Notice in your bulletin that
May the 15th, which is two weeks from today, that we'll plan to
stay and have lunch together after the service. So please
come prepared for that two weeks from today. Next Sunday, I will
be preaching in Lexington and Michael and Robert We'll be bringing
the messages here, so as the Lord enables you to pray for
us, that'll be the plan for next Sunday. Number 186 in your hardback teminal. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water,
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride, and with his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. He's glorified by what he has
done for us. Let's stand together and praise
him for that work. Tom? The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one for all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth. One holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food, and to one hope she presses with every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, She waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with a vision glorious her
longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious shall
be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union With
God the three in one, And mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is won. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with Thee. Please be seated. Would you turn with me in your
Bibles to Psalm 147 for our call to worship scripture reading. Psalm 147. Praise ye the Lord. For it is good to sing praises
unto our God. For it is pleasant, and praise
is comely." It's beautiful in his sight. He inhabits the praise
of his people. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem. He gathereth together the outcast
of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart. and bindeth up their wounds." God's people always have a broken
heart. David was a man after God's own
heart. The Lord had given him a heart
that was able to grieve over his sin. He telleth the number of the
stars. He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord
and of great power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek.
He casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord
with thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the harp. unto our God. Let's pray together. Brother
Brian Belarus went back in the hospital Friday night. He's in the hospital down at
Princeton, Florida South. So if you are reminded to pray
for him or can go visit with him, I think you'd be very encouraged.
So let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father, we ask that you would enable
us to praise you, that our hearts would be lifted
up, that we would be caused to rejoice in Christ Jesus and have
no confidence in our flesh. We pray for our brother Brian.
We thank you, Lord, for the hope that you've given to him. We
pray for your hand of strength to be upon him both spiritually
and physically. Thank you for Pam and Charlie.
We asked Lord for you to give to them an abundance of your
grace. That they would feast on that
manna which comes down from heaven. and would be in lack for nothing. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 322. 322. I don't know
if we've done this hymn before, but if you know it, please sing
out. 322, near to thy heart. Let's
all stand together. Near to thy heart, O Christ divine,
Leaning like John on thy breast, Till with thy glory I will shine,
Near to thy heart I'd rest. Near to thy heart, O may I be,
Hearing thy sweet words of love. Learning thy precious will for
me, Seeking those things above. Near to thy heart where all is
peace, Lost in the light of thy face, There will my faith and
trust increase. There will I grow in grace. Please be seated. I'm thankful to have 2 Corinthians
chapter 8. behind us. I never feel comfortable preaching
on that subject. I hope the Lord will give us
grace to see the gospel in light of the things that he admonishes
us to do in his word. I meant to remind you that on
the table back by the double door There is a copy of our financial
statement, and I would really like for everybody to look at
it. So there's plenty copies there. Please take one with you.
Okay? Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 146? Psalm 146. Why am I here? You ever ask yourself that question?
What is my purpose in life? The last five Psalms in the book
of Psalms begin and end with one word, hallelujah. It's translated, praise ye the
Lord. In short, that's why you're here. That's it. You say, well, that's
it? Isn't there something more to
it than that? Nope. Nope. And if the Lord ever enables
you to praise him from your heart, you will know that there's no
greater thing that you can do with your life. I heard the young man that pulled
the trigger on Osama bin Laden, I guess today's a five-year anniversary
from that experience, giving his wisdom and saying, well,
I believe that all men are created to accomplish one great thing
in their life. That's easy for someone to say
who has accomplished one great thing in his life. You know,
people are looking for some great thing to accomplish in their
life. There is nothing that you can
accomplish more than worshiping God. It's what we're going to
do in heaven. It's going to occupy every fiber
of our being for all eternity. and you're going to be satisfied,
fulfilled in glory, worshiping God. Revelation chapter 19, don't
turn there. John, in his view of heaven,
sees the church, the 20 and four elders, bowing down and casting
their crowns to Christ and worshiping the Lord. And they cry, hallelujah,
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. And then in Revelation chapter
five, he sees them again. And he says, here's what the
church is saying. Thou art worthy to receive glory
and honor and power forever and ever. For Thou hast created all
things, and for Thy good pleasure they are and were created. You will find nothing in this
world that will be satisfying to your
soul than to worship God. Now the flesh can be satisfied
very easily. As I mentioned in the first hour, you eat a big
meal and you're done. I can't eat another bite. I'm
full. And then you get empty and you
get hungry for something else. But my point is that you can
satisfy the flesh with fleshly things for just a little while. but the soul. Thomas Jefferson wrote in our
Declaration of Independence that we are all created equal and
been given unalienable rights amongst which are the what? Life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. And that's what folks are doing.
