Angels descending ring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love This is my story, this is
my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest, I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting,
looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This
is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day
long This is my story, this is my song praising my Savior all
the day long. Thank you. Let's turn to Judges chapter
12. Judges 12. Our text here, it recounts a
quarrel between Ephraim and Jephthah. And Jephthah is of Gilead of
the tribe of Manasseh. And Ephraim is angry, very angry
with Jephthah. The whole tribe of Ephraim is
angry with the man Jephthah. And the root of this quarrel
is steeped in pride. It is steeped in pride and it
proves very costly for Ephraim. Ephraim suffers greatly because
of the pride in his heart and his going after or attacking
Jephthah. Now let's read the text. I'll
just have a few comments here, but let's read our text, which
is the first six verses. And the men of Ephraim gathered
themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah,
Wherefore passest thou over to fight against the children of
Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn
thine house upon thee with fire. And I thought, wow, that's quite
a reaction. to a victory that the Lord had
wrought by the hands of Jephthah over their enemies, Ammon. And
the previous chapters say that all of Israel was sore distressed
by Ammon. They were all sore distressed,
including Ephraim, but they want to burn down the house of Jephthah
upon his head. And this is what it's like when
peace is removed from the earth, and men are allowed to just grow
cold and work out the evil in their heart. And Jephthah said
unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the children
of Adam. And when I called you, so he
did reach out to them, when I called you, ye delivered me not out
of their hands. And when I saw that ye delivered
me not, I put my life in my hands. In other words, he's saying,
I put myself at great risk. of suffering great bodily harm,
if not death, in order to deliver my people, Gilead, out of the
hand of our enemies that was attacking us and threatening
us and causing us great harm. And I passed over against the
children of Ammon, and the Lord delivered them into my hand.
Wherefore then are ye come up against me this day, to fight
against me? But as we see so often with many,
facts don't matter. It doesn't matter what the facts
are. They're angry, and they're having a very difficult time.
They're not thinking of this carefully. And then it says,
Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought
with Ephraim, which tells us that Ephraim was purposed to
make good on their threat to Jephthah. They were going to
kill him. And the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said,
now this is really adding to it, they said, ye Gileadites
are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites and among the
Manassites. And the Gileadites took the passages
of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it was so that when those
Ephraimites which were escaped said, let me go over, that the
men of Gilead said unto him, art thou an Ephraimite? If he
said nay, then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth, and
he said Sibboleth, for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew
him at the passages of Jordan, and there fell at that time of
the Ephraimites forty and two thousand. So at the heart of
this argument, we see pride. There is pride here between,
or there's an argument between brethren, and it's because of
pride. Pride of Ephraim. Now, just historically
speaking, two judges, two saviors of Israel, because that's what
a judge is, they saved Israel, they were raised up of God to
save Israel, two of them happen to be from Manasseh. recently,
recently in the history here that we're looking at. And to
my knowledge, none of them were from Ephraim. None of the judges
who brought a great victory were from Ephraim. First, there was
Gideon. Gideon was of the tribe of Manasseh
on the same side of the river as Ephraim was. And then we have
Jephthah. And Jephthah was personally a
man despised by his own brethren for being the son of an harlot
by his father Gilead. And so, and he was of Manasseh
on the other side of the Jordan River, apart from Ephraim. And
so, wherever Manasseh was, the eastern tribe or the western
tribe, it was, the Lord raised up someone from Manasseh to judge
Israel, to deliver Israel out of the hand of their enemies.
And so, this is a victory that the Lord has wrought for Manasseh,
but it really, really irks. It bothers Ephraim. He's not
happy at all with seeing his brother Manasseh have this victory
wrought by their hand. And so, look back at chapter
8. Look at Judges 8, verses 1 and
a little bit of 2. We see this. that the men of
Ephraim said unto him, or Gideon, why hast thou served us thus?
