Your Maker Is Your Husband: Why All Things Are Yours in Christ

Sermon outline

All things belong to believers when they live as the faithful bride of Christ, because a true husband provides for and protects his wife.

1. All things are yours, and you belong to Christ

   Paul says all things are yours, but also sets a seal of ownership: you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. No church belongs to a pastor; this church belongs to God, and the fivefold ministry gifts belong to Christ to build up His church. Yet 'all things are yours' is not every Christian's experience, and he sets out to show why.

   “This church does not belong to me. This church belongs to God.”

   • 1 Corinthians 3:21-23
   • Ephesians 4:11-13

2. Your Maker is your husband: are you His wife?

   Isaiah 54 tells God's people to enlarge their tent, not to fear or be ashamed, because their Maker is their husband. Every husband has a wife, so the question is whether you are living as His wife. Men need not be uncomfortable, because in Christ there is neither male nor female.

   “Every husband has a wife. And we've established God as your husband. The question is, are you his wife?”

   • Isaiah 54:2-5
   • Galatians 3:28

3. With the Bridegroom present, you lack nothing

   Jesus sent His disciples out with no money bag, knapsack or sandals, and they confirmed they lacked nothing. He also said the friends of the bridegroom cannot mourn while He is with them, and through the Holy Spirit the Bridegroom is now with us and in us, so there is no need to mourn.

   Illustration: Whatever the disciples needed on the road, whether money, sandals, food or a bed, they got it.

   “They said, no Lord, we didn't lack anything.”

   • Luke 22:35
   • Matthew 9:15
   • Acts 2:33

4. Betrothed to one husband: beware of another Jesus

   Paul was jealous for the church with a godly jealousy, having betrothed it as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ. He warns that as the serpent deceived Eve, people can preach another Jesus, another spirit and another gospel. Not everyone with a suit and a Bible is God's servant, so test the spirits and judge them by their fruit.

   Illustration: People see a man with a suit and a Bible in his hand and automatically assume he is a man of God.

   “Say to someone I have a husband and his name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth.”

   • 2 Corinthians 11:1-4
   • 1 John 4:1
   • Matthew 7:16

5. Give Him your heart and your eyes

   God asks for two things: your heart, and your eyes to observe His ways. Satan admitted that God had put a hedge around Job and blessed him, and God was so confident in Job's heart that He allowed him to be tested, knowing he would never curse God. Job had come to the place where he was a faithful 'wife' to God.

   Illustration: Job's wife told him to curse God and die, and he refused.

   “What confidence God had in a man.”

   • Proverbs 23:26
   • Job 1:9-12
   • Job 2:9-10

6. Acquaint yourself with Him, pay your vows and decree a thing

   When you acquaint yourself with God, good comes to you and the Almighty becomes your gold. Paying your vows, including tithes, offerings and pledges, opens the heavens and gives you a king's authority, so you decree a thing and it is established. When others cast you down, you say there is lifting up, so fear no one.

   Illustration: When Adrian came to him saying his mother needed money, he simply took it out of his pocket and gave it; she never sent to ask whether he had it. That is the confidence a wife has in a husband. A pretty girl on a poor farm with one cow and one bed marries a very wealthy man, and her lack is over.

   “If he's really your husband and you really his wife, you don't ask him can this be done, you just say do it.”

   • Job 22:21-29
   • Ecclesiastes 8:4

7. Read Isaiah 54 in a new light: no weapon formed against you shall prosper

   Knowing you are the bride of Christ, Isaiah 54 now applies to you: enlarge your tent, do not fear, God's kindness and covenant of peace will not depart, and terror will not come near you. Whoever gathers against you will fall, and no weapon formed against you will prosper. He urges the church to stop running after the world and return to their first love.

   Illustration: If they plot against you, the gun will jam or the Spirit will direct you to take another turn; if they try to get you fired or retrenched, it will fall on them.

   “God watches over his wife with a godly jealousy.”

   • Isaiah 54:1-17