I mentioned earlier to us about
going through different books of the Bible, and Lord willing,
and trying to bring messages from those books. I've preached
Genesis to us, I think, three times since we've moved up here.
And so today we're going to make it a fourth time. If you'd like
to turn to Genesis chapter 40, you'll find our text. account of Joseph's life is written
as the, there's no other life in the scripture in the Old Testament
that signifies or shows Christ more clearly from being sold
for the pieces of silver for being put into Potiphar's house
and then being lied upon just as the Lord was lied upon by
men and then falsely accused, cast into prison and The only
thing that didn't do is show that he went to death, but he
did die for, the Lord died for his people, but Joseph didn't
have to physically die the way that our Lord did. But there's no doubt that it's
a parallel to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to show us Christ.
His life was literally to show us Christ. We find that Joseph
is in the prison at this particular moment, and two of Pharaoh's
servants have been brought into prison and thrown in there. I
find it interesting because it says the keeper of the prison
charged Joseph to look after these men. Well, that had to
be the Lord Jesus Christ when he went to hell for his people. He went to the place that the
Lord owned himself. It was created. God created hell
for the devil and his angels, the scripture says. So he gave
Christ the keys of death, hell, and the grave because he was
in charge to do so. He had the authority to do so,
to give those keys to him. That's the picture we see here
of Joseph being in this prison, being charged with these two
servants. You probably know this account pretty well where there's
two dreams that take place. One of them is the butler and
one of them is the baker. And the butler has a dream and
he was troubled and the baker has a dream and he was troubled.
The Lord put Joseph in this situation in order for many years later
for Joseph to come out of prison by interpreting the dream when
Pharaoh was troubled with the dream. I'm not going to speak
on that this morning. I'm going to just tell you that
this particular account was the providence of God for Joseph
to be brought back out of the prison house later on. Joseph now begins to tell of
the interpretation of this dream. Well, first, let's look here
in Genesis chapter 40, and let's read the dreams that the Lord
had given these two men. And the chief butler told his
dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream, behold, a vine was
before me. And in the vine were three branches. And it was as though it budded,
and her blossom shot forth, and the cluster thereof brought forth
grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes,
and I pressed them into Pharaoh's cup. Pharaoh's cup was in my
hands, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's
cup, and I gave the cup unto Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said unto
him, this is the interpretation of it, the three branches are
three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine
head and restore thee into thy place, and thou shalt deliver
Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou wast
a butler. So we see here, that as I mentioned
the first hour, there is a spiritual aspect to everything that's written
in God's word. It all speaks of Christ and points
to Christ. There's a real account that's physical that took place.
These men were literally in prison and this really happened where
they had a dream and Joseph interpreted it. So is this just some kind
of account for us just to say, okay, well, the Lord gave Joseph
the ability to interpret dreams or is there something more? Well,
I believe this morning the Lord's given me a message on the wine
and the bread. That's what I've titled this message. the wine
and the bread. We often take communion. And
it's, I think we're pretty much, you guys do it the same way they
did it in Apopka, Florida. It's the first Sunday of the
month, usually. And that's just the time that we've set aside
to do that, to take the Lord's table. So why do we take the
Lord's table? Well, it tells us, and we'll
go, we'll read that here in a little bit in 1 Corinthians, but it
signifies the Lord's death. It signifies the life, the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, his
body and blood offered up for his people. And we partake in
this in remembrance of him. to bring into remembrance what
the Lord has done for his people. So I believe that this butler
represents the Lord Jesus Christ, and this wine represents his
blood offered up. Now let's continue reading to
the baker. It says in verse 16, when the chief baker saw the
interpretation was good, He said unto Joseph, I also was in my
dream. Now, I want to pause just for
a moment because I want you to notice that the baker didn't
approach Joseph for a need until he found out Joseph had the ability
to interpret the dream, until Joseph had something to offer.
