Our scripture from the New Testament this morning is from Luke chapter 5 verses 33 through 39. I invite you to turn there. Luke chapter 5 verses 33 through 39. And they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, can you make Wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days. I also told him a parable. No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he'll tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. No one puts new wine into old wine skins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins. No one, after drinking old wine, desires new, for he says, the old is good. Let's pray once again before we leave. Lord, in thanksgiving, we come to you, thanking you for this work. We'll remember last week, as we looked at the previous story in Luke, that Jesus came under the fire of the Pharisees because he dined with sinners. The Pharisees were simply shocked to see Jesus dining with sinners, and they challenged Jesus, but Jesus answered them by telling them that the reason he had come was, in fact, to call these very sinners that he's dining with to repentance. So it was fitting that he dine with them. The Pharisees, they're not done with Jesus yet. And now, a group comes to Jesus and they challenge Jesus about the very fact that He's feasting at all. They say to Jesus, both the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast often, but your followers, your disciples, they eat and drink. And of course, they want to know why that is. Why is this? That there's such a difference between your followers and the followers of John the Baptist or the Pharisees. And in answering this challenge, Jesus says something that is very simple yet it's very profound at the same time. Verse 34, Jesus says to these that are challenging him, he says, Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? Here Jesus is saying he is the bridegroom. Just as every wedding is ultimately a celebration and a time for joy and feasting when the bridegroom is present, so his disciples rejoice and they feast while Jesus is with them. Jesus goes on to say some other things in this passage, and we'll look at those in a few moments, but what Jesus says here, that he is the bridegroom, would have been so shocking, so absolutely shocking to the ears of the Pharisees, and probably many others listening, that I would be surprised if they heard anything else Jesus said after He said He is the Bridegroom. The Pharisees would have been shocked by this statement because it's a statement with a massive amount of biblical and theological and practical implications behind it. So before we go on to consider the rest of what Jesus is saying, we're going to just sit here and dwell on this truth that he's saying, that he is the bridegroom. We'll spend the bulk of our time on this truth this morning because it has far-reaching significance for us as his people. I think the more we understand this truth, that Jesus is a bridegroom, the better equipped will be to be his bride. This bridegroom or marriage imagery is used quite frequently in the Old Testaments. When it's used, the bride is God's covenant people and the bridegroom is God himself. That's what we see in the Old Testament. And now, here stands Jesus dining with these sinners, calling himself the bridegroom. Again, although quite a simple statement, it's really an amazing statement. The Pharisees know that the great bridegroom in the Old Testament is always God Himself. They would have very clearly understood that Jesus was now claiming that title for Himself. And when we do read of this marriage imagery between God and His people in the Old Testament, it's often quite beautiful imagery. Isaiah 54, and you don't need to turn there now, but in Isaiah 54, the Lord speaking to His people, whom although they had sinned and suffered exile and the consequences of their sin, God remains their husband. And He explains this to them through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 54. Verses 4-8 read this, Fear not, for you will not be ashamed. Do not confound it, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood. You will remember no more." And this is what the Lord now says to His people. He says, For your Maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is His name. The Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. The God of the whole earth He is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife. Deserted and grieved in spirit like a wife of youth when she is passed off, says your God. He says, for a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. And overflowing anger for a moment, I hidden my face from you. But with everlasting love I will have compassion, says the Lord." So we see in the Old Testament this absolutely beautiful imagery of God calling His people to be His wife and of Him declaring that He is their husband, He is our husband. And Hosea, Hosea is a book full of this imagery. Some of it is quite beautiful and some of it quite shocking. The Lord speaking through the prophet Hosea in chapter 2 of Hosea again says to his people that although they've abandoned him for other gods, he says even that is not going to stand in the way of his marriage to his