Isaiah 61:10

December 30 2011 Wedding Sermon

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (v ¹⁰NASB)

Dear Jacqueline (Guihan guy'en) and Luis (Gonzalez), dear family and friends of Jacqueline and Luis, dear friends in Christ.

You two surely look great today. All decked out in a beautiful wedding dress. And what a handsome tux! You've never looked better, Luis, have you! Something tells me, Jackie, you didn't just pick out the first dress you saw. You both put a lot of preparation into the way you look tonight. In fact, everything is so beautiful today. Weddings are when we want to look our best.

Of course, we're not here tonight to celebrate how beautiful everything looks. There's a much more wonderful reason to celebrate. There's the joy we feel at your marriage. But there is another reason as well.

Our text tonight from Isaiah tells how the beauty of a bride and groom:

illustrates the real reason we all have to rejoice.

Isaiah writes in chapter 61:

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)

You hear what Isaiah is saying? He says that the way you two are dressed for your wedding tonight, illustrates the salvation God has given us at Christmas in his Son, Jesus Christ. He has clothed you with garments of salvation. As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and a bride adorns herself with her jewels, so God has wrapped you with a robe of righteousness. Tonight, you two are an illustration of what we look like to God through faith in Christ.

Everybody looks pretty good on his or her wedding day, but a lovely exterior can be nothing more than a façade. Inside each of us is a lot that isn't pretty. Inside us is sin—selfishness, thoughtlessness, scheming. The kinds of things you can't hide very long from a spouse. The kinds of things you'll both surely discover about each other. The kinds of things that can change beautiful wedding days into ugly scenes. Not pretty. You wouldn't want to stand up here today showing them off. Worse still, you wouldn't want to stand before God on the Last Day looking like that.

But Isaiah in our text tells us that the ugliness is not what God sees: "He has clothed me with garments of salvation, he has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness." Rather than standing before God with our dirty laundry hanging out, we wear the beautiful garments he has given us. Garments as beautiful, as handsome, as the outfits you two are wearing tonight.

The garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness God has given us is the beautiful appearance of Christ. At Christmas, we celebrate the fact that Jesus left the beauty of heaven to exchange places with us. Born in the humiliation of a barnyard, lived as a man, died on a cross, stripped of his dignity, it was the ugliest scene in history. But he did it so that we could wear his garments of salvation, his robe of righteousness. In God's eye, everyone who believes in Jesus has the appearance of Christ's perfect holiness. Christ is like a robe that covers our sin. By faith in him, we look gorgeous!—the way you do tonight.

This is the greatest reason we have to rejoice tonight! By just standing here today dressed as you are, you illustrate the salvation God has given us by Christ coming at Christmas.

Your standing here today is for more than just a beautiful appearance. It is more than a photo op. Your marriage should continue to be an illustration as you daily live out the salvation God has given you in Christ. As you live your lives in Christian love you are wearing the garment's of Christ's righteousness. As you, Jacqueline put your husband first, his feelings, his needs as your number one priority, and as you, Luis, put Jacqueline first, her needs, her feelings as your number one priority, you will be showing the love of Christ who put us first, ahead of himself, and made us his number one priority. Put on Christ, and never take him off.

It won't always be easy to be such a beautiful illustration. Just as every day isn't Christmas, every day of your marriage won't be your wedding day. You won't always be as considerate of each other. The ugly old sinner inside you will assert itself often. You'll want to have your own way. You'll say tactless things. You'll be bossy. You won't be able to keep up the appearances.

Fortunately, righteousness, salvation, is more than just appearances. God doesn't just cover up sin with Christ' holiness. He creates in us real holiness as well—a new man and a new woman. In this way he enables you to live in love and commitment and caring. The believer in you wishes two things most of all: to love God and to love each other.

God says the relationship between a husband and wife is an illustration of perfect holiness and the relationship between you and Christ. St. Paul says, "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her." God modeled human marriage after the relationship Christ has with us. Marriage is an illustration of the way God loves us—being totally committed to us, forgiving us in Christ, making us holy, spotless, righteous. When Christ washes away our sins and dresses us in those garments of his righteousness, husbands and wives continue to be perfect illustrations.

Jacqueline and Luis, it's exciting to see you two tonight "as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland...as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." And we all rejoice in the Lord as you illustrate the garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness God has given each one of us in Christ. That's our Merry Christmas, our blessed New Year! In fact, that's our blessed new life! Amen.