That thou callest us not when thou wentest to fight with the
Midianites. And they did chide with Gideon
sharply. And Gideon said unto them, what
have I done now in comparison of you? And you'll recall in
chapter eight that Gideon had humbled himself greatly. He humbled
himself and he spoke as one who understood his place and that
calmed Ephraim down so that they didn't do any further hurt to
him. But now in chapter 12 verse 1,
Ephraim gathers themselves together to go against Jephthah and they
say, we're going to burn thine house upon thee with fire. And they're angry because God
had wrought a great victory for all of Israel by the hand of
their brother. And so rather than rejoice with
them, we see jealousy. They are jealous for how the
Lord has prospered them, how the Lord has blessed them, how
the Lord has kept them and blessed them greatly. Now, why is this
an issue for Ephraim? Why does Ephraim have this problem? with Manasseh. Well, they are
both the sons of Joseph, whom Jacob took to himself as his
own sons and blessed them with his other eleven sons. When he blessed them, he blessed
Joseph twice. He received a double portion
in Manasseh and Ephraim. And Ephraim is the younger one.
But when Joseph brought them, Jacob switched his hands and
put his right hand, the hand of blessing, upon the younger
brother, Ephraim, and he received the birthright, the blessing
of the birthright, and not Manasseh. And so Ephraim is all that and
more. And he thinks, I'm the one who's
supposed to be doing this, and you guys keep jumping out in
front, and the Lord's blessing you, and this isn't right. You're
looking good, and you're two for O against me. You're being used of the Lord,
and so that's what's going on here. That's what is in their
mind, because Ephraim, in his mind, he should be receiving
the blessing. He should be glorified, not Manasseh. because he has the birthright.
And then ultimately what happens is one word, one word, it all
comes down to one word being the difference between life and
death for these Ephraimites. So that 42,000 men lost their
lives because of the pride of Ephraim. Now, we're going to
see the gospel in this passage. We're going to see the gospel,
but I want to encourage you, brethren, not to let pride stand
in the way of you reconciling with anyone. Whether they're
a brother or not, don't let pride, like Ephraim here, stand in the
way of reconciling with your brethren. The scriptures teach
us That pride is an evil, corrosive, vile sin. It is destructive. It destroys. It ruins men's lives. And it prevents there being a
repair of fellowship and friendship. And Paul wrote to the Romans
saying, if it be possible, as far as it depends upon you, live
peaceably with all men. You live peaceably with all men. And the scriptures give us many
warnings about the haughtiness of pride. Let me just read a
few of them. The first would be from 1 Corinthians 4, verse
7, where Paul reminds these proud Corinthians that are fighting
with one another and choosing one man over another and siding
with this one as opposed to that one and they're getting into
it over nothing, over nothing. And Paul reminds them saying,
who maketh thee to differ from another? What hast thou that
thou didst not receive? And if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? So anything
that you have, any blessing you have, any knowledge or understanding
you have, always remember that God gave you that knowledge.
God gave you that understanding. You didn't earn that. You weren't
wise and you weren't crafty. It wasn't because of you that
you received that knowledge. It's because God would bless
you and give you that graciously. Because he would do that. And
so remember that. First Corinthians 8.2, if any
man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he
ought to know. And how often does that happen
when When we know everything there is to know about something,
all the learning stops. We don't receive anything else
because I'm full. I've got it all. I don't need to hear this
anymore. I don't need this simplistic message of Christ and Christ
and Christ. I know that. Tell me what I got
to do to go on and mature in my salvation. You tell me something
more because I've heard enough of Christ. Galatians 6.3, for
if any man think himself to be something when he's nothing,
he deceiveth himself. Because the reality is we're
all sinners. We all can fall in a moment's
notice instantly. We can fall and be humbled. And when the Lord does it for
his people, it's for our good that we are humbled. Yes, it
hurts. Yes, it pains us. But When the
Lord brings it to our hearts and shows us what He's doing
to us and why, we're reminded, I see why I'm going through this,
because I'm the fool. I'm the one who's been proud
and arrogant and forgetful, and I needed this. Thank you, Lord.
