I want to thank all of you for
your faithful, faithful friendship and fellowship in the gospel
of Christ these many years since God has knit our hearts together
in our Redeemer. How blessed, how blessed we are
to be united to Christ and united to one another in Him. Truly
one with Christ and one with one another in Christ our Lord.
What a blessed, blessed family. What a blessed, blessed privilege. Turn with me, if you will, to
the book of Acts. Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Even if you have
never read this chapter, I dare say everyone in this room is
somewhat familiar with what most people think transpired in Acts
chapter 2. Let me tell you exactly what
took place on that which is described here as the day of Pentecost
when it was fully come. That is, when the day of Pentecost
was fulfilled, that typical day fulfilled by the outpouring of
God the Holy Ghost upon his church by Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. The Apostle Peter in Acts 2 has
declared to us the accomplishment of redemption by Jesus Christ
the Lord. He's declared that Jesus Christ
the Lord is the King of glory. Having ascended to the throne
of David his father, he sits upon the throne of universal
monarchy because he accomplished the eternal redemption of his
people by the sacrifice of himself. That's how God saves sinners.
In order to save sinners, God must be just, or he cannot justify. He sent his son into the world
to die in the room instead of guilty sinners like you and me,
that he might in justice forgive our sins. By the sacrifice of
his son, his justice was fully satisfied. Righteousness brought
in, his people redeemed, and the salvation of all God's elect
guaranteed. and then to demonstrate the fact
that our Lord Jesus Christ has all power over all flesh given
into his hands so that he might rule everything in the universe
as our God-man mediator. not only as God, of course he
always had that as God, but having earned the right of dominion
as the God-man mediator, the father said to the son, ask of
me and I'll give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. And the
son of God came to his father just before he died. He said,
I've finished the work which you gave me to do. And now, oh
father, glorify me with thine own self. with the glory which
I had with thee before the world was. When the covenant was finished
and the Lord God, the triune Jehovah, trusted into His hands
all things. Now the Savior says, do it manifestly. Do it manifestly so that everyone
will know that I am the Christ of God, the God-man who rules
the universe. And so He gives him this crowning
event. When Christ is King, the inaugural
act of the King will be to pour out the Holy Ghost upon all flesh. And when that happened, marvelous
things transpired. And folks saw it. And they said,
well, these fellows are drunk. These fellows are drunk. They're
falling down drunk. And it's just 9 o'clock in the
morning. And Peter said, no, sir, you don't understand what
happened. These fellows are overcome by the power of God, the Holy
Ghost, ruling them now henceforth and forever from within. And
that is now fulfilled, which was prophesied by Joel back in
Joel chapter 2. And if you turn back to Joel
2, you'll find out this is exactly what took place in Acts 2. At
the end of the day, after Peter had preached the gospel to a
great multitude, he simply told them the story of wondrous redemption
accomplished and grace performed by Christ, proclaiming the fact
of Christ's resurrection and dominion as the Lord of the universe. He preached in power. He preached
in the power of the Spirit. That doesn't mean some kind of
an ecstatic, emotional high. He preached, and God the Spirit
spoke by him, and men heard what he said. And their hearts and
lives were affected by the word that God gave him on that day,
because Christ the King sent his Spirit to apply the word
effectually. We worship him. who is indeed
God, God in our flesh, God who rules the universe absolutely
and gives life to whom he will, has mercy on whom he will, is
gracious to whom he will be gracious, is compassionate to whom he will
be compassionate. And when he will, at the appointed
time of love, He pours out His Spirit upon His redeemed, the
chosen objects of His love from everlasting. And they are made
to experience in time what He did for them in eternity, given
life and immortality brought to light by the gospel. Oh, may
God do that for you today. When the day was over, 3,000
men and women had been converted that day by
the grace of God. 3,000. 3,000. I've been praying today, God
do it again. Wherever the word is preached
around the world, God speak by your servants, by faithful men. It's nothing to you to save many
or few. Oh God make the world today to
know that Jesus the Christ is master and king of the universe. Demonstrate your saving power
in our midst and demonstrate your saving power in the midst
of your church wherever your people are found gathered in
your name worshiping you. God give me grace not just to
ask it, but to expect it. To expect it. I'm fully convinced
we live in the day spoken of in the book of Revelation when
the two witnesses shall be given life again. And in the midst
of the horrible apostate generation, the word of God fled the earth
again and sinners converted by God's grace and Christ honored
his king around the world and has given us numerous ways to
reach the world with the gospel. Let us seize them. You often
think I'm certain. each of you and your various
small assemblies. Like our assembly at home, we're
just a small handful of people. No real visible means of accomplishing
anything. How are we to go into all the
world and preach the gospel? How can we do that? How can we
do that? Do what God gives you. the opportunity, the means, and
the ability to do. You're not responsible for anything
else, but you are responsible to do whatever God gives you,
the opportunity, the means, and the ability to perform. Let me
see if I can illustrate it for you. Back in 1976, I think it
was, Well, Charlie Payne was visiting
with my wife and I. I was pastoring in Lookout, West
Virginia. And I had just, for the first time, written out a
bulletin and printed it up. And it was a beautiful thing.
