Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter 40. Genesis chapter 40. And it came to pass after these
things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had
offended their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth
against two of his officers. against the chief of his butlers
and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward
in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the
place where Joseph was bound. And the captain of the guard
charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and they continued
the season in ward. And they dreamed a dream, both
of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according
to the interpretation of his dream, the butler, and the baker
of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And Joseph
came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and behold,
they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers
that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying,
wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we have
dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph
said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them,
I pray you, And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and
said to him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in
the vine were three branches. And it was as though it budded,
and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought
forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and
I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him,
this is the interpretation of it, the three branches are three
days. Yet, within three days, shall
Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place,
and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the
former manner, when thou wast his butler. And think on me,
when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee,
unto me. And make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me
out of this house. For indeed, I was stolen away
out of the land of the Hebrews, And here also have I done nothing
that they should put me into the dungeon. When the chief baker
saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I
also was in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on
my head. And in the uppermost basket, there was all manner
of baked meats for Pharaoh, and the birds that eat them out of
the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation thereof. the three baskets are three days.
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee,
and shall hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh
from off thee. And it came to pass the third
day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all
his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler
and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored
the chief butler unto his butlership again, and he gave the cup into
Pharaoh's but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted
to them. Yet did not the chief butler
remember Joseph, but forgot him. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our father, we bow again before
your awesome throne of grace, seeking thy blessing upon our
service this morning. Father, how I beg of thee that
you send your spirit upon us and give us a true worship service. Don't let us just go through
the motions of religion, having the right form and ceremony,
but Father, make this a worship service. For by your spirit and
by your power that you speak to our hearts, that you enable
us for this time to truly worship thee. to worship you in spirit
and in truth. Father, I beg of you that you
cause the gospel of your dear son to run well this morning,
that you would enable me to rightly divide the word of truth. What
name is sufficient for these things? Father, I pray you not
let your people suffer because of the weakness of the vessel,
that you not let your glorious name suffer because of the weakness
of the vessel, Father, enable me in the power of thy spirit
to preach Christ and him crucified in clear and simple terms. And
Father, I pray you'd be with each one who's here this morning,
that you'd enable us to hear and believe, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and have everlasting life. Father, I pray you'd show
us your glory this morning, the glory, your redemptive glory
in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for
this time we have to observe your table and to remember the
sacrifice of Christ our Lord, how willingly and freely he gave
himself to redeem his people from all of their sins. Father,
cause us to remember in joy in him. Father, this great blessing
we ask in the name of, for the glory of Christ our Savior. It's in his name, for his sake
we pray. Amen. All right, now hold your place there
in Genesis chapter 40. We'll come right back there.
Turn over to Luke chapter two, if you would. I've named or titled
the message this morning, Christ the Revealer. In Luke chapter
two, this is when Mary and Joseph bring the child Jesus on the
eighth day to be circumcised In Genesis chapter two, verse
25. And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. The same man was just and devout,
waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was
upon him. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to
do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up
in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now let us thou
thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine
eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before
the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and
the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled
at those things which were spoken of him, and Simeon blessed them,
and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign
which shall be spoken against. Yea, a sword shall pierce through
thy own soul as well, and the thoughts of many hearts may be
revealed. That the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed. Now Simeon prophesied that the
hearts of men are gonna be revealed, the secrets of the heart, what's
in the heart of man is gonna be revealed by this baby, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And his prophecy is true, isn't
it? It is Christ the Savior who reveals
the hearts of all men. When we hear Christ preach, that
reveals what's in our hearts. This matter of sin, it's a nature
of sin, and it's found in the heart, in the heart. Christ reveals
that. Sin is not so much externally,
but sin is in the heart. The nature of sin, the fountain
of sin is in the heart. And this thing of salvation,
that's something that's done in the heart. It's not an external
thing, walking in an aisle, making some public profession, although
a person will make a public profession if God saved him, but it's not
salvation on the external thing. It's in the heart. It's a work
that God does in the heart. And the sin that's in our heart
is revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sin is revealed by
our refusal to believe on Christ. By nature, that's all of us.
