Okay, I'm actually going to be
preaching from Isaiah 25, but I wanted Pete to read that. It
will help set this up for us. So let's go to Isaiah chapter
25. Isaiah 25. Last time we were here, last
week, we finished up chapter 22. And we'll go back to the
Scriptures leading up to this 25th chapter at another time.
This morning we're observing the Lord's Table. We've come
here to the Feast of the Gospel, and we look forward to that great
day when we shall be called to the final marriage feast and
the consummation with our Lord. So I thought it might be appropriate
to speak to you concerning the Feast of Fat Things. The Feast
of Fat Things. Isaiah 25, verse 6. And in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast
of wine on leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the
leaves well refined." The Lord there in that parable that Peter
read compared the kingdom of heaven to a marriage feast. And he said, the feast was made
and everything was prepared. And the king sent out his servants
and said, come, come. We saw in everything that we've
seen up to this point throughout the book of Isaiah that the Lord,
He said in one place, He said, what more could have been done
than what I've done in the nation Israel? All the cities that were
left round about in the land of Canaan, He put them there
in place. They were all there to support
that one nation, Israel. His select remnant in Judah. They were there for their sake
alone. And the Lord set up that whole feast of fat things in
Israel to show, to illustrate that without His sovereign grace,
without Him saving His people by His grace, We cannot come
to God. We cannot rest in God. We cannot
be freed from the yoke of the law, from the curse of the law,
from our vain imagination, from our vain religious ideas of who
God is unless God intervenes. The only thing left for Him to
do other than what He had done was to come in sovereign grace
and set up His King and to cause this Word to be effectual in
their hearts so that they would rest and be delivered into the
glorious Kingdom of Christ. And so, in sovereign mercy throughout
Isaiah, what we've seen is the Lord began to take the rod of
His hand. And He's just going to go out
there and He's going to just clear away this little spot of ground
called Israel and Judah with that rod. That rod was the whole
nation of Assyria. And that clearing away meant
he cleared away all those cities, those inhabited places, all around
the land of Canaan, all around Israel. That's what we've been
reading about, about all these burdens. They just came and came
and came and came closer and closer. And the last one we read
about in chapter 23 is Tyre. He just totally wiped out all
the support around Israel. He sent forth his armies. Like
that parable said, they wouldn't come to the feast. He sent forth
his armies. And he destroyed, he used the
nation of Assyria to break down the walls of the vineyard in
Judah and to destroy it. And he took away all those cities
and there would never again, never again be the prosperity
they knew during the reign of King David. Never again. Because King David was merely
His kingdom and His throne and everything about Him was made
after the pattern of the true King. The King set up from everlasting
who is the Son of God, King Jesus. And He says, now when I've cleared
it all off and I've set forth the true King that's going to
reign in righteousness and truth, then in this mountain, shall
the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things."
This mountain is Mount Zion. This mountain, we read at the
end of Hebrews, it says, let me read this to you. Hebrews
chapter 12, you come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of
angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
Christ the Lord, which are written in heaven, to the God, the judge
of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the
mediator of the new covenant. See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. This is the mountain. This is
the church of God. He says, this is the real kingdom
of heaven. This is the real Mount Zion.
And in this mountain is where the Lord of Hosts is going to
feed His people. A feast. You know, when the Lord
first came to this earth, one of the first miracles, well the
first miracle He performed during His earthly ministry was He turned
water into wine at a marriage feast. And then It was a symbol. It was a showing that this is
the inauguration of this great prophecy of Isaiah. The wedding feast is prepared. The feast of fat things is prepared. The marriage feast is prepared.
And he began to say, Come. Come. Come to the feast. And
then at the end of his earthly walk, the night in which our
Lord was betrayed, he sat down with his apostles to a well-prepared
table. They observed the Passover for
the last time, because Christ is our Passover. He's the end
of the law. And that night he administered
to them a new ordinance, a new feast, which was the bread that
he broke and he said, take heed and do this in remembrance of
me. This is a picture of my broken body which is broken for you.
