All right, if you would, now
open your Bibles with me to Psalm 65. Psalm 65. It's hard to believe another
year is over, isn't it? That's sort of a good way for
us, I believe, to close out the year. Crown the gospel of our
God around His table a few minutes of fellowship together. I look
forward to this service. Psalm 65. Praise waited for thee,
O God and Zion, and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O
thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Iniquities
prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. that he may dwell
in thy courts. We should be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. By terrible
things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our
salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
and of them that are far off upon the sea, which by his strength
set as fast the mountains, being girded with power, which still
at the noise of the seas noise of their waves and the tumult
of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost
parts are afraid of thy tokens. Thou makest the outgoings of
the morning and evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the earth and waterest
it. Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which
is full of water. Thou preparest them corn when
thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof
abundantly. Thou settlest the furrows thereof.
Thou makest it soft with showers. Thou blessest the springing thereof.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop
fatness. They drop upon the pastures of
the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side.
The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys also are
covered over with corn. They shout for joy. They also
sing. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, we thank you that
you have given us one more opportunity this year to be able to meet
together, to worship you, to bow before you humbly in worship,
to sing your praises, to hear your gospel preached. And Father,
I pray that you would bless us this evening, that you would
give us the spirit of worship that you would enable us to exalt
the name of Christ our Savior. Father, I beg of you that you
would make each heart here this evening see the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith and believing, lay hold upon him, whom to know is life
eternal. Father, I pray that you'd call
us, call us by your grace, call us by the preaching of your gospel
to your dear son. And what we pray for ourselves,
Father, we pray for your people wherever they're gathered together
this evening. Father, bless for your great
namesake and bless for the good edification of your people. Father,
we thank you for the many blessings of this year, how you've blessed
us and provided for us and led and guided us. As much as in
us is, Father, we thank you for the trials and the tribulations,
those things that That you've sent our way to teach us, to
wean us away from this world, to cause us to look to thee,
to learn again how faithful you are to your people, that you'll
never leave or forsake your people. How you've taught us that how
sweet and precious your presence is. We can do without a lot of
the trinkets of this life that we chase after so hard. But Father, we cannot do without
thy presence. We beg of you that you not take
your presence from us. As far as we go into this new
year, I pray you go with us, that you continue to bless your
word as it's preached here in this pulpit, as it goes forth
on to the folks gathered together over the internet and the different
places, Father, where it's heard. Father, we pray you bless your
word. If you don't go with us, don't send us. Father, we pray a blessing for
those who are sick and afflicted. It's a difficult time of year
to be down and hurting in deep waters. And Father, we pray that
you'd quickly deliver, if it could be thy will, that you'd
comfort their hearts with your presence. And Father, all these
things we ask and we praise your matchless name. It's the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake and his glory, we
pray, amen. I've titled the message this
evening, crowned with God's goodness. I took my title from verse 11,
where David says, thou crownest the year with thy goodness and
thy paths drop fatness. David says that God has crowned
the year with his goodness, and that word crowned means surrounded,
surrounded on every side, just like you were inside of a ball,
surrounded on every side. So if you go left or right or
up or down, whatever direction you go, You always run into God's
goodness. He surrounded his people with
his goodness. Now that was true whatever year
it was David wrote this Psalm. That was true that year wasn't
it? And that's true been true in 2024 and God has surrounded
us with goodness. But this word year doesn't just
mean a 365 day year. The word literally means a lifetime
of years. or any measurement of time. In
any measurement of time that you can think of, in every year
of our lifetimes, God has surrounded his people with goodness. And
it's not just a little bit of goodness. David says your paths
drop fatness. The word paths there means a
trench like a wooden wagon wheel. Those wagons go up and down those
dirt paths. They eventually carve a trench
in that thing. All you gotta do is get your
wagon wheels in that thing and it's not going left or right. It's
down in that trench. It'll keep going straight. God has put his
people in a path of goodness. It's a trench of goodness that
we can't get out of even if we would want to. You can't get
out of it. And it's not just a little bit of goodness. David
says it's dripping with fatness. I kind of think of it like a,
I don't know if this really ever happens, not if I see it on cartoons,
a beehive that's so full of honey, it's just dripping honey out
of it. God has so surrounded us with goodness. It's just dripping
out on every side. It's just overflowing. The word
fatness there means blessing in life. And that everything
that we would desire from God, God's blessing in life that he
would give. It's just dripping, overflowing,
overflowing. God's people is covering us.
