The text this evening will be
taken from Psalm 88. Psalm 88. O Lord God of my salvation, I
have cried day and night before Thee. Let my prayer come before
Thee. Incline Thine ear unto my cry.
For my soul is full of trouble, and my life draweth nigh into
the grave. I am counted with them that go down into the pit.
I am as a man that hath no strength, free among the dead, like the
slain that lie in the grave, whom thou rememberest no more,
and they are cut off from thy hand. Thou hast laid me in the
lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon
me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy ways. Thou hast
put away mine acquaintance far from me. Thou hast made me an
abomination unto them. I am shut up, and I cannot come
forth. Mine eye mourneth by reason of
affliction. Lord, I have called daily upon
thee. I have stretched out my hands
unto thee. Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise
and praise thee? Shall thy lovingkindness be declared
in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? and thy righteousness
in the land of forgetfulness? But unto thee have I cried, O
Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. Lord,
why castest thou off my soul? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While
I suffer thy terrors, I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me. Thy terrors have cut me off.
They came round about me daily like water. They compassed me
about together. Lover and friend hast thou put
far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. Thank God for
his work. Let's bow together in prayer.
Our great God, our holy, sovereign, gracious Heavenly Father, we
bow in your presence this evening, thankful that we can come before
a throne of grace. crying, Abba, Father, and find
grace to help in time of need. We only dare come into your awesome
presence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, pleading his
blood that cleanses us from all sin, pleading his obedience that
makes us righteous, pleading your mercy and your grace to
sinners and your son. Father, of all the countless
many individual things we have to be thankful for. Chiefly,
how we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you
for salvation that's in him. How we thank you for righteousness
and forgiveness of sin that's in him that could come no other
way but by him. How we thank you for your amazing
goodness and graciousness that you would give an unspeakable
gift of your son to sinners such as we are to redeem our souls
from destruction. Father, we're thankful. And it
is our earnest prayer this evening that the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ be lifted up and extolled and everything that's said and
done here this evening, especially, Father, in the preaching of your
gospel, how we pray that you'd send your spirit upon us and
cause your word to go forth in power, to bring glory to your
name, to reach the hearts of your people, to give life, to
feed and to edify and to comfort. Father, cause us this evening
by thy spirit to be able to remember our Lord Jesus Christ, to remember
him and his sacrifice, what his sacrifice has accomplished for
your people. What we pray for ourselves, Father,
we pray for your people who are meeting together tonight, wherever
thy word is preached, Father, bless us. Bless your servants,
bless your people, bless your word to your glory, we pray.
Father, for those who are hurting and who are sick, who need you
so desperately in this hour, Father, we pray that you'd be
with them to heal, to comfort, to lead, and to guide and direct.
Father, increase our faith that even in those dark and difficult
times, we find our hope and our peace and sweet rest in Christ
our Savior. It's in His precious name, for
the glory of His name, we pray and give thanks. God's love has meant so much
to me. I want to praise His holy name. His grace and truth have set
me free. This blessed truth I would proclaim. He is my hope, my strength and
guide. His spirit does my soul inspire. He bled and groaned and died. Christ is the Savior I desire. The Savior is our living bread. Our wisdom and our righteousness. We eat His flesh, we drink His
blood. He is the source of all our bliss. my soul on things above, and
warms me with His sacred power. I want to feel His grace and
love. Christ is the portion I desire. He is my sun to give me light. His Spirit shall be blessed His
grace will bring supreme delight And give to me eternal rest Without
His mercies I would fall For His way I should inquire, I find in Him my all
in all. Christ is the treasure I desire. All right, let's open our Bibles
again to Psalm 88. I titled the message this evening,
The Savior's Cries. You may have noticed as I read
this psalm to begin the service, this is a psalm of affliction. It begins at a low point of sorrow
and it never turns to joy. Like many psalms do, they begin
at such a low point and they ascend up to a place of joy.
But not this psalm. It's a psalm of affliction from
beginning to end. And the reason for that is this
is our Lord Jesus Christ crying from the cross. Every word of
this psalm is Christ. You can't attribute this to David
at all. This is all the Son of David,
the Lord Jesus Christ. crying from the cross. And the
Lord has allowed us to hear His cries echo down through the ages
so that we'll know something of how He suffered for the sin
of His people. This is a psalm of affliction.
