Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Church's Marriage to Her Sons, and to Her God (Isaiah 62:4-5) | Jonathan Edwards

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The Church's Marriage to Her Sons, and to Her God (Isaiah 62:4-5) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Picture the 16th century in Europe.
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  You are standing in a grandstone cathedral in Austria.
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  Oh. Wow.
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  Yeah, the air is thick with incense, the choir is singing,
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  and the entire Royal Court is gathered in their finest silk
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  and velvet. A Princess is walking down the
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  aisle. OK, I can picture her.
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  She reaches the altar, the Bishop speaks the vows, and a
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  man places a heavy gold ring on her finger.
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  They are pronounced husband and wife.
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  But here is the bizarre catch, right The man standing next to
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  her is not her husband. He is an ambassador.
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  Oh, right. The actual groom is the King of
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  Spain, sitting in a castle 1000 miles away.
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  They have never even met. Yes, the proxy marriage.
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  It is a fascinating piece of European history.
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  It really is. The ambassador acts entirely in
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  the name of his sovereign. He makes the vows, he signs the
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  legal documents, and the union is completely legally binding.
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  Right, but everyone in that cathedral understands the man
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  exchanging the vows is just a conduit.
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  The true husband wears a crown in another country.
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  I mean, that just feels so foreign to modern sensibilities,
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  you know? You would think a marriage
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  requires the actual couple to be in the same room you.
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  Would think so, yes. But this specific historical
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  oddity is actually the perfect lens for understanding what
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  happens every single Sunday in your local church.
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  So welcome to reform thinking. It is great to be here.
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  Today we are taking a deep dive into a sermon by the 18th
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  century theologian Jonathan Edwards.
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  It is titled The Church's Marriage to Her Sons and To Her
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  God. That is a very long title, which
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  is typical for Edwards. It is, yeah.
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  Our mission free today is to unpack Edwards exposition of the
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  prophet Isaiah, specifically chapter 62, verses 4:00 and
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  5:00. We are going to extract the core
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  theological insights regarding the spiritual covenant that
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  exists between a local congregation, their pastor, and
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  their supreme Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.
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  To frame our discussion properly, we need to establish
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  the theological guardrails Edwards operated within.
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  Right, context is key. Definitely, our conversation
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  will strictly adhere to Protestant Christian thought and
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  Reformed theology. We will look at this text
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  through the lens of the Westminster Confession, which
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  provides a very specific framework.
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  And for those listening, that means we are dealing with some
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  very specific definitions. Yes, the Westminster Confession
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  teaches that God has an elect, that is, a specific people
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  chosen before time began. It also details the covenant of
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  grace, which is God's binding promise to save sinners through
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  faith in Christ rather than by their own works.
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  And it places a massive white on the ordained ministry.
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  Everything Edwards argues in this sermon is built upon those
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  theological bedrock principles. He assumes God uses appointed
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  human means to bring his chosen people into fellowship with
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  himself. Before we jump fully into all of
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  that, I think we should set a quick ground rule for our
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  dialogue today. Sure.
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  What did you have in mind? Well, we are talking about
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  highly respectful covenants, so I think we should explicitly
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  ensure we take turns speaking and never interrupt one another.
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  Just keep a steady, respectful, conversational rhythm.
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  I agree completely, no interrupting, we will just take
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  our time and walk through this together.
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  Perfect. So we are dealing with weighty,
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  glorious truths. Let us look at the text itself.
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  Isaiah 62. The prophet writes.
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  For as a young man, Mary the Virgin, so shall thy sons marry
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  thee. And as the Bridegroom rejoiceth
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  over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
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  Edward starts by clearing away a very common misunderstanding of
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  this prophecy in his day and even today.
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  Many readers look at the book of Isaiah and assume this is a
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  literal geopolitical promise to the Jewish people.
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  Like a real estate promise. Right.
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  Yeah, They read it as a guarantee about returning from
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  their physical captivity in Babylon to the physical dirt of
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  Canaan. Which is how a lot of people
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  read the Old Testament prophets in general.
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  They do. The assumption is that the
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  promise means the people will be reunited with their geographical
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  hills, valleys and rivers, finding comfort in the literal
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  landscape the way a young man finds comfort in his.
