Morning. I'm just going to make
a couple of announcements before we get started. Pastor Gabe Stoniker
is going to be here with us preaching Sunday, January 16th. So it'll be Gabe Stoniker from
Kingsport Sovereign Grace Church he'll be preaching for us. So
I look forward to that and I'd like to have a meal together
and I was thinking it would be nice to have something on Saturday
where people could fellowship with, you know, come and visit
at our house and we'll have some food and just meet with him.
I think Hannah is also going to come as well and quite possibly
their 2 girls. So it should be a nice time.
And then if we want to, maybe I have to find out what his travel
arrangements are because we could also have something on Sunday
after the services if we think that's a good idea. So that's
open, but we'll see. We'll just think about that.
And I'll find out what his travel arrangements are just in case.
He's preaching both services, the Sunday school hour and the
regular service hour, so he'll be the two times there. Okay? And then, so that's why I like
to have something on Saturdays so that we can fellowship with
him and just meet and visit for a while. It'll be really nice.
And he was excited to hear that, honestly. I think he's driving. Yeah, the last I spoke to him,
he was going to drive, but he was going to look into that,
and so that's why The whole family may come, either just Hannah
or the girls as well, so we'll see there. And that looks like
it is it. One word about the bread, it
may be a little stale, so it's small though, so hopefully you
don't mind. But all right. All right, brother,
if you could. Good morning, let's begin our
morning service by standing and singing 129, actually 272, the
solid rock, 272. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood
support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. Christ the solid rock I
stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking
sand. When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness
alone, Proudless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand, All other ground
is sinking sand. If you would, please turn me
to Revelation 5. Revelation 5. And I saw in the right hand of
Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back
side, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof. And no man in heaven, nor in
earth, neither under earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book. neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and low
in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders stood, a lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,
set forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and
20 elders fell down before the lamb. having every one of them
harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. and has made
us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne and the beast and the
elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and a
thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power,
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen,
and the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth
forever and ever. Our Holy Father in heaven, we
come to you through the name of this lamb, this lamb that
hath redeemed all of his people with the sure redemption And
we're so thankful that you have a people in this world that you
have redeemed, that you purchased with your own blood, a sacrifice
that God has accepted and is satisfied with, of which no man
can satisfy without your blood. And we thank you for this precious
blood this morning, Lord. We thank you for these people
that you've raised out up throughout every nation tongue and kindred
in this world. You have a people in this world
that you teach that are actually taught of God, the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace. And what a blessing it is that
we can come into this place here this morning and hear your gospel
proclaim that we can hear of this lamb that has redeemed his
people. We thank you for your finished
work, your perfect work. And our Father, as we gather
here today, Lord, let us enter in to heavenly things for a moment. Would you turn our eyes off this
God-forsaken world, this wilderness of a world, this long night that
we live in? And Lord, give us the light of
your gospel today if it would please you. Be with Eric as he
comes up here and Lord, let us hear from you through this man
that you've ordained to be in this place. Lord, we pray not
for him only, but we pray for all your men that you called
to preach this gospel. Lord, we ask that you'd comfort
your people this morning by your word. And Lord, we'll bless you
and we'll praise you for the work is all yours. Lord, forgive
us of our sin. Save us, keep us. Lord, preserve
us. Preserve our children, Lord.
Be merciful unto us. In Christ's name, amen. As you remain sitting, let's
sing 129 at the cross, 129. Oh, lest, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die, would He devote that sacred head for
such a worm as I. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burning of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Was it for crimes
that I have done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace
unknown And love beyond degree At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burning of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Well, might the
sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in? When Christ, the mighty Maker,
died, for man the creature sinned? At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there my faith, I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. But drops of grief
can ne'er repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself
away. Tis all that I can do. At the cross, at the cross, where
I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the day. Thank you. Good morning. Take your Bibles and turn to
John chapter 10. John chapter 10. I want to begin our study reading
the beginning of our text, which is John 10, 27 through verse
30. Our Lord speaking tells us, hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. One of the many comforts that
our Lord gives us is the security that he gives to his sheep. That
is, that our salvation is a certain thing. It's certain. And that's
because our salvation is not dependent upon man. It's not dependent on what we
do or don't do, what we do for God. It's not dependent on that
at all. Our God doesn't look to our works
and what we've done to please him. Our salvation rests upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, and our God looks to His Son for all
things necessary for His people, to redeem His people, to provide
for His people. And we're told in John 10, verse
42, at the end of the chapter, The last verse says, and many
believed on Christ there, the place where Christ met with his
people. And that faith of those people
believing the Lord is not a testament to man's strength or man's will,
but it is a testament to the glory, the power, and the grace
of God in the salvation of his people. That word many is an
interesting word as you read it in the scriptures because
By that word, many, we find that we as men, looking upon a matter,
we can't tell the number of the Lord's people. We don't know
how many of the Lord's people that there are. And yet that
word, many, also declares to us that there is a definite,
defined number whom the Lord our God knows. He knows who his
people are. So that our God could take Abraham
and say to him, thou art a father of many nations. And of those many nations, there's
one nation in particular that he said to Abraham, tell the
stars, number the stars. If you can number them, that's
how many people are of your seed, that seed whom I will bless."
