Let's begin by standing and singing
out of your hardback blue, 106. Tell me the story of Jesus, 106. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell how the angels in glorious
sang as they welcomed his birth. ? Glory to God in the highest
? Peace and good tidings to earth ? Tell me the story of Jesus
? Write on my heart every word ? Tell me the story most precious
? Sweetest that ever was heard Lasting alone in the desert,
tell of the days that are past. How for since he was tempted,
yet was triumphant at last. Tell of the years of his labor,
tell of the sorrow he bore. He was despised and afflicted,
homeless, rejected, and poor. Tell me the story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Tell of the cross where they
nailed him, writhing in anguish and pain. Tell of the grave where
they laid him. Tell how he liveth again. Loving the story so tender, clearer
than ever I see. Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
love paid the ransom for me. Tell me the story of Jesus, write
on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard. Thank you. I would like to read 1 Thessalonians
1. 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus
unto the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace.
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks
to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers,
remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor and love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of
God our Father. knowing, brother and beloved,
your election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with the joy of the Holy Ghost. so that ye were in samples to
all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded
out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia,
but also in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad
so that we'd need not to speak anything. For they themselves
show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you and how you
return to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and
to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Let's
pray. Heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you for allowing us, Lord, to assemble here as a local
assembly. Father, what a great blessing
this is. that you have chosen us also before the foundation
of the world. You have taken reasons out of
yourself and you have chosen sinners and you have glorified
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, will you Remember us,
Lord, as we gather together as sinners in need of a Savior. Father, will you increase our
strength, our faith, and give us rest for our souls, especially
in these days which we live, where there is so much chaos
and so much confusion. Father, give us that we may declare
boldly to our neighbors and to all around us of that great hope
that we have in our hearts, that we may declare the glory and
the riches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, give us opportunity
to declare and to boast in you. And Lord, remember Brother Eric
as he hopes to stand before us again. Pour out your spirit upon
him. Continue to be with him, Lord,
and give him the unction of your spirit that he may prepare these
lessons, these sermons, and that we may be fed. Remember Michelle
also who is traveling. Bring her home safely. And we
also think of Brother Scott who is ill. Father, will you remember
him as only you can remember. Comfort, Lord, him in Christ
and give him healing for his body that he may come here again
and be a presence among us. Father, remember all of us. You
know all the difficulties, our weaknesses, our fears, Father,
remember us in mercy, continue to give us strength and the financial
wherewithal that we may continue to assemble here. And Father,
will you also, if it would please you, call out your sheep. You know exactly where they are
and exactly what they need. And if it would please you, Father,
will you increase these numbers here? And Father, we thank you
again for your Great mercy that you have taken complete control
and everything is finished in Christ. There is nothing left
for us to do. Father, that we may praise your
great name and worship you for Jesus' sake alone, amen. As you
remain sitting, let us sing. Come thou fount, 17, come thou
fount. you. ? Thou fount of every blessing
? ? Tune my heart to sing thy praise ? ? Streams of mercy never
ceasing ? ? Call for songs of loudest praise ? ? Teach me some
melodious sonnet ? ? Sung by flaming tongues above ? Praise
the mount, I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come. And I hope by thy good pleasure
safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger
wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger interposed
His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, oh take it,
seal it, seal it for thy courts above. Morning. Take your Bibles and let's turn
to John chapter 8. John 8 and I want to look mostly
at verses 21 and 22. Now recently, last week actually,
we saw here where our Lord declared to these Jews that he is the
Messiah. He is the Savior of the world. Let's read at verse 12, John
8, 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them,
saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. And so by this, he's declaring
that he is the salvation. He's the savior of his people
scattered throughout the world. And additionally, when the Lord
says, I am the light of the world, and we say Christ is the savior
of the world, we're not talking about him being the savior of
every individual, but that he alone is the Savior of all the
people that are saved and received by God, it's through Jesus Christ
alone. There is no salvation outside
of Christ. And then this unbelief which
was shown by the Jews, it shows how great the darkness that men
