request of prayer, John Queen
family, Maurice Cunluna Husky family, the Kennedy family, the
Dugan family, the lost loved ones, senior member Arlene and
her family. We'll observe the Lord's table
after the worship service this morning and also next Sunday,
November 5th, you set your clocks. Bring forward, fall back. Fall
back, you're back. One hour. That's next Sunday. So we'll be able to go get out
of church. And it'll be dark at two o'clock
in the afternoon. So that'll be. So remember that
on November the 12th, I'll be preaching at 13th Street Baptist
Church. And Brother Sam Vance will be preaching. It's two Sundays
away. So remember that. And we'll just have the morning
service and no dinner that day. Okay, let's begin our worship
service with hymn number 37, How Great Thou Art. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made, Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. ♪ How great Thou art, how great
Thou art ♪ Then changed my soul, my Savior God, to Thee ♪ How
great Thou art, how great Thou art When through the woods and
forest glades I wander And hear the birds sing sweetly in the
trees When I look down from lofty mountain granules gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, ♪ How brave Thou art ♪ And when
I think ♪ That God His Son not sparing ♪ Sent Him to die ♪ I
scarce can take it in ♪ That on the cross ♪ My burden gladly
bearing to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art, how great
Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, How great Thou art, how great
Thou art. When Christ shall come, wish
out of acclamation and take me home. ♪ In humble adoration ♪ And there
proclaim ♪ My God, how great thou art ♪ Then sings my soul,
my Savior God, to thee ♪ How great thou art, how great thou
art ♪ Then sings my soul, my Savior God How great Thou art, how great
Thou art. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 129, Hallelujah, What a Savior. You have your
Bibles, turn and read the first chapter of the epistle to the
Roman church. Chapter 1 of verse 16 says, For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first,
and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The
just shall live by faith. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we thank you for mercy and grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We thank you for that shed blood that put away our sin by the
sacrifice of himself, for that perfect death that honored and
glorified your law and your justice, that propitiated you for everyone
for whom he died. We thank you, Father, that we
can call you our father, and we know it's because your son
died in our room instead. Lord, we ask this morning for
those who are sick and went through trials and troubles. Thou knowest
every heart and every situation. We ask your help for them. May
this be used to turn their eyes to Jesus Christ, our Lord. Help
us to worship you this day as we hear and preach the word of
God and as we receive the Lord's table and the fellowship we have
around the table this afternoon. Help us, Lord, we pray in Christ's
name. Amen. In number 127, ♪ Man of sorrows, what a name ♪
For the Son of God who came ♪ Ruined sinners to reclaim ♪ Hallelujah,
what a Savior ♪ Bearing shame and scoffing rude seal my pardon with his blood
hallelujah what a savior guilty violent ♪ What atonement can it be ♪ Hallelujah
♪ What a Savior ♪ Lifted up was He to die ♪ Did His finish was
His cry ♪ Now in heaven be exalted high ♪ Hallelujah ♪ When he comes, our glorious king
♪ All his ransom want to bring ♪ Then anew this song we'll sing
♪ Hallelujah, what a Savior Now Stan and Zach, would you help
Stan receive the honors this morning, please? Let us pray. Father, again, we
approach in the name of our marvelous Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who indeed is our righteousness before thee. We thank you, Father,
that we can say that, that we can know it and believe it. Help
us, Lord, to appreciate what you've done for us. As we return
these gifts unto thee, let us do so with joy and hilarity,
thanksgiving for what you've done for us. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. It's I invite your attention back
to Romans Chapter 1. The title of my message this morning is
By Revelation. By Revelation. The subject here that is addressed
is Righteousness. The Righteousness of God. Now
the word Righteousness is used 36 times in the Book of Romans. To a great extent it is the theme
and song of this book and if you give some thought to religion
altogether. Righteousness is always somewhat
a theme. Generally that the righteousness
or human merit of people fit them in a righteous standing
before God is the general view of false religion. There is a righteousness among
men. The root word of the righteousness is equity, fairness, and so we
could call certain acts of human beings on a natural level to
be righteous acts. They do right things in business.