It was on one of those old spirit duplicators, you know, at that
kind of ugly light blue ink, and you get it all over you.
It was a mess. But Charlie was an encouraging
fellow. I gave him a copy of it when we came downstairs. He
said, Don, this is outstanding. Send me a copy of everything
you write, everything you write. And for all the years after that,
until the Lord took him to glory, I sent him a copy of every article,
every Sunday school lesson, every hymn, everything I wrote, Charlie
got a copy of it. And he would duplicate it and
pass it around to folks, pass it around to folks. That insignificant
little thing. God has now over these past many
years opened countless doors of ministry before us for the
gospel. I think I can safely say in God's
providence all of it as a result of that first bulletin and continuing
to do it and do it and do it every week. I say to pastors
all the time, young men I influence at home, folks that have been
brought up in our congregation, you write bulletin articles for your
congregation. Do it every week. Don't just
stick something in our road or something in this fellow's road
or something in that road. You do it. You do it. They're the
people God's trusted to your hands, and you need the discipline. And you and I, who are God's
servants, must give ourselves to doing what God has given us
the ability, the means, and the opportunity to do. When I first
came to Danville, we didn't have a place to meet. We were renting
a place, and the church had some obligations from bad experiences
in the past. I began to say to them, and I
said to them from the beginning, we have a responsibility to the
Church of God beyond these four walls. We need to be thinking
about meeting that responsibility. And we started sometime after
that to receive an offering every month for missionaries, and a
couple of missionaries. We can't support them on our
own, but we'll do what we can. We can keep some bread and butter
on the table. We can help out a little here and there. Do what
God gives you the means and the opportunity and the ability to
do for His glory. And it begins what you just saw
right here. It begins with this public identification
with Christ and His gospel and His people in Believer's Baptism.
If you're taking notes, I want to speak to you this morning
about three gospel ordinances. Let's read beginning in Acts
chapter 2 and verse 41. Then they that gladly received
the word. Everybody who receives the word
receives it gladly. You don't have to force them
to believe it. That's good. That's good. They receive it
gladly. We're baptized. The word means immersed, buried.
And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship. And in breaking bread,
breaking of bread and in prayers, and fear came upon every soul. And many wonders and signs were
done by the apostles. And all that believed were together
and had all things common. and sold their possessions and
goods and parted them to all men as every man had need. And
they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking
bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness
and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all
the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be said. Now here are three gospel ordinances
set before us. The first is baptism. They that
gladly received his word were baptized. The second is church
membership. They were added unto them, the
church, about 3,000 souls. This church at Jerusalem suddenly
grew from about 120 to 3,000 people. And then third, the Lord's
Supper. They continued steadfastly in
the apostle's doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and
in prayers. Baptism, church membership, and
the Lord's Supper. Now we recognize the fact that
the Church of God is made up of all God's elect. from Adam
to the very last of God's elect, saved by His mighty grace in
this world. The Church of God is made up
of all God's elect. It's called the Israel of God. It is called the people of God,
the family of God, the kingdom of God, the Church of God. Every
child of God, everyone, Jew and Gentile, black and white, bond
and free, male and female, learned and unlearned, all are one in
Christ. One church, one body in Christ. We recognize the universality
of God's church. And we also recognize that God's
church is set forth in scripture principally, principally. principally
in this local aspect. That is to say, believers in
various places are brought together, united together in a local body
of believers, which is the body of Christ. And this local church,
this Merton Evangelical Baptist Church, that's a mouthful, isn't
it? Merton Evangelical Baptist Church, this body right here,
is the body of Christ. Did you hear me? The body of
Christ. A church at Nedworth meeting
in your house. The body of Christ. There's a group of folks over
in Ballymena, North Ireland. I've been going to a preaching
too for about 12 years. They don't have a pastor. They
never have had one. But they meet together. It's
the body of Christ. The Body of Christ. There's a
little handful of folks, just a half a dozen beating on the
West Coast. The Body of Christ. Church in
Danville, The Body of Christ. Now I stress this because I want
you to understand that the ministry of the New Testament Church is
the ministry of each local church laboring in the place where God
has put them for the cause of our Redeemer. We recognize that
the New Testament places great, great emphasis on this local
church. The great commission that your
pastor read to us in Mark 16 was given to and is carried out
by local churches. in the States back in the middle
1800s, the Baptists became terribly Arminian and disinclined to preaching
the gospel of God's free grace in any public manner. My inclination
is that they about always were, but at least they gave lip service
to believing grace. And they started to set up missionary
societies. And there was a group of folks
that split away from them called Primitive Baptists, hard shells.
