Matthew chapter 1. We read there
from Genesis chapter 2 and Revelation 21. And now I want to read just
a couple of verses here in the book of Matthew with you. The
title of today's sermon is taken from a hymn. We'll sing later.
The hymn is called The Church's One Foundation, but the title
is a verse in the hymn. It says, From heaven he came
and sought her. to be his holy bride from heaven. He came and sought her. Look
at Matthew chapter 1 and look at verse 21. We're going to read
from 21 through 23. And she shall bring forth a son. This is what the angel is speaking
to Joseph, the promise of the conception of the Lord Jesus
Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary. which was by the Holy Ghost. And he says here, the promise
is this, she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his
name Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Now all this was done that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord, by the prophet
of the Lord, by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son. And they shall call His name
Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us." God with us. I want to focus our attention
on especially verse 21 today and 23 where it says, in 23,
His name is called Immanuel, which is being interpreted God
with us. And verse 21, and I hope that
this verse is especially precious to you. Because if this verse
is precious to you, it means Christ is precious to you. And
if Christ is precious to you, then you're precious to Him.
He says in verse 21, we want to have these words ever in our
mind. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His
people from their sins. In the handout, and I always
encourage you to get the handout which I put on the back table,
in the handout at the very top I have this verse written from
2 Chronicles 6 verse 18. It says, Solomon was about to
dedicate the temple. It was a huge and glorious temple,
and Solomon was unquestionably the wisest man who ever lived,
apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was a prophet. God loved
Solomon, even though at the end of his life he was given over
to strange women. But in any case, it says in 2
Chronicles 6.18, these words, piercing words, very mysterious
words. He says, Solomon questions as
he's considering the fact that he has just finished the temple
for God to dwell in. And he says these words, but
will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven
and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this
house which I have built." Solomon understood God does not dwell
in temples made with hands. God has created the heavens and
the earth, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and
God cannot dwell in temples made with hands. Earth is his footstool,
he says in the book of Acts, and heaven is his throne. And
so his hands have made all these things. So when we read here
in Matthew, as we are going through this book, starting to go through
it, we see here that the Lord Jesus Christ is that God who
would dwell with us. His name is Emmanuel, God with
us. The question Solomon raised is
in the context of the fulfillment of the prophecy God made to Solomon's
father David when he said that he would establish his house
the house of His Son forever, and He would sit on the throne
and rule over Israel forever. And the fulfillment of that was
when the Lord Jesus Christ came here in the book of Matthew,
conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Ghost, and He Himself,
God Himself, is with us in very deed, dwelling with men on the
earth. He came as a man to dwell with
men on the earth. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I want to go through verse 21 with you, this phrase in the
verse where it says, His name shall be called Jesus, for He
shall save His people from their sins. Jesus is His name. And we looked last week how that
the name of Jesus, the name of Jesus is a name that indicates
that He who is God was made man in order to save His people from
their sins. He who is God was made man in
order to save His people from their sins. Jesus means Jehovah
is salvation. And if you look in the book of
Isaiah, in chapter 12, you see these amazing words. And comfort,
in the book of Isaiah chapter 12, you can listen to them. It
says, "...in that day thou shalt say..." This is speaking... this
is speaking... God is saying what His people
would say. "...this is what you shall say,
O Lord, I will praise Thee. Though Thou wast angry with Me,
Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortest Me." And then
this amazing truth, behold, God is my salvation. I will trust
and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah. is my strength and my
song. He also is become my salvation."
The Lord Jehovah. Who is the Lord of the Old Testament?
He's the God of the universe. He's the God of glory. He's the
one who created the worlds, the one who upholds the world, who
called all things from nothing into what they are for His own
purpose and for His own pleasure. All things were made by Him and
all things were made for Him. Colossians 1 and 16. This is
our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God of glory. And He's
the one who has become our salvation. He's become our salvation. The
only way that we can understand and appreciate those words is
if God Himself takes His Word and applies it to our heart,
giving us life and faith in the Lord Jesus. We may even have
believed on Him in the past, but now, to make these words
true to our hearts today, God Himself has to do that. I can't
make these words, to my heart, meaningful as they ought to be,
and I certainly can't make them meaningful to your heart. God
Himself has to do that. So I pray that even now the Lord
Himself would make these words and this truth that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the salvation of His people. Notice, His name
is called Jesus. A name in Scripture means everything. God has given Himself many names
in Scripture, and I'll give you a few of those just so you can
get a sense of that. But the name conveys the person. And so when it says His name
is Jesus, He's telling us who the person is that He's talking
about. He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Scripture, God Himself has
these names. And this is not restricted to
God, because the Lord Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. He
says in the Old Testament that his name would be called Jehovah
Nisi, or the Lord My Banner. Amalek fought against Israel.