It's a psalm of sorrow. But now don't be mistaken. The
case is going to end well. Because when Christ suffered,
He suffered all of the He suffered all of the sorrow that the sin
of his people deserve. So there's none of that left
for them to suffer. He suffered it all. There's no
affliction left for God's elect to suffer because Christ, our
substitute was afflicted with all of it. He said in Isaiah
63 verse nine, in all their affliction, he was afflicted. He was afflicted
with everything there in the sin of his people deserves. So
first, I want us tonight to listen to the Savior's cries in prayer.
Verse one, Psalm 88. Oh, Lord God of my salvation,
I've cried day and night before thee. Let my prayer come before
thee. Incline thine ear unto my cry. These cries of the Savior to
his father in prayer were all cries of suffering. Many of the
Lord's prayers, often He went off by Himself and prayed all
night. We don't know the content of those prayers, do we? But
these cries of our Lord's prayers are recorded in Scripture for
our understanding. Everything that's in Scripture
is recorded for our understanding. And here's what we're to understand
about the cries of our Savior. The suffering of Christ accomplished
the salvation of His people. Everything he talked about, everything
he suffered so that we would know he suffered for all the
consequences of the sin of his people. And as he cried unto
his father in prayer, the father heard every cry. Not one of them
fell on deaf ears. Here the Savior cries to the
Lord God of my salvation. Now who is in charge of the cross? It was the Lord God of salvation. The God of salvation was in charge
of all the suffering of his son. Christ suffered to satisfy the
holy justice of God. And that enabled God to be the
God of salvation. He's not the God, God, the judge.
He's not God, the destroyers, not God, the consuming fire to
his people, because Christ suffered all that. And since Christ suffered
for the sin of his people, That enables God to be the God of
our salvation. I told the folks at Fairmont
Sunday morning, you know, the burden, the process of the preaching
is such a great, great burden. But I've got some good news. Don't ever think that there's
not a lot of joy in preaching the gospel too. I've got good
news. God saves sinners. The God of
our salvation saves sinners. Isn't that a miracle? He saves
sinners. And here's how He does it. The Father sent His Son to
accomplish His eternal purpose in the redemption of His elect.
The Father chose a people to save. He gave those people to
his son. But now we've got a problem.
Those people are sinners. They've got a sin debt that they
cannot pay. If they spend eternity in hell
for their sin, they'll never pay for one. They've got a sin
debt they cannot pay. So the father sent his son to
pay their sin debt for them. See at Calvary, the father and
the son doing business. Christ is not offering himself
to make us feel sorry for him. He's doing business with the
Father. They're doing business together to purchase the redemption
of God's lead. And the Savior's cries to his
Father are the cries, his cries during this great transaction. telling us something about this
great transaction that's taking place so that we would know Christ
suffered for all of the sin of his people and he paid it all
with his blood. Now, whoever it is he died for
is redeemed, aren't they? They have to be. He paid their
debt. Look at Matthew chapter 26. Let's
listen to a few of his cries in prayer. Matthew chapter 26. As I said, many of our Lord's
prayers are unrecorded in scripture, but here's one that's recorded.
Matthew 26 verse 36. Then come with Jesus with them into
a place called Gethsemane and sayeth unto the disciples, sit
ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death. Tear ye here, and watch with
Me. Now here the Lord Jesus was afraid.
The thought of being made sin for His people, the thought of
what He was going to suffer was so much, was going to be too
much for His flesh, He thought it was going to kill Him. In
verse 39, He went a little further, and He fell on His face and He
prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And look down at verse 42, he
prays again. He went away again the second
time and prayed, saying, Oh my father, if this cup may not pass
away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. Now there are saviors crying
in prayer. There's two things I see there.
Number one is this. I see a willing Savior. He prayed,
let this cup pass from me if it be possible. But since it's
not possible, I'll submit. I submit to your will and I will
drink every last drop of your fury against the sin of my people. The Savior did that willingly.