And folks had the idea that Primitive Baptists don't believe in mission.
Now, they got a lot of problems, but that's not one of their problems.
They're not anti-missionary. They're anti-missionary organization. Me too. Me too. I've given my last dime to support
anything outside the local church. for the furtherance of the gospel.
Not going to happen. Not going to happen. God's church
functions as a local body of believers. We collectively labor
together to support various things, but we support the preaching
of the gospel through a local church that carries out the Great
Commission. Local churches support and maintain
and send out pastors and missionaries and evangelists to preach the
gospel. help to support missionaries in various parts of the world.
And some of our pastor friends, pastor congregations, they're
not able to maintain them in their livelihoods and we try
to help them maintain their support so they can function and give
themselves wholly to the preaching of the word. But it's done as
a local body of believers. Local churches administer the
ordinances of Christ. Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
When Christine contacted me through a mutual friend of ours who lives
in California, Brother Mike Loveless, I urged her to be here and be baptized
here. And I volunteered your pastor
to do it because I didn't want to. I didn't want to. I didn't
want to be anything, any indication of me doing something that has
some kind of special power over it. And this is the function
of a local church and a local pastor. The local church is a
family, a brotherhood, a body of believers. Would to God I could make every
believer in this assembly understand what I'm saying. Every local
church ought to be a miniature of the church universal. We ought
to be a body, a family, united together
by the Spirit of God in the blessed fellowship and communion of Jesus
Christ our Lord. Sadly, in our day, far too many
people take the local church very light-heartedly, haphazardly,
and carelessly, and treat it with contempt. This body of Christ
is described in the scripture as a habitation of God through
the Spirit. Brother Wickham, when you and
the folks get together, wherever these y'all meet, about 20 miles
from here, isn't it? Somewhere in that vicinity. Doesn't matter
whether it's two or three, or two or three thousand. When we
come together in the name of Christ, in 1 Corinthians chapter
3, we're told, you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. There's something that transpires
when many women gather in the name of Christ. I'm talking about
they're gathered by the Spirit of God, trusting Christ. Our
only righteousness, our only redemption, our only Savior,
our only acceptance with God, His grace and His grace alone
is that which we trust. Gathered in the name of Christ
for the glory of God, gathered by His Spirit as you... Here
we go. This building ain't nothing.
This is just a building. I don't know where we ever got
the idea of all the churches. This is just a place where church
meets. But here we come. We come together and the Spirit
of God comes with us. Did you get that? The Spirit
of God comes with us. That makes the local church unlike
anything in this world. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. There's
only one place in the universe where God promises to meet with
his people. and that's as we gather in the local church. That
means, my brothers and sisters, no matter where you live, no
matter how far you are, where's Patrick? Patrick, you're in Stockholm. Make it your business to commit
yourself to one local assembly, support that assembly, make that
man your pastor, and make them know you're part of that assembly.
Don't live on your own. Don't try to get along on your
own. Well, I like to listen to Brother Don and Brother Alan
and Brother Peter and Brother Todd and Brother this fellow
and Brother that fellow. And I'll tell you what you do.