They try to teach people right. They love people. These are righteous
things, but they have nothing to do with the standing before
God, the righteousness that fits us to stand before a right and
holy God. The Pharisees had a righteousness. They did everything right, but
they were the kind of fellow that our Lord said scarcely will
one die for a righteous man. He was talking about those who
are always right and never wrong. Those kind of people are kind
of hard to live around. But they had a righteousness. Our Lord
even said that except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of
the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter heaven.
Some people think that that's a goal to be set, a way to be
more righteous than they were, but their righteousness was a
human righteousness. It was a carnal righteousness.
And what that was was a condemnation of their righteousness, not a
commendation of it. It was simply saying that the
very best of human righteousness will never fit you in a right
standing before God. The very best. human righteousness
must be exceeded and the only way it can be exceeded is to
be for Christ to be your righteousness. That's it. That's the only righteousness
we have as we stand before a holy God. There is no other righteousness. In fact, the Lord has said that
God has made us to be or made Christ to be unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, which is holiness, and redemption. God has made him to be that to
his people In this book, the phrase, The
Righteousness of God is employed eight times, and it's employed
eight times in this book and also in the New Testament. Five of those times is found
here in Romans. The Righteousness of God. We find it here in this
passage that I read to you this morning, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel. didn't speak about being timid or being embarrassed
or being afraid to talk about the gospel. He wasn't any of
that, but some of us have experienced that in time. I think it was
Maurice Montgomery said, you get in a crowd of unbelievers,
it's kind of hard to hold up the flag of righteousness because
it's tough. You don't want to be censored.
Paul is not talking about that. He's saying I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Jesus Christ because that's how I was saved. That's
why I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power, or the dynamic, the dunamis,
the dynamite of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,
and that involves everybody, both Jew and Gentile, anyone
who believes on Christ, possesses the righteousness of God. And
then he says, for therein Is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith? For it is written, The just shall
live by faith, which is repeated four times in Scripture. Several times or several things
are shown in these two verses. The first thing that is seen
is that this matter of righteousness, the righteousness of God addressed
here is revealed. It says the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith. What does that mean? It
means it cannot and will not come naturally and it is not
common knowledge. If you know this righteousness,
you didn't come up with it. It is not knowledge gained by
intense study. It is not knowledge happed upon
by serendipity. The knowledge of this righteousness
comes one way and one way only, and that is by REVELATION. Now,
what you have before you in this book that you are holding in
your laps is the REVELATION OF GOD. It is the only thing God
has for us. I know people say, God told me
this and God told me that. We must be like old B.B. and
someone would say something like that, he would say, Scripture,
please, show me in Scripture what God told you, and if it
don't line up, God didn't tell you, you're lying, you're lying. This comes by revelation. The
word for, the Greek word for revelation is apocalypse, it's
an opening, an expansive opening of knowledge. You and I have this knowledge
of righteousness only one way, if God, in His grace, by His
mercy, through the preaching of the Word by the Holy Spirit,
makes it known unto you. It comes no other way. This knowledge, the knowledge
of this righteousness, is not available to the natural mind.
It is spiritual understanding and comes with the new birth,
which comes from above. It comes by regeneration. It
comes with regeneration. And a person may have some sense
of God's essential righteousness and still perish and yet have
zero knowledge of this particular and specific righteousness called
eight times in scripture, the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. If
a person is blessed to possess this knowledge, that person will
never perish. He'll never perish. The second
thing seen is that this righteousness is revealed in the gospel and
nowhere else. Well, that's what Paul says.
He says, ìFor I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek, for therein in the gospel
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. Where the
gospel, which is defined clearly in Scripture, where the gospel
is not preached, this righteousness of God is not revealed. It s
that simple. these churches who don't preach
the gospel, the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the one gospel
that Paul preached, that he said, If any man or creature preach
any other gospel than what I preach, let him be accursed, in Galatians
chapter 1. This is a declaration that the
Sovereign God, who has want and need of nothing, has ordained
the use of extraordinary means to reveal His righteousness.
