Montana and I talked to Mitch
this week in Great Falls and he said it was 24 below zero
there. Y'all are glad to be in Florida I'm sure. Hebrews chapter 12 begins with
wherefore seeing that we are compassed about with such a great
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith." He's the one that started it.
He's one that'll bring it to its end. And we're called on
to look to Him. And the sin that does so easily
beset every one of us is the sin of unbelief. Oh Lord, give
me grace to set aside that unbelief and set my affections on things
above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Let's
stand together. Brother Burt's gonna come and
lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. ? Come whosoever ? ? While it may
be ? from sinful worry free, from
sinful worry free. Keep us from unbelief and fear,
content with daily bread. And resting in Thy precious Son,
who suffered in our stead, who suffered in our stead. Preserve us by thy mighty power. Abide with us, we pray. Direct our pilgrim journeys here. Be with us day by day. Be with us day by day. Our lives are in Thy sovereign
hand, now comforting the thought. Therefore contented may we be,
and trust Thee as we ought, and trust Thee as we ought. And if our years continue on,
or this the last we face, we'll trust thy son for all we need,
and praise thy saving grace. And praise thy saving grace. Be seated, please. Although the world be not so
with God, he has made with us an everlasting covenant. Sure
in all things. Act chapter 20. The Apostle Paul is headed to
Jerusalem and he's strapped for time. He wants to be there by
the day of Pentecost. So he calls all of the preachers
in the churches in Ephesus to one place and he speaks to them. Beginning in verse 24. But none of these things move
me. Neither count I myself my life
dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus testifying
the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that you
all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall no more
see my face. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take
heed, therefore, unto yourselves and all the flock over the which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. This is not
a wish list. The Holy Spirit does not wish
that every gospel preacher would do these things. This is who
a gospel preacher is. Greg does declare unto us the
whole counsel of God. He did it this morning. Greg
does take heed to himself. Greg does feed the church. Greg does know that the church
is purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, and he's a guide. He's not the owner of it. I remember
when Greg went to Sarasota, you realize Greg preached over 300
messages a year, and every one of them a gospel message. We
need to pray that the Lord would continue to bless Greg with the
faith and the desire and the ability to bring us the gospel
because all of us need it. Every one of us need a gospel
preacher and we have one. We need to be an earnest prayer
for Greg continuously. But there's another thing we
need to pray for. I know by personal experience
how important a godly wife is to a ministry. Trish does love
Greg. She comforts Greg. She takes
care of Greg. I'm sure she criticizes Greg.
And when the need be, she will stand between Greg and the cares
of the world. We need to pray for Trish that
God will also give her the grace. To keep on keeping on. Every
gospel preacher does these things. If they don't do them, they're
not gospel preachers. Father, we thank you that you
called us into this church. Father, you placed us under a
man that is a gospel preacher. You've given him the grace father
to bring us the gospel so many times. Father, uplifting father,
giving faith, giving grace, give him the strength to carry on.