This wine is a picture of my shed blood which is shed for
the remission of your sin, to put away your sin. And so, this
age that we live in, this gospel feast, and this ordinance that
we're going to partake of today, this is the church, this is Mount
Zion, this is the gospel feast of fat things that our Lord has
made ready. Are you hungry? Are you hungry? Is anybody hungry? Can you smell
that? I smell that coming. I've been
smelling it all morning when Melinda was making the chicken
and all that stuff and I could smell it coming through the house
and I've been hungry all morning. When I start to smell this grace,
this feast of the gospel, it makes me hungry. I sit down,
and I'm not always that hungry, but I open up His Word, and I
begin to study, begin to search His Scriptures, and I get a smell,
a sweet smell of this feast, and I start getting more hungry.
Boy, I get excited. I start to eat then. I want some
more then. This is the feast. This is the
feast. Come to the feast. The Lord's
coming again to wipe it away, to do away in judgment. Right
now, He's bidding, come to the feast. Now, let's see what guests
are invited to this feast. He says in verse 6, And in this
mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people this feast. You see, Judah represented God's
elect remnant in the world. That's who this little people
in Judah represented, His elect remnant in the world. But before
our Lord ascended into heaven, He said, Go into all the world
and preach this gospel. He sent his armies and he did
away with those that wouldn't come to the feast. And now he's
opened this up to the whole world and he said, come to this feast. All people All people, He has
a remnant, an election of grace, a people He's chosen from among
all people. We don't know who they are. We
have no idea who they are, but this He's told us. This is what
He's told us. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me, and a stranger they won't follow. So, you know what?
We want to be sure we do. We sure we want to get the Word
directly from Him and say it just like He said it. Because
He's going to make the sheep hear His voice. We don't want
to say it in our voice. We don't want to say it in a
voice that we've come up with, in a rumor we heard second-hand
or third-hand. We want to get the message right
from Him so you got it. You've done that trick, where
are you? If William here, if I told him a secret, and he told
Jonathan, and it just started going around the room, by the
time it got back there, it'd be just a crazy amalgamation
or something. Well, whenever a man gets his
gospel from a man, and he goes to telling that gospel to men,
and they get it from that man, and they go to telling it to
a man, and they get it from a man, and they go telling it to a man,
over the course of time, that word just turns into all kind
of mess. But God's messengers get their
message directly from the Lord, and they give it to you just
like He's given it, because He said, My sheep will hear My voice.
They're not going to hear yours. Don't tell a rumor. You tell
what you've heard firsthand. Well, that's why we go forth
with His Word. He's going to bid His elect from
among all people to come to this feast. Now, here's the third
thing. This table is set with choice things. Watch this. In
this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on leaves, of fat things
full of marrow, of wine on the leaves well refined. You know,
under the law of Moses, You couldn't eat fat. You couldn't take that big old
steak and that good marble running through it. You know, you had
to take all that out. You couldn't eat fat. That tells us that this
text has its accomplishment in this gospel age when Christ has
fulfilled the law for His people. This marrow is the fat things
that declares to us that righteousness has been accomplished. He's come
to where we are and He's fulfilled the law. He's honored it. He's
magnified it. He's obeyed it in precept. He's satisfied God in the penalty
of this law. Justice is satisfied for His
people. This is the gospel of redemption
accomplished. The fat of the full, complete
acceptance of God for His people. with God for His people. And
this free grace, this free grace flows like wine flows. It flows like wine to those who
are drawn to this table. Listen to this. Proverbs says,
Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish. To the man
that's just dying, give him some strong drink. And wine unto those
that be of heavy hearts. Why do you do that? He says,
let him drink and forget his poverty. And remember his misery
no more. Be done away with. When you get
drunk with wine, you forget why you were crying. You forget what
your sorrow was till you wake up the next morning. But he said,
this wine that we're talking about here is gospel wine. Strong
drink. Not wine mixed with water. Strong
drink. He said, give them strong drink.
Are you ready to perish? Are you dying in your sin? He
said, the only thing you've got to give them is strong drink.
