number 37, How Great Thou Art. Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling
thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed. O, it sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art, how great Thou art! When through the woods and farmest
glades I wander, And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur And hear the brook and
feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee O great Delwar, O great Delwar. And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And sings my soul, my Saviour
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, My Saviour
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. Turn
to Isaiah 32. Isaiah 32. While you're turning there, I
just want to say thank you for the cards, the flowers, the visits,
the prayers, everything that was done in my house to help
me adapt. But anyway, just thank you all
so much. I appreciate it. Again, we're going to read Isaiah
32. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall
be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest,
as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock
in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see
shall not be dim, and the eyes of them that hear shall hearken.
The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the
tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. The
vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl
said to be bountiful. For the vile person will speak,
villainly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice hypocrisy,
and to utter error against the Lord, to make empty the soul
of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
The instruments also of the churl are evil. He devises wicked devices
to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh
right. But the liberal devises liberal
things, and the liberal things shall and bi-liberal things shall
ye stand. Rise up, ye women that are at
ease. Hear my voice, ye careless daughters.
Give ear unto my speech. Many days and years shall be
troubled, ye careless women, for the vintage shall fail, the
gathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are at
ease. Be troubled, ye careless ones. strip you and make you
bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. They shall lament
for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful pine.
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars, yea,
upon all the houses of joy, in the joyous city. Because the
palaces shall be forsaken, the multitude of the city shall be
left. The forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of
all masses, a pasture of flocks, until the spirit be poured upon
us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the
fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall
dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful
field. And the work of righteousness
shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and
assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in
a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet
resting places, when it shall hail coming down on the forest,
and the city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are ye that
sow beside all waters, that send forth to the defeat of the ox
and the ass. Let's pray. Father, come with you or come
to you this morning thankful for our time together and Lord
for a place that you've provided for us to come to worship. Father
we're thankful to have Brother Darvin here this morning to bring
the messages. It's always nice to see other
brethren and good friends and Father we're so thankful to have
the pastor that you've sent us and Lord we ask that you Be with
both men as they study to bring messages to each individual group
of people. Father, I personally come to
you thankful to be here today, and I think we all come to you
thankful to be here to hear the gospel. And Lord, we just ask
that you continue to watch over and care for us in Christ's name. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 291, Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah, 291. Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but Thou art mighty. Hold me with Thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain
whence the healing stream doth flow. Let the fire and cloudy
pillar lead me all my journey through. Strong deliverer, strong
deliverer, lead us to my strength and shield. Lead us to my strength and shield. When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside. Bear me through the swelling
current, land me safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs
of praises, I will ever give to thee. I will never give to thee. Thank you. So we were blessed this morning
to have Brother Darwin, and we get to have him again. And brother,
I pray the Lord bless with you that he rests upon you as you
come into this pulpit and preach Christ to us. If you will, turn back with me
to that passage that Brother Scott read for us in Isaiah 32. My message, and I pray it's God's
message for you and for me in this hour, is the effect of righteousness,
verse 17. Isaiah was a prophet of God. I don't know how much time we
really take to think about prophets. I know in general we know what
the prophets were. Most of us know who they are. But we don't know a great deal
about prophets. He was a prophet of God. He was
a man who by the spirit of God was enabled to speak of things
not yet present. Now it's one thing for me to
stand here this morning with a veritable cloud of witnesses
having gone before and books on shelves and the internet at
my fingertips to talk to you about things that's already done.
