together to Isaiah 59. Isaiah chapter 59, verses 1 and 2. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot say, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear.

Now the title of my message this evening is Three Characteristics of Our Faith. The word of God presents us with a religion, a way of faith. a system of belief and worship that involves three distinct characteristics. Wherever you find true Christianity, wherever you find the faith of God's elect, wherever you find men and women who truly worship God in spirit and in truth, you will find these three characteristics always, no matter where you find them. No matter what age you're talking about, whether you're talking about in the beginning back yonder when Abel came and worshiped God, brought the lamb and offered his sacrifice to God, or whether you're talking about Noah in the ark, or in the ark worshiping the Lord God, or whether you talk about Aaron bringing the Passover sacrifice into the Holy of Holies, or whether you're talking about 20th century America right here in Danville, Kentucky, wherever you find men and women worshiping God, wherever you find folks who are truly born of God's spirit, people who know the living God, these three things will be found in any society, among any people. Now, as we read through the book of God, you see them constantly set before us. As you read through the book of Isaiah, they are constantly set before us, and they are all three set before us in our text this evening.

Let me give you these three statements, and I will be brief, but I want to be crystal clear. First, Christianity, our faith, is righteous. That's the first thing to be learned. It's righteous. I listen to you men in your conversation about things of God, and in your reading of scriptures, your comments, and your prayers, It does my heart good as a pastor to hear you speak frequently of God's righteousness. Oh, that's the principle thing. That's the principle thing. Manzi spoke this morning concerning God's attributes, and he said God is holy. That's the chief attribute of God. That's God's chief attribute. God is holy.

And Christianity is a religion of righteousness. Now, in our text, Isaiah identifies sin as the thing that separates man from God. And the reason is crystal clear. The reason sin separates man from God is because God's righteous. I mean, he really is righteous. We talk about righteousness. God is so righteous, so holy, so pure, that Eliphaz said, behold, the heavens are not clean in his sight. He even charges his angels with folly. God is infinitely eternally, supremely righteous. He is gloriously righteous. So righteous and holy is he that no man can approach to God without a mediator.

Can't be done. When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, he said, Moses, pull off your shoes now. You're about to talk to God. You're standing on holy ground. And when you come before the Lord God, any man, any woman who has come to know the living God recognizes the awesome reality that God is righteous.

And the more you know Him, the more clearly you understand His character, the more clearly you apprehend His attributes, the more awesome you feel when you stand before Him presence of his righteousness. Now let's look in the scripture. Come back here to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6.

Christianity is a moral, ethical, righteous religion. Now that may seem strange to say such, but it needs to be understood because Christianity is built upon God himself. It is a religion that is all about the living God. It is a religion which shows men the knowledge of God and brings men to God through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.

Look here in Isaiah 6. The prophet Isaiah speaks and says, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up in his train, filled the temple. Now the picture is this, Isaiah sees a spiritual vision of the very Holy of Holies, right in there where Aaron, the high priest, went with blood. And there, the throne that he's talking about is the mercy seat sitting on top of the Ark of the Covenant. He's talking about that throne where the cherubim were.

Isaiah says, now I saw it, and above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face in humility. With two, he covered his feet and with two he swiftly flew to do the will of God. And the one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy.

So commentaries I think have rightly said this talks about the three persons of the Godhead, the Holy Father, the Holy Son, the Holy Spirit. The thrice holy God is the Lord of hosts. This God who is the Lord of all the hosts of heaven and earth, this God who's Lord of everything, he's holy and the whole earth is full of his glory. His glory is the fullness of the earth.

The post of the door moves. at the voice of him that cried. The house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me, Isaiah, all the way through this book. You get over to chapter five here, and you read it in verse eight, he said, woe is them. Verse 11, he said, woe is them. Verse 18, he said, woe is them, woe is them, woe is them. Six times he said, woe is them.