Are you heavy under the weight of sins in your heart? He says,
give them wine. Give them pure wine. Don't dilute
it. Give them pure wine. Let me give
you some strong drink. The cup of blessing which we
bless. We're going to take this cup of wine right here. And we're
going to take this cup. This cup is representing the
communion, the common union. that all God's sheep, every believer
has by the blood of Christ. Because He reconciled us unto
God, putting away our sin, remitting our sins, putting our sins as
far away as the east is from the west. They'll never again
be brought up. That's strong drink. That's strong wine. That's good wine. Let me give
you some strong drink. He comes and he says, in Christ
Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, separated from God,
your sins had separated you from God. Gentiles in darkness, in
those outer cities that never had a word from God, never knew
anything about God, had the law of God written on your conscience.
You knew it was wrong to steal a chicken. You knew you was guilty.
Adam knew it. Adam didn't have to be told he
was guilty. He knew he was guilty. That's why he tried to cover
himself. He knew he was guilty. That's why when he heard God,
he tried to get in the trees and hide himself. Every man comes
into this world trying his best to cover himself, to cover his
nakedness, to cover himself, to hide himself from God with
some kind of religious refuge because he knows he's naked.
He knows he's guilty. Why do you think these tribes
in deepest jungles, in mountainous regions, in places where it's
not a civilized place. Why do you think they cut the
blood out of a goat, and drain the blood out, and use that blood,
and do all those sacrifices, and drink the blood, and eat
the things they eat? They're looking for some kind
of covering, looking for some kind of refuge, but they're far
off without this refuge. And He says, you that were far
off, separated from God, He's brought nigh by His blood. That's
the wine. And He says, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? If this high priest enters into
the tabernacle of your heart and he sprinkles this blood,
his blood, he's going to purge your conscience. He's going to
purge your conscience from dead works. And you're going to serve
him. There's no doubt about it. This is the strong drink. He drank the cup of wrath dry
that his redeemed might drink freely. This strong drink, this
wine, partake of this feast. This is the wine of forgiveness.
Drink it up. Drink it and forget your former
poverty. Forget it. Drink this wine and
forget the misery that you were in. Well, this table is called
a feast of fat things because there is an abundance of grace
through the gospel of Christ. Everything you need. Everybody
here today came here today with a need. Everybody here has got
a need. Probably something you wouldn't
dare share with even your spouse. Only God can provide that need.
He says this feast is abundant to fill that need. This grace
is abundant to fill that need. Are you hungry? Come to this
feast. Well, let's see what the Scriptures
say. He says, How excellent is thy
lovingkindness, O God! How does He draw His people? He draws them with a whip. He
draws them by disciplining them into commitment to Him. No, He
draws His people in loving kindness. This Gospel comes forth into
the heart of a believer and it humbles him before God. It makes
him reverence his God. It makes him see that loving
kindness is nowhere else but in Christ Jesus. the word, the
life, the way. And he says, therefore the children
of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. That's
why they do it, because they behold what loving kindness you've
shown them in Christ. And he says, and they shall be
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house. Thou shalt
make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. That's where
we are. satisfied with marrow and fatness,
and my mouth appraised thee with joyful lips." Well, here's the
fourth thing. The gospel of Christ's light
removes the veil, removes the darkness, removes the covering
from us. The gospel of Christ's light.
Look at verse 7. He says, "...and He will destroy
in this mountain..." Now I want you to see some key words here. "...the face of the covering
cast over all people, and the veil that spread over all nations."
Go back with me. Hold your place there. Go back
with me to Isaiah 4. Real quick. Isaiah 4. Look at verse 4. When the Lord shall have washed
away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged
the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of
judgment, by the spirit of burning. That's what Christ did on the
cross. When he's done this, he said, the Lord will create upon
every dwelling place of Mount Zion. You know what every dwelling
place is? Every abode, every tabernacle.
There's one, there's one, there's one, there's one. He said he
will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon
her assemblies, where they gather. a cloud and smoke by day, and
the shining of a flaming fire by night. For upon all the glory
shall be a defense." That word defense is His glory will be
the covering. His glory. So He said, I'm going
to take away the covering that's on you by nature, and I'm going
to cover you with another covering. What's that mean? where you're
going to see the face of this covering is going to be taken
away, and you're going to have the face of another covering.
What is that? I've got to get you to turn here.