You don't listen to anybody. You don't listen to anybody. There
are a lot of folks who are spiritual welfare bums who want no commitment
and no responsibility. Every believer ought to be part
of a local church, supporting that local church, taught by
that pastor God has given them. Now this is what happens if you
spend your days listening to folks on the internet all the
time. Oh, I like to listen to Brother Don. I like to listen
to Brother Mayhead. I like to listen to Brother Nye, but I
like to listen to Brother Allen. What you do is you pick and choose
what you want to hear and don't pay attention to anything. God's
people are given a single pastor in a local church. to teach them,
to feed them with knowledge and understanding, and God uniquely
gifts each man he puts in the ministry to minister to the people
to whom he gets them. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? Can you imagine Don Fortner trying
to pastor in London, England? They'd ship me home on a raft. Imagine me trying to pastor where
Brother Clay Curtis is up there amongst all those Yankees in
that big city. They're my friends. That was started through our
ministry in Danville. But God put me in Danville, Kentucky,
and He arranged everything in my life and theirs to put us
together, to weld us together. and this
is where I belong. Somebody calls me, and it happened
a few times, believe it or not, want me to consider passing somewhere
else. Nope, this is where I belong. I'm not going anywhere else.
But we can do it. This is where I belong. I do
what you do. I'm not going anywhere else. I'm not going anywhere
else. This is where God's put me. And you who are privileged
of God to be members of a local church ought to recognize that
church membership is the great, great privilege of dwelling together
with God's people in the body of Christ as a body of believers. And we need each other. Oh, we
need each other. In the building of the temple,
I was looking at that wall. Sometimes politicians can be
disappointing even good ones. Mr. Trump was over there at the
wailing wall, you know, and I wanted to wail. But that wall, you know
how they put that thing together? When they built the temple, that
was just the outside wall. They'd cut stones and it didn't fit.
It didn't fit. These two stones. And then they'd
go out and cut another stone. knock the rough edges off one
another until it just drops in place. And we need that constant
rubbing influence in our lives as believers that we may grow
together in the knowledge of Christ, that we may grow together
as a body in Christ Jesus the Lord. I find it sad, and every
preacher here and most of you who are members of churches or
who just attended churches, will recognize that if you want to
find a place where there's a swabber going on, go to a Baptist church. Somebody's always griping, fussing,
carrying on about something all the time. All the time. You wouldn't
do it on a cricket team. You wouldn't do it. Well, that
fellow, he's hard. Yeah, but man, he's a good, whatever
he has for cricket, I don't want you to do with cricket. He can
hit the ball. He's, you know, that fellow,
he talks too much. Yeah, but man didn't feel that
ball. You put up with it. You wouldn't do it in a union
hall. You couldn't get along. You managed somehow or another
in every other walk of life to get along with whoremongers and
prostitutes and thieves and liars and scoundrels of every kind.
Well, we've got to do that to survive as a group. But in the
Church of God, Why does he look at me like that? Well, I'll go
somewhere else. I don't have to put up with that. It's a poor man's
country club, and it ought not be that way. For you who are
God's people, this local assembly ought to be the most important
thing in your lives. You understand that? I mean,
guard it with your life. Some years ago, I'd been pastoring
at Danville for nine years, We've only had one problem with discipline
come up in nine years. And I like to take care of things
quickly. We met one Tuesday night, and
I said to the folks recording the messages, y'all turn those
things off, come down here. You were visiting, please excuse
yourselves. I've got to have a family meeting.
And I said, God has given us nine years of blessed peace and
fellowship in this place. And in the last six months to
a year, there's been a lot of commotion and disturbance, a
lot of yak and gossip. And I want it to end this hour.
If the problem is with me or my wife, you let me know now. And we will vacate the parsonage
and be gone tomorrow. Let me know now. If that's not
the problem, you may know where it is. Go talk to him. I don't
want to see his face in here again. And he's been gone ever
since. How come? Why would you do that?
Because the body of Christ is too important for Wickham or
Don to mess things up. Too important, too valuable,
too precious. If any man defile the temple
of God, you know what the word means? Destroy that body of Christ. Any man comes and does harm to
that body, him God will destroy. Well that membership in the local
church begins with believer's baptism. Believer's baptism is
the believer's public confession of faith in Christ. Turn back
to Romans chapter 6 and let me look again at this passage Brother
Harry just dealt with a little bit ago. Now I'm going to give you a lesson
in hermeneutics. That's a fancy word for interpreting
scripture. I'll give you a lesson for it. If you want to know what
the Bible teaches about any subject, go to the place in the Bible
where that subject is dealt with. Don't try to build your doctrine
by, here's a verse that talks about water, and here's a verse
that talks about baptism, and here's a verse that talks about
grace. Let's pull them together and say, no, go to Romans chapter
six, where the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to explain to
us what believer's baptism is. Believer's baptism got nothing
to do with circumcision. I mean nothing to do with circumcision.