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  I have to say, that interpretation always seemed a
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  bit clunky to me. Well, God is not talking to
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  dirt, you know The language of the text points to a
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  relationship with a people, not a piece of real estate.
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  To say a guy is going to marry the grass and the rocks just
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  feels awkward. Edwards completely agrees with
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  you. He just outright rejects the
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  literal geographical interpretation.
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  He explains that the word land in this passage operates as a
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  metonomy OK. Let us pause right there and
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  define that for anyone who skipped high school English.
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  Fair enough. A metonomy is when you use a
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  related word to represent a larger concept, right?
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  Like saying the White House released a statement when you
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  really mean the president's administration.
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  Spot on. Yes, in Scripture the physical
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  land frequently stands in for the people who inhabit it.
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  When God says thy land shall be married, he is speaking to the
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  Church. He is addressing the mystical
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  collective person of the Church. That makes a lot more sense.
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  It does. To imagine the literal soil of
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  Canaan as a bride engaging in a wedding ceremony is an unnatural
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  figure of speech that the Bible simply does not use.
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  But the church being represented as a bride, that imagery is
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  everywhere from Genesis to the Book of Revelation.
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  It is all over the place, yeah. So Edwards demonstrates that
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  this prophecy points far beyond a historical return from
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  Babylon. It envisions the Christian
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  Church in its most perfect and glorious state on earth.
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  Like a future state. Yes, a time when the Church is
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  not confined to the Mediterranean, but fills the
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  whole globe, making all lands holy.
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  Edwards then introduces what he calls a mystery.
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  He lists these incredible scriptural paradoxes to prove
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  his point about the nature of the Church and her relationship
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  to Christ and to her ministers. He loves a good paradox.
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  He really does. He notes that Christ is David's
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  Lord, but also David's son. Christ is the root of David, but
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  also the offspring of David. Believers are Christ's mother,
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  according to the Song of Solomon, but also his spouse,
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  his sister, and his child. And then, you know, he drops
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  this one. Ministers are the fathers of the
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  Church, but they are also her sons.
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  Those paradoxes forced the reader to stop thinking in flat
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  biological terms and start thinking in spiritual realities.
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  The Apostle Paul does this very thing.
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  Oh, where does Paul do that? Well, in his letter to the
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  Galatians, Paul says he is travailing in birth with them,
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  making him their mother. Oh, right, the childbirth
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  metaphor. Yes, but to the Corinthians he
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  speaks as their father. Edwards uses this biblical
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  pattern of layered metaphors to explain Isaiah's phrase.
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  So shall thy sons marry thee. OK, break that down for me.
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  Who are the sons? The sons are the faithful
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  pastors, the ministers of the gospel.
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  They are raised up from within the church, birthed by the
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  gospel. The church proclaims, making
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  them her sons. OK, I follow that.
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  But they are appointed to guide and protect her, which puts them
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  in this unique conjugal like role.
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  Hold on. I need to push back on the logic
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  of that specific metaphor. Sure, go ahead, if the minister
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  is the son born out of the church, but he's also marrying
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  the church. I mean, that sounds borderline
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  Oedipal. How does Edwards avoid making
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  this metaphor incredibly weird and uncomfortable?
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  That tension is anticipated by Edwards, and it is where you're
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  opening analogy of the royal ambassador resolves the issue.
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  The proxy marriage. Yes, Edwards introduces the
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  primary mechanism for understanding this text, which
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  is the proxy. The pastor does not marry the
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  church as a competitor to Jesus Christ.
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  Because that would make the church an adulteress.
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  Exactly. The Church is not an adulteress.
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  She has only one true husband. Ministers espouse the Church
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  entirely as Christ's ambassadors.
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  They are sent forth by the King to be married to the Church in
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  the King's name. That makes so much more sense.
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  It mirrors that Prince marrying a foreign lady by proxy.
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  The ambassador stands at the altar.
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  He makes the vows, but he does it exclusively in the name of
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  his master. The entire goal of the
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  ambassador's role is to bring the bride into a true conjugal
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  relation with the distant sovereign.
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  That completely reframes the concept and it perfectly mirrors
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  Second Corinthians Chapter 11, verse 2.
