But this man, speaking of Christ,
because he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. We have a Savior who's alive,
a Savior who's seated at the right hand of the majesty on
high, who presents himself to God on behalf of his people. He's all our salvation, all our
salvation. Pray that he'll be pleased to
enable us to worship him again this morning. Tom, we're going
to open with number 44 in the Sopak Temple. Let's stand together. The Son of God has come to earth,
and Jesus is his name. To save a chosen race from sin,
in flesh and blood he came. He passed the fallen angels by,
and many fallen men. But God, for His own elect, He
died and took away our sin. And now the man who is our God
is seated on His throne. Christ rules all things with
sovereign power to save His chosen ones. Oh, how we ought to praise
our Lord for all His matchless grace. Chosen, redeemed, and
called by Him, Christ well deserves our praise. The angels must astonished
be That we who know Christ's love Could ever cold and thankless
be And so indifferent prove That coldness makes us blush with
shame Forgive us, Lord, this fault Savior, inflame our hearts
with love and fill our every thought. Soon, soon we shall
be freed from sin, O hasten, Lord, the day. We will at last the victory win,
darkness will pass away. Our God in human flesh we'll
see, our Savior glorified. With perfect heart and perfect
voice, we'll praise Christ crucified. Please be seated. Good morning. Our scripture reading
will be from Psalm 86. Psalm 86. A prayer of David. And this is our prayer this morning. Bow down thine ear, O Lord. Hear
me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my soul, for I am holy.
O Thou, my God, save Thy servant that trusteth in Thee. Be merciful
unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto Thee daily. Rejoice, the soul
of Thy servant, for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For Thou, Lord, art good and
ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon Thee. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer,
and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of
my trouble I will call upon thee, for thou wilt answer me. Among
the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord, neither are there
any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name, for thou art great. and doest wondrous things, thou
art God alone. Teach me thy way, O Lord. I will
walk in thy truth, unite my heart to fear, to run to thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord, my
God, with all my heart, and I will glorify thy name forevermore,
for great is thy mercy toward me. and thou hast delivered my
soul from the lowest hell. O God, the proud are risen against
me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul,
and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, art a
God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous
in mercy and truth. O Lord, turn unto me, and have
mercy upon me. Give thy strength unto thy servant,
and save the son of thy handmaid. Show me a token for good, that
they which hate me may see it and be ashamed, because thou,
Lord, hast opened me and comforted me. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful that
we can come to you as a God of mercy, plenteous mercy. Lord, we're in dire need of that
this morning, for we truly are needy. Lord, we know you are able, we're
asked that you would be willing once again, as you did in the
first hour, send your Holy Spirit to remind us over and over and
over again that Christ truly is all and in all. Thank you
for your preachers. Thank you for their faithfulness.
We ask that you would give Greg again that power that only comes
from you. Liberty, Lord, that we so desperate
need, we need in him. Bless your word again to our
hearts. Lord, save us. Turn us again. Turn us. But we ask it in Christ's name
and for his sake. Amen. Let's sing the hymn on the back
of your bulletin. The hymn that's on the back of
your bulletin. Let's all stand together. Christ is my all, my sure defense,
Nor shall my soul depart from Vance. He is my rock, my refuge
too, In spite of all my foes can do. Christ is my all and He will
lead My soul in pastures green to feed Tis He supplies my every
want And will all needful blessings grant Christ is my all, where
should I go? Without him I can nothing do. Helpless and weak, a sinner great,
yet in his righteous next complete. Please be seated. We open your Bibles with me to
Matthew chapter five, please. Matthew chapter five. This opening of our Lord's sermon
on the mount begins with what has been called the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes. The word blessed, which begins
each of these verses, is the word happy, content, joyful, at rest, peaceful, It's
what the world offers but cannot deliver. It's what you and I are daily
enticed to pursue in this world. It's just around the corner.