2 Corinthians chapter 3. The Lord showed me something
on this, and I thank Him, thank Him, thank Him. I want you to
see this. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. You're familiar with this. You
know, let me begin here. He's comparing the old covenant
ministration under the law to this new gospel age, this feast
of fat things. And he says, verse 7, He says,
chapter 3, verse 7, the ministration of death, that's what the law
is. It was written and engraved in stones, but it was glorious. It was glorious, so that the
children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of
Moses for the glory of his countenance. Moses saw the glory of God, remember,
in the rock? When he was in the cleft of the
rock, that symbol of Christ, he saw that glory. And he came
down from the mountain and his face was shining with that glory
like the face of Christ Jesus who he just saw. And he comes
down from that mountain. But the people couldn't look
on that face because they're under the law. And so he put
a veil over his face and it says, And it says, they couldn't steadfastly
behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which glory was to be done away. And he said, how shall not the
ministration of the Spirit be more glorious than that? This,
we're in the age of the ministration of the Spirit. He says, for if
the ministration of condemnation was glorious, much more the ministration
of righteousness exceeds in glory. That's what this is. Through
the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. This is an
exceeding more glorious ministration. He says, for even that which
was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of
this glory that excelleth. For if that which is done away
was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious,
seeing then that we have such hope. Seeing then as we've experienced
this glory that excels, Paul says. Seeing as then we know
the power of this hope, we use great plainness of speech. It
means boldness. Boldness of speech. I want you
to see something here with me. He says, And not as Moses, Moses
had to put that veil over his face because the children of
Israel couldn't look to the end of that which is about us. They
couldn't look to the end of the law and behold Christ, the fulfillment
of it. That's what that symbolized,
that veil over his face. They couldn't look at Christ
in the face. They couldn't see Him in the face because they're
under the law. They're under the ministry of
Moses who represents the law, who represents the ministry of
death. And that glory pronounced them guilty. They couldn't look
to the end. They couldn't see. How am I free
from this law? How am I free from this condemnation? Verse 14, their minds were blinded. For until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament.
But this veil is done away where? In Christ. This covering is taken
away in Christ. But even until this day when
Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. They're blind. They
can't see. Nevertheless, when it, their
heart, shall turn to the Lord, when it shall be turned to the
Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Who do we have access by? By Christ. We're going to see
light where? In His light. Now watch this.
Now the Lord is that Spirit. He is that Spirit. The Lord is
that Spirit. And where the Lord is, where
He's entered in, There's liberty. What does that mean? The veil's
taken off. Something, a change has happened.
And now we can see, watch, but we all, listen, look at this
word, with open face, the veil's gone, open face, beholding as
in a glass the glory of the Lord. Now let me stop you right there,
just a minute. By the Spirit of the Lord we do this. Now listen,
you remember how James called the perfect law of liberty? He
compares looking into this perfect Word of the Gospel, this perfect
Word of full, complete liberty, to that of looking into a mirror.
When you look into a mirror, what do you see? You see your
face, don't you? You see your face looking back
at you. But instead of seeing our face, when the Spirit of
the Lord enters in and we look into this Word, instead of seeing
our face in this mirror, we see somebody else's face. Look now at verse 18, next chapter. Chapter 4, verse 18. Oh, I'm sorry. Look there in
verse 10. We're changed into the same image, the image we
see. You're there in verse 18, chapter
3. We're changed into the image we see, the image of Christ from
glory, from that old condemning, legal, that glory that was glorious
that condemned us. We're changed from that glory
to the glory that excelleth, even as by the Spirit of the
Lord. Look down at chapter 4 now, verse 4. Paul said, if this gospel's
hid, it's hid to them whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them which believe not. That covering's over them.
But what does this clear, plain declaration of this glory that
excelleth, what does it do? Lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the what? The image of God. When
you look into this perfect law of liberty, into this mirror,
you see the image of God. and it shines under you, it takes
the veil off, and instead of seeing your old, corrupt, condemned
face, when you look here and you see Christ and you see how
He fulfilled the law, how that He's pleasing to God, how that
He satisfied God, how that He's accepted with God, how that God
has given Him the throne rights, how He sits down at His right
hand, you behold, you, in Christ. You've changed into the image.