Now I thought about God's goodness and I was going to bring a message
on God's goodness throughout the scripture. And it'll be no
surprise to you. I found out there are way too
many for us to look at tonight. So I want us to just look at
a few specifics. David here is talking about you've
covered us. You surrounded us with your goodness.
And he mentioned several things in this song that is God's goodness
to his people. The first goodness we're covered
with is redemption. God has covered his people with
redemption so that they cannot get out of it. He's covered them
from eternity past in his covenant of grace. Look at verse one.
Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee shall
the vow be performed. Now David says there's a vow.
There's some vow that's going to be performed to God. David's
not talking about a vow that you and I made and we performed
to God. You know, I thought about this
time of year, people make New Year's resolutions, you know,
to try to improve some aspect of their life or some habit or
something, you know. And that's good. I mean, you
know, I'm all for, you know, improvement. But now let's be
realistic. Almost nobody ever keeps those
vows, do they? Almost nobody. I mean, if you're
still keeping it by the seventh of the year, you're doing better
than most. And David certainly isn't talking
about a vow that we made to God. Oh God, if you'll do this, I'll
do this. I made a vow, God, I promise. David's not talking about something
that we can do, that we can promise to do, God, that will satisfy
God. No son of Adam could keep a vow
like that. I tell you the vow that David's
talking about. It's a vow that God made to God. That's the vow
he's talking about. It's a vow that God made and
that God performed. The one who performed the vow
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who ever performed
his vow to the father. In the covenant of grace, the
father and the son made a vow to each other. The father vowed
he would save his people. God, the father, elected the
people into salvation. He gave them to his son, and
the father vowed I'll save those people through your obedience,
through your sacrifice when you're made flesh and go dwell amongst
this people. And the son vowed, Father, I'll
become a man. I'll be made under the law and
I'll obey that law. I'll obey it so well, I'll honor
the law, magnify it. And he vowed after a life of
perfect righteousness to be made sin for his people. He vowed
to take the sin of his people away from them into his own body
on the tree and to purge that sin away by the sacrifice of
himself, by his own precious blood. That's a vow. That's a vow. You think about making a vow
that's really going to cost you. When it comes time to really
pay the piper, you're going to do it. God's appointed time,
the son came and he fulfilled his vow to the father. He kept
the law in every jot, in every tittle. He kept the law in every
minute detail, details we might not even notice. He kept God's
law. He did it outwardly and he did
it inwardly. In action, in motive, in heart,
he kept the law perfectly. Now I'll tell you why that's
so important to a sinner. Because salvation and righteousness
can only be ours through Christ our representative. When Christ
fulfilled his vow to the Father that he would obey God's law
perfectly, do you know his people did too? His people did because
we were in Christ. The Father put us in Christ from
eternity. So when Christ obeyed the law,
God's people did too because they're in him. Just as surely
as you and I were in Adam and we sinned when Adam sinned, all
of God's elect were in Christ and obeyed God's law perfectly.
Obtained a righteousness by the obedience of Christ our representative. And son, he willingly was made
sin for his people. That's the vow he made in eternity.
When it came time to pay that vow, There was never a question
the Savior is not gonna keep that vow. Never a question. I
believe he prayed in Gethsemane's garden, Father, if it be possible,
let this cut past me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but thy will be done. I believe he prayed that for
our benefit. So we know God's not playing
games here. This transaction was horrible. The horror of it
is that of the Son, the Holy Son of God being made sin. Having
his father turn his back on him, suffering the justice of his
father is a horror you and I cannot imagine. And the Savior willingly
suffered it because he made a vow to his father. And his blood
washed away all the sin of all of God's people. Now the son
kept his vow, didn't he? And in turn, the father kept
his vow to his son. He is accepted all of his elect. It's in Christ because of what
Christ has accomplished for them. And the father will always accept
his people in Christ. Always. Because we live in a body of
sin. We need some comfort and some reassurance, don't we? Because
here's what we think. If I was God, I'd cast me off.
I mean, my sin is this is just this is just horrible. But because
of the sacrifice of Christ, this is true. There's no reason for
the father not to accept you. If Christ died for you, there's
no reason for him not to, because the sacrifice of Christ made
you perfect, made you perfect. Now that's being covered in God's
goodness, isn't it? I mean, just covered in it. A
sinner made perfect. A sinner like me accepted before
the holy God? That's covered in goodness. Then
the second goodness David talks about here that we're covered
with is God hearing the prayers of his people. Verse two, O thou
that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. I hope we never diminish the
importance of prayer, of prayer. It's so important to be able
to talk to our Heavenly Father. And we think. I don't know, I
do. Maybe you're not like me. I do.