The Lord does it in goodness. And then one more, because it's
so sweet, from Jeremiah 9, Jeremiah 9, verse 23 and 24, Thus saith
the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not
the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the
Lord which exercised lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in
the earth. For in these things I delight,
saith the Lord. The Lord delights in lovingkindness.
in judgment and righteousness, doing that which is right, in
accordance with His Word. You know, you think of the Pharisee
and the publican who went up to the temple and prayed, and
the one man, the Pharisee, thought, this is great, I'm a child of
God, and I'm not like that man over there, and he prayed with
himself, and the Lord tells us he went home not being justified. But that sinner, that publican
who had nothing to boast of, nothing to glory in of himself,
asked for mercy, begged for mercy, and God gave it to him. And God
said, that man went home justified. Who would you want to be like?
The publican. Right? The sinner. Owning what
we are, the sinner. Instead of thinking and building
ourselves up when we're just deceiving ourselves because we're
really nothing. So remember these words with
regard to anyone with whom you have an issue with, but especially
brethren. Especially brethren. And push yourself to reconcile,
begging God to help you to reconcile with brethren for love's sake.
And not to be proud. Now, Let's move on here. So pride is a terrible evil that
keeps men from Christ. Pride is not a fruit of the spirit. It's not listed as such. It's
a fruit of the flesh. It's an evil fruit of the flesh. It's what comes forth of us in
this flesh. Whether we're spiritually dead
or not, pride is born in this flesh. It's of this flesh. It
comes as a result of this flesh. And it works death and enmity,
separation and division, murderous thoughts, hateful thoughts, evil
thoughts against others for pride's sake. Because we're exalting
ourselves over another. We think we're better than another
and don't deserve this. And so with these Ephraimites
who are very proud, we see a picture of self-righteous religion. It's
a picture of self-righteous religion. And our world is full of people
like this. We see it in ourselves. We're
full of pride by nature. And like Ephraim, we would justify
ourselves because man thinks he's entitled to certain things.
He's entitled to being treated a certain way. He's entitled
to a certain respect. He's entitled to this or to that,
especially when it comes to salvation. Man thinks, I'm entitled to God
saving me. God's pursuing me. I just haven't
decided yet whether or not I'm going to let him save me. And
so people have this sense of entitlement. And if you remember
your high school days, probably even middle school days for some
of you, when you knew someone liked you, You kind of stopped
caring about them. You were pursuing the one who
didn't like you. And you're thinking, oh, well,
this person likes me. Well, I got them, so I don't
care about them. I'm going to go on to the next
thing. Because that's how we are by nature. And so the world
thinking God loves them all and he's desperate to save them and
doing everything he can to save them, they don't care. They just
leave them hanging on the hook, just teasing them and say, maybe,
maybe, but not today. Because man thinks he's entitled. He's entitled. They think all
I have to do is just decide whether or not I'm going to let go and
let God and let God have his way with me. But that's not what
the scriptures teach. The scriptures don't teach that
we're the deciding factor. That our spiritual life, our
salvation, hangs upon whether we decide to let Christ save
us or not. The scriptures do not speak like
that. God manifests faith in the hearts
of his people. He manifests life, that he has
blessed them and given them life in Christ. And, you know, we
see even where this entitled thought was exposed in the Jews,
back in Luke chapter four. It says that they wonder, They
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of Christ's
mouth. When he read from Isaiah 61,
they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his
mouth. And they were happy to hear of the election of God,
until it was made personal to them in such a way that they
were troubled. They were no longer the entitled
one. Now they were mercy beggars. They had to be mercy beggars
and they weren't. They didn't like being a beggar. They didn't
want to cry out to God to save them. And they became angry when
Christ told them there were many widows in Israel. Yet God was
merciful to a Gentile widow. One Gentile widow all the way
over here in Zarephath or Zarephath or something. And then he said
there was many lepers in Israel. But God passed by them all and
healed a Gentile leper. angered them. That angered them. It was brought near to their
hearts. And they despised the election of God then. They were
happy with it, with the general sense of it, but they hated when
they were made to feel, are you one of the elect? Because they
were entitled to it. What do you mean am I one of
the elect? Do you believe the Christ whom God has sent? What
do you mean do I believe? Of course I believe. I'm entitled
to this thing. It's my salvation." So they were
angry and they turned on him and would have killed Christ
if they could have. The second thing we see in this
text here is that the natural man is very confident in himself. Israel went up there very confident
in what they were going to do to Jephthah. And so it is that
we by nature are confident in our righteousness. We're confident
in how we hear. We're confident in what we say.