Now Isaiah sees God in his holiness, and he said, woe is me, for I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Now, this is what it means. Isaiah says, I've seen God now. I've seen God for myself in his holiness. And when I see God, I realize I'm unclean. I can't come to God. I can't approach the living God. Not only am I an unclean man, but everybody around me is in the same boat I'm in, so there's nobody who can help me. Woe is me, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, one of those living creatures, the angel we were talking about this morning, one of those gospel preachers. By the power of the Spirit, he comes with a live cold in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon my mouth. You know what it's all about, don't you? The sacrifice of Christ, the burning sacrifice of the Son of God. He lays it on my mouth and he says, lo, this has touched thy lips, thy iniquities taken away, thy sins purged.

Oh, what blessedness. God is righteous. God is righteous. But he, without altering his righteousness, without diminishing his righteousness in the least, sends forth his mercy through Christ the substitute to sinners such as we are, and brings sinners to himself in perfect reconciliation. God's righteous. Now I'm telling you that everybody who knows God recognizes this.

Turn over to Daniel 9. Daniel chapter nine. The psalmist said concerning the Lord God, holy and reverend is his name. Here in Daniel chapter nine and verse five, Daniel is speaking in his prayer, making confession of his sin and the sins of his people.

And this is how he spoke to God. We have sinned. Remember, Daniel wasn't just a spiritual leader, he was a political leader as well. What a blessed day it would be if we could have a political leader speak like this man did when he spoke for the nation.

We have sinned. We have committed iniquity and have done wickedly. We have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants, the prophets. Now, Daniel's talking about the bondage and captivity and suffering of the nation of Israel. And he said, the problem is we've sinned. We've sinned.

Neither have we hearkened unto the voice of thy servants, the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings and our princes and our fathers and to all the people of this land. Oh, Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee. But unto us, confusion aface, as it is at this day. to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel that are near, and to them that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. O Lord, unto us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings and to our princes and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

Now, those who know and worship God, confess and acknowledge with joy that God is righteous. Now let me speak plainly concerning this. God is, as I have declared already, personally righteous. He's holy. Now being holy, being righteous, God Almighty demands of you and me perfect righteousness. God's law requires righteousness.

You read the book of God, and you'll find that all the way through the scriptures, God keeps setting forth one standard. You want to come to God? You want to meet God? You want to be accepted of God? You want to worship God? You want to live with God forever?

You've got to be righteous. When Aaron was to bring sacrifices to the Lord God, even those typical sacrifices, the Lord God said in his law, it shall be perfect to be accepted because God's perfect. He cannot and will not accept anything less than perfection. The scripture says, walk before me and be thou perfect. That's what God requires. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Now listen to this.

In Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14, the apostle writes and says, follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Now, I've heard a lot of sermons and read a lot of comments on that text of scripture, but I have yet to find one that comments properly on that particular text other than Brother Mahan's commentary. The text of scripture is not saying try to do the best you can to be holy, because if you don't, you're not going to see the Lord. That's not what that text teaches. That is a certain implication drawn from the text.

But the text says you follow holiness, you better pursue this thing of holiness, because without it, you can't see God. You've got to be holy to see the Lord. You've got to be holy to approach the Lord. Our Lord Jesus said concerning the scribes and Pharisees, he said to his disciples, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise inherit the kingdom of heaven.

In other words, you've got to be perfect. It's not good enough that you be as good as you can. It's not good enough that you never break any of the laws of the land or that you live as a proper child and you marry your proper husband or a proper wife and you live all your life as a proper citizen in the country and you do good deeds. That's not sufficient. That's not sufficient. You've got to be righteous. perfectly righteous, and God looks beyond the deeds, but he sees our hearts. We can't be accepted with a holy God except we be righteous.

Now God's Son, the Lord Jesus, has brought in everlasting righteousness. By his obedience to God as a man, he fulfilled every requirement of the law perfectly. Perfectly. He loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and being. He loved his neighbor as himself.

