 So, as you guys know, what we're doing right now is we are going through a series on union with Christ. For the last 21 weeks, we've been studying this series and laying a foundation for these next or last three lectures of this entire series. We're going to be talking about our communion with the triune God. And the reason for that is because our union with Christ is supposed to lead us to something. It's supposed to lead us to communion with God and not just communion with a unitarian God, not just communion with a civilian God, but communion with the triune God, communion with the Father, communion with the Son, communion with the Holy Spirit. And the text that we're using is 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14. You can see it at the top of your outline. Please grab one of these if you don't have one because I'm going to be walking through this outline and there's a lot of stuff that we have to cover. In fact, I don't think that we're going to be able to cover all of it that I want to cover. So, if you would, grab an outline and look at the very top, the verse that we're using as our paradigm for communion with the triune God is 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14, which says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Now, if you remember, from last week we talked about communion with the Father. The Father relates to us in love, as you see in that second little section there in that verse, the love of God. The Father relates to us in love. So, what does that specifically look like? His predestination, election, choosing, his foreknowing, his loving, his providence, his sovereign hand over our lives, his sending of the Son, his sending of the Holy Spirit. It looks like him relating to us as a Father does to a Son. So, he pities us. Remember Psalm 103? He pities us like a Father has compassion on his own children. He carries us like a Father carries his child through the wilderness. He protects us. If you remember John chapter 10, nobody can snatch us out of the Father's hand. So, hopefully these things are coming back to remembrance for you. And hopefully you did your homework and communed with the Father this week. The Father, the way that you communed back with him is by receiving his love by faith and reciprocating his love. You should love the Father. You should pray to the Father. You should mimic the Father. You remember this stuff that we talked about? Okay. This week we're going to talk about communion with the Son and what that looks like specifically. So, if you look at that verse it says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Now, here's a question that I have for you. In your own words, can you explain why you think Paul would start with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and then go to the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit? There's a reason that he does that. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It's not in the order of the Trinity. It is the Trinity, but it's not in that order. Why? Why do you think? Why do you think he would start with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it because through the Lord Jesus Christ we're acceptable to the Father? Yeah, that's exactly right. The Father is not our mediator between God and man. The Holy Spirit is not our mediator between God and man. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is our mediator. So, we have to go through him. Jesus says in John chapter 14, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father but through me. He's our mediator. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. So, he starts with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I've decided to go in the order of the Trinity with these three lectures. I could have done it that way, but I decided that that might confuse some people. So, I decided to go at it this way. So, if you look at your outline, there's a couple questions that I have for you in the back. These are self-examination type questions. These are questions to ask yourself as we're preparing for this study. So, before we get into how we specifically relate to the Son in our communion with God, ask yourself this question. On what occasion should I address Christ in my prayers? There are different reasons why we would specifically address Jesus Christ when we pray. When we say, Lord Jesus, I pray that. There's a specific occasion for that. There's several different specific occasions for that. So, my question to you is, and this is a self-examination rhetorical kind of question. My question to you is, do you know when that occasion is? Do you specifically pray to the Lord Jesus in the way that the Bible prescribes that you should pray to the Lord Jesus Christ? Or do you not know? I submit to you maybe one of the reasons that you don't know if you don't know is because you're not thinking about the way that you relate to each person of the Trinity properly in prayer. Make sense? It's a self-examination type of question. Here's the second question. How does Jesus Christ relate to us distinctly as a bridegroom? What does that specifically mean for me? What does that mean for my Christian walk? That Jesus Christ is a bridegroom and that the church is the bride? Do I know what that means? Do I look at Christ in that way? What specifically does that result in in my Christian walk? Third question, do I meditate on the person of the Son? That's an easy question. Do I meditate on the person of the Son? And when I say that specifically, look at how I worded that. I didn't say, do I meditate on the work of the Son? Because that's something that we do a lot every single week, right? But do I meditate on the person of the Son? Do I meditate on who he is as the Son of God? What that means? That he's begotten of the Father. The hypostatic union, is that something that I think about? Is that something that I