In 1 Corinthians 11, let's read
verse 23. For 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. 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. 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 drank
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come.
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. Alright, let's pray. Our Father, and our God and our
blessed Savior, our Lord Jesus. Lord, we come before you with
thankful, thankful, thankful hearts. Oh, our hearts are so
thankful. Lord, you've done for us from
all eternity when we didn't know anything about you. You had your
Affection set on us. Your will set on us. Your purpose
were to be fulfilled in us. And Lord, before we ever knew
any of these things. So Lord, we come with thanksgiving.
We come with thanksgiving over the gospel that we heard this
morning. God, what I preach to the people,
it goes through my heart and soul too. And God, it does for
me. what only the gospel can do.
And Lord, I'm so thankful. Oh, I'm so thankful for your
word. Oh Lord, we have something real. Living reality. Our salvation
is real. Our relationship with Christ
is real. Your word is real. Our faith makes the invisible
God visible. Makes the blood of Christ precious.
Makes faith precious. Makes hearing the gospel precious.
The things, oh Lord, you've taught us, they've become so precious
to us. So precious. So real. And Lord, continue to keep them
that way to us. Keep them real to us. Lord, we
thank you for him. Thank you for the saints of God.
Thank you for my brothers, my sisters. And we pray now for
Shelby. Oh God, comfort her, be her comfort. And oh, bless that church up
there. And Lord Jesus, we pray for Lance and Robin and the family
out there. Oh God, I know that they're looking
to you and trusting you. Resting their souls in you. But
we also pray for their daughter. Oh Lord, we ask if it pleases
you to raise her up. We praise you for it. Bless you
for it. Whatever your will is accomplished
and whatever is done. We don't know it until it's done.
But we'll bless you for it anyway. And Father, we ask you to meet
with us tonight. Bring glory to yourself in this
service. We ask in our Lord Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. A couple of words here
that our Savior uses. He said in verse 24, For you do this do in remembrance,
this do in remembrance of me. Verse 25, as often as you drink
it, in remembrance of me. That's what our Master said.
As often as you do this, it's in remembrance of me. It's in
remembrance of me. And I've said this I don't know
how many times, but you can't remember something you didn't
never know. And you can't remember anything
about Christ unless you know something about Christ. But he
says, now when you take this bread and you take this wine,
you do it in remembrance of me. And he said, you take eat. This
is my body that's broken for you. This is the wine, this blood
that I've shed for you. And there's lots and lots of
things we like to remember. We like to remember. There's
many things that we like to remember. I've got a lot of wonderful memories
about a lot of wonderful people. A lot of wonderful memories.
And then there are just some that we'll just as soon forget.
I don't know about you all, but every once in a while I'll wake
up in the night and I'll think about things that I've done over
the years and it's just awful. You remember things you've done
just as a young man, as a boy. And you think you'd forget those
things, but they come back to your mind. I think that's what
David meant when he says, you know, my sins are ever before
me. And it'd probably be profitable for us to forget a lot of things
in our past. I know Paul said, forgetting
those things which are behind, pressing toward the mark of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But he had also, at the same
time, every opportunity he had in the book of Acts, when he
had an opportunity, he told what God did for him on the Damascus
Road. He told it three different times
of what God did for him on the Damascus Road. And you know God
said this, He said, I've not dealt with you after your iniquities.
I've not dealt with you after your sins, nor rewarded you according
to your sins. He said, I cast your sins behind
my back and as far as the east is from the west. So that's one
thing we really shouldn't remember is our sins. We shouldn't redo
it. And I know there are some things
that would be profitable for us to remember. In fact, this
is what our master tells us right here. Tells us, when you do this,
do it in remembrance of me. And you know when the apostles,
after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, they remembered
the words that Jesus had spoken. When he ascended back to glory,
they remembered the words that he said. And there was times
that they would forget. Our Lord said, I'm going to tell
you things that you can't bear it now. And then after the Lord
Jesus Christ rose from the dead and everything took place, they
said, then they remembered the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And how many times as we, we'll forget something. If you're like
me, when you get through hearing a sermon or hearing a message
or whatever, sometimes you'll say, what was it he preached
yesterday? What was it he preached yesterday? Now, I won't forget
from one week. Sometimes I forget from one week
to the next what I preached last week. And I have to hunt up what
I said. That's, you know when you, But
that's how our memories are. That's how our memories are.