He did it. He said, well, what's that got to do with me? He didn't do it for him. He didn't do it for himself. He did it for his people. When the Lord Jesus lived on this earth, he lived as a representative man. He lived as a substitute man. He lived as a covenant head, and he fulfilled the law on our behalf.

Now, this is what that means. When Jesus Christ walked on this earth, and he believed God perfectly, and loved God perfectly, and obeyed God perfectly from the cradle to the grave, perfect. Listen now, Don Fortner believed God, loved God, and obeyed God, perfect. That's what it is. His righteousness has been imputed to me.

Look at the scriptures. Turn to Jeremiah 23. Let's look at just a couple of scriptures. In Jeremiah 23 in verse 6, In his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. In Daniel 9, 24, the scripture says, he brought in an everlasting righteousness. In Romans 5, 19, we're told, by one man's obedience shall many be made righteous. Made righteous by him whose name is Jehovah Sedkinu, the Lord our righteousness.

Now listen, God's grace in Christ makes sinners righteous. The righteousness of God has been imputed to us. I'm not going to spend a great deal of time talking about this because we talk about it frequently here. I hope everyone from the youngest to the oldest understand this. The righteousness of Christ has been charged to God's elect perfectly so that God's elect have become responsible to God for righteousness and are dealt with accordingly.

Just as Christ was made to be sin, though he did no sin, so we have been made to be righteous, though we could do no righteousness. By a marvelous transfer of grace, God transferred sin from us to the surety and transferred righteousness from the surety to all who believe. You trust Jesus Christ and you bring before God what God requires, perfect righteousness. Not only has he made us righteous by imputation and justification, but God, when he sends his grace to sinners, makes them righteous by an imparted grace as well, an imparted righteousness, for he gives us a new nature in Christ.

If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. God has made the man who is born of God a new righteous creature in Christ, a partaker of the divine nature so that Christ has been formed in you.

Now, I want you to turn to two texts of Scripture. First, Romans 6. Romans 6. This is the one thing that separates true Christianity from the religions of the world and most especially from the pagan religions of the Gentile world. Christianity is a religion that declares men to be righteous or they're not Christian. Christianity is a religion. That is, it is the faith of God's elect, which is characterized by righteousness. Look here in Romans chapter six, verse 11. In the first 11 verses, the apostle had been dealing with baptism and God having reckoned us to be righteous in Christ. That's our justification. We confess it in baptism.

We were crucified with Christ, dead to the Lord, buried with Christ, risen with Christ to welcome the newness of life. Now he says, Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, what's that mean? That means, Rex Bartley, don't let sin rule you anymore. That's what it means right there.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. You're no longer the servants of sin. You've been made righteous. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. They say, well, that's something we've got to do, and we've got to pursue it, but some believers don't. Oh, no. Oh, no. All believers do.

This is the result of God making men righteous. for sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin's no longer ruling, sin's no longer boss, for you're not under the law, but under grace. What then, shall we sin, because we're not under the law, but under grace? Why, that's nonsense. God forbid.

Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness. Now then, He says if you serve sin, it's because you're still sin's servant. If you serve righteousness, it's because God made you righteous. Do you see that in the text? Now, you may pretend to serve righteousness and not be righteous at all, but if you serve righteousness, you walk before God in righteousness, it's because you're the servant of righteousness. If you spend your life serving sin, the lust of your flesh, doing what you will, living in this world as a common, unbelieving, reprobate man, it's because you are a common, unbelieving, reprobate man. Read on.

But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine. That is, you trusted Christ, which was delivered unto you. Being then made free from sin, justified from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Look in Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four.

As a matter of fact, if you will go through the following epistles, You will find that wherever the Apostle Paul spends a great deal of time laying down the principles of justification by God's free grace in Jesus Christ alone, he'll lay down that doctrine. I mean, he will lay it down crystal clear. And then he'll turn right around and he'll say, now, this is the result of that. It's to be applied in your life so that you walk before God uprightly and you honor God in all your ways.

