When He calls us home to heaven,
at His table we'll sit down. Christ will gird Himself and
serve us with sweet manner all around. Can that be true? Christ will
gird Himself and serve us. Now that's my title tonight.
Just roll it around in your heart. Christ will gird himself and
serve us. That's what he has promised in
Luke 12 and verse 37. The Lord Jesus had just told
us where your treasury is There will your heart be also. He is
urging us in this passage to set our hearts upon eternity,
to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He is turning
us, our thoughts, our hearts, our affections, away from the
temporal, perishing things of clay that we find on this earth. He assures us that our Father
in heaven knows all our needs and supplies them, that it is
our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. And then
he tells us plainly, where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also. Now, that's the backdrop for
our text, Luke chapter 12, verses 25 through 40. Read it with me. Our Lord is continuing with the
same theme. His object is to set our hearts
upon heaven. Now, in this passage, our great
Savior turns our hearts and our minds heavenward, telling us
what we may as we believe him. what we may rightfully, truthfully,
confidently expect when our Father gives us the kingdom. All right,
read with me. Let your loins be girded about
and your lights burning. And ye yourselves liken to men
that wait for their Lord when He will return from the wedding,
that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily, I say
unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit
down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall
come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, That
is, if he shall come between 9 o'clock and midnight or come
between midnight and 3 o'clock in the morning, if he should
come in the late watches of the night, if he should come in the
second watch or the third watch and find them so, that is, waiting
for him. Waiting for him. Blessed are
those servants. And this note. that if the good
man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he
would have watched and would not have suffered his house to
be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for
the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not." Now, these
are needful, instructive lessons. Hear them well. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, is our master, and we are his servants. I did not say, and the text does
not teach that we ought to be his servants. We are his servants,
every one of us, no exceptions. We may be rebel servants. We
may despise his dominion. We may not like the fact that
he's lord and king. But he is lord and king nonetheless. And we are his servants. As his servants, it is our responsibility
to serve him while we live upon this earth. Faith in Christ is
neither more nor less than bowing in our hearts to the dominion
of Jesus Christ as our Lord, as willing servants. As willing
servants. Faith is willingly taking his
yoke upon you. Faith is willingly giving up
your life to Him. Our Lord said, if a man would
come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me. He said, let him deny himself
and hate his wife, his mother, his brother, his sister, his
father, yes, and his own life also. And then he shall be my
disciple. Faith in Christ, then. is the
surrender of our hearts, the surrender of our lives to the
rightful dominion of Jesus Christ the Lord. Delighted for Him to
be the Lord. Unbelief is rebellion to His
dominion. Unbelief is saying, no, I won't
bow. Unbelief is saying, I'll have
my own way. Unbelief is saying, I'll rule
my own life. Unbelief declares, I will not
submit to him. I will not be his servant. But
servant to him you are. Servant to him you are. Now,
this is true of all of us. I'm calling for you who are yet
rebels to our master. to cease from your rebellion,
to bow to Christ's dominion. And I'm calling for you who are
his, as I call for myself and my own soul, ever to be dressed
and ready for the master. This is what we're told in verse
35 and verse 36. Let your loins be girded about
and your lights burning. And you yourselves like unto
men that wait for their Lord, not wait to make Him Lord. That's
the opinion of the religious world. Christ is Lord by right. He earned the right as our mediator. He possesses the right as God.
But you be like men who wait for their Lord. Men who are servants
in waiting for the Lord. In fact, you might want to jot
that down somewhere. This idea of waiting is just
not... I'm waiting. These are men in waiting. These
are men who serve the Lord while they wait for Him, looking for
Him. when he will return from the
wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they're just tickled
to death that he's here. Oh, even so, come Lord Jesus. Open the door immediately. Let
me give you a couple of other readings. I'm not much for other
versions, but sometimes I pick up some things that are helpful.
The new international version reads like this. I don't recommend
the version. I'm just telling you how it reads.