are in. We are under great darkness naturally,
carnally, by the flesh born of Adam. So much so that if Christ
doesn't deliver his people out of that darkness by his grace,
we too, if we were left to ourselves, we would perish in our sins. But the difference that the Lord
is showing us in this regard, the difference is it's all of
grace. that there's nothing, it's not
that we're good, that we're better, that we're less sinful or perfect,
not in this flesh, not at all, we're all dead in trespasses
and sins, we all need the salvation that the Lord has provided in
His Son Jesus Christ alone and His salvation shall not fail
for His people. And that's why His people are
brought out of darkness and made to see and behold and know that
He is salvation. And so the Lord makes His people
to know this, that He's salvation. He makes us to know Him, to believe
Him. to look to Him, to cry out to
Him. He does this by His grace and
mercy and He does it through faith, but that natural man who
has not the knowledge of God, who does not have the Spirit
and doesn't know the grace of God, that natural man left to
himself is nothing but enmity, fighting, warring against the
true and living God, denying Him, not believing Him, counting
Him, to be a liar. And we're told of them that they,
as religious as man can be, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. And that means that with all
their righteousness they will not bow to Christ. They will
not bend the knee until that day when the Lord makes every
knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Our
Savior, our Lord does that. So I titled this message, Following
Christ. Following Christ, and we're gonna
notice here the vain confidence of man. But as we see this vain
confidence of man, take note how gracious, how merciful your
God is to you that believe. because we believe by his grace. That's why we're not left in
darkness, why we have a hope in Christ, why we look to him. It's all of grace. And so as
you see, the enmity that's apparent here in these men, that's where
we all would be. That's where we all are naturally,
but for God, but God who delivered us by his grace. And so our Lord
makes a clear division of the children of God, those that are
called, those that are chosen, those that are faithful. looking
to Christ, the children of God, and there's a great difference
between them and the children of the devil, them that will
not believe, them that will not hear, they will not turn to Christ. And the people are separated
by Christ to the one he reveals himself to, to the one he removes
the blindness from our heart, he removes the blindness from
our eyes so that we see He's the light. He is the light of
God. He's the salvation of God for
His people. And so, He being their light,
they follow Him. And He being the shepherd, leads
them out of darkness and brings us into the light of our God,
into the salvation and knowledge of our God. while the others
Christ leaves to themselves and because no man can save himself
we are it's made evident to us that what God has done in us
is grace because man left to himself cannot save himself and
he'll never bring himself out of the darkness. He'll never
lift himself up out of the pit of despair and depravity. It's all by the grace of our
God in Christ. Now, this truth, the truth of
Christ, the declaration that Christ is the Savior, that's
not kept hidden. It's not like it's secret knowledge.
Christ declared to these men that same truth which is declared
to us. He declared the very truth of
God to them. He tells them the truth, but
they would not hear. And he says in verse 21, then
said Jesus again unto them, to these Jews, I go my way, and
ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins. Whither I go or
where I'm going, ye cannot come. The Lord is speaking of His salvation. He's declaring that He's going
to work salvation. I go my way. And that is, He's going to do
the will of His Father to redeem the people according to the will
and purpose of God, to save a people for Himself. We should know Him. and glory in him and rejoice
in his grace, Christ saying, I'm going to work that will and
purpose of my father to redeem my sheep, to bring them in by
the death of myself, by his redeeming grace and power to shed his blood
for his people. Then he says to these Jews, and
ye shall seek me. What he's saying is, you're going
to continue. You religious men and women,
you're going to continue seeking the Messiah. You're going to
continue looking for salvation. You don't see salvation in this
Jesus of Nazareth that's standing here preaching this gospel and
declaring the truth to you. You will not believe me. but
you're gonna continue to look for a Messiah. You're gonna keep
searching for the Christ according to the expectations of your flesh. You're looking for salvation
according to your flesh, according to the works of the flesh, according
to that which gives you glory and boasting and confidence in
self. That's what you're gonna continue
doing. you're gonna continue looking for, but you will not
find salvation. You seek it in the flesh, you
will not find salvation. Instead, he says, ye shall die
in your sins. Ye shall die in your sins, meaning
that our sins, all who die in their sins, what the Lord is
saying is, our sins, if we die in our sins, will be found upon
us. They'll be found upon us, we'll
be charged with our sins, we'll be accountable to answer for
our sins, and we will be punished for our sins. And that punishment,
we're told, is the second death, or eternal death, eternal separation
from God, eternal wrath of God upon those that die in their
sins. And all who die in unbelief of
Christ die in their sins. And those that die in their sins
is as opposed to what our Lord does for His people in grace.