Look here in Ephesians 4, verse 17. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of your minds. Paul says, don't you live like other men do. Don't pay any attention to the society around you. You young people, especially. Mom and Dad, I hope you'll listen to me, but you young people, you listen to me. If God has given you faith in Christ, don't pay any attention to what goes on around you. Well, this is how it can't be wrong. Everybody can't be wrong mark it down. Everybody's wrong Mark it down, they just are.

Paul said, now don't walk as other Gentiles in the vanity of their minds, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ. You didn't learn that from Christ. Oh, no. If so be you have heard of him and have been taught of him as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in your mind, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The apostle John says, if you're born of God, that which is born of God doesn't continually practice sin. and that which is born of God cannot sin.

Now, I realize the believer is a person with two natures. There is this old, evil, Adamic, corrupt, fallen, sinful nature of mine, the flesh, that cannot and will not serve God. But the flesh cannot and will not rule. And a believer, we've been made king, so that now we rule over the flesh. And the spirit dominates and rules the lives of God's elect. God makes sinners righteous by his grace. Now I want you to understand what I'm saying.

Morality is not Christianity. You may be very moral and not be saved. And I'm gonna tell you something, you can't be saved and not be moral. You understand that? Morality is not Christianity. People can be very moral and upright in conversation and in their behavior and not be believers. But if you're a child of God, you're a moral, ethical, upright individual in the bent of your life. That's the trait of God's elect. That's the character of God's saints. And so when I preach to you, you got to take into account that we're still in the flesh. I know that. I know that.

I know that the Mississippi River runs generally from north to south. I've crossed it many, many times, going back and forth across this country. Usually when you fly over it, you can see it. But flying over that river from way up in the sky, you can look out that airplane, you can see everything bend this way, bend that way. Sometimes, sometimes it looks like it's turning around and going back north again. But in the bent of the river, that is the general current of the river is running north to south.

And I'm telling you that believers in the current of their lives walk in uprightness. All believers do. All of them do. And that uprightness is just being right. It's just doing right. Just doing right. You live in this world And every day you make a decision. Every day, every one of us make decisions. Whether you're talking about business, or whether you're talking about family, whether you're talking about personal choices, every day make decisions. And you're confronted with a choice.

That which is right, that which is clearly, obviously wrong. And believers live in rightness. They just do. They just do what's right. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what the consequences are. They just, they live right. They do. And that rightness, that rightness more than anything else has to do with love and kindness and mercy one to another.

You read the law of God, the law of God has to do with love, kindness, mercy. You read the requirements set forth in the law of God. The requirements set forth in the law of God have to do with love and kindness and mercy one to another. The whole law is fulfilled in this one thing, love one another, love one another. And the gospel sets before us a rule that is involved in two things, faith and love. Faith toward God, love for one another. So that rightness is just Dealing with one another, right? Being kind, gracious, forgiving, loving. That's got a whole lot to do with righteousness.

Secondly, Christianity is judgmental. It is a judgmental religion. The God of the Bible is a God of judgment. He says, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. and he's going to be as good as his word. Judgment is identified in our text as a separation from God, and the cause of the judgment, the cause of the separation, is sin.

Your sins have separated between you and your God. Some of you are yet without Christ, aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. You have not the wedding garments of perfect righteousness. You have no grounds upon which to approach God and find acceptance with him.

And you live continually under the judgment of God, under the judgment of God. suggesting that one of these days, outshined in the future, you're going to come under the judgment of God. You're condemned already. You're just living, waiting for execution. That's all.

When Adam sinned against God, God drove him out of the garden. When the Lord God looked down from heaven and found that the generation of mankind that he had made was only evil, that the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually, God said, I'm gonna destroy this thing and start all over again, and he did. He tells us he's a God of judgment. When God looked down and saw what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord God came down and said, I want the whole world to know I'm going to deal with sin and righteousness. And he destroyed the whole city, men, women, and children, everybody slain by the judgment of God.

