
Fret = “to burn, to get heated up.
Basically, in modern English: “Cool down and keep cool!” or “Chill out!”
Despite the fact that evildoers appear to prosper, God’s people must cool down, chill out, knowing that the evildoers will eventually be dealt with by God.
Instead, a believer is to:
Trust in the LORD
The idea being, instead of fretting over the injustice we see, or experience, we need to trust that God will ultimately bring about His will and purposes.
But what are we trusting when we say, “Trust in the LORD”?
Judgment for the wicked is assured...
OJ Simpson...
God has a purpose in allowing His people to experience trials, tribulation, and injustice...
God’s will vs. God’s purposes...
God has a better future for His people...

We live faithfully to Christ when we trust Him, regardless of life’s circumstances.

Do good...
One of the best ways to show our trust in the Christ is to do good despite our circumstances.
God made at least five covenants with Israel.
Some of His covenants were unconditional covenants, which meant that Israel was not obligated to do anything to receive God’s blessing, but God gave it unconditionally.
But, with a conditional covenant, there is a condition that Israel had to meet to receive the blessing of the covenant. For example:
Exodus 19:5–6 ESV
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
Part of the Abrahamic Covenant (a unconditional covenant) was the land, known as the Promised Land.
This covenant was unconditional, in that it would always be the Promised Land for Israel, but it didn’t guarantee that they would always possess the land either. In fact, if they sinned God would allow others to come a occupy the land.
But, the promise was that they would always be the rightful heirs of the land.
Thus, if the people would repent and turn back to Him, they would once again possess the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 30:1–5 (ESV)
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
Throughout this psalm, David talks about possessing the land, because for Israel there was a direct correlation between God’s blessing and possessing the Promised Land.
But, how does this connect with us as Christians? The promises to Israel are not necessarily the promises to the church. We were never promised a land.
But what we were promised is far better! And, it was told in the OT and revealed in the NT:
Jeremiah 31:31–34 (ESV)
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Hebrews 9:13–15 (ESV)
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
And here’s why this excites me so much: this too is an unconditional covenant. It’s not based on our works, but Jesus completed work on the cross. Therefore, the doing good for the believer is a result of what has already been done, not a way to receive a covenant blessing from God!

We live faithfully to Christ when we do good because of what He has done for us.

Delight yourself in the LORD...
Delight means to “to be brought up in luxury, to be pampered.”
But this isn’t a justification for selfishness, or earthly delight.
Within the context, David sees the desires of the person’s heart is to see evil doers not succeed.
Thus, the real call here is to find our greatest joy in life in the Lord Jesus Himself.
So often, we delight in the created more than the Creator, then wonder why we never feel completely satisfied.
I love how Warren Wiersbe put it: “To enjoy the blessings and ignore the Blesser is to practice idolatry. In Jesus Christ, we have all God’s treasures, and we need no other. If we truly delight in the Lord, then the chief desire of our heart will be to know Him better so we can delight in Him even more, and the Lord will satisfy that desire!”

We live faithfully to Christ when we find our delight in Christ.

What do you truly delight in? There’s no problem with finding joy in the things of this world.
The problem comes when our greatest delight is the things of this world and not our Lord Jesus. And, unfortunately, it happens all to easily!
What must I do to renew my delight in the Lord Jesus?
Illustration: Oasis Pastor’s Retreat...
The point? We delight in the Lord when we spend time with Him.
Three Points this morning:

We live faithfully to Christ when we trust Him, regardless of life’s circumstances.

We live faithfully to Christ when we do good because of what He has done for us.

We live faithfully to Christ when we find our delight in Christ.

Commit your way to Christ...
Patiently wait upon Christ...
Humble yourself before Christ...
Psalm 37:12-20.
The LORD knows the deeds of the wicked and the plight of His people...
God’s Answer: Verses 16-20
Psalm 37:21-31.
Live generously...
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Psalm 37:32-40.
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Psalm 37 deals with the age old issue of why God allows the wicked to succeed while the righteous suffer.
See Leviticus 26.
See Deuteronomy 27-30.
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So What?

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