and that extraordinary means is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The means He has and continues to employ is the gospel, or the
preaching of the gospel, and therein is His righteousness
revealed. Men and women, the elect of God,
do not believe the gospel until they have heard the gospel from
one whom God has sent, and when they are given ears to hear and
eyes to see, this righteousness is revealed to them. and only
then. Comparing this to other passages
addressing the same time, we find that the revelation of this
righteousness by the gospel is salvation. It is salvation. Romans chapter 10 makes it clear
that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. No
doubt about that. You don't get faith otherwise. You're not born with it. You
can't work it up. You can't generate it. If it comes to you, it comes
by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, he prefaced saying that
in Romans chapter 10, he said, Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him
in whom they've not heard, or whom they've not believed? And
how shall they believe on him in whom they've not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Now, the preacher himself is
nothing. he's zero, he's zilch, he's a spot on history, that's
all he is, there's nothing to it. He'll be on the scene for
a while and then off the scene, and someone else will stand in
his place. But the message, the gospel of
Jesus Christ, you must hear it from someone whom God has stood
up on his hind legs and put the words of the gospel in his mouth.
It must be sent. God must send him to you for
you to hear the gospel. ain't gonna happen any other
way. I know some people say, and I've talked with good friends
over the years who say, well, you can be saved by reading the
Bible. I don't discount the possibility
of that. Because God is God, and I'm not gonna put Him in
a shoebox and can't wheel Him out with my little penknife.
But we have neither right nor warrant to say that from the
pulpit. For the pulpit says it's through the foolishness of preaching
that God saves them that believe, the message of reconciliation, the message of reconciliation
which is given to the ministers of the gospel, that message is
Christ was made to be sin for us and knew no sin, that we might
be made what? The righteousness of God in Him. The third thing seen is that
the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith
What does that mean? I remember the first time I read
it, I wondered what that means. Faith to faith. No one knows
this righteousness saved by God-given faith. That's for sure. This
faith being carried on in the words of the gospel that reveals
this righteousness. This fact makes the righteous
God a thing that cannot be discerned by natural means, that it can
only be discerned by faith. It is neither experimental nor
experiential in the spiritual sense. That is to say, you can't
produce evidence for it. You can't produce evidence that
you know this right. You can tell people you know.
I can tell you I know, but you don't know whether I know it
or not. No evidence of the existence
of this righteous God is discernible. but by faith, so it's faith to
faith, faith to faith. This righteous God revealed in
the gospel is believed, only believed, only believed. When our Lord said, all things
are possible, only believe, He was putting the emphasis on the
word only, not on the word believe. Only believe, that's the hardest
thing you'll do in this world. is to only believe, just believe. But if you're a believer, that's
what you do most of the time. The first mention of this righteousness
of God is found to be vitally connected with faith, the righteousness
of God. You know where it's at? One time
God took Abraham out on the side of the hill in Genesis 15 and
said, look at the stars, can you know them? And he says, no.
He said, so shall thy seed be. And he was talking about according
to Galatians 3, Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham. And he
said that Abraham believed God concerning the seed, and it was
imputed to him for righteousness. That righteousness is always
connected to faith. Because of this fact, Abraham
was called the father of the faithful, and it is found to
be an example of what it is to receive the righteousness of
God. Over in Romans chapter 4, verses
four and five, it says, Now to him that worketh is the reward
not reckoned of grace, but of dead. In other words, if you
work for it, it's owed to you. It has nothing to do with grace,
which is unmerited favor. He said, But to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. His faith is counted as righteousness. In this book, the phrase the
righteousness of God is exclusive and it's singular. It's singular. I want us to consider four times
this phrase is employed in the book of Romans. Look first at
chapter three and verse five. Paul says, But if our righteousness
commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh
vengeance? I speak as a man. Here Paul having in the remainder
of the two first chapters of this book prove that neither
Jews nor Gentiles in their religions were righteous by their works.
He made that very clear. They were not justified before
God by the deeds of the law. Now he distinguishes between
what men call righteousness and what the righteousness of God
is. The righteousness of God is the salvation of sinners by
PROMISE, and that promise being HIDDEN in the Old Testament,
shrouded there, He is answering a sure question that will arise
when men hear that sinners are saved FREELY by grace. Now, I
mean ABSOLUTELY FREELY by grace. They did not do anything for
it. They could not recommend themselves to God on any level.
God FREELY, FULLY showed them FAVOR, and that favor was ETERNAL
favor. The question will arise. These people were saved according
to the promise of the Messiah, not by the moral and ethical
machinations under the law. And he uses David as an example
in verse 4. He says, God forbid, yea, let
God be true, and every man be a liar, as it is written, where?
