This psalm, Psalm 118, turn there. It's an appropriate psalm since
we're meeting on the first day of the new year. This is the
beginning of a new year and it gives you sort of a sense of
newness. Today's not much different than yesterday. but it does give
you a sense of things being new. But in God's providence, He's
brought us right here to this psalm, and I wanted to wait until
today to preach this last part because of this verse right here.
Verse 24, This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. And some quote this when they
or somebody around them is going through a difficult, having a
difficult day and times are tough, you know, it's hard. Without
a doubt, every day is the Lord's day. He gives us every day we
have on this earth. Others apply this to the Lord's
day being the first day of the week, Sunday, when we gather
to worship the Lord. And without a doubt, this is
the Lord's day. This is the Lord's day. This
is the day He arose. This is the day they assembled.
And this is the day we assembled to hear His name declared. And
we'll rejoice and be glad in it. Every time we assemble. But this day that He's talking
about here is not a single day. Not a single day. It's not a
year comprised of days. It's this age. It's this age. It's this gospel day. It's this
gospel age. The time of this gospel dispensation. It's called in Scripture the
accepted time. It's called in Scripture the
day of salvation. When we're talking, let's say
we're looking back and we're looking at some ancient time
in history, we might say something like that. In that day such and
such and such and such. We're talking about that age.
That's what this means. That's what this is talking about.
The Lord made this day. He made this gospel age. It began
after our Lord accomplished redeeming His people and arose to the right
hand of the Father and gave the Holy Spirit. Everything became
new. An all entirely new day. Entirely. It's not merely one
new day. It's not merely a new year of
days. He made an entirely new age wherein
He's made all things new and old things have passed away.
This is the day of grace that the Lord has made. We will rejoice
and be glad in it. If you want to look, if you hold
your place here and look over at Isaiah, I'll just show you
a few places where it's talking about this gospel age. Isaiah
4. In verse 2, I'm going to just
read a few. If you want to do a good study,
get your concordance and look up in that day and just read
everything the Lord said would happen in that day. He's talking
about it in this Gospel. Now listen, and you'll be there
a while. You'll be there a while. Isaiah
4-2, in that day, There you go. In that day shall
the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of
the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are
escaped of Israel. Christ is the branch. We're the
fruit He produces. Isaiah 11 verse 10 tells us this. Isaiah 11 10. says, in that day there shall
be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people,
a banner that Jehovah need seek. And to it, or to him, shall the
Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Isaiah 12, verse
1. And in that day thou shalt say,
O Lord, I'll praise Thee. Thou was angry with me. Thine
anger's turned away, and Thou hast comforted me. Behold, God
is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He's also become
my salvation. That's right out of our song.
Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of
salvation, and in that day you shall say, Praise the Lord, call
upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention
that His name is exalted, sing unto Him. This is what our Psalm
is saying. It's this gospel age that we
are living in right now. Back there in Psalm 118.24, this
is the day which the Lord hath made. The Lord Jesus hath made
this day. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. We have a lot of reason to rejoice. We should only rejoice and be
glad. Be glad. And we see why and how
our Lord made this day. how He made this day. First of
all, He did it by the cross. He did it by the cross. Now you
hear Christ speaking here and look back up at verse 16. We
know that this psalm is the psalm of our Lord, it's the psalm of
the cross, it's the psalm of His resurrection, His ascension. Martin Luther loved this psalm.
He loved this psalm. It talks about being chased and
sore, and I shall not die, I shall live. This is what he said. Let
me read this to you. I just came across this just
a minute ago. He said, this is my own beloved
psalm. Although the entire Psalter and
all of Holy Scriptures are dear to me as my only comfort and
source of life, I fell in love with this psalm especially. Therefore,
I call it my own. When emperors and kings, the
wise and the learned, and even saints could not aid me, this
psalm proved a friend and helped me out of many great troubles.