Most men do not come to Christ until they hear that there's
something that he can do for them. Now, they don't come to
Christ for salvation in that regard. They come to him to have
a physical need met. They come to him because of circumstances
in their life. Most men go to church with their
hand out to God to see what God can do for them. Now, on the
opposite side of that, the believer, we come begging for Christ. Do
we see the difference? We don't come Seeking Christ
to help us in our circumstances is our only need. We see our
need as the chief of sinners needing the substitute, needing
the Savior. This butler, when he saw the interpretation was
good, when it made him feel good, that's whenever he wanted his
dream to be interpreted also. Oh, you gave him good news, well
give me good news also. Isn't that what men do? As soon
as you start talking any type of religious thing to anybody,
the first thing they'll try to do is mesh their God with your
God. That's happened on many accounts in my life, Me and Greg's
talked about this, and I'm sure that's your experience also.
There is no middle ground when it comes to the gospel. Yesterday,
there was a lady outside the wall here that was asking questions
regarding the cemetery. And Mack and some of us were
out there talking and the lady began to talk about how glad
she was that this church has been raised up. It's so good
to see that it's going to be a church, she said, and not be
a house or not be something else. And she said, many of the churches
around here are becoming thus, they're becoming houses or they're
becoming storage units or whatever they are. And I was thankful
Mack spoke up and said, those are not churches. He said, those
people that are meeting there are just religious people. He
said, this is where God's people are meeting. And I loved it.
I thought that was a fantastic response. He was probably more
bold than I would have been necessarily, but it was the truth, wasn't
it? And the Lord's people sees that we see the difference. We
come here to worship the true and living God. We come here
to see Him high and lifted up. We don't come here as the butler
approaching to get the interpretation of our dreams. Or see what kind
of fairytale life we can live. Health, wealth and prosperity.
That's not why we come here. We come here to see Christ. That's
why we come here. We come here to meet with the
Lord's people to see him, to hear about his body, to hear
about his blood, to hear about his finished work in the salvation
of his people. So verse 16 again says when the
chief Baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph,
I also was in my dream and behold, I had three white baskets on
my head. In the uppermost basket There
was all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh. And the birds that
eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered
and said, this is the interpretation thereof, the three baskets are
three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy
head from off thee and shall hang thee on a tree and the bird
shall eat thy flesh from off thee. And it came to pass the
third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast
unto all his servants. And he lifted up the head of
the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler
unto his butlership again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's
hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted
to them." Now these men, these two men, these two dreams are
a real account that took place. And so we can take it for face
value and know that it's the truth. but the gospel is in this
also. The gospel is very clear throughout
this portion of scripture. We see Christ as the butler offering
up his blood unto Pharaoh. We see that he goes, the butler,
in the dream, retch out, and all he did was squeeze the grapes
into the cup. That's what he did and offered
it up. The baker, on the other hand, if you think about baked
goods, ladies, you probably know this more than I do. My wife
makes cakes and different things like that, so I see the labor
that goes into it. but it takes time and it takes effort to make
baked goods. Does it not? It takes the works
of your hands. That's the two parallels here
is you have the butler who does nothing but squeeze the grapes
into the cup. What God had given, that's what
our Lord Jesus Christ, when he went to the wine press of God
alone was squeezed dry of every drop of blood that he had for
his people. And then you have the baker who had his, the works
of his hands, the cakes, The scripture calls it baked meats.
So we can, that's open to interpretation. It was all manner of different
goods. And I can, there was cookies brought here this morning. I
mean, different things like that. This guy was bringing everything,
all the works of his hands, his very best. Did not Cain do the
exact same thing before the Lord? Cain went before the Lord and
brought the works of his hands, the first fruits of his labor,
the very best that he had. Cain wasn't trying not to bring
his best, but the problem is Cain was not acceptable before
God. Man's works are not good in God's eyes, in God's sight.
Nothing that man can do merits salvation, nor can be pleasing
unto him. So what was the Lord pleased with? He was pleased
with Abel. Why? Because he offered blood.