Psalm 51 and verse 4 is where it was written, that thou mightest
be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou
judge. David said, after he had stolen a man's wife, got her
pregnant, tried to pin it on her husband. Her husband would
not buy it. Then he had her husband killed in battle. When he was
confronted with it, he said, ìAgainst thee and thee only have
I sinned, and I say this openly, I confess my sin before you,
so you might be right when you judge.î If you judged me and
put me in hell, you would be right. And here is the thing,
If you saved me, you'd do it by being right. God will declare
in this third chapter of Romans that he declared his righteousness
in the salvation of sinners. Using David as an example, he
declares the truth that salvation by promise does not make justice
void. God is just to save sinners and
likewise just to condemn them. The fact that he saved David,
though he sinned with Bathsheba, does not make God unrighteous,
though men might say so. That ain't right. Here's a man
that lived all his life, another man that lived all his life.
He was good. He was a good daddy, good provider, hard worker, a
generous man, a philanthropic man. He never did no adultery. He never got nobody murdered.
It ain't right for God to save a murderer, to save an adulterer,
not save that guy. Yes, it is. It's perfectly right
for God to do that, and that's the argument He's making here.
The righteousness of God revealed in the gospel and received by
faith is the fact that God judges all sin. He judges all sin, either
in the person or in the substitute, but all sin is judged. God is
always right, and He's always righteous, always righteous. men hearing this with natural
mind and natural reason would declare God to be unrighteous
to save some and be wrathful to others without any consideration
of character or conduct." But that's exactly what it is. If
God considered your character or conduct, He would never save
you. He would never save you. So character and conduct matter, but they don't count
in the matter of salvation. David declares God to be clear
when He judges because He has sinned, and likewise clear when
He saves because He has judged this sin in Christ. Do you remember
the situation when David was confronted about this? When the
prophet came to David and gave that scenario of the poor manís
one lamb to have a party when he had a whole flock of lambs
he could have chosen from, David was so angry. He said, ìWell,
you took Uriahís lamb. He only had one lamb, and that
was Bathsheba. You did, you're the man. You
did that. And David said, I have sinned. And the prophet said, God has
put your sin away. How wonderful. How magnificent
that is. Lying men will slander and scandalize
those who declare the truth of sovereign salvation, but they
do so at their own peril. Their natural understanding carries
no weight at all. The righteousness of God is revealed
from faith, revealed to faith, and not to nature. So natural
men will never understand the truth of God, the righteousness
of God. In chapter 3 and verse 21, it
says this, but now the righteousness of God without the law, that
is, me doing the law, without the law, is manifest, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets." Now he takes them back to the
Old Testament, which is the only book, this was the major portion
of the Bible they had by the time Romans was being written,
was just the Old Testament, the law and the prophets. Now he's
made it clear in verses 19 through 20 that no man is saved by the
law. Verse 19 says, Now we know that whatsoever things the law
saith, that saith them that are under the law, that every mouth
might be stopped. That means you think you can
be saved by the law, just shut up. Shut up. It can't be. It can't be. That every mouth might be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God. If you are going
under the law, you are guilty, flat out, plain and simple. you are guilty under the law
because the law was added, why? Because of transgression. The law entered that sin might
abound. The law was added because you
were already condemned. The law just illuminates your
transgressions and your sins. So if you're under the law, you're
guilty. He said, Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no
flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge
of sin. You had not even known what sin was, except the law
came along, decided what your transgression was, and said,
that is a transgression. That is why you would not have
known that. The law did that. But now, something has happened. The word but, that means the
opposite has happened. But now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. The hidden mystery witnessed
by the law and the prophets. What does that mean? Well, the
Law and the Prophets had one subject. Had one subject to talk
about. Let's look at a few instances.
John chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 45,
it says this. Now, here's Philip and Nathanael.
And they've met, they've seen this Jesus Christ. And they're
excited. They know He's the Messiah. How'd
they know that? How'd they come up with that knowledge? He said,
Philip and Nathanael saith unto him, we have found him of whom
Moses in the law and prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph. We've found him. How'd they know
it was him? He was described by the law and the prophets.