As a result, it's dearer to me than all the wealth, honor, and
power of the Pope, the Turk, and the Emperor. I'd be most
unwilling to trade this psalm for all of it. And it's because
we see Christ so much in this psalm. And we know what Christ
suffered here. We don't suffer nothing in no
way to that degree, but we can enter into his suffering by our
suffering. When you suffer, when you go
through chastening, always try to stop and look at it and see
how Christ suffered that so much more. It will make you appreciate
the things Christ did for us so much more. And that's the
best use of it. Now, by the cross, now hear Christ
speak here in verse 16, the right hand of the Lord is exalted.
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die, but
live, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened
me sore, but he hath not given me over unto death. Capital L-O-R-D
is Jehovah, it's God the Father. And this is Christ praising Him
and how His right hand is exalted and how He's done valiantly.
I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.
The Lord has chastened me sore, but He has not given me over
unto death. This psalm is our Lord suffering on the cross in
place of His sheep, but by Him being chastened in our room instead,
bearing all our sin and God pouring out all the wrath on Him, by
Him bearing that in our room instead, He accomplished the
salvation of His people. Every sinner that God chose to
save in Christ was wounded for our transgression. He was wounded
for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes
we're healed. That's what He said there. Lord,
you've chastened me sore. That's how His right hand is
exalted. That's how the Lord has done valiantly. He sent His
own Son and He poured out justice on His Son in place of His people.
And how amazing, brethren, our Lord Jesus suffered this, He
bore this in His body on the tree, and as He bore it, He's
praising the Lord for doing it and saying, this is how your
right hand is exalted. You've done valiantly. I shall not die, but live, he
said, and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened
me sore, but he hath not given me over to death. This is the
day the Lord has made, this gospel day. Our Lord Jesus Christ lives. He lives. He declares the works
of the Lord in the midst of his church. He said in Psalm 22,
we know that's our Lord speaking. He said in Psalm 22, 22, I will
declare, this is Christ, I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Who's going
to hear? Who's going to hear and be blessed
today by this word? The meek. The meek. Those that are sinners, mourning,
looking for His righteousness only. The meek shall eat and
be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek Him. Your heart shall live forever.
This is how the Lord made this gospel day. He sent His Son and
He fulfilled all those types and pictures of the Old Covenant.
They were just types and pictures. He fulfilled them all. He's the
Lamb, the High Priest. He's everything pictured. That's
why when He fulfilled the law for His people, the curtain split
from top to bottom, the veil. It's old now. It's done now. Hebrew writers said it's decaying.
It's like an old carcass dying away now. Everything's new in
Christ. This is showing us true worship. Now he had people back there
that worshipped man and spirit by faith, but nothing like he
did in the day he arose and sent the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
It's a whole new day. It's a whole new day. Now when
he chastens you sore, just remember You'll live and not die. And
when you come out of it, you know what you're going to do?
You're going to declare the works of the Lord. Listen to Paul. In 2 Corinthians
6, he talked about all those things that he bore. He said
stripes, and imprisonments, and tumults, and labors, and watchings,
and fastings. Listen to this. He said, by honor
and dishonor, He was honored sometime, he was dishonored sometime.
By evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as
unknown and yet well known, as dying, and behold, we live. I shall not die, I shall live.
Why? Christ said, because I live, you shall live also. As chastened,
he chastened me sore, but he hadn't killed me. Chastened and
not killed. as sorrowful yet always rejoicing,
as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing
all things." This is the believer's life in this world. And it's
to keep us declaring His works, knowing Christ is all, seeing
His right hand doing valiantly, and how He saved us from our
sin. After Christ arose, or as He
arose to the right hand of the Father in our psalm, in Psalm
118.19, we see what our Lord Jesus cried out. Open to me, verse 19, open to
me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them and I will
praise the Lord. this gate of the Lord into which
the righteous shall enter. I will praise thee, for thou
hast heard me, and art become my salvation." This is Christ
speaking. In this new day, the Lord has
made us worship in newness of spirit. In newness of spirit. At Pentecost, the Lord Jesus
sent the Holy Spirit. And he began making those that
he had redeemed to worship in newness of spirit rather than
the oldness of the letter. That's what he began doing. He
began to teach his people that he's made all things new and
the old things are passed away. It doesn't mean that we can't
look into these old things and get a blessing from them, but
it means the old ways of worship are gone. This is the new day
that he's made. Now, under the old covenant,
the Lord made the city Jerusalem in Mount Zion to be the city. That was the city in the earth. But that typified a spiritual
city. A spiritual city. New Jerusalem
in heavenly Mount Zion. those that's born again of the
Spirit of God and given a new spirit so that we worship God
in spirit and in truth now in the new man perfectly with no
guile because he's whole. We worship as citizens of that
new Jerusalem. We're citizens. That's what Paul
meant in Philippians 3 when he said Conversations in the heavens.
