Ex 26:3, Five curtains shall be joined to one another; and the other five curtains shall be joined to one another. This week we will bring our deliberation of the union that is ours in Christ to a conclusion. We have been tracing it throughout both the Old and the New Testament with a view to what was always part of the plan of God. 
We would be very presumptuous to ever think that we have the full picture of what God has ordained in His Only Begotten Son. All of eternity will be insufficient to see the full impact and purpose of God as detailed in the working awesomeness of His so great love toward you and me. What we need to keep in mind is that we are shown glimpses throughout His Word as to some of what He has put into place. 
It is ever necessary to remind ourselves to always keep our thoughts and our ideas based in scripture. The Holy Spirit is so wonderful in the manner in which He opens, in our lives, in reality, His Living Word as it will always and forever declare the beauty of the fullness of God as we see it layer upon layer in even the smallest details of scripture. The Old Testament is filled with those physical types of what is spiritually true in Christ, and such is the enjoyment of this seemingly mundane, yet powerful image of the instructions for the construction of the Tent of Meeting. In it, we have been looking at the manner in which God has brought together, in complete unity, His family of believers in Jesus Christ as His Living Temple.
This morning, we have an especially rich and powerful image presented to us by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Church at Ephesus. Please open in your Bibles to Eph 5:15-32, so we can read it together. Eph 5:15-32. Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 
In this passage, we have two complete pictures given by the Apostle Paul. The main, overriding description is that of the church being united in Jesus Christ with His heart which makes it necessary to deal with one another from only love for the brethren. …be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. 
We are given a view of what it means to honor God in the honoring of one another with joy and hymns and thanksgiving. We come together with the singleness of heart which is now made to be our life in Jesus Christ. We enjoy being together in worship and we encourage and we fellowship together in all the blessings and details of what it means to be the living Body of Christ on this earth.
Then, the Apostle needed to convey, with much more clarity of purpose, what this unity shows in full measure within the greatest picture of oneness that we have on this earth, marriage. In marriage, two people set aside everything for the sake of the marriage bond. So many Christians are not instructed or encouraged as to the complete representation of God’s heart that marriage is on this earth within His body of believers. We cannot describe this to the unsaved, because they lack the fundamental cohesive reality of what God joins together in Jesus Christ. They desire it and they seek it and they try to approximate it, but unless Christ is the central and core emphasis of the marriage bond, it is not a true depiction of the unity set in the heart of God. 
This is the reason that marriage, Christian marriage, is so under attack by the powers of this realm. It shows, in a most living way, how God has joined together two distinct individuals into one complete being. It is not a matter of learning to live together. It is not a compromise of convenience or of wills. True Christian marriage is the willing setting aside of what I think and what I want for the sake of that which honors God in this new creation that He has brought forth. It is the elemental and essential death of two from which is born one brand new and complete being. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. 
The union of matrimony sets aside all the elements of self in order to promote and to propagate only that which will bring forth every expression of selfless and giving love which characterizes, in some manner, the Agape of God. It is the closest reality of this love which we can participate in on this earth. It takes every fiber of our being to maintain and to cherish and to develop this unity which comes from the death of the man and the woman, in terms of their self-interests and self-gratification. They willingly set it all aside for the benefit of the single union of the marriage relationship. 
That is why the Holy Spirit so moved the Apostle to make the declaration at the end of his descriptive details, This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 
This is what the church is to present to the whole created universe in the scope of what God has done through Jesus Christ, Our Lord, Our Savior, Our Head, Our Husband. The marriage imagery is abundant throughout the Word of God as it is the closest approximation of what is now true of you and me in the Church, the Body of Christ. We are the Bride being prepared for the eternal glory of God’s joy in living relationship with His Created humanity. 
The echoes of this relationship fill the letters of the Apostle Paul, as he is enthralled with what this limited view of Christ shows forth to us. Please open to his Epistle to Philemon, verses 3-6. Philemon verses 3-6, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints; and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. 
Please consider this exhortation with two points of view in our hearts. The first is that of how this should reflect our attitude and our demeanor toward each other as the living body of Christ. We should be thankful, always thankful for the brothers and sisters to whom God has joined us in Christ Jesus. Our dealings with each other should be characterized with the desire that …the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake. 
We should be encouraging one another to the increasing knowledge of how much Jesus Christ means to you and to me and how we are so joined together in Him to the point of laying down our lives for the sake of each other. Our hearts should thrill at every opportunity to be together and to learn more and more of the grace and the mercy and the love of God, Incarnate, in the person of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and our Savior.
The other reality of this passage that should be taken to heart, especially within the marriages and in the understanding  of those who will be married in the future years, is that we should be characterized with this same attitude toward our chosen spouses. Do we honor our life mates with this same heart as expressed in this greeting to Philemon by the Apostle Paul? Is there an inherent attitude within us toward God, thanking Him for the husband or wife that He has prepared for us? Are we praying for our spouses in all earnestness and sincerity because of the fact that they love the Lord and are showing their love and faith in Christ in their dealings with us? Are we asking the Lord to cause us to deal with them in all faithfulness and sincerity and love as unto Jesus Christ so that we both come into the union whereby …the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake…?
	Now turn to the Letter to the Colossians, as we have a couple of passages there to read together. The first is Col 2:18+19 where the Apostle Paul describes, once more the reality of the body relationship that is ours in Christ. In it, he again details that we protect each other and that we grow together into Christ. Col 2:18+19. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. 
	We work together into this growth as the Body of Christ. We are increasing as He so gives the development and the guidance and the direction. We are held together by Him and we are nourished by Him through His Holy Spirit making His Word our source and our sustenance. That is why it is so imperative that we read, we listen, and we take His Word before Him to validate and to corroborate it so that we are not led astray, but growing forth together unto the completeness that is ours in Him. 
	Now let us read Col 3:1-15 together as the further and final encouragement of this union in Jesus Christ. Col 3:1-15, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 
	Everything is summed up in this wonderful passage. Whether we are looking at the Church and the members with whom we have been joined, or look at this in terms of a husband and wife learning how to interact with each other in the plan and purpose of God in the marriage relationship, we do so in line with this detailed encouragement. This is a defined attitude and demeanor that can only be in place as we look to Christ to be the course of our every interaction with others. 
Rather than focusing on our lack of abilities, and our seeming lack of intelligence, and our lack of resources, and our lack of endurance, and our lack of understanding, and our lack of strength, and our lack of oratory or writing skills, and our lack of wisdom, and our lack of patience, to name but a few elements, we look to Him. We count on Him. We seek to please Him. We honor Him as we deal with every person whom He brings into our lives. Our conversations, our thoughts, our actions, our emotions, our behavior, our attitudes, the every detail of our responses, all are set in Him and His way of living forth to the full glory of God. 
	And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. So be it!
Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Deut 4:7. "For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God whenever we call on Him? Amen.