people. So in Hosea 2 verses 19-20 we read God speaking through Hosea, and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice and steadfast love and in mercy, and I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord." This is the bridegroom that Jesus claims to be. Jesus, when he says he's the bridegroom, that's why they're feasting, he says he's a bridegroom who will pursue his bride with everlasting love and compassion. He's a bridegroom who betroths a people to himself in righteousness and justice and steadfast love and mercy and faithfulness for a marriage that will never end. Now, there are so many things we can talk about in light of this proof, and there are so many biblical passages that deal with this proof, but I want to narrow in, I want to focus on just three implications of this proof for us this morning. Although there are many more, I'll focus on three. And the first implication is this. The first thing I want us to understand is the bridegroom rejoices over his bride. In other words, our Lord rejoices over His people. Husbands, you will remember, I hope, that moment when you saw your bride coming down the aisle to be married to you. You're married in this church. You might have had to slide over because you don't have a center aisle. But I remember my wedding as my bride came down the center aisle. The doors were opened and she was standing there, beautiful, and my only thoughts in my head, running over and over again, was don't break down crying. Don't break down crying. Don't break down crying. Get a hold of yourself. That's what I was thinking. Just keep it together, man. That's what I was thinking as I saw my bride coming down the aisle, and I'm sure husbands can relate to that. And I was thinking this because there is a joy that is absolutely incredible that only bridegrooms know when they see their brides coming down the aisle. And our Lord, our bridegroom rejoices over us, his bride, in the same way. And that is what we read about in this passage in the Old Testament from Isaiah 62. Let me read a couple of these verses for you. Isaiah 62, I'll read verses 2 through 5. The Lord, speaking through Isaiah, says, The nation shall see your righteousness, and all your kings your glory. This is God speaking to His people, and He says, And you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give you. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed forsaken, your land shall no more be termed desolate. Here's the new name God says to Abraham. He says, you shall be called, my delight is in her. Your land married for the Lord delights in you. Your land shall be married. As a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." God literally rejoices over His people. He rejoices over you in life. I don't know why we don't talk about this truth more. I don't know why I don't talk about this truth more, but it's plain as day here in this passage. In fact, as God says in Isaiah 62, the name He's going to give His people will be, My delight is in her. Can there possibly be a more glorious meaning to have than to be given by God Himself? That's our name. The Lord's delight is in us. Can there possibly be a more glorious meaning to have? In spite of our sin, God has made us desirable to Him. He, of course, has done this by covering us with the perfect righteousness of Christ. And having done that, He rejoices over us. The bridegroom rejoices over his bride. In Jesus' life, I think we see this truth lived out as Jesus goes to the cross. We're reminded of One of the reasons Jesus went to the cross, in Hebrews 12, a very familiar passage, says that Jesus was looking, speaking of the cross, it says, we are to look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the tree." What was that joy? What was that joy that motivated Jesus to go to the cross? It would have entailed a lot of things, that joy. The joy that Christ had in simple obeying His Father. The joy He would have had in bringing glory to God and in the glory that awaited Him. upon His resurrection and ascension, but much of the joy that was set before Christ was bound up in the fact that His sacrificial death on the cross would be that ultimate act that wins for Himself a bride. And that bride is you and I. Virgin bride for all eternity. So when we look at the cross, when we look at the cross, not only do we see God's judgment over our sin, What else do we see? We see God's light in His people. Because through the cross, Christ won for Himself this Bride. And He rejoices over you, brothers and sisters, as you and I. The Bridegroom rejoices over His Bride. That's the first implication. This very simple truth. That Jesus is my Bridegroom. The second thing is a corollary. The second thing we need to understand is that the Bride, likewise, is to rejoice over her Bridegroom. The Bride, likewise, is to rejoice over her Bridegroom. We, as Christ's Bride, are called to rejoice and delight in Him. And this is why Jesus' disciples feast while He's present. The presence of Christ brings joy to His people, to His bride, and we're commanded all throughout Scripture to take joy in the Lord, to delight in the Lord. In the Psalms, we're commanded to delight ourselves in the