This sermon delves into the biblical perspective on marriage, highlighting the typology of Christ and the Church as the ultimate union. It emphasizes the importance of only that which comes from Christ being united with Him, exploring the ongoing process of salvation in spirit, soul, and body. The sermon concludes with a call to readiness for the imminent return of the Lord and the significance of being prepared for His coming.

Genesis, the first book in the Bible. Genesis chapter 2. We read from verse 21 to 24. Genesis chapter 2 verse 21. And Jehovah Elohim called a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up flesh in its stead. And Jehovah Elohim built the rib that he had taken from man into a woman and brought him to man. And man said, This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This shall be called woman, because this was taken out of a man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Shall we have a word of prayer? Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee that in the first day of the new year, we can come together to remember Thee at our table. Lord, we know that Thou art here. Thou art with us, and we just commit our time into Your hand and pray that Thy word will come forth from Thee to each and every one of us. Do open our hearts that we may be able to hear what Thou does desire to say to us. Lord, we commit this time into Your hand. Glorify Your Son, we ask in Thy name. Amen. I'm going to speak of marriage this morning, but it is not a marriage in the world. We are going to see the marriage in the Word of God. When you open the Bible, and if you have read through the Bible, you will realize that the Bible begins with marriage, and it ends with marriage. So marriage is a big topic in the Scripture, but of course it is not a marriage of this world. It is a marriage between Christ and His Church. Even before time, if we may say there was a council among the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the Father loved His Son so much, He wanted to do something special for His Son. He wanted to create the universe. He wanted to create man, and to give man to His beloved Son. But of course God, being omniscient, He knows what will happen. So why He was hesitating, if we may use the human words, about what He wanted to do. His son stepped forward and said, Father, if this is your will, go ahead. I'm willing to come to this world and to save man, so that man can be united with Me. And it is on that basis that God began to create. Genesis 1.1 says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This was the beginning of creation. But this is not the world that we know today. May we say this is the former world. Because when God created in the beginning, He did not create man. The highest of His creation were angels. But unfortunately an archangel, Lucifer, rebelled against God. He wanted to be equal with God. Or to put it another way, he wanted to take the place of the Son of God. And because of his sin, he was dismissed from heaven. And most likely, at that time, the earth was under his control. And that's the reason why the earth entered into judgment. It was covered with water. We do not know how long the former earth was covered with water. But we know that in human history, there was an ice age. During that ice age, our earth was covered with water. In other words, it was under judgment of God. But then, we do not know after how long the Spirit of God began to brood over the earth. In other words, God was to restore the earth to be habitable. So in Genesis chapter 1, that chapter, in the six days, God restored the earth to be habitable. It was on the last day, the sixth day, that God began to create man. And from the Bible, we know man was created as a tripod. God is a tripod. So he created man a tripod, spirit, soul, and body. God made the red earth a body. So our body is related to the earth around us. It gives us world consciousness. And into that body, God breathed his breath of life. And as this breath of life came into the nostrils of man, man was given a spirit. Because God is spirit, and he made man with a spirit. And as the spirit came in touch with the body, there came forth the soul. So a man is a tripod, spirit, soul, and body. God is spirit. And God gave man a spirit so that man can communicate with God. It is with man's spirit that he can contact God, gave him God consciousness. And when a spirit enters that body, not only that body becomes alive, but we so also see a third element came into being. That is the human soul. So with our spirit, we can contact God. With our body, we can contact the world around us. And with the soul, we can contact ourselves. This is the making of man. And after God created man, he brought all the animals of the land and of the fowl of the air to man. And the Bible said man gave all these animals and all these fowls their names. But he couldn't find his counterpart, his light. And for this reason, God put man to sleep. And God gave an operation. This is the first recorded operation in the Bible. But it was a painless operation. God put man to sleep. And then God took something out of man. Now in the scripture today, we find God took a rib out of man. But actually in the original, it just says God took something out of man. And with that something, God built a woman. Then he led the woman to the man. As the man saw the woman, he said, this is bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh. In other words, this is me. This is I myself. So man was united to man, to woman as one. This is the story of the first couple. Now our emphasis is not in the making of man and woman. Our emphasis is in its typology. Because here we define man as a type of Christ. And a woman is a type of the church. So in God's purpose, the church is to be united to Christ. It comes out of Christ, and it goes back to Christ. There is a principle we find in the scripture. And that is, only that which comes out of Christ can return to Christ and join with Him in one. If it does not come out of Christ, however good it may be, it cannot be returned and joined together with Christ. So brothers and sisters, here