Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed, but Thou, O Lord, how long? Return, O Lord, and deliver my soul. O save me for Thy mercy's sake. And I pray the Lord will lead us with those verses into tonight's study. If you'll start with your handout, we're going to look at a couple of places in scriptures, so we'll need our Bibles tonight. If you would, turn to 2 Corinthians, and we'll look at a couple of verses there. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And while you're turning in your Bibles to that, I'm going to read the first paragraph of our handout for you. Folks, the epitome of grace is Christ and Him crucified. That's grace. That's grace that is so great we can't even express it. The word that we use with, well, let me just finish reading. The epitome of grace is Christ and Him crucified. God manifesting His eternal Son in the likeness of sinful flesh is as pure to the meaning of the word grace as anything can get. Nothing of man's words can be as descriptive of this word as the eternal Son of God laying down His life that His sheep may live in eternal bliss in His presence. And tonight, I pray, the Lord will show us this through his word. Look with me, if you would, at 2 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning at verse 1. It is not expedient, writes Paul, to the church at Corinth. It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." Now, before we look back at our handout again here, I want to just make a statement about this. He says, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. You know, we do the same. All of God's people have what we call the Holy Scriptures that we can hold in our hand, and God has blessed us with with an interpretation and translations that we can understand in our own language. And here we have visions of the Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptures. Here we have revelations of the Lord in the scriptures. So we have the same thing that Paul is talking about here that he has. And I want to state something here. Notice Paul's understanding here. This is the second paragraph of our handout. Notice Paul's understanding of the revelations and enlightenment visions that come from God. Have you ever thought in that manner? Have you ever thought, I'm special for God to give me such a blessing? Most of mankind don't get this kind of attention from the Creator. Folks, that would be a natural thought. In fact, there are many who come to the conclusion that their revelations, their understandings, make them holier than they were, or holier than others. I call them the holier than now, folks. But read on, if you would, with me in 2 Corinthians 12, back in verse 2. I knew a man, writes Paul, in Christ above 14 years ago. Whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth such an one caught up unto the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for man to utter. Of such a one I will glory. Yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities, my weaknesses. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool. For I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me, and lest I Paul includes himself in this very point, that lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations. Oh, how quickly we can turn to, oh, look at me. Oh, look at how special. Look how wonderful I'm blessed. And we are. But boy, that could sure puff us up in a hurry, couldn't it? That's what Paul's bringing out here.

And let's go on. And lest I should be exalted above measure through abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me, to bruise me, to bring me down, to remind me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, verse eight, that it might depart from me.

Now, go back to our handout, if you would, the last paragraph of page one. Robert Hawker wrote this. He said, the earliest cry of Paul and the repeated cry of thrice, and no doubt with great vehemency, may best serve to show how the affliction pressed upon him. But what I particularly desire the reader not to overlook is that the cries were directed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul remembered how Jesus delivered his people from the influence of the dominion of Satan when he was upon the earth. And therefore, to him, he looked for deliverance now that Christ was in heaven.

Sweet is it to learn from hence how specially and personally the Lord's little ones are to look to Him under their temptations, page two. He who was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil knows in his own experience what temptations are and how to secure the tempted. And as an angel was sent to Christ in his unequaled hours of sorrow, as stated in Matthew 4.11 and also in Luke 22.43, so will he impart all suited strength. to the sorrows of his tempted people.

Listen to these words from Hebrews 2, 14 through 18. For as much then as the children are partakers of the flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. Folks, our Lord was 100% man and 100% God at the same time. He felt things. He hungered. He thirsted. He cried. As we will see in a moment in our text in Matthew, he sang hymns. Our Lord had a sense of humor. Yes. Scriptures tell us that God laughs. He laughs at those who raise themselves above what they are.

So we go on here, that through death he might destroy him that had the power. He likewise took part in the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful, and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to secure them that are tempted.