I think I'm so. Insignificant and so. Weak and
so sinful that. Why would God hear me? But here's
what God told Isaiah. My ear is not heavy that it cannot
hear. I hear. Now that was true in
Isaiah's year. It was true in David's year and
it's true in our year. God's ear is not heavy that he
cannot hear because God never changes. God always hears the
cries of his people. He says, cry to me. He says,
be in prayer about everything. I'll hear you. Now this year,
just like every year of our lives, God's given us many, many reasons
to cry out to him in prayer, hasn't he? And you know, God's
heard every one of those cries. This tells you something about
our nature. God has to make us cry out to him, and then he hears
us when we cry. God has heard our cries for mercy. He always hears them. God always
hears the cry of a mercy beggar. Just look through for an example
in the four gospels. Every time there's some poor
beggar by the wayside begging, the Savior always stops. That
beggar never leaves the Lord's presence empty, never. He always
hears the cries of a mercy beggar, and you know why? Because it's
his character to delight, to show mercy. Do you need mercy? Cry to God. Cry to Him in prayer. His ear's not heavy that it cannot
hear. God's heard our cries for help. We're in a time of trouble. And we beg Him for grace sufficient
for the trial. He's given it every single time,
Andy. Every single time. He's heard our cries for comfort.
He's heard our cries for strength to endure. But you know the other
cries He's heard? He's heard our cries for praise.
of praise and of thanksgiving. He's given us many reasons to
cry out in thanksgiving. He gave us many reasons to cry
out and praise his precious name. He's heard the cries of worship
from our heart. As ashamed of it as we are, as
weak as we think our worship is, he has heard the cries of
our heart in worship to him. I'm telling you, don't ever take
this for granted. and don't ever quit praying for
it. I ask you all the time. As you're
going through your week, if the Lord brings me to your mind,
pray for me. Pray for me as I study. As you're getting ready to come
here on Wednesdays and Sundays, pray. Pray that the Lord will
meet with us. Pray that the Lord will bless
his word. Pray that the Lord will make his glory known to
us. Pray and ask. His ear's not heavy that it cannot
hear. This place And what we do here
is not just a place to hold religious-sounding meetings. It's a place of worship. And I want to tell you what,
there's not one of these in every town. But God's given us one
here. I'm telling you, that's a reason
to cry out in thanksgiving and praise, isn't it? Oh, we just
can't be thankful enough. The thrice holy God has promised
He will hear the prayers of his people, sinful though they may
be. Now that's being surrounded by
God's goodness. What a blessed privilege. Almighty
God would stoop to hear the cries, the prayers of you and me. Isn't
that something? Then the third goodness we're covered in is
God's electing love. Verse four. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts, We should be satisfied with the goodness
of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Now I've already touched
on God's covenant of grace made before time began. The father
elected a people into salvation. You know why he did that? Just
because he would. Just because God is good and
he determined to save a people for his glory and to cover those
people with his goodness. God's electing love. I just love
this verse four, blessed is the man whom thou choosest. That's an understatement, isn't
it? Also blessed that God would choose
us. That's God's electing love. God
didn't choose us because we are any count. God chose a people
to save because he has the capacity to love sinners. God's election
is electing love. And electing love is the foundation
of salvation. God's electing love is the starting
point of the good news of the gospel. You cannot preach the
gospel without preaching God's electing love. And those people
that the Father elected unto salvation, they will be brought
to Christ through the preaching of the gospel. David says here,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and cause us to approach
unto thee. God's gonna cause his people
to approach unto him. They're going through their life.
They're an enemy of God. They might not have any care
about God in this world. They may be forced by some means
to have to sit under the sound of the gospel, and it's the most
boring thing in this world. And they just think, I cannot
wait to get out of here. But you just keep preaching to
them, because this I promise you, if God chose them, he's
going to cause them. He's going to draw them to come
to Christ so that they can't not come to Christ. He's going
to make them willing in the day of his power through the preaching
of Christ in crucified. He's going to draw all. All his
elect all that the father gave him to save. He's going to draw
them all to Christ. God said to his people. I've
loved you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn, have I drawn thee, and you, and you, and you. On purpose? The likes of us? The only explanation for that
is God's electing love. That's being covered. That is
being covered with blessing, blessing untold. And God does
that every year. This year, hadn't God done that?
