Hi. Well, it's good to see you
all out this morning. Remember those who requested
prayer, Ashford Smith family and the Janet Smith family. It's
time. I didn't say it three times.
You can't get your hearing aids fixed. Yeah. Today, we'll observe
the Lord's table after the morning service. We begin our worship service
with hymn number 294. 294. Savior, like the shepherd lead
us, but we need Thy tender care. In Thy plans of blessings lead
us, for our use Thy foes prepare. Blessing Jesus, Blessing Jesus,
Thou has bought us, Thine we are. Blessing Jesus, Blessing
Jesus, Thou has bought us, Thine we are. We are Thine and Thou befriend
us, be Thou the guardian of our way. In life, on earth, and within
us, see us when we go astray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, O hear us when we pray. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
hear, O hear us when we pray. or any symbol you may be. Thou hast mercy to redeem us,
grace to cleanse, and heart to free. Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. Early let us do Thy favor, early
let us do Thy will. Blessed Lord and only Savior,
with Thine own heart most dear. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us love Thy Spirit. ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? ? Thou has brought us, brought us near ? After Scripture reading
and prayer, we'll sing hymn number 268. You can have your bibles turned with me to
the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. I'm gonna take my text from verse
10 this morning, who hath believed our report,
or doctrine, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. For
he, that is Christ, shall grow up before us as a tender plant,
as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty, and we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were,
our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Surely, he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. of our peace was upon him, and
with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray,
and turned everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted,
and he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearer is done, so he opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief, and
now shall make his soul He shall see his seed, shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great. He
shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he's poured out
his He bared the sins of many and
made intercession for the transgressors. Our Father, we delight to read
these words that set forth the glorious work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In his violent death, and yet
victorious death, his vicarious death, Glorious salvation he wrought
for his people. We are thankful that we can read
such words that he was stricken for his people. And with his
stripes we are healed. That our sorrows and griefs and
iniquities have been borne by him. He suffered the rejection and
the despising of men. and you have raised him up where
everything will prosper in his hand and he'll do all your pleasure.
That everyone for whom he died shall be saved where he shall
see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his
skill and righteousness, your righteous servants shall justify
many. And you'll do that because you'll bear their iniquities.
Father, we are thankful work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are thankful because of Him we stand before you this hour
forgiven and made to be righteous in your
sight by Jesus Christ. We thank you for grace that brought
the message of grace to us. We thank you for mercy that kept
us back from what we deserved. And we ask this morning We hear the gospel as we take
the Lord's table and spend some time around the dinner table
and fellowship together. We pray that this will be the
forefront of our thoughts as we look at one another. All of
us are sinners. We can pray full of iniquity and yet stand before you, robe
in the precious, perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. Cause us to see Christ. Pray for those who are sick,
going through trials, those who can't be with us for whatever
reason, not know us. Pray, Father, that you'd comfort
them and strengthen them. We pray for those who've lost
loved ones. Ashford Smith lost his mother. Pray for him. Pray for those others who've
requested prayer. Continue to pray for those who are suffering
on the other side of the mountains here. Have to do it. Hurricane Helene. Help us, Lord, now to worship
you. to fall down before you in thanksgiving
and praise for all you've done for us. May the Spirit take the words
of God and plant them in our hearts so we might see what you've
freely given us in Jesus Christ. Help us now, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Now our burden of our nation
is safe for one more day. for your faith in His excellent
Word. What more can we say than to
you, we ask this, to you, who for refuge to Jesus have fled? Fear not, I am with thee, be
not dismayed, for I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stay. With whom the deep waters I call,
With whom the rivers of woe Shall not be overflowed, We'll be with Thee, like troubles
in peace, and sanctified to Thee, like deepest distress. We'll
improve by retrial, to fly past we shall run. Thy grace, all
sufficient, shall be thy supply. The blade shall not hurt thee,
I only desire thy cross to consume and thy gold to refine. A soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will, God, I will not be served to dispose. That soul, though all hell should
e'er descend, I'll never know, never know, We sing that song. I always think
of Jenny sitting there on the front row. She loved that song.