And His people, we're told, die in faith. They die in faith,
or they sleep. They sleep in faith. They sleep
in the Lord, or as we're told, they die in faith. And faith
looks to Christ, looks to Christ for our salvation. And our Lord
says, all who believe me shall never be ashamed. Meaning we
won't appear before God naked and unclothed. And with our sins
upon us, we'll appear before God covered in the righteousness
of Christ, having no sin, having no shame, being accepted of God,
Thanks be to the praise and glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who did this for us in grace. And then our Lord adds, whither
I go, where I go, ye cannot come. He's speaking to the Jews here,
the Jews who did not hear him, did not believe him, did not
trust him. He says, where I go, ye cannot
come. You can't come there. And so
the Lord's essentially saying, I go my way and where I go, ye
cannot come, you cannot follow me. And he's speaking there to
those Jews, you cannot come after me, you cannot follow me. Now,
we know from verse 12 there, there are some that do follow
Christ. There are some that do follow
Christ, that go the way of Christ. Look back at verse 12 again,
John 8, 12. He that followeth me. He's speaking of those that
follow him. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. So there's
some who do go the way of Christ. There's some that do go the way
of Christ. And these Jews, they didn't go
the way of Christ. But just a little while later
in John 14, if you want to turn there and see it, John 14, verse
four through six. Our Lord speaking to his disciples
says almost these same words. He says, and where I go, whither
I go, ye know, and the way ye know. That's because our Lord
makes the way of salvation known to His people. He does not leave
His people in darkness, but He brings the gospel to your hearing,
and by the Spirit makes you to hear the word, makes you to hear
the call effectually in your hearts, and causes you to look
to Him. Now Thomas said unto him in verse
five, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know
the way? Aren't you thankful that Thomas
asked this so that there's no doubt of what Christ is saying? Verse six, Jesus saith unto him,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And so now we know the way. It's
Christ. And now we understand why those
unbelieving Jews could not go after him. They couldn't follow
him because they would not come in Christ. They don't believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. They will not hear it. They will
not believe him. They look for another, but another
cannot save them because Christ is the light of the world. He
alone is salvation. We're not going to be saved in
any other way but in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so those that
are unconverted, those that know not Christ, they have no faith
in Christ. And the difference between the
Lord's people and those that have no faith in Christ, they
may believe. Religion teaches a lot of people
that Christ is the Savior. A lot of people believe that
Christ is the Savior, but He's not their Savior. There's a big
difference. It's not enough to believe that
Christ is the Savior, that He is salvation. We believe that
He's my Savior. I'm the sinner. I need his blood. I need his death to die for me. I need him to put away my sin. I need his sacrifice. I'm nothing
apart from him. I don't have works. I have nothing
special to recommend me to God. I need the salvation of God.
