And I will bring them again unto
this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they
shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give
them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever for
the good of them and of their children after them.
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And I will not turn away from
them to do them good, and I will put my fear in their hearts,
and they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over
them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly
with my whole heart and my whole soul." Oh, I pray that we will
know the fulfillment of that promise today. Let's stand together. Tom's going
to come lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Good morning. Our scripture reading
is going to be found in Luke, the 18th chapter. Luke 18. We're going to be looking at
verse 35 through the end of the chapter. Luke 18, 35. And it came to pass that as he
came nigh unto Jericho, A certain blind man sat by the wayside,
begging. Jericho, we know, is the city
of fragrance, it says. He came to a certain man, not
just any blind man, but a certain man. And hearing the multitude pass
by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passes by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And they which went
before rebuked him that he should hold his peace. But he cried
so much more, thou son of David, have mercy upon me. And Jesus
stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he
came near, he asked him, what shall thou that I shall do unto
thee? And he said, Lord, then I may
receive my sight. And if the Lord would ask us,
what shall he do to us? That needs to be our prayer,
that our sight, that we may receive our sight, that we may be able
to see the Lord Jesus Christ in all his glory. And Jesus said
unto him, receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee. And
immediately he received his sight. and follow him, glorifying him,
glorifying God. And all the people which they
saw him gave praise unto God." This is a place where the Lord
Jesus Christ dwells among his people, among his candlesticks.
And my prayer to Him is that He might give me sight to see
Him, to see His glory. And the end of it all is to glorify
God. Lord, Father God, we come before
you and we come before you only by your grace and the work and
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness.
And we thank you that you give us a place where we can come
and hear the gospel and hear the Lord Jesus Christ magnified,
and we could sing our praises, Lord. And we pray this morning
that you give us thy Holy Spirit, that you give us sight, that
we may see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ more clearly. Father,
we pray for the pastor that he may preach clearly, that you
may fill him with the Holy Spirit, and may he glorify the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, we may see him more.
We pray the same for all the other churches that preach the
gospel. May the message be clear. May the Lord Jesus Christ be
glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We looked at that hymn Wednesday
night. Tom and I were looking at the words in it. That's a
glorious hymn. I love that hymn. It's just so
full of gospel truth. We'll have to sing that more
often. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to 1 Kings chapter 21. 1 Kings chapter 21. I hope the Lord will enable us
to see the gospel in this story, this narrative, this passage
of scripture that the Lord has put in his word about a man whose
name was Naboth. Naboth, translated, means fruitful. So this was a man who bore fruit
to the glory of God, and certainly He represents for us that One
who is most fruitful, the Lord Jesus Christ who is faithful
and fruitful in all things, the One who bore to the Father the
children. the persecution that he experienced
as a result of his faithfulness to God. Naboth was from the city
of Jezreel. Jezreel translated means sown
of God. And certainly the Lord Jesus
Christ as the fruitful Son of God, the successful Savior, was
sown by God in Jezreel. where the fruits of his labors
could be experienced in the lives of his children. There was a king in Israel. His name was Ahab. He is known
scripturally very notoriously. He was a wicked man. He followed
after the pattern of his father. And as a matter of fact, that's
what his name means. Ahab's name translated means
his father's brother. And the apple didn't fall far
from the tree in Ahab in that he followed in all the wicked
ways of his father and led the children of Israel into idolatry. Ahab's wife's name was that most
notorious woman, Jezebel. And this story is not just about
Naboth losing his life and Ahab and Jezebel exercising their
wickedness. It's a picture of what the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered as the fruitful bearer of the sins of
his people in the place where God sowed him to succeed in the
salvation of our souls. So, let's read the story together. Verse 1 of 1 Kings chapter 21,
And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite
had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hired by the palace
of Ahab king of Samaria. And Ahab spoke unto Naboth, saying,
Give me thy vineyard. that I may have it for a garden
of herbs, because it is near unto my house, and I will give
thee for it a better vineyard than it, or, if it seem good
to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money. And Naboth
said unto Ahab, The Lord forbid it may." Now that's one of the
strongest phrases in the scriptures, God forbid. Let it not even be
entered into your thought. I'm not even going to consider
your offer. It's not even an offer on the
table. No. It's not going to happen. I'm not going to give you my
vineyard, I'm not going to sell it, and I'm not going to trade
it for another vineyard. Now remember Naboth here is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. This vineyard is a picture of
His church. And Naboth is going to give his
life rather than sacrifice his vineyard to Ahab. And Ahab came
unto his house, Lord forbid it that I should give the inheritance
of my fathers unto thee. This land was given to me by
my father. Oh, what a glorious picture.