It's delightful here. Be dressed, ready for service. Be dressed, ready for service,
and keep your lamps burning. The amplified paraphrase gives
this translation. Keep your lawns girded and your
lamps burning. And be like men who are waiting
for their master to return home from the marriage feast, so that
when he returns from the wedding and comes and knocks, they may
open to him immediately. Now, in these two verses, we
are told how we must serve the Lord Jesus Christ. First, if
we would serve him. If we would be servants in his
house and serve him honorably, if we would be servants in his
house, bowing to his dominion, seeking his glory, seeking his
honor, doing his will, first and foremost, we must be dressed
as his servants. The word, let your lawns be girded
about, might be translated, be dressed and ready for service.
The only way that we can be dressed for God is to be dressed by God,
dressed with the garments of His provision, the garments of
His salvation, the garments of Christ's righteousness imputed
to us. Turn over to Zechariah 3. I'll give you a couple of things
on the way there. We must be dressed by God, but here our
Lord commands us to be dressed ourselves. We must be dressed
by God. Only He can put the righteousness
of Christ on us, but we must, by faith, put on Jesus Christ
ourselves. Only God can give us Christ's
righteousness, but we must put it on. The Lord tells us in Ecclesiastes
9 verse 8, let thy garments be always white. In Isaiah 52, awake,
awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city. And listen to this. The Lord
promises, I will greatly rejoice, or the words, Isaiah promises,
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful
in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. As a bridegroom, decketh himself
with ornaments, and as a bride, adorneth herself with her jewels.
Now here we have a picture of it in Zechariah chapter three.
picture of how God decks us with the garments of salvation. He
showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of
the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
He always does. And the Lord said to Satan, the
Lord rebuked thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuked thee. Is not this? Is not this, this
Joshua, this man standing here with filthy garments, is not
this a bran plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments and stood before the angel. I know who
that angel is. This is the angel of the covenant.
This is the angel of the Lord Christ Jesus, our Redeemer. This
is that angel who holds the book of God in his right hand. And
he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying,
Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said,
Behold, I have caused thy iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with a change of raiment. And I said, Let them
set a fair mitre on his head. So they set a fair mitre on his
head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood
by." You remember in Luke 16? We'll look at it closely in a
few weeks, Lord willing. The prodigal son came home, and he
bowed before his father. And he said, Father, I'm not
worthy. Well, he was going to say, I'm not worthy to be called
your son, make this one of your hired servants. But before he
could get it out, the father looked at him. And he said, bring
hither the best robe and put it on him. This is my son who
was lost. Put the robe on him. We must
be dressed in the righteousness of Christ. Now, this is what
that means. You and I, if we would serve our God, must be
made righteous before him. If we would honor God in this
world, we must be washed from the filth of our sins, clothed
in his righteousness, made holy by divine imputation. But there's
more. As the servants of Christ, we
are here called to be in a state of constant readiness. Let your
loins be girded about and your lights burning. Our loins must
be girded about. Now, we're not left to guess
what that's talking about. Turn to Ephesians chapter 6. The word girded may refer to
being dressed. Most commonly, it refers to a
picture that we might have a little difficulty getting some grasp
of. In the Eastern countries now, those fellows who wear rags
around their heads and all, they still wear these long garments. Why, I don't know. But they wear
these long garments. It was common in this day. And men wearing
the garments, if they were going to engage in war, are going to
engage in any kind of strenuous task, any kind of activity that
required diligence, speed, stress, they would bind up those flowing
robes and tie them about their waist. Also, if you're engaging
in something that requires great strength, a man will tie his
waist, girding his loins to give him strength. And this is what
he's talking about. Look in Ephesians 6, 14. Stand,
therefore, having your loins girt about. What is it that gives
you strength? What is it that enables you to
endure the conflict? What is it that holds you together
in the midst of great trial and difficulty? Truth, having your