She'd close her eyes and we'd go to them on the phone. Always
singing that song. It's a beautiful song. And what
a foundation we have. of Jesus Christ our Lord, the only name under heaven given
among men, for thy we must be saved. That precious name, that
lovely name, the name that you have given as the prefix for approach unto
your holy throne We thank you for him, his willingness,
his voluntary sacrifice. We thank you for giving him to
us, and with him freely giving us everything that pertains to
godliness in life. Help us now to worship you in
this manner, to return unto thee that which belongs to you. So, I could not read this passage
of scripture or dwell upon it without thinking of the Ethiopian
eunuch who was traveling back to Ethiopia in the desert and
was joined by Philip and his chariot. The Ethiopian was reading
this passage of scripture and wondering what it meant. And
Philip joined him in a chariot and told him what And I believe that the servant
spoken of in this passage, that the one who suffered and died,
the one who was despised and rejected of men, the one who
saw the travail of the travail of his soul and was satisfied,
I believe that's the Son of God. That's God come down here to
the earth. And he said, well, let us find some water and baptize
you. The first nine verses speak of
our Lord's sufferings. The men speak of his origin. He wasn't a fancy person. He
wasn't a rich man. He had no place to lay his head.
He never traveled more than 50 miles from his own hometown.
And you look at the effect he's had on the world. He was despised as he walked
this earth. He was rejected. And so was his
sorrow and anguish of heart, especially at the crucifixion,
that men esteemed that God was punishing him. And what they
didn't know, that God was pouring out his wrath on him for our
sins, which he bore, our sorrows and our iniquities, and was stricken
for us. And with his stripes we are healed.
Those first nine verses speak of what he is, who he is, and
what he suffered. Then in verse 10, it starts with
the word yet. This is a wondrous thing. Yet,
what does that mean? It means we're to take account
that something was behind all this, that this was not an occurrence
that occurred with men in some kind of circumstantial happening.
Yet, this all was according to purpose, yet it pleased pleased the Lord. Now when you
see the word pleased in reference to God in scripture, it's not
talking about enjoyment. It's not talking about vindictive
pleasure. It's talking about Him being
satisfied with something. Something satisfying Him. Something propitiating or appeasing
Him. Yet it appeased God. Yet it satisfied
God to bruise Him. All this sorrow that come upon
Him was according to purpose. For God does always what He pleases. David said that in Psalm 15 and
Psalm 135. He said, God is in the heavens. He had done whatsoever He had
pleased. He said that also in Psalm 135. He had done whatsoever He pleased
in heaven and earth and all the deep places. And in Psalm 46
and verse 10 it says, His counsel shall stand and He will do all
His It's this please the Lord that
it's going to get done, that it WOULD get done, because He
always does exactly what pleases Him. Also, we know from the Word
of God from Psalm 40 when it comes to that, which is quoted
in Hebrews chapter 10, that God was not pleased with all the
Old Testament and Old Covenant sacrifices that were offered.
All that lamb's blood and ram's blood and kid's blood and turtle
dove's blood that was shed throughout centuries. down to the cross. None of that, prior to the cross,
ever pleased God. God was not pleased with sacrifices. Look over at Hebrews chapter
10. This is quoted from Psalm 40.
In Hebrews chapter 10, it says in
verse 5, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he says, Sacrifice
and offering thou wiltest not. that thou hast prepared me a
body. Then it says in verse 8, above when he said sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not be that hast thou pleasure therein, which were offered by
the law. Then he said, lo, I come with
the body of the book that's written to me to do thy will, O God. And the rest of that chapter
tells us what the will of God is. Because it sets forth the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Please the Lord to bruise him. It's already said that he was
without iniquity. There was no guile in his mouth.
There was no reason for him to be bruised in himself. He was
set up as the perfect sacrifice. His soul was offered to God for
sin. His soul was offered to God for
sin. Jesus Christ's death on the cross
was a sin offering. sin offering offered to God.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. God put him to grief. God poured out His wrath upon
him. He made his soul an offering for sin. And when he did that,
you would think, if you were looking at the cross and many
who walked around the cross thought exactly this way, that this guy,
we finally got rid of him. We're not having this man to
reign over us. They laughed at him and mocked
him, laughed at him and mocked him as they walked around the
closet. But know that this guy, and our
Lord said when he makes a soul an offer of sin, he shall see
his seed. He's gonna see with his eyes
and with his understanding and his omniscience, he's gonna see
all for whom he died. will lay eyes upon them. He knows
who he's dying for because he chose them from the foundation
of the world. He was made to be the surety
for them for the foundation of the world. He shall see his sin. Not only that, the Lord shall
prolong his days. What does that mean? That after
three days in that tomb, he's gonna rise from the grave. And
he's gonna live evermore. Evermore. He'll ever live up
to make intercession for the saints. That wasn't the end of it. The
cross wasn't the end of it. It was the end of sin and the
bringing in of righteousness and sin in the prophecy of this
book and doing away with the sin and iniquity. All of that
was done there. But that wasn't the end of it.