But there's something that we're told to remember. And I don't
think it's hard for us to remember this. It's to remember Him. While we're doing this, we're
gathered here to remember Him. We have the emblems sitting right
here. Bread and wine. Emblems. And here in this text,
He tells us to do this in remembrance of Me. And may the Holy Spirit,
may the Holy Ghost come and refresh our memories concerning our Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to talk about who He was,
what He did, why we should remember Him, and then the prophet and
remembering Him. So when we do this in remembrance
of me, so let's remember who He was. Remember his glorious
person. There's never ever been anyone
on this earth like our Lord Jesus Christ was. When God made Adam,
Adam was made in the image of God. Well, Adam lost that image
of God. But God had another man prepared
even before Adam sinned. And this man was not only going
to be in the image of God, he was going to be God. He was the
express image of God's person. And the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt in Him bodily. And our Lord Jesus Christ, this
is one of the things, when we talk about Him, we talk about
His eternal Sonship. Some people think that our Lord
Jesus Christ didn't become a Son until He came into the world.
Our Lord Jesus was the eternal Son of God. Now this is a mystery
we can't grasp and there's no use in trying to. That's what
faith gets hold of. As old as the father is, the
son is. As eternal as the father is,
the son is as eternal as he is. And yet he's called the son.
You know why he's called the son? Because he was set apart
as the son to come into this world. But there never was a
time that He was not right there with His Father. He was the One
that created this world by Him. All things that were made were
made by Him. And without Him was anything
made that was made. And so this world, by Him all
things were created. And by Him all things consist. Everything is upheld by the Word
of His power. And let's look at that eternal
sonship. Look over in Proverbs 8. We've seen this before, but
oh my, what a blessing. Remember who he was. Oh my. And who he is. He's the eternal
son of God. He didn't start existing when
he was born of Mary. He wouldn't start existing when
he was laid in that manger. Our Lord Jesus Christ has always
been, you know, the only one with God when he laid, he asked
Job, he said, Job, where was you at? when I laid the foundation
of the earth? Where was you at when I laid
the pillars of the earth? Where was you at when I caused
the lightning to split the sky? How do you know how I know how
to hold the water in a cloud and hold that in that cloud until
I tell that cloud to let go? Job, tell me something that you
know about me. You know what Job said? I heard
about you. Oh, I heard about you. But he said, I'll tell you one
thing that I know. I know so little now I'm going to shut
my mouth and I'm not going to say another word because you're
so far beyond me. And Job just got down to things
I heard. But now my eyes sees. I see that
you're incomprehensible. I see that you're eternal. I
see that everything that is, is by you. I see the air we breathe
comes from you. I see the life that we have,
it comes from you. Everything we got, we come from
you. And oh my, look what he said
here in Proverbs 8.22. This is our Master speaking,
our blessed Savior. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way. Before the works of old, I was
set up from everlasting. From the beginning. Wherever
the earth started began. Before the world ever was. And listen to this. When there were
no depths, there were no mountains, there were no depths in the sea,
no depths in the waters, I was brought forth. For when there
were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were
settled, before the hills were bought forth, while as yet he
had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part
of the dust of the world, When he prepared the heavens, I was
there. When he set a compass upon the
face of the deep, I was there. When he established the clouds
above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep. When he
gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his
command. When he appointed the foundation
of the earth, then I was by him. As one brought up with him, and
listen to this one, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before him. That blesses my heart so. And
I tell you, not only is his eternal sonship, but think about his
blessed and glorious manhood. Glorious manhood. You know, our
Lord Jesus Christ as a man, as a man, and I said it this morning,
He never uttered a word that shouldn't be uttered. He never
went anywhere He shouldn't have went.
Everything He did was done sinlessly, perfectly, absolutely in the
sight of God. And God looked at Him every step
He took and said, Love it, love it, love it, love it, love it,
love it. And you know when you look at
his manhood you can see so he was faultless in his manhood.
You know when our Lord Jesus Christ, they was out in a ship,
you all know this story well. He was out in a ship and he was
laying asleep. He was asleep and a great storm
arose. I mean it was just going and
going. He was sound asleep. But he got
up. They woke him up. Master, we
perish. He said, wind, be still. And everything calmed down. You
know what they said among themselves? They stood there and watched
all that. Their eyes got big. They just were astonished. And
they said, what manner of man is this that even the winds and
the sea obey him? What manner of man is this? I'll
tell you what manner of man is. He's faultless. He's a faultless
man. And I'll tell you what other
kind of man he was. He's a faithful man. He said, the words that
I speak, they're not mine, they're what the Father gave me to say.