By nature, we refuse to believe on Christ. We refuse to trust
Christ alone. We insist on having our own works
added to it, don't we? And the faith that God the Holy
Spirit puts in his heart, in the hearts of his people, that's
revealed by Christ too. It's revealed, what's in the
heart is revealed when God's people believe him. They hear
him preach and they believe him because God's put faith in their
hearts. And that faith can only be seen
by trusting Christ, trusting him to do all the saving for
us. It's him who reveals our sin, and it's him that reveals
the faith that he's put in our hearts. He's the revealer of
hearts. Well, Joseph is a type of Christ in how that he is the
revealer of secrets, the revealer of dreams. Joseph revealed what
was in his father's heart, didn't he? Joseph revealed the love
that was in his father's heart. It was easy for everybody to
see Joseph is the favorite son. What? Jacob loved him the most.
Joseph revealed the hatred that was in his brother's hearts.
It was easy to see his brothers hated him. Look how they treated
him. Threw him in a pit without water, took his coke prime, sold
him into slavery. He revealed the hatred that was
in their hearts. Joseph was the revealer of the
future. Remember he had those dreams and he told his dreams
to his family. He is the revealer of the future.
They're all gonna come bow down to him. And Joseph is the revealer
of dreams. when he interpreted the dreams
of the butler and the baker, he actually revealed, by interpreting
these dreams, Joseph is the revealer of the gospel, the gospel of
Christ. I wanna show you that this morning.
I have three points to show you these are the things that Christ
reveals to his people. The number one is this, Christ
reveals the secret of our sin. Back in Genesis 40, verse one. It came to pass after these things
that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended
their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against
two of his officers, against the chief of his butlers and
against the chief of his bakers. Now the butler and the baker,
they knew why they were in prison. They knew what they did wrong.
They didn't need Joseph to reveal that to them. They knew what
they'd done to offend Pharaoh. But you and I, We need Christ
to reveal our sin to us. It has to be revealed. We're
spiritually blind, so we can't see our sin. The only way we
can see our sin is by seeing Christ, by seeing Him in contrast
to us. Only then do we see how sinful
we are. The Lord, as He hung physically
helpless, on Calvary Street, he revealed that thief's sin
to him, didn't he? That thief said, we're getting
what we deserve. This man done nothing amiss.
He knew his sin by seeing that man who had done nothing amiss.
He knew it by seeing Christ. Wednesday evening, Gene Patterson
and I were talking. Gene made a great statement.
He said, I didn't even know I was a sinner until I heard the gospel. He said, I was dating this girl,
Amy. She brought me to hear the gospel. He said, the first time
I ever found out I was a sinner. That's the way we are. We don't
know our sin until we hear the gospel. We're like Jean. Jean
said, I thought I was all right. Until I heard the gospel and
found out I'm in trouble. Christ is the revealer of our sin. Yeah,
we all think we're all right. Until we really hear the gospel.
Sadly, we can grow up under the sound of the gospel and still
think we're all right until God makes us hear it in the heart. Then we know our sin. We don't
have any idea what sin really is until we see Christ. Job thought he was a pretty righteous
fella, didn't he? Until he saw Christ. After he
saw Christ, that's when Job said, I abhor myself, but not before.
Peter, he was pretty impressed with himself, wasn't he? Until
he saw the glory of Christ. Then Peter said, Lord, depart
from me, for I'm a sinful man. If the Holy Spirit ever reveals
Christ to us, that's when we'll see our sin. And I tell you how
we're gonna see our sin. We're gonna see. Sin is not what
we do out there in the world. I told somebody recently, I grew
up utterly afraid of honky-tonks. I didn't know what a honky-tonk
was, but Henry said, sin's not out there in the honky-tonks.
And I didn't know what that was, but that's a bad place, you know.
Well, sin's not out there in the bars and the honky-tonks
and the places. It's in the heart. And you know when we'll see that?