They're looking for life. They're looking for liberty.
And they're looking for the pursuit of happiness. There's no life
outside of Christ. There's no liberty apart from
having your sins put away and having the Lord Jesus Christ
as your advocate before God. And there's no pursuit of happiness
to be found. Solomon got it right when he
said, Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. It will all leave
you wanting. It will all leave you empty.
All but to be able to be brought into the presence of God and
to worship Him. So what he told the woman at
the well. He said, remember when she said, do you worship God
here on Mount Gerizim or in Jerusalem? And the Lord said, it doesn't
matter where you worship. For the Father seeketh after
them who worship in spirit and in truth." God is spirit and
they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And then in another place the
Apostle Paul said, we are the true circumcision which worship
God in the spirit. and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence, no confidence in the flesh. Oh, the flesh is
so weak. Lord, break my confidence in
the flesh. Break my confidence in things
of this world and enable me, enable me to worship you in spirit. in the power of your Holy Spirit
from my spirit to your spirit and enable me to do it in truth. Not some feigned worship. I mentioned
the first, the last five Psalms begin and end with hallelujah.
You find some ways going around hollering hallelujah all the
time. They're pretending to worship. They're putting on a feigned
outward appearance to impress men. Worship that's true is done
from the soul It's done from the heart and it's a work of
grace and I hope right now that you're saying with me Oh Lord,
I want to do that. I've tasted the things of this
world. Nothing satisfies Nothing satisfies
my soul If you're satisfied with the things of this world If you're
satisfied with things in this world, it just means that you don't
have a new nature. You don't have a new nature. All you've
got is your flesh. And the flesh can be satisfied
with fleshly things. But if God's given you a new
nature, if you have a soul that craves after the things of God,
you're not satisfied with this world. You can't be fulfilled
with Him. You're drawn by the Spirit of
God to want to know Him and to worship Him. And you have no
confidence in the flesh. And you rejoice in Christ Jesus. I mentioned in the first hour
that the the writers of our old catechism, which is the way we
used to train children with questions and answers. The very first question
in the old Westminster catechism is, what is the chief end of
man? What is the chief end of man?
What's your purpose in life? Why are we here? And the answer
to that question was to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. The problem with that answer
is that most folks will interpret that to mean that my purpose
in life has to do with the performance of my service to God. That's
how I glorify God. The performance of my service
to God. is glorified not by what we do
for him he's glorified by what he's done for us and that's what
inspires the heart to worship we praise him we worship him
for what he has done for us That's your purpose. It's not
to make a name for yourself. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name be glory and power forever and ever for
Thy namesake and for Thy truth's sake. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's not about
your children. It's not about your job. It's
all about Him. It's all about Him. And if you haven't discovered
that, ask the Lord to enable you to discover that because
you're still missing out on life. I don't care what you've achieved
or enjoyed or indulged yourself in in this world. You've not
lived life until you've been brought by the Spirit of God
to worship Him for what He has done for you. That's why we're
here. And that's what we're going to
be doing for all eternity. Praise ye the Lord. Who's called to praise God? You
are. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. To change their mind about what
the real meaning of life is. To change their mind about how
it is that God puts away our sin. And to put away their own
works and to look to Christ for the only hope of their salvation.