meditate on? It should be. So let's get into some of that this morning. Last week we talked, when we reviewed our communion with the Triune God in general, we spoke a lot about the Trinity, what that means. It's one God, three persons. We don't believe in a Sibelian God or a Unitarian God. We believe in the Triune God. This week I'm just going to talk, I'm just going to hit on the Covenant of Redemption just a little bit before we get into our introduction of communion with Christ. So, turn to Ezekiel 37.9. This is more of an aside than anything. I just want you to be informed about what the Bible teaches about how God plans our salvation. It's a Trinitarian plan. It's a Trinitarian redemption. So look at Ezekiel chapter 37. This is the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones. If you remember Ezekiel is standing in a graveyard. There's a bunch of dead people and God uses Ezekiel to bring them back to the dead to form an army. So it's a vision, right? Let's talk about what's physically going on right now. Look at verse 7. Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 7. Ezekiel says, So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a rattling and the bones came together, bone to its bone. He's talking about these skeletons, okay, a bunch of skeletons. And I looked and behold, sinews were on them and flesh grew and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he, who's that? God. Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy son of man and say to the... Now, who's he talking to? He's talking to Ezekiel, right? Prophecy son of man and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, and that they come to life. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet in exceedingly great army. Now, oftentimes this text is used for the topic of regeneration, being born again. That's what this text is used for. It's coming right after on the heels of Ezekiel chapter 36, which you know very well. It talks about, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you'll be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit within you. I'll remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. This is coming on the heels of that. This is a vision to depict that. So something physically is happening. You have the physical man, Ezekiel. God speaks to him and he says, prophesy to the wind, speak to the wind and tell it to blow on these skeletons and they'll come up and they'll be an exceedingly great army of men. That's a physical picture that's meant to portray a spiritual reality, right? Now, what's the spiritual reality? Look at verse nine. Then he, the father said to me, the son of man. Who is the son of man in the Bible? Jesus Christ, right? The son of man is Ezekiel, right? But that's the physical portrayal that's meant to depict a spiritual reality. The spiritual reality is the son of man, the son of God, Jesus Christ, right? So the father said to me, Jesus Christ, prophesy to the breath. Who's the breath? The Holy Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit is the primary agent of our regeneration, isn't he? Prophecy to the breath or the Holy Spirit. Thus says the Lord God. This is what you're supposed to say to the breath. Thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they come to life and then they come to life. So all I want to point out is there are two imperatives here. The father commanding the son to do something. The father commands the son to command the Holy Spirit to cause us to be born again. And the whole point of me showing you that is that these commands between the persons of the Trinity are what we call the covenant of redemption. The father commands the son, the father commands the Holy Spirit, the son commands the Holy Spirit, the son obeys the father, the Holy Spirit obeys the father and the son willingly, right? So that's the covenant of redemption. You can see it in Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 9. There are imperatives between the persons of the Trinity. Okay, really quick let's review 2nd Corinthians 13 verse 14. Does it make sense why I would go there right now? I don't want you to feel thrown off by me doing that. I want you to see that our redemption is orchestrated by the persons of the Trinity. And therefore when we become born again we can think, oh, the father ordained that the son should ordain that the Holy Spirit would cause me to be born again. Each person of the Trinity is involved in my regeneration. You see, I want you to see that it's a Trinitarian work, all aspects of our redemption, and therefore I want you to glorify each person and commune with each person. Does that make sense? Okay, 2nd Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice really quick this word grace. That is specifically how Paul chooses to describe the way that we relate to the son Jesus Christ is in grace. Love is the way that the father relates to us. Grace is the way that the son relates to us specifically or primarily. And notice what he calls Christ. He says the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about each of those three words. He's called Lord because he owns us. He purchased us, right? And he gets to make demands on our life. He calls him Jesus. Why? Why does the angel tell Mary and Joseph that they should name Jesus Christ Jesus? Because he'll save his people from their sins, right? And this name Christ, it means anointed one or Messiah. The one who is anointed as prophet, priest, and king. He's our mediator, the one mediator between God and man. So this Lord, this Jesus who will save his people from their sins, this Christ who is prophet, priest, and king, he relates to us in grace. Okay? So let's look at what that specifically means. Look at point two on your outline. Christ's communion toward us in general. Now what do I mean in general? Specifically, I just mean not as the bridegroom. I mean, in general, like according to the terms of our redemption. That's what I mean. According to the terms of our redemption. Christ's communion toward us in redemption generally. So let's look at how the Son does that. Look at Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter four. And look at verse four through five. Jesus Christ lives for us. That's what he did. He lived for us when he was on the earth. Look at Galatians chapter four, look at verse four. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law. What does it mean that Christ was born of a woman? It means that he was a man. He was a real human being. I think with me, why is that important? Why is it important that Jesus Christ was born of a woman, that he was a human being? Because he needed to take the place of human beings, right? Jesus couldn't have saved us just as God. You ever think about that? If Jesus never took on human flesh, he never could have saved us. Why? Because as a human being, I'm required to obey God. I'm made in his image, right? And so if there is not an image bearer who obeys the law of God perfectly on my behalf, vicariously, as a substitute, I can't be saved. There will be no righteousness for me. There will be no righteousness for me to be presented to the Father. Does that make sense? I need a substitute. I need somebody to go in my place under the law. Look, born of a woman, born under the law. God, think about this. God was never born under the law. God isn't under the law as a covenant of works. You ever think about that? God isn't under the law. He's over the law. The law proceeds from him because it's derived from his nature. Does that make sense? You shall not lie. Why? Because he's a God of truth. You shall not covet. Why? Because he's generous. Because he's self-sufficient. Because he's content in himself. You see? You shall not steal. Why? Because he gives. Does that make sense? Okay. So God isn't born under the law. Jesus Christ is born under the law as a man. Why? So that he might redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. In order for us to be treated as a son, we got to be perfect. We got to have a perfect righteousness. Where does that come from? It comes from the man, Jesus Christ. Okay. This is a real general overview. I know that we talk about this all the time. Turn a page back. So I'm not going to dig too deep into his life and death and ascension. Look at Galatians chapter 3. And look at verse 13. Look at verse 10. For as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse. The word is written. We talked about this last week. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. That's from Deuteronomy chapter 27. After the giving of the law, if you did not abide by all things written in the book of the law, you were cursed. And if you remember, there's only two ways that you can relate to God, only two different perspectives that he has on you, either a blessing or a curse. There's no in between. There's no cursed blessing. There's no blessed curse in the Bible. You're either cursed or you're blessed as a person. So the Bible says cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them. And then he says, now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. In other words, if you're going to live before God, that's talking about spiritual life, that's not talking about physical life, if you're going to live before God, you're going to do it by faith, according to the book of Malachi. That's what Paul is saying. I think that's Malachi. Verse 12, my Bible doesn't have little reference, cross-reference notes in there. That's the only thing I don't like about this Bible. I've had it for like four years, and you know how you memorize the pagination after a while, so I can't switch. So that's the part that stinks, but I have to remember. It forces me to remember where things come from. Verse 12, however, the law is not of faith. On the contrary, he who practices them shall live by them. You're either going to live by works, or you're going to live by faith. One of the two, there's no mixture of the mode of entering into covenant with God. It's either works or it's either faith. Verse 13, so here's what Christ did. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it's written, curses everyone who hangs on a tree. Why did Jesus Christ hang on the tree so that he could take my place as a liar, as an adulterer, as a thief, as an idolater, as a Sabbath breaker, as one who had other gods. It's so that he could take my place. Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to perform them, and I did not. So we need a substitute, somebody who died. And that's what Christ did. The Father didn't die for us. You think about that? The Father didn't die on the cross. The Father sent the Son to die on the cross. The Father didn't live a vicarious, righteous life for us. Jesus Christ did that. The Holy Spirit didn't ascend for us. Look at Ephesians chapter four. The Holy Spirit was sent as a result of the ascension. You see? Ephesians chapter four, look at verse seven. But to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he who? Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ ascended on high, he led captive, a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. He gave gifts to men. That was a result of his ascension. So what does the ascending work of Christ do for us? Well, he sends us gifts. What kind of gifts? Well, primarily, preeminently, the Holy Spirit. That's what he says in John chapter 16. He says, it's to your advantage that I go away. For if I did not go away, you wouldn't have the Holy Spirit, right? If I did not go away, I wouldn't send the Holy Spirit to you. That's why Christ ascended. That's one of the reasons why he ascended. But also other gifts. Look at what he says in verse 11. He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ. So he gave us all these gifts. People. In fact, if you're here this morning, you're a gift to me. Pastor Jerome is a gift to me. Noel is a gift to me. Ron Davidson is a gift to me. You see? Your gifts to me that Christ gave to me when he ascended. Isn't that awesome? I'm a gift to you, believe it or not. Okay. What else does the Son do? And I could listen. In this second section, I could easily talk about things that we've talked about time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. But I want to talk about things that we don't normally think about in terms that we don't normally conceive of, okay? I could spend time talking about how he's a prophet, priest and king, but you know that, don't you? He's a prophet. In what sense? Because truth is in Jesus, Ephesians chapter four. He's a prophet. In what sense? Because all wisdom and knowledge, all the riches of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him, Colossians chapter two. He's a prophet. In what sense? In the sense that he's the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature, Hebrews chapter one. He's a prophet. In what sense? In the sense that he explains the Father. John chapter one. In that sense, he is the representation of the Father to us. In what sense is he a priest? He was an oblation, or in other words, a sacrifice, you see? He sacrificed himself for us. He prays for us. He intercedes for us in these ways. You know that. In what sense is he a king? Because he subdues our enemies. The flesh. He subdued my flesh at his death. The world. He subdued the effects and the powerful dominion that the world had over my sinful life. He subdued the world. Jesus says, I have overcome the world. In what sense is he a king? In the sense that he destroyed the works of the devil. He transferred us from the dominion of Satan to the dominion of God. He's a king to me. That's my king. The king who subdued my enemies, you see? So let's talk about how the Son obeys the Father for us real quick. And you know this. This is a review. Look at John chapter six. John chapter six. Do you guys have any questions about that? Is your turning? Okay. John chapter six. And look at verse 38. Christ says, and think about the covenant of redemption, right? Christ says, I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. Who's will did Christ do? The will of the Father, right? He did the will of the Father for me. He obeyed the Father for me. Why? Did he do that for himself? He didn't have to be put under the law. He's God. But he took on human flesh and he was born under the law. He wasn't naturally under the law. Think about that. As a covenant of works, he wasn't naturally under the law. He didn't have to subject himself to the law like that. He was above the law. The law came from him. But he became a man and he did the will of God for us. He didn't do it for himself. Look at, the Son also sent the Holy Spirit for us. Look at John chapter 16. A few pages to the right. Verse seven. But I tell you the truth. It's to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I'll send him to you. And again, John chapter 15 verse 26. When the helper comes, whom I'll send to you from the Father, that is the spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he'll testify about me. That's a little bit of a foretaste of our lesson next week. The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ. That's one thing that he does for us. But the Son sent the Holy Spirit. Did he do that for his good or for our good? For our good, for my good, for your good. That's why Christ did that. He relates to us in grace. The Son bestows grace upon us. Now look at, look at Matthew chapter eight real quick. And I apologize in advance. I try really, really hard to cover everything that I have planned. But I think it's just this topic. There's just so much that I really don't think I'm going to be able to do it. I've tried really, really hard. I plan, I plan everything out so that I can cover all of it. But I see my clock and I'm like, yeah, it's too good, you know. So we're going to have to miss out on some stuff there at the end. And I think that's okay. So Matthew chapter eight, think about the life of Jesus Christ, the kinds of things that he did. His healings, his works, his mighty works, the wonders that he performed, his miracles were meant to reveal something to us. It wasn't meant to reveal to us that he's the great physician and like, you know, grandma who's sick in bed will get up from her bed now Jesus, you know, God said in the book of Genesis, all of us are going to die, okay? Every single one of us are going to die. I'm going to die, you're going to die, you're going to die, all of us are going to die. In fact, all the people that Jesus healed, they died eventually, right? Okay, so that's not what Christ is trying to reveal to us that we're going to live forever in this life. No. He was revealing something to us about the next life and how that happens. That's what his miracles were meant to reveal. So look at Matthew chapter 8, and I want you to think specifically about what he's communicating about the way that he bestows grace upon us. Because when you're thinking about the three persons of the Trinity, Jesus Christ specifically relates to us in grace, doesn't he? In grace. So Matthew chapter 8, this is how he has decided to communicate that to us. When Jesus came down from the mountain, verse 1, large crowds followed him. This is right after the Sermon on the Mount. The first thing that he does after the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. Just as a side point, there are a lot of really cool parallels between Exodus and the book of Matthew. One being, after the testing, after being in the wilderness, Moses goes straight to Mount Sinai where then God reveals himself to him, reveals himself to them, his law to them. Jesus Christ does the same thing. He delivers the law from a mountain. You see, there's a lot of really cool parallels