But it's a whole nother thing for me to stand here and tell
you about things that were not yet done. That's what these prophets
did. They spoke in the spirit of God
about things yet to come. And it's a great grave error,
now hear me, to treat the Old Testament scriptures as though
they no longer have any bearing on us. Don't do that. Don't do that. In Ephesians 4.4,
we're plainly told that both apostles and prophets are the
ascension gift of Christ to his church. Oh, but you say this
was before the coming of Christ, these prophets. You reckon time
has anything to do with God? I have to wait. for time, a time
to come here. This is a time God has set apart
from all eternity for me to stand here and preach to you. But I
have to wait for the time. God don't. He don't. You say this is before the coming
of Christ. Yes, it is, but God's not subject
to time, nor does it change the fact that they were given on
the basis of his accomplished redemption. They were gifts given
on the basis of his mediatorial work. That's the basis for our
very existence. That's why God didn't burn this
place to cinders when Adam fell. It was based on the mediatorial
work of Christ. And these old prophets, they
were given, and it says as an ascension gift, God purposed
to give these things before Christ ever ascended. And he treated
them as though they were already done. So, And you also might look at
it from this aspect. We've been given also evangelists
and pastor teachers and the revelation of these prophecies. He didn't
stop with apostles and prophets, but also evangelists and pastor
teachers. And after a brief summary of
the salvation of our souls, Peter says in verse nine, Receiving
the end of your faith. This is first Peter chapter one.
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls,
of which salvation the prophets have acquired and searched diligently. Now listen to this. Who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you. What was Isaiah talking
about in chapter 32? Grace coming to you. That's what
he's talking about. Should we ignore that? That's
the old Bible. No, he was talking to me. He was talking about Christ.
He's talking about that grace that's going to come. And they
searched what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow,
unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, But unto
us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you
by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy
Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire
to look into. And this being so, Peter continued
to write. He said, gird up the loins. Therefore, gird up the loins
of your mind and be sober and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought to you. Do you think about grace that
way? God has purposed his grace and it's coming. Who's it coming
to? Everybody he purposed to have
it. It's coming. You couldn't stop it if you wanted
to. Oh my soul, it's coming. You
see how positive the word of God is when it talks about salvation? gird up the loins of your mind,
be sober and hope to the end for the grace that's to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's gonna give
you that revelation of Christ. Every believer, he's gonna have
it. Actually, the Old Testament scriptures were all that the
apostles had to preach Christ and him crucified and to prove
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of God. When he told Timothy,
study to show thyself approved, what was he studying? He didn't
have a New Testament. All he had was the Old Testament.
And here's another verse along those same lines, Romans 16 verse
25. Now to him that is of power to
establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus
Christ, now listen, according to the revelation of the mystery
which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made
manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to
the commandment of the everlasting God are made known to all nations
for obedience to faith. Should I obey those things commanded
me by the prophet? You better. You better. You cannot simply write off the
Old Testament as the word of God for another time and for
another people. I don't know how many times I've
had that thrown out. That's the old Bible. Oh, myself. Paul said we're built,
talking about our faith, we're built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, in
whom ye are also builted together for a habitation of God through
the Spirit. Don't write off these old prophets.
Their prophecies are as necessary as the books of the apostles.
It's as necessary for you to read Isaiah as it is the book
of Ephesians. Huh? Isaiah 32 begins with the prophecy
of the coming redeemer. Behold, a king. Not poor little Jesus, boy. A
king. A king shall reign. Well, he's
gonna do what we let him. He's gonna reign. Kings reign. We don't know anything about
kings. I don't know what we're under. We're under a mess of
what we're under. But kings reign. If a king sat
on the throne, he had his way. It was good to be king. He got
his way in everything. He was king. And Jesus Christ
is king. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. You know, Peter told those Jews
that were involved in the crucifixion of Christ, he said, God hath
made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's the promised redeemer, and
he's the promised king. He's Lord. He's Lord of the dead
and the living. He's king over all things. What's subject to his reign?
Everything. Everything. He looked at those disciples
just before he ascended up into glory and he said, all power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. All power. He says in
Colossians, power over all things. He's the head over all principality
and power. He's king over all things. He's
king of kings and Lord of lords. He's the blessed and only potentate. There is no other potentate but
him. And he's king in the hearts of
redeemed sinners. He's king. They bow to him, they
submit to him, he's king, what he says goes. There's no debating
with God, and this is God come into the flesh. And he's king
and Zion his church. I've set my king upon my holy
hill in Zion. And I tell you what you better
do, you better kiss the son, because he's king. And then here in Isaiah it says
he reigns in righteousness. This coming king is gonna reign
in righteousness. Everything he does, everything
he is doing and everything he yet shall do is right. We got
this sense of right and wrong in us and we won't judge everything
by that. Don't do it. He's gonna judge
this world in righteousness by that man. Everything he does
is right. How do I know what's right? I
look to him. That's how you know what's right
and what's wrong. You look to Christ. Everything he does, right. His commandments, his administration,
his ways and his means are right. That can't be right. It is if
he says it is. He reigns in righteousness. His
scepter, it says, is a scepter of righteousness. And then who
are these princes he's talking about? These princes, he said,
are gonna sit in judgment. They're gonna rule in judgment.