And God holds all men responsible. Man by nature will worship the
creature rather than the creator. Man by nature will set himself
up on the throne of God. Man by nature will worship himself
and other men and what he's accomplished and what he's done. They'll do
it in the sense of the world. They'll do it spiritually. They'll
do it in their own works. Praise ye the Lord. Give all praise and glory and
honor to Him. This word praise means to boast. And man by nature, we're so prone
to boast in ourselves, aren't we? Don't you hate pride? Don't you hate being around a
person who's just consumed with themself? Aren't you? That's why I hate being around
myself so much. Who's the person that you despise
being around more than anybody else? If you know anything about yourself,
it's you. You're the own worst enemy, aren't
you? I hate to see the pride of my flesh. I despise it. That's what Job meant when he
said, behold, behold, I see something I never saw before. I am vile. Woe is me for I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and
I live among a people of unclean lips. Pride is the opposite of praise. Your attention's either gonna
be on him or it's gonna be on yourself, isn't it? You want
a good definition of sin? You know, all of sin that comes
short of the glory of God, everything in your life that falls short
of the glory of God is sin. But you want a really short definition? A one-word definition? And that one-word definition
is a one-letter word. And it's the middle letter in
the word pride. It's also the middle letter in the word sin.
You find that to be your problem? We just have an eye problem,
don't we? And praise is the only thing that breaks us away from
ourselves. It causes us to praise ye the
Lord. Look what he says. Praise the
Lord, oh my soul. This is a spiritual work of grace. I was preaching to somebody recently,
and they don't believe what I'm preaching. And yet, coming from a religious
background that says that you're supposed to be raising your hands,
they didn't even believe what I was preaching, but they wanted
to raise their hands while I was preaching. I thought, you know, just feigned
praise, pretending to be praising God through some outward form. This matter of praise is a work
of grace in the heart. Praise the Lord, O my soul. O my soul. You know what that says to me?
Brian and I were talking last night, Brian Belarus and and
he's not able right now to do much of anything. Lying in the
hospital bed, very, very sick. And I was telling about what
I was gonna preach this morning and and we agreed that one thing
he could do right there where he was was the most important
thing that any person could ever do. And that's praise God. worship
the Lord from the heart. There's no prerequisite for it.
You see, for everything else, you either have to have opportunity,
you have to have money, you have to have resources, you have to
have support, you have to have people. This matter of praising
God from the heart requires one thing. One thing. Was the Lord Jesus Christ praising
the Father when he had nothing on Calvary's cross? Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. And he gave up the ghost. To
his dying breath, he was praising and worshiping the Father. He had nothing except faith. The only thing necessary for
worship Faith. Faith is the evidence of things
hoped for. Faith. Now for the natural man,
faith is never enough. He wants something more. But
to the spiritual man, faith is all he's got. And it's all he
needs. It's all he needs. Oh, we just get so caught up
in trying to figure out the meaning of life, don't we? Oh, we set
our goals on accomplishing things and being somebody and we miss
the meaning of life. It's worship. Worshiping God
from the heart. Lord, would you give me faith?
The hour cometh. And now is when the true worshiper
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Look at verse two. While I live,
I will praise the Lord. Now, I said the only thing necessary
for praise is faith. The only thing necessary for
worship is faith, and that's a gift of God. Lord, give me
faith. I want to know something about
this spiritual worship. I have found this world to be unsatisfying to my soul. It
doesn't feed my soul. I want to know something that
satisfies me, something that fills me up, something that gives
me more than I can hold. Lord, give me faith to praise
You while I'm alive. Are you alive? Are you still
drawing breath? It's the only thing necessary
for worship. You see, to worship God, does
not require good fortune. A lot of folks, they worship God
when they have things going well. You know, everything's falling
into place and everything's coming together and boy, I'm just gonna
praise God now. Worshiping God is not the absence
of trouble. Worshiping God is not a feeling.