When we see Christ and I find out I've been trusting myself
instead of trusting you. That's when I find out what sin
is. That's when the Lord reveals Christ to me. That's when I'm
gonna know I'm the sinner. I'm gonna quit believing in total
depravity and I'm gonna start believing I'm totally depraved.
And here's the way I know that. I can't believe Christ and I
won't believe him by nature. That's how I'm gonna know I'm
a sinner. My sin is revealed by seeing Christ. Number two,
Christ reveals the secret of God's undeserved election of
a people. The butler and the baker, they
both had dreams, didn't they? One was a good outcome, one was
an unpleasant outcome. But both of those outcomes were
determined beforehand by the will of God. See, God gave them
those dreams to tell them what God was planning to do. This
has already been determined by the will of God. One of them's
gonna live, one of them's gonna be put to death. That's election. That's what election is. God
chooses to be merciful to one. They don't deserve it, but God
chooses to be merciful to you. And God lets the other have what
they want. God lets them go there, just
leaves them alone, leaves them to God's justice. That's what
election is. Now I'm telling you, it is utterly
impossible for us to preach the gospel or to believe the gospel
until we preach and believe God's electing love. Because that's
where the gospel begins. The good news of the gospel begins
with God's electing love. God chose a people that don't
deserve it. And if God didn't choose us first,
I promise you this, we'd never choose him. He had to choose
us first. God's electing love. Here's how
important. You think, well, you know, is
this truth of election really, I mean, men hate it so much.
Is it worth just picking a fight and preaching it right off the
bat? Would everybody agree here? that the Lord Jesus is the prince
of preachers. If anybody could ever preach, it's him, wouldn't
you say? The subject of his very first public message was God's
electing love. That's how important this thing
is. Salvation is up to the one who's in charge. Salvation is
up to the will of the one who's in charge. Now who's in charge?
Me or God? What a dumb question. God is,
God is. Look at verse three. And Pharaoh,
he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into
the prison, the place where Joseph was found. And the captain of
the guard charged Joseph with them. And he served them and
they continued to ward in a season. Now Joseph is a prisoner, but
he's the man in charge. He's in charge of this place.
What a good picture of Christ that is. There's so many examples
of the man Jesus appearing to be a common, ordinary, weak,
uneducated man, yet this man's in charge of everything. He's
in charge of the wind and the waves. He's in charge of germs
and sickness. He's in charge of life and death.
Somebody could be dead, he'd tell them, get up, and they do.
This man's in charge. When he stood in chains before
Pilate, I mean, here's Pilate in his finery, the ruler of this
place. Here's this man, Jesus, who's
been beaten half to death and his face all swollen and lacerated
and standing there in chains. Who's in charge? Not Pilate. Pilate tried to let him go. The
Lord wouldn't have it because he's determined to suffer and
die for his people. Even when he was nailed to a
cross, he's in charge, wasn't he? He passed one of those things
by and gave eternal life to the other one. But today, shalt thou
be with me in paradise. Here's another good picture of
Christ. Look at verse five. They dreamed a dream, both of
them. Each man his dream in one night. Each man according to
the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the
king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And Joseph came
in unto them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold,
they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers
that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying,
wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we've
dreamed a dream and there's no interpreter of it. And Joseph
said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them,
I pray you. I'll tell you, we have a high
priest. Joseph is a picture of Christ. We have a high priest
who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. I love how
Joseph came in and cared that these two men look sad today. I mean, that kind of shamed me,
thinking about it. If I was in prison for a crime
that I didn't commit, I can promise you this, I'm not going to care
how anybody else looks. Joseph did. He cared these men
look sad that day. He wasn't bitter because he's
a picture of Christ. who endured and suffered everything
he suffered, willingly. He wasn't bitter about it because
it's his will happening. It's his will that he suffer
and die for the sins of his people because he loved those people.
And he revealed God's electing love, his electing love of a
sinful people. Every son of Adam deserves to
be damned, but God's gonna save somebody. He's gonna save somebody
because he chose to. Now here's the main point. Here's
what Christ reveals. He reveals the secret, that salvation
is by God's grace, not our works of the law. And the interpretation
of these two dreams tells us salvation is by God's grace,
not our works. Let me show you that, verse nine.