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  Oh, definitely. The apostle Paul writes the
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  Corinthian church, I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy,
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  for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you
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  as a chaste virgin to Christ. That is the verse, yes.
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  So Paul acts as the stand in He feels the jealousy when the
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  church strays, which is the emotion of a husband protecting
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  his marriage. Yet he explicitly states his
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  goal is to present them to Christ.
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  Right? What Isaiah says the sons will
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  marry the church. He is talking about faithful
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  pastors taking on this ambassadorial role.
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  They step into the office of the proxy.
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  Which brings us to the practical reality of how this proxy
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  relationship functions day-to-day.
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  Edward spends a significant portion of the sermon detailing
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  the due manner in which a minister must take up this
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  office. What does he mean by do manner?
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  Well, when a pastor is united with a congregation, it cannot
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  be a matter of external denominational order alone.
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  Having the ecclesiastical paperwork correct and the
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  ordination certificate signed is fine, but it is not the
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  substance of the marriage. You need more than just a piece
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  of paper. Right.
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  The do manner requires holy aims, pure intentions and proper
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  frames of mind from both the minister and the people.
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  If we look at the historical context of 18th century New
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  England, the church was deeply integrated into the town
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  structure. It was the center of everything.
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  Yeah, becoming a pastor was a respectable, stable career.
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  You got a Parsonage, a salary and social standing.
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  So Edwards levels a very sharp critique regarding improper
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  motives. It really does not hold back.
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  No, he insists, this pastoral union must be pure from filthy
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  lucre. The minister cannot view the
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  congregation as a source of financial greed or worldly
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  advantage. And that critique translates
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  perfectly to any era. Today.
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  It might not be a town Parsonage.
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  It might be in pursuit of book deals, speaking engagements or
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  social media clout. Oh, absolutely, the platform
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  building. Right.
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  If a man enters the pulpit looking to extract resources or
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  fame from the congregation, he is not acting as a faithful
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  proxy. He is exploiting the bride.
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  The critique cuts both ways, though Edwards warns the
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  congregation against being driven by carnal affections.
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  Yes, the congregation has a responsibility too.
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  He specifically calls out a church becoming enamored by a
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  preacher's Florida eloquence or worldly wisdom.
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  If a church hires a pastor just because he gives a slick,
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  entertaining speech or because he looks good on a video camera,
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  they act like a bride choosing a husband based on a superficial
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  infatuation rather than holy virtue.
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  The congregation must receive the pastor as the messenger of
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  the Lord of Hosts coming on a divine errand.
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  This creates A2 way St. a mutual covenant.
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  A mutual covenant. A minister solemnly vows to
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  devote his time, his physical strength and his very life to
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  the flock. He agrees to spend and be spent
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  for them as long as God's Providence continues the union
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  and. What about the congregation?
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  What is their end of the deal? The congregation, in return,
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  engages in a holy covenant to subject themselves to his
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  spiritual care, treating his pastoral oversight as an
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  extension of Christ's oversight. So if this is a marriage, what
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  does the actual day-to-day relationship look like?
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  Edwards outlines what he calls the concomitants of this union.
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  The accompanying factors, basically.
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  Right, The things that naturally grow out of a healthy pastoral
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  marriage. What does Edwards point to as
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  the primary evidence of a healthy proxy marriage?
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  The first concomitant is joy and helpfulness.
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  The pastor delights in the labor.
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  He is not dragging his feet or viewing the congregation as a
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  burden. That is refreshing.
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  It is, and the people make the work easy for him.
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  Edwards cites a fantastic Old Testament parallel from the Book
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  of Ezra, chapter 10, verse 4. Oh, what is the context there?
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  The people see Ezra the priest bowed down under the weight of a
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  massive, difficult situation. Instead of criticizing him or
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  waiting for him to fix it alone, they say, Arise, for this matter
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  belongeth to thee. We also will be with thee.
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  Be of good courage and do it. I love that visual.
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  They recognize his leadership. They say this matter belongeth
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  to thee, but they immediately offer their absolute support.
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  They step right up to help. Yeah, they spare no effort to
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  make his outward circumstances comfortable.
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  They free him from distracting cares and pinching necessities
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  so he can focus on his spiritual work.