But then our God also says concerning that nation, concerning our Lord,
he says, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify
many, many, for he shall bear their iniquities, meaning there's
a particular definite people whom the Lord Jesus Christ shed
his blood for to pay the price for their sins, to pay their
debt, to put away their sin. So in John 10 verses 27 through
28, we see here that the Lord, he distinguishes his people. There is a people that the Lord
distinguishes from all the others. And he says, verse 27, my sheep. That's what he calls his people,
my sheep. All the others are not sheep.
They're goats. They're goats. But the people
of the Lord are his sheep. And he says, my sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand. And so our Lord here speaks with
great authority, having great authority of God his Father who
sent him regarding the salvation of his sheep and their eternal
security. They are secure in him. And this
is because salvation belongeth unto the Lord. Thy blessing is
upon thy people. the Lord's people. I titled this
message, Sheep of the Shepherd. Sheep of the Shepherd. And we're
going to be looking at the three defining characteristics that
our Lord gives us concerning His sheep, how He distinguishes
His sheep. That's what we're going to be
looking at this morning. So in this chapter, our Lord describes
himself as the good shepherd. He's the good shepherd of his
people, whom he calls sheep. They are his sheep. Now that
term, sheep, is a very appropriate and good description of we who
are the people of our God. Because sheep are ignorant, they're
dumb, They need to be led. They need to be provided for.
They need protection, because sheep will wander off anywhere
in great danger, having no idea of the danger that they're in
until it's too late, because they have no defense and no ability. So sheep are ignorant and dumb. They need a shepherd. They won't
last long without a shepherd. They'll be destroyed. And that's
a good picture of the Lord's people who are ignorant and dumb
and shut up in darkness, having no knowledge of the things of
God, no means, no ability, no way to save themselves, no strength
to deliver themselves out of the hands of their enemy. We
need a shepherd. We need a shepherd. In the scriptures,
we're told In 1 Corinthians 1.27, Paul said it this way, God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise,
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things that are mighty. We're foolish and we're weak. We have no strength, no ability,
no means to save ourselves. We are utterly, completely dependent
on the grace, the wisdom, the strength, the might, the selflessness,
the sacrifice of our good shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter
speaks of the Lord's people, and in 1 Peter 2, verse 9, He
tells us, you that believe him, he says, ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, and holy nation of peculiar people, that
ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light, so that you who are the
people of God you show forth the praises of your God. It doesn't
show forth your wisdom. You're not showing forth your
might. You're not showing forth your
good works that saved you. You're a product of the grace
of God, who is gracious and merciful to you for Christ's sake. You're blessed of God because
God will be gracious and merciful and shows compassion to you.
And so any work. Any testament that we give of
the grace and glory of our God is showing forth His praises,
what He's worked and done in us. And that means that we're
showing forth His workmanship, not our workmanship, not what
we've done. We're showing forth the workmanship
of our God in grace through the Lord Jesus Christ of what He's
done, what He's wrought in us according to His own goodwill
and pleasure. Ephesians 2.10 says this, that
we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath ordained that
we should walk in them. He's before ordained them. So
in John 10, 27, our Lord gives us three characteristics in which
he identifies his sheep, how that he shows his workmanship
in his people who believe him, who trust him, who follow him. These are his chosen people.