Father, give us hearing ears to hear him father and give us
the grace to pray for him and pray for one another. We ask
these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Would you turn to number 44 on
the spiral him? No, you may remain seated with
this him number 44 friend of centers. ? Precious Savior, friend of sinners
? We ask such to thee draw near ? Let thy spirit dwell within
us ? With that love that casts out fear Matchless Savior, let
us know Thee as the Lord, our righteousness. Cause our hearts
to cleave unto Thee, come in with Thy presence blest. Open now thy precious treasure,
let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
tis thyself we long to know. Come and claim us as thy portion. Let us all find rest in thee. Leave us not to empty notions. We would find our hope in thee. Someone asked me this week if
I was ready for the conference. And I looked at Tricia, I said,
are we ready? Truly, seriously, the burden
of responsibility for events like this fall on her shoulders,
and I'm so thankful for her. I'm just coming to enjoy what
you guys are going to enjoy. She does all the work behind
the scenes. I'm very, very grateful. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 61. I've titled this message Beulah. Beulah. You'll find that word in Isaiah
chapter 62 at verse 4. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate,
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. My delight is in her, and thy
land, Beulah, Beulah. For the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married." Now this is a word that the Lord
uses. It translated it means union
or married. And he's using it to describe
his church. his church. Many names in the
scriptures given to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, not
the least of which is the word church. That word translated
means the called out ones. And if God doesn't call us out
of darkness into His marvelous light, if He doesn't issue the
effectual call to our hearts and give us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, we won't be part of His church. The church. The world doesn't
know it, but the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only
reason they're here. It's the only reason this world
exists. And when the last of God's elect is called by the
Spirit of God into the church, the end will come. The church,
the world will no longer have any reason for existence. The church is called the body
of Christ. He's called the head. And just
like your head is attached to your body and your body does
everything that your head tells it to do, so the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ responds to its head. And whatever the head does, the
body does. We have union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The church
is called in another place the friend of the bridegroom. waiting
for the coming of the bridegroom. In our weddings today, the bride
gets all the attention as we parade her down the center aisle
of our churches and have our wedding ceremonies. And I guess
that is, in a sense, a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ
is going to do on that terrible day of the Lord when He brings
everything to an end and He parades His bride before all of creation
and says, look at my trophy of grace, look how beautiful she
is, look what I've done for her. But the Old Testament weddings
were different. Biblical weddings, the bridegroom is the one that
got all the attention and everybody waited for him. You remember
the story of the ten virgins, the five that had oil, they were
waiting for the bridegroom and the five that had oil representing
the spirit of God were ready when the bridegroom came and
they were called the friends of the bridegroom. That's the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who had not the spirit
of God did not know him. The church is called the beloved
of the Lord and oh how he does love us. Scripture says we love
him only because he first loved us. The Lord Jesus Christ called
the church his brethren. He said, who is my mother? Who are my brothers and my sisters? Them, those that are sitting
here, those that believe on me, they're my family. They are my
brethren. They are the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In another place, the church
is called the daughter of the king or the daughter of Jerusalem. She's likened to a maiden who
is in the court and related to the king. And so every member
of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is related to the king. We are the children of God. the family of God, the glory
of God. In another place the church is
called the sheep fold. And my sheep, they hear my voice
and they follow after me. Another shepherd they will not
follow. They'll not forsake the gospel for a free will works
gospel. They've heard my voice and they're
going to follow after me. And there's other sheep that that must be saved," the Lord
said. And so all of humanity is likened
to the sheep and to the goats. And I want to be a part of that
sheepfold, don't you? These are all descriptions given
to us in the Word of God of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here she's called Beulah. She's
called Married. She's called the Bride of Christ.
She's called having union with Christ. In another place, the
church is called the habitation of God. You say, well, I thought
God was omnipresent. I thought He was everywhere.
Yes, He is. But He manifests His glory and His grace only
in His church. The Lord Jesus Christ, after
the resurrection, never appeared to anybody but a believer. And
he's never appeared to anyone since but his people. And he said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. This is the habitation of God.
This is where he's pleased to make himself known, to make for,
to show forth his praise and his glory and his grace. I need to be a part of the church.