Lord. Nehemiah tells us of a people whose joy in the Lord is their strength. And in the book of Revelation, a book that opens the door to the beginning of eternity, we hear the praise of God's people, and it says this in Revelation 19, 7, In other words, let us delight ourselves in God. We are His bride. We're ready. We're ready to receive Him. So in your daily life, Take time, take time to rejoice and delight yourself in the Lord. He is your glorious bridegroom. Fight against that perception that creeps into our heads that says worship is mundane or routine. Don't let your mind and your heart disengage from one another when you enter God's presence to worship Him. Instead, rejoice with your entire being in the Lord. Just as a bride rejoices over her bridegroom. I'd like to think, maybe I'm imagining it, I'd like to think that my bride had similar feelings when I saw her as she walked down the aisle seeing me. Likewise, we are to rejoice in the Lord our Bridegroom. What a great truth this is to dwell in. The third thing I want us to know and understand in light of this truth that Jesus is our bridegroom is that this covenant marriage between us and the Lord is an absolutely exclusive relationship. This covenant marriage between us and the Lord is an absolutely exclusive relationship. When the Lord takes you as his bride when He becomes your bridegroom, there is now no more room for any other lover. There's no more room for any other gods. God's not a swinger who doesn't mind a little fling here and there. He is calling us to an absolutely exclusive relationship with Him alone. He delights in you. He is your God. We delight in Him. We are His people. So please understand this. If you're going to call the Lord your bridegroom, if you're going to rejoice over Him, please understand the intense righteous jealousy of this husband that we are betrothed to. I can say this in no plainer terms. Our Lord simply does not tolerate His people chasing after other gods. In the Old Testament, whenever God's people start chasing after other gods and fall into idolatry, you know what their idolatry is frequently called? This marriage imagery is called up And their idolatry is called adultery. Sometimes it's called worse than that. Sometimes it's called prostitution or whoring after other gods, literally, from the Old Testament scriptures. Idolatry is spiritual adultery against the bridegroom, the Lord Himself. So, we'll consider some of these passages in the Old Testament. In the book of Judges, which is full of stories of Israel serving other gods, here's how Israel's actions are described. Judges 2, verse 17. Israel is simply says that they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. God's people whored after other gods and bowed down to them. You see the seriousness of breaking this marriage covenant that we have with the Lord. This language, I hope, is shocking to us. Jeremiah in Jeremiah 3, starting in verse 6, The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel? Have you seen what Israel did? Have you seen what my people did, God says, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree and there played the whore. That's the language that's used. I wish that wasn't the language that was used because it's not fun to talk about this morning, but that's what's there. The idea of Israel going up on every high hill and under every green tree, that's where these pagan worship sites were established. And Israel went there and played the whore. And then a couple of verses later, speaking of Judah, verse 9 in Jeremiah 3. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree." And in Ezekiel 23, verse 37, God speaking of His people, "...with their idols they have committed adultery." I'm not going to read it, but Ezekiel 16, if you go home and read that, it is perhaps the most powerful passage in all of scripture that lays out these charges of adultery that God gives to his people. And it's almost numbing reading through Ezekiel 16. At the end there's hope because God remembers his eternal covenant with him, even after laying out these charges. This isn't the most pleasant thing to talk about on a Sunday morning, as I said, but this beautiful and glorious bridegroom imagery that we see throughout Scripture is so closely linked with this imagery of spiritual adultery and prostitution that we just can't ignore it and be faithful to God's Word this morning. For Israel, whenever they fell into the sin that was of idolatry, which was actually adultery, whenever they fell into the sin, sometimes what they were doing was just blatant and obvious. Sometimes God's people literally forgot their covenant with God. They actually made idols with their hands and they called on these gods by their pagan names and they prayed and worshipped and bowed down to these gods. We ourselves might not be tempted to go carve an idol from a tree. I've never once visited anyone's house and had them say, well, don't go into the garage because it's jam-packed with idols or something. We're not facing that temptation in the same way. But we do live in a world that holds many of the same blatant and obvious temptations of paganism and idolatry that we read about in the Bible. A few