The following presentation is brought to you by Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed. Delivering today's message will be Dr. Richard Bacon. Now let us pray. Father we ask that thou wouldst Indeed, show forth and shower forth Thy blessings upon us, especially as we open Thy Word to learn of our Lord Jesus Christ and the attire of His Bride. For we ask this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. Please be seated. turn if you will to Psalm 45. Psalm 45 and basically it's my intention this morning to finish up that portion of the Psalm that we began to deal with last week. You may recall that Psalm 45 has in its title the name a song of loves because it has to do with the relationship between Christ and his church. And that relationship, of course, is covenantal, but it is a bridal relationship, a marriage relationship between Christ the bridegroom and his bride, the church, the invisible church, the elect of God. And we began looking last week at verses 10 through 15 after having spent several weeks, four I believe, looking at the bridegroom. We began looking last week at the bride or at the queen as she's styled here in this psalm. And one of the things that we pointed out at that time was that we do not want to so focus on the bride that we ignore the bridegroom. We do not want to focus in such a way on the church or on the elect that we ignore the one who chose her. And so we begin this week, or pick up this week, after looking at seven aspects of the church last week, we pick up with number eight this week, and Lord willing, we shall finish all the way through verse 15, they shall enter into the king's palace. Number eight, we want to look at the fact that her clothing, we're told here, her clothing is made of wrought gold or worked gold. Understand that to be like pounded gold. Don't think just of golden thread. Later on, it will talk about needlework. But for now, don't think about needlework. Think about gold filigree. thin, beaten, wrought gold wrought, r-o-u-g-h-t wrought gold like wrought iron wrought iron has been heated and then twisted heated and then pounded, heated and then worked so for those of us who read the King's English we understand that wrought is the past participle of the verb to work So work, worked, wrought. So her clothing is of wrought gold. And we see that in verse 13b. The last thing we looked at was the king's daughter is all glorious within. And we said there that whether that's talking about inside her or whether it's talking about her being inside the palace is neither here nor there. It's talking about hidden beauty. beauty that's not on the surface. It's not that she has a beautiful nose or beautiful eyes, although she does. The point is that she's beautiful with things that you don't see on the outside. Now we're told her clothing is of wrought gold and we think immediately, well that must have to do with something external since it's clothing. here's the point that we should understand that whatever talents we may have whatever natural abilities we may have although those natural abilities and those talents do come from God nevertheless we still have need of a garment to cover our depravity we can't say that a person is good just because he's good at something we are evil at heart. And so we need something to cover it. Well, what better thing to cover depravity than that which is the purest in the eyes of scripture, namely gold. In fact, gold is mentioned from the first page of scripture that the gold of that place was good. So there are some things that have intrinsic value, at least according to scripture. not that it has intrinsic value apart from who God is but God has interpreted it for us as having an intrinsic value. So we need a garment to cover our depravity and the garment that we have has been given to us by Christ and namely it is Christ's imputed righteousness. In fact if you turn to Revelation 3.18 we see that that very idea set forth there as he's counseling the people in Laodicea who were neither cold nor hot but rather they were lukewarm he says I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou mayest see And that is after he quotes them as having said that they were rich and had need of nothing and that they could see just fine. He tells them, no, the truth is, while you say you are rich, while you say you are increased with goods, while you say you have no need of nothing or you have need of nothing, and while you say that you these things, you don't know that the truth is that you're wretched and miserable and poor and naked and blind. So it is then with the gospel, if we clothe ourselves in anything other than the righteousness of Jesus Christ, it simply emphasizes our poverty, our misery, and our nakedness. The Queen here is represented not as being poor and miserable and naked, but as actually having clothing made of wrought gold. In Revelation chapter 3, he says, buy it from me. In Isaiah chapter 55, there is no Revelation 55, is there? In Isaiah chapter 55, he says, ho everyone that thirsteth, buy of me that which you get without price. Now, when we think of something as being without price, there may be a tendency to think of it as cheap. But what that means is just the opposite of cheap. When we say that something is priceless, we mean that something is so valuable that it's impossible to estimate a price for it. Some of you watched that quiz show, Antique Roadshow. And a couple of weeks ago there was a woman on Antique Roadshow that had an album of photographs of Abraham Lincoln and his entire cabinet and all the senators of that day. And each one of those photographs was autographed by the person in the picture. Yes, that's wow. So as the old They're not the game show host. I guess they're really the people playing the game. We're looking for a price for it. They couldn't find one because nothing like that had ever been sold before at auction. And so basically they