loins tied together, bound up, and strengthened with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Peter says,
wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, bind everything together,
be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. All God's people
wear the girdle of divine truth. All God's people find strength
in the gospel. All God's people gird up the
loins of their minds. They bind everything together,
holding the gospel firm to the end. We gird up the loins of
our minds with grace, pure, free, sovereign grace. What does that
mean? That means faith looks to Christ
constantly for everything. Faith leans on Christ alone. Faith casts aside every vain
imagination of self-righteousness and self-worth and self-strength,
looking to Christ alone as the Lord our righteousness. Our Lord
appears in this passage to be pointing us back to what we saw
this morning in Exodus 12, verse 11, to the eating of the first
Passover. He says, now, be dressed and
ready. You take the lamb, roast with
fire, with the bitter herbs, and you eat it, dressed and ready,
with your staff in your hand, your coat on your back, your
shoes on your feet, ready to go. And that's how we are to
live in this world, serving our master. robed in his righteousness,
dressed for his service, girded about with the truth. And then
he tells us next, we must never have our lights burning. The
word lights here, sometimes folks translate it poorly, calling
it lamp stands. That's not correct. The word
refers to portable lights. Some time ago, Shelby, like you
ladies know, she likes a little doodad. She picked up a little
candle. It's a fake candle. It's got
a light bulb in it. But it's got a battery. You set it down,
and it goes off. Pick it up, you can walk to the
bathroom at night without turning the lights on. I don't use the
thing, but you can if you want to. You don't have to disturb
anybody. That's what it's talking about. A portable light. A lantern. A torch. A flashlight. That kind
of thing. a light that is carried about
with you. There's a condensed version here of what our Lord
instructs about the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25.
He's telling us to make certain that we have in the lamp of our
profession the oil of His grace. Make certain that you don't merely
have the lamp of professed faith, but that you have in that lamp
of professed faith in Christ the possession of life, of the
Spirit, of the oil of His grace by which to walk in this world.
For you see, a profession of faith in Christ without the possession
of grace from Christ is as worthless and useless as a lamp with no
oil. All it's good for is just to
sit and let the folks look at it and brag on it. It'll benefit
your soul. Nothing. Nothing. I won't pause to say too much.
This is one of the reasons, just one, why we do nothing. to con people into making a profession
of faith. Do nothing to interfere with
God's work in any way. Do nothing to simulate God's
work in any way. Do nothing to make men think
God's working when He's not. Because for you merely to profess
faith, to take on a little religious morality, to take on a religious
name, to take on a profession of faith is to bring damnation
to your soul, not life. It will do you no good. What
we must have is not a profession, but a profession that arises
from life and light burning in our souls. The illusion is to
persons waiting at a wedding in the night with torches or
flames in their hands. Now, this is the first thing.
Christ is our master, and we are his servants. We are responsible
to be his faithful servants. You and I who profess faith in
him are to be his servants. Let us make certain that his
righteousness and his grace are ours. Now, here's the second
thing. Our master has left us for a
while here in his house to serve him. But he's coming again. He's left us here for a while.
Look at verse 36 again. Ye yourselves be likened to men that wait for
their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he
cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. servants in waiting, or servants
who had been given a responsibility. The master of the house says,
now, fellas, I'm going to be gone for a day or two. You take
care of this, take care of this, take care of this. And on the
third day, I'll be back here to see you. And the servants
serve, waiting for the master to return. Now, this is the picture.
The Lord Jesus has gone away to prepare a place for his bride,
to make ready all things for the great marriage supper of
the Lamb. The illustration seems a little bit odd to us because
these days when a man and woman get married, usually, Men don't
have much to do with the wedding. They just show up on time, hopefully.
But the bride plans everything. In ancient times in eastern countries,
the whole work was the man's. He went ahead of time to prepare
the marriage feast. He went ahead of time to prepare
everything for the wedding for his bride, and then he would
come and bring his bride to the marriage feast and then carry
her away to the nuptial chambers. Now this is the picture here.