He says in verse 27, My sheep hear my voice. My sheep hear
my voice. Second, I know them. They're distinguished by Christ
knowing them. And third, they follow me. They follow me. So let's look
at these three characteristics. He says, my sheep hear my voice. And what he's saying to us is
that we are made to hear the voice of the good shepherd. We're made to hear his voice. Proverbs 20, verse 12 says, the
hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both
of them. Well, that's true of the natural
ear and the natural eye. But it's also true of the spiritual
ear and the spiritual eye. That spiritual ear, which our
Lord creates, is how we are enabled to hear His voice in the preaching
of the gospel. And that spiritual eye is how
we see the salvation of God provided in His Son. You know Him and
believe Him and trust Him because God has given you that spiritual
sight to know that's the Savior. I'm nothing in myself. I have
no righteousness. I need the one whom God has provided,
and that is Him, the Lamb of God. That's spiritual sight,
brethren, that sight that many others do not have. They don't have that. And the
way that we hear Christ's voice is in the preaching of Christ,
in the preaching of the mystery of God revealed in His Son, that
mystery of the gospel which reveals to us who salvation is, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn over to Romans 10. Romans
10. It's through the preaching of
the gospel that we hear and know the mystery of God. Romans 10 14 and 15 says, How
then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring
glad tidings of good things. You know, that's one of the things
that described the birth of our Savior, that God has brought
forth glad tidings of good things to all kinds of men, them of
low degree, them of great degree, Jews and Gentiles, all kinds
of people that good word is preached. That tells us that the one whom
we're preaching is the one who brought peace between God and
his people, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Almighty God, he raises
up preachers who have also heard that gospel, who have heard that
good word of glad tidings and believed by his power and glory,
and he sends them out with that same exact word. That good news, that precious
gospel declaring the Lord Jesus Christ. And he sends them to
preach to all, and the ones that hear it are the needy sinners. The needy sinners, the ones who
are bankrupt and have nothing, nothing good of themselves to
bring unto God. to recommend them to God, to
gain merit or favor with God. Nothing in ourselves, but they
hear of the one who is perfect and righteous and holy, whom
God accepts and receives his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Lord sends this word
because we've offended him, because there's a great debt of sin that
we cannot pay off. We have no righteousness to put
away the debt of our sin. We have no means of cleansing
our hands of the filthy works that we've done in offense to
holy God and trespass against him and his law. We have nothing
to put these things away. But there is a chosen people,
a people whom God set his love upon. and gave them, committed
them to His Son to put away their sin by the death of Himself. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came and accomplished. He put away the sin of His people
by the death of Himself on the cross, where He shed His blood
to reconcile us by the putting away of our sin, that God may
be just, that God may forgive us and receive us unto Himself
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He redeemed us,
needy sinners. who are not worthy of His grace,
who are not worthy of His favor, yet He purchased us with His
own precious blood, that we might know the God who created us,
and that we might know Him in love and in fellowship and friendship
again, that we may know Him. Isaiah 52.8 says, thy watchman
shall lift up the voice, that voice declaring Christ whom they've
heard. With the voice, the voice of
Christ, together shall they sing a perfect melody. They sing and
sound the same note. I don't even say harmony, because
it's the same note. We're not trying to sound any
different than Christ. We want to sound just like our
Lord. We want His voice to be heard,
that you may hear the voice of the Savior. We sing together,
for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again
Zion. Now those who are good, those
who are righteous, those whose works are good and perfect, and
they're content and at peace with what they've done, they
don't hear the voice of the Savior. They have no need of Him. Everything's
fine for them. They have no need of a Savior.