That word conversation means our citizenship. It's in the
heavens. Christ said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and was glad. This is the city Abraham
looked for, whose builder and maker is God. The city that has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He saw this by
faith, by the Spirit. It's not that there wasn't some
worshipping in that old covenant in newness of Spirit. They were.
but nothing like they did after the day of Pentecost. That earthly
city now, what does this have to do with our take? That earthly
city had gates. It had walls around it. It had
gates. It was to keep people out that
didn't belong in the city. Three gates facing each direction.
It didn't matter if you come from the north, the south, the
east, the west, there was a gate for you to enter. Center, it
don't matter where you're coming from. It don't matter how bad
you are. It don't matter what you've done.
It don't matter. There's whatever direction you're
coming from. There's a gate. Now by settling
judgment for his people, Christ ascended and he said, Open to
me the gates of righteousness. Open them to me. I will go into
them. I will praise the Lord. This
gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. Isaiah saw the day the Lord made.
Look at Isaiah 26. This is what he said about this. Isaiah 26. Verse 1, He said, In that day
shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong
city. Capital S, Salvation, will God
appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Let's look at Revelation
21. Revelation 21, you know, Peter,
I mean John, Revelation 21 verse 1, this is when, you know, in
the end, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, the first heaven,
the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. He's
going to even make that new. You see, everything that He made
here is just the stage in that old covenant to show spiritual
things. That new day has come now. We
worship God in spirit. Kingdom of God is not meat and
drink. It is not external. Kingdom of God is righteousness,
joy and peace. We are in the Holy Ghost, in
spirit and in truth, in that which God has created. He said
here now, And John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem. There it
is, the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. This city now is
His people. It's the citizens of it that
make it up. And we've been prepared. He's adorned us. And you see
the whole city coming down. But you get the analogy. And
I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle
of God is with men. Look down now at verse 21. It
tells you there were three gates on each side, verse 21, and the
twelve gates were twelve pearls. Every several gate was one of
pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold as it were
transparent glass. This is the gate of the Lord
into which the righteous shall enter. This is what our Lord
is talking about. Christ, now listen, He is the
pearl of great price. And He is the gate. Christ is
the gate. He's opened the way. He's opened
the gates of righteousness. He is the door, He said. He is
the straight gate. He is the way of holiness. He
is the way into this heavenly Jerusalem. You see, nothing can
enter this holy city that defiles. That means, if God just left
a man to himself, gave him everything in the Scriptures, said, here
it is, Now you come to God in the righteousness I demand.
There is no way He could enter. Because everything about us defiles.
Everything about those that enter this noose, Jerusalem, has got
to be created of God entirely new. And that's what Christ did
when He laid down His life for His people. And then when He
arose, Him cry out, open ye the gates of righteousness. This
gate, singular, which the righteous shall enter. He is the way. He's the way. He's the way. And only those who've been made
the righteousness of God in Him can enter. the righteousness
of God. That's how righteous we've got
to be. The righteousness of God. It's only by the holiness of
the Lord Jesus. It's only by the righteousness
of Christ. If it's by any holiness so called in us, we're going
to boast in it. And He's not going to give you
the glory. It's Christ our holiness and Christ our righteousness.