I want to be called Bula, don't you? I want to be married to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah in another place said,
Thy maker is thy husband. Thy maker is thy husband. And
oh, what a perfect husband he is. Now Paul in Ephesians chapter
5 speaks to men and says to them, to love their wives even as Christ
loved the church and gave himself for it. And not that we are able
to love our wives just exactly like Christ loved the church,
not even close. But look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love that he has for his wife, for his bride, and
that will inspire you to love yours. And so, and in the end of that
passage in Ephesians chapter 5, the Lord makes it clear. He
said, I speak concerning Christ and His church, which is a great
mystery. It's a mystery in that it's unrevealed
to the unbeliever. A mystery in the Bible is not
something strange or mysterious, it's something hidden. And the
only way that it can be made known is if the Spirit of God
opens the eyes of our understanding and enables us to believe what
God has said. And so the Lord said, this union
that Christ has with his church, the bride of Christ, Beulah,
who is no more forsaken, the delight of the Lord, that's what
she's called. It's a mystery. Lord, reveal
to my heart, reveal to my heart, the union that your bride has
with you and give me hope. give me hope of being a part
of the Bride of Christ. In another place the church is
called the Temple of God and this is the place where God is
worshipped. He's not worshipped anywhere
else except among His people, among Beulah. She's called the
Vineyard and the vineyard that's been planted by the Lord And
the Lord himself is the vine dresser. And in order for that
vineyard to produce fruit, she's got to be pruned. And so the
Lord prunes every one of his children. He disciplines them. He withdraws the awareness of
his presence from them. He gives them conflicts and necessities
in life in order to cause them to depend more on him. In another place, the church
is called the Trees of Righteousness, which are the plantings of the
Lord. And those trees grow slow. They do. They grow slow. He plants them in rocky soil
and harsh environments, and they're slow-growing trees. But they
grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
grow understanding more and more of their dependence upon Him. And the wife becomes more and
more in love with her husband and more and more dependent upon
him to provide for her in every way. You see, this idea of Beulah
has to do with union, has to do with union with Christ. It's very similar to the relationship
we have some expecting mothers in our church right now. It's
very similar to the relationship that that baby in the womb has
with its mother. That baby has union with its
mother in that everywhere she goes, that baby goes. But did
you know, now the umbilical cord is a picture of faith. That's
what ties the baby to its mother. But did you know that there is,
and Fred, I'm sure you can testify to this as a physician, but there
is no hard connection between the umbilical cord and the placenta. There's no veins connecting it.
There's no blood transfer between the baby and the mother. There
can't be, otherwise every child born would have the same blood
type as its mother. The connection between the umbilical
cord and the placenta is a gaseous connection. And the only thing
that the child receives from the mother is nourishment. And
the only thing that the mother gets from the baby is waste. And it all transfers from the
umbilical cord to the placenta by gas, by gas. Now, air is a picture of the
Spirit of God. You see, the Spirit of God has
to unite us to Christ. And the only thing that we have
to give to him is our waste. And the only thing that he gives
to us is nourishment and strength and grace and growth. What a
picture. It's a union. It's union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what this word Bula means. This woman is married to her
husband. She has union with him. She's
one with him. The church is referred to as
the elect of God. You see, the truth is that the
marriage that the Lord Jesus Christ has with his bride is
an arranged marriage. Can you imagine what that would
be like? I mean, I know in some cultures, and maybe it works
out in some places, but young people, when they're born, their
parents already arrange their marriage with another. I know
some of you parents want to do that with your kids, with other
kids in the church. But it doesn't work that way
in our culture, does it? It wouldn't work. It wouldn't
work. But that's exactly what God did. God is the one, the
father is the one who according to his own will and purpose elected
a particular people and arranged the marriage with his son. The
problem is that a dowry had to be paid and the bride was incapable
of paying the dowry. And so the son said, father,
I'll pay the dowry. And the dowry is nothing less
than the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God required a
blood sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus Christ provided
that. Why? For his bride. For his bride. Oh, what a what a beautiful union
the Lord Jesus Christ has. That's why God said thy maker
is thy husband. Ruth needed. A Redeemer. And Boaz. Was that kinsman Redeemer? And he loved her. He loved her
when he saw her. And Naomi knew that Boaz was
in love with Ruth, didn't he? Naomi told Ruth, she said to
that young lady, she said, you sit right there and just be still.
I've seen men in love with women before. Naomi was an old, seasoned
lady. She knew what it was like to
see a man in love. She said he will not cease until
he has finished the work this day. And Boaz went and reckoned
with that other kinsman redeemer, didn't he? Which is a picture
of the law. And the Lord Jesus Christ reckoned with the law
and satisfied all the demands of God's law. Why? Because he
would not cease. He would not cease until he bought
to himself his bride. And he was successful in doing
that. So that every one of his sheep, every one of his sheep
were saved. Adam is even a type of Christ. That's right. Now we say in Adam
all died and we have our union with Adam in that we were one
with him as Levi was in the loins of Abraham when he paid tithes
unto Melchizedek. So we were in the loins of Adam
when he fell, we fell. And Adam certainly is a type
of every one of us. We all died in our father Adam.
we were there. We committed the sin that Adam
sinned and as our seminal head we all died in him. But you know
Adam's also a picture of Christ and Eve's a picture of his church
and just like us Eve is deceived. We're deceived every time we
sin. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of
life, all the things that we do we think is going to provide
for us some kind of happiness or contentment and we disobey
God. That's what Eve thought. She saw the fruit. She tasted
it. She knew that it was able to
make one wise and she thought this is the way to go. Adam sinned
with his eyes wide open. That's why the curse of sin is
attributed to Adam and not Eve. Adam knew exactly what he was
doing. And so it is when the Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary's
cross, he went with his eyes wide open. He wasn't deceived.