They have nothing to fix that they can't fix themselves or
take care of. They don't hear the Savior. But
the sinner, the one who's guilty, the one who has sinned and offended
God, the one who is full of shame and guilt and darkness and has
no light, has no life, has no peace between them and God. For them, the account of their
sin, the debt of their sin is too much. They can't handle it. they will hear the voice of Christ. They'll hear that word. They
want to hear that word. They hunger and thirst to hear
what Christ has done to put away their sin by the death of himself. Just as our Lord said, I'm not
come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. repentance,
that is from trusting their own filthy, vile works and religion,
thinking that these things provided for them. He turns us to repent
of that false way, to look to the way of truth, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life of his people. And so all the self-righteous
people, the good people, those that are comfortable with their
works, our Lord says, ye shall die in your sins. You that trust
your works, you that despise the word of God, you that that
think that everything's fine. Our Lord says you're going to
bear your own works, you're going to bear your own sin in yourselves
in hell for all eternity because they despise the grace of God. They despise the salvation whom
God has provided for His people. They think themselves better
than the wisdom of God and the righteousness of God. In Christ's
warning to them who think that, who trust in their own works,
John 8.24 says, Ye shall die in your sins. For if ye believe
not that I If you don't believe that Christ is the Savior and
that you need him, that you need his blood, you shall die in your
sins. Now, there's many that don't
agree. They don't think that they're sinners and they don't
think that Christ is sufficient to save. And our Lord tells us
why that is. In John 10, verse 26, John 10,
26. Ye believe not, because ye are
not my sheep. You're not of my sheep, as I
said unto you. So there's a people that won't
hear, but there is a people that do hear. They hear the voice
of Christ. They hear I'm the sinner, and
he is the Savior, the salvation God has provided in grace. For
me, I need him. and the needy sinner hears Christ
speak to them and that he is sufficient to save them to the
uttermost. The second characteristic then,
which our Lord says is, I know them, I know them. And what he's
saying there is, I love my people. I know them in love. I love them,
and I've provided for them in love, and I shall love them unto
the end. He does everything for us. Oftentimes
this is referred to in scripture as foreknowledge, the foreknowledge
of God. And when he speaks of his foreknowledge,
he's speaking of a people whom he knows, not of their works,
but of the people whom he knows, whom he loves, whom he chose
in love. These were given to Christ, committed
to Christ, to his care as their mediator. So the Godhead, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost committed them all to the Son who came
in the flesh as the mediator to reconcile them to God. First to put away the sin that
stood between us and our God. that we might be reconciled to
God, and then He comes to put away that enmity in our hearts
and in our minds against God, to reconcile us to our God, to
believe Him, to trust Him, and to know Him. Ephesians 1, 4 speaks
of His love and the knowledge that our Savior has for His sheep,
that it's according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. In Romans 8, Romans 8 29 and
30, For whom he did foreknow." See that? There's a people whom
he foreknew, a people whom he loves. Them he also did predestinate
to be conformed. See, he foreknows a people and
he predestinates their works, their walk, how they shall come
to know him who loves them and saved them and gave his life
for them. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
whose works he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom
he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he
also glorified. And so our justification is accomplished
by the blood of Christ, apart from any works that we've done.
It's all by the Lord Jesus Christ that we are justified, that we're
provided for, that we're sanctified, that we're called, that we hear,
that we're brought to a knowledge of these things. It's by our
Savior who atoned for our sins on the cross. Romans 4.25 says
that Christ was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. Raised again for our justification.
And that same power of God which raised Christ from the dead is
the exact same power that raises you from spiritual death. That gives you life. whereby
you now hear the voice of Christ and believe Him. That's the power
that works in the people of God to deliver them from darkness,
to deliver us from prison, to deliver us from death, and the
power of death and the grave and sin that we might know the
true and living God and our Savior. Look in John 10, 28. John 10,
28, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. And so this is
speaking of the regeneration of the people of God. It's speaking
of our being given life, where the Spirit takes of the things
of Christ, the seed of Christ, whereby we are now born again
in the new man, not just the corrupt seed of Adam, all people
are born of that corrupt seed of Adam in the flesh, but we
are born again, the spirit taking the things of Christ, that incorruptible
seed whereby we are born of Christ and have our part in Christ our
Savior and know Him, that new man which sins not. and cannot
but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're born again
because of his love for us, so that we might know the love that
our Savior has for us, that we might be brought to a knowledge
of what he's done and accomplished for us. We would worship God
in a spirit of knowledge, in a spirit of wisdom, in a spirit
of love, that we might know him and rejoice in him. So our Savior,
we hear His voice and He knows us, meaning that He'll work in
us that knowledge that He knows us, that He loves us, that He
loved me and gave Himself for me so that the life I now live,
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and did that
work for me. And then third, they follow him. We follow the Lord, our shepherd.
So the sheep of God, we follow Christ. We don't despise him.