Men still question whether or not God is holy, whether or not God will indeed punish sin. Folks say a good God can't do that. A good God's got to punish sin. If he's righteous, he's got to punish sin. And I'll give you the proof of it. When God Almighty found sin on his son, the darling of his love, what'd he do with it? What'd he do with it? You think God will punish your sin? When God saw sin on his son, he turned his back on his son, and cried, Awake, O sir, against one that is my fellow!

Smite and slay the shepherd! And slaying him he did, so that Jesus Christ was crushed to death in the place of sinners, because he was made to be sin, crushed to death under the wheel of divine judgment and justice. The holy, righteous Lord God must and will punish sin. There is a sense in which he punishes it now. The psalmist says God is angry with the wicked every day. He says here in Isaiah 57, 21, there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. One way God torments you with sin right now is he won't give you any peace. He won't give you any peace. Divile, profligate, reprobate, riotous particle. Takes everything he has, all his talents, all his abilities, all his smarts, all his money, everything he's got and he just, he throws it all away in riotous living.

Whoo, what a good time I'm having. What a good time I'm having. Some of us have been there. Some of us have been there. Let me tell you something. The loud roar of laughter rising up from vile, profligate men and women is all the louder because it is a vain attempt of tormented consciences to silence the cry of God in a man's soul. Judgment's coming. Judgment's coming. The greedy man. Boy, some fellas just start out from the time they're old enough to count counting money. Got to get more. Got to get more. Got to get more. Said that every night, counting shekels. And if I... And when he gets all he can, Just read your newspaper. Just read your newspaper. The richest folks in the world are miserable. You can't find peace in this world.

The ambitious fella, it doesn't matter what accolades he has. It doesn't matter how high he rises. It doesn't matter how bright his star shines in the world. That ambitious fella gets up there and he says, I gotta get more. Gotta have something else. Proud, arrogant man. He thinks he struts a little bit higher, a little bit better, a little prettier than other folks.

And he finds out, if he would be honest, he has long since found out there's no peace, no peace. And God just jerks the rug out every now and then. He jerks the rug out right in front of you. neighbor and friend, mom, dad, brother, sister, you jerk the rug out, and you'll watch folks fall into hell. It'll scare you to death for a minute, and then you'll go right on your way.

But there is a day of judgment coming. Let me tell you something. As I said concerning the election this morning, I'll say concerning God's righteous judgment tonight, When you can rip out of this book the certainty of judgment, throw it away, because the book's meaningless. If there is no day of judgment, tell me why your conscience tells you there is.

I know psychiatrists, psychologists, and educators have been trying for a hundred years to persuade folks that the reason you're scared to death of going to hell is because the preacher's been telling you about it all your life. That's not so. Folks are scared to death going to heaven, darkest corners of this earth before they ever heard of a preacher. And they have religion, some way by which they hope to escape the judgment that their conscience is telling them is certain to come.

There is a day appointed when God will judge the world by that man whom he's ordained, Jesus Christ the Lord, and he's gonna judge the world in righteousness. Your conscience warns you that's so. Providence warns you that that's so. And God has sent his servant here one more time to warn you. It is appointed unto men once to die. And after this, the judgment.

Why will you die? Why will you die? Moses said to the children of Israel, said, I've set before you this day, death and life, blessing and mercy. Choose life. Why would you choose cursing? Why would you choose death? Why would you choose hell when heaven and life and blessings are in Christ Jesus the Lord? Why would you die?

Hell is real. There is a place of judgment. If you die with your heart in rebellion to God, if you die without Jesus Christ the Lord, if you die without the righteousness of the divinely appointed substitute Christ Jesus, hell will be your portion forever. And there'll be no mercy. There'll be no mercy. I'm not pausing because I can't hear anything you say. I'm pausing because I want that to set in your heart. Hell's real. Hell's forever. And if you perish without Christ, hell will be your portion forever. Now, if you can figure out a way to live with that, you go ahead. I hope you can.