That was the beginning of the story for the child of God. It
was our birthday, the day that we began the children of God
to live. And they were worried because
of their own ability. They went to the tomb and they
were walking and talking about who shall roll that stone away.
It's so big. It's so heavy, they said we can't
roll it away. And when they got to the tomb,
the stone had been rolled away. Isn't that our salvation? We
can't do anything. We can't roll the stone away. But here's the glory of the gospel,
here's what the gospel tells us. The stone has been rolled
away. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure, there's that
word again, and please the Lord and abuse him, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. That was what our Lord
said about him back in chapter 52. When he talked about what
the Lord, he said in verse 13, behold my servant shall deal
prudently, and what that means? It's a double word, prosper,
prosperously. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. And then this glorious verse
that sets forth the absolute substitutionary work of our Lord
as a absolute unquestioned success. He didn't do something on the
cross to make something possible. He didn't do something on the
cross that is decided upon your vote or your will. He did something
on the cross. He suffered on the cross to the
point that it's called travail, which women would tell you is
the worst pain in the world. It's birth pains to give birth. He called that suffering travail.
Why? Because he's going to give birth to some people, a new birth,
a new life. He shall see all of that. Word of means the product of,
what happens because of. He shall see all the travail,
the birth pains of his soul, and whatever he sees will satisfy
him. And you mothers know this, that
to carry a child for nine months and then have it pass away, or
be born still, there's no joy in that, no satisfaction in that.
Our Lord has never known a miscarriage. If he died in your room instead,
if he suffered to prevail for your soul, you will end up standing
accepted in his presence, dressed in his robes of righteousness
before a thrice holy God. He shall see all the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. Shall be satisfied. And why? Because by His knowledge,
and that word means skill, shall my righteous servant, Jesus Christ,
who came to this world to serve the Christ, the Holy God, who
He was God Himself. He pleased not Himself, but did
what He did to honor and glorify God. He shall see His seed. And my righteous servant shall
justify many. How many is He going to justify? There's many of them, said to
be an innumerable company of saints, greater than the sands
of the sea and the stars of the sky. I know that's metaphorical
language for a great, great number. A great, great number. And he's
going to justify this. What does that mean? That before
the holy law of God, which has no grace and has no mercy, the
law don't have Law was set in order to punish sin that already
existed. That's what it's there for. No
grace and no mercy, but it is exacting, it is holy, and it
is perfect, and it has no mitigating circumstances that can be applied
to it. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. So great was the
work of Jesus Christ on Calvary Street, this substitutionary
sacrifice. So great was this work. that
He will justify me. He will say to this law, you
cannot, on any level, in any way, charge this person with
sin. That's what it means to be justified.
You cannot look back in their history and make some type of
retroactive judgment. The law must look at you from
the cradle to the grave and say, I find no fault in you. You're
clean everywhere, from the bottom sole of your foot to the top
of your head. You're completely clean. You
have never sinned. That's what justification means.
You say, well, I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. We're talking
about how God sees you in Jesus Christ, how God's law sees you,
a perfect holy law. before whom the sun, moon, and
stars are not pure, looks on us, who are redeemed by the blood
of the Lamb, and says, I find no fault in you. I find no fault. There ain't no better news on
the top side of this planet, I can tell you that right now.
He shall justify many. Why? Because He's the one that
takes upon His shoulders and bears up under the weight and
burdens of our sins, carried our burdens, carried our griefs,
bore our sorrows, and by His stripes we are healed, took the
punishment for our sins. It says this, the reason we're
justifying has nothing to do with us. He will justify many because
he bore their iniquities. That's why we're justified. Why?
Because 2,000 years ago on Calvary Street our Lord Jesus Christ
was made to be sin for us. He knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. He bore our sins. He carried them away. He carried
them away. Language means anything and it
does. The metaphorical language is
used for him expiating our sins, doing away with our sins, putting
our sins away, is described as separating them from us as far
as the east is from the west. How far is that? It's pretty
far, I reckon. Buried at the bottom of the sea. Cast behind God's back. This
is the language used. Where's our sin? They're gone.
It clinged on, laid upon that scapegoat, taken away out in
the wilderness by a strong man, never to be seen again. He bore
our iniquities. Therefore, because of that, he's
exalted. Therefore, will I divide him
a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong. You get everything he got. For
we are joint heirs with Christ. Heirs of God, God's heirs, and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Whatever
He bought on Calvary is yours. And unless you get it, He can't
have it. Because we're not co-heirs. We're
joint heirs. because he has poured out his
soul unto death. It's all because of what he did.
He's poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressors.