between Matthew and Exodus, but that's a side point. Look at verse 2, and a leper came to him. A leper came to Christ. All the different diseases that Jesus heals are meant to communicate something specifically to us about sin. Well, it's disgusting. It's filthy. It's a contaminant. I don't know if that's a word, but I made it up and you know what it means. It contaminates other people. It spreads. Doesn't sin do that? Bad company corrupts good morals. Are you a leper? Does your anger, your fits of rage, does that spread to the people around you? Does your grumbling and complaining spread to the people around you? It's because you've got a spiritual leprosy that needs to be healed. And it's filthy. It's something that should cause you to cover your mouth and to say, unclean, unclean. That's what Leviticus teaches us, right? A leper came to him. Now, a leper, a leper is in a hopeless condition. There is no remedy for a leper. A leper came to him and bowed down before him and said, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean. Now, in what context would a man be willing to touch a leper? Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I'm willing to be cleansed. This leper, he came to Jesus Christ and he said, I know I'm convinced based on this sermon on the mount that you just gave, based on the miracles that I've inst. If you're willing, that's the one condition. If you're willing, you can make me clean. And Jesus doesn't say, get away from me. He says, I'm willing to be cleansed and he touches him. That's grace. That's how he bestows grace. If you have a spiritual leprosy, what do you need to do? You need to bow down before him and the one condition for your remedy, your spiritual remedy, your spiritual hope, the one condition is if he's willing. Is he willing? Well, what does Christ reveal to us? What's the one specific aspect? He doesn't talk about how powerful he is. He doesn't talk about how present he is. He doesn't talk about the fact that he's God. He talks about the fact that he's willing. He says, I'm willing to be cleansed and then done. Look, immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Look at the next section. What does he do next? Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home. A paralytic. And what happens to the paralytic? He gets healed. What does paralysis communicate to us about sin? That we're not able to do any we're like a paralytic. Look at verse 14. When Jesus came into Peter's home, he saw his mother in law lying sick in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her. She got up and waited on him. She was lying in bed. She was in a fearful condition. Death was awaiting her. And Jesus healed her. Look at verse 23. When he got into the boat his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea. And they were, as it were, drowning. And he stopped the storm. Look at verse 28. When he came to the other side of the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon possessed met him. And what happened to the demon possessed men? They had a whole army of demons in them and he cast them out. What does that communicate to you about sin and about Christ's power and His willingness to heal you? Look at chapter 9. Look at verse 2. They brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, take courage son, your sins are forgiven. Was his paralysis healed at that moment? No, it was healed a few moments later. Look at verse 6. But so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins, then he said to the paralytic, get up, pick up your pallet and go home. Then he went home. Jesus said, take courage, your sins are forgiven. Now let me ask you, if you were this paralytic, would you take courage the moment your sins were forgiven or the moment that you were healed of your paralysis? I would take courage when my sins were forgiven. Because God's wrath would no longer abide on me. You see? But he still demonstrated this symbolic healing which was meant to depict a spiritual reality. Spiritually, because of our sin, we're paralytics. We can't do anything for God, right? We're bed-ridden. We're like beggars on the side of the road, just begging for someone like Christ to come by and heal us. Look at verse 10. This is Christ's explanation of the way that he bestows grace, right? Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came, were dining with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why is your teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners? But when Christ heard this, he said, it is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. Are you a leper? Do you have a fever with impending death coming upon you? Are you drowning? Are you possessed by a legion of demons? Look at chapter 9 verse 18. While he was saying these things to them, a synagogue official came and bowed down before him and said, my daughter has just died. Are you spiritually dead? Look at verse 23. Jesus came to the official's house. Verse 25. When the crowd had been sent out, he entered and took her by the hand and the girl got up. She was raised from the dead. Eventually she died. So what was the point? The point is, spiritually you are dead. You're dead. Spiritually you can't do anything for God. You need to be raised to life. You can't raise yourself. You need to be like, you need to receive the grace of God from Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 9. Prophecy to the breath, son of man. Prophecy to the four corners of the earth that the wind would come upon them and that they would be raised to life, you need to be raised to life for them. You need to have that kind of grace bestowed on you by the son of man, Jesus Christ. Look at verse 20. And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for 12 years. What's the point of this sickness? She'd been suffering from this thing for 12 years. There was no hope. If you read a different gospel it says that she