The church of the Lord Jesus Christ was given to the bridegroom
by the Father in election. God Almighty chose a people in
Christ before time ever began and gave it to His Son. And the
Lord Jesus Christ saying, God forbid. I'm not even going to
consider this. This is my inheritance. This
is what my father gave me. And I'm not risking it for you. And I'm not trading it for anything
else. And I'm not selling it to anybody. And Ahab came into his house
heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the
Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he said, I will not give
thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his
bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread." Now
here's the king of Israel pouting. because Naboth refused to sell
him his little parcel of land that was pressed hard against
the wall of the king's palace. You see a lot of it in Ahab's
character, just in the way he responded to Naboth's refusal,
don't you? Jezebel, his wife, came unto
him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest
no bread? And he said unto her, Because
I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy
vineyard for money, or else, if it please thee, I will give
you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give
thee my vineyard. And Jezebel, his wife, said unto
him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Aren't you
the king? Come on Ahab, arise and eat bread and let thine heart
be merry for I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
And she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his
seal and sent letters unto the elders and to the nobles that
were in the city dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote the letter
saying, proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. Now she sends out these letters
to all the people and she says, have a feast and exalt Naboth. Put him up on high. Now what
a glorious picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he
was lifted up above the earth. When he hung on Calvary's cross. When God charged to him the sins
of his people. And he bore in his body upon
that tree all of our guilt and all of our shame. Proclaim a
feast and raise up Naboth. And when you raise him up, look,
look at verse 10. And set two men, sons of Belial,
before him to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme
God and the king. This is a gospel story. You see
the parallels, don't you? What accusations did the gainsayers,
the sons of Baal, bring against the Lord Jesus Christ? They had
to trump up some charges, didn't they? And what charges did they
make against Him? This man being a man. makes himself out to be God. He's blaspheming God. He's claiming
to be God. When those charges wouldn't stick
against the Roman government, Pilate said, you know, that's
your business. It's a religious issue. You all
deal with that. And so they changed the charges,
didn't they? He said, well, he's standing
up against Caesar. He's making himself to be king. Now that's
another problem. The same charges. False charges
as they were. The Lord Jesus Christ never refuted
the charges that were made against him as claiming to be God. If, in fact, he wasn't God, as
some say, it would have been a perfect opportunity for him
to say, no, no, no, you misunderstand. You've misunderstood me. No,
he never said that. He claimed full equality with the Father.
He claimed to be the Son of God. And when he was brought before
Pilate, and Pilate asked him, Are you therefore a king? What
did he say? For this cause came I into the
world. First of all, he said, My kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom was of this world, my followers would fight. Which
says much to us about all the stuff that's going on in politics
in America. Child of God, don't get caught
up in that. The Lord raises up kings. The
Lord sets them down. The Lord's ruler over the nations. We're not here to try to Christianize
our country or get involved in politics. Vote and just wait
to see what God's gonna do. But my kingdom's not of this
world. If my kingdom was of this world,
my disciples would fight. They would take up arms, and
that's what people are doing today in the name of Jesus. They're
taking up arms against the government, aren't they? And there's just
no place for it. He said, but for this cause came
I into the world, and for this reason was I born, to bear witness
unto the truth. They that are of the truth, they
hear my voice and they follow after me. Verse 10, the sons of Belial,
they bore witness against him, saying that he blasphemed God
and the king. And that's exactly what they
said against the Lord Jesus Christ. First they said he blasphemed
God by claiming equality with God, and when that didn't stick
with Pilate, he says he's blaspheming the king. He's standing up against
Caesar. He's an insurrectionist. You've
got to take care of this guy. He's going to mess up your peace
in the land. Which both were lies. And then carry him out and stone
him that he may die. Take his life. Put him to death. And that's exactly what they
did. The men of the city, even the elders and nobles who were
in the inhabitants of the city, did as Jezebel had sent unto
them. And that's what the elders of
the city did. That's what the Jewish leaders did. That's what
the Pharisees did. They stood up against the Lord
Jesus Christ. They said, we'll not have this
man reign over us. They cried, crucify him, crucify
him. They pressed it upon the king
to take the life of the fruitful one, Nabal, the one who had received
from his father a vineyard, an inheritance, and the one who
said, God forbid, I will not give up my vineyard. I'm not
going to sell it. I'm not going to trade it. I'm
not going to do anything with it. It's mine. Oh, we're going
to kill you for it. Well, that's what you're going
to have to do. That's what you're going to have to do. And to kill
you, we're going to have to bring false charges against you. That's
what we're going to have to do. What a picture. What a glorious
picture. The men of the city and the elders
and the nobles, verse 11, who were inhabitants of the city,
did as Jezebel had sent unto them. And it was written in the
letters which she had sent unto them. They proclaimed a fast
and set Nabal on high among the people. And there came in two
men, children of Belial, and sat before him. And the men of
Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence
of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God the king. and
they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with
stones, that he died. And they sent to Jezebel, saying,
Naboth is stoned and is dead." We've done what you declared,
decreed to be done. And now the vineyard's yours.
