"Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." (Rev. 21:9)

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17)

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." (Rom. 4:3)

(Also Gen. 15:6, "And he [Abraham] believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.") (Also Rom. 4:9 and 22)

June has traditionally been the month of brides. We understand that a wedding is in the offing this month. Many of you may have been invited to attend. And no doubt there are many more that we do not know about. St. Paul gave a good deal of thought to true Christian marriage, and gave it a spiritual significance as it could be properly applied to the Church, the Bride of Christ. In Colossians [1:24] he mentions the body of Christ, "which is the church." It is a good and important thing to have formal membership in the Church: it is even more important to have that membership that comes only by true repentance, by godly sorrow for sin, and a confessing and forsaking of sins, and coming to Christ for forgiveness, for cleansing, and for the receiving of eternal life.

Notice once again that text from Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Rev. 22:17)

We turn now to the second topic, concerning the belief, the faith, Abraham had in God. St. Paul has a good deal to say about that in Romans 4, and also mentions this in Colossians 1:24. This is not a class in New Testament Greek, but I would like to give you a definition of the word pisteuo, I believe. Sometimes we think of this word as meaning only some sort of careless and shallow mental acceptance. It does not mean that at all. If you turn to Thayer's Greek lexicon you will find this definition:

Used especially of the faith by which a man embraces Jesus, in other words, a conviction, full of joyful trust, that Jesus is the Messiah -- the divinely appointed author of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God, conjoined with obedience to Christ."