He was a willing sacrifice, accepting the full burden of God's curse
for the sins of his bride in order to satisfy the demands
of God's justice. What a picture all throughout
the scriptures. The Lord pictures this union
that Christ has with his church. And he says, I'm your husband.
I'm your husband. And I love you. Look, look at,
look at our text. Look at our text. And we'll just
read through these verses. I didn't mean for the introduction
to be so long, but, um, look at, look at verse, um, verse
10 of Isaiah 61, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul
shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the garment
of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. John saw the church in heaven
when God took him into glory in that vision and revelation.
And John said, who are those that are arrayed with white robes? And the angel told John, you
know who they are? That's the bride of Christ. That's the righteousness
of Christ on them. They've been made righteous by
the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he obeyed
the law, his bride obeyed the law with him. You see, the Old
Testament picture of the husband and the wife, it's not to be
understood as some sort of male chauvinism or some sort of culture
of dominance over women. It's a picture of the church
and his... The women in the Old Testament didn't receive any
inheritance. only the men received the only way a woman could survive
she's married to a man he got all the inheritance that's a
picture of Christ and his church he gets everything but when we're
married to him everything he's got we've got everything all
of our acceptance with God all righteousness all justification
all sanctification we have by virtue of our union with him
as the bride of Christ And so she says, now I'm going to rejoice
because he's clothed me. Daniel said, when I saw him,
my comeliness was turned into corruption. And the Lord said,
yeah, but I've made you comely, beautiful and strong through
my comeliness, through my beauty, through my glory. And so the
bride says, I will greatly rejoice, greatly rejoice. I've got such
reason to rejoice. I can't find anything in me,
but by virtue of my union with Him and what He's done for me,
I have every reason to rejoice. He's given me the garment of
salvation. He's covered me with the robe of righteousness, even
as He covered our father Adam. He slew that lamb in the garden,
didn't He? That innocent lamb. Scripture
doesn't tell us, but I wouldn't be surprised if that lamb in
the garden was Adam's favorite pet. And God took it and slew
it right there in front of him, showing him without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sin. And then took that fleece
from that lamb and covered his nakedness. Adam doing everything
he could to try to cover his own nakedness before God by sewing
together fig leaves. And it wasn't sufficient, was
it? Well, he's decked himself with ornaments and as a bride
adorneth herself with jewels. Here we have a beautiful bride. I've never seen an ugly bride. Have you? I mean, they just,
they come down. I've done a lot of weddings over
the years and they're always beautiful. All attention is,
and that's what the Lord says, here's my bride and I've made
her comely. I've made her beautiful. You
have reason to rejoice for as the earth bringeth forth her
bud, verse 11, and as the garden causes the things that are sown
in it to spring forth, So the Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise to spring forth before all the nations. If you're able
to thank God and praise God for being a part of the Bride of
Christ, it's because He caused you to do that. We don't do that
by nature. He has to make us. Turn me, Lord,
and I shall be turned. Cause me to come unto Thee. What
did, you remember when Peter was drowning? Remember he got
out of the boat and all the emphasis is on the fact that he was drowning,
but he's the only one of the disciples that trusted the Lord
enough to get out on the boat and walk on the water. And then
when he looked about and saw the waves and he became fearful
and he got his eyes off of Christ, he began to sink and drowned.
And what did he cry? Lord, save me. Lord, save me. But you know what? Before he
got out of that boat, Peter spoke. He didn't get out presumptuously.