Almost there. Just a little bit more and we'll
be content. The deceitfulness of riches promise
things that they cannot deliver. The Lord in our text is making
a promise to his people to give them that which their soul craves
for, what they desire most of all. He must give it. The young
person thinks Well, when I get a little older, get out from
under the authority of my parents, then I'll be content. And then they get off in college
and they think, well, when I get finished with school, I get a
good job, get married, have kids, then I'll have peace. And then
they get in that stage of life and they think, boy, when the
kids get grown, out of the house, then Then we'll have contentment. And then when that happens, just
a little bit more, let's put a little bit more away for retirement.
Let's retire. Let's enjoy the fruits of our
labors. It's always just around the corner,
isn't it? Just a little bit more. You're
almost there. And it never comes. It never
comes. There's always something more,
isn't there? Now, that's not to say that there aren't moments
of fleeting pleasures in this world. The couple that is walking
down the aisle to be married, I hope that they're having a
moment of great peace and joy and contentment. The young couple
that's bringing a baby into the world, I hope that they're enjoying
that as a moment of of real joy. The man or woman who lands a
big contract has reason to celebrate. Let's enjoy this fleeting moment
of happiness. But that's all they are. That's
all they are. They're just fleeting moments.
And they don't satisfy the need of the soul. The American dream It's a mirage. Everybody's reaching for it,
aren't they? Everybody's trying to get it.
The lonely single thinks, well, if I could just meet somebody,
then I'd be happy. The religionist thinks, well,
if I just had a little bit more knowledge or a little bit more
righteousness to compare to my peers, then I would be happy. It never comes. The soul of man will never rest. It'll never rest until it finds
rest in the one that made it. There's no rest anywhere else.
There's no happiness anywhere else. There's no lasting contentment,
there's no joy, there's no real blessing anywhere else. The Lord Jesus Christ said to
us and to his disciples, seek ye first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto
you. What you need to sustain your brief life in this world,
I'll give you. But what you need most is the
righteousness of God. Now men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God, for Christ himself is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Christ is all in our righteousness
before God. We have no righteousness outside
of him. Happiness is a work of grace that God does in the heart. It's not something you do. It's
not something you do. It's a work of grace that God
the Holy Spirit does in the heart when he comforts you to know
that your hope is secure in Christ. That you have an advocate with
the Father who ever lives to make intercession for you. That
you have a sin substitute. That you have one that has satisfied
the demands of God's justice. Who has fulfilled the law and
put away your sin once and for all. And made you perfect in
himself before God. That's the only place. And that's
a work of grace that God's got to do. You can't do it. He's
got to do it. All these other things are a
diversion, aren't they? Now, the first point that I want
to make is to encourage you not to confuse
cause and effect. Most folks that would read the
Beatitudes would do that. They would confuse cause and
effect. If you went to a doctor with
a headache and he performed the test on you necessary to diagnose
the source of that headache and said to you, you've got a brain
tumor, but let's treat the headache and the tumor will go away. Let's put some pain medicine
to that headache and the tumor will go away. How ridiculous
is that? And yet that is exactly what
men do in religion. Let's put a little of our works. Let's put a little salve on this
wound. Let's just do what we can do. Let's just become more religious.