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  I mean, it is the opposite of the modern gig economy mindset
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  where we expect a professional to provide a service while we
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  passively consume it. That helpfulness breeds the
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  second commitment, which is mutual sympathy.
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  In a healthy pastoral proxy marriage, the minister and the
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  congregation share a nervous system.
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  A shared nervous system. I like that phrasing, yeah.
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  When the flock is spiritually wounded in darkness or facing
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  physical tragedy, the pastor bleeds.
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  He feels their wounds. When they prosper, he is
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  comforted. That reminds me of Paul again.
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  Yes, Paul says in Second Corinthians, who is weak and I
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  am not weak, Who is offended and I burn not The pastor does not
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  operate as a detached academic dispensing theological advice.
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  He is intimately tied to their spiritual state.
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  So what are the tangible fruits of this shared nervous system?
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  Edwards points to both outward and inward provision.
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  Let us unpack the inward provision first.
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  OK, so the minister provides spiritual food.
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  As Christ's steward, he brings out of his treasure things new
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  and old, providing meat in due season, spiritually clothing the
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  souls of the people with the gospel.
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  And then there is the outward provision.
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  Right, the congregation provides for the pastor outwardly.
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  Edwards uses the phrasing that they spread his table.
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  Meaning they take care of his physical needs.
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  Exactly. But the most striking fruit
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  Edwards mentions is spiritual offspring.
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  This union yields a race of newborn children of God.
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  This is the spiritual reproduction of the local
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  church. When a faithful pastor preaches
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  the gospel to a congregation that eagerly receives it and
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  supports him, the natural result is new converts.
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  New believers being brought in. Yes, these new believers are
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  described in Scripture both as the children of the minister,
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  because he begot them through the preaching of the Word, and
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  as the children of the Church, the mother who brings them forth
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  and nourishes them at her breasts.
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  It paints evangelism and discipleship as organic growth
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  stemming directly from a healthy local church covenant.
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  It really does. It is not a corporate strategy.
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  It is a family growing. So if the pastoral relationship
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  is just the proxy, if the guy in the pulpit is just the
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  ambassador stepping in for the wedding, we need to examine the
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  king whom this ambassador represents.
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  We have to look past the shadow to the reality.
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  Right, the local church is just the shadow.
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  Edwards makes a staggering assertion here.
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  He states that even the happiest earthly marriage you can imagine
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  is but a faint shadow of the union between Christ and the
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  Church. That is a big claim.
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  It is think of the most perfect human couple.
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  Edwards argues that even if that bride and bridegroom possess the
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  unfallen innocence of Adam and Eve in the garden, and even if
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  they had the absolute perfection of the angels in heaven, their
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  union would still be a partial, faint shadow compared to what
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  Christ shares with his elect. That completely flips our normal
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  way of thinking. We usually think of human
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  marriage is the baseline reality and then we use it as a metaphor
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  to try and understand God. We tend to work from the ground
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  up, yeah. But Edwards is saying human
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  marriage is not the ultimate reality.
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  Christ and the church are the ultimate reality.
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  God invented human marriage, biology and romance specifically
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  to give humans a vocabulary to comprehend the Gospel.
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  That is the reformed understanding of typologies.
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  Everything on earth points upward to a heavenly reality.
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  OK, so how does he describe this heavenly reality?
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  Edwards breaks down the mutual joy of this heavenly bond based
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  on the text. The first facet is mutual
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  choosing. Out of all the beings in the
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  universe, Christ chooses the elect.
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  He does not choose the angels, right?
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  Right. He does not take hold of the
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  angelic nature. He takes hold of the seed of
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  Abraham. He chooses fallen humans.
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  The Church, in response, rejects all rivals.
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  She parts with the whole world, abandoning her love for sin and
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  worldly status for her Pearl of great price.
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  Following that mutual choosing is the concept of peculiar
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  propriety, which means special ownership.
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  Yes, peculiar as in special or distinct.
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  Out of all the things in the universe that belong to God, you
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  know the galaxies, the angels, the mountains.
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  The Saints belong to Christ in a unique way.
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  They are the first fruits of his creatures.
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  They are his peculiar treasure. And it goes both ways.