" Now, with that in mind, look at verse 9 of 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And he, our Lord, said unto me, Paul writes, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." And then Paul closes with these words, most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

I titled tonight's subject, My Grace is Sufficient. And I want to bring this out, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

Now, Christ's answer, back in our handout second paragraph, just below with that in mind, Christ's answer to the apostles is a wonderful blessing, full, sufficient, and abundantly satisfactorily. a blessing of great grace.

And what is never to be lost sight of, this answer, though addressed to Paul for the moment of his immediate necessity, is as much a reality said to every child of God under circular circumstances and exercise and trial. and equally to be brought into use by the whole redeemed family of God.

My strength is made perfect in weakness.

Now in our text, in Matthew 26, our great and gracious God gives us a picture of a weakness that all of God's people experience. in this weak flesh. We all must endure until the day our Savior takes us out of this world.

The weakness of faith. Look at Matthew chapter 26 beginning at verse 30. Matthew 26 beginning at verse 30.

And when they had sung a hymn. Did you see? I want to stop there for just a moment. Isn't that cool? I can imagine. There was a lady who used to attend here. Robinson. And she won't mind me saying this. I wouldn't have said this to her face, because she loved to sing. But she could not hold a note worth a lick. But when she got up there to the pulpit to sing the song, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior, there was not a dry eye in the house. She sang with a heart from her that gave joy to every heart in the room that day.

I can imagine singing with the Lord. Can you just imagine that sitting around at the cross where I first saw the light? Oh. Many, many of hymns that I could think of singing.

So when they had sung his hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives, verse 30.

Now look at verse 31.

Then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended. You shall be confused. You shall be offended because of me this night. For it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.'

Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.

Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice.

Peter said unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.

Likewise also said all the disciples. Now this is every single one of them that said this very thing.

Now back in our handout again at the very bottom of page two. By the way, Mark's account of this is almost word for word. Almost word for word there.

Here we see ourselves at our weakest point. unbelief. That's what that's all about. Peter just could not believe that Christ would go to the cross by himself to save his people and that nobody could go with him. He just could not believe, he thought so much of himself, that he could not believe what Christ had just said to his face before the cock crow, you shall deny me thrice.

So the Lord straight up tells Peter what is coming, and Peter, in unbelief, argues with the Lord.

Page 3. My way is this is the way, is what he said. I would die for you, is what he said.

Folks, the Lord puts his word in order. This picture follows exactly what the table of remembrance is all about. When we are at our weakest point, Christ reminds us it's not you. It's not what you've done, or what you can't do, or what you have done. It's what my Son has done.