It's not desire or happiness. The only prerequisite for worshiping
God is faith and life. Existence. While I am alive. I will sing praises to my God
while I have any being, any being. Isaiah chapter 2 verse 22 says,
cease from man, for his breath is in his nostrils, for wherein
is he to be accounted of. Trust in the Lord with all of
your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all of
your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. Look
at the next verse. Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. Yeah, I have no idea who our
next president is going to be, but I've not lost one minute
of sleep over it. Lord knows who it's going to
be. And you know, I don't know what's going to happen to our
economy. I don't know what's going to happen to our nation. I don't know what's
going to happen to our security and our safety. But you know
what? Whatever happens is okay. Whatever happens is okay. I found a lot of folks that build
up, they build up straw monsters so that they can become the monster
slayer and receive some sense of gratitude for having, you
know, protected the world from the monsters. Don't worry about
the monsters. Don't worry about them. God's on his throne. Just praise him. Worship him. He'll take care of the monsters. Don't have your confidence in
man. Put not your trust in man in whom there's no help. Don't
put your trust in your works. Don't put your trust in your
wisdom. Don't put your trust in your will. Trust him. His breath, look, man's breath
goeth forth. He returneth to his earth. And
in that very day, his thoughts perish. Don't put your trust
in your intelligence or in your knowledge. You know, everybody's
got so much trivia in their brains. And when you die, all your thoughts
are going to die with you. Everything you've ever thought,
all the knowledge that you've acquired in this world, all your
intellect is going to rot in your skull in the grave. And if you're a child of God,
the only thing you're going to be doing is worshiping him for all
eternity. Your thoughts will be all about
him. That's what he said. You know,
I love what Isaiah 2.22, his breath is in his nostrils. And I thought, why did the Lord
say his breath is in his nostrils? Well, because I can take a real
deep lungful of air and blow something over. I can blow something
over with my mouth. I've never been able to blow
anything over with my nose. His breath is in his nostrils. He takes his last breath and
he's over. How weak man is. And yet we put
our hope in man, don't we? Put our trust in man. Happy is he. Here it is, true
happiness, true blessedness. Now don't misunderstand this.
Happiness is not the result of worshiping God. It's the cause
of it. Oh, it'll result in your happiness.
But this word happy means to be blessed. It means to be blessed. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. The cause of faith is the blessing
of God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you. You didn't come
to the conclusion that I'm the Christ, the Son of the living
God, on your own. My Father, which is in heaven,
has made it known unto you. And the gates of heaven, upon
this rock I'm going to build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not be able to prevail against it. Simon Bargione, you've
been blessed of God. Lord, would you bless me with
that true happiness? Would you give my soul the ability
to worship you? It's the only thing that's going
to deliver you from the unfulfilling vanity of this world, is to be
able to worship God from the heart. Why do we worship Him? Verse 6, which made heaven and
earth and the sea and all that therein is. We worship Him because He is
the Creator God. All things were made by Him and
nothing that was made was made without Him. Everything has been made for
Him and by Him. He's the omnipotent creator. And when He creates, He creates
something out of nothing. And the new creation, if we're
in Christ, we're new creation. Old things are passed away, old
things have become new. You know what He has to do to
make us new? He has to create something out
of nothing. And what's the means by which He created the heavens
and the earth? It's His Word. And the Lord said,
let there be light, and there was. And what's the means by
which He creates a new nature, a new creature out of nothing,
enabling us to worship God? His Word. His own will begat
he us with the word of truth Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the Word of God So when we come together and when we
worship, we just what does God say about it? You know the Bible never seeks
to prove it be in the Word of God to anyone God's people just believe that
it is and It's their bread, it's their life. Which keepeth truth forever. Now that just simply means that
we worship Him, not only because He's the omnipotent, all-powerful
Creator and Sustainer of all of life, both physical and spiritual. And when he says life is over,
it's over. He made you, he made me, and
it is appointed unto each man once to die. He's already set
that date for you and for me. And all he's gotta do is pinch
our nose. One day he's gonna do that, and
we're gonna pass from this life into the next. Oh Lord, enable
me to worship you now. He keepeth truth forever. He
established a covenant of grace before time ever began. Before
he slung the stars into the universe. Before he created the heavens
and the earth. God Almighty elected a particular
people according to his own will and purpose in the covenant of
grace, and he wrote their names in the Lamb's Book of Life, never
to be removed. God the Son entered into a covenant
with God the Father and agreed to redeem those whom God had
chosen. to come into this world, to be
made in the likeness of sinful flesh, to be born of a woman,
born under the law, to keep the law, to satisfy God's righteousness
and justice, and to lay his life down for his bride, God's elect. He keepeth truth forever. There was no way that that could
change. I am the Lord, and I change not. And therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. He keepeth truth forever." Are
you faithful to your promises? How many promises have you made
to God that you've broken? Pretty much every one of them,
haven't you? Well, not just pretty much, every one of them. He's faithful. to his promises. And God, the Holy Spirit, entered
into that covenant and said, I'll go. And I'll anoint the
preaching of the gospel to the effectual regenerating of their
hearts, and I'll make them willing. And I'll bring them to Christ
and they will believe. And he's faithful to his covenant
promises forever. forever he's he's the creator
he's the he's the faithful one he is immutable look at verse
7 which executed the judgment for the oppressed he's just and
justifier how was how was God going to
remain just that means that he has to punish every sin not one
sin will go unpunished He has to. His holy justice requires
it. How is he going to be just and
justify us at the same time? The Lord Jesus Christ bore in
his body. God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us. God imputed all the sins of all
his people to the Lord Jesus Christ and poured out the fierceness
of his wrath on Calvary's cross and satisfied his justice so
that he was able to remain just and justify his people at the
same time. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again because of our justification. And God said in
Isaiah 53, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Is He worthy to
be worshiped by you? If He did that for you, He is.