That notion is just a remnant of papacy. Folks who like to
sprinkle a little water on baby's face and call it baptism, they'll
do it only for one reason. Only one reason. It's because
they're hanging on to papacy and they think that that's going
to give that child at least a foot up on God. And it just ain't
so. Baptism in the New Testament
is always portrayed as a burial because it represents a burial.
Romans chapter 6, verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound since God saved us,
forgiven us of all our sin, and will never charge us with sin?
Well, that's the biggest bunch of nonsense you ever heard told.
God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer
therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into
Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. How on earth is that? How were you baptized into Jesus
Christ? She just was. Baptized into the
body of Christ. Immersed into the body of Christ. Thereby being symbolically immersed
into his death. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in the newness of life. This is what baptism is
all about. It is the believer taking his
place with Christ, symbolically preaching the gospel to everybody.
Preaching the gospel to everybody. Now, don't ever go preach. That's
not a place for a woman. That's not a place for a woman.
It's one time every believer gets to preach. Look here, I'm
going to tell you what Christ did for me. He fulfilled all
righteousness. That's why our Lord called it
the fulfilling of all righteousness. Not that baptism does anything
to accomplish righteousness, but it symbolizes how it was
done. God's darling son died under
the wrath of God satisfying the justice of God. And when he died,
we died in him. And when he was buried, we were
buried in him. And bless God, when he arose,
we arose in him. And now he's come and given me
that life, which he obtained for me by his resurrection from
the dead. And I walk with God now in the
newness of life. Every time I had the privilege
of baptizing a believer, are sitting like we did this morning
and entering into the baptism of one of God's elect. I try
conscientiously, again like Jeff, to lift my hand to God. I've lifted my hand to God and
I can't go back. Fifty years ago, In believer's
baptism, I arose with Christ to walk with Him in the nearness
of life. And I declared to God and to
the world and to God's church, I belong to the Son of God, lot,
stock, and barrel. Everything I am and everything
I have is His, rightly so. He died for me. that I should
not henceforth live unto myself, but unto him who died for me
and rose again." Baptism, then, is the believer's confession
of faith in Christ. Church membership is the believer's
fellowship and communion with Christ in his body. You're baptized
into the body of Christ, come into the fellowship of God's
people. And you live in the family of
God. And families have just got to
have each other. They just got to have each other.
We read of the Apostle Paul that he assayed to join himself to
the disciples. Believers ought to make a public
commitment of themselves to a local church. Church membership is
sort of like a man and woman getting married. They may love
each other and not be married, but you ladies, if you decide
to move in with a fellow and shack up with him and he's not
committed to you as your husband and you're not committed to him
as your wife, that's called foolishness and fornication and adultery.
It is Assuming privileges that no one
should assume except those who are married. And believers are
committed to one another in a local church. They are joined to one
another. Basically, church membership
involves these three. It is an openly avowed commitment
to the body of Christ, so that whatever needs to be taken care
of, we'll take care of it. Whatever needs to be done, we'll
do it. Whatever needs to be provided,
we'll provide it. There are some folks who just
see those things. All of us ought to. All of us
ought to. I recall years ago, A friend
of mine, Brother Ernie Lucas, he's now in his 80s, and he's
no longer pastoring, but he said he was walking down the road
one day out in the country, and he saw a preacher, and he was
standing by a riverside. And he walked over and chatted
with him a little bit, and he said to him, Brother, what you
doing? He said, I've been watching this river. And they stood there
for a minute, and he said, what you watching for? He saw nothing. He said, it's just good. I find
it good to see something move that I don't have to prime, pump,
push, or pull. Pastors generally spend a lot
of time priming, pumping, pushing, and pulling. Families just see
what needs to be done and do it. They see what needs to be
done and do it. When you grow it up, I don't
recognize though many boys who saw that the grass needed cutting
until they had some bruising. But you ought to. If it is done,
just do it. Just do it. Church membership
is commitment to the body of Christ. It's communion and fellowship
with Christ in his body. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Oh, how good. just to be with
the brother. How good just to be with my sisters. How good to be embraced and to
embrace those I love. How good to walk in harmony with
God's people to be somewhere where you are at peace and you're
comfortable. Fellowship with Christ and his
people in his body. Church membership is caring for
the body of Christ. God's people care for each other. They seek opportunities to help
each other. They cover offenses, and they expose qualities, and
they... Man, Brother Joe, he needs a
little help. He may not need any help with
anything except just crying, but go over there and help him
cry. He just needs some help. He just needs some help. And
then the Lord's Supper. We're about to celebrate the
Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is the believer's blessed remembrance
of Christ, our crucified Redeemer. We won't read it now, but you
can read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, describing what the Lord's
Supper is all about. Up until about a year ago, I
wondered why did our Lord leave us these two carnal elements,
bread and wine, with which to worship him in the Lord's supper.