After telling His disciples one would betray Him, you'll recall their response back in verse 22, a couple of studies back. They said, Lord, is it I? Every single one of them. Lord, am I the one? Am I the one that'll betray you? He then lays out an ordinance for our weakness in faith. Look at verse 26 through 30 of Matthew chapter 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread. Now, I want to remind you, earlier in this chapter, the Lord told his disciples, go into town, find a man. And he described a certain way. And they went and they found a man. He said, you follow him upstairs. You ask them, where is the room where we're going to have our Passover meal? And they found the room, and it was completely prepared. Everything was ready for them. So here they are, and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, take, eat. This is my body. And he took the cup, and he gave thanks, and he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, 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. Brother Don Fortner wrote this back in our handout now, and we'll spend the rest of our time kind of looking back and forth between Matthew there and our handout. Don Fortner wrote this. He said, by God's purpose and by his providence, the Jewish Passover of Old Testament melted into the Lord's Supper as the stars of night dissolve into the light of the rising morning sun. I thought that was pretty neat. What a gift God gave this man to write. The ordinance could not have been established with a greater simplicity. Isn't that wonderful? Just like the gospel, huh? The gospel is a very simple message, folks. God has a people. There are sinners that God went to the cross and died in their stead. The subject is Christ and Him crucified. What a simple message of the gospel. Don goes on to say, there was absolutely nothing of ceremonial pageantry about it. It was established with great simplicity. And as they were eating, it says, this is a third paragraph down from on page three, as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat. This is my body. That's verse 26. With those simple words, our master established the blessed ordinance of the Lord's Supper. He knew all that was before him. He knew what he must suffer. He knew what would happen with his disciples. He knew the turmoil that was coming. Wisely and graciously, he chose this last quiet evening before his crucifixion to bestow this partnering gift to his church. How precious the memory of that night must have been to those disciples every time they met around the table afterward. Is it not as precious to you and I as well? If there is anything that ought to unite all who profess faith in Christ, the picture of Christ and Him crucified, the Lord's Supper, is it. But sinful men have so perverted the teachings of Christ regarding this ordinance that it has become an opportunity for controversy to many rather than an ordinance of communion. Let every saved sinner seek grace to observe this blessed ordinance as it was originally established. Indeed, if we would worship God in the observance of this ordinance or in the observance of any other, it must be observed as it is established by our Lord. Page four. When he established the Lord's Supper as a standing ordinance of divine worship, our Savior plainly stated the purpose of that ordinance. The Holy Spirit tells us in 1 Corinthians 11.24 that he said, this do. in remembrance of me. The Lord's Supper was established by Christ to be a memorial, a memorial of himself and of his great sacrifice of love for us, by which he redeemed his elect, no more and no less. Immense harm has been done by those who have taught God's people that this is a mysterious, complex thing. The fact is that it could not have been established with a greater simplicity at all. Not a word is mentioned anywhere in connection with the establishment or the observance of this ordinance as a sacrifice. No mention is made of priests or altars. The fact is, once Christ was offered as a sacrifice for our sins, all sacrifices, all altars, and all priests cease to be. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." Isn't that what it says in Hebrews 10, 14? We have no sacrifice but Christ. We have no altar but Christ. We have no priest but Christ. If we have any other altar, any other priest, or any other sacrifice, you do not have and cannot partake in the Lord's table. It says we have an altar in Hebrews 13.10, wherefore they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. Those who speak of the ordinance of Christ as sacraments are in great error, in fact, grave error. The bread and the wine are not sacred at all. The table is not sacred. The act of eating and drinking the bread and wine is not sacred. And what I mean by that is that grace is not conferred upon us by our observance of the Lord's Supper. It is not a means by which God conveys His grace to sinners. God's grace is conveyed to us through Christ alone. and by faith alone. The word sacrament implies a means of grace. By definition, a sacrament is a solemn religious ceremony enjoyed by Christ to be observed by his followers by which their special relation to him is created or their obligations to him are renewed and ratified. A sacrament is a piece of Roman Catholic idolatry retained by Protestant churches who yet imagine that the grace of God can be obtained by ceremonies, or rituals, and works as well. It is neither an ordinance to be observed privately, but publicly. It's an ordinance for redeemed sinners, for believers, for men and women who are born again by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. Page five. By our public observance of this ordinance, eating the bread and drinking the wine, we openly declare to all that we are sinners in need of Christ alone as our sin-atoning Savior. looking to Him alone for our salvation and eternal life, trusting Him just as we did in our baptism when we were symbolically buried with Him in the great watery grave and arose with Him to walk in a newness of life. Again, I quote from Brother Don Fortner, he says, the Lord's Supper is a solemn but joyful ordinance of worship. At the end of the supper, our Lord and his disciples did what? They sang a hymn. Every remembrance of our redemption accomplished by Christ should fill us with joy. John Trapp suggests that we ought to leave the Lord's table with shouting as a giant after his wine, singing and making melody to the Lord in our hearts. We should come from the Lord's table as Moses did from the mount, with our faces shining. as the good woman did from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, or as the people went to their tents from Solomon's feast, joyful and glad of heart, as we read in 1 Kings 8, verse 66. If those in the wilderness were so cheered and cherished by their idolatrous feast before the golden calf that they eat and drink and rise up to play, as it states in 1 Corinthians 10, 7, how much more Should we, by this blessed banquet, a word of warning though, we must never attempt to set barriers around the table to keep anyone away. We must never attempt The Holy Spirit makes it crystal clear that it is the responsibility of the person, the individual who eats the bread and drinks the wine, to examine himself, to be certain that he or she is a believer, one who discerns the Lord's body, warning all that those who eat and drink unworthily without faith in Christ eat and drink damnation to themselves. Listen to these words from 1 Corinthians 11, 27 through 29. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. You and you alone. must determine whether you are in the faith. I could have put this in there, I should have probably, it says examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. If you profess faith in Christ, it is the responsibility of God's people to look upon your profession as genuine and to receive you. without doubtful disputations, without suspicion, as it is stated in Romans 14, verse 1. Same thing with the wheat and the tares. Remember that study in Matthew? Our Lord told us very clearly then, it's not our job to separate the wheat and the tares. God will do that. He's the only one who can look upon a heart Page six, our Lord knew that Judas was a devil and that he was at that time looking for an opportunity to betray him. Yet when he passed out the bread and wine, he gave it to Judas as well as to Peter, James, and John because Judas professed to be one of his. With that in mind, let me close with this. Our dear Redeemer, knowing that his disciples would soon need to be reminded, declares the blessed immutability of his saving grace. He assures us that because of his one great sacrifice for sin, God will never charge His people with sin. Romans 4 verse 8,