And that's the difference. There's a lot of people that
believe Christ is God and that He came in the flesh and that
He's the Savior and He did some general work of salvation. But
they never see Christ as their Savior because they don't need
Him. They don't need salvation. They don't know what that even
is. It's never applied. to them and the child of God
isn't satisfied with that. We're not satisfied with a general
Savior. We're not satisfied with a general
salvation and just going through the motions of religion. Christ is our Savior because
we're sinners. We're desperate for God's grace
and mercy because there's nothing we can do to clean it up. There's
nothing we can do to clean up our mess and our sin and our
unrighteousness and our iniquities and our trespasses. We're guilty. We're guilty before holy, perfect,
wonderful God. We're guilty before him. And
so we need the Savior to pull us up out of the pit, to bring
us out of the darkness into his light, to wash me, to wash us
in his blood, to cleanse me of my sin. to obtain eternal redemption
and forgiveness for me before God. We need that. We know it. God showed us. We're sinners,
guilty before him. Lord, have mercy on me. Help
me, Lord. Save me. And we cry out for his
grace. We need that blood applied. And
we need his righteous robe put upon us to adorn us with his
grace, because we know we shall stand before God. And if we die
without Christ, we die in our sins. Now, another way to hear
this or to see it is our faith isn't an implicit faith. Implicit
means it's suggested. It's suggested, but it's never
directly confirmed. It's just sort of just suggested
in there, the way it comes out. There's nothing, real to it. It's just indicated that this
person's a believer. And what I mean is there's many
people that go to church, that go to services for a long time. Some people have grown up in
the church and they marry somebody from the church and their kids
go to church and they spend years and years going to services and
participating in many things, maybe even being baptized, taking
communion and and participating in those things of the church. And it's just implied that they're
believers. They are friends with other believers,
even in gospel churches, and yet they have no application
of Christ to them. They may even have implicit faith. They may think that by these
things, this is their salvation. This is what God has brought
them to do. And they believe the report that
God has given in his word, and they trust that. But that's not
salvation. It's very different from what
we just looked at and described as, I need salvation. I need
to be delivered because I'm the sinner. I'm guilty before God
and Christ is my only salvation. And so we don't just believe
the reports of Christ. We need Christ. We see in Christ
everything that God requires of me. Everything that I cannot
give is all found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the child
of God looks away from self and has no confidence in this flesh
and looks to Christ. We hang everything on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're persuaded that He is salvation,
that He's everything I need. And so we don't come with Jesus
plus. We don't come with Jesus plus,
Jesus plus the law, Jesus plus my baptism, Jesus plus my pedigree,
Jesus plus my Bible reading, Jesus plus my prayers, Jesus
plus my coming to church. It's not Jesus plus, it's Jesus
Christ alone. He is all our salvation and none
other. In Isaiah 45, verse 21 and 22, Verse 21 begins, Tell ye, and
bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me, but just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. And many people stop right there. They're satisfied with that report.
They're satisfied to know there's one God. And there's one savior
of men and they stop right there with that report and say, I believe
that. I believe that Christ is the
savior, but don't stop there. The child of God doesn't stop
there. He says, and then the next verse, verse 22, look unto
me, look unto me and be ye saved. That's saying it's not just enough
to know you're the Savior, I need your salvation, save me, because
you know you're a sinner. You know that you've no righteousness
in yourself, not because you know it, but because the Spirit
has revealed it to you. and made you to know it, made
you to cry out to the Lord. Look unto me and be saved all
the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. That's what the gift of faith
works in his people. Believing him, seeing the light,
seeing our need, seeing my works under the law haven't done nothing
for me except make me seven times more a child of hell than if
I didn't try and come to God in that way. We need him more
and more. And so his grace separates between
those that die in their sins and those that die in faith.
It's all of His grace. And we look outside of ourselves,
beyond just that report, and say, Lord, save me. Please, Lord,
have mercy on me, because I need it. I can't save myself. Our
Savior is as vital to us as breathing and a beating heart. He's as vital to us as those
things. We're nothing. It's like seeing
yourself as having, I don't mean this in a bad way, almost as
having a twin, and yet Christ is the twin with everything.
He's got the heart, the brains, the organs, everything, and all
we do is just are connected to the vine. We're just feeding
off of Him. We depend on Him for everything,
because there's nothing in us. There's nothing in us, but it's
all of His grace and power. So the Lord tells them the truth.