Look down at verse 6 now. How did this happen? For God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see His face. We look square
into His face in this mirror, in this light, in this glory
that excelleth, and we behold Him. And we behold that we've
been changed into His image. We're changed and conformed to
His image. When we see Him, we see us. When
we see what He's done, we see ourselves. Have we done it in
ourselves? No, we did it in Him. And we're
changed into His image. Just as real as He did it, we
did it. Just as real as He satisfied God, we've satisfied God. Just
as real as we're holy, as He's holy, we're holy. Just as real
as He sat down, we're sat down. Just as real as the salvation
is accomplished, our salvation is accomplished. that have been
made to see this veil. And Paul said, now this is the
glory wherein the gospel excels the law. Anything that tells
you to do something can't do this. Anything that leaves it
open and vague so that you're left here to think that there's
something for you to do has not told you the glory that excelleth. And it won't work. It can't do
this. He says, seeing as how we've
received this mercy, received this ministry this way, by this
plain bold word that shined light so that we could see into the
face of Christ and see that we've been changed into His image because
we received this ministry this way. That's how we deliver this
ministry. If you hadn't received it that
way, if you got it second hand, you'll give it the same way you
got it. But if you got it this way, that's how you'll give it.
That's how you'll give it. Now James said the man who looks
into this perfect law of liberty, but he doesn't continue in it,
he unbridles his tongue, he crafts his language, he walks into hidden
things of dishonesty, he tries to use wisdom of words, he tries
to mix a little of his own water with his wine to make it palatable
to the man who's dying and needs the strong drink so he can forget
his sins are gone. He says that man is a hearer
of the Word, but he's not a doer of the Word. He's like a man
who's beheld his natural face in a glass and he beholds himself
and he goes his way and straightway he forgets what he saw. He forgets
what he saw when he looked in the mirror. But he says, if any
man among you seem to be religious, oh, he's going to seem religious.
We're going to see Thursday night and next Sunday that Paul's going
to talk to us Thursday night when he leaves Ephesus about
the grievous wolves that are coming in. And our Lord's going
to warn us next Sunday about the false prophets, broad way
of false prophets. But Paul says, if any man among
you seem religious, he gonna have on sheep's clothing. In
this day, in this gospel age, our Lord said, through the Spirit,
He said, if it was possible, they would deceive the very elect. I can tell the Armenian don't
believe in my Jesus. He comes in wolf's clothing talking
about Jesus can't do a thing for anybody. I know that's another
gospel. But just as Phariseeism was in
the 15th and 16th centuries, Catholicism was the Phariseeism
of our day, the Catholicism of our day is reformation, reform
preaching. They've got a second hand, second
hand, second hand, second hand, and they keep that sanctifying
loophole open so they can keep on using that force and that
hammer and beating and binding and constraining and yoking,
rather than standing up and saying, God save one way and I'm going
to wait on Him to do it. And people hop from one place
to another, not because they hadn't, not because of a reason
they should hop, because they hadn't heard the gospel at that
place, because men denied in the works they preach. They hop
around because, well, you don't evangelize like I like to do
it. You don't yoke like I like to yoke. Your yoke don't fit
my hand quite like I like to yoke. So I'm going to go over
here. They yoke a little better. I like the way they yoke. You ought to be glad they're
not yoking in it, but you ought to be glad they're not evangelizing
if they're not preaching the gospel. Better off they're not. But this is how he does it, and
he says that man who seems like he's religious, but he don't
rattle that tongue, he deceives his own heart into thinking he
can mix wine, he can work this work himself, and that he's deceived
his own self that his religion is real when it's vain. but whoso
looketh into this perfect law of liberty, and has been created
anew by this glory that excelleth, and has been changed into the
very image of Christ, as we have received this ministry, we faint
not. We continue in this perfect law
of liberty. We renounce the hidden things
of dishonesty. We don't walk in craftedness.
We just say, here's life. Here's the feast of fat things.
Come to the table. And we wait on God to draw them
in love and kindness. Now, back to our text. Why is
it that men come this way? What does He do that makes men
come and rejoice when He does this? And I'll be brief here.