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Or how about these words from Malachi 3 verse 6, For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. As was prophesied by Zechariah in chapter 13, verse 7, when the shepherd was smitten by the rod of divine justice, the sheep would all be scattered. So it came to pass. Though every one of them was confident that they would never be offended by Him and would never forsake Him, and publicly announced their confidence to one another and to the Savior, they were all offended by their Savior. They all forsook Him.

How deceitful are our hearts!

Before I go on, I'm so thankful that our Lord has taken each and every one, not just his disciples, his apostles, but every single one of those that he has shown us to be one of his throughout scriptures and shown us their weaknesses. I can relate to every one of them, can you not?

So what a picture we have here. in the New Testament, this ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

Let's go on, shall we?

Second paragraph from the bottom of page 6.

Zechariah's prophecy included something more. The Lord declared, Awake, O sword. Now this is in Zechariah chapter 13, verse 7. It says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow. smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered."

That much of the prophecy we often quote and hear quoted, but God's word by Zechariah continues. The first part of Zechariah 13, 7, announced the death of Christ as our sin-atoning substitute, the shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep. He says, awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow. Smite the shepherd.

The next line announced the weaknesses, the sin and unbelief of the smitten shepherd's poor depraved sheep, and the sheep shall be scattered, it says. Did you catch that?

But the last line of Zechariah 13, 7 gives a blessed word of sufficient grace. assuring us of the immutability of God's grace to us in Christ. Though we are but weak, sinful, straying sheep, he says, and I will turn mine hand upon the little one.

Remember what our Lord says? I thank thee, O Father, that thou hast hid these things and revealed them unto babes.

These precious, sweet words of grace were in the heart and the mind of our blessed Savior as He anticipated the shameful, sinful behavior of His beloved disciples.

In Matthew 26, 32, He assures them, and you and I as well, that His grace is unaltered even by our sin. He says, I will turn my hand upon the little ones in Zechariah. Well, here in Matthew 26, verse 32, he says, after I am risen, I will go before you into Galilee.

He goes before us. Not just then, but every moment of every day. He's preparing a place for us in heaven.

Our dear brother Gene, he may not have much longer. I don't know if he's going to go through dialysis. That's a pretty tough thing for a man of 84 years old to go through. I reminded Shelly today that comfort at that age is more important than living a couple of more days in this world.

Though they knew it not, back in our handout, the Lord Jesus was saying to the disciples, I will go before you in grace, to recover you wherever you may be in your weakness and sin straying from Me."

Then he says this, but go tell, this is what Mark said in verse 16, verse 7, But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee.

This is after he had risen again, that they shall see him as he said unto you."

What did he say to Peter? He said, you're going to deny me three times.

What does he say to you and I? You are weak, but I am strong. Blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin, Romans 4, verse 8.

That which we celebrate in the Lord's Supper is absolute, perfect, immutable salvation by the grace of God in Christ, our crucified Redeemer, by whom our sins have been put away forever.

For by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Amen.