tried every sort of remedy and it only made her worse. Have you ever tried to bang the law harder? It only makes you worse. Do you have a question of your house? You know, this is a lesson for young men for adultery. In Genesis chapter 19, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, those men were enslaved by sexual sin. They came up to the door, they were banging on the door to get in the house. The angel struck them with blindness. What greater fence is there against sexual immorality than blindness? And guess what they tried to do after that? They were banging themselves trying to get to the door. Fences are good. Jesus says, pluck out your eye, you know, cut off your hand, cut off your foot. But fences in and of themselves, you're going to still weary yourself trying to get to the door. You see? What do you need? You need an inward work of grace. That's what you need, right? A woman who had been suffering a hemorrhage for 12 years. No hope. No other remedy could help her. But she came up behind him, touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, after trying all these different remedies, she was saying to herself, if I only touch his garment, I'll get well. If I just touch his garment, I'll get well. In other words, if I'm able to just make contact with the Son of Man, I'll be healed. That's what it's trying to spiritually reveal to you. If you just make contact with the Son of Man, you'll be healed. That's it. Just make contact with him. Look to him. Look to the Son of God. If you've tried every sort of remedy, every sort of antidote to your sin, none of it is going to work. I promise you, except for one, make contact with the Son of Man. Make contact with Jesus Christ. Look at verse 27. As Jesus went out from there, two blind men followed him. Now, what is blindness supposed to spiritually reveal to us about our sin? That we can't see the truth. We can't see the truth. We can't see God. We can't see him rightly. And they cried out to him. They said, have mercy on us, Son of David. And he healed him. He touched their eyes, 29, saying, it shall be done to you according to your faith. And their eyes were opened. Verse 32, as they were going out, a mute demon possessed man was brought to him. He was supposed to spiritually reveal to us about our sin. That we don't proclaim his excellencies. We're only able to speak evil continually. We don't have a bridle over our tongue like it says in James chapter 1. The man whose tongue is not bridled and thinks himself to be religious deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Is your tongue bridled? Or are you like this mute man who can't speak anything right? Your tongue is a weapon. It's a sword that you use to thrust into other people. After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke. Christ healed even that man. So you say to yourself, you haven't talked about my sin. I'm not able to be healed. Jesus was going through all the cities and villages teaching their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease. Every kind of sickness. There is no spiritual malady that possesses your soul and is able to heal. What kind of disease possesses you? What kind of sin has overcome you? Has overcome your soul? Has captured you? Jesus Christ is able to heal you and that's how he relates to us as the Son of God. That's how the second person of the Trinity relates to us is by making contact with us stretching out his hand and saying, I'm willing, be cleansed. That's how he relates to us in grace. So let's look at his communion toward us as a bridegroom. The bridegroom sacrificially loves specifically in a way that neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit do. Ephesians chapter one, I'm sorry, Ephesians chapter five, my bad. Look at verse 22. Why is it to be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord? Well, there's a spiritual illness right there. Do you submit yourself to your husband? Jesus Christ can heal you, right? I know that's not popular but it's in the Bible, so who cares? I don't care what you think. 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 and everything. Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her. Jesus Christ loves us in a way in a way by a work that neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit love us. He loves us sacrificially in the way that a husband is to love his wife. As a bridegroom, you see? Look at Ezekiel chapter 16. Now, if you're not aware there are several places in the Old Testament that speak of God relating to us in the context of marriage. And Ezekiel chapter 16 is one of those places. Ezekiel 16 look at verse 1. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations and say thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. Now is that a good thing to the Jews? Do they like hearing that? No. In other words, you have descended from an evil people. You've descended from an abominable people from the people who are now your enemies. You've descended from them, right? Isn't that true of the church? We can't think of ourselves as better than those who are outside. God could say to us easily your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. You were born from abominable people from an abominable nation, from the city of destruction. That's where you were born. He could say that to us. As for your birth, on the day that you were born your naval cord was not cut and washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. Is that a pretty picture? What does a baby look like when it comes out and its naval cord isn't cut? I don't know all the things that they do. Maybe I will one day soon, I don't know. But what I do know is that when babies come out, they look like an alien. It's disgusting, okay? That's what we looked like in our sin. No eye looked with pity on you to do any of the things for you to have compassion on you. You were thrown out into the