Just here in our midst, hadn't God done that? Drawing his people
to himself. And all those people that he's
drawn, do you know what he's kept them? He's kept them just
like he has every other year. God's kept them. God draws his
people to himself and he makes them dwell in God's courts. He makes them dwell in Christ. And there they stay. in Christ,
in the Son of God, in the Savior that the Father sent to be the
Savior of sinners. God's drawn his people to himself
and makes them stay, dwell in Christ. Now, if you're in Christ,
you're surrounded with God's goodness on every side. That makes me ashamed that I've
ever complained once this year and then you. David says God's
people will be satisfied. Well, if you're in Christ, you're
satisfied, aren't you satisfied? And you know nothing will happen
that will ever make God cast away one of those people that
he's chosen and drawn to himself. He'll never cast away one of
them. You know why? He's satisfied
with them in Christ because of who Christ is and what Christ
has done and what Christ has made them. Now that is being
surrounded by God's goodness, isn't it? Then the fourth goodness we're
covered in is God's calming presence. Verse six, David says, which
by his strength sat as fast the mountains being girded with power,
which stilleth the noise of the seas. The noise of their waves
and the tumult of the people. Now before the Lord saves his
people, he chose them unto salvation. Before he draws them to himself,
now they're rebels, aren't they? That's the way every one of us
were born, rebels. Children of wrath, even as others. And boy, we're troubled. I mean,
before we know Christ, now we're troubled and our hearts rage. They rage against the Lord. Let
me show you that back in Psalm chapter 2. They rage against
him. Psalm 2 verse 1. Why do the heathen rage and that
word is tumultuously assembled? They make a tumult just like
David's talking about Psalm 65. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
His anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. Now, if you're rebelling against
God, trying to break the yoke of His rule off of you, break
those bands asunder, you're raging in a losing battle. You're not
going to cast God's reign over you, his yoke, you're not gonna
do it. It's raging. That's the way we
are by nature, raging against God. But I'm telling you, when
God saves a sinner, and he draws that sinner to Christ, tell you
what he does, he conquers that sinner. He conquers them. I don't know how to say this
exactly right, but I hear this in false religion. People talking
about Jesus saving them. Talk about a savior, talk about
a savior. And that's good. I mean, I am all for a savior.
But you know what they never talk about? Never. A king. A king, the king that I bow to. The king who has conquered me.
The king who will do with me as he will. The king. Now I'm
talking about even his people. Now he God's going to do with
you and me as he will. I mean, you might like to be
doing something else, but you're going to do what God has for
you to do. He's going to do with us and use us in his service
as he will. When God saves a sinner and draws
them to Christ. He conquers them and they're
like solitarsis down there in the dust. Lord, what would you
have me do? You know what God's done? He
is still the noise of their rebellion. He's made him to be quiet. He
makes them to quietly submit to him, to willingly bow before
him in worship. And I'm telling you, only God
can do that. David likens it to stilling the noise of the
sea. I love going to the beach. My family's already planning
a beach trip this spring. I love watching that sea, sitting
on the beach and watching the sea. I mean, it's just in constant
motion. It's never still. The tide's going in and out,
and the waves constantly come crashing on the shore. And boy,
there's a storm. Boy, that, everything becomes
more violent. That in and out becomes more violent. The waves
become bigger. The crashing becomes bigger.
It's just a tumult. And you imagine that storm raging. And I look at that sea sometimes,
and I think, well, that's my heart. It's just raging. It's
never still. It's not peaceful. And the Savior
comes and says, peace be still. And there's calmness. I mean,
that thing is flat as glass. Just like that Gadarene demoniac. Boy, he raged, didn't he? I mean,
he raged. They tried to bind him with chains.
He just broke him apart. They put handcuffs on him. He
just broke him apart. I mean, they couldn't do nothing
with him. They just tried to avoid him. They could not do
anything with this man. He's a wild man. And the Savior came
and met him. And with a word, that man was
calm. He was calm. And when those people
from town, they came back out, you know what they saw? They
saw that man calm in his right mind and sitting. And it scared
him to death. Ask the Lord to leave. I read
that and say, Lord, have mercy on me. Calm my raging heart. If you met Christ, you know this.