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  It does. Christ gives himself wholly to
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  the Church with all his dignity and glory.
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  He is fully possessed by her, which is why the Church can say
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  in the Son of Solomon, My beloved is mine and I am his.
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  Then there is the facet of rejoicing in beauty.
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  Edwards leans heavily into the striking imagery of the Song of
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  Solomon. He says Christo's heart is
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  literally ravished by the beauty of the churches graces.
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  That is an intense word, Ravish. Very intense.
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  Christ looks at the virtues he himself has placed in the
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  believers, and he is captivated by them.
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  Meanwhile, the Church solaces herself in the light of the Sun
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  of Righteousness. She rejoices in His divine
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  beauty. And that leads to the next
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  facet. Yes, this leads to sweet
• 17:15
  conversation and communion. They eat at Christ's table
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  together, they drink from the river of his pleasures, and the
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  church delights in the sweetness of His voice.
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  OK, I have to stop you there because there was a massive
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  theological tension staring us in the face.
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  I had a feeling you might bring this up.
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  I mean, Edward says Christ leveled himself to be a brother
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  and companion to the elect. He talks about Christ's heart
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  being ravished by humans. How do we reconcile this
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  intense, almost scandalous intimacy with the strict
• 17:45
  Reformed view of God's absolute sovereignty, His Holiness, and
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  his unapproachable majesty? It sounds like a contradiction.
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  It really does. How can the sovereign of the
• 17:55
  universe be leveled to a companion or moved by flawed
• 17:58
  creatures? The resolution to that tension
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  lies entirely in the Incarnation and the concept of imputed
• 18:03
  righteousness. Let us start with the
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  incarnation. OK, regarding the incarnation,
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  the Creator becoming a preacher is the ultimate proof of his
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  sovereignty. Only a God of absolute infinite
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  might could choose to condescend so far without losing his deity.
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  Because a lesser being would just lose their status.
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  Exactly. He leveled himself by taking on
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  human nature, not by diminishing his divine nature.
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  He fought with principalities, he bled, and he absorbed the
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  infinite wrath of God as a man. It is staggering when you put it
• 18:32
  like that. The fact that the Lord of Glory
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  chose to become a companion to fallen humans is the supreme
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  expression of His infinite benevolence.
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  It displays His Majesty in a way that raw, distant authority
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  never could. His sovereign choice was to
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  lower himself, to lift His bride up.
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  And what about his heart being ravished by the church's beauty?
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  How does a holy God look at a sinful church and see beauty?
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  Because I mean, we are not naturally beautiful in a
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  spiritual sense. But at all.
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  That is where imputed righteousness comes in.
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  Christ does not look at the church's raw, sinful state and
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  call it beautiful. He does not just ignore the sin.
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  No, He washes the bride in his own blood.
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  He clothes her in his own perfect righteousness.
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  When Christ looks at the church, He is seeing the reflection of
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  His own perfect grace taking root in her.
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  Oh, I see. He is ravished by the very
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  beauty he purchased and implanted in her.
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  That makes perfect sense. So, having established the
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  staggering nature of this eternal marriage, when does this
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  joy actually happen in time and space?
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  Are we just waiting for heaven? Yeah.
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  Are believers just waiting around for heaven?
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  Or are there seasons where this joy breaks into the present?
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  Edwards is very careful to breakdown the specific seasons
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  where this joy is experienced. It happens in distinct stages
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  throughout history and in the life of the individual.
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  What is the first stage? The first stage is the day of
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  conversion. Edwards describes this as the
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  betrothal. When a Sinner is converted.
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  It is the day of Christ's espousals.
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  It is the Good Shepherd finding the lost sheep and calling his
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  friends to rejoice. Edwards points to the Philippian
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  jailer in the book of Acts for this.
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  Yes, that is a prime example. This was a man who was ready to
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  kill himself because he thought his prisoners had escaped.
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  Paul stops him, preaches the gospel, and the text says he
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  rejoiced with his whole house the moment he believed.
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  He went from despair to immediate joy.
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  Right, that initial saving faith, that explosive
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  realization of grace, is the moment the proxy rang is placed
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  on the finger. But it does not stop at
• 20:31
  individual conversion. Edwards talks about outpourings
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  of the Spirit. These are times of remarkable
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  revival for the Church collectively.