God delivered Amalek into their hands. Israel won because the
Lord fought for them. And Moses had to hold his hands
up. Joshua on one side, Aaron on
the other side. And as long as his hands were
held up, Israel prevailed. God delivered Amalek into the
hands of Israel because God is his banner. And Christ is our
banner. Paul says in Galatians 6.14, in anything except the Lord Jesus
Christ, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world
is crucified to me." That's the Lord. Jehovah Nisi, the Lord,
my banner. And then Jehovah Shalom, the
Lord my peace. Ephesians 2 says, He has made
peace through the blood of His cross, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians 2.14, it's Christ who made peace because He is
the Lord, our peace. In Hebrews 7, it says, He's the
King of righteousness and the King of peace. He is the Lord,
my peace. And then he says this name about
himself in Jeremiah 23, 6, a favorite of mine, the Lord, our righteousness. The Lord our righteousness, Jehovah
Sidkenu. And the reason he's called the
Lord our righteousness, we have no other righteousness. There
is no righteousness in all the world except the righteousness,
the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord
our righteousness. We come to God in peace because
Christ is our righteousness. And then he says, in another
place, he says, Jehovah Rapha, he says, the Lord that healeth
thee. And this is speaking of what Christ has done for us when
he bore the stripes that our sins deserved. He was stricken
and smitten of God and afflicted, and he was wounded for our transgressions.
And by the chastisement of his stripes, our peace was established
with God. By his stripes, we are healed.
He's the Lord that heals us by his stripes. He's the Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. And then He says in Exodus
3, 14, He's I Am, the Great I Am, the eternal God, the God who
never changes. The reason we're saved is because
God is eternal and immutable. He cannot change. He cannot lie.
He's the Great I Am. And then in Exodus 3.15, and
we went through that a few weeks ago, it says he's the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And look with me at that verse
in Exodus 3.15, because this ties in well with the name we're
given here in Matthew 1.21. Exodus 3.15, he says this. And God said to Moses, moreover
unto Moses, he said moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has
sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and
this is my memorial unto all generations. What is God saying
here? He's the God of these men who
were men of promise. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The
promises of God were given to these men. And because God's
promises were given to them, He had chosen them. He had blessed
them. He had chosen to bless them in
Christ. And He committed Himself to bless
them. And so in His name, His name
is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What does that mean?
It means that God is the God of His people. He has taken to
Himself a name which identifies Him with His people. That is
condescending grace. So when we read here in Matthew
121, his name shall be called Jesus, the first thing we see
here is that God came from heaven. He came from heaven. He who is
God came from heaven. He became a man. As it says in
Chronicles, shall God indeed dwell with men on the earth?
And here he comes as a man born of a woman, born of a virgin.
And His name is Jesus because He will save His people from
their sins. His name identifies Him with
His people. And what are His people? Those
whom He would save from their sins. Do you see that? His people
from their sins. He's the one who is the only
Savior. He's the one who came to save
His people. And who are His people? Sinners. It says in 1 Timothy 1.15, this
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. That's why He came. And that's
what He was committed to do. And He actually did what He came
to do. He fulfilled the purpose for
His coming. He fulfilled what His name says
He is. He's the Savior. He came to save. And He actually, really accomplished
the salvation for His people. He saved them from their sins.
Now the Bible contains a lot of things, and when we read it,
sometimes we lose track of what it's all about. But this is what
it's about. Jesus Christ, God Himself, being
born as a man, taking to Himself the nature of man. taking the
cause of his people, being born in order that he might save them
from their sins. This is why he came. This is
what he did. And this is why he was glorified
after he rose from the dead, because he actually did what
he came to do. So we see in these names of God,
we see in the names of the Lord, that He identifies Himself with
His people. And His names, when He calls
them His people, He calls them various things in scripture.