open field for your report on the day you were born. That's what we were like in our sin. But when I passed by you I saw you squirming in your blood. I said to you while you were in your blood live. Yes, I said to you while you were in your blood live. This is a specific way. Think about it. Think about your Christian walk. This is a specific way that the bridegroom Jesus Christ relates to you. He particularly is the one who said to you live while you were yet squirming in your blood. I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall, reached the age for the ornaments, your breasts were formed and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. That's not a pretty picture, okay? But the point is that this is a woman that he's speaking of. He's speaking metaphorically. Israel is a woman. Why are you describing Israel as a woman? Israel was a man, an actual man. Jacob, right? So why are you speaking of Israel like it's a woman? Verse 8 Then I passed by you and saw you and behold you were at that time for love. So I spread my skirt over you, covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became mine. He's talking about marriage. That's why he's describing Israel like a woman and what he's saying to the people of Israel is, look, my covenant with you is like a marriage, right? That's the way that Jesus Christ specifically relates to us. So what does that look like? What does that look like specifically? In a way that I don't relate to the Father. In a way that I don't relate to the Holy Spirit. How specifically Jesus Christ do you relate to me? Look at verse 9 Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I followed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. How much more extravagant can you get? I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. What are you trying to communicate to me? God, I know what you're saying but I don't understand what the meaning is. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver and your dress was a fine linen silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Your fame went forth from among the nations on account of your beauty for it was perfect because of my splendor which I bestowed on you. Jesus Christ is the bridegroom bestowed, takes his splendor what belongs to his person as a result of his vicarious life. He takes that splendor and he bestows it on a people. What does he say? He says that we are exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty because Jesus Christ took his splendor and bestowed it on us. That's what he does in the way that he relates to us in grace, in the context of him being a bridegroom to the church. Does that make sense? Okay, let's look at Hosea chapter 2. Hosea is another book that talks about the way that we relate to Christ as a bride. Hosea chapter 2, look at verse 14 and if you're not aware of the context in the book of Hosea, essentially God is saying, look, Israel, you're an adulterous wife. That's what you are. I'm in covenant with you and you're going after all these other nations, you're trusting in these other nations, you've got all these idols, you're bowing down to the Astra and to the Baals, right? So you're like an adulterous wife. You're no better than an adulterous wife that deserves to be stoned to death, right? Look at verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her. Who's the her? Israel or the church. Bring her into the wilderness. What's the wilderness? What does Israel immediately think of when Israel thinks of the wilderness? The Exodus, right? The Exodus. Think with me, okay? Egypt is called the house of slavery. When I was unconverted, I was in the house of slavery. I was in Egypt, right? I was in Egypt and I was enslaved and I was under bondage. I had no power to free myself. I had a cruel task master. You see? Then God came and through judgment, he saved me. That's the Exodus, right? Through judgment, through these 10 plagues, he saves the people of Israel. In what sense am I saved by judgment? Well, Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and he saved me, didn't he? Then the people of Israel went into the wilderness and they wandered for 40 years before they went into the Promised Land. This right now, this life that we're in, this temporal life, this is the wilderness. You see? And what does Christ say? Think about it. Think with me. It's so clear. The parallels are so clear. We aren't in the Promised Land yet. Are we? We're in the wilderness, wandering around. Just like Christ was in the wilderness. And what was it meant to do? Test us. That's what the wilderness is for. It's for testing. Therefore, behold, Christ says, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. Doesn't he speak kindly to us? Then I will give her her vineyards from there, the Valley of Acor as a door of hope. She'll sing there as in the days of her youth and in the days that she came up from the land of Egypt. It will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that you will not I'm sorry, that you will call me Ishi or you'll call me my husband and will no longer call me my Baal for I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth. Did Christ remove the names of Baals from your mouth? You had many masters and you were unconverted. Did He remove their names from your mouth? So that they will be mentioned by their names no more. In that day, I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky, the creeping things of the ground. I'll abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land. He makes peace with us. Between us and God, He's our mediator and I'll make them lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in loving kindness, in compassion. I'll betroth you to me in faithfulness and what's the result? Then you will know the Lord, right? It will come about in that day. Let me skip down just for the sake of time. Verse 23, I will sow her for myself in the