He loves his father. He's determined to honor his
father. He's determined to do what he told his father he would
do in the covenant of grace. But he also did that willingly
because he loves his people. And no matter what it takes,
he's going to pay their sin debt. He loves his people so much that
he will suffer untold agony and die to pay for their sin. And the second thing I see is
this. Salvation is impossible without Christ. It's impossible. The only way salvation is possible
is through the suffering and the death of Christ our Savior.
Our Savior said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But
it wasn't possible, was it? There is not any doubt in my
mind, the Father would not have caused his son to suffer so much. He wouldn't have given his son
the cup of his wrath to drink, to drink the very dregs of it
dry, if salvation could come some other way. He wouldn't have
done that. But salvation can't come any
other way, other than the suffering and the death of Christ our substitute.
So he suffered hell for his people. so that they would be saved.
Salvation is not possible any other way. Luke tells us as he
was praying, this agony of spirit was so great that great drops
of blood came out of the Savior's pores and began falling to the
ground like sweat. It just seems like the Savior's
fleshly body was falling apart, was just coming apart at the
seams at the thought of being made sin. I thought that's a pretty good
example of how little we know about sin. We live with our sin
every day. And we say we hate our sin, and
we do. We've never had a reaction anything
like that, have we? How horrible sin is and what
it's going to take to put it away is a whole lot greater than
the human mind can comprehend. And Luke also tells us that after
our Lord prayed, the Father sent an angel from heaven unto him,
strengthening him. That angel was sent in an answer
to the Savior's prayer to strengthen him and his flesh so he could
go to Calvary and accomplish the salvation of his people.
Look at John chapter 17. Now this is a psalm of affliction.
This is a psalm of suffering. But our Savior wasn't suffering
in any kind of doubt. Wondering, well, is this sacrifice
going to be successful or not? He wasn't suffering in doubt.
He already knew His suffering was going to accomplish the salvation
of His people. Listen to Him pray here. John
17 verse 1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hours come. How many
times do we read? They couldn't take him because
his hour was not yet come. Now he says, the hours come glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee as thou has given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. The savior knew this was going
to purchase eternal life for his people. Verse four, He said,
I've glorified thee on the earth. I've finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. I've manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
They have kept it, and they will keep it. Their salvation is going
to be purchased in this sacrifice. There's no doubt in the Savior's
mind. Verse 8, he says, I've given unto them the words which
thou gavest me, and they've received them, and they've known surely
that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou
didst send me. I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine. All mine are thine,
and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. The Savior
had no doubt he's going to be glorified in this sacrifice,
purchasing the eternal redemption of his people. Verse 12, he said,
there's no doubt in his mind, listen what he says. While I
was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that
thou gavest me, I've kept, and none of them is lost, and none
of them will be lost, but the son of perdition, that the scripture
might be fulfilled. Verse 20, neither pray I for
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word. They're the saviors praying for you and me. We are
those who believe through their word, through the word of the
New Testament that they wrote. That they all may be one. As
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. That they also may
be one in us. That the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them. That they may be one, even as
we are one. In verse 24. Father, I will. There's no hint of doubt in the
Savior's mind here, is there? Father, I will. That they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. That they may
behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. That's the Savior's prayers
for his people. And aren't you thankful the Father
heard every one of them? He heard every one of them. There's
no question. His people shall be saved from
their sin by his sacrifice. All right. Now, second, look
back in our text, Psalm 88. Listen to the Savior's cries
of suffering. Verse three. For my soul is full
of trouble and my life draws nigh unto the grave. Now the
Savior here is suffering for sin. He draws nigh unto the grave. He's going to die. because sin
demands death. The suffering of the Savior goes
a whole lot deeper than the suffering of His body. Although that is
unimaginable, it goes much deeper than the suffering of His body.
He says here, my soul is full of trouble. He says that because
He's making His soul an offering for sin. And this matters severe. Look at verse 7. Thy wrath flyeth
hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves." The Father's
wrath lay heavy upon His Son. This was heavy-handed justice. The strokes of justice were not
lightened one bit by the Father's love for His Son. They weren't
lightened one bit Those blows kept coming in the heaviest manner
possible. And they just kept coming in
wave after wave after wave upon the Savior. There could be no
mercy mixed with these blows of justice from the Father. Because
that's what you and I deserve. That's what the Savior was suffering.
