Our brother Edward is going to
read for us this morning. Thank you, brother. I appreciate
your willingness to help us out here. You're welcome. Thank you,
Pastor John. Psalm 102. Open your Bibles to
Psalm 102. And if you don't mind, I'm just
going to add a couple little things here as part of an introductory. The timing of this psalm when
it was written, it's not 100% clear historically, but they
do believe it was a time when the nation of Israel was in captivity
to Babylon during the Babylonian exile, when the city of Jerusalem
was destroyed. So it's definitely a prayer that
you're hearing, one of great sadness, but at the same time,
of great hope, looking to the promises of God. So it's a wonderful
prayer. So if you would read along with
me as we pay attention and give heed to the Word of God, Psalm
102. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and let
my cry come unto thee. Hide not thy face from me in
the day when I am in trouble. Incline thine ear unto me in
the day when I call. Answer me speedily, for my days
are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. My heart is smitten and withered
like grass so that I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the
voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin. I am like
a pelican of the wilderness, and I am like an owl of the desert.
I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. My enemies
reproach me all the day, and they that are mad against me
are sworn against me. For I have eaten ashes like bread,
and mingled my drink with weeping. Because of thine indignation
and thy wrath, for thou hast filled, lifted me up, and cast
me down, my days are like a shadow that declineth, and I am withered
like grass. But thou, O Lord, but thou shall
endure forever, and thy remembrance unto all generations. Thou shalt
arise and have mercy upon Zion for the time to favor her, yea,
the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure
in her stones and favor the dust thereof. So the heathen shall
fear the name of the Lord and all the kings of the earth by
glory. When the Lord shall build up
Zion, he shall appear in his glory. He will regard the prayer
of the destitute and not despise their prayer. Thus shall be written
for the generation to come, and the people which shall be created
shall praise the Lord, and the people which shall be created
shall praise the Lord. For he hath looked down from
the height of his sanctuary from heaven, that the Lord behold
the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to loose those
that are appointed to death, to declare the name of the Lord
in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem. when the people are gathered
together and the kingdoms to serve the Lord. He weakened my
strength in the way he shortened my days. I said, oh my God, take
me not away in the midst of my days. Thy years are throughout
all generations. Of old has thou laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They
shall perish, but thou shall endure. Yea, all of them shall
wax old like a garment, as a vesture. Shalt thou change them, and they
shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end. The children of thy servants
shall continue, and their seed shall be established before them.
Amen. May God add his blessing to his
holy word. Thank you, brother. Thank you
for bringing that out as well. I'd like to ask you to turn in
your Bibles to the 22nd chapter of Luke. Luke chapter 22. As I stated a moment ago, I want
to bring a message for you today on the subject of the Lord's
Table. Have you ever participated in the Lord's in the Lord's table,
in the remembrance of the Lord, and you wonder, what should I
be thinking about right now? I don't know about you folks,
but I've thought many a times it shouldn't be about that motorcycle
ride I'm going to take this afternoon. It shouldn't be about what's
going on outside in the world. What am I supposed to be thinking
about when we participate? in the Lord's Supper, in the
table of remembrance. Exactly what that is. The table of remembrance. Remembering what it is that has
brought salvation to us. We're a stiff-necked people.
You might not be. I can't... I'm boggled. by how much my wife
can remember. We've been married for 48 years. And she can remember some things
like it was yesterday. And she says, do you remember
this? And I'll be like, no. I'm sorry. I just don't. And you can't blame
it on things like, you know, One of those diseases that take
up your memory. You can't blame it on that. It's just, I just
don't have the memory. I can't believe the Lord has
put me in a position to preach. Ask Adeline back there. How long
did it take me to remember your name? Long time. You're not the first one. How
often do you see me turn in scriptures because I can't remember like
other preachers how to quote a scripture? Romans 8.28, you would think
I could quote that perfectly. There's times when I can't even
remember the disease I wanted to talk about a moment ago. What am I supposed to think about?