were left without the ability to give her a price or an estimated price on that picture album. because it was priceless. It was so unique that you could not set a price on it. Now that's what the prophet means when he says, ho, everyone who thirsteth, come and buy of me without price. He's not saying that it's worth so little that I'm not going to put a value on it. He's saying it is worth so much that you can't put a value on it. You can't afford to pay what it has cost me to earn your salvation. So even in Isaiah 61 10, and if you will turn there as well, in Isaiah 61 10 we read I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation he hath covered me with the robes of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels so there we have the same thing set forth in the book of Isaiah What we have received from God is, in fact, more valuable than anything that we can ourselves provide, that we have been decked, if you will, with the righteousness, the robes of righteousness of Jesus Christ. And yet, as we saw in Isaiah 55, it is without money, it's without price, because it's priceless, not because it's cheap. So the clothing of wrought gold indicates that we are not to be clothed in our own righteousness. It indicates rather that we must be clothed in the righteousness of Christ if we would be His bride. Then moving on in Psalm 45, we see in the next verse it says that she shall be brought once again notice if you will the passive voice not she will bring herself or she will come of her own volition but rather she will be brought she shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework so though the bride price and incidentally when you see in the old not photographs but the old drawings of the bride being carried about with coins all over herself that is her dowry now I know that in the modern American mindset we think of the dowry as something that the bride brings to the to the table but biblically that's not so biblically it is the bride price it is what the groom brings to the wedding And the fact the very idea of a dowager comes from the same idea is someone, some woman who is now a widow and is living from the dowry that her husband brought to her at the beginning of the wedding. At the beginning of the marriage, I'm sorry. And those coins, those dowry coins, were those coins that were sewn into her clothing. So that wrought needlework is more than just embroidery. It is coins, or it represents coins, that were actually sewn into the fabric of her clothing because the price has been paid, the engagement has been entered, and the engagement token has been given and yet the marriage feast is for a future day. Today, while we no longer give coins to be sewn into, I mean it's not our custom in this country to give coins to be sewn into clothing, what do we give instead? Typically, a diamond ring. that is indicative of the engagement of the groom to provide for the bride. And so it's not a bad custom, it's not a biblical custom, but it's not a bad custom because of what that token represents. That token represents an engagement of the bride to belong to the groom and for the groom to provide for the bride in everything. However, when that engagement ring is given, the wedding vows have not yet been taken. Or the vows that have been taken are an engagement to be wed, they're not actual wedding vows. So the wedding will take place later, the marriage, if you will, begins at a later time. And we see that in Revelation 19, 9, where we have the marriage supper of the Lamb. The marriage supper was that time, if you will, not the, what would we compare it to today? The reception, I guess. Where the difference is, in our culture, the reception probably lasts a couple or three hours, whereas in biblical times, that marriage feast might have lasted for days. We see in Revelation Chapter 19 that the marriage feast is taking place at what appears to be a future date. And in Revelation Chapter 19, because the marriage feast is taking place, what we're seeing is the culmination of the church belonging to Christ. It's not as though we don't belong to Christ now, but we belong to Christ in a by way of engagement rather than by way of finality. Again, I want to be careful even by using the term finality as though there were some possibility of Christ not actually fulfilling His promise in this life. There is no possibility of Him failing to fulfill his promise, but the promise will be fulfilled in the future. In that sense, we have that same kind of anticipation that the Old Testament believer had. And some people refer to this as an aspect of already and not yet. that there is an already aspect to our marriage to Christ but there is also a not yet aspect to being fully and completely brought to his side in marriage. So, shall be brought. And again, I want to emphasize, if I may, the fact that she shall be brought, not she shall bring herself, or she shall make a decision to come, or she shall make a decision not to come. She shall be brought is true in this sense as well, that when we come to Jesus Christ, yes, by all means, it does look to us as though we have chosen Christ. And there's a sense in which we have. But the reason we chose Christ is because He first chose us and sent His Holy Spirit, if you will, the Friend of the Bridegroom, to change our hearts and bring us to Him, in the same way that Abraham sent Eleazar of Damascus to Paddan Aram in order to bring Rebekah to Isaac. Rebecca just did not just get up one morning and say, this would be a good day to visit Abraham and his son. I think I'll go marry one of them. No, she was keeping watch with her father until such time as Eleazar from Damascus came and got her on behalf of Abraham and Abraham's son Isaac. And the same thing is true of us. We do not come to Christ until the Holy Spirit, if you will, I hate to say it this way, but the servant of Christ comes to bring us to Him. Then notice number 10, that