Who are these princes? Well, that's gospel preachers,
evangelists, pastor, teachers. That's who these princes are. Men appointed to watch for your
souls, men given the rule over you who must give an account. And I ain't talking about way
down the road. I'm talking about right now. You think God can't
take you out of the ministry? Oh, you don't have to look back
very far to see it. I've seen it. And this rule that they're given
is a gracious rule. And it's by the Spirit of God,
and it's by the Word of God, and it's according to the will
of God. And then Isaiah tells us, a man
shall be for a hiding place. That has to be talking about
Christ. No other man can be your hiding place. Pope is not a hiding
place. Christ is the hiding place. We
hide in him. And this man is the man Christ
Jesus, the great mediator or substitute for sinners, the head
and representative of God's elect. Why would believing men and women
want to hide? What are we hiding from? What
troubles you? What makes you fear and run to
hide? The wrath of God? Men's hearts are gonna fail them
for what's coming on. We hide from the wrath of God
in Christ. How about the temptations of
Satan? Peter said, though they all forsake you, I won't. What about the persecutions of
men? We're gonna hide when that comes
in Christ. And what about the afflictions
of providence? The day shall declare it. I believe. We'll see. We'll see. When the fire comes, tell me
what you believe. He's our hiding place. We hide
in him. The hymn writer said, hail sovereign
love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless
free eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place. On him almighty vengeance fell
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race and thus became their hiding place. And then he says this, Not only,
there's a man coming, he's a king. And he's a man, a representative
man. And he's our hiding place and
he is as rivers of water in a dry place. As a shadow of a great rock in
a weary land. And this is talking about the
abundance of grace in Christ and the freeness of it. He comforts
and blesses our soul in a weary land. He's not talking about
this. He's talking about spiritual
water. I'd be a well of water in you, springing up into everlasting
life. And then in verses three and
four of Isaiah 32, he speaks of the gift of faith given by
spirit to all these called into the kingdom of God. They have an understanding. They've
been illuminated. They not only hear, but they
hearken to the word of God. They believe his doctrine, they
submit to his ordinances and they obey his precepts. And then he tells us about some
folks who are imposters. This is what's coming, a man's
coming. And he's got some princes, he's got some pastors, teachers,
evangelists, he's got some men that's gonna preach for him.
But there's some who are imposters, and they're gonna say, he sent
me, and there's four things that these, Believers once spoke evil
of, but now understand and rejoice in. They used to speak evil of
the person and work of Christ. Didn't we, in religion? Isn't
that what we did? We were speaking against it.
We didn't know we were doing it, but we were doing it. The gospel of the grace of God.
We spoke evil of those things. The sovereign rule and providence
of God. We'll write it off to anything
except that. And the covenant of grace, how
often we spoke against it. And then in his remaining verses,
leading up to my text, he warns us of imposters who are not sin
of God. He talks about the vile person. Who's that? That's the hypocrite.
How often did he tell those scribes and hypocrites, I mean those
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites he called them. And then he talks
about the churl. The churl is the covetous hireling
who fleeces the sheep. And he says, the Lord's blessing
me. See my houses, see my money, see my wealth, the Lord's blessing. No, he's just fleecing the sheep.
And then in verse eight, he speaks of all those who are sent of
God, they're liberal men, free spirits, not bound by organizations. They preach free grace and they
preach it freely with no false designs, no hidden designs. And by such means, God's people
are established. And then in verses nine through
14, he speaks of a time of great distress and trouble. From the
time Isaiah gave that prophecy until the coming of Christ was
a long, hard road for believers. You think about this, God just
quit speaking. He quit speaking for 400 years.