Well, maybe this will help you. And I pray to the Lord to use
today's message not only to help those of us who come to the table
often, who may struggle with their memories like I do, but
maybe somebody hasn't heard about why we come to the table. Did
you know that the table of remembrance, our Lord was instituting that
the night before He was crucified? Do you know what that was supposed
to be? That was supposed to be The Passover
Feast. Do you ever consider the Passover
at the same time you're coming to the Table of Remembrance?
I can't tell you when the last time I did. Of course, I can't
remember things, so... You know what the Passover is? Well, let's begin by reading
from Luke chapter 22. Look with me if you would at
verse 19. And he, the Lord Jesus, took
bread and gave thanks, and he break it. And he gave unto them,
saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in
remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper
saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for
you. This was the night before the
Lord Jesus. was going to shed His blood and
give His body. You've heard me say this many
a time recently. In Hebrews 10, I believe it is,
the Lord comes right out and tells us plainly that a body
was prepared for His Son. The eternal Son of God was determined
to come to this world in the flesh and lay down His life. shed His blood. And that's what
this was all about the night before. It was the night of the
Passover feast. It was the day before our Lord
suffered on the cross. He met with His disciples in
that upper room to observe the Passover feast. You'll recall
that as He was entering into Jerusalem, He told His disciples
to go to a home to where there would be someone with a pitcher
of water and tell them what the Master needed, and they would
go and prepare the room for them. It was the Passover. It was in
Israel. It was in Jerusalem. On this occasion, our Lord indicated
to His disciples that this would be the last Passover. The very
last one to be observed by all believers. There would be no
more keeping of the Passover feast. No more would men of faith
be looking to God, looking for redemption through the keeping
of that Passover feast. It all started back in Egypt.
You know the story. The Lord had sent all the plagues
against Egypt. We were talking about this Friday
night. The Lord doesn't save folks through fear. He saves
through love, loving kindness, delivering his people from their
plagues, from their illnesses, from their sicknesses. And that's
what the picture of the Lord delivering his people from Egypt
was. It was delivering them from the
bondage of sin. We come into this world in the
bondage of sin. Who taught us to lie? When mom and dad came to you
when you were a little one and said, did you do that? Who taught
you to say, oh, it wasn't me, dad? I'll tell you what made
me say that. I was going to get my tail end
whipped. We don't do that enough in today's world, do we? It all started back in Egypt,
folks. This table of remembrance is
all about what was done in Egypt all those hundreds and thousands
of years later, earlier. That was when our Lord met in
the upper room with the disciples. That's why he met with them to
observe the Passover feast, because it had happened every year on
the same day. He indicated to them that the
Passover would never be observed again. Listen to these words,
Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. That's what Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7. Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us. They're trying to bring the sacrifices
back over there in Israel. Why? Wasn't the one Christ did
on the cross good enough? It was for His people. Folks, our Lord was perfect in
every way. Perfect in every way. What He
did while He walked this earth accomplished His purpose. What
He did when He went to that cross and was crucified by the very
ones that were called His people. I mentioned this Friday night.
Did you know that Pilate was the one who turned them over
to their own will? But who guides Pilate? Who guides
Pharaoh? Who guides the hearts of all
men? God Almighty. So when Pilate
turned Christ over to the will of the people, what did they
do? Just moments before we read about that in the book of Mark,
the people were crying out, crucify him, the Lord Jesus, crucify
him! I've had that discussion with
others before who have said, oh, if I knew what I knew today,
I wouldn't have done that. Oh, yes, you would have. Oh,
yes, you would have. Christ, our Passover is sacrificed
for us. Our Lord instituted it at that
time, what we call the Lord's Table. From that point on, our
Lord said, till he comes. It wasn't a one-time thing. This is the problem I had with
Harold Camping when he said you should not do any more of those
things. When he said you should not meet in the church anymore. Our Lord said, until he comes,
not until some man says he shouldn't do that anymore. He's talking about his return,
his second coming. From that point on, until the
Lord comes again, believers should observe the Lord's table, and
as often as they observe it, they show the Lord's death until
he comes. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians chapter 11. The Apostle Paul is writing from
the church at Corinth, and this is what he's saying.