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  And Edwards lived through one of the biggest ones in history.
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  Yes, keep in mind Edwards was a primary figure in the First
• 20:45
  Great Awakening, so he saw this first hand.
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  He compares these seasons to the joy in the city of Samaria when
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  Philip preached, or the massive feast of Pentecost where
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  thousands of believers ate their meat with gladness and
• 20:59
  singleness of heart. Huge community events.
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  Yes, these are seasons where Christ visits His Saints with
• 21:05
  special loving kindness, bringing them near and
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  refreshing their hearts with divine communications on a mass
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  scale. From those historical
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  outpourings, Edwards moves to a very specific eschatological
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  hope. He speaks of the latter day
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  glory. Can you unpack what Edwards
• 21:22
  believed about the future of the Church?
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  He was not a pessimist about history, was he?
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  Not at all, Edwards held a view called Post Millennialism.
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  OK, what does that entail? Well, unlike people who think
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  the world will just get worse and worse until Jesus returns to
• 21:35
  rescue a tiny defeated remnant, Edwards believed the church was
• 21:38
  going to successfully Christianize the globe.
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  So he expected victory within history.
• 21:44
  Yes, he believed the Holy Spirit would be poured out in such a
• 21:47
  massive way that the gospel would conquer nations, leading
• 21:51
  to a golden age of peace and spiritual prosperity before the
• 21:54
  end of the world. He points to the Book of
• 21:56
  Revelation for that. He does.
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  He references Revelation 19, seeing a future era on earth
• 22:01
  where the voice of weeping is heard no more.
• 22:04
  Pure ministers feed the pulpits, and the earth is filled with the
• 22:07
  knowledge of the Lord. But even that golden age on
• 22:10
  Earth is not the end of the timeline.
• 22:12
  No, it is just a precursor. The final stage is the
• 22:15
  resurrection morning. This is the ultimate
• 22:18
  consummation of the marriage. At the glorious appearing of
• 22:22
  Jesus Christ, the entire elect church, complete as to every
• 22:26
  individual member, with resurrected bodies and perfected
• 22:29
  souls, will ascend to meet the Lord in the air.
• 22:32
  That is the big wedding day. Right.
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  The church will be presented to the Father, totally free from
• 22:37
  all spots or wrinkles, swimming in the ocean of his love.
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  There will be no more distance, no more need for proxy
• 22:43
  ambassador. The King himself will be there.
• 22:45
  That transition from the proxy to the king brings us to the
• 22:48
  final section of Edward's sermon.
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  This is the direct charge to the minister and the congregation.
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  We have to remember the context of when he delivered this.
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  Yes, all of this high soaring theology about the eternal
• 23:01
  marriage of the Lamb has a very practical boost on the ground
• 23:04
  application. Edwards preached this specific
• 23:07
  sermon at an actual ordination service.
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  Right. A real man stepping into a real
• 23:11
  pulpit. Exactly.
• 23:13
  A real man was stepping into a real pulpit in front of a real
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  congregation. Edwards grounds all this theory
• 23:19
  by examining the immense value of the bride.
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  Christ paid an infinite price to obtain this joy.
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  The language Edwards uses here is incredibly intense.
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  He says. The creation of the universe was
• 23:30
  subordinate to the work of redemption.
• 23:32
  Let us think about the weight of that statement.
• 23:34
  God did not create the world, watch humanity fall into sin,
• 23:38
  and then accidentally need a backup plan to save it.
• 23:41
  He created the physical universe specifically as a stage so that
• 23:44
  the eternal Son of God could obtain a spouse and pour out His
• 23:47
  grace. The cross was the plan from the
• 23:49
  beginning. Yes, Christ encountered the
• 23:52
  armies of hell. He absorbed the infinite wrath
• 23:55
  of God alone to rescue his captive bride.
• 23:58
  Think about the gravity this adds to the minister's calling.
• 24:01
  How can a pastor be lazy or self-serving or looking for
• 24:05
  worldly applause when the people sitting in the pews were
• 24:08
  purchased by the blood of the Son of God?
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  You cannot view them as a stepping stone.