Described by the law and the prophets on the Mount of Transfiguration. when Moses, who is the Law, it's
called the Law of Moses, came back to the Mount of Transfiguration
where Christ was transfigured and His robe shone brighter than
the noonday sun, they came and they spoke to Him. How'd that
work? Don't ask me that. Ask Einstein. He talked about
time travel and space continuum and things like that. He might
be able to explain it, but I can't explain it. But there on the
Mount of Transfiguration, two dead men, Moses and Elijah, recognizable,
talked with Jesus Christ, and what was the subject? What was
the subject? Did he talk about politics? Did
he talk about Israel and Hamas? What did he talk about? What
did he talk about? Look at verse 30 of Luke chapter
9. says this, let's read back a
little bit here they are talking with him in verse thirty-two,
men which were Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory and spake
of his decease, his death which he should accomplish in Jerusalem.
That is what we are going to speak of in just a little bit,
his death. This was the subject. Why? Because this settled everything.
This death is the hinge pin of all time and eternity. Everything
hangs on this. This is the nail in the sure
place to hang everything upon. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
they spake. Who spoke of it? Who was it that
spoke of it? The Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah, Moses
and Elijah. In Acts chapter 10, Peter preaching Speaking of Jesus Christ being
the Lord over all, he said in John Acts chapter 10 and verse
43, he said, ìTo HIM,î that is to Jesus Christ, ìgave all the
prophets witness, and through His name whosoever believeth
on Him shall receive remission of sin.î to him. So the Old Testament is all about
Jesus Christ, the law of the prophets. That's Moses and his
five books and all the prophets and the prophecies that followed
were prophecies in some aspect of him and his work or about
his people. That's just the fact of the Old
Testament. Our Lord said that to those who
studied the scriptures. You do study the scriptures for
in them you think you find eternal life, but they are they which
testify of me. And then Paul the Apostle. bless his heart, he is in jail. They had gone to arrest him and
had all kinds of accusations of sedition and causing trouble
and breaking the law and all that stuff and they had him in
court and they accused him. And here's how he answered that
accusation in Acts chapter 24. In verse 14 he says, Paul says,
But I confess this unto thee, that after the way which men
call heresy, So worship I God. Men call you a heretic if you
worship God the right way. So I worship the God of my Father,
believing all things that are written, where? In the Law and
the Prophets, believing all things that are written in the Law of
the Prophets concerning Jesus Christ. The righteousness of
God is not by the law. It is revealed in the Law and
the Prophets. Then back in our text in Romans Chapter 1 Chapter 3 and verse 22 says this,
Even the righteousness of God. That's what's revealed. But now
is the righteousness of God without the law manifest, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. That's an interesting little
phrase that you'll find throughout Paul's writings. And when you
find that little phrase, the faith of Jesus Christ, or by
faith of Jesus Christ, what that means is not your faith in Christ,
it means the faithfulness and fulfillment and accomplishment
of his work. By faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them who believe, for there is no difference, because
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The righteousness
of God is salvation by Jesus Christ without any effort of
humanity concerning the law. The righteousness of God is Christ. That's the simplest way of putting
it. And Jesus Christ is our righteousness. There ain't no other righteousness.
Isaiah was, by all human standards, a pretty righteous man. If you
read the first five books of Isaiah, he's righteous on everybody's
head. He's righteous over much. He
woed them to death, woe unto you for this and woe unto you
for that. And he saw Christ, he didn't say woe unto you in
chapter six. he said, woe is me. I am undone. I dwell among a people of unclean
lips. I got unclean lips. I got unclean lips. Righteousness. Christ is our
righteousness. Jeremiah 23, 5 says the Lord
is our righteousness. That's his name. The Lord our
righteousness. Then in chapter 33 and verse
19 of Romans, or rather Jeremiah, it says and she shall be called
the Lord Our Righteous." Who's that to them? That's the church.
His name is the Lord Our Righteous. What's your name? The Lord Our
Righteous. How come your name says His name? Because you're
all married. When you got married, you took
His name. You're the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter
10 of Romans, the last time in Romans that the term the righteousness
of God is used, Romans 10. It says, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel, that they might be saved.
He loved his brothers and sisters in his tribe and nation. For I bear them record. They
have a zeal of God. They are religious people. But
it's not according to knowledge. Understanding. What don't they
understand? The righteousness of God. Will
they be ignorant? of God's righteousness, going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. The righteousness of
God. Now they understand that God
is essentially righteous. They know that the judge of all
the earth shall do right. They have no doubt about that.