In verse 23, he's saying, For I have received of the Lord, He had gotten this Word from
God Almighty. Paul said it on another occasion,
he says, I did not get my Gospel from a man, I didn't receive
it from men, I received it directly from God. Here the Apostle Paul says, I
have received of the Lord that which I delivered unto you, unto
the church that is, that the Lord Jesus, that same night in
which he was betrayed by Judas, took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples and
said, Listen to what he says this dew
is. This dew, the simple, unlivened
bread that is prepared, broken, blessed, and eaten. This dew
in remembrance of me. After the same manner, he took
the cup of the wine, and when he had sucked, saying, this cup
is the new covenant in my blood, and this dew, Eat this bread,
is what he's saying, and drink this cup as often as you eat
it and drink it in the remembrance of me. As often as we come to
the table, whether it be twice a month or every Sunday or once
a year. How simple is it? Don't make
a big deal out of it. Don't wear a special garb for
it. Don't get everybody lined up and come up and touch the
heads and all this kind of stuff that others do. Just simply take
the cup and the bread, eat it and drink it, and remember me. It seems to me that maybe I'm
wrong. Don't take anything I'm about
to say as something from the Word of God, but it seems to
me that the importance here is remember me. Remember what I've
done for you. Remember this, and I'm going
to tell you something. This is my hardest point right
here. This is the most difficult point for John Reed. Remember
that I love you. I'm a lot of things, folks. A lot of things. But my worst
part of me is remembering how much my God loves me. I'm ashamed. I'm ashamed that I don't hold
his death and his resurrection and his love and his mercy for
me as reverential as I should. I come up short. Maybe there's some of you who
do too. Maybe you're like that guy we looked at last week over
in the side or the back of the church crying out, Lord have
mercy on me. He's telling us, take my yoke upon you. You who
are heavy laden and burdened with the flesh that we walk in,
take my yoke upon you. Simply this, remember. Remember what it is I've done
for you. He gave his body for us. He laid
down his life. I can't explain that to anybody.
But I know it's so. We're looking at the Word of
God, the basic Bible doctrine that the Lord teaches throughout
His Word. Our brother Don Fortner wrote
a book titled Basic Bible Doctrine. And one of the basics of the
teachings in Scripture is that this is the Word of God. I don't
understand a lot of it. But I believe every bit of it.
I believe every bit of it. The simplicity of the Gospel
is this, this do. This do in remembrance of me.
He keeps saying that, for as often as you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until He comes.
Now are you with me? Are you thinking about this?
Are you pondering what would go through your mind as you take
of the bread and of the cup? We'd have a better understanding
maybe of what the table of the Lord is if we know something
about the Passover. So I want to spend a couple moments
speaking about what the Passover was. On this very night, our Lord
said, no more Passover observance from this point on. It will be
the Lord's table. He took the bread, at the Passover
they always had unleavened bread. He took this bread, this unleavened
bread, the bread that reveals the purity of life, it had no
yeast in it, it had nothing to change it, nothing that man could
add to it. There's no reason why the Lord's
Table should not be observed with unleavened bread today.
The bread is accessible. It's easy and it's obtainable. He took this bread, this unliving
bread, and he broke it. Signifying the breaking of his
body. Signified his suffering. He broke
it and he blessed it and he gave it to the disciples and he said,
eat this bread. Now this bread is symbolic and
it represents the Lord's body, which is broken for you. Then
he took the cup and he fermented wine, which also shows the purity
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the purity of his life. And our Lord was perfect in everything
that he did. He had no sin in his blood, he
had no sin in his mind, he had no sin in his heart, no sin anywhere
about him. He was pure and perfect. And
he took that wine and he said this, is my blood, it's symbolic
to my blood which is shed for you. As often as you eat that
bread and drink that wine, you show my death, you show his substitutionary
death, his sacrificial death, his death as sin, as a sin offering
and a savior. What is the Passover? Passover
leaves off and the Lord's table takes over. Christ our Lord met
to meet the Passover with his disciples and he instituted the
Lord's Table. Now Paul said Christ our Passover
is sacrifice for. There are so many questions about
the Lord's Table. There are so many errors today.