Let's just step up our activity. Let's be better people and it'll
solve the problem. God has written his word in such
a way as to give the self-righteous unbeliever enough rope to hang
himself. The scripture says that he has
sent a strong delusion that they might believe the lie. And the primary thing that God
uses to delude people is right there. You talk to religious
folks, they'll quote it all the time. They'll say, well, doesn't
the Bible say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved? And they make their faith the
cause of their salvation. God wrote it that way. But when
you read the whole story, you understand that faith is the
gift of God. It's not the cause of our salvation,
it's the result of it. They'll say, well, doesn't the
Bible say that if you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven? That's
the way God wrote it. Why? To give the self-righteous
religionist something to do to salve his own conscience and
find hope in his works. And you read the whole story,
you understand that forgiveness is a work of grace. And that
the only way that we can forgive others is if God has first forgiven
us. You see how they reverse cause
and effect. They say, well, if you obey God,
you'll be blessed. As if obedience is the cause
of God's blessing. And they reverse the order. Obedience
is the blessing of God. He's got to bless us with His
grace before we're going to have any heart to follow after Him. But people do that. And they
do that with these beatitudes. Blessed is he that is poor of
spirit, for his is the kingdom of God. Okay, I gotta get poor
of spirit so that I can be blessed. That's what it sounds like, doesn't
it? To the natural ear, that's what
it sounds like. If I'm gonna be blessed, I've got to have
a poor spirit, and then I'll inherit the kingdom of God, and
God will bless me. Blessed are they who mourn, for
they shall be comforted. You see, that's right there before
you. Verse four. And so men read that and they
think, well, I need to mourn. And if I mourn, then God will
bless me and I'll be comforted. You see, they've reversed the
order. Being poor of spirit is the blessing of God. Mourning
is the blessing of God. And this is the promise that
God gives to those whom He has blessed. Don't make a work out of grace.
Don't reverse the order of cause and effect. Don't try to do away
with the cancer by pain medicine. It's not the way it works. These things are the fruits of
the Spirit of God. So where does that leave us?
Oh God, give me a heart that's humble before Thee. cause me
to be poor of spirit? I'm so proud. I'm so self-righteous. I'm so prone to compare myself
to other men. I'm so likely to compare myself
to myself. I'm just so full of myself. If
I'm going to have a poor spirit, Lord, you're going to have to
bless me with that. If I'm going to mourn over my sin, you're
going to have to bless me with that grace. If I'm gonna be meek. Lord, meekness
is the opposite of taking control of your circumstances. It's trusting
God. Are you or not a control freak?
I am. I mean, my first reaction to
whatever circumstances I'm in is to take the bull by the horns
and try to fix it. And every time I do, it gets
worse. God, if I'm gonna have a meek spirit, you're gonna have
to bless me with that faith to be meek before you. If I'm gonna
hunger and thirst after righteousness, you're gonna have to bless me
with that desire to hunger after Christ. This is not God saying,
we used to say, these are the attitudes that ought to be. The
B attitudes are the attitudes that ought to be. As if if you
sort of could pull up yourself by your bootstraps and create
these sort of attitudes in your heart, then you would have the
promise of God's blessing. These are the blessings of God. These are the gifts of His grace. And the only way we're gonna
learn that is not by me telling you, but by Him telling you. And if He tells you that, if
He reveals that to you, if He speaks that truth to your heart
and to my heart, we'll be taught of God. And what God teaches
a man, no one can un-teach him. No one. That's why I don't fret
too much. about people who fall away. You understand what I'm saying?
If they belong to the Lord, they're not going to stay away. And if
they don't, nothing I do is going to matter. Why? Because they've been taught
of God. Look at verse 1 in our text. And seeing the multitude,
he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, His disciples
came unto him and he opened his mouth and taught them. That's
what I need. I need for the Lord Jesus Christ
to sit me down and open his mouth and teach me. What gracious words
come out of his mouth when we hear the voice of God. When we
hear the voice of God, I'm not talking about having some audible
voice. It's much louder than that. Much
louder than that. When God speaks to the heart,
he does it through his word, and you just know it's true.
And you're comforted by his words. My sheep hear my voice. For this
cause came I into the world, for this reason was I born, to
bear witness unto the truth. They that are of the truth hear
my voice and they follow me. Oh Lord, would you open your
mouth? The mouth of that preacher up there can't help me. Can't
help me. But if he's articulating the
truth as it is in your word, Would you speak to me louder
than I'm hearing his voice right now? Would you do that for me? Never a man spake like this man. Oh, they sent the arresting officers to bring
the Lord Jesus Christ back and they came back empty handed and
they said, where is he? And they said, Never a man spake
like that man before. We couldn't take him. His words
were too powerful. And that's what you and I will
say. If he's pleased to open his mouth and speak to us, he
is the very Word of God. In the beginning, that means
from eternity past, before time ever started, was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. and the Word of
God became flesh 2,000 years ago, and He dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and full of truth. Lord, would You open Your mouth
and speak to me? Would You speak Your Word to
me? That's why here we just stick
to Scripture, don't we? Why? Because faith comes by hearing,
and hearing comes by the Word of God. It's what you need to
hear, it's what I need to hear. I need to hear what God says.