weeks ago Lacey and I were on vacation and we spent a night in Williamsburg, Virginia at a place called the Great Wolf Lodge. I know some of you have stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge. It's really a family place and Emily loves playing in the water. So we took her. They have a water park inside this lodge, inside this hotel. We spent the night there and had a blast. Emily went to bed and I went back to myself and played in the water park. And one of the things we were really looking forward to was in the evening, they have a little animated show, in a sense, in their lobby. I think it was at like 8 o'clock, where these giant trees and various animals in their lobby, that are all throughout their lobby, they come alive and they tell a story. I sat there with Emily on my lap, and Lacy had Daniel, and we were excited to see the story and to watch Emily as she watched these animals. And we watched this story. They tell a story. They sing a song. And the main theme of the story was literally how we should trust and rejoice in Mother Earth. Literally, trust in Mother Earth over and over again. It was repeated throughout this story. She'll take care of you. I even heard them say at least one time, rejoice in Mother Earth. If Jesus' name had been put in the place of Mother Earth. We could have had a little worship service there. It was that blatantly idolatrous in their honoring and worshiping Mother Earth. This was no innocent show for children. I sat there, I covered Emily's ears and I looked at Lacey and I just shook my head. She of course didn't understand what they were saying, but I just shook my head. I couldn't believe it. So this hotel designed for families and children is built around a theme calling people to trust in and honor and rejoice in a false god. The dangers of spiritual adultery in Israel's world and in our world today, sometimes they're blatant and obvious, like they are at the Great Wolf Lodge. But more often than not, they're very, very subtle. And because of that, all the more dangerous for God's people. Sometimes when Israel fell into spiritual adultery against their bridegroom, they were actually making an effort to honor the Lord. This was, I think, very clearly the case. When Moses, remember, went up to the mountain, had a little fellowship time with the Lord, received the Ten Commandments, and Israel, while they waited, Moses didn't come down, he didn't come down, and finally they decide to make a golden path while Moses is away. This is recorded in Exodus 32. Since Moses was gone so long, they decided they needed to do something to worship the Lord. And so they make an image, a golden calf, that's very clearly supposed to represent the Lord. There's absolutely no question about it in Exodus 32. God's people are trying to make an image of the Lord God. The people who claim this image represents God who led them out of Egypt. In fact, Aaron builds an altar and calls a feast to the Lord, to Yahweh, before this golden calf. And the people bring burnt offerings and feast offerings just as they would bring to the Lord, to Yahweh, the God of Israel. This was a sincere effort on the part of God's people to worship and honor the Lord. In their eyes, this was innocent enough. They had just given a fresh new image to God. They still called on the Lord and they still called on Yahweh alone, so no big deal, right? Well, it was a big deal. God says that those who sinned against Him in this way, He would blot out of His book. But wait a second, they were making sincere efforts. to follow the Lord. But ultimately, it wasn't the Lord they were following. It was another God. And so God cuts them off forever. from a relationship with them. And then just two chapters later in Exodus 34, when God graciously, as He always, always does, when God graciously renews His covenant with His people that had sinned against Him, when He speaks to them of this promised land that they will inherit, He warns them that they are to have nothing to do with the inhabitants of the lands of Canaan. In Exodus 34, verse 13 through 16, let me read what the Lord says here. He says, Go into this land and you shall tear down their altars, break down their pillars, and cut down their ashram. For you shall worship no other god For the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. As we make covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they pour after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, you eat of their sacrifice. You take their daughters for your sons and their daughters for after their gods and make your sons for after their gods. It's almost like now, in Exodus 34, recognizing this very subtle danger that Israel faces, which we saw play out in Exodus 32 when they made this path. Now, recognizing this, God says, you know what? When you enter this land, you have absolutely nothing to do with these gods unless you fall into worship with them. That's what happens to Israel. They make covenants with these people against the will of the Lord for very practical reasons. They establish relationships with the Canaanites, just looking to survive in many ways. And as they leave, they less and less call on the Lord, and more