That started early in his life. When they took taxes, told, in
Bethlehem, Roman taxes, they took him to be numbered along
with the rest of the thieves on Calvary Street. Both
of them mocked him. Both of them stuck their tongues
out at him. He says both of them cast the
same in their teeth. And one of them stayed that way.
But another one miraculously, by the grace of God and mercy
of God, saw who Christ was. And as the conversation went
between these two thieves, the one whom God saved that day said,
this guy, we're guilty. He's not. He's not anything of
this. And he looked at Jesus Christ.
And when he looked at him, he didn't look at this picture you
see that people have on the cross of this little trickle of blood
and a tiny can of tea towel wrapped around his loins. He was naked. This fellow, this fellow who
suffered capital punishment, this thief, looked at that mass
of blood and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's a miracle of grace. How
can anyone look at a slain beast and say that? Because that's
what Christ looked like. He looked like he'd been drawn
in court. He looked at him and said, Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. Wait a minute, you're the Lord
and you're the king? And the Lord said, Verily, truly,
truly, I say unto Because He's poured out His soul
to death, He was numbered with the transgressors. He bared the
sins of many. How many? All that He travailed
for. And He made intercession for
the transgressors. We take the Lord at His table
today. It began whenever God began,
because God didn't begin. So it's always been. Before the
world was, before the foundation of the world, before the concept
of the universe was, Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Jesus Christ was our substitute
before we even existed, before the world existed, before the
first star was hung in its socket. Before man was made out of the
dust of the earth, we were already His. And He came
to intercede for us. Intercede, come between, stand
in between, stand in the breach. What does that mean? Who is interceding
for us? Who is interceding with? God
the Father. God the Judge of all the earth.
interceding. And you know what? He's still
doing it. When we sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
even Jesus Christ the righteous. His whole life is a life of intercession.
Intercession. And He did it for many. For many
whom He will call to eternal life. And that's why we celebrate
this table. Because this talks about this
death. Christ will now receive you. Our Lord instituted two or three
ordinances when he left this world for his church. One was
the continuous preaching of the gospel to every creature. What
does the gospel talk about? It talks about his death. And what does baptism speak of
according to Romans 6? Of his death. It speaks of us being dying with
him, being buried with him, and being raved with him. And it
gives us what's called the Lord's Table. And the Lord's Table speaks of
his death. That's why we're here this morning. We can look at each other and
say, we're the same. Because of his death on Calvary
Street, there he saw the travail of his soul. Four people in an actual contact
situation. He killed at least to cover the
simple fact. That's the first thing he did.
Substitution right off the bat. And it's been that way ever since. Our life is, we realize that
something has to die for us to live. If we eat meat, something has
to die for us to do it. We eat vegetables, something
has to die for us to do it. This is substitution, this is
intercession. Our Lord came and died in the room instead of His
people and He told His disciples on the night of the last actual
Passover of the Jewish religion. They practice Passover today
but they don't because they don't have a priesthood. Our Lord instituted what we're
doing here today. We're still doing it 2,000 years
later. It is a commemoration of a single thing for a believer
to take this table. Our Lord took that bread and
He broke it and handed it out to His disciples. He said, this
is my body broken for you. And He took that wine and He
drank it. He blessed it and He said, this
cup is a new testament of my blood. And when you do this,
However often you do it. When you do this, you're saying
one thing. You're showing one thing. You're showing my death. My death. Till I come again. A lot of people talk about Jesus'
life, and His life was perfect. We're not saved by His life.
His life made Him the perfect sacrifice. Without sin. We're saved by His death. mind trusting in the merits of
Jesus Christ alone in that glorious finished work that he did on
Calvary Street. And welcome to this table and
be glad to be able to take it. Is Lindsay in the nursery? Okay,
don't forget Lindsay, she's in the nursery, okay. Let's ask
the Lord's blessings upon the elements. Father, as we take
this table this day, put in our minds and hearts the wonderful
truth that we do it because you died in our room and stage. You suffered the penalty that
was due us. You paid the debt that we could
not pay. You bled and died where it ought
to have been us. Thank you. And we can recall
that our life is due entirely to your death. Bless these elements. On the night our Lord was betrayed,
he took bread at the Passover feast and broke it and gave it
to the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body broken for
you. And the same night, he took the
cup. And after he had blessed it, he said, this cup is the
new testament, a new covenant in my blood, my death. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show forth my death until I come again. Do this. Hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
phrase, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. The commandment of our
Lord Jesus Christ for his disciples was to love one another. But in this world of war, we have that love for each other.
A lot of people in this world don't
know love, don't feel love, don't experience love. But we do. Thank God for that, because we
love Him.