All right, this evening, we're
going to observe the Lord's, this table. I want you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Matthew chapter
26, Matthew 26. I began to look at this passage
of scripture this morning and Looking at it, there was something
within this particular passage that really struck my heart. I want to read Matthew 17 through
verse 20 before we have a word of prayer, and then we'll go
from there. Matthew 26, starting verse 17. Now, the first day
of the feast of unleavened bread, The disciples came to Jesus saying
unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the
Passover? And he said, go into the city
to such a man and say unto him, the master saith, my time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples. And the disciples did. as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now
when the even was come, he sat down with the 12. Let's have
a word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you this
evening. Oh, for the blessed time to call
upon your holy name. We thank you that you've given
us this precious, precious opportunity come together and worship. Lord,
I pray you'd bless our time together. Lord, I ask you to bless the
word to our understanding, to our comfort, peace, and let it
be to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name
we pray. Amen. The part of this passage
that I was struck with is when the Lord said, go into the city
to such a man and say unto him, the master saith, and here it
is, my time is at hand. My time is at hand. Now, we've come together tonight
to observe the marvelous, precious time of partaking of the Lord's
table. The night that our Lord ate with
his disciples, he would be betrayed on the very night in which he
was betrayed. He took that bread and took that
cup. Very soon he would go and lay
down his life for the sheep. He was going to redeem them by
the shedding of his own blood. He would be made sin for them.
He would put away their guilt, carry their burdens, be stricken
of God, afflicted. And the Lord would accomplish
exactly the purpose for which he was sent. A precious supper. a supper that I want us to consider
for just a moment and the preciousness of that supper. Now I want us
to consider exactly what preceded the actual eating. When we eat
of the Lord's table, we'll take the elements and I'll read the
part where He took the bread and broke the bread and took
the cup and blessed it, but I want us to consider exactly what happened
just before that took place. Verse 17 and 18 of Matthew 26
says, now the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now,
according to the day in which our Lord was crucified, the Passover
was going to actually take place in just a few days, the day before. And it's Thursday. Actually,
it was on a Thursday. Now, the first day of the Feast
of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him,
Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? It's wonderful for me to behold
those disciples seeking the Lord's will concerning where, where
would you have us to go? They did not take upon themselves
even to find a place. They didn't say, let's find a
place and then we'll, they asked him, where would you have us
to go? Where would you have us to hold
your supper? And then I want you to behold
the power of the word of God in answer to their question.
Not only did they ask the Lord, what do you want us to do? Where
do you want us to go? And this is what he said. You
go into a city to such a man and you say unto him, this is
what you say. The master saith, my time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples. Hold your place right here and
turn to Deuteronomy 12. Deuteronomy chapter 12. You know, we have been meeting
here, this assembly, according to the records that I've read,
Probably back in 1954, a group of people met together and started
meeting in a house. You'll know the story better
than I. Started meeting together, but then there was an established
place. This piece of property right
here was bought. And this building, all of the
men that that were here at that time. I'm sure some of us now
that are older probably at that time would have been kids. But
at that particular time, a group of people, men, women, all came
together and built this building. Now let me ask you something.
How did this place come to be? How did this particular building
come to be here? Deuteronomy chapter 12. Verses 10 and 11, the Lord is
getting ready to send his people over Jordan. Now listen to this.
Verse 10, Deuteronomy 12, but when you go over Jordan and dwell
in the land which the Lord your God giveth you to inherit, and
when he giveth you rest from all your enemies round about
so that you dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which
the Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. Thither shall you bring all that
I command you, your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes,
heave offering of your hand, all your choice vows which you
vow unto the Lord. So do you know where God's people
assemble and worship? Where the Lord raises up a place.
Well, he said, well, we just got together and we thought this
would be good. This piece of property came available
and then this is where we bought it. So we decided, no, let's
say it like this. The Lord raised up a place right
here. And only the Lord keeps that which the Lord ordains.