It is a simple feast and is a simple memorial. There's no reason why
anyone should be confused. Now, our Lord gave two simple
elements, bread and wine. This shows that He was actually
made flesh and He actually dwelt among us. Bread representing
the body, wine representing the blood. Israel, as you know, was a nation
that was chosen of God. You'll recall that God sent Israel,
Jacob, sent his sons down into Egypt to get bread, because up
in the land of Canaan, the Lord had sent a famine. And they did, and they met their
brother. Their brother was the chief of all of the king's treasures. And we know that they came together
with their brother, and they went down there, and they lived
several many years. under Ingotian, under peace. But eventually Pharaoh of that
time died and another Pharaoh was put into place, one worse. We know what that's like, don't
we? And he turned Israel into slaves,
into bondage. Now what was Israel in bondage
a picture of? They couldn't do anything about
it. Egypt was stronger than they
were. Egypt had the upper right hand. They had the whips, the
swords, the chariots, the stream, the horses. All Israel had was
a bunch of sheep, cattle, farmers. The picture here is what sin
has over men. Men come into this world in the
bondage of sin. The only way out of that bondage
is the exact way that the Lord delivered his people from Egypt
to that time, and that is God did something about it. What is the Passover? They were in bondage and slavery
to the Egyptians. They had been there 400 years,
and God would be the only one that could deliver them. He would
deliver them with His mighty hand. Remember what it says in
Scripture? It says He raised up Pharaoh
for one reason. That was to show the world His
power. Israel and Egypt are a picture
of us in our sin, bondage to the slavery of sin, and under
the curse of the law. as God delivered Israel, because
Israel could not deliver themselves, for they were in sin, they were
in Egypt, we are in sin, they were in bondage, we are in bondage
to sin, and captivity to the law, they could not deliver themselves,
only God could do it. Only Him could deliver them powerfully
and supernaturally. Now the Lord was going to deliver
them out of Egypt, and He said to Moses, tonight I will pass
through the land of Egypt. Notice he said, I will pass through
the land of Egypt. There's a lot of folks out there,
and some of you may have heard this as well, that there was
an angel of death. I don't know where they get that. They're calling the Lord Jesus
the angel of death? I don't know. I don't want to
argue that point. Then he said, every firstborn.
He said, I'm going to pass through the land of Egypt. And he said,
every firstborn in every home will die, even the cattle on
the hillside, from Pharaoh's palace all the way down to the
prison. But he told his people this.
Take every man a lamb, a lamb for a house. If the house is
too small for a lamb, two households should share. Take a lamb of
the first year. It had to be a lamb. without spot. It couldn't be
an old lamb or a sickly one. It had to be without spot, without
blemish. There must be no sickness, no
disease, no mark on it. And you're to take that lamb,
he said, and keep it up in a pen for four days. And observe it. Make sure it's not doing anything
that it shouldn't be doing. Making sure it's just being a
lamb. Nothing bad is going to happen to it. It's not going
to be ill or get sick or any of that. Making sure it's a good
lamb. You're to kill that lamb in the
evening and roast its body with fire and eat the body as well. Eat it with unleavened bread,
eat it with bitter herbs, eat it with your shoes on your feet,
and eat it with your bags packed. You're going to leave this place.
That's what he said. Now, they had been in bondage
for 400 years. Could you imagine that? You and
I, we'd been in a free country for, what, 200 years? 400 years they were in bondage. By
that time they didn't know anything else in the world. They had no
idea of what else there would be if they were on their own.