He offered the blood of the lamb, didn't he? He took a lamb and
he killed it before the Lord, remembered his covenant, and
the Lord was pleased with the sacrifice that Abel offered up. Christ alone is that lamb. Christ
alone is the one that produced the fruit necessary for the salvation
of his people. Christ's blood alone was sufficient
for the Lord's people. The Lord shows us here in this
chapter that he mentions three days both times. In three days,
the butler was restored unto his position. Now I think of
a butler, where does they normally stand during their service unto
the king? It was at his right hand, was
it not? He fetched whatever he was told to get, he did whatever
he was supposed to, he waited on the king, that was his job.
I find that interesting because everything that the father required
of Christ, Christ fulfilled and the Lord said unto Christ, sit
thou here at my right hand. The Lord girded himself as our
substitute and became sin for his people and put away their
sin. The scripture tells us that one
day at the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Lord's going to
gird himself and serve us. Think about that. He's going
to wait on us. Somebody said, well, he's not
going to wait on me. Well, Peter thought the same thing. Whenever the Lord was
going to wash his feet, Peter said, you're not washing my feet.
The Lord said, well, Peter, if I don't wash your feet, you have
no part with me. Peter said, well, in that case, not just
my feet, but my hands and my head also. So we see the Lord's
showing us that he is the type of butler here unto his father. He offered up his blood unto
his father. And the Lord was pleased with
that. The Lord was not pleased with the works of man's hands
and the baked goods. But that being said also, when
the Lord offered up his body unto the Father, the Lord was
satisfied with his body. He did not let his Holy One see
corruption. The Lord resurrected his body
from the dead. The Lord was pleased with him
being the bread. And he is the bread of life to
his people, isn't he? He is the wine that we drink,
and he is the bread that we do eat. So with the baker, we can see
Christ giving his body that we meet thereof. And we can see
man also in this baker and trying to offer up their works of their
hands. In order for you and I to see
Christ, it takes an act of God. Man cannot cause us to see Christ,
the substitute lamb. God has to cause us to feast
upon his son through the eyes of faith that is given. The Lord
is the one that reveals that God became a man robed in sinful
flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the covenant
of God for his people would be established forever. He is called
the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world,
His blood was precious unto the Father before He ever died. The
covenant was sure and steadfast because He promised and He cannot
lie. He saved His people from their
sin by His blood and by His body. After three days, what took place?
After His death, He was restored. He was brought back from the
dead. He was given back the position that He was in before, seated
at the right hand of the Father. He resurrected him, and the father's
the one that declared him as the prophet, the priest, and
the king. He said, sit thou here till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. The Lord was successful. He successfully
saved his people by his blood and by his body. I mentioned to you before that
we were gonna turn to 1 Corinthians. Let's turn there to 1 Corinthians
11. We see that Christ was obedient
unto the death, even the death of the cross. He offered up his
body unto his father. He told the disciples, this is
my body that's broken for who? For you. He said, this is my
body that's broken for you. He said, this is the blood of
the covenant. Speaking to his disciples, last
meal that they had together. This is my body broken for you.
The Lord Jesus Christ's body was broken upon the cross. And
through faith, he never wavering knew the Father would resurrect
him because he knew the Father would be pleased with his sacrifice.
He satisfied God's justice. He satisfied God's law. And then
Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 11-23, For I have received of
the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he
had given thanks, he break it and said, Take eat. This is my
body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also he took the cup. And when he had
supped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as you drink
it in remembrance of me. For as oft as you eat of this
bread and drink of this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat of this bread and drink
of this cup of the Lord unworthily, Shall be guilty of the body and
the blood of the Lord. Now, brethren, I think that in
and of itself is our greatest fear that we are trying to partake
of the Lord's body and the Lord's blood unworthily, because if
we do, then we're guilty. We are guilty of his death. We
are guilty. before the Lord, we are not sinless
at that point. If we are partaking it and we
are taking it unworthily, that means that we are not seen sinless
before the Lord, but the Lord's people take it worthily. What
does that mean? That means it's your confession
that Christ's blood and body is all in your salvation. That's
what it means to take it worthily. It's not that we walk worthily,
upright in and of ourself, And that God sees us as being worthy
in and of ourself. It means that as we partake of
the elements physically and as we are hearing the body and the
blood of Christ being preached this morning, we are partaking
of that worthily only because we're confessing it is all in
our salvation. That's what it means to take
it worthily. This is the way men approach the Lord, either
worthily or unworthily. And the Lord is the one that
makes the difference. The Lord is the one that makes a man worthy
to partake. You know, the qualification for
salvation is you must be made a sinner. Did you know that?