When he speaks in power and grace, your time of rebellion is over. And there's a calm. And the Lord
keeps doing that for his people. You know, to say, well, God saves
you and he calms your heart. There's never another problem
or issue in your life. No, sir. There's going to be
many trials and troubles and tribulations, many storms to
go through. At one time or another, every
believer finds themselves in a little boat, out in the middle
of the deep sea, in the middle of the night, in a fierce storm
that's raging around us, that we're just sure is gonna sink
our little boat. Just like the disciples were. Remember the
Lord sent them back across in that little boat, and then he
sent a storm, tossed them and turned them, just like a cork
on the sea. And then the Savior comes. walking
to us on the storm. On it, not in it. On it. It says to our hearts. Peace
be still. And there's a calmness of heart.
And I'll tell you why that happens. Look over at Isaiah Chapter 43.
That happens because our God keeps his vow. He kept his vow. He kept his promise to the father
and he keeps his promise to his people. Isaiah 43. Verse two. Now when, he doesn't say if,
no, you will. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When, not if, but when thou walkest
through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall
the flame kindle upon thee. Because I'm with you. Because
I'm with you. This is one of the great lessons
that I've learned in times of trial, something that is as sweet
to me as anything. And you'll find it too, eventually,
in a time of trouble. That the Savior's presence with
you will give you, make you enjoy
a peace that's better than if the Lord took the storm away. His presence in the midst of
that dark, dark night, in the midst of that trial you think
is just gonna crush you. The scripture often talks about
a trial, talks about a tight place. You're just being squeezed
to death. And having His presence with
you, even though it's still dark, even though you're still being
squeezed, is more precious and a more sweet peace than if he
removes the trial altogether. It really is. And you know, if you think about
it, you know, we think about how easily our hearts are put
into a tumult, right? You know, we get become so worried
and so, you know, just running around like a chicken with our
head cut off. But if you think about it, the believer doesn't
have anything to be afraid of. Not really, not really. Our Savior's
already put our sin away. He's already made peace with
God for us by the blood of his cross. He's already given us
eternal life. He's already promised us his
presence and said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's
already promised, I'm only gonna do you good. I've surrounded
you with my goodness. The worst thing that he could
allow to happen to our bodies is that they die. What happens
then? the believer immediately goes
into the presence of the Savior to see him face to face. To think
about being able to leave this body and go to be face to face
with the Savior because of what he's done for us, that is being
surrounded by his goodness. You can't escape it. Then the
fifth goodness is how our God enables his people to plow into
water in God's field. And notice how he says this,
verse nine. Thou visitest the earth and waterest it. Thou greatly
enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water.
Thou preparest them corn, when thou art so provided for it.
Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly. Thou settlest the
furrows. You plowed it and you settled
the furrows. You caused the furrows to be
plowed thereof. Thou makest it soft with showers.
Thou blesses the springing thereof. Now God does all that, doesn't
he? God waters, God plows, but the Apostle Paul says, we plow,
we sow, and we water. Now we do it, but God does it,
doesn't he? See what I'm saying there? You know, we meet here
every week to preach Christ and to publicly worship him. You
just can't worship Privately like he came publicly public
worship is so important God is to be worshiped. He's to be worshiped. It's to be done publicly. We
need each other We encourage one another this matter of public
worship Public worship is where the Savior promised to be two
or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the
midst of them? To be able to have this place
where we can come and you come in here and you know the Gospels
could be preached Now that's being surrounded by God's goodness,
isn't it? You don't have to wonder what's gonna be preached today.
I hope you never have to wonder that. You never think, well,
I gotta pick through a bunch of gravel to find a seed here
and there. This is a blessing. And when
God's word is being preached, there's a whole lot going on.
And this is what we preach. When we meet together, we preach
God's word. Preaching is sowing the seed.
sowing the seed of God's word in the hearts of God's people.
And it's watering God's garden. And we do that so we'll have
a harvest of souls. That's what the apostle Paul
said. I planted it and Paul is watering. But now God gave the
increase. If there's going to be an increase,
God's going to do it. We preach the word, but only God can make
it fall on the good ground. We water, but only God can make
that fall on the good ground. Only God gives that increase
of spiritual life to his people. And that is a miraculous thing. It's a miraculous thing that
we cannot make happen. Now we can preach the word, we
can pray, we do those things, but we can't make life happen.