land. I'll also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion and I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people and they will say you are my God. That's the way that we relate to Jesus Christ specifically. You see, it's a picture. There's a lot there. Just for the sake of time, let's move on a little bit. The Bridegroom also divorces us from the Law as a Covenant of Works. Look at Romans chapter 7. The Father doesn't do that. The Father doesn't divorce us from the Law as a Covenant of Works. The Holy Spirit doesn't divorce us from the Law as a Covenant of Works. Jesus Christ does by marrying us to Himself. Romans chapter 7 verse 1. Or do you not know, brethren, there's a restriction over a person as long as he lives. For the married person is bound by law to her husband while he's living. But if her husband dies, she's released from the Law concerning her husband. In other words, what he's saying is husband and wife get married and then they say till death do us part. Well, once death comes, is she an adulterer if she marries somebody else? No, she's released from the Law. That's Romans chapter 7. So Paul is using that to describe to us the way that we relate to the Covenant of Works and the way that we relate to Jesus Christ as our new King. Look at verse 4. Therefore, my brethren, you were also made to die to the Law through the body of Christ so that you might be joined to another. To who? Who are we joined to now that we've been divorced from the Law? Now that we've died in Jesus Christ. To Jesus Christ, right? To him who was raised from the dead. That's Jesus. In order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, think about your own life, right? While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the Law were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. Are you paying attention? Think about your life. But now we've been released from the Law having died to that by which we were bound so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. So is the Law sin? No. Look at verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be. So in Paul's mind the Law is a good thing, right? It's how does he put it? He says verse 12, the Law is holy, the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So the 10 commandments are good. Okay. Debate settled. Romans chapter 7 verse 12. That aside, in what sense am I released from it? In the sense that I'm released from it as a covenant of works. I'm no longer under the Law as a covenant of works, but as a rule of life. You see. As something that can serve as a guide to help me to be conformed into my new spouse, Jesus Christ. That's what Christ does for us specifically as a bridegroom. Now, in what way am I to exercise communion toward Christ? And I'm going to have to wrap up here in a second so I'll just overview a little bit. We knew that this would happen, didn't we? It's sad for me. I worked really hard on this, so. Okay. How do we commune with Jesus Christ? What was Martha's response? She said, I believed that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, right? She believes that he's the Christ and she believes in who he is. So his person and in his work. Christ, his work, right? The mediator, prophet, priest, and king. I believe that you are the Christ and that you are the Son of God. I believed in your person. If you only understand his work but you don't understand his person, you're not exercising faith in the Son. If you only believe in his person but not in his work, you have a wrong understanding of his work, you don't believe in limited atonement. You don't have faith. You don't have faith. You don't understand. What else do we do? We invocate the name of the Son. That's what we do specifically. Think about Stephen. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Lord, have mercy on them. He's calling out to the name of Jesus Christ. You can also see that in 1 Corinthians 1. You can see it in Romans chapter 10. How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Revelation chapter 22, verse 20. Lord Jesus, come quickly. We call upon the name of Jesus Christ. We use his name when we're praying to him to address him specifically in prayer. We invocate his name. We go during temptation to the Son. Hebrews chapter 4, right? He was tempted in all ways as we are yet without sin. So we can come to him to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. What else do we do? We give an account to the Son. That's one way that we're going to relate to him on Judgment Day. John chapter 5, all judgment has been given to the Son. Matthew chapter 25, the parable of the talents. He came to settle accounts with his slaves and they said, I did this much. I did that much. I did this much. And he says, I'll entrust many more things to you, right? We give an account to him. Romans chapter 14, verse 10-12 is very specific about that. We learn about the Son. Do you learn about Jesus Christ? Not just his work, but do you learn about his person? 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Colossians chapter 2, verse 3. Colossians 2 says in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Ephesians chapter 4 says truth is in Jesus. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says that Jesus is wisdom from God. And then Proverbs chapter 1, I commend you. Read that in light of Jesus being the wisdom of God. The whole book of Proverbs is a typological book. It points to Jesus Christ. Jesus is wisdom from God. He is the embodiment or the essence of wisdom. And therefore, when you read the book of Proverbs, who are you reading about? Jesus Christ. Okay, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this study. Thank you for the person of Jesus Christ. Thank you for sending him on our behalf so that he would live and die and ascend for us. Holy Spirit, perform your work among these people and reveal to us the Son of God. Amen.