And that's how we enter this new Jerusalem. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ today. If you're sitting here, for the
first time you hear Him and see Him and behold Him. Believe Him
today. This is real. This is coming. Can you not look
in history and just in secular history, can you not look and
see that there is a giant difference between B.C. and after and A.D.? ? That ought to tell you right
there, just on a natural level, what he said is so. Everything
became new by what he accomplished. This worship is in spirit. It's
in spirit. He said the Father seeketh such
to worship Him. Now not only did that city typify
spiritual things with those gates, the temple did too. See, you
would go in the gates of the city and then you come to the
temple. Well, guess what? It's got a wall around it. Not
everybody can go into the temple. The principles are the same.
The lessons are the same. You've got to be perfectly holy
and righteous to go in. First thing you come to when
you went through, and it had gates, and the first thing you
come to was a basin. So you washed. Blood had to be spilled. Once you entered that wall around
it, through the gate, You saw something entirely new. Here is what we see. When you
enter in Christ by faith, the gate, you find out Christ is
not only the gate that gives you the entrance, He is the temple. He's the temple. Look here in
our text, verse 22. The stone which the builders
refused has become the headstone of the corner. The Lord Jesus
is not only the gate of entrance, He's the headstone. He's the
cornerstone. He's the foundation. He's the
temple itself. Revelation 21-22, I won't have
you turn back over there, but I'm going to quote it two more
times if you want to mark it. Revelation 21-22, I saw no temple
therein. For the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it. The Lord Jesus quoted verse 22.
right here where he said, the stone which the builders refused
become the headstone of the quarter. He gave that parable about the
vineyard and about how the Lord sent servants into the vineyard,
but they didn't bring him the fruits. So he sent other servants
and they beat them and they mocked them. And then he said, I'll
send my son, they'll receive him. And they said, let's kill
him and seize the inheritance for ourselves. And our Lord turned
right around after that and He said to them, He said, ìHave
you never heard the stone which the builders refused has become
the headstone of the corner?î And they knew He was talking
about them being the builders who refused Him the cornerstone. He knew that. They knew that.
In Acts 3, I want you to go there, Acts 3. In Acts 3, Peter healed a lame
man. I want you to see where he healed
this lame man. Acts 3 verse 2. A certain man lame from
his mother's womb was carried That's what believers do for
lost folk that are laying from their mother's womb. We try to
carry them. Where are we carrying them to?
They laid him daily at the gate of the temple, which is called
Beautiful, to beg. They brought him there to beg,
to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. Isn't that a
beautiful picture? Here is a man laying from his
mother's womb at the gate called Beautiful. They say that gate
was covered in Corinthian brass. shine brighter than gold. And
there he's at that gate called Beautiful and he's begging mercy,
he's begging mercy, begging for handouts as people go in. And
he got something that day. Look at verse 6. Then Peter said,
Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee
in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And
he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he, leaping up,
stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking
and leaping and praising God. You know what the Lord said 700
years before this? He said in that day, the lame
are going to leap for joy. That's what He said in that day.
Now that infuriated the scribes and Pharisees because Peter declared
that the Lord Jesus did that. And that declared to them, He
is risen and He is indeed both Lord and Christ. And it made
the scribes and Pharisees angry that He did this for this man.
In verse 8, They brought Peter before them and they questioned
him. And then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost. See, this thing
is all new. It is of the Spirit. Filled with
the Holy Ghost, he said to them, You rulers of the people and
elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed
done to the impotent man by what means he has made whole, be it
known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by
that By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by Him do this man stand
here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which have become the heads of the
corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And when they
saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they
were unlearned and ignorant men, They marveled. And they took
knowledge of Him that they had been with Jesus. And beholding
the man which was healed standing with Him, they could say nothing
against Him. This is Christ. He's the headstone. He's the cornerstone. There's
no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. He's the foundation
stone. He's the builder who's building
you up as lively stones. Peter said that in his epistle.