A lot of different things. And these things that He calls
them correspond to men and figures that He created even in the Old
Testament. So, for example, He says, His people. Who are His
people? They were the nation of Israel.
The people God promised would be born to Abraham. They were
His people. But we learn later in the New
Testament that the people who are called His people are those
who were chosen and promised to eternal life before the world
began. So it wasn't just Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob then. It's all those God determined
to save before the world began and who He actually saved in
Jesus Christ. Now that seems like, at first
we might think, well that's exclusionary. But it's not. It's actually the
only way we can be saved. So when God says His people,
He also says these things. His sheep. And it immediately
brings us back to the figure in the Old Testament of the shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd. He's the one who is my shepherd. And therefore I shall not want.
David was a shepherd. So we see that the Lord is our
shepherd and David was a shepherd. And we see those two combined
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, our shepherd, just like
David, the king and the shepherd of his people. They're called
his brethren. They're called the elect. They're
called something that I think is the dearest thing in all of
scripture, which we've just read about. And I want to take you
to now, which is the bride of Christ. And let's look at this
in Genesis chapter two together. Genesis chapter two. Turn back
there, if you would, to Genesis chapter two. Because I think
when we see God's purpose of redemption from the beginning,
and we see that Christ came into the world to fulfill that purpose,
that that was the work He was sent to do, that was the name
that said this is what He's going to do, and these are the people
for whom He's going to do that work. And then we see Him rising
from the dead. We see all these things. It all
ties together. And it lifts up our attention
to the fact that God is glorious. God is so glorious that we can't
even comprehend it. But we'll see this in a minute.
The mystery of redemption and that Christ would come from heaven
to purchase His bride. Look at this again with me. It
says in verse 21 of Genesis 2, The Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Now, if you look back over in verse 18, it says,
the Lord said, it is not good that the man should be alone.
I will make an help and help me for him, someone who was suitable
to him. Adam was created out of the dust
of the ground. God himself formed him. He didn't
just speak and Adam was created. He actually, with his own hands,
formed him. In Hebrews 10, Christ said when
he came into the world, a body hast thou prepared me. So Adam
brings our attention to Romans chapter 5 where it says that
Adam was a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words,
what we read about Adam is meant to teach us about Christ. What
we read about the first man, Adam, is meant to teach us about
the last man, Christ, who would stand for his people. And if
we understand this, Then when we go through this in Genesis,
what we see here is the beautiful not illustration, but the beautiful
truths that God has laid out in creation and in all of time
in order to teach us His glory through what Christ would do.
So he says, it's not good that the man should be alone. And
who is Adam? He's the first man. Let's just
read through it again. He says, And so the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And
the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman,
and brought her unto the man." Now, you see several things here.
First of all, who created man? It was God. It was God's purpose. God doesn't do things causelessly.
He does it on purpose, and He does it for a good reason. He
made Adam. Now, God also created angels.
And He didn't create angels through one angel. He created all the
angels individually. Each one of them. He didn't have
angels as people having babies. Angels are just angels. They
neither marry or are given in marriage, and they don't have
children. God made them individually. But with man, when he came to
man, he determined in his purpose. Remember, think about this. You're
looking at a miniaturization of God's eternal plan and purpose
of redemption. And the miniaturization of what
you're going to see is created by God even in the way the world
is made. Everything that God created,
made in creation, everything that he set up, Everything, the
relationship, the organization, the things that are created,
were designed to teach us about His redemptive glory in Christ. All of creation is this way.
And later on, when God gives the scripture, the Old Testament
law, and the ceremonies, and the sacrifices, and the temple,
and the priesthood, Those also are meant to teach us about God's
redemption, His work of redemption in Christ. And then in the prophets,
and in the history of Israel, and in the temple, and in the
nation, and the enemies that would come against them, and
the kings, and then their trouble. All these things are meant to
teach us about how the Lord Jesus Christ would save His people.