This place right here, every place that the Lord raises up,
that's a place of the Lord's choosing. Lord, where were you
back in Matthew 26? His disciples came to Jesus saying
unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the
Passover? We don't choose, the Lord chooses. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Nothing is left to us. Why? Because
we're going to glory in it. Isn't it comforting just to be
able to admit the Lord raised this up? The Lord sustained it. The Lord has blessed it. But
he said unto them, you go and you say unto him, the master
saith, my time is at hand. There were many instances in
the scriptures where the Jews would take it. They wanted to
take it. But what it said, it said his
time was not at hand. He passed away from it, passed
through the cross. His time wasn't at hand. Now
he said, my time is at hand. I want to just make a few statements
about his time. Number one, I noticed that it
said, he didn't say, you go tell them the master saith, The time. It was the time. But look exactly
what he said. My time. My time is at hand. So here's what I know about that
time. It was a personal time. Isaac asked his father, Abraham,
in Genesis 22, concerning them going up to the mountain. You
know the story about whenever Abraham, Lord willing, we'll
be in chapter 22 here in a week or so with this very event that
I'm talking about right here. Abraham, Isaac, his two servants,
and the ass was going where the Lord would have them to go, and
they came to the place, and Isaac and Abraham were to go up on
the mountain and worship. And as Isaac was going up, Isaac
asked his father, Behold the fire and the wood, but where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God will provide
Himself. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
was made flesh. And the Lord says, concerning
his time, he said, this is my time, this is mine. God shall
provide himself a lamb. And this time, it was an appointed
time. Hold your place right there and
turn to Galatians 4, 4. 4 and 5, Galatians 4, verses
4 and 5. Galatians chapter 4, verses 4
and 5, but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. My time, it was an appointed
time. He came in the fullness of time. Ecclesiastes chapter three, you
know this passage of scripture, Ecclesiastes 3.1 says to everything,
everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under
the heaven. There's a time, there's an appointed
time, personal time. The scripture declares that this
time was a time of fulfillment. Our Lord declared, I want you
to turn over to John chapter nine, so you can look at this,
John nine verse four, a time of fulfillment. The Lord said
in John nine four, I must work the works of him that sent me.
while it's day, the night cometh when no man can work." And what
was his work? Well, just turn back a few pages
to John 6, 38. What was the fulfillment of his
work? It was the Father's will. John
6, 38 through 40 says, "'For I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, But the will of Him that sent me, and
this is the Father's will, which has sent me that of all which
He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the
last time. So this was a time of fulfillment,
personal time, an appointed time, a time of God's fulfillment. Turn to John 19, 28. John 19,
verse 28, 30. John 19, verse 28, and after
this, Jesus, knowing that all things
were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled,
saith, now here he is, he's on the cross. They filled a sponge
with vinegar and put it upon Hyssop, put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received
the vinegar, he said, it is finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. This was a time of fulfillment,
all of God's will, concerning the redemption and salvation
of His people. My time is at hand. Fourthly, it was a time of holy
obedience and submission to Almighty God, His Father. Second Corinthians
521, you know this passage of scripture, For he, the Father,
hath made him sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. So concerning his time on the
cross, That time of holy obedience and submission, he said in John
10, 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. No man taketh my life
from me. I lay it down freely. And his
time was a gloriously effectual and precious time. The scripture
declares that it was precious to the father, who said at his
baptism and upon the Mount of Transfiguration, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. It was precious to the Lord Jesus
Christ who said concerning when he was at the well of Sychar
there in John chapter 4 at the woman that he met at the well.
And his disciples had gone to town to get something to eat
and he came back and they saw the Lord talking to this woman,
a Samaritan. And they didn't ask him anything.