Verse 8, Isaiah 25. He says, He will swallow up death
in victory. That's what He does. That's what
He does. This feast declares Christ's
conquered death for those He represented when He died. Let
me make sure I'm not vague. God didn't die. Christ died for
everyone that shall believe on Him. Now let me narrow that down
for you a little bit. They were given to Him before
the world began. and he comes in power and has
to give them a new heart and he makes them believe him irresistibly. And then He gives them the faith
and the repentance and all things that pertain to godliness. And
they believe Him because they believe this gospel that declares,
as much as you, my child, were under the fear of death, under
the bondage of Satan and his taskmasters and his yoking men,
mingling in this water and unbridling their tongue, I came to where
I am and I laid down my life for you. I took away sin, which
is the sting of death. I satisfied the law, which is
the strength of sin. And I've given you the victory
over death. And you have eternal life in
me, my child." That's what he tells you. And you say, see ya. The yoke's broke. Your yoke's
broke. You got no power over me anymore.
I got somebody now that'll make me do exactly what he wants me
to do. And that's what I'm doing. I'm
following after Him. I'm walking after the Spirit.
I'm following after my holiness. I'm following after my peace.
I'm following after my righteousness. I'm following after my wisdom.
I'm following after my redemption. I'm following after Him who's
my liberty. Why? Because He swallowed up death.
You got no weapons anymore, vain man. You need to just shut up,
rattle your tongue, because you've got no weapons anymore. It's
anathema to you. You can't make me do what you
want me to do. I'm under the easy yoke of my
Master, the Lord Jesus. Now where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there's liberty. Here's the sixth thing He does.
He wipes away the tears, verse 8. And the Lord God will wipe
away tears from all faces. that tears of mourning our sin
are turned into joy when we hear of God's love for us in Christ
Jesus, that He's everlastingly loved us. The tears caused by
separation from God are turned to rejoicing when we hear that
God reconciled us to Himself in Christ Jesus. The tears that
we mourned over being so perplexed over what's tomorrow going to
hold, those tears are gone now because we serve the God who
holds tomorrow. We're alright. Have been, shall
be, and always will be. The tears are gone. And then
He takes away the rebuke of His people. He takes away the rebuke. Verse 8, And the rebuke of His
people shall He take away from off all the earth. You know, I know some of you have been
under this rebuke of religious men. You know our Lord bore that. He bore that. Same thing. The very same Spirit that stands
up in pulpits in the year 2009 and tries to use wisdom of words
and think that they can better say something than how God says
it, looked Christ the Master of His Word in His face and said,
who gave you the authority? You being a man, make yourself
to be God. Who gave you the authority? Don't you see who we are? Don't
you see what we're doing? Don't you see what we have the
power to do? Look at how many people we've got following us.
And he said, I know you do. Because the way to death is broad. When he left, how many people
did he have following him? 500. Compared to all that multitude
of people. He did take some lessons from
these evangelizers in our day, didn't he? Learned how to get
a following. He says, the zeal of your house
has eaten me up. The reproaches of them that reproached
you have fallen upon me. He bore it. He bore it. Remember, Lord, the reproach
of Thy servants. How I do bear in my bosom the
reproach of all the mighty people. And because that same rejection
of self-righteous people put Him on the cross to bear away
your sin. He makes intercession and he
says this, hear the word of the Lord. It's what he says to people. Hear this. You hear this. Ye
that tremble at his word. You see, humility. We saw this
Thursday night. Humility is not that grace that
men call grace and humility that calls everybody a brother and
a sister and compromises the gospel because you're a whore
and you want everybody to get along with one another. That's
not humility. Humility is the boldness that God gives to stand
up to men and tell the truth because He's made you humble
to Him. He's made you tremble at His
Word. He's made you to see He's the
power. And you don't fear men anymore.
You don't care. Men's not your life. Men's not
your livelihood. Men are not providing for you.
Men have no way of making you do anything. You tremble at His
Word. And He says to you who tremble
at His Word. your brethren that hated you,
that cast you out for My name's sake, that used holy in the only
way it's ever used in the relative sense in the Bible. They said,
now you're going to have to stand over there a while until you
can reform and get a little better because we're holier than you.