Brother Peter, all the carnal ordinances in the Old Testament
are gone. They're forbidden. They're absolutely forbidden.
We don't have angelic images. We don't have holy curtains or
holy anything. Nothing. Nothing. But the Lord
said, take this bread and this wine, And as often as you eat
this bread, drink this wine, you show forth the Lord's death
to the cup. And he said, this do in remembrance of me. And
then last year, I was up in Fairmont, West Virginia, preaching for
Brother Scott, Marvin Stonica, where Scott Richardson pastored
for 50 years. I was up there helping them celebrate
their 50th anniversary. And he said, you know, Brother
Dog, Scott came in, I had packed my pocket knife away, can't fly
with him, so I'll let this do. Brother Scott came into the office
just a few weeks before he died, and he reached in his pocket
and said, Marvin, I'm gonna give you something to remember me
by, and handed me a pocket knife. And he said, I was a little bit
taken aback by that. I said, Brother Scott, you think I need
a pocket knife to remember you? He said, Marvin, take the pocket
knife, put it in your pocket, and you'll remember me. And Marvin
said to me, he pulled that pocket knife out, tears come to his
eyes, he said, you know, Every time I take that pocket knife
out of my pocket, I don't care whether it's to clean my fingernails,
strip off a piece of wire, or put it on the dresser when I
go to bed at night, or get up in the morning and put it back
in my pocket. Every time I pick it up, I remember Brother Scott.
He fixed it so I can't forget him. Oh, blessed Savior, thank you
for fixing it so that I can't forget you. Every time I take
the bread and wine, I'm forced, sweetly forced, to remember Him
who loved me and gave Himself for me. Eat the bread, for this
is my body, broken for you. Drink the wine, for this is the
New Testament in my blood, shed for many. Drink all of it. And that's a
picture of faith in our Savior. We take the bread and eat His
flesh. And we take the blood and drink
all of it. All the sacrifice of our Savior.
And when you eat something, when you drink something, you know
what happens? Paul, it's yours. Everything
in it that's of any use or value is yours forever and nobody can
get it. It's yours. Take my flesh! Take my blood! Eat me! Drink me! And live forever! That's what's portrayed as we
take the Lord's Supper. This too, for believers only. Now, sometimes I know Everybody
has some kind of, we get mystical ideas. We'll make works out of
everything if we can. And so, you know, the Lord suffers
such a sobering, solemn time. Oh, we must examine ourselves.
That's not the picture I get in the New Testament. I don't have any business benches
at the table. I don't put up a rail around and say you can't
come. That's not my business. That's not my business. If you
belong to Christ, if you believe on the Son of God, He didn't
give you an option about being baptized. He said be baptized. And He didn't give you an option
about eating the bread and drinking the wine. He didn't give you
an option. He said eat it and drink it if you believe Him.
But what if I'm not worthy? He that eateth and drinketh unworthily
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Oh, I don't want
to do that. You can't if you trust Christ.
Our worthiness is our Redeemer. Do you know what my worthiness
is to call on God in prayer? It's the same as you over the
land. Christ is my worthiness. God accepts us because of Him.
And that's all. You know what my worthiness is
to preach the gospel of God's grace? Christ is my worthiness. That's all. You know what my
worthiness is to open this book and read it? Christ is my worthiness. That's all. That's all. Eat the
bread and drink the wine if you trust the Savior and remember
Him. Oh God, my Savior, how privileged I am, how privileged
we are to call you our God our Savior. Thank you for the blessed
gift of faith in your Son. Will you bless this assembly
and these assemblies represented here, these pastors, your people. Make us faithful in our generation,
faithful to your people, faithful to one another, faithful to your
gospel, faithful to you as you Oh God, our Savior, are faithful
to us. Amen.