I didn't come here of my own, come here just to be somebody
to just go through life. He said, my father sent me into
this world and he sent me with a task, he sent me with a job,
he sent me with a will, sent me with a purpose. And he said,
he was faithful in that purpose. He was faithful in that purpose.
If I told you, our Lord told him one time, he said, if it
were not so, I wouldn't have told you that. If it wasn't so,
I wouldn't have told you. One time they come to him and
said, what manner of man is this? And I'll tell you, he said, no
man ever spake like this man. He was faithful. He was faithful
to his father, and I'll tell you, he's faithful to all his
children. Oh, how faithful he is to his
children. Then, oh, great is thy faithfulness. We're not faithful
to Him. But I think, and Don Fortner,
you say this all the time, one of the greatest, greatest, most
blessed thing you can say about anybody that attends services
is, they're faithful. When you can look at people and
say, they are faithful. They're faithful. And our Lord
Jesus Christ is faithful. Having loved His own. How long
did He love them? How many times did he pray for
them? How many times did he get them
off to themselves and speak to them? He even called them, he
said, you know, I called you friends. And he said he was so humble
and so precious and such a faithful man that he humbled himself one
day and washed the disciples' feet. You're talking about a faithful
man. And all this is, you're talking about a man. He as a
man, he would forgive men of their sins. How many times you go, he told
Mary when she washed his feet, thy sins which are many are forgiven
thee. He said, son, get up, take up
your bed, your sins are forgiven you. The woman taking in a doctor,
he said, go thy way, thy sins are gone. He said, come and forgive you
your sin. The words that you commit, oh
like I said I wake up at night sometimes and oh my soul. And
even though what I know about the gospel I say Lord forgive
me, please have mercy on me, forgive me. And I tell you I'd
love to forget those things. If one of these days by God's
grace my mind will be erased of this world. You know, you
used to have things that you could erase tapes and stuff with,
you know, out of an eraser. You erase and you use them again.
I wish they had erasers for your brain. You put them up there.
And get that stuff, get everything out of there except Christ. Wouldn't
you like to do that? Oh my. And I tell you what, no
wonder they said in his glorious manhood, they said go over there
and take him. Pharisees said go over there
and get him and arrest him. They went over there to arrest
him and he was standing around preaching. And they got up there
close to where he was and listened to what he was saying. They run
back over there and them fellas said, why didn't you bring him?
He said, well, we got interested in what he was saying and you
know what? I ain't never heard nobody speak like that man. What made him speak like this?
He spoke with authority. He spoke with authority. And
you know, he has the authority. All authority. And that's what
they offered. They just was amazed that this
man speaks with authority. He don't speak like the Pharisees
and Sadducees. And then he spoke with power.
Oh, he had power in his voice. He had power in his voice. When
he told something to happen, it happened. When he said, Lazarus
come down, he came out. Zacchaeus come down, he come
down. He spoke to the wind, it stopped. When he said something
to be done, it was done. He spoke with power. And I'll tell you how such power
he could speak to some people and beloved immediately their
hearts would be fixed, their hearts would be touched, their
hearts would be moved. And I'll tell you something else
he spoke with. He spoke with compassion. You
know how you go through the scriptures and you look at how many times
Jesus had compassion. Looked on them with compassion.
Having compassion, he did this. Compassion. He had compassion. That means he had the ability
to enter into the hurts and the needs of somebody else. That's
what compassion is. And then how many times did he
manifest love and speak of love? Spoke with such love and compassion
You know, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, you know what
they said about him? They sent over and said, he whom
thou lovest is sick. For Jesus loved Mary, Martha,
Lazarus. Said he loved them. And you know
what he said, you know, and he said, John 13 once said, having
loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them to the
end. Oh my, the love that he had.
The love that he had. And he'd speak in tenderness. Oh, he was such a tender man.
People think if you're tender and compassionate and very tender. But I tell you, our Lord Jesus
Christ was so tender. He was so tender toward people.
Has he ever been tender toward you? Tenderness. Tenderness goes a
long, long way. I don't know much about it. I
know I'd like to but I don't know much about it. I know how
to be hard. I do know how to be hard. I do know how to be that way.