But they told him that they had gotten some meat there and he
told them, he said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent
me." I looked up that word up, meet, my meet. Here's the definition. That which delights and satisfies
me. That's what delights. His time
was a precious time. Precious to the father, precious
to the son. He said, this is what delights
me. This is where I find all of my
delight. that my satisfaction, and I'll
tell you what, it was precious to us, his people, who behold
him now by faith as our precious redeemer, our precious savior,
our precious great high priest. Peter said in 1 Peter 2, seven,
unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. Oh, that I might
realize how precious he really is. I wonder how precious he
was to that thief on that cross that day that the Lord was pleased
to call out of darkness just before that thief died. They
were getting ready to come. They were getting ready to break
his legs. I can tell you this, he wasn't going to hold himself
up anymore. He was going to die. He was going to suffocate. What
was he going to do? Lord, when you enter into your kingdom,
would you remember me? And listen to how precious these
words are. He said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, You're gonna
be with me in paradise. Now you stop and think how wonderful
that is. If Lord, if we could hear him
say to us, which we do in our heart, I don't know if it's today,
but I know that in that day, to have the assurance of knowing,
he said, you're gonna be with me. Marvin, you're gonna be with
me. That's precious thought. Precious
thought. Well, verse 19, back in Matthew
26. And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them. And
they made ready the Passover. Now, it is precious to behold
the obedience of God's people. That's a precious thing. The Lord said, my sheep hear
my voice. I know them and they follow me. He said, I am the good shepherd. And we are the sheep of his flock. And I know that the Lord leads.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. We know that he leads us by his
spirit. He leads and directs providentially
through this life. We walk and are directed. We
follow Him who is our shepherd. We believe. that everything that
comes to pass today was ordered by the Lord. I mean, if we believe
that He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
then we believe that everything that happened today, that was
according to the Lord's will, and it was His will that we go
through and follow and believe Him who is our Shepherd. And
they hear His voice. We hear it right now in these
Scriptures in Providence. We hear the voice of him who
has eternally loved us and gave himself for us. And I'll tell
you what else they do. Whenever it says, verse 19, and
the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them and they made
ready the Passover. They did it, they did it. Lord,
where would you have us that we might eat? Where would you
have us go? Where would you, where do you want us to go? You go
to a certain man's house, you tell him the master said, my
time is at hand. I will eat my Passover with my
disciples at your house. And they did it. They did it.
They followed him. They did as the Lord had appointed
him and they made ready. The Lord's people are obedient
people. They're obedient people. I think about Jonah. The Lord
told him to go to Nineveh. He didn't want to go to Nineveh.
You read the book of Jonah, not the four chapters. You know why? He went to Nineveh. God's people
are obedient people. They go. They'll go. I understand
we have a struggle with our flesh, but I'm telling you, God's people
obey. He said they follow me. We have a heart to follow. Now
we've come together tonight as believers. We've come together
obediently, willingly, and we've come together at the command
of God's Spirit who said, let us hold fast the profession of
our faith without wavering. But he is faithful that promised,
and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another so much more as we
see the day approaching. These disciples did as the Lord
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. that
which was required. And this thought went through
my mind as I first read this, and it just went through my mind
again. Do you know when God's people come, especially when
we come together to hear the gospel, we come together to partake
of the Lord's table, you know what we do? We want to make preparation. How do we do that? We ask Him,
Lord, would you bless this to my heart? Would you bless this? I made some notes this morning,
this afternoon. I made these notes, and I sat
down, I went over them, checking all the references, make sure
I don't, you know, like I've done before, write down something
wrong and read the wrong scripture. I tried to make sure that everything
was just exactly right. But you know, Mitch, when I've
got everything done, do you know what's needful? Would you bless this to our hearts?
Lord, I would ask, I would come to you in preparation to stand
in your pulpit and speak to your people concerning your supper,
concerning your glory, your honor. Lord, if you don't bless it,
if it's not prepared by you to our hearts, it's going to be
nothing. It's just words. It's just words. The disciples did as Jesus had
appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And then
last verse for this evening, verse 20. Now when the even was
come, he sat down with the 12. The time had come, and he sat
down with them. Now again, we've met tonight
to remember him in the partaking of his table. But this scripture
comes to my mind concerning that verse of scripture. When the
even was come, he sat down with the 12, where two or three are gathered
together in my name. There am I in the midst of them. We're reading something that
truly took place hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years
ago. I know that, I know that. The 12 that were with him have
long since died and they're in the grave. One of them is in
hell. 11 of them, according to God's
word, knew the Lord. but they're gone from this earth. But he's not. He's not. The Lord that sat down with those
12 right here, the same Lord, said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of you. We don't doubt his word. We have
met together in his name, and we've come to enjoy communion
with Him. We're here together as His body,
but we're here to commune with the Lord. Oh, to Him who loved us and gave
Himself for us, may we now at this time partake of His supper
And remember, he said, do this in remembrance of me. I'm gonna
read that out of Corinthians, just a moment, 1 Corinthians.
Do this in remembrance of me, that we might remember that which
he did, that which he bore, the agony that he bore for us. His time is come. His time to be remembered this
way is come. And may we do so. To his glory
and our good. Alright, I'll ask some men if
they'll come.