Verse 8. Thou hast put away mine acquaintance
far from me. Thou hast made me an abomination
to them. I am shut up. and I cannot come
forth." The Savior suffered alone. Suffering alone, suffering anything
alone is just worse than suffering if somebody that loves you, somebody
that cares is there with you. If somebody you love is just
there to be with you and say, I'm sorry, it makes it better,
doesn't it? The Savior didn't have that.
He suffered completely alone, more alone than anybody before
or since. All of his friends deserted him.
Look at verse 18. He says, Lover and friend, hast
thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. Even Peter, who just a couple
of hours before, swore, these other fellows might leave you,
but I won't. I'll die with you. Even Peter slunk off into the
darkness. All he had to do is meet some
young girl and he swore he didn't even know the man. He suffered
alone. But worse yet, far worse yet,
the Savior suffered alone without the presence of His Father, without
the loving presence and fellowship of His Father. Listen to Him
cry from the darkness. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Oh, he's so alone. The father
had turned his back upon his son. Now, he didn't withdraw
his presence from him because the father's presence is there
punishing him, but he withdrew his loving presence. He felt
no love from his father. The father poured out his wrath
upon his beloved son without a hint of love. And he did that
because he had made his son sin for his people. And the Holy
God could do nothing but turn his back on him. The Holy Father
could do nothing but pour out unmitigated fury upon his son. He poured out a holy rage upon
his son. Look what he says in verse 14.
This is what he's talking about. Lord, why castest thou off my
soul? Why hidest thou thy face from
me? This was the Savior's worst suffering. It was the loss of His Father's
presence. And He cried about it from the
cross so His people would know Christ suffered hell for His
people. Now, I don't know a lot about
hell, and I don't want to know a lot about hell. You know, people
draw these pictures. You've got these visions of hell
and it's fire and all these things, you know. I don't know. But this is what I do know from
scripture. Hell is being separated from God. That is the worst suffering
of hell. And the Savior suffered it. My
God, my God, why is thou forsaken? Verse nine, he continues to cry,
mine I mourn it by reason of affliction. Lord, I've called
daily upon thee. I've stretched out my hands unto
thee. You know, they had a custom at that time to spread out their
hands in prayer. They were praying to God, calling
on God. Well, here, the Savior's hands
are stretched out, aren't they? They're nailed to the cross.
It seems like His hands are stretched out, so He's defenseless. So
every blow of God's justice falls upon His exposed body and soul. And they kept falling. And they
kept falling. and they kept falling until there
were no blows of justice left. They'd all been put away through
the suffering, the sacrifice of the substitute. And verse
15 shows us this was God's eternal purpose. I'm afflicted and ready
to die for my youth up. While I suffer thy tears, I am
distracted. The whole reason Christ came
to earth was for this moment. That's why He came to earth,
to suffer and die, to put away the sin of His people. And He
knew it from His youth up. You know, about this time of
year, this past weekend, you see a lot of documentaries and
shows, reenactments of the Lord Jesus' life. And every one of
them that I have ever seen, I mean, I try not to watch them because
I just get so mad. But I do. I stop and like, you
know, there's a wreck on the road. Everybody's got to stop
and rubberneck at it before they can move on. That's me. And every
one of them make it out to be like Jesus meets John the Baptist
and suddenly he starts to get some indication that the Father
sent me here for some purpose. No, no, no, no, no, no. He knew it from his youth. Wish
ye not. I must be about my father's business. I'm coming for this hour. He
was preparing for it from the time he was in the womb. And
until that hour came, you know what he was doing? He was working
out righteousness for his people so that when he was made sin
for them, he could make them the righteousness of God in him.
The whole reason Christ came to earth as a man was to suffer
and die. And his suffering and his death,
his broken body, his shed blood represented in this table, accomplished
the salvation of his people. What a joy for us tonight to
be able to come together and remember him, to remember his
sacrifice, his suffering, his death for his people that accomplished
their salvation. All right, thirdly, I want you
to listen. to the Savior's cry of death in verse 4, Psalm 88. I'm counted with them that go
down into the pit. I'm as a man that hath no strength.
Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave,
whom thou rememberest no more. And they're cut off from thy
hand. Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the
deeps. Now here the Savior is talking
about going down into the pit, going down into the grave. And
it's got to be that way. Sin requires more than suffering. Sin requires death. God's justice
demands it. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The Savior knows he's got to
die. He's got to be laid in the grave.
And he's told his disciples this before. This should not have
been a surprise to any of them. Remember that time he gathered
his disciples together? And he told them, I must needs
go to Jerusalem and to suffer many thing of the chief priest
and the scribes. I must be killed and rise again
the third day. And Peter always seemed like
the spokesman for the group, whether it's something that's
good or bad. Peter said, no, Lord, no, this should not be
unto thee. I'm just confident, you know,
believers seem to identify the most with Peter, don't we? We
identify with Peter. All he heard was Lord say, I'm
going to die. He didn't hear anything about
him being raised again the third day. I mean, I just know he didn't
hear that. And he said, no, Lord, this should
not be unto thee. And how did our Lord respond
to him? Get thee behind me, Satan. Not Peter, Satan, thou art an
offense unto me. I'm going to go to the cross.
I'm going to suffer. I'm going to die. Because that
is the only way salvation can be purchased. And only Satan
wouldn't want it to happen. Only Satan. He told his disciples,
I've got to go and suffer and die. And he's telling us that
again from the cross. Legions of angels are not going
to come save him because he's not going to call on him to do
it. The scribes and the Pharisees mocking him, the malefactors
hanging on each side of him, mocking him, saying, come down
from the cross and we'll believe you. Save yourself if you be
the Christ. Without a doubt, he's got the power to do it.
No question. But he's not going to use it.
He must die. He can't come down from the cross
if his people will be redeemed. He must die for the sin of his
people. God's justice must be satisfied
against their sin. Now look here at the end of verse
1. He says, I've cried day and night before thee. The Savior
cried in both day and night to the fathers he suffered. We read
how he cried and he prayed in the darkness of Gethsemane. He
cried from the cross. For a while, the sun shone on
that scene, didn't it? Them crucifying the Savior. As
the soldiers beat him and mocked him, the sun shone. When they
laid him down on that hunk of wood and nailed him to it, the
sun was in the sky. And you know he cried when they
did. You know he did. But then there are three hours
of darkness. From the sixth hour to the ninth
hour, there was darkness over all the earth. And in that time
of darkness, mostly the Savior was silent. And that darkness
and his silence shows us something. This great transaction going
on right now in this darkness between the father and the son
paid for sin is something you and I cannot understand. We just,
we can't, it's too great for us to be able to understand,
but this is what it took to put sin away and the son of creation
just refused to shine upon what was going on in creation. It's
just so great. We can't understand it. Then out of that darkness, he
cried. He cried, I thirst. Now, I have no doubt that his
tongue was sticking to the roof of his mouth. It was so swollen
and dry and cracked. His body had to be dehydrated. But when the Savior cried, I
thirst, he wasn't talking about H2O. He was saying, I thirst
for righteousness. because I've been made sin. I
thirst for righteousness. It's gone out of me. I thirst
for the loving presence of my father because it's gone. He
cried, I thirst. So his people would know how
fully he suffered for their sin. The Savior suffered a thirst
for righteousness so that he can tell anyone who's thirsty because he suffered that thirst
for them. If you thirst for righteousness,
if you can say with David, as the heart panteth after the water
brook, so my heart pants after thee, O God, you come to Christ
and have all you want, because he already suffered that thirst
for you. And as I said a minute ago, for
those three hours, mostly the Savior was silent. But then he
cried one more time, a second time, from the darkness he cried,
It is finished. He gave up the ghost. He gave
up the ghost and died because the great transaction is done.
It's finished. Salvation is accomplished. The
payment for sin is finished, paid in full by his blood. Sin
itself is finished. It's gone. No more can it destroy
God's people. Death is finished. He took the
sting out of death so that death can't harm anyone for whom Christ
died. Satan is finished. The prophecy from Genesis chapter
three is finished. His head's crushed. He's put
out of business. He can't hurt God's people anymore.