You have to be made a sinner first. Now, whenever you're made
a sinner, simultaneously, you're shown the Savior also and given
faith immediately. And that's the repentance towards
God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ that I've mentioned
several times to us. It happens at the same time.
But that is literally the qualification. So you say, you're telling me
that sinners are worthy of salvation. Sinners are the only ones worthy
of salvation because the Lord's made them sinners. Do we see
that? They're the ones that God came to save. That's what the
Lord Jesus Christ said. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. He came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And his sinners plead the blood
and the body of Christ as all in their salvation. The butler offered wine, which
he did not produce it of himself. The baker offered the works of
his hands and. In our text, we find. In our text in Genesis 40, you
want to turn back there, we find that. He was carrying this bread,
the works of his hands and white baskets and white baskets, I
found that interesting because the Lord said and to The Pharisees,
woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are likened
to whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but
are within full of dead man's bones. Rob just read us Ezekiel
37, full of dead man's bones, whited sepulchers, full of dead
man's bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. Now, the way God sees things
is the way that they are. Period. If God said it, it's
truth. And the way that he sees it is
how it is. When he looks at a man, he does not look upon the outward
appearance to determine whether that man is considered good or
not considered good. We're all sinners. But the Lord
has to reveal that you are a sinner in order for you to know that
you need a savior. When the Lord looks at a man,
he talks about a whited sepulcher here, what they would do is they
would take a tomb and they would bleach it more or less, they
would make it white, they would paint it whatever, and they would make
it look pretty to the eye. That's what he's referring to
here, is that the outside looks pretty good to man, but God don't
look at the outside, he looks all the way down into the heart
and he sees that it's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. So that we're without excuse when it comes to us coming
before the Lord. He's declaring that we are not
good in any way, shape or form. The good news is not, it's not
what we are, but it's what we have been made to be. We are
sinners by nature. So what have we been made to
be? Being made means that the Lord took something and created
it out of nothing. He created salvation for his
people and he performed salvation for his people by his blood and
by his body. He offered himself up to the
father and the father was satisfied. Now, What we are now is heirs
of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What we are now is seen
perfectly righteous before him, sinless. What we are because
of his body and blood is no longer whited sepulchers, but we see
ourself as not having righteousness of our own. We need his righteousness. We see that if we try to have
a righteousness, then it's of the law, but the law was not
given to save a man. A law was to reveal that we needed
a savior. So we see the body and the blood of Christ is our
only hope as believers, our only hope in salvation. And that's
what he reveals to his people. He said in First Corinthians
1129, he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. What does that
mean? Not discerning the Lord's body.
And I had to turn back too quickly, I suppose, and I apologize for
that. But we have discernment of the Lord's body. What does
that mean? That means Christ has been made
all to the believer. Christ, his body is precious
to you and I, because we know in and of ourself, we have no
hope. We have discerned that the Lord's
body, by the faith the Lord's given us, by his spirit, we have
discernment that his body is meat indeed, and his blood is
drink indeed, and we must have that in order to be counted righteous
before the Lord. Otherwise, we'll be left to ourself.
Men go about trying to discern the Lord's body, and they think,
well, all we have to do is eat Jesus cookies. Are you familiar
with that? A lot of churches believe that it's physically
the body of Christ in bread form and they literally eat it and
they're called Jesus cookies. They physically think they're
partaking and it's making them holy because of what they're
consuming. Ain't that crazy? That's where we would be if the
Lord left us to ourself. Somebody said, well, I'm not
that crazy. Well, I am. I would have done everything in my power
in order to be saved if the Lord had caused not caused me to realize
there's nothing I can do. It's finished. It doesn't matter
how you mark it down, brethren. Anything that's not the body
and blood of Christ alone is not sufficient in salvation.