The Lord Jesus has gone. to prepare everything for that
great marriage feast. And when he's got everything
prepared, he's going to come back for his bride and bring
her to his house in his nuptial chambers forever. When the Son
of God comes, let us be ready. He calls for us as His servants
to be in a state of constant expectation, looking for the
Master's glorious appearing and doing everything, doing everything. Oh, God, give me grace to live
like this, doing everything with an eye to that day when He shall
appear. Live with your lives governed
by the prospect of eternity. Live with your heart set upon
the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior. When the
Son of God comes knocking, ever be ready to open the door to
Him immediately. There's a lot of fuss. Some folks
say, well, this is talking about Christ coming at the hour of
death. Somebody else said, no, it's talking about Christ coming
at the second advent. Somebody asked me, what do you
think? Yeah. Christ is coming. And it doesn't matter. It really
doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. We've
been brainwashed into thinking there's something special about
living until Christ comes a second time. Our Lord says in the resurrection,
those who have died are going to rise first. Nothing special
about living to them. So when He comes to take me home,
it doesn't matter how He takes me home. When He comes in the
hour of death and providence, and He knocks, open to Him. This is my time. This is my time. When he comes at his glorious
second advent and knocks with the trump of God opening to him
immediately. You see, for believing men and
women, the second coming of Christ is never spoken of. Now get this. It is never spoken of as a thing
to be dreaded or feared in any way. Oh, you're going to meet God's
judgment. He's going to get you. He's going to get you. He's already
got me. Judgment is over. The only thing
awaiting those who are watching for the Master, those who are
His servants in waiting, is glory. The only thing awaiting us is
something better. The only thing awaiting us is everlasting righteousness,
everlasting bliss. So he says now, be dressed, be
ready, serve him as many women watching for him to come. And
when he comes, here we go. This is over. Now we go home.
When Christ has, by the preaching of the gospel and by the power
of his grace, espoused all his elect to himself. when the last member of his great
bride has been brought to him in living faith, when he has
conquered the last heart chosen and redeemed by him. Then he
will descend from heaven, and he will take his bride to himself.
We shall then be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
We will enter in with him into his nuptial chambers, and we
will sing He brought me into his house, into his banqueting
house, and his banner over me is love. All right, here's the
third thing. And I'll just touch this a minute.
I've spent some time on it in the past. I hope you don't need
too much for me to hear it, but I want you to get it. Remember
it. Don't forget it. And anytime
you hear, read, or think about anything contrary to it, just
laugh. Just laugh. Idiot doesn't know what he's
talking about. The dummy hadn't even read the word. Did nobody
ever tell him what the book says? Now I'm not being facetious.
No one, no one, no one knows when the Lord shall come again.
No one. No one. It is commonly thought that there
are signs of the Lord's second coming. That just is not so. That just is not so. There were
many signs of His first coming. Many signs which He has fulfilled. There are no signs of His coming
in glory. How can you be sure of that?
Did the Apostle Paul declare himself to be looking for Christ's
return? Writing by divine inspiration.
And that was back yonder in the first century. Well, you mean
Paul didn't know what the Scripture taught about Christ's coming?
Didn't he know that there's going to have to be all this stuff
going on over in Palestine? Israel will be dissolved as a nation,
gathered again in 1948, have all this fight with the Arabs
and the Jews and all this oil conflict. Didn't Paul understand
all that? No, he really didn't. He didn't know a thing about
all this stuff. He only wrote truth by divine revelation. He lived in the constant expectation
of Christ coming. So shall we. Look what our Lord
says in verse 38. If he shall come in the second
watch of the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those
servants. And this note, if the good man
of the house had known at what hour the thief would come, he
would have watched and would not have suffered his house to
be broken through. The Lord Jesus is coming, the scripture says,
as a thief in the night. The apostle tells us, but that
day shall overtake you as a thief. Oh, what's that mean? Oh, the
unbelieving, they don't know when he's coming, but the believer,
he can figure it out. He can get his calendar and calculator,
and he can work this thing. He can find the secret codes
in the Bible, and he can get this thing devised, and he can
tell you when the Lord, well, not exactly the day, but pretty
close. No. No. That day will not overtake
you as a thief, because if you believe Him, you're looking for
Him. That day won't overtake you as a thief, because you're
anticipating Him. The unbeliever, it'll overtake him as a thief,
but not you. Our Lord says in verse 40, Be
ye therefore ready, dressed and ready also, for the Son of Man
cometh at an hour when you think not. This is enough for us to
know. Christ is coming. I hope I can learn to get past
the language, one day Christ shall come. That's not true.