If He did that for you, you know that you owe Him all worship
and you delight in worshiping Him. You just want to bow before
Him. and acknowledge him for what
he's done in saving your sin sick, oppressed soul. There was a time when we couldn't
believe we were so oppressed by sin. We were unable to believe. And then he came and opened the
eyes of our understanding and took out the heart of stone and
put in a heart of flesh and made us willing. Oh, Lord. I worship you from my soul for
what you've done for me. I couldn't have done that for
myself. I couldn't satisfy the requirements of God's righteousness.
I couldn't keep the law. Look what he says. He executeth
judgment for the oppressed, which giveth food to the hungry. Lord, first you put in my soul
a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and then you satisfy that hunger
with Christ, the bread of life. And I just keep coming back to
the same manna. And I keep, Lord, give me this
day, my daily bread. And you satisfy my soul with
life. You've caused me, as we heard
last Sunday, to be like Mephibosheth, to sit at the king's table and
eat of the king's fare all the days of my life. I've tried eating pig food. The husk that the swine do eat. Isn't that what the prodigal
son ended up in the pig pen? It's not very tasty, is it? Not to the soul. Well, there's
pleasure in sin for a season. There's a lot of things that'll
taste good to the flesh. But we're not talking about the
flesh, we're talking about the soul. Like I said already, if
you're satisfied, if you're content with the things that this world
has to offer, it just means that you don't have a new nature. It means you don't have a new
nature. Because the new man cannot find
satisfaction in this world. He can't. He giveth food to the hungry.
I mentioned Wednesday night, we have a little, every year,
there's a little, I don't know, can't be the same bird, but gets
in our garage and makes a nest. So we have to lock the doors
in the house and leave the garage door up and let those birds grow
up. And the other day I peeked in
the nest to see if they were okay and I thought they were
dead. They were just laying there, you know. So I made a little
noise and they opened their mouths. All you could see was these little
beaks wide open. Lord, make me to be like that.
Those birds are absolutely, completely helpless. If the mother bird
doesn't come and feed them, they will die. They will die. Lord,
feed my soul with the bread of life. Enable me to worship you. God is glorified. What is the chief end of man?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Don't interpret glorifying
God as something you do for Him. Worship is the natural response.
Praise is the natural response for what He has done for us. He's glorified by His work for
us. And worship is just the acknowledging
of what He's done for us. The Lord looseth the prisoner. He looseth the prisoner. Held
by the chains of unbelief, he sets the prisoner free. I think
about Barabbas a lot. He was a murderer and a thief. It was his day to die. He was the one that was to be
on that third cross. And the jailer came down into
the dungeon that fateful morning. Barabbas could hear the chains
rattling and the footsteps on those cobblestone pathways in
that dungeon. And he just, however proud and
arrogant Barabbas was in days gone by, he was quaking then. He knew. He'd seen, he'd observed crucifixion
before. He knew he was about to be crucified.