I know how to be tough. But to
be tender? And oh our Lord spoke in such
tenderness. And he spoke with such understanding. He understood every heart, every
situation, every pain. You know, when that child was
12 years old, was dying, was already dead. He said, don't
worry about it. I said, she's just sleeping. They just said, oh, oh, oh, what
are you talking about? She's dead. Oh, she's gone. They
laughed him to scorn. He just went in there and with
such tenderness for the mother and the father and for her, he
just got her by the hand and said, Talutha come out. She just
got up, stood up and said, give her something to eat. Tenderness and compassion. The
mother was taking her only son to the graveyard. Had him in
his casket. People had him up on their shoulder
carrying him. And our Lord Jesus met them in the way. That widow,
she is a widow, had one son. They laid that casket down. He looked at that mother. Her
tears streaming down her face. Her heart broken. Sad. Just, oh. You know what he said? Arise. Arise. He got up out of that casket.
He said, son, mother, here's your son. Oh, you talk about a compassionate
master. Don't you like to remember things
like that? And then, oh, I tell you, I got
to hurry on. Oh, his glorious, remember his
glorious, exalted position. Our Lord Jesus Christ was, is,
and always will be the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He's
exalted above everyone that's ever been in this universe. There's
no one exalted above Him. God set Him at His own right
hand and set Him there. He's more exalted than anyone
else. And God gave Him a name above
every name. And I tell you I love that name.
And listen to this now. So we talked about what he was
and what he is. Remember what he did. Remember
what he did. He talks about what he did right
here. This bread is my body which is
broken for you. This wine is my blood which is
shed for you. But remember what he did. You
know what? Look over at 1 Peter 1.2. 1 Peter
1.2. Let's look at this again. You know, and this is the thing.
He chose you. He elected you. I didn't know what election was.
I didn't even know it was in the Bible. And I read scriptures
for years and I didn't know election was in there. Until God told
me the gospel. until I heard somebody preaching
and I looked to see yes oh boy then I learned it and I went
to preach it I thought everybody will love this but everybody
don't love it oh my oh he elected you you he elected individuals
people say well he elected a nation he did that but that was an elect
within even Israel do you know that in the nation of Israel
there was an elect within that nation And as an elect people,
a chosen people, and look what it said here in 1 Peter 1, 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God, the Father. That means God knew us before
we ever was. Through sanctification of the
Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace be multiplied unto you. Oh God fore-ordained,
fore-elected us and chosen us. And what did He do? He sanctified
us and He washed us in the blood of His blessed Son. There are
so many scriptures. I tell you, our Lord Jesus Christ's
scripture said, You've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I chose
you. Oh listen, He said, you know,
He said to the Thessalonians, Beloved, knowing your election
of God, He knew they were God's elect. I'm looking at some of
God's elect right now. Did you ever, when you found
out you was one of God's elect, how did you react to it? The
first thing you said, the first thing you said when you first
heard election was, why in the world would He choose me? That's
the first thing you think of. Why would He choose me? And then after you hear it a
while, and you get to believe in it, and you rejoice in it,
and then you'll say, thank God he did! I'm glad I heard about it, and
the more I hear about it, the more happier I get about it.
Me and Judd and Tia was talking about it today. That out of a
family, out of families, God saves one out of a whole family.
It reaches down in there and gets one. Now you can go back
to both sides of my family. My mother's side, all the way
back to my grandfather and I see it. I was 12 or 13 in that family. Not one of them was a believer. Not one of them. In fact, they
not only believed, but they were self-righteous and didn't want
to hear anything about it. They'll tell you they didn't.
I don't need God. I don't need prayer. And then
on my father's side, all the way back, there's nothing there. They're always drunks and alcoholics. Except for my grandpa. And I'll
tell you, that's the thing about it. And then all of a sudden,
out of all that mess, he reaches down and just gets a young man,
a boy out of his mother's womb and put him in his mother's womb
and reaches in and gets him out of his mother's womb and sets
him apart from that mother's womb and gives him a name and
keeps his hand on him until he brings him to faith in Christ. Why? Because he chose him. Because
he elected him. And then there's times when God
chooses a whole family. That's Stephen Kim. All their children are believers.
