Turn with me to the book of Luke
chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. I'd like to look at one verse
of Scripture from the words of our blessed Savior, verse 19.
Luke 22, 19, And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it,
and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for
you, this do in remembrance of me." Let's pray together. Our Father, as we approach You
this evening, We do so with a heart that truly desires to fellowship
with you. As we seek to pray, try to pray. Lord, I ask you, would you bless
the service tonight? Help us. Help us to worship. Help us to see. Help us to rejoice. Help us to hear. For Christ's
sake. Amen. By the grace of God, something wonderfully divine happens when
we partake of the Lord's table. We remember Him. That's what
we just read. This is my body which is given
for you this do in remembrance of Me." It's a miracle of God's grace that a sinner is able to remember
and to think, to contemplate, to muse upon the Lord. I know that by nature man is unconcerned. He has no interest whatsoever in remembering the Lord. And
when he tells us, this do in remembrance of me, I know that
the Spirit of God must give a man or woman A heart, a desire to
do that. It's God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His
good pleasure. I know this even as He commanded
us to remember Him and we come with a heart that truly wants
to do that and the Spirit of God works a work of grace and causes
us to do what He has commanded us to do. Because we don't take
any credit for this. It's been given unto us to believe. The Holy Ghost causes us to contemplate
the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that shedding of His blood,
breaking of His body, we see the law honored and the debt
of our sins, all those for whom He died, that debt paid, paid
in full. He cried from the cross, It is
finished. and gave up the ghost. And redemption
was accomplished there at Calvary. All that the Father had everlastingly
saw. The Lamb slain from before the
foundation of the world. And the Father always saw that
broken body and shed blood. He always saw it. The eternal
God. was now the I Am. He ever viewed
that. And in ever seeing that blood
shed, that body broken, He justified us freely by His grace. Everything
to Him was not past, future, eternal. Now knowing that the Father is
revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. When He said, this do in remembrance
of Me, we always contemplate, as soon as we read those words.
Well, let me say this, when I do. When I read that, I always think
of the broken body, the shed blood. That's what goes to my
mind. But I began to think on that
today. This do in remembrance of Me. That shed blood and broken body
finished redemption. But I began to think when he
said, this do in remembrance of me, my mind started contemplating
some other truths which I'm very confident we would never exhaust. But I just wanted to bring out
just a few. tonight before we eat the bread and drink the cup
in the remembrance of our Lord. In remembering Him, this do in
remembrance of me, he said, this is the first thing I thought
about. Christ is the eternal God. This
do in remembrance of me. Who died for us? In the beginning,
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He who in time actually took
upon Himself human flesh, that happened in time. I mean, we
have a record of that. The Word was made flesh, but He always existed. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. Brother Henry Mahan said this
on that particular portion of Scripture. The Word was with
God. He said, a separate personality
is the Father, Here's the Son. Here's the Spirit. There's three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Spirit of God. And these three are one. Brother
Henry says, a separate personality. The union of deity and humanity. The Christ. The Messiah. the union of God and man, the
Christ. It took place in that union in
time, but He's always been. He was always beheld by the Father. He said, I was ever before Him. My delight was with the sons
of man, ever eternally considering seeing, rejoicing in the redemption
of His people. But then we said a separate personality. God is one God, yet the Father
is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit. No one has ever, this side of
glory, been able to comprehend the depth of that. We believe
it. We rest in it. We know it so. But we cannot explain the fullness
of it. The Trinity. This do in remembrance
of me. We remember that He is the eternal
God. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. Here's the second thing. Christ
is the Creator of all things. This do in remembrance of me."
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. This is the One that walked this
earth, that His disciples looked on Him, handled the Word of Life. Peter said, You're the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And our Lord, the One that made
all things, said, Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but
my Father which is in heaven. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. All things were made by Him and
for Him. I was watching television the
other day and one of these real deep sea submarine exploratory
things. They were photographing these
animals that had heretofore never been viewed before. Very strange
looking things. You've seen them. all of the creatures, little bugs, some little bugs
that just so tiny, microscopic, some that died the very day in
which they were born and they're just all of the formations of
the rocks. You're driving along and see
where they've cut through. Going out toward Maryland, I
can't think of the name of that real beautiful rock formations. You look at that and you think,
I wonder why God made that like that? Why that creature? Why this? All things were made
by Him without Him. All the stars. different sizes, different compositions,
different colors and a twinkle. All those things. He's the creator. This do in remembrance of me.
Everything that was made was made by Him. Here's the third thing. He is
the eternal surety in whom God's elect was chosen. He is God's surety for us. According as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him, before God in love, there's
only one place that man will ever be holy and
without blame before God Almighty and it's in Christ. All of the other hypotheses that
have come up in the minds of fallen man, the only one that God Almighty,
Jehovah God, looks to for redemption and appeasement and peace. At His baptism on the Mount of
Transfiguration, the Father said, This is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. You hear Him. Here's the fourth thing I thought
about in remembering Him. He is the door to heaven. I am the door. He said, I am
the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. To miss Him is to miss life.