she shall be clothed in a raiment of needlework. before we saw wrought gold, but here we see raiment of needlework, meaning that when she is brought to the king, she's not brought in her natural clothing, in her everyday clothing, and the same thing is true of us. We carry many imperfections in our life today. Though we are justified, though we are adopted by Jesus Christ, nevertheless we confess that Sanctification is an ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, much needlework is left to be done. And because of that, the Holy Spirit is continuing to work in our lives. we carry many imperfections in our righteousness now and yet in the day that we belong to Christ in the day that we are finally his we shall have not only imputed righteousness but we shall be made perfectly holy in that day Ephesians 527 says it this way that there shall be no spot or wrinkle So if you think of a garment as being fully pressed, or if you think of a garment as having that needlework and yet is not poorly done, but well done, not having spot or wrinkle, Ephesians 5.27. In 1 Corinthians 15.54, I don't know why I got this out. I meant to get this out. No I didn't. I meant to bring another book and I forgot to bring it. That's what happened. In 1 Corinthians 15, 54 we're told that this mortal shall put on immortality and this corruption shall put on incorruption. In other words, there is a day coming in which the imperfections that we currently undergo in this life, even in our sanctification, will be done away with in a moment. And we shall be made perfectly holy not only in Christ's sight, but in reality. In fact, this inglorious shall put on glory. That is the nature of the glory that we shall receive from Christ, is that we shall put on immortality and we shall put on incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15, 54. 11, it says her companions shall be brought. Don't think of this as non-Christians. because no non-christian will be brought before Christ except for him to cast them into outer darkness. Rather, we should understand that the glorious state of the elect shall be shared by every true saint." So when we talk about the church's glory, we're not simply talking about something in the abstract. We're also talking about something in which every saint shall participate. We shall have glorious bodies. We shall be incorrupt. We shall be immortal. This will happen to every true saint. And here's what I mean by true saint, the elect when they've been converted. So though our sanctification is the work of God's Holy Spirit, yet it results, and this is where I was going to take you to the shorter catechism, it results in lives that are more and more conformed to the image of God. So there is a more and more aspect to our sanctification even in this life. And that's where the needlework is taking place. But when we are fully clothed in that needlework at death, then we shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him. We shall see Him as He is, for we shall be like Him. And we will be fully conformed at that point, morally speaking, ethically speaking, epistemologically speaking, another one of those five dollar words, the way we know, the way we learn, the way we understand to the image of God. In other words, we will be enabled to fully think Christ's thoughts after Him. Every thought will be fully brought into the obedience of Christ. And then twelfth and finally, and some of you are just delighted to hear the word finally, this is the last number that we're going to have in this series of numbers 12th and finally we see this term that she'll be brought or her companions rather shall be brought with gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought as they enter into the king's palace well this is that enjoying of God to all eternity that we read about in Shorter Catechism number 38 Remember the first question of our catechism is what is man's chief end? And we learn that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Then when we get to the end of the first part of the catechism, we find out that one of the benefits or the key benefit that we receive at the resurrection is not only a glorified body, but also that He shall receive us to the full enjoying of Him to all eternity. Well, that's the gladness and rejoicing that's spoken of here. This is the enjoyment of God forever. This is the life of which this life is a mere foretaste. And so, is death sad? Yes, but not in the same way that it is for the unbeliever. The reason there is a sadness for the believer is because we shall be separated, at least for a time, from those who go on to the next life ahead of us. But we do not mourn as those who have no hope. we do not mourn thinking that well we put him in the ground the same way that we put a dog or a dead bird into the ground and therefore that's all there is to his life rather we understand that for the christian there is something that follows and what follows for the christian is first of all being perfected in holiness but then at the resurrection being openly justified, openly vindicated in the presence of all creation to the full enjoying of God forever. Let's stand and call upon the Lord in prayer. You see, it really was finally. Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast granted to us such a life as the one is that we have. We pray that as we continue in one more week to have lessons from Psalm 45, that thou would show us Christ. Even as we behold the bride, we pray that we would see in her the reflection of our Savior, our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. For we ask this in Jesus Christ's name, Amen. You have been listening to a sermon by Dr. Richard Bacon of Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed in Mesquite, Texas. For more information on FPCR Ministries, visit our website at www.fpcr.org or contact us by mail at 8301 Lakeview Parkway, Suite 111-164, Rowlett, Texas 75088.