• 24:13
  No, it demands absolute fidelity.
• 24:15
  A proxy cannot play games with the bride that the king died to
• 24:19
  secure. But it also confers an
• 24:22
  incredible honor upon the faithful.
• 24:23
  Minister Edwards points out a fascinating distinction between
• 24:27
  angels and ministers. This is one of my favorite
• 24:29
  points he makes. Angels are magnificent, powerful
• 24:32
  beings, but they only function as ministering spirits.
• 24:36
  They act as attendance at the wedding, but faithful human
• 24:39
  pastors are given a higher honor because they are actual members
• 24:42
  of the bride herself. At the final wedding feast, the
• 24:45
  pastor shares in the joy, not just as a guest or a waiter, but
• 24:48
  as a principal member of the bride.
• 24:50
  Edwards compares them to an eye or hand of the human body.
• 24:54
  They are part of the body. Yes, they participate in the
• 24:57
  bride's joy directly. They are saved by the exact same
• 25:01
  grace they preach to the congregation.
• 25:03
  To bring this home for the congregation sitting in the
• 25:05
  pews, Edwards uses a brilliant analogy for the Book of Genesis.
• 25:09
  He points to the story of Abraham's servant going to find
• 25:12
  a wife for Isaac. In this analogy, the servant
• 25:15
  acts as the pastor, Isaac represents Christ, and Rebecca
• 25:19
  represents the local church. It lines up perfectly.
• 25:22
  It really does. Edwards urges the congregation
• 25:25
  to treat their new pastor exactly as Rebecca and her
• 25:28
  family treated Abraham's servant.
• 25:31
  They need to provide lodging, show hospitality, and welcome
• 25:34
  him by saying, Come in, thou blessed of the Lord.
• 25:37
  The congregation must sustain the man sent to espouse them to
• 25:40
  the king. Edwards is quick to show that
• 25:42
  outward hospitality is secondary, though.
• 25:44
  It is not just about being nice, right?
• 25:46
  A congregation's true duty is not just providing A Parsonage
• 25:49
  and being polite to the pastor at potlucks.
• 25:51
  The main thing is to listen to the servants message.
• 25:54
  Because the servant has a mission.
• 25:56
  Exactly. Rebecca heard about Isaac from
• 25:58
  the servant. She believed the report, and she
• 26:01
  yielded to the suit. She agreed to leave her old
• 26:04
  attachments, forsake her own country, and follow that servant
• 26:07
  across a harsh wilderness to finally meet Isaac face to face.
• 26:12
  That is the core application for any local church.
• 26:15
  A congregations primary duty is to yield to the gospel the
• 26:18
  pastor preaches. They have to pack up and move,
• 26:20
  spiritually speaking. Right.
• 26:22
  They must leave behind their worldly sins, abandoned their
• 26:25
  idols, and follow the biblical instruction of the proxy across
• 26:28
  the wilderness of this life solely to pursue Christ.
• 26:31
  The pastor's only job is to guide them safely to the groom.
• 26:34
  So what does this all mean for you, the listener?
• 26:36
  We want to leave you with a final concept to Mull over on
• 26:39
  your own. Something to take away.
• 26:40
  Yes, if the local church and its pastoral leadership are quite
• 26:44
  literally the rehearsal and the proxy for the eternal marriage
• 26:48
  of the Lamb, how should that alter the way you view every
• 26:52
  single mundane Sunday gathering? It changes everything.
• 26:55
  You go into a building, you sing songs, you listen to a man
• 26:57
  speak. It can feel incredibly routine.
• 27:00
  It often does feel routine. But if the person preaching is
• 27:03
  acting as the friend of the bridegroom, an ambassador sent
• 27:06
  by the king to prepare you for an eternal consummation, how
• 27:10
  does that change your posture? Think about times of church
• 27:13
  discipline or theological disagreement.
• 27:16
  Or even simply shaking the pastor's hand at the door.
• 27:19
  You are not just interacting with an employee of a nonprofit
• 27:23
  organization. You are not just critiquing a
• 27:25
  public speaker. You are interacting with the
• 27:28
  proxy of the king. You are the bride getting ready
• 27:30
  for the wedding. Let that reality shape your
• 27:32
  Sundays.