and more call on these pagan gods. But brothers and sisters, our God's very name is jealous He is a rightful and jealous bridegroom and even if it's a subtle little thing that he calls, even if it's a subtle little thing that calls us to a less than exclusive relationship with him, that's a very, very great danger. I think Paul picks up on the dangerous nature of the subtleties that lead us away from our covenantal marriage with the Lord, our bridegroom, into spiritual adultery. I think Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11, and I want to encourage you to turn to this passage, 2 Corinthians 11, verses 1-4, I think Paul really picks up on the dangers of the subtleties of this temptation into spiritual adultery. Paul's writing pastorally to the people in Corinth. And he says to them, 2 Corinthians 11 verses 1-4, he says to them, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. In other words, he's going to say some things that might sound ridiculous to you, but they need to be said. Verse 2 he says, I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. It says, for if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or If you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you've put up with it readily enough. Paul is saying here, he's saying if you don't mind him speaking a little foolishly, he's saying he's the one that's arranged for this marriage between God the Bridegroom and the church in Corinth, his Brahm. Paul has arranged for this marriage between these two parties, he's betrothed them to one husband, and they are to be a poor bride dedicated and devoted to Christ, a pure virgin to Christ. But now what's happened is that other folks have come along and it seems in very, very subtle ways led the people astray. Other folks have come along and proclaimed Jesus and They've offered a spirit to them and they've presented the gospel to them. But Paul says what these other folks have offered is actually another Jesus. It's a different spirit and it's a different gospel. But the church in Corinth blindly accepted these alternatives. In essence, and here's the real shocking thing here. Here's the real shocking thing. They just couldn't realize, they just couldn't recognize the true bridegroom. They didn't recognize the true bridegroom. And so they gladly followed after other bridegrooms who were not the bridegroom. Think about this for a second. Can you imagine a bride that doesn't recognize the bridegroom? Several months ago I was standing outside the nursery in our church here. This was when Emily was much younger. I was watching my daughter play and I was looking in affectionately at her and thinking about how much I loved her and how cute she was. This is just an embarrassing story. I didn't even tell Lacey this story until two nights ago when we were talking about this message here. I was standing there admiring my daughter in the nursery, and I watched her for quite a while before I realized that the little girl I was watching was not my daughter. Some of you who work in the nursery will probably know who I was watching. I was watching the Olympus' daughter, who months ago, and even still now, looks a lot like my daughter. They look a lot alike, but I have to confess, I was not only embarrassed, I was horrified by the fact that I didn't recognize my own daughter. I didn't even, as I said, admit this to Lacey until just a couple of nights ago. Now let's think about that a second. Now imagine it's not your child, but your spouse that you don't recognize. And in your most sincere, best intentions of showing love to your spouse, you end up giving your love to another because you can't recognize who she is. Let's go a step further. Imagine it's the Lord Himself. that you don't recognize. Your eternal bridegroom in whom you're to place all of your joy and delight. Because you don't know him, because you've listened to a false gospel or chased after another Jesus, you've missed the true bridegroom. This is what was happening with the Pharisees that Jesus was dealing with. Although their bridegroom was standing right there beside them, they just didn't recognize him. Jesus tells them a couple of parables explaining the simple fact that they're not recognizing who he is. He talks first about, just very briefly, talks first about a new garment being torn to put a piece on in old garments. And the simple point is, no one tries to do that because it just doesn't work. Not only have you ruined the new garment, it won't match the old garments. And then he talks about trying to put new wine in old wineskins, and again he says, no one does that because it just doesn't work. New wine and old wine skins don't work, they just don't mix. And the point of these parables, as he speaks them very plainly to his pharisees, is that the old wine and new wine skins don't work, they just don't mix. Their conception about who God is, about who their bridegroom is, just doesn't fit with the reality of who He is. And so for the Pharisees, there's no feasting, there's no celebrating. They can't even understand feasting and celebrating because they can't understand or know or love or cherish or delight in the true bridegroom. So, instead of feasting