God's justice is unbending. Christianity is righteousness. Christianity is judgmental. But thirdly, our text declares that Christianity is soteriological. Now that's a big word. I used it deliberately to get your attention. It simply means saving. It is a message of grace characterized by redemption and mercy and salvation in Christ the Lord. Though our sins have separated between us and God, his hand is still able to save. His ear is still open to the cries of poor, helpless, needy sinners. He is a God ready to save, and he is a God able to save.

So he says, come unto me. He says, come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as white as star. He says, come buy from me. Without money and without price, I'll give you the best things, the very best things.

Turn back to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45, verse 20. The Lord God says, assemble yourselves, come, draw near together ye that are escaped to the nations. They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image and pray to a God that cannot save. We're not talking about a God who can't save, we're talking about a God who can save. Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from the ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?

Have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me, so look unto me. Oh, look to Christ. Look to Christ now. He's a just God and a Savior. Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I'm God, and beside me there is none else. He is a God able to save for these four reasons. Now listen carefully, I give them to you and I send you home. His law has been repaired.

Then restored I that which I took not away, our Savior said. You and I have broken God's law. We transgressed God's law. Our sins have separated between us and God. But the Lord Jesus came and he repaired the great chasm caused between man and God by reason of sin. He repaired the law of God. Secondly, his justice has been satisfied.

By mercy and truth, the wise men said, iniquity is purged. Bobby Redmond, that passage in 2 Chronicles 9 concerning the wisdom of Solomon, of all the wise things Solomon said, here's the wisest. By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. There's only one way that God in his righteousness could possibly purge away our sins. And that way is by his mercy, but his mercy must come according to truth, so that justice must be satisfied and righteousness maintained.

And so the Lord Jesus has by his blood satisfied the justice of God on behalf of his people, on behalf of every sinner who looks to him in faith. And now God is righteous and just. just and true to forgive our iniquities. You see that? Justice has been satisfied. And thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ, his son, has been exalted. With his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. And fourthly, his grace is sufficient. God's grace is sufficient for you and me. As we look to Jesus Christ, the Lord in faith, his grace is sufficient because his grace flows to us through the merits of his son, the Lord Jesus, in whom is all the fullness of grace and glory.

You understand this? These are the characteristics of our faith. righteousness, judgment, and salvation. That's it. It is a religion. Christianity is a religion that produces righteousness, a religion that declares judgment, a religion that presents salvation in Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh, God help you now to look to Christ and live forever. Amen.

I would ask our deacons to come serve the Lord's table, and then we'll sing a hymn, Lindsay. Judy, if you will come, or Pam, either one of you come and play a hymn for us while they serve the Lord's table. While they're preparing, listen carefully. Let me give you a word of instruction.

This ordinance is for you who believe. We do nothing to try to fence the table or anything of that kind. This is the Lord's table. It's open for every believer. You young people who believe not, you adults who believe not, listen and watch. I'm gonna show you what our faith's all about. This bread represents the holy humanity of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and his incarnate being.

In his body, he was crushed to death. for us. That bread is unleavened bread because he lived in righteousness as our substitute. This wine is fermented wine. That is, the leaven has been pushed out of it. It's been fermented because it represents the holy blood of the Son of God in whom is no taint of sin. the blood of the new covenant, shed for every believer, shed for God's elect, and if right now, if God has given you faith this minute, then Jesus Christ the Lord, shed for you, for the remission of sins, and everlasting acceptance with God, and perfect righteousness.

As we receive the bread and wine, each one of us will receive it. As we do, that's exactly how you, individually, receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Do it for yourself. I can't do it for you. I don't stand up here and pass out the bread and wine like a priest because I can't pass out salvation. You take it. That's mine. That's mine. You take Christ by faith, and I'm telling you, He's yours. Now and forever. Amen.