And it goes on down throughout history, and is fulfilled and
consummated at the end of time. But here what we see in the miniaturization
of God's, it's like an artist who wants to teach us about something
deep. And so he paints a picture, and
you look at that picture, and you see, I think I understand
the meaning behind the painting. That's creation. Creation is
the canvas on which God paints redemption. The glory of God
is seen, but it's not seen really until God reveals it from Scripture,
because we can't see what was intended by the artist, who is
God, until he shows it to us. Remember the verse in Colossians
1.16, were made by Him, Christ, and
for Him, Christ. Now in the beginning God created
this man, Adam, and He put him over all of His creation. He
set him over as the head of all of His creation. Every animal
that was made, He brought it to Adam to see what Adam would
call it. This is teaching us that Christ
was determined by God from the beginning in eternity, before
the world was ever created, to be the man whom God would establish
as the one who would rule over all things in all places in heaven
and earth. That's the man, Adam, and that's
the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He would set him as rule. But
he says here, it's not good that he's alone. It's not good that
he's alone. I'll make him a helpmeet for him. Someone suitable to
him. How could God make someone suitable to Adam? Well, he caused
his sleep to fall on him, he took a rib, and he formed woman
out of the rib. But here, we're speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. How did God form the woman? In
the same way, in verse 21, the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam. Now before, when we're reading
this, realize that neither Adam nor Eve had yet fallen into sin. Both of them were holy before
God. It was God's purpose that this
woman be created even before the fall, before Adam's sin. And that teaches us something.
First of all, when the Lord Jesus Christ was in this world, when
He went to the cross, He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and
separate from sinners. He had no sin. In Him was no
sin. And so here we see Adam in that
position with his wife. He's without sin, and he lays
down his life for her. He falls asleep. As if he's under
this operation. And from his side, from his rib,
is taken the woman. She's made from his rib. God
didn't make her from the dust of the ground. He made her from
the man. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ, when He came into the
world, it says, His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. One of the things that that does,
that name does, is it immediately ties back as a lightning ray,
back to this point in Genesis, and then brings it back forward
and fulfills it in Him, who would lay down His life for His people. He came to save them from their
sins. And in order for God to create
a woman who was suitable to the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ had
to lay His life down. He had to lay down His life.
And so it says in Ephesians chapter 5, you might want to hold your
finger here and turn there because this is the infallible commentary
on what's written here in Genesis chapter 2. There's no doubt but
what it means because God has revealed it to us in Ephesians
chapter 5. He says this about the, now there's a man, a real
man, and there's a real woman who's created in the book of
Genesis. It's teaching us about the eternal man. It's teaching
us about the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be born, He's eternal
in His person, but not as man. And He would live forever with
His people, and they would be born from Him. Look at this,
Ephesians chapter 5. In verse 23, For the husband
is the head of the wife. Even as Christ is the head of
the church. Do you see that? Immediately
we see Adam, Christ, Eve, the church. And He is the Savior of the body. Do you see that? What did He
come to do? To save His people from their sins. And who are
His people? Who is He the Savior of? The
body. He's the Savior of the people
that were sinners, that He came to save, called His wife, His
church, the body. Verse 24, Therefore, as the church
is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything. In other words, he's taking the
redemptive truth, that church is subject to Christ, and he's
applying it to the physical truth. So let wives be subject to their
own husbands in everything. Why are wives supposed to be
subject to their husbands? Because God just said, do it!
And so the man just says, do it, submit woman. No, it's not
for that at all. God wants to lift our eyes up
off of the... He wants us to lift our eyes
to Christ. He wants us to see what He did
for His wife, the church. He wants us to see how He saved
her from their sins. And He wants to teach us that
as the church now, because of what He's done for her, is subject
to Him in everything, Now, keep that in the perspective of your
faith, the love of your heart and the hope of eternity for
you and all that you trust in and all you draw from the Lord
Jesus Christ by faith. Keep that in your mind's eye
and you wives, When you go about your relationship with your husbands,
you think of that. And what you do in your life,
your everyday life, keep that in your faith's eye. And be convinced
that the reason you are subject to your husband is to manifest
God's glory in his creating you in this position to your husband
in order to reflect his redemptive glory in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what he's saying here. Now look at verse 25. Husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. You see that? Adam fell asleep. God observed
that it wasn't good for him to be alone. He had no idea what
a woman was or what was going to happen. God put him to sleep.