How long did it remain Ahab's and Jezebel's vineyard? In the very next chapter, Ahab
goes to war against the Assyrians and the king of Assyria says
to his army, fight against no one but Ahab. And Ahab got word
that they had put a target on his back and they had singled
him out. And so Ahab said, the scripture says in the next chapter
that Ahab disguised himself. He took off his kingly apparel.
He made himself look like one of the common men. And they couldn't
find him. The Syrians couldn't find him.
So the scripture says in the very next chapter that one of
the men in the army of Assyria drew a bow at a venture. In other words, he just took
an arrow and shot it up in the sky. And it just happened to
find the chink in Ahab's armor which was right between his shoulder
blades and he died. He died. Jezebel in the next
chapter is thrown from a window and the dogs ate her body. They didn't keep this vineyard
very long, did they? They took it. They took it by
deceit. But it wasn't theirs. It was
Naboth's. And the Lord was going to see
to it that it remained in Naboth's family. And it came to pass in
verse 15 that Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead,
that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard
of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money,
for Naboth is not alive, but dead. And it came to pass when
Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down
to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession
of it. Don't you know that when the
Lord Jesus Christ hung on Calvary's cross, when Satan, the Ahab and
the Jezebel, pictured in our story, heard from the lips of
the Lord Jesus Christ, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me, that he thought that he had gotten the victory. He thought
that he had, I've finally, finally, I've killed the Son of God. not knowing that the forsaking
of the Father upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that the death of Nabal
was going to be the very means by which God executed judgment
against his enemies and by which he delivers his people. When
the Lord Jesus Christ cried from the cross, it is finished. Satan must have thought, well
it's finished now, it's mine. The vineyard is mine. The Lord
Jesus Christ gave a parable of a king who owned a vineyard.
And he said he gave the vineyard unto some vinedressers, and they
were to produce fruit from that vineyard. And the owner of the
vineyard, who lived away, sent servants to receive from the
vinedressers the profits of that vineyard. And every time he would
send a servant to receive the profits of that vineyard, the
vinedressers would persecute the servants and send them back. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
speaking to the Pharisees, he says to them, he says to them,
the owner of the vineyard sent his son, thinking that he's the
heir. Surely they'll respect him. But
when they saw the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God come,
what did they do? They said, this is the heir,
let us kill him, that we might receive the vineyard to ourselves. And the Lord looked at the Pharisees
and he said, He said, what should the owner do with these vinedressers? And they pronounced their own
judgment when they said he should take the vineyard from them and
give it to another and exercise judgment against them. And the
Lord said, that's exactly what I've done. I've taken the vineyard, the
one that's in the hands of Naboth, the fruitful one. And I've given
it to vinedressers. And they will produce fruit.
They will produce fruit. The enemy tried to take it, but
he wasn't successful. He gloried in thinking that he
took possessions and that he had power over, but oh no. No,
the devil is God's devil. He's God's devil. and he's God's servant. Don't
lose sight of that. The devil's God's servant. There's
something else in this story that strikes me because I hear
so many people on the news saying today, and speaking of the atrocities
that are being committed by some of these radical Islam, Muslim
groups, ISIS and those sort of things, and you hear the commentators
talk about it, and what do they say? What do they say? How could
such evil exist? I've heard that said many times.
How could somebody do that? And you might look at Naboth,
you might look at Jezebel and Ahab and say, how could they
take an innocent man and trump up charges against him and kill
him and steal from him his vineyard? How could men do that? Believers
don't think that way. They just know. You don't hear
believers saying that. The unbeliever says, well, that's
just, that's so horrible, that's so atrocious, that's so beyond
my comprehension. And the believer says, but for
the grace of God, there go I. If the Lord, the believer knows,
the believer knows the evil that's in his own heart, and how dependent
on God he is to restrain that evil. The child of God knows
that if the Lord took his hand off of him, that he's capable
of anything. Do you believe that about yourself?
Do you believe you could have done what Jezebel did? What Ahab
did? What Isis is doing? If God didn't restrain you, that's
what you would do. That's what you would do. There's
nothing that we would say, well, it's not in my character. Well, you don't know your character
very well. I am vile. In me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. And completely dependent on the
Lord. to restrain the evil in my heart. Believers don't look at the crimes
of men and think, how could anybody do that? You know what believers do think
when they really think through it well enough? Why doesn't that happen all the
time? The world says, how could a man
take a gun and go into a school and shoot innocent children?