We're confident in our works and our wisdom so that having
all that we need, man will reject the salvation of the Lord. They'll
reject the salvation of God. You know, Jephthah was appointed
by God to be the head of his people. Jephthah was appointed
by God to be the savior of Israel, so much so that the Lord records
him in the scriptures. We're not given one name of an
Ephraimite who went up against Jephthah or what they did. But
we know the name Jephthah because God raised him up to be the Savior
of Israel at this time. And what we see there is that
man is so confident in his false religion, he's so confident in
himself that he doesn't want to hear of the salvation of God. You know, when you're walking
in the law and you're just going along happy with what you're
doing, and the works you're doing, and the progress you're making,
and how you are growing in sanctification by your works, and how you're
improving yourself little by little, you don't want to hear
about grace. And that's what the Jews stumbled
over. They stumbled over Christ. Because they had the law for
righteousness, they were doing fine for thousands of years,
so they thought. They had the Pharisees at this
time, and the Sadducees, and they had strong sects at that
time that had the truth. And so they're going along happy
as could be in their religion, and then they stumbled over Christ.
And they looked at Christ, and they heard of grace. You're going
to preach grace? Grace to me? If I hear that,
what am I going to do with all my works if I hear grace? I'm
going to regress and go back to my old ways. I had a guy one
time say that who was coming here for a while. He said, if
I sit here and hear this, I did some bad things in my life previously.
I might go back to those things. Because he wanted to hear the
law. He needed the law to keep him.
He didn't have the spirit of Christ in him. He didn't have
Christ keeping his heart and Christ turning him from sin and
death. He needed the law to keep him because that was his righteousness. That was his salvation. And so
men hear of Christ, they see the grace of God in Christ, and
to get back to what they were doing, they push aside the stone. They refused the stone so they
could get back on their path of righteousness and get back
to doing what they were doing. And so Jephthah, like Christ,
is the stone which the builders refused. But that one whom they
refused has become the head of the corner. And we see that pictured
in Jephthah, a picture of Christ. who is refused by the natural
man. But he is the very salvation of God. If Christ doesn't save
you, there's nothing you can do to save yourself. There's
no law you can keep to work a righteousness for yourself. And it's not Christ
plus the law. It's Christ. Christ only. He is the salvation of his people. And he'll teach you. He gives
you his spirit. He grows you in grace and knowledge
of the Lord and Savior. He turns your heart from dead
works that cannot save. He turns you from doing those
things that are wicked and sinful and evil towards your brethren.