One day he shall appear. He is coming. Behold, he cometh. That's the language of Scripture,
Revelation 1-7. Behold, he cometh. James, ever since he left here,
He's gone away to prepare the marriage feast. And he's been
on his way back. Boy, he's taking his time. He's
only been gone two days. Just two days. That's no time. That's no time. What are you
talking about? One day with him is a thousand
years. A thousand years is one day. He's not in any hurry. Nothing
going to happen to his bride. Nothing going to tear up this
house. He's just gone to prepare a place for us. And he shall
appear again with every move of providence, with the turning
of every page of time. The Lord Jesus is advancing to
his own. Behold, he cometh. He will appear
as a thief in the night, that is, at a time when none would
expect him to come. And therefore, We are to be constantly
watching for him, serving him on the tiptoe of faith. I don't
know a better way to illustrate it. You've heard me say this
before, but it serves the purpose. When I'm gone, I've been away
for a few days, Shelby knows when to expect me. I fudge a
little bit. I always tell her to expect me
at least an hour to an hour and a half later than I expect to
be here. But she's learned to expect the fudging, so it doesn't
work anymore. And because I don't want her
to worry, I don't want her to fret. When I start down the road
here, as I come into Danville, make the turns, I start thinking
to myself, I wonder what she's doing now. Because I know she's
not in bed asleep, not unless something bad's wrong. Not unless
she's sick or just plumb exhausted. But she doing. She usually will
have her gown on, ready to go to bed. But she's been working
hard. And she'll have something sitting
ready for me. Always. How come? Well, you said
she's coming home. She can go to bed and forget
about it. No. She loves the man she's married
to. And she's waiting on him, waiting on him, serving in waiting. She'll walk out. I can just picture
her. She'll walk out and look out
the window. Go back to what she's doing. Go back to what she's doing. Then she'll be at the back door.
How come? Because he's appeared. Now, you see, while we live in
this world, Serve Christ with the totality of your life. I
do not mean by that resign your job and go to Africa as a missionary.
I do not mean by that resign your job and go off to Bible
college and learn how to be a preacher and find you somebody that will
hire you as a preacher. I don't mean that. I don't mean that. What am I talking about? Where
you are in your retirement, Where you are in your work, serve Christ. Where you are in your leisure
time, serve Him. Some pious, super pious fellow
asked me one time, I'd forgotten where I was, what I was doing.
Found out I was a preacher and I wasn't. doing what he expected
me to be doing. I knew. Yeah, I was out in California,
flying back on a Sunday. You're flying on Sunday? Yeah.
Trying to get back something to preach on Tuesday. What would you do if the Lord
was coming? I said, I'd sit right here on this plane and fly to
Danville. That's exactly what I'd do. Sit right here on this
plane and fly to Danville. I'm serving Him. I'm serving
Him. You understand that? Serving. in the totality of your life,
devoted to His will and His glory, looking for Him. Alright, now
here's what I've been getting at. Look at verse 37. And hang on till you see. I just
glossed over it last week, and I'm not going to do much more
now. But I tell you, it helped me a whole lot to mull this thing
over this week. This is our master's promise
to every sinner washed in his blood, robed in the garments
of his salvation, waiting on him, watching for him. Christ will gird himself and
serve us. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily, I say
unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit
down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. Blessed, happy,
fortunate, to be envied are those servants whom the master finds
awake and alert, watching when he comes. Truly, I say to you,
truly, he says, amen, amen. I want you to understand this
is real. Truly, I say to you, he will
gird himself and have them to recline at his table and will
come and serve them. Now, I know I don't understand
all I know about this, but let me give you what I know. First,
I know this. Believers are men and women who
are waiting on, serving the Lord Jesus Christ, our Master, our
Lord and King, with willing hearts and expectant faith. The grace
of God that bring us salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching
us educating us, causing us to know that denying ungodliness
and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world, looking for, looking for, stretching the neck of faith,
standing on the tiptoe of faith, looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior.