It's a miracle that God uses the preaching of his word to
give spiritual life to a dead sinner. You know, as the word's
being preached, and the person's probably heard it many, many,
many times, as the word's being preached, Suddenly, there's life
where there wasn't any before. Suddenly, the lights on. I don't
know how many years I've been pastor here, 13 maybe, I don't
know. I have yet to have somebody come and ask me to baptize them
and be shocked. I knew it. I think I've known
it every single time. Because as I'm preaching, I see
the lights on. I see it, I know. Suddenly there's
life where it wasn't before. Do you know we've seen that happen
a number of times this year, haven't we? What a year. That's
being surrounded by God's goodness. But I'll tell you the other thing
going on when the word is being preached. God's sheep are being
fed. You know, this word is the children's
bread. It feeds the hearts and the souls
of God's people. I mean, you just can't go without
it. If you're a believer, you can't go without the children's
bread. You know, last Sunday, I told you I was so excited to
get up and preach. It'd been a week since I preached.
You know, Christmas, Fall, and Wednesday, so we didn't have
to have a midweek service. Maybe by the time Sunday rolled
around, I was so anxious. And isn't it amazing how hearing
the gospel strengthens and sustains our souls. Now, it's a soul. It's a hard work, isn't it? But
don't you feel a little lighter in your feet? I mean, you even
feel physically the importance of God's sheep being fed. Oh,
don't don't don't miss an opportunity to be fed if you can help it.
Those sheep are important to God. Look, he says in verse 13.
The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys also are
covered over with corn. They shout for joy. They also
sing. David's here talking about the
church, the pastures being covered with flocks, covered with God's
sheep. You know why they're all there? God gave them life. God
drew them to Christ and God put them right there, right there
where they should be, a place where they can be taught, a place
where they can be fed, a place where they can be kept safe.
That's God's goodness just surrounds us, doesn't it? And you're the
reason, there's a concrete reason for all of God's goodness to
his people. It's the sacrifice of Christ.
Look back at verse three, Psalm 65. Iniquities, my iniquities,
they prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. Now the Lord Jesus Christ has
fulfilled his vow. the sin of his people, that would
damn them. They prevailed against us. There's
another way to do it. They would damn us. He has taken that sin
away from his people and he purged it away. He purged it with his
blood so that it does not exist. God's people, they're saved,
they're cleansed, they're redeemed. It's all by the sin atoning blood
of Christ. It's the blood, it's the blood,
it's the blood, it's the blood. And God has crowned his people.
He surrounded his people from eternity. With the cleansing
blood of Christ. In the blood of the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. If God chose you. He's never
seen you outside of Christ. He's always seen you in Christ. He's always seen you covered
with the blood. He's always seen you as your
sin being purged away. That was the father's purpose
before time and his purpose is just as sure as a past act of
God. But still yet. That sacrifice
had to be carried out in time. And that's what this table represents. It had to be carried out in time.
The body of our Savior, he had to be taken by those wicked cruel
men. And his body had to be bruised.
His body had to be broken, not just by men, but by the wheels
of God's justice. His body had to be torn. It had to be broken. He had to
be crushed for the sin of his people because that's what our
sin demands. And he shed his precious blood. Through that
torn broken body. To atone for the sin of his people.
Here in a few moments and we take that bread. That bread pictures
the broken body of our Lord, that body that He gave to be
broken as a sacrifice for the sin of His people. You think
how that body was broken. Let's not just go through this
as a religious ceremony, you know. Think about that bread. Think about the broken body of
our Savior, how He willingly gave His body to be broken. And
when you chew it, Hear it, hear your teeth grinding that. That's
the Savior being ground up in the wheels of God's justice. And then we'll take the wine.
That wine that pictures the precious blood of Christ has cleansed
me from all of my sin. Now we take this bread and this
wine. Here's what we're confessing before God, before our family,
before our friends. that the sacrifice of Christ
is my only hope of eternal life. The only way I can have eternal
life is my sins put away. The only hope I have of eternal
life is what this table represents. Christ's body broken for me.
His blood shed for me. If Christ did not die for me,
then I'm gonna have to die the second death for my sin in hell.
But if Christ died for me, I can never die. So my only hope, and
this is what we say when we take this table, we don't take it
lightly. We take this bread and this wine, this is what I'm saying.
My only hope, my only plea, the only one I even hope and plea
I want is Christ and Him crucified. That's what we're saying. And
that's a good way to end this year and to remember our Lord
Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for sin.