He didn't get out thinking, well, I'm just going to go walk on
water like the Lord's doing. No, he said, Lord, bid me to
come unto thee. Cause me to believe. Cause me
to come. Lord, if you don't cause me,
I can't come. And now she's rejoicing because she's saying, He caused
me. He gets all the glory. I didn't
come because I decided to come or because I had a free will
to come or because my work's worthy me to come. No, He caused
me to come. And look at verse one of chapter
62. For Zion's sake, will I not hold
my peace? And for Jerusalem's sake, I will
not rest. Now this is Isaiah the prophet
speaking. So I'm not going to rest. I'm
going to, and Robert, what you said, I appreciate it, but you
know, every it's true of every gospel preacher. I'm not unique.
Every gospel preacher for Zion's sake and for Jerusalem's sake
will not cease. He will not cease. If he ever
changes his message. If he ever departs from the gospel
is never a gospel preacher to begin with. God's called him. He's going to be faithful to
the end. until the righteousness thereof
go forth as brightness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that
burneth." You remember Isaiah said, Lord, how long? How long
do I have to preach this message? How long do I have to deal with
these stiff-necked people until the cities be without inhabitants
and the land be utterly desolate? And so Isaiah is just continuing
to preach. trusting that God's going to
take the message of the gospel and make it effectual to his
bride. And he does. He does. You see,
we preach with great hope. If I thought that it was dependent
upon me to influence you to believe, I wouldn't have any hope in that.
Number one, I'm not that influential. Number two, if I could influence
you to believe, somebody else could influence you not to believe. No, we preach with great hope
in knowing that God is the one who makes his people to believe.
He's the one who brings his Bula to himself, makes his bride to
hear. Verse two, and the Gentiles shall
see thy righteousness and all kings, thy glory, and thou shall
be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
Oh, where the church, all these names that I gave you earlier,
those are the new names. That's the called out ones. They were called Christians.
Now I know that term has a broad meaning in the world, but it's
precious to the child of God. It's precious to the bride of
Christ. That was a title of derision
that the world gave to the followers of Christ. They're just following
after that Jesus who called himself the Christ, and they were first
called Christians in Antioch. The term Christian doesn't mean
anything in our world. It means something to the bride
of Christ. I'm following after Christ. I've
got no place else to go. He alone has the words of eternal
life and I'm without hope without him. And verse 3, and thou shalt
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal
diadem in the hand of thy God. When John saw the Lord Jesus
Christ sitting upon his throne in the book of Revelation, the
scripture said that on his head were many crowns, many crowns. And the church came and cast
their crowns at his feet, and he put the crown on his head.
That's his bride. He's glorying in her. He loves
her. He delights in her. He has made
her what she is. And He wears her as His crown
of glory. And He says in verse 4, Thou
shalt no more be called forsaken. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ
was hanging on Calvary's cross, He cried My God, my God, Psalm
110, why hast thou forsaken me? The Lord Jesus Christ as the
sinner substitute, as the sin bearer, as the bridegroom, as
the head of the body had to be forsaken of God because that's
the penalty for sin. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely die, be cut off from God. And the Lord Jesus
Christ had to be cut off, and that's what he did. He willingly
cut himself off from God, and it pleased God to bruise him.
And God saw the travail of his soul, and God was satisfied. He made his soul an offering
for sin. and God saw his seed and prolonged his days." The
church of the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, everything
is about Christ and His church. Everything. Everything in this
world. The world doesn't know it. They
think, oh, it's about politics, it's about science, it's about
education, it's about finance, it's about all these things that
men put their lives into. But all
of that is vanity. It's about Christ and His church. And His church delights in that. Oh, the Lord said, what does
it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own
soul? What would a man give in exchange for his soul? Lord,
I just want to be a part of Beulah. I don't want to be forsaken.