And the believer, knowing the wickedness that's in men's hearts,
says, only by the restraining grace of God. That doesn't happen
every day in our country. Every day. Who maketh thee to differ? Who
maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you've
not received? And if you received it, why do
you boast as if you didn't receive it? Why do you say, well, I'm
not that way? Why does God not, why does an
evil break out all the time everywhere? And the natural man says, well,
because it's not in man's nature to be that way. And the believer
says, oh no, oh no. It's by the restraining grace
of God that we don't all act that way. The unbeliever says, well, why
wouldn't God save everybody? And the child of God says, why
would God save anybody? And most especially, why would
God save me? Why would He save me? I mean,
we just have a completely upside-down view of things, don't we? Isn't
that what the apostles, what Peter was accused of on the day
of Pentecost? They brought him into the Sanhedrin
and they said, these men have turned the world upside down.
No! No, the gospel is turning the
world right side up. The believers are the only ones.
It's the people that are walking on their heads, it's the people
that are upside down that are saying, how can men act that
way? It's the believer who understands.
what the Lord Jesus Christ did in order to redeem His people
and what He does in order to restrain the evil of men's hearts
that bow in submission and in thanksgiving to God's grace and
God's mercy. Oh, how dependent we are. Isn't
that true? That's why believers don't look
at other believers that may have fallen into something and stand
in judgment of them, they just don't do it. You know, that's
the elder brother. No. Verse 17. And the word of the Lord came
to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab,
king of Israel, that is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard
of Naboth, wherein he has gone down to possess it. And thou
shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, hast thou
killed? hast thou also taken possession?
And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord,
in the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, shall dogs
lick thy blood, even thine." You read the story, it's in the
next chapter. And that's exactly what happens. Exactly what happens. The last point I want to make is that The message of the gospel is
so radically opposed to everything in this world that it must be
expected on the part of God's children to meet opposition. The gospel is opposed to everything
on our flesh. Everything in our self-righteousness,
everything in what we presume to be our power and our will
is killed by the gospel. The gospel is contrary to everything
in the world. Friendship with the world is
enmity with God. This is a picture of the enemies
of the gospel, isn't it? And notice that Naboth's vineyard
was close pressed to the wall of Ahab. The closer you are in
proximity, the closer you are in relationship to the Ahabs
and Jezebels of this world, the more angry they're going to become
about the gospel. So that the Lord said, your enemies
will be of your own household. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
5. Verse 10. Well, verse 9, let's
begin there. Because, as I said in the previous
hour, we're not seeking to add offense to the gospel. We're
not seeking to stir up trouble with men. We ought to try to
be at peace with all men whenever possible. It's not possible when
it comes to compromising the gospel. We ought to do good unto
all men, especially those who are of the household of faith.
We ought to be kind to all men and considerate and respectful
to people. Believers, we're not going out
of our way to try to make enemies. And so the Lord says in verse
9, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the
children of God. Seek to be at peace with all men whenever possible. And just right on the heels of
that the Lord said, blessed are they which are persecuted for
righteousness sake. Now I know back in self-righteous
religion we thought we were persecuted for righteousness sake when we
stood up against certain social ills. We took a stand against
certain types of lifestyles and certain behaviors and certain
things and we set ourselves up as You know, we wouldn't do such
a thing, and then you took the persecution of the world because
you were intolerant. You remember that? That's not
what he's talking about here. We don't do that. When you declare
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope
of salvation, When you say to the religious man, I will speak
of thy righteousness even of thine only, when you say all
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God, when you say
that we've never been able to keep one of God's laws one time,
that there's never been a sin we've ever stopped doing, not
in our hearts, that to will is present with
us, but how to perform that which is good we find not. When you
let men know that Christ's righteousness is the only hope of acceptance
before God. He's the only one that ever satisfied
the demands of God's law. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. When you make a stand for the
gospel, expect there to be opposition. Just expect it. And the closer
your vineyard is, hard pressed against the wall of the king,
the more he's going to want to take your vineyard away from
you. So just expect it. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say
all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Oh, it's not that they hate you.