If they were doing the things their own way. All they knew
was the crack of the whip. They were to take the blood of
that lamb, and they were to put it on the doorpost, on the lintel,
and the Lord said this, he said, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Remember, we're leading into
the table of remembrance. The table of remembrance is the
completion of what these folks were looking at back then. When
they were to do these things, They were looking forward to
what Christ would do. You and I look back to what He
has already done. They were to take the blood and
they would put it on the doorpost and He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. The Lord came through Egypt that
night. He visited every home with judgment,
with wrath, and with death. Where the blood was found on
the door, He passed over and He spared the firstborn of every
house. The blood made the atonement
for the soul. The Lord told the children of
Israel to observe that feast at this particular time every
year from hereafter to commemorate the Lord's deliverance out of
Egypt. They were to remember the deliverance through the Passover
lamb. Now that Passover lamb says something else. It says
God's Passover lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, would come and
deliver all of his people. All of His sheep from all generations,
from all their sins. He is our Passover. He is our
Passover who was sacrificed for us. He was that very Lamb that
they took and sacrificed. We talked about this just a moment
ago. What would you do if you were there when the Lord was
put on that cross? You would cry out, crucify Him,
crucify Him. You see, like Israel was in bondage,
slavery, and the inability down in Egypt, we are in captivity
to the sin. The scripture says the wages
of sin is death. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. Sin, when it is finished, brings
forth death, but Christ, our Passover, have a Passover lamb. Let me
show you as we look back at Egypt and the Israelites slaying the
lamb that night by putting the blood on the door. Let's see
how that represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Now first of all,
Israel was to take a lamb. Christ is our lamb. He is called
the Lamb of God throughout the Word of God. Do you remember
in John 1 verse 29 how John the Baptist pointed to him and he
said, Behold. Remember that? Behold, the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. Isaiah said this, he said, He
is led as a lamb to slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers
is done, so He opened not His mouth. In the book of Revelation,
even John on the Isle of Patamos was writing about things to come.
He said, I saw a lamb as it had been slain in the midst of the
throne. Christ is our Lamb. He is our
sacrifice for us. Then Israel's lamb was to be
without spot or blemish, so was our lamb without spot or blemish. It's a picture of Christ Himself.
He's the God-man, perfect in every way. Everything He did
satisfied and pleased the Father. This is my Son in whom I am well
pleased. Isn't that what Scripture says? Israel's land was to be kept
up for four days and observed. Our Lord lived here for 33 years
on this earth. He is observed today by you and
I. There was no sin in Him. Everything He did was in love. You know, I brought this out
in Friday night study. We've received, a brother brought
some pamphlets in that one of them was the fires of hell. The
other one was a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Another
one was the, had to do with telling us about
what the meaning of Matthew 24 is, which is the end times. the
return of Christ. It was all about scaring people to heaven. One of them came right
out and said it. The guy that wrote the one, A
Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God, he didn't say it, but everything
in his little pamphlet was all about scaring somebody to Christ. God's angry. Don't want to be
in His wrath. Did you know Christ did not do
that? What did He tell the disciples
of John the Baptist? He said, go tell John what you've
seen. The lame walk. The blind see. The diseased are healed. Our Lord saves through the love
that He has for His people. The gospel is the good news. We've watched the Lord Jesus
walk this earth through the Word of God for 33 years, and we saw
nothing but love for His people. Israel's lamb was slain. Our
lamb was slain. Israel's lamb was roasted with
fire. Our lamb was roasted with the
fire of God's wrath on Calvary's hill. Israel's lamb shed its
blood. Our lamb shed his blood. Our
lamb shed his blood for the remission of our sins. Israel, by faith,
put that blood on both side posts of their door. And the reason
is that God said, it is the blood that maketh atonement for the
soul. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. By faith, we look to the blood
of Jesus Christ. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 18
and 19, we read these words. We know that we are redeemed,
not with corruptible things such as silver and gold from our vain
conversation received by the tradition of our fathers, but
with the precious blood of Christ. See the similarity? The bread
representing that body. The wine representing that blood.
I was talking with Juan and Shirley earlier. The wine is more important
than we have put it worth. I'm not telling you that the
wine saves you at all. I'm just telling you of the importance
of our Savior's blood. I was talking with Kathy about
it. We had some pretty bitter wine here. For those of you who
don't know, I've changed wines. And some of you know that we've
passed the plate around with grape juice on it for some of
the ladies who prefer not to have wine. And they have good
reasons for it. I don't want to take that away
from them. They have good reasons for it. But I was telling Kathy that
the reason the wine was so bitter before was because I was under
the impression that that's what it was supposed to represent,
the bitterness of what our Lord took upon Himself. Do you catch
the meaning of Christ being made sin? How bitter is that? Well, it's infinitely bitter.