Building us up as lively stones. He's the cornerstone that holds
the whole structure together in unity. Jew and Gentile, bond
and free, rich and poor. And He's the headstone. What
does all that mean? It means if we would be righteous,
to come before a holy, holy, holy God in the holiest of holies
in the temple, in His holy temple in heaven. And brethren, we're
going to have to enter through faith in Christ's name. We're
going to have to believe on Him. There's no other name under heaven
whereby we must be saved. That means we're going to have
to be saved by His righteousness alone, His holiness alone. None
but Christ could call for these gates to be opened. Me and you
couldn't walk up to these gates and say, open the gates of righteousness
to me. You and me couldn't say that.
But the righteous one could. The righteous one could. None but Christ could declare
emphatically, the righteous shall enter this gate. Who is He talking
about? Everybody He made righteous.
They shall enter this gate. They are going to enter by Christ.
How come? Christ is going to bring them. They are going to
do it by His power. Now back there in our text. Psalm 118.23. This is the Lord's
doing. You see that? It's marvelous
in our eyes. Isn't it marvelous to you? Even the Pharisees and scribes
marveled. This is marvelous. This is the
day which the Lord hath made. This is a new age. This is a
new day. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. The Lord said back up there in
verse 21, I'll praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become
my salvation. Let me tell you when the prophecy
said He would do that. I won't have you turn, but Isaiah
49.8, listen. This is the Father speaking to
the Son. He said, I'll praise Thee for Thou hast heard me and
You have become my salvation. Christ said that. He cried out
to Him on the cross and God heard Him and God saved Him out of
that tomb. And He ascended to the Father,
the righteousness of His people, fulfilled the law, did everything
God sent Him to do. When did God say He would hear
him and answer him? Listen to this from Isaiah 49.8,
Thus saith the Lord in an acceptable time, that's this day, have I
heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, and I'll
preserve thee, and I'll give thee for a covenant of the people
to establish the earth to cause to inherit the desolate heritage
that thou mayst say to the prisoners, Go forth to them in darkness,
show yourself. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pasture shall be in all high places. You see that? He said, I've heard you. When?
In an acceptable time. In the day of salvation. Paul
quoted that. 2 Corinthians 6. He said, I've heard thee in a
time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored
thee. And this is Paul's interpretation of that. Behold, now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. This is the day of grace right
now. Let nobody here reject Christ like the Pharisees did. Don't
let anybody reject Him like the Pharisees did. They were holy
folks in appearance. You know, God's people are different
than that. They're not trying to pretend
they're something they're not, and they've got enough sin in
them that nobody can condemn them for it. or anyone could condemn them
for it, but they can't because of Christ. The Pharisees thought
their holiness was in something. They did. And they rejected the
stone. They rejected it. You lay down
on this stone. You build on this stone alone.
Everything you do, do it knowing you can plead and righteous in
Christ. He's your one foundation. And then you can say with Paul,
to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Then you can say
what our Lord said in the psalm, when he chastens you sore, even
if he lets somebody kill you, you're not going to die, you're
going to live. They said Wycliffe, whenever
he had got sick, and was on his deathbed, and all these fellows
came to him, these friars came to him, and got down on each
side of his bed, and they thought, you know, now he's going to give
up this gospel of grace he keeps preaching. On his deathbed. And they're saying all these
things to him. And then he wouldn't recant. And then they began,
they turned their whole temper toward him. They began to demand
confession from him. To deny Christ and confess all
his sins. And they said he leaned up on
the bed, just as far as he could lean up. And he said, I shall not die,
but live. and I'll declare all the wicked
works of you friars." That's grace. Because when you
die, Christ said, He that liveth and believeth me, though you
die, yet shall you live. Yet shall you live. Now thirdly,
this is what our Lord is going to cause every believer to do. Verse 25, ìSave now, I beseech
thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send
now prosperity.î That is Hosanna. ìSave now, I beseech thee, O
Lord.î All our confidence is Christ our King to do the saving. Weíre satisfied in Christ just
like He said we would be. Satisfied under His government.