They hate the Master. The servant's not greater than
his master. If they hated me, they're going
to hate you. Just take a stand for the gospel and then be prepared
for the consequences. They're going to come. Why? Because the gospel is contrary
to everything in this world. It's contrary to free will, it's
contrary to good works, it's contrary to self-righteousness,
it's contrary to fair say, it's contrary to everything. It's
contrary to religion. It's the gospel. Rejoice, verse 12, and be exceeding
glad. For great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you." Every believer has suffered the
same thing. Every believer. For every generation. Nothing's changed. Matthew chapter 10. Would you
turn with me there, please? Verse 34. Think not that I have come to
send peace on the earth. If you're looking for a way to
have friendship with the world and to be saved, it's not going to happen. It's
not going to happen. Think not that I came to bring
peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. I thought he was called the Prince
of Peace. You're either going to have peace with God or you're
going to have peace with man. That's what the Lord said. Yes, He is
the Prince of Peace and He is our peace with God. But to have
peace with God means that you're set at odds with men. You can't
have it both ways. It's going to be one way or the
other. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father,
and a daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against
her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own
household. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
up not his cross." Taking up your cross is not, as the world
says, well I got a bear, you know, a burden. Everybody's got
to bear those. Taking up the cross is declaring
the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. That's what it is. It's saying that when Christ
was lifted up, that God was satisfied with his sacrificial substitutionary
death on Calvary's cross for all the sins of all God's people. follow after me. He that taketh
up not his cross, verse 38, and followeth not after me is not
worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he
that loses his life for my sake shall find it." Oh! Naboth said, give me your vineyard. Ahab said to Naboth, give me
your vineyard. How oftentimes the forces of
evil entice us to trade our inheritance for something better. What did
Ahab say? I'll give you something better.
I'll give you a better vineyard. I'll give you money. Oh, the love of that's the root of
all evil, isn't it? It's money that buys power and popularity
and pleasures in this world. And it's man's craving for that. And the evil one says, give me
your inheritance. I'll give you these things. What
did Naboth say? God forbid it. God forbid. That's not even an offer. That's
not even a consideration. You ever make an offer on something
with somebody and you think, well, I don't want to lowball
them too much because I don't want to offend them. You know, I mean,
I'd like to have that, but I want to make a really low offer. Or maybe you received a real
lowball offer on something and you were offended or you laughed
at it and you said, forget that. Oh, don't, don't, don't take
this offer. Don't take it. Say with Naboth,
God forbid it. God forbid it. I received this
inheritance from my father. I want to close with one passage
of scripture. Will you turn with me to Leviticus chapter 25? Leviticus chapter 25. The possession
of land in Israel typifies salvation. If you did not possess the land
that was given to you by your fathers, that was distributed
by Joshua and Caleb, remember after they came and took the
land and each family received certain parcels of land, if you
didn't possess that land, then you didn't have any ownership
in Israel. And that was a picture of not
being not being part of the people of God so the Lord put it in
his law look what happens verse 23 of Leviticus chapter 25 the
land shall not be sold forever for the land is mine and you
are sojourners are you are strangers and sojourners with me And in
all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption
for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor
and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his
kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem it which his brother
sold. And if a man hath none to redeem
it, and himself be able to redeem it, then let him count the years
of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man whom
he sold it, that he may return unto his possession. And if he
is not able to restore it unto him, then that which is sold
shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the
year of Jubilee. until the year of Jubilee. So
God put it in his law that if you got in trouble financially
and you had to mortgage your property for the benefit of its
value, that you could have a kinsman redeemer come in and buy that
property back and the owner that you sold it to was obligated
by the law to put it back in the family. And if you had no
kinsman redeemer, on the day of Jubilee, the year of Jubilee,
which was the 49th year, seven Sabbaths, on the seventh Sabbath,
the 49th year, the trumpet was sounded and all the land returned
back to its original owners. All the slaves were freed and
all debt was canceled. And that was the great and terrible
day of the Lord. That's the day the Lord Jesus
Christ, he is our kinsman redeemer. We lost our possession in our
father Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ bought it back. And then
he came on the 49th year, and he blew the trumpet of the gospel
of his free grace, and he returned all property back to its owners,
and he set all slaves free, and he canceled all our debt before
God." And that's the gospel. It's seen in Naboth as a type
of Christ. It's seen in Naboth as a type
of the believer. and the conflict is seen in Ahab
and Jezebel, which suffered the judgment of God in the end. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that You would impress upon our hearts and minds the
glorious accomplished work of Thy dear Son. We thank You for
this table. We thank you for the way in which
the simple bread, unleavened, reminds us of the sinless life
of the Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness before thee. We
thank you for the simple wine that reminds us of the precious,
sinless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's cross
as a covering for our sin, our Redeemer. We ask that as we receive
these in faith, that you would encourage our hearts with assurance
of salvation. For we pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. I ask the men if they'll come
and distribute the bread and wine. We're going to sing number
one in the Saltback Temple. Please remain seated.