A whole family. He chose a whole family. And
then Ruby's family. Eleanor's family. You just imagine
that. God sometimes chooses a whole
family. And sometimes He just chooses
one out of a family. But it's His choice. Not ours. It's His choice of us. Oh my. I tell you. And I tell you when
you start remembering what He did. Remember this. Who you were and what you were
when He chose you. Huh? Oh, what was it? What was it? God said, look under
the mountain from which you hewn. Look under the pit from which
you dug. I tell you, beloved, God commendeth
his love toward us. Listen to this. Even while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Huh? He hath picked me
up Out of what? A horrible pit. Out of the miry
clay. That's one thing for him to do
that. You ever got in mud and couldn't get out of it? I've
been in mud that you couldn't get out of. I had to walk out
on my boots and try my best to get across it and get that mud
up to my knees. Some of you fellas probably done
that. But I tell you, when we was in the miry clay, And he
raced down and picked us up out of the miry clay. And then he
turned around and set us feet upon a rock. and then he established our goings
and then he said I'm going to give you something to sing about
and then he put a new song in our hearts even praise unto God oh my oh David said of this oh
Lord oh Lord wash me and I shall be whiter than snow cleanse me
have mercy upon me give me your love and kindness and your forgiveness
I was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin. But oh God
washed me, cleansed me. That's what we were. That's what
we were. Oh my. So remember what you were. That's
one thing. I don't have any trouble remembering
what I was and why Christ saved me. You know, He only comes to
save sinners. But that's one thing. He makes
all His elect to know they're sinners. My and then let me tell
you remember this and what he did You know all of everybody
here's entered into covenants at one time or another when you
went and made your your will It's called the last will and
testament of so-and-so and you signed your name to it And it's
got sealed on it And that thing is good It's good. It's a covenant you enter into.
And then when you buy a house or you buy a car, anything that
you buy, you enter into a covenant. A legal agreement. And it's a binding thing. Well,
God the Father and God the Son entered into a covenant. An agreement
between the Godhead. And the covenant was this. Son, I give you a people. And
you're going to go and you're going to do everything for those
people that I require you to do. You're going to have to bear
their sins. You're going to have to bear
their iniquities. You're going to have to bear
them on your heart. You're going to have to bear them on your shoulders.
You're going to have to bear them all the days of their life. And you're
going to have to do that. And then I tell you what, when you
die and you shed your blood for them, I'll put away all their
sins forever and never remember them against them. But he said,
the only way in the world I can do that is if you shed your blood
and the blood of Christ is what sealed that covenant between
God the Father and God the Son. Huh? So you remember that covenant
between the Father and the Son that they entered into for Christ
to come and save us and do everything for us? He sealed that covenant
with His own blood. Huh? Oh my! But we see Jesus who was made
a little lower than the angels. And by the grace of God should
taste death for every man. Oh my. Let me tell you something
else. Remember this what he did. Remember
him affectionately calling you? We talked about drawing this
morning. He affectionately called you. He said, well, I could have
not come. No, no, you could not. When he
called, you come. In fact, he went so far to say,
it's my sheep, hear my voice. Zacchaeus, how did he know Zacchaeus
name? And when he put Paul down on
the Damascus road, you know what he called him? Saul, Saul. Gave Simon Peter a new name.
He was Simon, the son of Jonas, but he called him Simon Peter.
You're the rock. And I tell you what, when he
calls you, he walked by and he looked at them, says, they're
working, doing whatever they're doing. He said, follow me. They
immediately dropped what they was doing and followed Christ. And I tell you what, oh, thank
God for an effectual calling. Thank God that he comes. Do you
know how many effectual callings are in this Bible? Abraham received
an effectual call. Noah received an effectual call.
Enoch received such a call that God took him all the way to glory.
He was not because God took him. Jacob got an effectual call. There's effectual calls all through
the Bible. Isaiah got an effectual call.
What happened when God called Isaiah? He said, Oh my, woe is
me. God said, I've done done it.
take them coals off the fire. He's affectionately calling you. And I'll tell you something else.
Remember this. He is keeping you. Well Shirley
and I talked about this today. He's got to keep you. He's got
to keep you. He's got to keep you. He's got
to keep you. He's got to keep you. And I'll
tell you, let me just give you this real quick and I'll stop.
has a great, great profit in remembering Him. Because when
we remember Him, it gives us such a hope, such a glorious,
glorious hope. When we're burdened under sin,
we've got someone to go to. When we're under great trial,
it gives us such hope. Huh? It profits us to remember
His love for us. Oh my! And no greater love than
that Christ laid down His life for His people. And it's profitable
to remember that all of our salvation is in Christ, by Christ, through
Christ, and that alone. And faith in Him alone. is all of our salvation. Just
remember that. Our worship and adoration towards
Him and Him alone. God help us to always keep Him
exalted in our mind. Well, that's a little something
I thought I'd say tonight about remembering Him. And we're going
to come and take