But when the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life in the sleep
of death, he understood God's eternal purpose and he came to
fulfill it. It was already an espousal an
engagement established in eternity in heaven. Before the world was,
God chose his people in Christ. That means he chose them as one
with him. Him the head, they the body. There was an eternal union established
by the electing love of God. He said in eternity, it's not
good that the man should be alone. I want, this was God's purpose,
to put a man on the throne to rule over all things, to save
his people, to make known his glory, to establish peace between
God's righteousness and God's grace and his mercy and his justice. These things that man would do
and make known God to us and subject his enemies under his
feet to defeat them and subdue them and put sin out of God's
universe. But in doing that, in all these
things God was going to do in Christ, He says, the way I'm
going to do it is I'm going to make the relationship between
His people and my Son, when He becomes man, so intimate that
they're going to be one. They're going to be treated as
one. So I'm going to choose them in Christ. And I'm going to see
them in Christ as one. He is going to willingly take
their obligations. All requirements God is going
to lay on them, He would bear and fulfill. Everything that
they owed God because of their sin, He was going to pay. He
owned their debt. He fulfilled their requirements.
He became their husband, their head. And He stood as Adam. As the first man stood, and all
of us stood in Him, So Christ stood up for his people, and
he said to God, for his people, when he faced the prospect of
their sin, and how he could bring them to God, he says, as it were,
I'll take their debt and put it on my account. I'll stand
for it. Receive them as myself. And he laid his life down. And
it says in Genesis chapter 2 that God took the rib from his side
and made the woman. And then it says there, in fact,
let's go back there so we get it as it's written. Hold your
finger there in Ephesians, because we may come back to it and refer
to it. But Genesis chapter 2, he says this. And the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And
the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman,
and he brought her unto the man." Do you see that? God created
a woman. God created a woman. She was
a new creation. There had never been a woman
up to this point. But God created her. When did
God create her? When Adam fell asleep. He took
that rib and he formed a woman. In fact, the name woman means
womb man. Taken out of his womb. Not just
taken out of his womb, but the womb by which man would reproduce
children would be through her. This is very amazing what God
has done. He's teaching us about what He
has done for His people in Christ. God saw the need. God's purpose
was established. He put Adam to sleep. God required
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was God who required him to
die. He said in the garden, Father, if there be any way, let this
cup pass for me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine, be done. God required his death. Why?
Because it was God's purpose. to satisfy His justice. God didn't require the death
of Christ in order to teach us that God hates sin and that God
loves righteousness. No. God required it because God
required satisfaction for sin in order that he might wed his
people who were sinners to Christ and bring them as sons to glory.
This was his paternal purpose. Hebrews 2.10, it says, it pleads
that from him who, of him who, from, I'm getting the words mixed
up. But let me just go there, you don't have to turn there.
It says, "...for it became Him, for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." It was God's
purpose to have many sons and to have them through Christ dying
for them. So He causes him to fall asleep,
takes the rib, forms the woman, creates her anew. Now Christ
laid in the tomb. He died. He laid in the tomb.
But who required his death? It was God himself. And who raised
Him from the dead? Was it not God Himself? If God
required His death in order to satisfy His justice, then by
His resurrection, what is God saying? All that He required
to be paid was paid. All that He required in order
to create His wife and have her as His wife and be one with her
had been completed. And when he rose from the dead,
a new creation was made. His church. His church. In reality,
his church was made. He laid down his life for the
church. He gave himself for the church.
And so she was made in that creation. It says in Hebrews chapter 10,
that by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. When God made this woman, When
He brought her to the man and He looked at her, do you know
what He saw? Nothing but perfection. Think about it. Not a hair out
of place. Not a scar on her. No blemishes. Nothing wrong with
everything symmetrical. Everything is perfect. He looked
at her. She was absolutely perfect in every way. And he immediately
saw himself in her, and he loved her. He saw that she was taken
from him. When the Lord Jesus Christ laid
down his life, and God took his life from him in order to save
his people from their sins, then when he rose, his people were
presented to the Lord Jesus Christ, the church, and she was absolutely
perfect. The beauty that was on her was
His own beauty. And He saw His own beauty in
her. And He loved her as He loved
Himself. Even before, but even so then. And this is why you see this
occurring, I believe, before the fall. Because she was made
perfect in Christ. Even before the foundation of
the world. Even before she had sinned, she was given to Christ.
When God sent Christ into the world as God to become man and
pay for his people's sins and prepared him a body, it was so
that he could die and redeem her from death and redeem her
from all iniquity. So we see this. She's presented
to the man. Look at Colossians chapter 1.