He didn't say anything. He didn't say anything. He didn't talk about Christ coming.
He didn't talk about anything. He just quit speaking. Most people
didn't even know it. Didn't even know it. They just
went on like business as usual. time of great distress and trouble,
captivity by their enemies, the 400 silent year, Roman bondage. All this happened before the
coming of Christ and the ushering in of the gospel age. His church
went through a long period of barrenness and trouble and distress
caused by sinful presumption. That's what he's talking about
here when he tells these women of ease. He's talking about his
church, talking about people. A presumptuous ease and neglect
of the things of God. No milk in the breast, no, the
ordinances of God. And no harvest in the field,
no conversions, no fruit in the vine, no spiritual joy. And the
palaces or churches were forsaken. And then the Holy Ghost begins
to speak of another time, a better time. In verse 15, until the
Spirit be poured upon us from on high. Oh my. Now he begins to tell us something
of our day. The spirit of inspiration, the
holy comforter, the spirit of revelation, the spirit of Christ,
he's gonna be poured out. Now the wilderness is gonna become
as a fruitful field. He can break up the fallow ground. He can plow it up like nobody.
You can't, but he can. Now I can get up here and rake
you across the cold, but it won't plow that ground. It'll barely
scratch it. But the Holy Ghost can. He can
turn it inside out. And in this wilderness, this
ungodly world, he'll cause judgment and righteousness to rule the
day. Boy, I thought about that a long
time. Religion's very judgmental. Very
judgmental. That's all I knew when I was
growing up in religion. They kind of like Isaiah was
in chapter 5. He just woe and everything coming
and going. You know, woe is this, woe is
that, woe is the drunkard, woe is everything, woe. And then
he saw himself, he said woe is me. Woe is me. But this judgment is not talking
so much about strict sentencing or a judgment in that respect
of a lawbreaker. He's talking about spiritual
discernment. You remember 1 Corinthians 2?
In verse 14, he said, but the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them, for they're spiritually understood. And nobody
understands us, but we understand. But instead of saying understanding
in that text, he uses the word judged. We're judged. Nobody understands us. Spiritual
discernment is necessary to walk with God, and you can't do the
other kind of judgment without spiritual discernment. You need
discernment. And discernment and righteousness
is going to rule in this wilderness. What's the difference between
the true believer and the unbeliever? The believer understands. He understands. And spiritual discernment and
righteousness are the key to a faithful walk with God. You
can't walk with God in ignorance. You can't do it. Paul told the Corinthians, he
that is spiritual judges all things. He understands all things,
yet he himself is understood or judged by no man. Well, how
does this discernment come to be? comes to be by the things
of the Spirit of God. He gives you discernment. He
teaches us. And these princes, they convey
to us the mind of Christ. And with the mind of Christ,
we serve the law of God. Now here's my text. The work of righteousness Righteousness
is gonna rule. It's gonna reign in the wilderness.
Gonna do it through discernment. What do we discern? We discern
that the work of righteousness shall be peace. Not might be, shall be. How do I know if God has worked
the work of righteousness? Gonna be peace. Gonna be peace. Not so much peace with men, but
peace with God. He is our peace. And I don't
care how well you get along with others, your trouble will persist
until you have peace with God. Matthew 10, 34, he said, think
not that I'm come to send peace on earth. I come not to send
peace, but a sword. For I'm come to set a man at
variance against his father. and a daughter against her mother,
and so on. And your enemies shall be there
in your own household. Well, what does it take to make
peace with God? More than you have. More than
you can ever do. What does it take to make peace
with God? To have peace with God, we must
have a perfect righteousness. A perfect obedience from the
cradle to the grave. Perfect, not one flaw. Not one
error. Not one doubt. Not one angry
word. It must be perfect to be accepted. What will God accept? Perfection. And we're all sinners. We're sinners in thought, we're
sinners in motive, and we're sinners in deed. We come forth
from the womb, David said, speaking lies. At our best state, we're altogether
vanity. Isaiah said, I mean, Job said,
we drink iniquity like water. Well, then think about it, we
just take a drink. All have sinned and come short.
of the glory of God. And if there's to be peace, it
must be done by another. Is that right? I can't do it. You can't do it. Somebody has
to do it. It has to be done by another
because there's none righteous, no not one. Turn with me to Romans
chapter 10. In Romans chapter 10, Paul's
speaking of his kinsmen, the Jews, who were self-righteous
religionists, who thought themselves to be righteous by their obedience
to the law and by their knowledge. He said this, Romans chapter
10, verse two. I bear them record. They have
a zeal of God. but not according to knowledge.