In Matthew chapter 7, the end of
the Sermon on the Mount. These are the words that introduce
this message and at the end of the message, listen to what the
Lord says, the people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught
them as one having authority and not as the scribes. When God speaks, It won't be
like the religionist. It won't be like the lawmonger.
It won't be like the scribes and the Pharisees. He'll speak
to you with authority. And that authority will cause
you to say, yes, Lord. Yes. Whatever you say is right. Whatever you say is true. Lord,
would you speak to me? Would you sit me down? Would
you open your mouth? In Luke chapter 4, the Lord Jesus
Christ goes to Capernaum and the scripture says, the people
were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power. Power. Oh Lord, that's what I
need. I need the power of God. I can't
get it. I don't have it. It belongs to
you, and if I'm going to enjoy it, you're gonna have to speak. So these beatitudes began with
the Lord sitting the disciples down, and notice where he sat
them down, on a mountain. Now, 1,500 years before this
day, this was the beginning of our Lord's public ministry, so
this is probably the first public sermon that, you know, where
a lot of people gathered together and heard him, 1500 years before
he had spoke on another mountain, Mount Sinai, he gave the law. And this is his answer. This is his answer to his people
who were not able to keep the law. The scripture says in John
chapter 1 that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we need. We don't
need the law. Turn over to your left just two
or three pages to Malachi chapter 4. Malachi chapter 4. And look how the Old Testament
ends. Look how God ends the book of
the Old Testament. In Malachi chapter 4, look at
verse 4. Remember ye the law of Moses? The law of Moses? Lord, the law of Moses condemns
me. Yes, you remember the law of
Moses, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel. with the statutes and the judgments. Remember the strictness of God's
law. Remember your inability to keep
it. The purpose of the law is to make sin utterly sinful. Lord,
the only thing you need to know about the law, the only thing
you need to know about the law is that you've never kept one
jot or one tittle of God's law for one moment. Never. God's law is holy, just, pure,
and good, and we can't keep it. And God concludes the Old Testament
by saying, remember the law of Moses. And look at the next verse. Behold, that word behold means
take sudden notice. It means to be amazed. Behold,
in light of the judgment of God's law that I've told you to remember,
behold, I'm going to send Elijah. Who was that? It was John the
Baptist, who prepared the way for the Lord Jesus Christ, who
brought grace and truth through the words that he spoke. Oh, I wanted to point one other
thing out. in Malachi chapter 4, Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest
I come and smite the earth with a curse. We don't attempt here to bring
the message of the gospel to our younger generation in one
fashion, to our middle-aged people in another fashion, and to our
elderly people in another fashion. There is absolutely no generation
gap when it comes to the gospel. None. The 15-year-old, the 50-year-old,
and the 90-year-old need to hear exactly the same thing. Now there
may be some generation differences in terms of music, in terms of
dress, in terms of vocabulary. Young people sometimes say things
I don't know what they're talking about. That's typical. But when it comes to the gospel,
all of God's people hear the same sweet sounds of His grace. They all wear the same robe of
His righteousness. And they all speak the same language. I'll bring the hearts of the
fathers to their... Isn't that glorious? That you
can actually interact with your children as brothers and sisters
in Christ. What else is going to do that? That's what the Lord promised
to do. See, in the multitude, when the
Lord looked at the multitude, He had compassion on them. He
went up into a mountain, and He was sat, just like He is right
now. He's seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high. He's at rest. Why? Because he's
finished his work. You know, you read about the
Old Testament tabernacle. I talked to somebody this past
week. They've recreated a model of the Old Testament tabernacle
and they're so proud of it and all the different intricate details
of it. God doesn't use that. He uses