Colossians chapter 1. He says this there. Verse 16, for by Him were all
things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities
or power. All things were created by Him. And for Him. Now understand that
this is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God. As God, He created all things. But as God and man, they were
all created for Him. As God and man. He is before
all things in creation. but also in preeminence, and
by him all things consist, and he is the head of the body."
Notice he immediately brings this in. Why did God do this? Why was he creating all things?
Because he's the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
he might have the preeminence. Christ as God cannot be exalted
any higher than He is. And as God, He cannot be abased
any lower than God. He's always God. But as man,
He could both be abased and exalted. As our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what we read last week in Philippians 2. At the name of Jesus every
knee shall bow. So, here He is, that He might
have the preeminence in all things. But then, in verse 19. For it
pleased the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell. Think about it. In Adam did all
fullness dwell? Not at all. He was just a prototype
and he fell into sin and everyone in him fell into sin. But Christ,
God purposed that in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his body, as
a man, the head of the church, all the fullness of the Godhead
would dwell in him bodily. You read that over in chapter
2 verse 9. But look at this again. And having
made peace through the blood of His cross, in other words,
He reconciled God's justice to His people and God's people to
God by His cross. By Him. To reconcile all things
to Himself. And when He says all things to
Himself, think of the entire created universe. All the angels,
all the devils that fell, and all the angels that were preserved,
and all the people, and all the men who were created, and the
women, and the children, and everybody who's been ever made.
All of this universe is subjected to Christ and reconciled to God's
purpose in Him by His death. He put everything in order. What
was God's purpose? To have a people, to have sons
for Himself, to conform them to the image of Christ, to seat
them with Christ on His throne. How did He do that? He made Christ
their head and sent Him to fulfill all righteousness for them and
then exalted Him to His throne of glory because He magnified
God's law and His justice and glorified His name in doing all
these things for God. and for His people. And so God
said, but in setting Him on the throne, He gave the dominion
to Him and His people with Him. And He gave them all things.
But all the angels are subject to them. They're the ones who
are the ministers unto the heirs of salvation. The angels are
themselves the ones who minister to the people who are going to
be saved, even after they're saved. They're the ones who are
sent by Christ at the end of the world to bring His elect
to Him. They're the ones to whom He confessed
their name before His Father, the angels. And they're all gathered
around the throne together at the end of time. God's people
with the angels and they're all praising the Lord Jesus Christ.
Can you see it? Christ has the preeminence. He has the dominion over all
things. And then he takes the devil at the cross and he bruises
his head and defeats him and destroys his works and he strips
him of everything and he makes a show of him openly triumphing
over him in it and all these things are God is going to expunge
sin from this universe by this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one who has preeminence in all things. He's going to sit
on the throne. He's going to reign over all
things. He said it in Matthew 28, 18. All power is given to
me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations whatsoever I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. He's the
one who gives the commandments. He's the one who sends his people
to do his bidding in order to bring with power his people who
would be willing to him and subject to him in the day of his power
as a wife is to her husband. This is all our Lord Jesus Christ.
But let's go on in Colossians. He says, verse 21, And you that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death, listen to these words, to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Do you see that? What did Christ
do? How did he save his people from
their sins? He laid down his life. He gave himself for the
church. Why? That he might sanctify her
and cleanse her by the washing of water by the word. And he's
saying, you and me, when we hear the gospel, when the Lord Jesus
Christ sits on his throne, he sends his spirit He has all authority. He sends the Spirit of God. Think
of that. A man can't do that. God does that. But God has put
resident in Christ, the God-Man, all authority because He conquered
death and all things. And He sends His Spirit. To find
His people and to bring the news of His having fallen asleep and
their being created. And in bringing them that news,
He gives them life and gives them faith. And this is called
an operation. Look at verse 14 of chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 14.
He says, I'm sorry, not in 14, but in verse 12. Buried with Him, chapter 2, verse
12, Colossians 2.12. Buried with Him in baptism where
also you are risen with Him through the faith, through the faith
of the operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead. You
see that? Adam fell asleep, and God does an operation on him.