We're not indifferent to Christ. We're not negligent of him or
careless and think nothing of him and say, well, I took care
of that when I was 13 years old. I gave my life to Jesus. and
now I do my own thing. No, we follow the Lord. We love him. We hunger for him. We want to know him more and
more. John 10.3, 10.3, to him the porter
openeth, which is a picture of the Godhead, a picture of the
Father and the Spirit, which gives the authority to the Son. He openeth, the porter openeth,
then the sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep
by name, and leadeth them out. And so here's that picture of
Christ calling his people, leading them out of the darkness, which
is all that we know by nature. Leading us out of the prison,
leading us out of death. When Christ raised Lazarus from
the dead, that picture where Christ raised Lazarus, he died
again, but it was a picture of the spiritual salvation that
the Lord gives to his people. He called him, Lazarus, come
forth. And so it is that our Savior
comes to the prison where we are, opens the gate, and calls
our name, calling us out of that prison of darkness into the light
to see what God hath wrought for us, what he's wrought in
us by the grace of God in Christ. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. John 6, 37. And so all who are
sinners, all who hear that we don't have good works, that our
God has provided salvation, all who come to Him, seeking Him
for mercy, begging Him for mercy, begging Him for forgiveness,
looking to the Son, shall find the Son, shall find the Lord
a willing Savior. He receives all who need Him,
all who come to Him, crying out for mercy and forgiveness for
the blood of Christ. They shall find Him a willing,
gracious, kind Savior. He tells us that He gives life
to His people and that they are secure in Him. Verse 28, I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them
Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. so that you who believe, you
who trust Christ, look to Him for all your righteousness, nothing
shall ever remove you from the grace of God. Nothing can remove
you from Christ's hand, and nothing can remove you from God's hand
in Christ, because they are one. They are one. God has provided
Christ. He is the way. The only way of
salvation that God has provided is in His Son. And God cannot
be overcome by any enemy. To suggest such is blasphemy
against God. There is none greater. No one
can outwit Him. No one is stronger. No one is
more fierce. No one is more able than your
God to save and to keep you His people. Now many didn't believe
Christ. When they heard him speak, many
didn't believe. And it says in verse 31 that
the Jews took up stones again to stone him. They hated the
words that he spoke, because what he spoke of was grace. What he spoke of was life in
him alone, and they trusted in their own works. And Christ said
to them, For which work do you stone me? Why would you stone
me for works? And they tried to argue that
it wasn't for works. And after a few more words, we're
told in verse 39 and 40, therefore, they sought again to take him,
but he escaped out of their hand and went away again beyond Jordan
into the place where John at first baptized, and there he
abode. Now that unbelief by the Jews
is no knock on the grace of our God. Christ has not failed. God has not failed to save his
people whom he sent Christ to save. And so what we see is that
our God, all for whom he does purpose to save, He saved them. They hear the voice of Christ.
They know that Christ loves them and they come out of darkness.
They follow their Savior. So none for whom God purposes
to save shall ever be lost. Believe Him. Rest in your Savior. And we see His ability to save
whom He purposes to save in verse 41 and 42. Many resorted unto
Him and said, John did no miracle. But all things that John spake
of this man were true, and many believed on him there. So there
is a people whom the Father loves, whom the Son loves, who are committed
to the care of the Good Shepherd, and they shall be saved. They shall hear, and they shall
follow the Lord. They shall confess Him and believe
on Him, and I pray Let that be a comfort to your hearts, because
none for whom Christ died shall ever fail to come to be found
under the blood of Christ. They shall know him and rejoice
in him in that day. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts, brethren. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace and mercy, which you freely and abundantly
provided in your son, Jesus Christ. Lord, comfort the hearts of your
people. Give us rest and peace in him,
hearing his voice, being comforted by the love wherewith you loved
us and gave yourself for us. And that same love which keeps
us and provides and nourishes us in Christ ever. Lord, we thank you for that.
Keep us, Lord, looking to Christ, following you, staying upon you,
going where you lead, and trusting you for all things. It's in Christ's
name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, we're going to take
the Lord's Supper. together, and you're all welcome. You that believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ for all your righteousness, you're welcome to partake together
with us. And I'm gonna ask Scott if you
can help hand them out, and then I need one person to help. Would you be okay there, Terrence?
Or do you want, yeah, we'll take, Go ahead, Jalen, either one.
It's fine. Scott, if you could pray and
then hand out. Sure. Father, we come to you this morning
very humbled by the message of the weird but dumb sheep. And
Father, that we only know you because you've made that so.
And Father, we come again this morning thankful that you've
given us a church. raise up a church in this area,
Father, and we just ask that you continue to have it grow
as you will, as you see fit. Father, again, we're thankful
for the passion that you've sent us. Lord, we ask that you continue
to strengthen him and give him support as he brings the messages
to us. And Lord, we ask that you watch
over us as we have our meal together, your time of fellowship. And
Lord, again, we just ask that you watch over and care for us
in Christ's name. I'll be reading from 1 Corinthians
11. Paul says in verse 23, I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took
bread. When he had given thanks, he
broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. this do in remembrance of me?"
After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This
cup is the new testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as
ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this
bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till
he come. Let's all stand and sing a closing
hymn, 236 Amazing Grace. 236. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now
am found. Was blind, but now I see. Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed Through many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come. This grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there 10,000
years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing
God's praise than when we first begun.