And when you see it in yourself, He breaks your heart. And He
shows you again your need of Christ. And He keeps you and
teaches you and does all things needful for us. Third, Just as
Ephraim insisted that he be consulted first regarding this going against
Ammon, so it is that the natural man wants to be consulted. He
wants to have some part in his salvation. He thinks he's the
one that makes the deciding factor. But the scriptures show us that
all your salvation is put into the hands of Christ. It's not
in your hands. It's not in your works. It's
not in your sayings. It's not in your doings. It's
not in your decision. It's in Christ's hand. He is
the Savior. Look to Him. You're not going
to get there yourself. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. No man comes to the Father but by Him. And there's no plus added to
that. It's just Christ alone. We're told that Christ is the
Son whom God hath appointed heir of all things. God has given
Him the preeminence. He is the Savior. He is the salvation. We've got nothing to come against
him with. The way Ephraim came against
Jephthah, God has done this. God has appointed Christ. Look
to the servant of God who humbled himself. who came in the flesh
in weakness and gave His own life. Not only did He put His
life in His hands, He put His life in the hands of God and
let the Father do to Him what pleased Him in order to redeem
us from our sins, our wickedness. our infirmities, our unrighteousness
is. We're told that he is the brightness
of God's glory, the express image of his person. He upholds all
things by the word of his power. And when he had by himself, not
with our aid or help, when he by himself had purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He is the
savior. Fourth, we see how false religion,
a false profession, in what you do or don't do, is a false sense
of security. This battle's going on. In Ephraim,
there are some who were being slain by Jephthah and his army,
but there were some who escaped from that battle. They snuck
away, the smoke was going, or whatever it was, they got away
from the slaughter that was going on. and they made it to the river
and they could see the other side of the river they could
see their land if they could just get over the river Jordan
and they were certain we have it we've we've saved our lives
we've delivered ourselves I'm just a few steps away over this
river and then I'm home I'm home free but the Lord had put men
there who were checking. There were some people there
that were checking to see whether or not these were Ephraimites
or if they were friends, friend or foes. And the religious man
is very confident in his religion. And we know many, some of you
tell me of those that you meet and speak to who are very confident
in their profession. And they have no worries, they
have no fears. And yet it's a hope in what they
themselves have done, how they have delivered themselves from
death. And they don't realize that the
death that awaits them, they don't understand the wrath of
God, the judgment of God that awaits them in that river of
Jordan. which we know in the scriptures
is a picture of this brief death that we pass through to the promised
land, to the other side of the river. And so they rest themselves
on what they've done, which is the religious man rests himself
in his circumcision, right? The cuttings of the flesh. I've
removed this, I stopped doing that, I don't say that anymore,
I don't do this, and that's his confidence in what he does or
doesn't do anymore. And so the Gileadites, who were
with Jephthah, they gave the Ephraimites a test. A test that
proved whether they were alive or dead. They were living or
dead. And first, the first question
was, are you guilty of being an Ephraimite? Are you an Ephraimite? And when they said no, that they
weren't an Ephraimite, then they just had to simply pronounce
one word, shibboleth, shibboleth, the word of life. Now look at verse five. Let's
read 12, verse five. And the Gileadites took the passages
of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And it was so that when those
Ephraimites which were escaped said, let me go over, that the
men of Gilead said unto him, art thou an Ephraimite? If he
said, nay. Now what's interesting here is
that at the heart of this war, the heart of their pride is,
I'm an Ephraimite, and you're a Gileadite. I'm the blessed
one. I have the birthright of God.
And yet here, they're willing to sell that off. They're willing
to just give away and not own that they're Ephraimites anymore.
Now they're denying it. I'm not an Ephraimite. And it's
just like Esau, who came to his brother Jacob and for a pot of
red stew sold his birthright. Just denied it. That's not me.