And that's why we have so many different religions. If somebody
thinks that they can get to God this way, and somebody believes
they can get to God this way, and somebody believes they can
offer up their works this way, and it's all damnation. That's
all that it is. It's all sin. It's all unrighteousness
before God. Thanks be to God, He has given
His people, His body and His blood as our only confession
before Him. Our only confession. Jesus had followers following
Him in John 6. They had come to Him, and He
had fed the multitude. And He goes to get on a ship,
and He departs from them, going away from them. Well, they get
on a ship also, and they come to Him. I'll tell you what, turn
with me to John 6 if you would please. I want to show you this. The Lord says unto them that
you did not come unto Me, but for one reason, because you ate
of the loaves and were filled. They did not come to Christ for
His body. They came to Christ to get their
bellies full. Men approach God. They try to
see what God can do for them. It's not about the spiritual
need that they have. It's the physical need. I was
trying to say this earlier, and I couldn't get it out the right
way. But it's not a physical need that we're concerned with,
brethren. It's a spiritual need. We have
one need, and that is to be found in Christ. That whenever He died,
I died in Him. When he offered up his body,
I was in him when he offered up his body. That's my need.
That when he shed his blood, he put away my sin. That's my
need. Yes, we have physical needs,
things in this life, but the Lord Jesus Christ promised that
he would provide our need. David said, I was a young man
and now I'm old. Never have I seen the righteous
forsaken. They've always been given the blood and body of Christ.
Never have I seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging
bread." Why is that? Because he's given us Christ,
the bread of life. You're in John chapter six. Look
what the Lord replies unto them whenever he tells them, because
you did eat of the loaves and were filled, you didn't come to me.
That's the only reason you came to me. Verse 28 says, then said
they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works
of God? Jesus answered and said to him,
this is the work of God. Now that's very clear to me.
The work, that's the one work. It didn't say this is one of
the works. It's one, just singular. Singular work, this is the work
of God. that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. Now in the last message I mentioned
to you the word for, but this could be interpreted that you
believe on him and therefore it's the work of God. But that's
not what the Lord said. The Lord said this is the work
of God. This is the only way that it's going to come to pass
is that if he makes you believe on him, that's what he's saying.
It's God's work that he works in the heart of the believer.
He gives us the body and the blood of Christ. as all in salvation,
that is the work of God. It's not the work that we have
done. It's not something that we've produced. It's by the faith
of Christ. This is the work of God that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said unto him, therefore
unto him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe
thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers that eat manna in
the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven
to eat. These men, these unbelieving
wicked men are asking God for a sign. Men in today's religion,
and I don't care what the title of the religion is, the religions
all say the same thing. What sign, what sign do we have
to believe on him? The Lord Jesus Christ was very
clear about the sign, wasn't he, when the Pharisees asked
him. He said, there'll be no sign given but that of the prophet
Jonah. Well, what sign was that? As
Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so shall the son of man be in the heart of the earth three
days and three nights. The Lord's telling them the only sign that
you're going to get is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But
that's not something they can produce. That is the work of
God for his people. Verse 32 says, then Jesus said
unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. For the bread of God is he, Christ. The bread of God is he, which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life into the world. Then said
they unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. And Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger, He that believeth on me shall never thirst. God
tells them plainly, I am the bread of life. He that cometh
to me." Now, understand what our Lord is saying here. He's
speaking very clearly and very plainly. When we speak, brethren,
we speak clearly and plainly, don't we? We don't try to say
something in parables or say something that's confusing or
to seem that we have discovered something that no one else does
and declare that. We just preach Christ. and him crucified. My declaration this morning to
you is clear. The body and blood of Christ
is your only hope in salvation. That's as clear as I can be,
and it is the work of God. If you believe it, that's the
declaration that goes forth. These men were hearing God speak
and they could not see that it was God and they could not hear
his words in the heart. It is the work of God. That's
the mercy of the Lord that it's done that way. He causes us to
believe. If we could be part of it in
any way, we would mess it up. If we could believe it in and
of ourself for a moment, you know it's true, we would stop
believing it just a few moments later. It's evident of that whenever
we get in our vehicle and drive down the road as soon as we leave
here and somebody cuts us off, we're not thinking of the goodness
of the Lord anymore. We want to take matters into our own
hands and the frustration that overwhelms us. So if the Lord
allowed us to even think for a moment that we have anything
to do with salvation, remember, Remember, we do not. He's done
it all. It's his body and it's his blood. This is why we are
here to eat of his body and drink of his blood. Now, in verse 53
of John 6, then said Jesus, then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my body is drink indeed. That's why we're here, to eat
of the Lord's body, to drink of the Lord's blood. And we understand
that that's not a physical doing, that's a spiritual application.