we find a spiritual principle. God's purpose for us is to be joined with Christ into one. But whatever can be joined into Christ as one has to be one that comes out of Christ. Anything that is in us, which is natural, which is of ourselves, is not fit to be joined back to Christ. Only that which God has done has put Christ in us, and that has come out of Christ in our lives, can be go back and united with Christ. And this is one of the basic principles we find in the scripture. But it is an important principle. It is a basic principle. It is a principle that each one of us must understand. Only that which comes of Christ can return and be united with Christ. Brothers and sisters, do you see this principle? To put it in another way, anything, however good it may be, if it is not out of Christ, it is not fit to go back and be united with Christ. As we look at man, of course, we can see many sins, many faults in man. That doesn't mean that man does not have any good. Man does have something good in his life. But not because he has something good in himself. Therefore, that something good can be united with Christ. Whether good or bad, whatever does not come out of Christ in our lives, cannot go back and be returned and joined together with Christ. This is a basic principle in the Bible. I'm afraid that in Christianity today, we do not see this basic principle. We think that whatever is good in man can go back and return and join together with Christ. But I think the Bible is very clear from the very beginning that only that which comes of Christ can go back and be united with Christ. And this applies to each and every one of us. How in Christianity today we substitute ourselves, thinking that which is bad, of course, cannot be joined to Christ, but that which is good in us should be preserved and could be united with Christ. And that is a basic thought. So, dear brothers and sisters, the first principle we find in the Scripture is simply this. Only that which comes of Christ can return and be united with Christ. And the application is very broad. Take yourself. Only that which is Christ in you can return and be united with Christ in eternity. All that which you consider yourself as good cannot be reunited with Christ. And I'm afraid that this principle has not been accepted and believed in and worked out in the life of Christians. Brothers and sisters, it is not only sins that cannot be united with Christ. It is not only the bad things of our life cannot be united with Christ, but everything that does not come out of Christ in our lives cannot be united with Christ. You know, oftentimes, and in Christianity today, we think that only that which is bad has to be rejected, but whatever is good can return to God. But the Scripture from the very beginning tells us this is not so. Everything out of ourselves, whether good or bad, cannot return and be united with Christ. Only that which we have received from Christ, only that can go back and rejoin to Christ. I think we all know that our sins cannot be joined with Christ. And therefore, we confess our sins before the Lord and take the redemption that our Lord Jesus on the cross, who bore our sins in His own body, and have our sins forgiven. But unfortunately, we do not see clearly the other basic principle, that nothing out of ourselves, even if it is good in our lives, can be reunited to God. Everything that is of us has to go. And this is the basic principle in the Bible. So dear brothers and sisters, we find that as we read the Scripture, when we first believe in the Lord Jesus, what did we do? We did not confess our good to God. We confess our sins to God, because we believe that those sins cannot be united with Christ. But as you continue on in your Christian life, you will begin to see that not only our sins have to be rejected, but even ourselves have to be rejected. So when you come to the experience of Paul, now he was a good man. So far as human beings are concerned, he was once of the best of men, because he was brought up in strict Judaism. He tried his best to keep the laws. He studied law under Gamaliel, the greatest rabbi during that time. He was a Pharisee. Today we have a very bad impression of Pharisees, because our Lord Jesus said, You hypocrites. So our concept of Pharisee is, a Pharisee is a hypocrite. But not so with Saul. He was a true Pharisee. In Philippians he said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a true one. He tried his best to keep the law. The letters of the law. And he was zealous for the law. And yet, he discovered that this was far from God. Thank God, because God knows the heart. What Saul did was terrible. Because he persecuted the Christians. He took men, women, even children from the synagogue. And put them to jail. And judged them. And when Stephen was martyred, he was there, watching the clothes of those who threw the stones on Stephen. In other words, he justified them. But thank God, on the way to Damascus, to persecute the Christians there, the Lord met him. We find that he went to the Arabian desert. And there he spent three years in loneliness. He re-read the Bible in a new light. Now I wonder, if Romans chapter 6 to 7 or to 8 was his experience during his time in the desert. He believed in the Lord Jesus as his Savior. He has his sins forgiven. But there, he began to realize his own self. So Romans 6 to 7 or 8 is Paul's own experience. He knew the law. And he wanted to follow the law. But he discovered that in him, there is something there that rebels against God. It is his own self. So here we find Romans chapter 7. He said, I know the law. The law is good. And I wanted to keep the law. But when I wanted to keep the law, I found another power within me that drew me to the other way. And it is self in him. So dear brothers and sisters, in our spiritual experience, we have to go through this thing. If you read the scripture, that our salvation can be saved in three parts. When we first repented and believed in the Lord Jesus, we have our spirit saved. In other words, our spirit was dead in sins and transgressions. But when we believe in the Lord Jesus, he quickened our spirit