the preaching of His Word to save His people. But if you look
at the Old Testament tabernacle in the Old Testament, you'll
find that there's one article of furniture that is conspicuously
missing in that temple. There's not a chair to be found
in it. Not a single chair. Not a single place to sit down
in that tabernacle. Why? Because the work of the
priest was never done. It was just constant slaying
of animals. There was never any rest. And
when the Lord Jesus Christ came, the blood of bulls and goats
didn't put away our sin, but He, once and for all, put away
our sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And He has sat down. That tabernacle
that was made for the earth was a pattern of that which is in
heaven, except the one in heaven's got a throne. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is sitting upon it. That's what Isaiah saw in Isaiah
chapter 6. I saw the Lord high and lifted
up, seated upon a throne, and the seraphim were hovering over
His throne, crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth is filled with His glory. And what was the first
words out of Isaiah's mouth? Woe is me! I'm dead. My eyes have seen the King. I've
seen God. How am I going to be saved? And
the seraphim had to take hot coals from off the altar and
touch his lips, didn't he? Put his sin away. That coal was
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ where he died to quench the fiery
wrath of God's justice for his people. See in the multitude, he went
up on a mountain, he was set, and his disciples came unto him. I read an article this week that said, if you don't get anything
out of church, there's a preacher wrote it. And basically what
he was saying was, if you don't get anything out of my preaching,
it's your fault. And I'm thinking, well, maybe you're not preaching
the gospel. You know, maybe you're not making grace clear. We're not here to shame people
into coming to church. We're not here to tell people,
well, you've got a problem and if you're not here, it's your
fault. If the gospel of God's grace
is preached, if Christ is lifted up, the people of God will want
to be there. They'll need to be there. A hungry sheep, they'll feed
on the gospel, won't they? It's the only food they have.
My flesh is your meat indeed, and my blood is your drink indeed. It's the only sustenance for
the believer's soul that there is. Blessed of God, happy are those whom He has given a
poor spirit. Now, you look up that word. You
can look up any of these words. It's not difficult. That word
poor means a beggar. That's what it means. It means
a beggar. A shabby, clothed, helpless,
dirty beggar. A bankrupt beggar. A person who
has to plead for every morsel of food that he's able to eat. We're not that way. Not by nature. I'm not gonna beg. I've got too
much pride for that. God doesn't give you a begging
spirit. You've not been blessed. And you won't be happy. If you're not able to say, With
Isaiah, woe is me. If you're not able to say with
Job, behold, I am vile. If you're not able to say with
the Apostle Paul, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. My throat is an open sepulcher.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body
of death. And you haven't been blessed.
We had a memorial service for Brother Ed last Monday up in
Kansas. And most of the folks there didn't
know Christ. And I've been in correspondence
with a couple of them. I'm very hopeful that maybe somebody
heard something. But I made this statement at
Ed's memorial service. I said, as much as we loved Ed,
as much as we loved Ed, Ed loathed himself." And they were shocked that I
would say something like that. And I knew when I said it they
wouldn't be able to receive it if the Lord didn't give them
grace, but the truth has to be spoken. And the Lord's the one
that has to apply it. But every believer loathes themselves
before God. I don't have anything. I can't
do anything. I don't know anything. I'm not
able. I'm completely dependent upon
you for your grace, for your mercy. I can't bring you my free
will. I can't bring you my works. I
can't bring you my knowledge. I can't bring you my understanding.
I'm a beggar. Blessed of God are those whom
he has made to be poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Have you been blessed? Do you
understand what it means to loathe yourself before God? If you don't,
ask God to bless you. Ask Him to give you an understanding.