And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to
him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine
were three branches. And it was as though it budded,
and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought
forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and
I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him,
this is the interpretation of it, the three branches are three
days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh
lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place. and thou
shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner
when thou wast his butler. But think on me when it should
be well with thee. Show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make
mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For
indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and
here also have I done nothing that they should put me into
the dungeon. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was
good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, And behold,
I had three white baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket,
there was all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh, and the birds
that eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered
and said, this is the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are
three days, yet within three days, shall Pharaoh lift up thy
head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree, and the
birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. Now the key to understanding
the spiritual meaning of these two dreams and the interpretation
of it is within three days, Pharaoh will lift up thine head. He used
that phrase to the butler. In three days, Pharaoh will lift
up thy head. And he used it to the baker. In three days, Pharaoh
will lift up thine head. And that phrase, lift up thine
head, means to reckon. It means to reckon. Now the word
reckon has quite a few different meanings. You know, we use the
word, at least I do, to mean, well, I guess so. Jan will ask
me, you know, is something true? I say, well, I reckon. Our Lord
never uses that term, because he never guesses. He never supposes. He declares what's so. He doesn't
use the word reckon like we do. The word reckon also means to
include in a particular group. You know, a person is reckoned
to be a genius because they're so much smarter than all the
rest of us. Paul uses that word in Romans 6, verse 11. Likewise,
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. You can reckon
yourself to be in that group that's dead to sin and alive
to God if Christ has died for you. If he's given you faith
in him, you can reckon yourself to be dead to sin, and alive
to God. You count yourself in that group.
Then reckon is also a mathematical term. It means to calculate the
right answer. There's no guessing here. It's
to calculate the right answer. Paul uses that word in Romans
8, verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Paul did a mathematical
He set up two sides of the ledger and he compared them. And it
was obvious, the sufferings of this present time, they're much
less than the glory which shall be revealed in us. They're much
less than the glory of Christ. That wasn't a guess. That was
an exact calculation. Now the salvation of a sinner
hangs on this word reckon. Reckon. God reckons his people
to be righteous. because they are righteous. He
reckons them to be righteous because that's what God made
them. He made them to be righteous. God reckons his people. Now he
chose them. They're sinful, vile people.
They've never done one good thing, but he reckons his people to
be holy because they are holy. God does not, when he says, well,
I reckon my people, I count my people to be holy. It's not like
I know they're unholy, but I'm pretending like they're holy.
No, he reckons them to be holy because they are. They are holy. Christ made them holy. Let me
show you that Romans chapter four. He made them holy and when God
reckons his people to be righteous, he reckons them to be righteous
by his grace, not our works. Romans four. Verse four. Now, to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, right? If you work
and you get a reward, it's because it's a debt, somebody owes it
to you. If you work, it's not grace,
it's a debt. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. Now, unless you just insist on Believe in what you've always
believed in your blindness and believe in what you've always
believed because you heard it from a false prophet. You can't mistake what
Paul's saying there. Righteousness comes by faith
in Christ. By trusting Christ. Not by our works. Christ made
his people righteous. Our works can never make us righteous. Being made righteous. That's
the gift of God's grace. Look at verse 8 in that same
chapter. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, you and I are sinners. All
we've ever done is sin. Every action, every thought,
every motive, everything is sin. Well, how can God not impute
sin to us? You impute is an accounting term. You impute what is actually
there. You impute what's actually there.
It's not like, well, nothing's there. There's no righteousness
and God imputes. That doesn't mean God puts righteousness
there. That's not what imputes mean. Imputes mean God's count
somebody to be righteous because that's what's already there.
Well, how can God not impute sin to the sinner, huh? The only
way God could not charge you and me with our sin and remain
holy and remain just is if he charged Christ with our sin.
If Christ has made sin for his people at Calvary, the father
imputed, He reckoned Christ to be sinned because the Father
had made Him sin. He made Him sin for His people.