But they don't know the good, God's righteousness. They don't
know the righteousness of God. What is that? Merciful for Christ
is the end, fulfillment, purpose of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. Christ is that righteousness.
Those who seek to be accepted by God, those who seek to produce
or build up what they think is God's righteousness are unbelievers. because Christ is the end of
it, the fulfillment of it, the abolishing of it, the setting
aside of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. If
you're a believer of this hour, we're about to take the Lord's
table. You're welcome to take that table, because you understand
that Christ is the righteousness of God, and God has made Him
to be unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek. For therein, where in the gospel,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, for it is
written, the just shall live by faith. How do we live? We
live by believing. Live by believing. That's the
life of the child of God. Faith is the first and the only
evidence of life in Scripture. Do you know that? You won't find
people producing evidence of being a child of God in Scripture,
because there ain't none to produce. You won't find it. I know people
talk about it, but the Bible doesn't talk about it. The Bible
says one thing is evidence. One thing is evidence in Scripture. In fact, it's the only time except
for one use in Jeremiah that the word evidence is used in
Scripture. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1. For faith is the
evidence of things hoped for. Faith is a substance of things
not seen. How do we understand that the
worlds were formed? By faith we understand that the worlds
were formed by the Word of God. That's how we understand it,
by faith. We don't understand anything scripturally by evidence
other than God has given us faith to believe it. You believe the
gospel from faith to faith, that's how you believe it. All right,
let's receive the Lord's table. Stan and Sylvester, you feel
like it? Okay, come on down, come on down. When the night our Lord was betrayed,
He took bread and broke it and gave it to His disciples. He
said, Take heed, this is my body broken for you. And as often
as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. Now before He did that,
He asked blessings upon the elements. So let's ask the Lord's blessings
upon this time. Father in Heaven, we ask in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ that we receive this table that shows forth the
death of Jesus Christ till He comes again. Let us rejoice in
the fact that the righteousness of God is revealed here in this
gospel, the gospel of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
who gave his body to be broken and his blood for life, dying
in the womb instead of sinners. Help us to rejoice in the time
we have together to do this when brothers and sisters in Christ
gather around the table of the Lord. We praise you and thank
you for such an opportunity. You've commanded us to do this,
and we are glad to obey. Thankful that we can. Help us
now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Is anybody in the nursery? Oppa, bye bye. Wow. I often wonder what the disciples
thought that night as he took the unleavened bread and broke
it and told them, this is my body broken for you. It's one
of those things that they would learn at Pentecost when the Holy
Ghost came. they began to see it and Paul
would elaborate on it in the first book to the Corinthians
well the night that was on the night of the Passover our Lord
said to his disciples this is the Passover I've been waiting
for this one because he took the elements of the Passover
the new wine and the unleavened bread and he drank it and gave
it to his disciples and did he he says now when you do this
you're actually showing something you're revealing something making
something known. What they're going to make known
when he said this hadn't happened yet, it was a few days away,
but it would soon happen. He said, you need to show forth
my death until I come again. Christianity, true Christianity
is about death. It's about a death. It's about
the death that satisfied God. And in that death is eternal
life. Our Lord took the bread of the Passover and said, take
eat. This is my body, broken for you. As long as you do it,
do it in remembrance of me. On the second night he took
the cup. And again revealed some interesting things that they
were yet to understand. All these Jewish boys taking
this table. That something was to be established
that was going to put away all their religion that they were
attesting into this poem. After he had blessed the cup,
he said, this cup is the new testament, the new covenant in
my blood. And as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show forth my death until
I come again." So what we're doing here is showing his death
until he comes again. He said, do this in remembrance
of me. And on that night, they sang
a hymn together and departed. Our Lord was betrayed by Judas'
kids. and went on to fulfill what he had said in these things.
His body to be broken, his lifeblood to be shed, his death. He gave us something to talk
about for the rest of our days while we're here on earth. The
death that saved our souls. Let's stand together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but holy lean on Jesus' name. Let each other know that you
love one another. It's a joy for me, a joy to be
your pastor. and to be able to brag on you
for the love you've shown me over these 45 years. God bless
you all. Hug up on one another.