That's the only place holiness is ever used in the relative
sense. You either are holy or you aren't. The only place it's
ever used. He said, those who cast you out
and did that to you for My name's sakes, said the Lord, and said,
let the Lord be glorified, who did it in my name, saying, let
the Lord be glorified. You stand over there now. He
said, He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. I'm telling you right now, if
you go the broad way, you're going to be ashamed. You're going
to stand in that day before Him and you're going to find out
He don't trifle with men. If our gospel's hid, it's hid
to them that are lost. Make your calling and election
sure. Make sure you've heard this word. Make sure you've renounced
mama and daddy and all the falsehood. When you heard this word, that's
when you were saved. If you've heard it, that's when
you were saved. when you're made to turn your back on all your
former confidences. That's when God saved you. Don't
hang on to that. If that causes a rub, you're
hanging on to that decision or to whatever. If that causes you
to kind of grind against you, you're hanging on to something
besides Christ. That's a telltale sign. The telltale heart's telling
on you. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, be happy.
You know who was reproached for the name of Christ? Those who
declared Christ boldly. Paul said, if I take the offense
out of the cross, I don't suffer any persecution. Nobody's going
to cast me away. But those who suffer it are happy
because the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. Otherwise, you wouldn't be bold
enough to preach the gospel, to declare Christ as all you
hope. You'd compromise it. You would. I would too. That's
the only thing that's going to keep us in the way is Christ
and His power and His grace. The wisdom and the power that
brought us into this access is going to make us stand in this
way. He said be happy. If you suffer reproach, be happy.
Don't worry about reproachers. One more thing. There's another
feast yet to come. This feast is just getting better
and better. The night our Lord was betrayed, they were sitting
there feasting with one another and he broke that bread and that
wine and he said, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit
of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my
Father's kingdom. We feast on the gospel of God's
grace and every time we come to this place, every time we
come to this place, I'm like a maid. I'm like a waiter at
a restaurant. I'm just coming out of the kitchen.
We're bringing the food out and trying to put it on your table
so you can just come here and sit down and eat and dig in and
enjoy it. We feast in remembrance of our
Lord's broken body and shed blood as we observe this Lord's Supper
together like we're doing today. And in that last day, when He
sent forth His armies to put down all the enemies over all
the earth, when all God's elect have been called in, When He's
made all things new, there's going to be a marriage feast
in which everybody is going to behold the glory of God's grace. That beautiful white wedding
garment on His bride that He prepared, that He made, that
He dressed her in, that He brought to Himself. And everything we
saw here is going to be true of that feast. It's going to
be a feast of fat things. The veil of these bodies of death
is going to be no more. Death is going to be swallowed
up in victory completely. There's going to be no more tears.
And He'll take away the scorners and their rebuke from off the
whole earth. You'll be free of all oppression
now. Revelation 19.1 and we'll close. Revelation 19.1. And after these things I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah,
salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God,
for true and righteous are His judgments. For he hath judged
the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication,
and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. Look
down at verse 7. Let us be glad, and rejoice,
and give honor to him. For the marriage of the lamb
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready, and to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness
of his saints. And he saith unto me, Write,
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. You know what the substance of
this grace is? The substance of these things
are the wine of these well-refined It's sure and it's effectual
in the hearts of His people, of the believer, of those that
God makes willing for one reason. The last verse of that text in
our text says, For the Lord hath spoken. It's His Word and truth in the
heart that does it. And the Spirit and the bride
say, Come. Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that's
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. All things are ready. You know, when you go back there
and you get that food back there, you're not going to have to cook
it. You're not going to have to clean it. You're not going
to have to harvest it. You're not going to have to buy
it. All things have been made ready. All you're going to do is walk
in and eat it. That's what Christ says. I pray
He would say it in the heart of every person here. It's ready. It's done. The work is finished.
Just come and sit down and dine. And now brethren, let's come
to this feast one more time, and let's remember our Lord,
His broken body and His shed blood, and as we do so, let's
do so rejoicing, looking forward to that great marriage supper
of the Lamb. Alright, Eric and Scott, if y'all
will.