John 8.21 I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall die in
your sins whither I go ye cannot come. And then in verse 22. Here comes this arrogant response
of these self-righteous, self-confident Pharisees, these people who are
steeped in religion and oh so good, and they say, then said
the Jews, will he kill himself? Will he kill himself because
he saith, where I go ye cannot come? They're mocking Christ. They're not sincerely asking
this. They're mocking Christ. Because in their mind, anything
Christ can do, anything this Jesus of Nazareth can do, they
can do it. They can do it. Wherever he goes,
they can go too. And so surely if righteousness
is required, Lord, Here's my righteousness. Here's my service
to you. Oh, is a sacrifice required?
I got that too. I can lay this down. I can do
this for you. Whatever you need, Lord, I can
provide it. And that's what the self-righteous
thinks. They think they're all that and
more. Now turn over to Exodus. Exodus
19. Exodus 19, and we're gonna begin
in verse seven and eight, but stay there for just a bit with
me, because I wanna look at a couple other verses in that same chapter. This is Exodus 19, and we're
gonna begin in verse seven and eight. And Moses came and called for
the elders of the people. and laid before their faces all
these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered
together and said, all that the Lord hath spoken we will do."
We're going to do it. Everything he's spoken in his
law, we'll do it. We'll do it. And Moses returned
the words of the people unto the Lord. They didn't do it. They can't do it. They cannot
do the Lord's Word. And you'll notice there, the
Lord didn't say, the people have well-spoken. The people have
well-spoken. Sometimes he did. He said, the
people have well-spoken, what they said here. But here, he
did not say, the people have well-spoken. And he was just
silent on it. And that's because the purpose
of the law is to make us to know the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The exceeding sinfulness of sin,
Romans 7, 13. You can compare that with Romans
3, 19 and 20. That the law was given to make
us to know we are sinners, insufficient, and come up short of the glory
of God. We cannot save And so these Jews are talking to Christ,
and they were coming under the law. They're trying to come to
God under the righteousness of the law. And that means that
they're going to die in their sins. Anyone who comes under
the law will die in their sins. And that's why Christ said to
those coming in the law, whither I go, ye cannot come. You cannot approach unto the
Father and live. Now, look at Exodus 19.24. Here we see the law showing us,
giving us an example. You cannot approach God coming
in the law. Because these people who said,
all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Verse 24, and the
Lord said unto Moses, away, get thee down, and thou shalt come
up, thou and Aaron with thee. There's a picture of the two
offices, the prophet and the high priest coming up to the
king. But he says, let not the priests
and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest
he break forth upon them. And you see, that's exactly what
people in religion do. They're so confident. that they
can approach unto the Lord, and he shows them here in the law,
you cannot approach unto God. He's a terrifying fire that'll
burn us up. We'll be carried away with our
sins and perish before the Lord. And you notice actually also
in verse 21 through 23, or verse 21 and 23, Moses is saying, well,
the Lord says to Moses, go down and charge the people lest they
break through unto the Lord and gaze, and many of them perish.
And Moses said, the Lord, we told them, I already told them,
we put up boundaries even around it, and we told them, don't come
up here. And then verse 24 says, away,
get thee down and tell the people, because that's how obnoxiously
bold and self-confident and self-righteous we are. that we're gonna, yeah,
we heard that, but I'm gonna go get a peek anyway. No, you're
not. We're not gonna see the Lord,
except the Lord in his glory, and we'll perish in our sins
if we come in the law. And the Lord said, go down again,
Moses, and tell them again, because they're not listening. They're
not gonna listen. They're not gonna believe the
word. And so, Our Lord, man left to
himself, thinks he hears the word, hears what Christ is saying,
hears him telling them the truth, and he will not believe. Isn't it grace? Isn't it a wonder
of his grace that we do hear him and believe him and know
that I'm nothing? I can't approach him in the law.