That's not me. I don't need that anymore. And
so that which they were so proud over and fighting, willing to
go to war and kill a man for, now they're denying it. When
life is on the line, they're denying it. They're denying that
they're an Ephraimite. They wouldn't confess that which
they went to war for. Now, these guys are hypocrites,
right? They're hypocritical Ephraimites. And another thing that we see
in that is they never say what would happen if they confessed
that they were an Ephraimite. What if they said, brother, yes,
I am an Ephraimite and I've sinned against you. I was proud and
arrogant and a fool. and I did that which I should
not have done, I'm sorry. Please let me pass." And we don't
know if they ever would have done that, but that's what the
Lord brings his people to confess. I am the Ephraimite. I am the
sinner. I have sinned against thee. I
have sinned against you, Lord, and only you, and done that which
is evil in your sight. And so we're brought, we're made
to confess we're sinners. I'm the Ephraimite, the proud
Ephraimite who thought he was something and turns out I'm nothing
and I'm worthy of death. And so John writes of this saying
that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. I'm just being a hypocrite, I'm
lying, I'm concealing the truth, it's not even in me. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, because God says we're sinners. Scripture
hath concluded all under sin, that we might hear the promise
of faith by Jesus Christ. If we say we haven't sinned,
we're calling God a liar, and his word is not in us. is word, that word of life. And
that word of life is pictured in our text here as the word
shibboleth. Shibboleth, that's the word of
life. Now look at verse six, Judges
12, six. Then they said unto him, or the
Gileadites said unto the man that Ephraim might fleeing, say
now shibboleth. And he said, shibboleth. for
he could not frame to pronounce it right. Now that word can also
mean that they would not say Shibboleth. They wouldn't say
Shibboleth. They couldn't and they would
not. And they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan,
and there fell at that time in total of the Ephraimites 42,000
men. They refused to speak like these
Gileadites. They would not own that the Gileadites
were anything like them or that they were anything like these
Gileadites. In verse four, we see that they
despised them. They spoke ill of them. Look
at the second half of verse four where it says, because they said
ye Gileadites are fugitives. In other words, you Gileadites
are scum. You're the scum of Ephraim. You're
the scum of among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites. You're
the worst of the worst. And so they would not say Shibboleth. That's how the Gileadites said
it. They said Shibboleth and they said Sibboleth. And so it
was obvious who they were. They would drop that H. And what
did our Lord say to the Jews? And ye will not come unto me
that ye might have life. John 5.40, you won't do it, you
won't come to me, but all of us come to Christ. If we are
His, we come to Him as sinners, owning what we are, confessing
His name, speaking according to that Word of life, declaring
I'm the sinner, He's the Savior. I'm unworthy of life, He gave
me life. I'm worthy of death, He delivered
me from death. He's merciful and gracious to
all who come to Him, confessing their sin, crying out to Him
for mercy. Lord, help me! And He helped
everyone who came to Him seeking help, seeking grace. Only that
one who was hard and would not look to Him, would not believe
Him, would not trust Him, that one went away empty. empty but
all who come to Christ he receives and will not turn away the sinner
who begs him for mercy who asks him Lord help me forgive me he'll
never turn that sinner away though you're troubled in your hearts
when you're thinking of some sin some evil work that you've
done some horrible thought you thought Only those who keep it
to themselves and do not come to Christ, only they go away
empty. But all who come to Christ, confessing
their sin, seeking Him for mercy, they find Him a gracious Savior,
a forgiving Savior, one who receives them warmly and brings them into
His arms, receiving them. So both words, shibboleth and
sibboleth, they're supposed to mean the same thing. There's
really Some, depending on what you read, they might try and
adjust it, but it's supposed to mean the same thing. And the
word shibboleth in this context is referring to that river, a
flowing river, a living river, a river with movement. That's
what it means. Also, sometimes in the King James,
it interprets it as an ear of corn, a growing ear of corn,
because it's connected to the stalk. It refers to the branch
that's connected to the vine. It's living, it's bearing fruit,
shibboleth. It's a word of life. It signifies
life and movement and growth going on. Now, say sibileth,
without the H, sibileth. And now say shibboleth, shibboleth. You have to pronounce the H. You have to breathe out that
H. Shibboleth, right? Without it, it's just shibboleth.
There's no real breath in it at all. And when you say shibboleth
with that H, it's breath. And what does breath signify
in the scriptures? It's the spirit, it's the spirit
who breathes life into his people. All right, Genesis 2-7, and the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. The Lord teaches his people.
what He does in their hearts. You must be born again, born
of the Spirit of God, who gives you life. You don't give yourselves
life. You didn't get yourself born.