He took our sin upon Himself. He who is perfect became sin,
was made sin, that you and I would be made the righteousness of
God in Him. How bitter that must have been
for Him. Oh my God, my God, why has now forsaken me is what He
cried. But if He hadn't have cried that,
we would not have the sweetness of salvation. I've had some conversations recently,
as you might as you might have picked out already. What's John
Chains? Why is he changing all of a sudden?
I've had some conversations about this. And I was wrong. This isn't going to be the only
time you're going to find out that I'm wrong, folks. There's no reason why wine can't
be sweet. It's sweet to you and I. If it wasn't for the blood of
our Lord and Savior, we would have no salvation, no hope, and
we'd be lost, wandering in the world like we were before He
called us out of darkness. Our Lord opened a way for us
into the holiest of holiest, and He did it by shedding His
own blood. He is our Lamb, our sacrifice,
our suffering. He is our sin offering and our
substitute. He is our Savior who enables
God to be just and justifier. The pattern is fulfilled in the
Lord Jesus, and it was perfectly fulfilled. When we take of the
cup and of the bread, we're doing the very same thing all of those
people of God did before He walked this earth. We're looking to
His blood, to His life for our salvation. Well, that happened
for you and I a little over 2,000 years ago. And we come to the table to remember
that very thing. To remember that it is not any
of our works. Grace cannot be mixed with works. It has to be all of Him. Or it's
not at all. This table that we come to shows
the union of the believer's heart with Christ. When I take of the
bread or the cup, what is going through my mind? It's this, that
I relate to this, that my Lord and Savior is my Lord and Savior. It wasn't a time when I came
down the aisle and gave myself to God. It wasn't a time when
I got into the waters of baptism and gave myself to God. It is
representing myself with Him as my Savior. If I could speak in that moment
of solace that we have, it would be this. It's not of me. If I could tell you in that moment
of solace of what's going through my mind, it would be this. It's
not of me. I'm nothing. We were listening to
one of the brethren preach from Kingsport. And he was preaching
from where Paul sent his old wretched man that I am. Remember
that? We talked about that last week. And he brought out about
the publican who pounds on his chest and says, Lord, have mercy
on me. We talked about that last week. It's not of me. I got nothing. You who personally know me know
that. And I'm thankful you do. I'm
thankful you don't know all of it, but I'm thankful you know
that I'm just a man. And that was the biggest problem
that Don Fortner had to deal with, with those who put him
on a pedestal. And when he fell off that pedestal,
so many began to hate him. Most of you don't know this,
but that happened to our pastor, Gene Harmon, as well. I don't need to go into details
over it. but after he left he was hated
by some, because they found out he was
a man. The Lord's table, and I'll close
with this, is not a sacrament. Bread doesn't magically turn
into the flesh of God, The wine doesn't magically turn into the
blood of God, and even if it did, it wouldn't save you. Christ
Jesus is the only way to salvation. The Lord's Table is a memory.
It's a memorial feast. Have you ever had one of those?
Do you ever get together for family reunion just to remember
the wonderful things that happened to us. Sometimes we might remember
the sad things that happened as well. All this is. as an expression of our faith
in our Savior. I believe. John 3.16 says this,
whosoever believeth. I believe. In the last part Verse
26 of 1 Corinthians 11, we read these, For as often as ye eat
this bread, and drink this cup, ye deshow the Lord's death till
he come. Verse 27, Wherefore, whosoever
shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily,
shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Now look at verse 28. but let
a man examine himself." That doesn't say let the pastor
examine you. It doesn't say let the deacons
or the elders examine you. It says let a man or a woman It also says that in another
part of scripture, it says examine yourselves. Are you in the faith? Do you believe? This is why I never refuse the
table to anyone. It's not my job. Only God can look at the hearts
of people. My job is to tell you what it
means. And it means, by grace ye are
saved through faith, not of yourselves.