It's finished. God's purpose for the redemption
of his people is finished. Life itself Scripture tells us God loves
sinners. I wish folks, I know they're
dead, but I wish, I wish folks would be a whole lot less flippant
about the love of God. God loves sinners. That's what
Scripture tells us. The love of God for sinners is
much greater than you and I can ever imagine. Look what the father
caused his son to suffer so he could redeem sinners that he
loved. God's great love for sinners is demonstrated by his broken
body and his shed blood as he died for the sin of his people.
Then lastly, I want you to listen to the Savior's cry of the resurrection.
Look at verse 10, Psalm 88. Wilt Thou show wonders to the
dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Shall Thy lovingkindness
be declared in the grave, or Thy faithfulness in destruction?
Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark, and Thy righteousness
in the land of forgetfulness? But unto Thee have I cried, O
Lord, and in the morning shall my prayer go before Thee. Now
this psalm is a psalm of affliction. It's a psalm of sorrow from beginning
to end. And it doesn't rise to the heights
of joy as some other psalms do. But in these verses, there's
a pretty good hint of victory in there. The Savior is speaking
of His resurrection after He dies. See, before the Savior
died, He cried again, Father, Father, into Thy hand I commend
my spirit. Now earlier, out of the darkness,
He cried, My God, my God. But now he cries to his father. You know why? Fellowship's been
restored. The sacrifice of Christ took
away the sin that made God angry. And fellowship between the Father
and the Son is restored. Now the Savior knows he must
die. He gives up the ghost. But here
he's pleading with his Father for justice. He says, don't leave
me in the grave. A dead Savior who stays dead
is not going to praise the Lord. but a Savior who dies and rises
from the grave, that Savior will praise the Lord. When Christ
was raised from the dead, you know what God showed us? The
sacrifice of Christ got the job done. The sacrifice of Christ
satisfied God's justice and it justified everyone for whom He
died. Their sin has been put away. Now God can be praised for saving
sinners in the death the burial and the resurrection of his son.
In verse 5, the Savior says, don't forget me in the grave.
He says, free among the dead like the slain that lie in the
grave, whom thou rememberest no more. And they're cut off
from thy hand. Don't forget me, but remember
me and bring me out of the tomb. And you know, that's just what
the father did. Three days later, he brought him out of the tomb.
He didn't forget his son. He could never forget the sacrifice
of His Son. And it's that sacrifice that
the Savior told you and me to remember. The Father couldn't
forget it, could He? No, that's why He brought Him out of the
grave. And the Savior told us, now this do in remembrance of
Him. Remembering the sacrifice so
that you remember Christ is all your salvation. So you remember the tip of the iceberg of our
sin that we see. And that scares us half to death?
Just think of the part we can't see, the part we can't comprehend.
But get a hold of this and remember this. The sacrifice of Christ
put it away. I rest in Him. Remember that. When Christ was raised from the
dead, all of His people were raised in Him to eternal life.
Now, in our experience, we didn't know about it, did we? Not until
God caused us to be born again and he gave us eternal life.
But we still live in a body of flesh, dead, dying flesh, don't
we? Well, one day we're going to
have that life in our experience in perfection in the morning
that the Savior talked about here. Resurrection morning when
we're given life in a perfect body and a perfect soul. Indeed,
You think you enjoy the sacrifice of Christ now. You think you
enjoy His victory now. You wait till then. Then we're
going to enjoy the victory of our Savior. And we're going to
shout, too. We're going to shout in cries
of victory to Christ our Savior, too, because of what His sacrifice,
His broken body and His shed blood accomplished for His people. Here in a few moments, we're
going to observe the Lord's table as we've done many, many times.
And I'll ask you a question. Who is this table for? Who's
it for? You know, the men don't pull
it back from you, not let you have it. Who's this table for?
Well, I can tell you. It's for everybody who hears
the cries of the Savior, who hears his cries in his prayer. to his father, who hears his
cry of suffering for the sin of his people, who hears his
cry of death and his cry of victory and resurrection. If you hear
those cries and you believe him, that's your Savior. You hear
him crying and you say, that's the Savior. That's where my trust
is. It's all in him. Then this table's
for you. It's for everybody who believes
in him. All right. Eric, you may distribute the
bread if you would.