And then the Father slaughtered His Son. He slaughtered Him in
justice so that He could be merciful to His people in justice. He
punished Christ so He didn't have to punish His people. Now,
whoever God did that for, they're blessed, aren't they? They're
blessed. the father took the sin of a
man away from him and put it on Christ, took the righteousness
of Christ and put it on him, that man's blessed. That man's
blessed of God. That's an undeserved gift of
God's grace. Now read on, verse nine. It has
to be by grace. Come with this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only, upon the Jews, or upon the uncircumcision
also, the Gentiles. For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness. Well, how was it then reckoned?
When he was in circumcision or uncircumcision? Not in circumcision,
but in uncircumcision. Abraham was circumcised as a
seal of that covenant, but faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness
long before he was circumcised. That's what Paul's saying there.
So he's not righteous because he went through that ceremony
of circumcision. He's made righteous by faith.
By faith in Christ, he believed God. Verse 11, he received the
sign of circumcision. the seal of the righteousness
of the faith which he had, being yet uncircumcised, that he might
be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised,
even though they haven't done that work, that righteousness
might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being
yet uncircumcised, for the promise that he should be the heir of
the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law,
but it's through the righteousness of faith. Now this is why I said
a minute ago, the salvation of a sinner hangs on this word reckoned. God reckons his people to be
righteous because that's what Christ made. He made sin for
us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God the Father took the sin of
his people and made it Christ. He was made sin. And then he
takes the righteousness of Christ and gives it to his people, makes
them righteous. Now that's a gift of grace. It's
received by faith. It's not earned by our words.
It's received by faith. The promise was not made through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Now that's what's pictured
back in our text in Genesis chapter 40. In his dream, the butler
had a cup of wine. That cup, or that cup of the
grapes, that represents the blood of Christ. The butler had the
fruit of the vine. The fruit of the true vine. The
Lord Jesus Christ, who's the vine, we're the branches. That's
what the butler had. He had what represented Christ.
Everything he had came from Christ. It's the fruit of the vine. The
butler had a basket of baked meats. And baked meats, that's
the works of the baker. That's what the baker made in
his kitchen. That represents man's works. Now here's what I'm sure is true
about these baked meats. They're the best you could find.
I mean, they're the best you could find. This man, Pharaoh's
baker. Pharaoh didn't get the guy that
graduated in the middle of the class from culinary school. He
got the top guy. I mean, this guy, oh, what a
baker he was. The stuff he made tasted so good. But it wasn't good enough. It
wasn't good enough. That's a picture of our works.
Oh, you might think you've produced works that impress other men,
huh? But they're not good enough.
They're not good enough to impress God. They're not good enough
that God will accept them. If God's gonna accept them, they
gotta be perfect. Perfect. Now surely nobody here thinks
their works are perfect. I mean, all of us would say,
well, you know, I'm not perfect. I'm pretty good. I'm not perfect,
but I'm better than old so-and-so down there. It must be perfect
to be accepted. The butler, he's a picture of
salvation in Christ, by the obedience of Christ, by the blood of Christ's
sacrifice. Sinners are saved by grace because
Christ died for them, even though they don't deserve it. That's
grace. Christ died for them. I hope we never become so over
familiar with the gospel that these things don't cease to amaze
us. In order for God to be gracious to his people, Christ died for
them. He was made sin. He was separated
from his father. He endured his father's wrath
and was slaughtered. Why? Because he loved people
like you and me. So that God could be gracious
to us. The sacrifice of Christ made
God's elect to be righteous. So God is right. The mathematical
calculation is accurate. He reckons them to be righteous
because they are. That's what Christ made them.
The baker, he represents salvation by man's works. Now listen, God
will meet you on the ground that you want to come to him on. He
sure will. If you'll come to him, Seeking
His grace, you wouldn't come to Him on any other grounds than
the unmerited, unearned, undeserved grace of God that's found in
Christ Jesus. You've come to Him as a guilty
mercy beggar just pleading for nothing but pure mercy from God.