These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are the beggars. That's
who He came to save. He came to save the poor and
the needy. The righteous don't need a Savior. The well don't
need a physician. It's the sick. It's the sinful. Blessed are they that mourn,
that mourn. Has God caused you to have a genuine concern for the destiny of your immortal
soul? Or are you just living your life
as if this is all of it? This is everything. When God
speaks, he causes us to see that life is a vapor. This world is
temporal and that we've got a problem because there is a God with whom
we must do. And it causes mourning. Oh, Lord,
if you don't have mercy on me. I'm a hell-deserving sinner. If you give me what I deserve,
I will be separated from you in a devil's hell for all eternity. That's what mourning is, and
that's a work of grace. You don't go come to that on
your own. I know people fear death when they're faced with
it. But the natural man, he's got no bands in his death. He
just goes on living his life as if, you know, you tell him
he's got cancer or he's facing death. I've watched people who
had no fear of death until the last five seconds of their life.
And then the look of terror as if they were looking into the
very pit of hell. Men don't have a fear of that. We dealt with that last Sunday,
didn't we, from Hebrews. This is what the morning is.
Lord, I mourn over what I've done to your son, what the destiny
of my soul is if you don't have mercy upon me. And if God gives you that spirit,
Again, we're not saying that this is an attitude that you
need to have if you're going to be blessed of God. If you
have this, you have been blessed of God, and if He gives it to
you, you're going to be comforted. Comforted in the gospel. You're going to know that the
Lord Jesus Christ has done everything to put away the justice, the
wrath of God. God's not angry. He's satisfied His justice in
the sacrifice of His own Son. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Speak ye comfortably to them. Tell them their what? Their warfare
is accomplished. Oh, you don't have to fear that. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. No fear of judgment in Christ. Perfect love casteth out fear,
it casteth it out. Blessed of God. I can see right
now we're not going to get through all these, but blessed of God
are the merciful. For they shall receive mercy.
Now remember, don't confuse the cause and effect. Don't think,
well, if I'm merciful, then I'll get mercy. No. If you're merciful, it's
because you've gotten mercy. And it's because God has blessed
you with mercy. We're not talking about meekness
as it relates to a mild disposition or a gentle spirit in terms of
your natural personality. Meekness is accepting God's providence. as good. That's what meekness
is. It doesn't dispute or resist
God. It doesn't, when mistreated,
it relies upon God for all its help. Lord, that's not my natural tendency. My tendency is to take charge,
to be assertive, to be more concerned about my own self-interest than
anyone else. I'm not meek by nature. It's
a gift of the Spirit of God. Lord, I need you to do that. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit This is a gracious influence
of the Holy Spirit learned of the Lord Jesus Christ. Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart
and you shall find rest for your souls. Abide in me and I in you. For as the branch cannot bear
fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can you except
you abide in me. We'll close with verse six. Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. for
they shall be filled." Oh, if you drink of this water, you'll
not thirst again. You'll not need to go anywhere
else to find hope for your soul. If the Lord gives you to drink
from the water of life, that river that flows clear as crystal
from the throne of God and from the Lamb, you'll need not go
anywhere else. You'll just keep coming back
to that same well, to that same well. Oh, Lord, would you create
in my soul a hunger and a thirst for righteousness? I have no
righteousness of my own. I'm in need of a substitute. I'm in need of one who can stand
in my stead and present himself before you as all my righteousness. They shall be filled. That's God's promise. Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 55,
he said, wherefore, wherefore do you spend money for that which
is not bread? Why do you do it? Why do you
labor for that which satisfieth not? The promises of the world,
they don't satisfy the soul of God's people. They may satisfy
worldly. They may be perfectly content
in what the world has to offer. But God's people are not. And
that's who I'm speaking to right now. And that's who I pray that
God's speaking to. That He would cause us to do
what Isaiah said, hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is
good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Oh Lord, that's
what I need. All the empty promises of this
world, all the empty promises of sin, all the empty promises
of my flesh, They only give fleeting moments of happiness and peace
and contentment, but they don't satisfy the need of my soul.