Satisfied in His ability to save. And we give all the honor and
all the praise to the Prince of Life, beseeching Him to save. And we beseech Him, O Lord, send
now prosperity. What is that? Give your power
to the Gospel as it goes forth. quicken your people in their
heart, pull down the strongholds, make your people willing in the
day of your power to cast all their care on Christ, build up
those you've already called, increasing our faith. That's
the prosperity. And we bless the Lord for revealing
this gospel to us. Verse 26, Blessed be he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. We've blessed you out of the
house of the Lord. You know who we behold that's come to us?
You know who we're talking about when we say, blessed is he that
cometh in the name of the Lord? It's Christ. He came to us and
preached His gospel to us. Do you believe that? He did.
Look down at verse 27. God is the Lord which has showed
us light. Listen to this now, Isaiah 52.6. Christ talked about His people
being taken away for naught. He was talking about the Pharisees
and the scribes and the day He came. Now listen to what He said.
Therefore My people shall know My name. Therefore they shall
know in that day. In that day, this day the Lord
has made. He said they are going to know I am He that doth speak. Behold it is I. Do you hear Christ
speaking? If you hear spiritually, that's
who you hear speaking. That's the only way we hear spiritually. And we say, how beautiful upon
the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publishes
salvation, that says to Zion, Thy God reigneth. Thy God reigneth. And not only do we bless Him,
we've blessed you out of your house. we say. But not only do we give Him all
the honor for, you know, we beseech Him to save. Save me, Lord. That's
what we say. That's our prayer all the time.
Save me, Lord. Send this prosperity to my heart
and do it for all your people. And we praise Him for coming
and preaching this gospel to us. And then we ask Him to keep
us inseparably united with Christ. Watch this. Verse 27, God is
the Lord which has showed us light. Bind the sacrifice with
cords even to the horns of the altar. Christ is that light.
Again in Revelation 21, 23, the city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did
lighten it, and the lambs the light thereof. I'm getting the
picture that the Lord's everything. He's all and in all. for His
people. When He showed us life, He showed
us He's holy, and He's righteous, and He demands perfection. But
He showed us the sacrifice. He showed us Christ is the sacrifice. He's the altar. He's the one
in whom we're complete. And with Christ abiding in us,
we're holy. And by Christ's robe of righteousness
on us, we're righteous. And all of this is through faith
in His Son. And we behold Christ now by His
light. And you know what we say? The
horns of the altar, bind the sacrifice to the horns of the
altar. We want to be a living sacrifice
unto God because of His mercies to us. But this is the thing, the horns
of the altar signify power. Christ is the altar and He is
the power. And we ask Him, Lord, bind the
sacrifice to the altar. We want to lay hold of Christ
and we want to never let go of Christ. We want to be inseparably
united with Christ. You remember when the Lord provided
that lamb for Abraham and he had Isaac bound on the altar
and was about to kill his son and they saw that ram caught
in the thicket? What did Abraham do? He laid hold of that substitute
and he bound him to that altar. What's that a picture of? That's
a picture of us crying out, Lord, Make Christ everything to make
me inseparably bound to the altar. Make me united with Him. Make
me keep believing on Christ. Make me keep preaching Christ.
Make me keep praising Christ. Make me keep following Christ.
Make me keep looking for His return. Bind me inseparably with
Him. He said in Isaiah 17, 7, At that
day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect
to the Holy One of Israel. That's what we're talking about.
And He shall not look to man-made altars and the works of His hands,
neither shall have He respect which His fingers have to the
things His fingers have made, either the groves or the images.
We know He's the power to keep us, and we're praying, Lord,
do this for us. And so, by Christ's precious
blood, we praise Him alone. Verse 28, Thou art my God, and
I will praise Thee. Thou art my God, I will exalt
Thee. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for
He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. He ended the same way
He started. His mercy endureth forever. That's how we're saved, brother.
It wasn't just that first step out of the jail cell that we
needed mercy. It's every step to the last one. But brethren, this is the good
news. This is the day, the gospel age that this Lord has made and
we will rejoice and we'll be glad in it. He gonna keep you
rejoicing, keep you glad. All right, let's observe the
Lord's table. Brother Adam, Brother Art, can
y'all pass out the elements?