He creates the woman, and now he's operated on us in the gospel. God comes to us through the death
of Christ, and he gives us life. He operates on us. And what is
the thing that he puts in us? faith in Christ. He causes us
to return like the woman was brought to Adam. Eve was brought
to Adam and he brings us to Christ. And he shows us and she looks
at him. You can see almost even looking at Adam and wondering,
what's the matter with your side? What happened there? And he says,
that's where you came from. That's where you came from. You were brought for me. I laid
my life down for you. And so when God brings his people
to Christ in the preaching of the gospel, he teaches us that
we're sinners. You who were alienated by wicked
works. You who were sometimes hostile
in your mind by wicked works, fulfilling the desires of your
mind and the lust of your flesh, and were by nature the enemies
of God. you, you who were ungodly, you
who were enemies and without strength, when you were sinners,
Christ died for you. And He teaches us that through
the ministry of the Word and through providence. He shows
us our sin so that we're standing before Him in our sin and helpless
and hopeless and guilty and corrupt and vile. And He says, that's
why I died. Is to take your sins. To save
you from your sins. That's why I laid my life down.
To bring you to myself. And to create this faith in you.
To bring you to myself in the gospel. So that you could see
that your life is in me. And your desires would be for
me. Like my desires are for you.
This is what he did. So the Lord God brought her to
the man. And notice, and don't miss these
things either, when the Lord saves His people, He doesn't
just, and I have an article I copied from Joe Terrell in the handout
today. You can read it there, it's simple.
He doesn't bring us to a bunch of Doctrines that are independent
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Doctrine, think of it like this,
doctrine is like the scaffolding that holds up to our eyes the
truth of who Christ is. Doctrine is meant to do this,
to do that for us. God teaches us about Christ through
doctrine. But He never leaves us with a
high-powered, you know, we have a degree in this doctrine and
a degree in that doctrine so that we can wield it now and
elevate ourselves above others. Because James says in James 1.9
that we are to rejoice if we are high that we're made low. Let the brother who's rich rejoice
in that he's brought down. So we rejoice that God, in His
mercy, brings us down in our own conscience to be guilty and
prostate before the Lord Jesus Christ, corrupting ourselves
and unable to do anything about it, hopeless and helpless, and
He saves us by pointing us to Christ. We're glad that He brings
us down. We're also glad that He raised Christ up from the
dead, because when He did that, He raised us up with Him and
gave us faith in Him. And so, when He brings us to
Christ, He doesn't just bring us to these doctrines, He brings
us to our husband. He brings us to the one who laid
His life down for us. And He beholds us, and we behold
Him with the eye of faith. Faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who died for us and rose again. Faith. He is our life. He is
the resurrection and the life. He is the way. He is the truth.
He's everything. He is our Good Shepherd. He's
all these things, all these names. His name is Jesus. He identifies
with His people and His people identify with Him through that
name. That name Jesus sweeps into it
and comprehends all the other names that God is. Why is He
the Lord our righteousness? Why is He Jehovah Shalom? Why is He the Lord our shepherd? And all these things, the Lord
our banner, because He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one
who saved us from our sins. How did he do it? By all these
things. He was made. God has made him. I mean, God has become our salvation. The Lord, Jehovah, has become
my salvation. Do you see that? He who is God
became man and as man laid his life down for his people to have
her and they to have him and were wedded to him. His desire
is for her. Look at, look at, think about
it. She was taken from his rib. From his rib. What is that? His
rib. Well, his rib is where his heart
is. His rib is in his side, because
he has a desire for her. And she has a desire for him.
And as coming from his side, from his rib, it means that he
would actually provide everything for her. All that she needs,
she would find in his life. And not only that, but He would
provide for her, but He would work for her. He would do all
that He did for her. And not only provide and work
for her, and love her, but He would protect and defend her.
In Romans 8, one of our favorite verses is, Who is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. You see,
it's from His death. He stands on the basis of what
He has done for His people and He stands in defense of them.