and celebrating, what lies ahead for them, simply because they've not recognized their one true bridegroom, is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Brothers and sisters, we live in a world that is doing everything it can possibly do to get you to compromise your exclusive Covenant marriage to our Lord. I think where the pressure is sometimes most dangerous is when it is most subtle. I'm just going to offer three in closing here. Three points that will help us keep our marriage bed to the Lord core. The first is very simple. Do everything you can possibly do. to know the Lord and understand and recognize who our Bridegroom is. It makes no sense. It makes absolutely no sense to be betrothed to a husband that we make no effort to get to know. Likewise, it makes no sense to be betrothed to the Lord and spend no time knowing him better. And that's why here in our church we emphasize the importance of God's Word and studying God's Word. And we emphasize this not so that we'll look smart to other people or have lots of book knowledge or anything like that. We emphasize this because God's Word is a sufficient revelation of who our bridegroom is. And so as we study it, we study it for an intimate knowledge of our bridegroom. And the more we study, the more we'll just open up the wonders and glory of the saving love set upon us. The more we'll see the amazing truth that our Bridegroom rejoices over us, and the more we know Him, the more we'll be able Rejoice over him. Do everything you can possibly do to know and recognize a bridegroom. Second, jealously maintain your exclusive relationship with the Lord at all costs. Jealously maintain that exclusive relationship at all costs. And yes, if you're doing that, the costs will be great. Not only will the world not understand a pure devotion to Christ, they'll try and crush it if you have it, if you display it. They'll try and crush your relationship with the Lord in bold, blatant ways. You know, by putting together a little program that teaches your children to honor Mother Earth. And they'll try to crush your exclusive relationship with the Lord in subtle ways. Perhaps by giving you a noble end and asking you to work toward that end, if only to make some slight compromises in your exclusive relationship with Christ. The world will try to get you to accept another Jesus or a different gospel. And brothers and sisters, you only need to turn on Christian television to see evangelist after evangelist, and there are some good ones on there, please don't get me wrong. But so much that is called Christian in our world today is quite simply another gospel. It's a gospel that is perhaps based on works. Paul very clearly in the book of Galatians says that's another gospel. But you foolish Galatians, why are you buying into that gospel? It's a gospel that does not deal seriously with sin or atonement. If you buy into what is being said, if it makes you feel good and that's all you care about, You are committing spiritual adultery against the Lord if it is not the Christ of Scripture that you're calling on. I'm being very bold here because I think Scripture is very bold here. And that's why I say do everything you can to study and know God's Word, and then do everything you possibly can do to maintain that exclusive relationship that we are called to have with our Lord. My great desire for our church, and I pray this is what we're known for, for the church. I think we all are in so many ways. My great desire is that we jealously keep this marriage bed chaste, for our bridegroom is the most worthy of our teaching. who delights in us as well. We look at our final points as we come to the Lord at this communion table. Let's pray together. a bridegroom, a father who betrothed us to yourself. We call on you now, Lord, we ask that you give us a taste of this very same jealousy that Paul feels as he writes to the church in Poland. We pray, Lord, that you would indeed present us to yourself as a poor virgin devoted to Christ, untainted by the seduction of other gods. I pray, Lord, that we would be a people that is known to the world for our love and devotion and our rejoicing in you. And I pray, Lord, that you would be a God that is known to the world, a God who rejoices in his people, that has bound himself to us in a covenant marriage You see in our passage that Jesus admits that a time will come when he is taken away from his followers and then that will be a time for fasting. That time has come when Jesus experienced death on the cross. The time ended when Jesus rose from the dead and sits now at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. Jesus now sits reigning from heaven. He's no longer taken away from us. He was away from us for a brief three days, and now he reigns in heaven. And here at this table, he is present with us. In fact, he is present with us always through the Holy Spirit, but in a special, unique way, he is present with us at this table as we remember him. You know what this means? This means that now, is the time to rejoice in our Lord who gave himself up for us, taking on our sin and granting us his perfect righteousness so that we will be a perfect spotless bride to our Christ.