into life. We have a new spirit. And into that spirit, God's spirit dwells. Why? Because he is there in our new spirit. Seeing that the life of Christ in our spirit will grow accordingly. That is the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit. So in a sense, we who have believed in the Lord Jesus, the salvation of our spirit is in the past. We have experienced it. But there you find in 2 Corinthians, there is the salvation of the soul. Our soul also needs to be saved. And the saving of the soul is in the present. That is to say, after we have believed in the Lord Jesus, until the time when we shall be raptured to the presence of God. It was during that period. Our present time is the time of the saving of the soul. Salvation is going on in our lives. Daily we are experiencing the saving of our soul. How? We discover that in the spirit, Christ dwells. But in our soul, self dwells. So there is a constant conflict between our spirit and our soul. A constant conflict between Christ in our spirit and the self in our soul. And we need to learn how to deny ourselves. So the Lord Jesus said, you have to deny yourself to follow me. If we love our self life and keep it, we shall lose it. But if for his sake we are willing to lose our self life, we will gain it to eternity. Dear brothers and sisters, salvation is going on. It is not because you have been saved, so that's it. Some people say, if my two legs could be in heaven, I'm satisfied. But you may be satisfied. But will Christ be satisfied? God is not satisfied unless you learn to deny yourself and follow the Lord. So this is the present salvation. Dear brothers and sisters, we all are going through this process today. You can find in your own life experience that there has been constant conflict between yourself and Christ in you. And unless we learn to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow the Lord, we will not be able to save our souls. Brothers and sisters, when the Lord shall come, we shall all appear before him at his judgment seat. And those who are willing to lose their own souls, they will be rewarded with kingdom in a thousand years with Christ. But if we love our soul today and do our own way instead of following the way of the cross, we will lose our soul. That is to say, during the millennium kingdom, we will be outside of that kingdom. The Bible said there will be weeping of gnashing of teeth. And that is an expression of repentance. We will repent because we have not listened to the Lord. But thank God, eventually we all will be saved. Spirit, soul and body. Brothers and sisters, today we are still in our mortal body. We have weaknesses. But one day, this mortal body will take up immortality. There will be no sickness, no weakness of any kind. Our body will be transformed into a spiritual body. And it is with a spiritual body we are able to enjoy eternity. But the Bible tells us, as we find in the ten virgins, You know, as you read Matthew 24, you find that at the coming of the Lord, two women were working in the meal, that is the morning. Two men were working in the field, that is daytime. And two will be in bed, that is nighttime. It is because the earth is round. So at the coming of the Lord, some people are sleeping, some people are working, some people are grinding. I often tell people, don't be afraid to go to sleep. Because the Lord knows who is to be taken and who is to be left. If you don't go to sleep, it doesn't guarantee that you will be taken. So go to bed and have a good night's sleep. The Lord knows who is ready for Him. He will take one and leave the other. The one that is taken is the one that has pleased Him, that has satisfied His heart, that has been waiting for Him. And the one who is left is those who still live for themselves. The Lord is coming, brothers and sisters. He may come at any time now. There is no precaution anymore. You know, when you study prophecies, you try to figure out which prophecy will be fulfilled first, and then other prophecies will follow. But let me tell you, all the prophecies before the coming of the Lord have been fulfilled. There are still other prophecies to be fulfilled, but they will be fulfilled at the time of the coming of the Lord and afterwards, not before. Any time now, dear brothers and sisters, the Lord can come. Are we ready? We will be taken or we will be left. Those that will be taken, they will reign with Christ during the Millennium Kingdom. But those who will be left, they will be outside the Kingdom, weeping and gnashing of teeth, that is to say, repenting. But thank God, whatever He has begun, He will never undone. He will always finish His work. So in other words, eventually, in eternity, every believer will be completed and we will reign with Him in eternity. But brothers and sisters, a thousand years is a long time. For the sake of a few hours, few days, few years of living by yourselves cannot be compared to the thousand years at the coming of the Lord. So brothers and sisters, let us be ready. The Lord will come at any moment. Don't expect any prophecy to be fulfilled before His coming. He is coming at any moment. Are we ready? That is the problem. So may the Lord have mercy upon each and every one of us. Oftentimes in a conference, I told the people, I said, should the Lord come at this moment, I hope this place will be emptied, that none will be left behind. And this is the same thing of my hope for our today. Should the Lord be coming now, brothers and sisters, this place, hopefully, will be emptied. This is our blessing. So may the Lord help us and do not allow us to be complacent. Press on towards the goal until we see Him face to face. Shall we pray? Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy coming and our coming for Thy own. Oh dear Lord, by Thy grace, we hope that each and every one of us will be daily, hourly prepared that when Thou shalt come, Thou will take us to Thyself. Do not allow any of us to be so self-centered and live for ourselves that when Thou shalt come, we will be left behind. Oh brothers and sisters, may the Lord have mercy upon every one of us and to Thee be the glory in Thy name. Amen.