It's an ignorant religious zeal. It's not according to knowledge
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. What were they
ignorant of? God's righteousness. And going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to some." I don't know what that says. He is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. They have no righteousness, but
he is. You can't look down your nose
at somebody because you don't have any righteousness except
his. And this righteousness, Romans
3 verse 21, it's manifested without our obedience to the law. Yet it's witnessed by the law
and who? The prophets. the prophets, even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith or faithfulness of
Jesus Christ, and it's unto all and upon all them that believe,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Being
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation
through faith in His blood, to do what? to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins. The crowning act of our representative
as he wrought out a righteousness for us was his death on the cross. That's the crowning act of that
obedience. Under death, even the death of
the cross. That's what the scripture said. It's to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, talking about these
Old Testament saints. To declare, he said, verse 26,
at this time, his righteousness, that he may be just and justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. The work of righteousness is
peace. He cannot be denied. The bounty
of his work, he's not gonna be denied. It's never gonna, Don
used to say, it's never gonna be discovered a miscarriage.
He's gonna get what he paid for. The work of righteousness is
peace. Listen to this, Colossians 1
verse 20, having, past tense, having made peace through the
blood of his cross. By him to reconcile all things
to himself, by him I say, were they be things in earth or things
in heaven. And nothing can quiet a guilty
conscience except the accomplished redemption and reconciliation
of Christ. When that blood's applied by
the Holy Spirit, that conscience is soothed. The work of righteousness
shall be peace. Now watch this, and the effect
of righteousness. Does this righteousness have
an effect on men? You bet it does. What's it do? It produces quietness. Quietness. Boy, I tell you, when you're
scared, you're not quiet. What am I gonna do? Woe is me,
boy, we'll go on. Looking at this, and looking
at that, and searching, and talking, and arguing, and looking, and
boy, we just, what happens when the truth comes? Ah, quietness. Quietness, we sit at His feet.
Quietness to me speaks of satisfaction. A satisfaction of soul. Anything I could ever want as
a sinner provided in Christ. I got nothing else to say. What
else can I say? All I can do is praise Him and
thank Him. I don't have anything further to ask. The effect of righteousness is
quietness. And that's not so much the stopping
of the mouth, but a quietness within, all questions answered,
all fears removed, and all debts paid. Believers have nothing
to fear, nothing. Quietness, what a blessed gift
of God's spirit, discovering the work of Christ and the eternal
purpose of God in redemption. We see his hand, his power, his
love, and his means to take care of us. And we sit quietly and
wait on the Lord. And having quietness of soul,
we're comforted with an eternal assurance. Everlasting assurance. That's not confidence in your
confidence. That's confidence in Christ.
That's what that is, eternal. Eternal provision has been made. It was made for me before the
world began and it shall be forever. Forever, think about it. That's
assurance. That's assurance, assurance forever. And there was never a time from
the beginning when God and his elect were all subject to anything
that he had not before made provision for, never. Provision was made
for the fallen man before he fell. And now our blessed and
only potentate rules in universal sovereignty expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool. That's assurance. This is the effect of righteousness. And if you look at it as a noun,
it means result or the consequence of an action or a cause. What is the action and cause
of our assurance? Person and work of Christ, all in him. The effect of righteousness is
assurance, not based on something I've done, but on the basis of
what he's done. And then if you use it as a verb,
it's to cause something to happen and to bring it to pass. And
he's going to do that too. His accomplished redemption,
which constitutes our righteousness, guarantees our quietness and
assurance forever. It can never be a loss. And even
so, the Spirit of God cannot and will not fail in his work
to apply and bring to pass all that is purposed to be. That's
what he said. Now, when the Spirit of God's
poured out, when it's poured out, is it being poured out?