And the jailer came and unlocked the door and looked at him and
said, Barabbas, you're free. Another has taken your place. Man planned on Barabbas dying
that day. God planned on the son of man
to die in his stead, to take his place as his substitute. Bar in the language of the Hebrews
means son of. Simon bar Jonah, son of John. Bar means son of and Abba means
father. Bar Abbas. is a picture of every
one of God's people. Sons and daughters of God who
have been set free from the prison. Their substitute has taken their
place. Died in their stead. Is he worthy
of worship? And you praise him from your
soul for what he's done for you? The Lord openeth the eyes of
the blind. See that? He opens the eyes of
the blind. There was a time when I thought
my sin problem was just the things that smote my conscience when
I behaved badly. It wasn't until the Lord opened
the eyes of my understanding that I came to realize that sin
was not what I was doing, sin was what I was. He opens the
eyes of the blind. There was a time when I thought
that the Lord Jesus Christ made an offer of salvation to all
men and that we made that offer effectual by a decision that
we made or a work that we performed and the Lord opened the eyes
of this blind man and caused him to see. The only hope of regeneration
is for the Lord to do a work of grace in the heart and make
me willing. There was a time when I couldn't
see that what the Lord Jesus Christ finished on Calvary's
cross was the redemption of His people once and for all, having
put away their sin. He opens the eyes of the blind. He's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high, so that he that does the sanctifying,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and them that are sanctified,
those are all for whom he died, are all as one. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and we are complete, complete in him. You can't add anything to what
he's done. It's finished. Has he opened your eyes? If he
has, you are irresistibly drawn to worship him, to praise him
from your soul. And you look forward to that
day when that's all you're ever gonna do. Look at the Lord raises up them
that are bowed down. Bowed down through the conviction
of sin and yet raised up at the same time. I have no righteousness
and I have all righteousness at the same time. I'm dead and yet I'm alive. I'm vile and yet I'm holy. He raises up those that are bowed
down. The Lord loveth the righteous. Don't believe the lie that God
loves everybody. His eyes are too pure to look
upon iniquity. He loves Jacob. He hates Esau. He loves righteousness. He hates
iniquity. If God loves everybody, then
the love of God has absolutely nothing to do with anyone's salvation. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and gave his son as a propitiation
for our sins. Behold, behold, oh notice, notice,
the manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we,
that you, should be called the child of God? How is that possible? only by, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. There's never a time, never a
time when God didn't love his elect. He loves the righteous. The Lord preserveth the strangers. Now that word, that means that
he keeps the Gentiles from falling away. What did we see last Sunday about
Mephibosheth? At the end of his life, he was still lame in both
his feet, wasn't he? Still lame in both his feet.
And the Lord has promised to keep us from falling and to present
us faultless before his throne with great joy. He's never lost
one. He keeps the stranger and preserves them. The fatherless
and the widow, those are the helpless ones. Lord, I'm helpless
when it comes to my salvation. I'm helpless. Absolutely helpless. But the way of the wicked, he turneth upside down. The unbeliever, his ways, there
is a way, there is a way that seems right unto man. And that
way is free will and good works. But in the end, that way leads
to death. He turneth the way of the wicked
upside down. And look at the last verse. The
Lord shall reign forever. Even thy God, O Zion, unto all
generations. Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. It's what we're going to be doing
for all eternity. And we'll be so delighted and
full in giving Him full attention. We look through a glass dimly
now, then face-to-face. Lord, would you enable me to
experience something that the natural man can't know anything
about? All he's got is his pretend worship
or his worldly pursuits. Lord, I want to praise you from
my soul and to know why you made me. Why you made me. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for your word. We're thankful for the work of
your spirit that causes us to long after the things that you
have declared so wonderfully to us. We do pray that you would
give us faith. We thank you for this table.
We thank you for what it represents, the sinless life and the sacrificial
death of our Savior. We pray that you would Bless
it to our souls as we worship you. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I'll ask the men if they'll
come. Tom, we're going to sing the
hymn on the back of your bulletin. Just remain seated, please. 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, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy law. On the cross he made atonement
and retrieved us from the fall. Let us never 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 and expectation,
We rejoice to keep this beast. Celebrating our redemption, Till
we lean on Jesus' breast. Christ is glorified when we remember
what He's done. As often as you do this, do it
in remembrance of me. This is a memorial. And when
we take this little piece of bread, we are saying that we
have no righteousness, we're the fatherless and the widows,
We have no hope of salvation found in ourselves. He's the
only one that came without any leaven and offered himself up
for all our righteousness. We do this in remembrance of
him. A perfect righteousness was necessary
for our salvation, but it wasn't sufficient. A perfect righteousness was necessary,
but it wasn't sufficient. Sin had to be paid for. Justice
had to be satisfied. Our God justifies. His people,
through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, when I see
the blood, I'll pass by you. All our sins have been put away.
We do this in remembrance of Him. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. Brother Burt, would you dismiss
us please with prayer? and our hearts.