God will meet you on that ground. And if you insist on coming to
God in your own works, and probably most people aren't so foolish
that they'd want to come exclusively in their own works. Most people
will say this, I want to come to God in Christ, plus what I
do. I've done some good things, I'll
let Christ finish it up. If you want to come to God on
that ground, on those merits, God will meet you there. He'll
meet you there, and you'll be convinced. That's a fact. The baker represents salvation
by man's works. He had those wonderful bakemans.
God wouldn't accept them. They're birds. They're just bird
food. Bird seed, that's all they are.
See, salvation all hinges on God's reckoning. We're either what we are, we're
made in Adam, or what we're made in Christ. It's God's reckoning.
Now, shockingly, shockingly, when Joseph's interpretation
of these dreams came true, the baker, I'm forgetting, or the
butler, excuse me, the butler, Plum forgot it. Look at verse
20. And it came to pass after the third day, which was Pharaoh's
birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants, and he
lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker
among his servants, and he restored the chief butler again unto his
butlership again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
And he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to
them, yet did not the chief butler Remember Joseph, but forgot him. Now, I began studying this last
week. I was preparing it for Wednesday
night. I got to that last verse, and that's what made me want
to save it till today. Observe the Lord's table together this
morning. After what Joseph did for that
butler, he gave him such hope, he just plum forgotten. You would
think, after the Lord does something so wonderful for us, I mean the
likes of us, that he would be made sin for us. That he'd suffer
and die for our sin. That he'd put us in a place where
he'd call us by his gospel and enable us to believe it. Enable
us to see Christ. A blind person thinks that's
foolishness, but you see Christ. He gave you faith to believe
Christ and to believe His Word. You see Christ in it. You love
Christ. He called you. He's kept you. He's preserved
you. He's provided for you. You see
His hand of grace everywhere, all through your life, don't
you? You'd think after the Lord does something so wonderful for
the likes of wretches like you and me, you'd think we'd never
forget it. We hear the gospel of God's grace
and we hear that salvation is by grace, not our work. And I
think I'm never gonna trust my works again. I'm never gonna
think, oh, God's gonna bless me because I've been so faithful
to do this, that, or the other. I haven't done this, and I haven't
done this, and so-and-so's done this, so God's gonna bless me
and not bless them. I'm never gonna think that again. Because
this story of grace in Christ is just too wonderful. And then
in two seconds, that's what I'm doing. I forget. I forget. That's why the Lord gave us this
to remember Him. That's why he gave us this. The
bread and the wine is such a simple, beautiful way to remember the
Lord's sacrifice for our sin. This bread represents his broken
body, broken under the rod of God's justice against our sin. Right now, the bread is just
in whole pieces. In a minute, it's gonna be real
quiet. Men are gonna come, they're gonna start breaking that bread.
You're gonna hear it. They're gonna pass out that bread,
you're gonna take it, you're gonna put it in your mouth and
you're gonna start chewing it, you're gonna hear it. Our Lord gave us such a simple
thing, which is such a stark reminder of how his body was
broken and he was ground under God's justice. He suffered that
to save me. The wine represents his precious
blood, which he shed as an atonement for the sin of God's elect. Put
it all away forever. And we're going to be so blessed
after we observe this day. And we're going to leave here.
I'll speak for myself. Maybe you're not like me, but I'm going
to leave here thinking I'm not going to forget again. I'll think I'm never going to
be tempted to even look at my works ever again. But we will. Because that old
nature that's in us can't look to Christ. Can only look to self. And it's constantly going to
be fighting to make us trust in something that we've done.
And we're going to forget. But you want some comfort? Now
I'm not telling you it's okay to forget. I'm just telling you
that's the facts of life. You want some comfort for when
we do forget? Our Savior never forgets. He won't forget you. If he died for you, he won't. Our brother, the thief on the
cross, will tell us all about that one day, won't he? When
the Lord said, today shalt thou be with me in paradise, he's
gonna tell us, that day I was in paradise with him. And it's all because of what
this table represents. The broken body, the shed blood,
the sacrifice of Christ our Savior. All right, Jonathan, you may
distribute the bread.