I know this too. When the Lord Jesus comes again,
We shall be blessed, happy, joyful, delighted beyond imagination,
so gloriously and fully blessed that we shall forever be the
envy of all the world that now despises us. To be envied, so blessed to be
envied. Paul puts it this way, I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be put
in the scales, to be weighed in the balances, to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man, I've had some pretty good thoughts,
haven't you? I've had some pretty big thoughts about what to expect,
Rob. I mean some pretty big thoughts. Eternal glory. Forever enjoying the smile of
our Redeemer. Perfect sinlessness. Complete happiness. Absolute fullness, wanting nothing. Those are pretty big thoughts.
Now listen, it's never entered into the heart of a man what
God's prepared for them that love Him. Never entered into the heart
of a man. Because in the ages to come,
God has saved us that he might show forth the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus to
the envy of the universe. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons
of God. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. But we know this. When He appears, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And I know this. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of glory, our master, our king, our savior, our sovereign Lord,
the monarch of the universe, our God will cause us to recline,
to rest, to sit down at his table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I reckon that means me and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are brothers.
I reckon that means we're all in the same family and will serve
us. in all the greatness of His glory. What a stupendous mystery. Our
Lord often in His parables and in His teaching draws illustrations
from history and draws illustrations from things familiar to us as
He did with the marriage feast. But here is something declared
connected with this marriage feast for which I have not yet
been able to find any parallel in the history of humanity. I have read about masters who
highly honored their servants because the servants had done
some great deed. I've heard of masters who even
adopted their servants as children. Never has it entered into the
thought of a man for a master who owes his slave nothing to
cause the slave to sit down and the master serve the slave. But such is the condensation
of God our Savior. He has always served us as our
covenant surety. When he was on this earth, he
was here to serve our souls. I came not to minister unto,
but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. He said,
whither is greater he that sitteth at meat or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat?
Well, of course. No, that's the way it is with
men. But I am among you as he that serveth. Oh, Bobby, that
ought to teach us something about greatness. Great men are men
who serve others. Our Lord Jesus is serving us
now as our advocate and our high priest. He's serving us as our
king, ruling all things for the good of our souls. Now, turn
over to Luke 22. Let me show you something. He will serve us forever. I have
no question at all that this passage, Isaiah 25 6, is referring
to exactly what our Lord's talking about here in our text in Luke
chapter 12. And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all the people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines
on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the
leaves well refined. Now, in Luke 22, our Lord is
keeping the Passover feast with his disciples, instituting the
Lord's Supper. He who is our Passover, about
to be sacrificed for us, sits at the last time, the very last
time the Passover feast was kept. I know folks still pretend to
keep it. This is the last time it was kept. And this is what
our master says in verse 16. I will not anymore eat thereof. until it be fulfilled, what a
word, until this Passover feast, that great feast with which began
every new year in the Old Testament, until it be fulfilled in the
Kingdom of God. Verse 18, I say unto you, I will
not drink of the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God
shall come. Our Lord Jesus is telling us,
Now, fellas, I'm going away. I'm going to leave you here to
serve. And I will never eat this bread
with you again. And I will never drink this wine
with you again until all that's typified in the Passover sacrifice,
in the Passover feast, is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. Turn to
Revelation 7. Verse 17, the Lamb of God, which is in
the midst of the throne, shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains
of water. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. Do you remember the law of the
bondservant in Exodus 21? A man who was a servant after
he served for six years must be allowed to go out free. But
if he came in by himself and his master has given him wife
and children, then when he goes out, he must go out alone. But
if the man loves his master and loves his wife and loves his
children, he can at the end of his six years say to his master,
I love my wife, I love my children, and I love you. I will be your
servant forever." Then he comes and has his ear bored through
with it all. And he never quits serving. Because he don't want to. Never
quits. Our Lord Jesus in the covenant
of grace has his ear bored through with it all. Because buddy, he's
that servant. who will not quit serving us. He will not. He must reign to
put all enemies under his feet. Then cometh the end when he shall
have delivered up the kingdom to the Father. He'll present
his bride holy, harmless, undefiled, spotless, no sin, no wrinkle,
no infirmity, holy as himself, complete in power. shall the son himself be subject
to the father. What's that mean? He's going
to continue in this capacity as our all-glorious mediator
and savior, serving our souls for the glory of God forever
while he makes us Reclined at his table. Amen.