And the only way that you and I are not going to be forsaken
is if God forsakes Him in our stead. That's the only hope. Otherwise, we'll be cut off for
all eternity. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate,
but thou shalt be called Hephzibah. Oh, read the Song of Solomon
and all the beautiful language that the Lord gives in describing
His church. This word, Hephzibah, means,
my delight is in her. I delight in my bride. And in
one place, the Lord said, one look from her eye ravishes my
heart. Now that means that when you
pause and when you turn your attention towards Christ and
you offer to Him praise and thanksgiving and supplication and adoration,
however, however, you see, it's just a quick glance of one eye. It's not a full focus of attention
that gives where all your heart is engaged in it. We wish it
would be. One day it will be. One day it will be. One day,
our whole heart, all of our attention will be engaged in pure worship. Right now, the Lord says, if
you just give me a glancing look, it ravishes my heart, because you're my delight. You're
my bride. I love you. In Ephesians chapter
5, the scripture says, And no man ever hateth his own body,
but he nourishes it. And this I speak concerning Christ
and His church, which is a great mystery. We don't hate our brides. We don't treat them with disrespect. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
Oh no, I nourish my body. My bride, she's my delight. And thy land, this is His land
right here. Beulah. Married. Union. For the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a
virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. And as the bridegroom rejoiceth
over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen. I have set
watchmen. God sets watchmen. The gospel
preachers don't get any glory or any praise if they're faithful
to preach the gospel because God made them do it. He called
them to do it. He made them do it. He enabled
them to do it. I have set watchmen upon thy
walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace, day nor
night. You that make mention of the
Lord, keep not silent and give him no rest. Now God's speaking
to the gospel preachers and to those and Robert I appreciate
so much I I cannot tell you how dependent I am on your prayers
I I'm a weak man I need you to like Aaron and her holding up
the hands of Moses oh I need that And God's talking to the gospel
preachers, He said, give him no rest until he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Don't quit asking
God for grace. Give him no rest. Pray without
ceasing. Prayer is just what faith does.
Prayer is an expression of our dependence upon him, isn't it? The Lord hath sworn by His right
hand and by the arm of His strength. What did Isaiah say earlier? Who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The Lord hath
sworn by His right arm, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the strong
right arm of God, and He accomplishes the work of salvation for His
people. The Lord hath sworn by his right
hand and by the arm of his strength, surely I will no more give thy
corn to be meat for thy enemies and the sons of thy strangers
shall not drink thy wine for the which thou hast labored.
But they that have gathered it shall eat it and praise the Lord. And they that have brought it
together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness. We're going to observe the Lord's
table. This is the corn. The Lord called
himself a grain of corn. Unless a grain fall into the
ground and die, it shall not bring forth life. And his blood
is pictured by that wine, isn't it? This is the blood of the
new covenant, which has been given for you, my bride, Beulah. Beulah, you're my bride. I love you. I've done everything
for you. I'm going to keep doing everything
for you. And I'm going to give you my body to eat and my blood
to drink. And my body is going to be your
life indeed. My blood is going to be your
life. My righteousness, my sacrificial
death. No one else is going to eat your
corn and drink your wine. This is for you, Beulah. This
is for you. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word and we ask now that You would bless this table
and that You would give to Your children faith to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, to rest their hopes in Thee, to feast
on His body and His blood. Thank You for the promises of
Your grace and for the finished work of your salvation, for your
bride, your Beulah, your delight. Lord, give us hope of being in
thee, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I'm gonna ask the
men if they'll come, please. We're gonna sing number 17. Just remain seated, please. We'll
sing number 17. See the table spread before you. ? See the feast of bread and
wine ? These are symbols of our Savior ? Tokens of his love divine
? Bread that's broken is his body Crushed beneath the wrath
of God, wine poured out is a reminder of our Savior's precious blood. Children of our God, remember
how he bought your soul and mine. In remembrance of our Savior,
eat the bread and drink the wine. Jesus came. God incarnate to fulfill God's
holy love. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us ne'er forget the promise
Jesus made to come again. Soon he comes, our King, to call
us home to glory. Praise his name with this hope
Expectation, we rejoice to keep this feast. Celebrating our redemption
till we lean on Jesus' breast. Celebrating. That's what this
is. This is a time of celebration.
Until we lean on his breast, we do this in type. One day we're
going to see the full glory of his body. And right now we do
this in remembrance of him. The Lord speaks in the book of
Revelation of a wedding feast for His bride. I don't understand
it, but He's going to be serving His bride at the table, just
like these men just served us. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is going to be serving His bride. I don't know. Until we lean on
His breast, we do this in remembrance of Him. and all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we're thankful for this time of worship and we pray that you
would cause us to remember the things that you've taught us
and said to us and cause us, Lord, to rejoice in Christ For
it's in his name we pray, amen. That's exactly what I need.