To be wrong concerning Him is to perish. He is either the sovereign
Savior or he's a failure who could not
accomplish God's will. I am the way. We remember Him and we remember
that God Almighty is merciful and compassionate. All mercy,
all compassion from Almighty God is in one person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God is merciful, yes. He says
to Moses, I will have mercy. Not I'll try. I will. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. Almighty God was pleased to not
let mankind perish. Therefore, He gave His only begotten
Son, and whosoever believeth in Him should not perish." I was thinking about those that
believe, not perish, but have eternal life, and I was thinking
about when James said in James 2.19, Thou believest that there
is one God, Thou doest well, as the devils also believe and
tremble. And as I've told you before,
that word believe concerning the devils and believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ is the same word. That always amazed me. But I read on today in James
2.19, and James said in the next verse, he said, Thou believest,
verse 19, that there's one God that will do us well. The devils
also believe and tremble. The devils believe. Here's the
amazing thing. The devils know that God's sovereign. The devils know that God has
a people. They know that He's going to
redeem His people. They know that. And that which they know
concerning God Almighty, not just His mere existence, I'm
not talking, they know, they know who He is. That one, that demoniac of the
Gadarenes told me, he said, have you come to torment us before
our time? They knew He was all-powerful.
They knew that. They asked Him permission. Would you put us
in these swine over there? They knew He was omnipotent. But James says in the next verse,
verse 20, But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without
works is dead? There is a head knowledge. There is a head knowledge that
devils have in belief. That word believe is to have
a knowledge of, but only in the believing Saints, regenerated
people of God. Has God worked a work of grace
whereby in that belief, Lord we believe, help our unbelief.
In that belief there is a work of grace that hungers for God's
righteousness. Devils don't have that. There
is a new heart in a believer. It's not just a head knowledge.
Devils have a head knowledge. Believers have a new heart for
God's honor and God's glory. They're interested in the promises
of the covenant of grace. And there's a refusal to trust
in anything concerning their flesh. No confidence in their
flesh. And they love Christ. There's
a new heart there. They believe. They believe. But there's a new creation there
that devils don't have. They believe in their minds. They acknowledge that there's
a God. All men acknowledge that there is a God, but they don't
know the God of this Bible until God gives them a new heart. There's
a conscience. in every man. Devils have a conscience
just like fallen men have a conscience. They know. They believe that.
I told you about the Mayans down there in Mexico. They believe that there's a God.
They believe that. He's offended. They're going
to have to have a sacrifice. The issue is blood. They're going
to cut the hearts out of those victims. Their God's got to be
appeased. They believe that there is a
God, but they don't know the God of this Bible. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. And whosoever believeth, trusts,
loves, honors, clings to, comes to, casts himself upon mercy
for, whosoever believeth in Him should not perish. but have eternal
life. By remembering the Lord Jesus
Christ, we remember that God is merciful. By remembering Him,
we remember that God is just. God is a just God. Merciful God,
yes, but never at the expense of His justice. See, this is
where man by nature, they miss the truth. They set forth that
God is merciful, but at the expense of justice. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
made sin for us, what did the Father do to Him? The first thing
I know He did, He forsook Him. I know He forsook Christ. My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? We would never have known
that. had the Lord Jesus Christ not
cried out those words. If we would have said without
that declaration of truth, well, I believe that God the Father
forsook His Son. I wouldn't have never dreamed
to say that. He said He did. I see why He
did. He was made sin. I know what happened He was forsaken
and Almighty God spewed out the indescribable wrath that was
due the guilt, the sin that he bore, that he was made the wages
of sin, death. And he who knew no sin was made
sin for us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. When we remember Him, we remember
that God is just. You want to know what God is
going to do where sin is found? Chargeable guilt. You look at the cross. You tell
me what God Almighty is going to do with a man or a woman whose
sin has not been put away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In remembering Him, I remember that God is satisfied with all
for whom Christ died, was buried, and was raised from the dead.
I know this. In remembering Him, God Almighty
is at peace with those that Christ answered far. Be ye therefore,
Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, followers of God as dear children and walk
in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given Himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." I think about that wonderful
picture of substitution. Whenever Jacob came before his
father and his mother had told him, said, put these skins on
you and go in before your father. He'll bless you. And he walked
in. His father asked him, he said, Are
you Esau? He said, I am. He said, I touched
him and he said, You feel like Esau. You smell like Esau. You smell the skins. You sound
like Jacob. He blessed him. And I think about robed in his
righteousness, he looks upon us and he sees
his son. And He smells His Son. A sweet
smelling savor. You smell like My Son. That's what My Son smells like.
That's the smell of obedience. That's the smell of life. He has given Himself for us. a sweet-smelling Savior and we
are accepted in the Beloved. In remembering Him, we know that His sheep have everlasting
life. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. They follow me. I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man
pluck them out of my hand. Oh, how that Scripture has come
back to my mind times when I'm so disappointed in myself. I was reading this morning. I looked it up. I knew it was in
the Bible. Set a watch on my tongue. Set a watch on my tongue. so
disappointed in things that I think, things that I say. And I think,
why can't I just keep my mouth shut? And I think about this,
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
And I think, Lord, thank You that I can remember You. Well, time or eternity would
never contain the fullness. I mean, all of the things that
we could say the bright morning star, the everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace, where would you end? But I do know this. I know that He's the brightness of the Father's glory. I know
He's the heir of all things, and His people are joint heirs
with Him. I know He's the friend of sinners. I know he's the husband of the
church. He's the angel of God's covenant, the bishop of our souls
and the captain of our salvation, the great high priest and only
mediator between God and men. But in closing, before we eat,
the last passage of Scripture in the book of John says this,
or also many other things which Jesus did, the witch, if they
should be written every one, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that should be written.
Amen.