By faith, we look unto Christ and feast upon the Lamb of God,
and He satisfies the heart of the believer. We are here to
confess His body and his blood is all our righteousness. I read
on in verse 56, he says, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living father hath
sent me and I live by the father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. This is the bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers that eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth this bread shall live forever. Brethren,
we know that His body is meat indeed, don't we? And His blood
is drink indeed. If you tell somebody that, they'll
look at you and not understand what you're saying. It takes
revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ for us to understand what
it means to eat of the body of Christ. We're satisfied with
that body, aren't we? We're satisfied with His blood
alone. We don't want anything else as believers. It's all that
we cling to is His body and His blood. It's His life. That's
our hope in salvation. That's our only plea in righteousness,
is He's righteous and we're not. Give us Christ, the body and
the blood that satisfied the Father. This is why we do take
communion, is to show of His death till He comes, to remember,
to bring into remembrance again, His body and His blood. Now in Genesis chapter 30, it
ends by showing us that the baker was killed. He was killed representing
what would happen if a man tries to bring the works of his hands
before God. Brethren, you know the account
in the Scripture that says when men come and stand before the
Lord on judgment day, what did the Lord tell them? Well, they
begin to try to make themselves sound good, don't they? They
begin to confess their works before Him. They say, well, we've
done this in Thy name. We've cast out demons in Thy
name. I was a pastor at a church, some of them might say. So many
people got saved underneath me, me preaching or whatever they
may say. What did the Lord say? Depart from me, you that work
iniquity, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Our confession
must be Christ is all. His body is all, His blood is
all. That must be our confession,
or we will end up like this baker, dead. Eternal damnation in hell
forever. Men that die and go to hell,
brethren, do it because they want to do that. They do not
want to bow to God. They do not want to confess His
body and His blood. Men die of their own free will
to go to hell. That's the truth. They do. Men
will not come to Christ that they may have life. The Lord
has to interject by giving faith to believe the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is of the Lord. Men choose. Furthermore, hell
is not enough to cause a man to believe. Hell itself is not
enough to cause a man to want Christ. The account I can give
you is when the Lord was speaking of the rich man and Lazarus.
Lazarus died and went to Abraham's bosom, did he not? And the rich
man died. And seeing Lazarus afar off,
he cried unto him and said, Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that I
may dip his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented
in this flame. The rich man did not say, give
me the blood of Christ and the bread of Christ. Give me the
fountain of living water. He didn't say that. He said,
I want one more drop of pleasure. Men in hell do not want Christ. They are either. It takes the
interjection of God to save a man. And thanks be to God, He does.
He saved His people. He saved His people, and He calls
His people, and He keeps His people. That's the good news
of the Gospel. He did it all by His body and
all by His blood. The butler was restored because
he brought the wine alone. Christ was resurrected. He presented
Himself unto His Father with His blood-washed people. and
the Father is satisfied with them. So what do we plead this
morning? What do we plead as our salvation?
Nothing but the blood of Christ. We're going to sing that song.
Let's all stand together.