I need a Savior. I need a Savior. I need the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we ask that you would speak louder, clearer. Oh, Lord, send your Holy Spirit. Speak to our hearts in ways that
we cannot speak to one another. Pray that you would work these
works of grace in the hearts of your people. We thank you
for this table. We thank you for what it reminds
us of. What a memorial it is to know that this bread represents
the perfect life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this wine pictures
for us his shed blood on Calvary's cross. We ask that you give us faith
to receive it as that, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen.
Ask the men if they would please to come and distribute the bread
and the wine. We're going to sing number one
in the Saltback Temple, number one. 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 love. 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 feast Celebrating our
redemption Till we lean on Jesus' breast One of the words that our Lord
often uses to speak to his people is remember, remember. And that's what this table is.
It's a memorial. It's a time for us to remember what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done, who he is and how he has, he just accomplished. I don't know. I don't know any
other way to put it. We've, you've heard enough, but he's accomplished
our salvation for us. This bread is symbolic. Somebody wrote me this week and
they were concerned that the church they went to was using
bread that wasn't unleavened. And I thought, well, you know,
this is unleavened and it reminds us of how the Lord had no leaven
in His life. It's perfect before God. but it's just a piece of bread
otherwise. And we take it in remembrance
of him. Scripture says without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission. The Lord had to do two things
for us. He had to present a righteousness before God on our behalf, and
he had to put away our sin. And so his life is our righteousness. His death is our justification. And we take this blood in remembrance
of him. I want to take just two or three
minutes, if you'll indulge me. for our congregation to just
speak a few words. I want to try to answer the question,
how does a church family respond to the passing of one of its
members? Last week, those of you that
are visiting, you may not know, we had a dear, dear brother go
home very suddenly to be with the Lord. And Deb, we're so thankful
that you're here. today and the gospel is the answer
to every need that we have. We were talking about that this
morning for you, Deb, and it's the answer for your need. It's
the answer for my need in our loss. I want to just share three
words that might help you to know how we ought to respond
to one another and to our sister, Deb. The first word is remember. It's good for us to remember
the blessing that our passing brother was to us. I remember
how Ed drove us every Sunday to Sarasota, and how oftentimes
I would bring the same message over there that he heard here,
and I would apologize to him. Ed, I'm sorry you have to sit
through this twice. Oh no, pastor, I need to hear
it again. I need to hear it again. And
so it's good for us to share with one another and to share
with Deb the memories that we have of this dear brother. The
second word that I would share with you is rejoice. Rejoice. Our brother Ed is experiencing
the promise that our Lord made when he said, he shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain
for the former things are passed away. to be absent from the body
is to be present from the Lord. We do not in any way grieve for
Ed. No, to the contrary, to the contrary. We're jealous of him. We rejoice
for him and we're so thankful for the faith that God gave him
and for the hope that we have. I can't tell you how many times
I hear people say, well, they've gone to a better place. Ed has. Most of the time I hear that,
I'm thinking in my heart, they've just jumped out of the frying
pan into the fire. I mean, they're not going to a better place. But for our brother Ed, I rejoice. I rejoice. And the third, remember,
rejoice, and reflect. Reflect on the mortality of your
own existence here in this world. Reflect on that. Let this be
an opportunity for you to know that it is appointed unto man
once to die, and after that, the judgment. And the only hope
that you and I have to stand in the presence of a holy God
and bear his judgment is if we have a substitute, a sin-bearer,
a savior, who can stand in our stead and say, Father, they're
one of mine. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we're thankful for this morning. We're thankful for your
word, thankful for the comfort that you give to the hearts of
your children in all their circumstances through the gospel of your free
grace. We pray for our sister Deb. We
ask, Lord, that in her times of sorrow and fears that you
would comfort her heart and that you would uphold her and enable
her, Lord, to find her strength in Christ. We pray for ourselves
that you would enable us to remember our brother, to rejoice in the
promises of your word for him, and to reflect upon our own souls. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. All right, we're going to enjoy
some fellowship together around the table, so we'll let the ladies
have a few minutes to get things ready. Great job.