I can't approach him in religion. I can't approach him in anything
that I do. I need his salvation, I need
his grace and mercy in Christ. And we look to him by his grace
and mercy. It's a wonder of his grace. Thank
him, praise him, be glad in him. Because Christ said, I go my
way and ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins. Whither
I go, ye cannot come. And they just mocked him and,
and because nothing's impossible for them, they can do no wrong
in their own eyes. And that's how we all are until
the Lord comes and mercy and grace and lifts off that blindness
and delivers us from the prison and draws us out into the light
and delivers us from our death in that pit and our sins and
brings us into the kingdom and his loving embrace. fills us
with His Spirit, cleanses us with His blood, and puts that
robe of righteousness on Him, filling our hearts with His love
and His Spirit to believe Him and to stay upon Him. And so
there's many like these Jews, billions and billions like these
Jews. They hear the truth, and it's
even in so-called Christian religion. Some say, well, I'm gonna be
a Catholic, and I'm gonna approach through Catholicism, or I'm gonna
be a Protestant, and I'm gonna do that and follow the Lord that
way, or I'm gonna be a Baptist, or I'm gonna be a Hindu, or yoga,
or whatever, Muslim, all of it. None of it can save. None of
it can save Christ alone saves not enough to be called a Christian.
We need Christ. We need the Lord Jesus Christ
all right, so Next we see there that the mercy of God is reveals
that there is a people, right? There is a people that believes
Christ, that do follow him by his grace. And I'm just gonna
say three things that the Lord does for his people in his saving,
in his salvation. First, Christ came and he went
his way. He went to the cross. He went
and fulfilled the will of God, purpose before the foundation
of the world, to save a people for himself by the blood redemption,
by the blood purchase and sacrifice of his darling son, to give his
life that he may give you life. that you might be His people,
His chosen people, His redeemed, His precious bride whom He loves. Christ did that. He was born
for that very purpose and came in the flesh for that very purpose
to bear our punishment and put it away forever. We're told in
2 Corinthians 5.21 God hath made Christ to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He's the Savior. And our Savior
drank that cup of trembling dry, meaning he drank all the wrath
of God, so that that cup being poured out, there's not a drop
left to fall upon your heads that believe on Christ. There
is not a drop of rat that shall pour out that shall drop on your
head, because Christ drank it dry and put it all away, that
we should be righteous in him. Second, when we die, we shall
die in faith. We that are Christ shall die
in faith. Just like it says in Hebrews
11, 13, these all died in faith. He's all died in faith. That's
the gift of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're precious to him.
He loves you. He called you out of darkness.
That's why you believe on him and look to him and have no confidence
in the flesh. Third, Christ brings this salvation
to us. It's because he works, he pleases
God to reveal his salvation to us that we should know him who
saved us and believe on him and rejoice in him. They can't be
separated. God is pleased to reveal this
to his people so that We die in Christ because Christ cannot
fail. He cannot fail. He cannot fail
to bring this salvation effectually to the hearts and all for whom
he died. He cannot fail to do it. And
so he brings salvation to us. He brings us under the preaching
of the gospel to hear it, to believe it, to receive it, and
believe on him and call upon him. Because He makes us born
again. He doesn't leave us in this flesh. He doesn't leave
it to a decision for us to make first. No, we call out upon Him. We cry out to Him. We look to
Him because He gives us life and faith whereby we believe
and trust Him and call upon Him. So we're all sinners, dead in
trespasses and sins until the Lord brings that salvation to
us. But He makes us to know that
He is the way, the truth and the life. And all who come through
him shall come to the Father and shall stand before his throne
faultless, praising and glorying in the salvation of our God through
Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, brethren. I'm going to close in prayer,
and then Jordan and Ron are going to come up and hand out the bread
and the wine. We'll do what we've been doing
where I'll read the passage and then I'll sit down and then we'll
take the bread and the wine together All right. So brethren if you
guys would come up I'm one of you. Well before you do it Jordan
if you would just say prayer. I mean you could do it from there.
That's fine things going on in the world. Okay. I'm going to read from
1 Corinthians 11, 23. For I have received, Paul said,
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. At the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when
he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This
is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of
me. And 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 as a
closing hymn, Amazing Grace. 236, Amazing Grace. 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 has 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 Thank you.