You don't get yourselves saved. Now, God saves whom He will,
and whom He will, He pours the Spirit out upon them, filling
their heart, giving them life to know, I'm the vile sinner
who can't save himself. Lord, save me. Have mercy upon
me. Remember me for Christ's sake.
Cleanse me in the blood of Christ, Lord. I have nothing. I'm bankrupt
of anything. I have no money to spend, no
labor to give. Lord, save me. Receive me in
Christ. And so the spirit gives birth
to the new man of faith. which is not born of the corruptible
seed of Adam, that's this right here, the flesh, that's the corruptible
seed of Adam, that's what he makes, but the incorruptible
seed of Christ gives birth to the new man of faith within you. that new man who believes Christ,
who confesses, I'm the sinner. The Holy Spirit is given to regenerate
you, to give you the breath of life whereby you live believing
Christ. Now this is pictured when the
risen Savior came to his disciples, and he showed them his hands,
and he showed them his side. And he spoke to them in John
20, verse 21 and 22, saying, Peace unto you, as my Father
hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, when
he had declared to them, as Luke 24 records it, when he spoke
to them of the things concerning Christ and Moses and the Psalms
and the prophets, he breathed on them and saith unto them,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost. He breathed on him the breath
of life. So they then understood the scriptures and what the scriptures
were saying that it's all speaking of Christ. He is our life. He is our salvation. He's our
mercy, our deliverance. He himself is the word of life,
the very word of life. And so in this account here,
when you read this in the future and you see Ephraim, you see
the pride of man, you see what we are by nature. And now he
is so arrogant, and that's what keeps men from coming to Christ,
is pride, and sin, and arrogance, and thinking we can do it, or
thinking this is what God wants. God loves the broken sinner. He loves empty vessels, and He
fills empty vessels, people with nothing, with His Spirit, and
the love of Christ in their hearts. It delights Him, because it glorifies
Christ. It glorifies Him, and He teaches
us and keeps us. And so Christ, our life, He is
our shibboleth. He is the word of life by whom
we breathe faith and hope and love in Him. I pray the Lord
bless that word to your hearts, brethren. Amen. Brother Joe, I'm going to have
Joe hand out the wine and the bread. And when Joe's ready, I'll ask you to pray, Brother
Joe, and then hand out the bread and the wine. Yeah, yeah, go
ahead. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you for these two messages that we have heard again. Father,
we also thank you for this ordinance of the Lord's Supper. Remember
us, Lord, as we partake, that we would remember what you have
done for our souls, that you have saved us from our sins,
that you have poured out your blood, and that you have given
up your life that we may live. Father, we thank you for all
that you have done for us. for we could never do this ourselves. Father, remember us in mercy
and bless the food also after our service. For Jesus' sake
alone, amen. Amen. So all whose righteousness is
Christ, partake, partake. If I was to say it's based on
our worthiness to take this, none of us would be taking it.
I wouldn't be taking it. But you that have nothing but
Christ, love Christ, take of it. I'm gonna read from 1 Corinthians
11, once we have the bread and the wine. And Jordan, you can turn that
off. Yeah, thank you. I'm going to read 1 Corinthians
11 verse 23 and 24 first, and then we'll take the bread together
and I'll read the next two verses. Paul says, for I have received
of the Lord that which also I 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
in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat 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. Number 460, Leaning on the Everlasting
Arms, 460. What a fellowship, what a joy
divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what
a peace divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. Oh, how sweet to walk in this
pilgrim way, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Oh, how bright the path
grows from day to day, Leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, safe and secure
from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arm. What have I to dread? What have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms,
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near. Leaning on the
everlasting arms, leaning, leaning. Safe and secure from all alarms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on
the everlasting arms. Thank you.