Not only in defending them against all accusations of enemies, but
He defends them against sin and against the devil and it's His
It's His work to remove sin from them before God, to clear their
record in heaven, and to give them a heart of faith to look
to Him, and to purge them from sin so that they, in their walk,
they're looking to Christ by faith, and at the resurrection,
they're made like Christ, perfectly like the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
all about Him, you see? It's all about Him. Jesus is
everything to God and Jesus is everything to His people. He's
the one mediator. He's God and man. He's done it
all. This woman did not create herself. God created her and He created
her from the man. And if you think, or I think,
that we can arrange our emotions and our lives somehow to get
ourselves so that God will be happy with us. We completely
have missed the truth of our sin and that Christ alone saves. You see, salvation is coming
to the realization that I am a sinner and I'm corrupt before
God, and I can do nothing about it because my sin is part of
my nature. It comes out of my heart. What
I do on the outside is just because of what I am on the inside, and
I have only one hope. And that's if Christ Himself
steps in for me, lays His life down for me, and has given Himself
to God for me, and teaches that to me by this operation of faith. He brings me to know my sin,
and then shows what He's done to me by this faith, and causes
me to rest in Him, to desire Him. And so that's why He says
in Ephesians 5, For the church is subject to Christ as the wife
should be to her husband. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by
the word, that he might present it to himself." This is our God,
Christ, but man too. "...that he might present it
to himself, having laid his life down for her, a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
even as their own body." Why? Because Christ loved his people. They are bone of his bone, flesh
of his flesh. He took their sin. They have
his righteousness. He's seated in glory. They will
not be separate from him. They will be seated in glory.
For whom did Christ die? For the church. For the church. Who were saved? The church. Who
did God glorify in heaven? And bring down from heaven as
a bride adorned for her husband? The church. Why is she beautiful?
Because she's been clothed with the garments of salvation. The
robe of His righteousness. You see, God has put His beauty
on the church. The perfection of beauty, God
says in Psalm 50 verse 2, is Zion. Christ is seen in her. It's amazing. The entire panoramic
view of God's eternal purpose and what He's done for us in
Christ are seen in Christ's relationship to the church. Jesus is His name. Why? Because He would save His
people from their sins. The church of God, the sheep
of His pasture, the people His own people, His own brethren,
the coin that was lost. All these things are teaching
us the relationship between Christ and His people. But nothing is
nearer and dearer than the one between a husband and his wife. And so when we're in the church,
When we're worshiping God here together, when we think about
these things, that's the reason it's so important that we follow
the outward created and ordered relationship between men and
women that God has given us. Why is it that it says in 1 Corinthians
11 that the man is the head of the woman? Because Christ is
the head of the church. Why is it that the woman is to
be subject to her husband? In order to give honor to God
for his redemptive glory in Christ our husband. All these things
teach us by faith to bow before what God has done. Is it true
that God only creates children through the relationship between
a man and a woman? Absolutely. Why? Because God
only creates his sons through the relationship of Christ and
the church. It's through that that he creates
his children. Everything in creation, all events
in time, all the doctrines of scripture are meant to hold up
to our eyes what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us by Himself
to save us from our sins. It's all there. God with us.
Will God indeed In very deed dwell with men on the earth,
the heaven, and the heaven of heavens can't contain him. But
he humbled himself, took the form of a servant, was found
in fashion as a man, and being found in fashion as a man, he
was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore
God has highly exalted him and given him dominion and a name
that's above every name. that at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow and tongue confess, He's Lord. And if you confess
with your mouth what you believe in your heart, that Jesus Christ
is Lord in this way, if you rely on Him, trusting Him as your
only Savior, realizing that if you're ever gonna be saved, God
had to put you in Christ, and Christ had to die for you, and
you lay yourself in all your sin, helpless and hopeless, and
say, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean by what you've
done. That is what God would lead us to do. That is what He
teaches us to do in His Word. And He brings us to that. And
may God bless His Word to your heart today. Let's pray. Father,
we pray that we would understand and see Your redemptive glory
in our Lord Jesus Christ. We know, Lord, that He is the
glory of God. And we know that the church is
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. She makes known His righteousness
because her righteousness is His. She makes known His greatness
because He has divided the spoil with her because of His work. He did everything. He's wonderful. He's beautiful. He's glorious
in all that He does. He loves righteousness and hates
iniquity and we're saved by His grace and by His work alone.
And all we can do as sinners is to worship you and to thank
you for what you've done in Christ. Lord, make yourself known to
us, we pray. Give us this faith. Operate in
us. Raise us from life. Give us faith
to look to Christ and see our life in Him. And help us to come
to Him and worship Him and trust in Him. and to submit ourselves
to him gladly because he's so good. Lord, thank you for this
word from your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.