It has been poured out. When I was about five or six
years old, I remember We'd drive down to where our relatives was
in southern Kentucky, and we'd leave northern Ohio. We lived
about 40 miles from Lake Erie, and we'd get in this old car,
old 50s model truck, 51 Ford. And I'd stand up in the middle.
I just a little feller. I'd stand up in the middle. And
it was about a five or six hour drive. Wasn't 150 miles, but
it was town to town, red light to red light, you know. And oh,
I'd fight to stay awake until we could get to Columbus. And
right in the middle of Columbus, the capital of Ohio, was a little
place called a White Castle. They were the first to sell sliders,
little square hamburgers. Had onion, oh man, I can taste
them right now. But we'd wait, and you could
get like 20 of them for a dollar. I mean, they weren't very big.
I'd fight to stay awake till we got to Columbus. And then
I'd fill up on them hamburgers. Then I'd lay down. And I knew
we was in an old car. We didn't even have seat belts.
I'd lay down in the back window, you know, and down the road we'd
go in that car. And I could sleep all the rest
of the way. been fed to the full, had full
confidence in my father who was driving the car, and I could
lay down and sleep till I got there. That's assurance. Assurance. Oh, my soul. How do you get this
assurance? He feeds you his son. We eat his flesh and drink his
blood. It's spiritual food and drink,
and we drink it up to the full. And then what we do? We rest.
Huh? We rest. We lay back and rest. Rest in it. Think on it. Glorify
God for it. How mind-boggling it is that
this eternal provision that He's given us. Oh, we just... We pray about every little thing,
don't we? Well, I pray the Lord will do just that for everybody
here today. Feed you. to the full with the
accomplished redemption of Christ and then calls you to rest, rest
in him. That's what preaching the gospel
is all about, isn't it? Sure it is. We're not up here
trying to judge and tear up and divide and do all that kind of,
I'm trying to point you to Christ. He's all, he's everything, don't
need anything. Just need Him. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in
Him. He's the head of all principality
and power. Feed on Him to the full, and
then lay down and rest. Wake up in glory. May the Lord
make it so. Thank you. That was a blessed illustration
as we're going to take the Lord's Supper together. And what a sweet
reminder of what we've come to do. We remember our Lord. We're thankful. for our Savior
and what He did in giving His body and shedding His blood to
justify us, to obtain our righteousness, to provide everything necessary
so that we may enjoy the effect of His righteousness. We may
have quietness and peace and rest in our Lord. just resting in His righteousness,
knowing that it's done, and the Father is well pleased. with
all in His Son, in whom He is well pleased, in Christ. And
so, that's what we're remembering as we come to take the bread
and the wine. We're remembering Christ our
righteousness, that it's not me, it's not what I've done,
not what I've spent, not what I've given or how I've applied
myself. I haven't applied myself as He's
worthy at all. I've done nothing. all my hope
and all your hope is the Lord Jesus Christ and that that hope
that you have in Christ it's because it's been given given
in our Lord so so I'm gonna ask brother Joe if you would hand
out the the bread and the wine and then I'll be reading from
1st Corinthians 11 I'll pray and and I'll read it together and then
I'm just going to sit down with you and we'll take the bread
and the wine and then Brother Joe will come and lead us in
a closing hymn and I pray that we can all stay together for
the meal after. Send you guys off with a meal
and some fellowship. Alright, I'll be reading from
1 Corinthians 11, verse 23 through 26. Paul writes, For I have received
of the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you, that the
Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he break it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is
broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner
also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup
is the new testament of my blood, this do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me." We're remembering that righteousness,
that effect of quietness and peace which he's given to us.
For as often as ye eat of this bread, this bread, and drink
this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he comes. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn. Amazing Grace. 236. Amazing Grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see. It was grace that taught my heart
to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come His grace hath brought me safe
thus far, And grace will lead me home. When we've been there
ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun.