out this week that the lump in
his throat is the same type of cancer, so he won't have to change
medication or go on any of the other medications. Alita's stoved
up with a busted wrist. How's Rain doing? Is he talking
better? Oh, that's good. How's Melvin
doing? OK? Melvin doing OK? OK, we're
glad to hear that. Thankful for that. Remember the
others who requested prayer, seek the Lord's help for them. We're having the Lord's table
after this morning service, no afternoon service. So remember that. We've got some old folks coming
over. Here's Harper. We can start now. Harper's here. Okay, let's begin our worship
service with hymn number 474, Only a Sinner Saved by Grace. Lord, have I gotten but what
I received? Grace hath bestowed it, and I
have believed. boasting excluded, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Once I was foolish and sin ruled
my heart, causing my footsteps from God to depart. Jesus had found me happy in my
case. I now am a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner. This is my story To God be the
glory I'm only a sinner Saved by grace Tears unavailing No
merit had I Mercy had saved me Or else I must die ♪ Hearing God's face ♪ But now
I'm a sinner ♪ Saved by grace ♪ Only a sinner ♪ Saved by grace
♪ Only a sinner ♪ Saved by grace ♪ This is my story ♪ I'm only a sinner saved by grace
♪ ♪ Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows ♪ ♪ Loving his Savior
to tell what he knows ♪ ♪ Wants more to tell him more ♪ I'm only
a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 42. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to the epistle to the Hebrew church, the Hebrews chapter
12. I'm going to read two verses of scripture that are familiar
to every believer. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 1.
Wherefore, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth
so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Let us pray. Our
Father, we are convicted by this passage. Twelve times we find ourselves
looking at everything but Christ. We're also encouraged by knowing
that faith ultimately rests there and there only. We thank you
for the shed blood of Jesus Christ that he indeed endured the cross,
disregarding the shame for the joy of the salvation of his people
that was set before him. We are thankful, Father, that
we can worship you in the knowledge that you have given us concerning
him. And we come before you not with our own righteousness, for
we have none, But we come with His righteousness. He is our
righteousness. He alone merited your recognition
and honor. We were rebels, all sinners,
unclean and undone, having no interest in the things of God,
born into this world hating God. But you and your kind mercy and
grace sought us out. and brought us to the Savior.
And we thank you for that. Pray for those who are sick.
Continue to pray for Brother Fred as he continues with his
medication. Pray for favorable results concerning
that. Thankful that Rain and Melvin
are doing better. We praise you for that. Pray that the leader's arm will
heal well. Pray for the others who requested prayer. Our shut-in
is Brother Wayne and Sister Essel. Ask the Lord your help for them.
And help us, Lord, to remember each other, to call out each
other's names to heaven. Help us to love one another.
And cause us in this day as preaching of the gospel, singing, and taking
of the Lord's table, that you would indeed fix our minds and
hearts upon Christ, and we would look to Him and Him alone. We
ask this in the name of the Savior. and for his glory. Amen. Hymn number 42, All Hail the
Power of Jesus' Name. All hail the power of Jesus'
name, let angels Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all. He chose a scene of Israel's
race. Hail Him who saves you by His
grace and crown Him Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribe
on this terrestrial Him all majesty ascribe, and
crown Him Lord of all. Oh, that with yonder sails We'll join the everlasting song
and crown him Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song. Yes, Stan and Stephen will receive
the altar this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our great Savior, that
perfect, unspeakable gift that you have given to all your people
and freely given them all things. Everything we have, we have received.
Let us not boast as if we have not received it. As we return
this which is yours unto you. Let us do so with joy in our
hearts and thanksgiving in our souls. We pray in Christ's name.
Amen. Yeah. I invite your attention back
to Hebrews, Chapter 12. This passage of Scripture starts
with the word, Wherefore. That means that what�s gone before
is what this is based on. These comments are based on what�s
already been said in Chapter 11. These words are a comfort and
a condemnation to the child of God in some sense, because we
can trace, if we are honest, that all our problems, our insufficiencies
and our failures in this life as a child of God are due to
the fact that we take our eyes off the prize, we take our eyes
off the Lord Jesus Christ. David prayed, Fix my heart, O
Lord, upon Thee. Fix my heart. We know that when
troubles and trials come our way, it's because our eyes are
off of Jesus Christ, and we know because the result is we are
returned to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ by those trials
to look to Him once again. The words looking unto Jesus
are words that mean faith or believing. we're going to take
the Lord's table today in commemoration of the Lord's death. We weren't
there when it happened except that we were there in purpose
and in Him. But we memorialize it because
we are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The subject that Paul is addressing
here in chapters 11 and 12 is introduced way back in chapter
10 and verse 38 and 39. Paul is dealing with Hebrew believers,
and some, like those in Galatia, have turned back to the law and
the ceremony for righteousness, and Paul is dealing with that, and assures them that those who
have true faith in Jesus Christ will never turn back. In verse
38 of chapter 10 it says, Now to the just that is, those who
are justified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the just
shall live how? By faith, by believing, by trusting,
by relying upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But if any man draw back,
that is, draw back to the beggary elements of the world, to draw
back to the law for justification, righteousness, a rule of life,
back to those ceremonies, back to the Hebrew priesthoods and
so forth, Any man do that, any man do that. It says this, My
soul shall have no pleasure in him. Now, if the Lord has no
pleasure in you, you're in trouble. You must be pleasing to the Lord,
and the only way you CAN be pleasing to the Lord is if you are in
Jesus Christ. For He says in the tenth chapter
of Hebrews that sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and such God had no pleasure in. It didn't please Him. And
then he said, ìOh, I come in the volume of the book thatís
written to me to do thy will, O God, taking away the first
and establishing the second.î Christ came and He pleased God,
appeased God, satisfied God for our sin. But Paul says, ìWe are
not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe
to the saving of the soul.î And what he's talking about, believing
to the saving of the soul, is the same thing he's talking about
in chapter 12 and verse 2, that is looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those saints that he's spoken of here were justified
and sanctified and saved exactly in the same manner as we are
by the grace of God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And they were given faith to believe that that's what actually
took place. If God gives you faith, He's
not giving you power, He's not giving you a place where you
can tap into some speculative blessings. If God gives you faith,
He gives you faith for one thing, to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is looking at the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our Lord said in Isaiah, Look
unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else. I am a just God and a Savior. Those people who were saved as
Old Testament saints, they were truly privileged of the Lord.
They could sing with us, We're only a sinner saved by grace.
But we are privileged to have a part in a fully realized assembly
of the saints of God. We have not come, as Paul says
in this very chapter, to a mountain that cannot be touched, which
talks about Sinai and the Law. We have come to Mount Zion and
to saints that the Lord has saved up to that point. God has given
us better things than they had, yet in spite of His gracious
benefaction, In spite of the mercies new every morning for
us, we often find ourselves stuck, stymied, spinning our wheels. We see what God has done. We
know what He has done by faith. We see, if we read chapter 11,
what price has been paid by others for believing God. in the face
of the world, yet we often find ourselves, we who have this great
privilege of having a fully revealed Word of God and being members
of the Body of Christ, find ourselves encumbered, as Paul says, with
weights and sins that so easily, or the sin that so easily besets
us. Everything Paul says here in
these verse 2 verses has to do with all those who believed God
in chapter 11. That is that great cloud of witnesses
that He speaks of. Wherefore, being encompassed
or encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, in
other words, we who falter and fail often as we often do, ought
to remember that there are those who didn�t have it as good as
we have it, who even gave their life for what they believed.
I was reading yesterday, it was the anniversary of the day that
the Roman Catholics entered into France and killed 70,000 believers�70,000
in one day. They were called the Huguenots.
They were French Calvinists, or French people who believed
in the sovereign grace of God. And in one day, 70,000 of them
were slain by the Roman church. Paul speaks in this chapter of
chastisement. And chastisement is often used
by religion, and they name it as punishment. But if God chastises
you, He's not punishing you. He's putting you back on the
right track. Punishment is for sin. It's a penal thing. And all our punishment was suffered
by the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree in that three hours of darkness. All of our sins were punished
in Him. All of them passed present and
future. When God chastises us, it's for
one singular purpose, and that's to bring us to the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It says in verse 11 of chapter
12, Now no chastising for the present seemeth to be joyous
and grievous. And you know that's true. Every
trial brings pain. Every trial and every tribulation
brings pain and sorrow, and I've often said that providence, though
perfect and good, is often very, very painful. But if God has
chastised you, there's a reason. It yields the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby. He points
them and takes them to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is going
to shake this earth again. He shook it once, and He is going
to shake it again. And only that which cannot be
shaken will remain. Everything that can be shaken,
everything you can see, everything you can touch, taste, handle,
and feel will be shaken and done away with. The only thing that
cannot be shaken is what God has given you in Jesus Christ,
and that is faith. What is faith? Faith is a wonder. It's a wonder. It's invisible,
unprovable. You can say you have faith, but
that don't mean you have faith. There were those here in this
text that we just read who drew back. They said they had faith
to start with. Faith is a gift. a gift of God,
and if you have faith, it's because God has given you faith, and
for the singular purpose of looking to the Lord Jesus Christ as Him
alone for your salvation, no other reason. What is faith? You say, well, you can't see
it, but it's substance. Our Lord says faith is substance.
Back in chapter one, verse one of chapter 11, it says, now faith
is a substance of things hoped for or expected Faith is the
evidence of things that you can't see. Evidence of things not seen. We trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've never seen Him. Now the pictures and things like
that and the crucifixes that hang around people's necks, those
are not anything but idols. It's as simple as that. We've
not seen Christ. How in the world do we trust
Him? This is a wondrous thing, this amazing, beautiful, glorious
thing that God has done for His children. He's given them faith,
and they can look at this Word and say, that's so. I believe
that. The world looks at this Word
and says, why in the world do you spend all your time looking
at that book? Why in the world do you gather three times a week
to sit in church? And here's some fella standin'
on his hind legs and tellin' you the same story over and over
again. Why do you do that? You can understand why the world
thinks it's foolishness. We do it because God has given
us faith. No other reason. Given us faith. We believe. What a wondrous thing. The witnesses spoken of here
are not witnesses in the legal sense. or even in a historical
sense, but rather witnesses in an ethical sense, the declaration
of which is to bring us, having seen them, gives us examples
of faith all the way through chapter 11, and having seen them,
we consider why we who have better things often falter, often fail. Our Lord Jesus Christ went through
the supreme trial, tried by men, despised by men, hated by men,
hung on a cross by men, abused by men, and He did it in faith
as a human being, as a man who is both God and man. He believed. He looked. It says that. We're to look unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who through the joy set before
Him. He is looking. He is looking at the joy set
before Him, and He endured the cross. And it says of Him that
He finished His course. Now, it's for us, it says here,
to finish our course. Now, not for us to do it in and
of our power. We're to do it looking at Him.
That's what it says. Wherefore, seeing you're also
accomplished about with so great a cloud of witness, let us lay
aside every weight. That's the things that hold us
down. And the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us
run with patience the race set before us. Paul often used athletic
metaphors to teach about coming to Christ. The weight, the weight,
they're numerous, but the sin is always the same. The sin that
besets us is unbelief. Unbelief will always be about
turning back to the beggarly elements of the world. It will
always be about that. Unbelief will seek evidence other than
believing Christ. It will always do that. It is the eternal struggle of
the soul according to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Turn over there just
for a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul
says that this is a struggle for every believer. Verse 3 says, For though we walk
in the flesh, that is, we live in the flesh, we do not war that
way. We don't fight the battle that
way. We don't fight the battle with the flesh. In other words,
we don't put down our Adamic nature by doing things with the
Adamic nature. We don't do that. We don't war
after the flesh. Our war is in the Spirit. The
Spirit and the flesh trouble each other. For the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, But they're mighty through God, through
pulling down of strongholds. Now, some people look at that
and say, well, we go out in the world and we tear things. This
is talking about what goes on right here inside our bosom.
Strongholds? Oh, the flesh is a stronghold.
It's a buttressed castle. Casting down imaginations. The
root word of imagine is image. Our idolatry. And every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge or the acknowledgement
of God. Every high thing. What's that
going on? Is it going on out there? No, it's going on right
here in our bosom. What does faith do? Faith brings
everything. Everything that has to do with
pleasing God, everything that has to do with the salvation
of our soul, everything that has to do with honoring Christ,
everything. Faith brings everything. You
got a trouble, you bring it here. You got a success, you bring
it here. You got a day when you have a good day, bring it here.
You got to have a bad day, bring it here. What does he say? He
said in bringing into captivity every thought to what? To the fact that Jesus Christ
obeyed God for us. That's what that means. That's
where we bring everything. We don't look to our obedience.
It's suspect. At best, it's suspect. We bring
everything to His obedience. Every thought to the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we acknowledge Him.
And that's how those high things that refuse to acknowledge God
are knocked down. Unbelief is the sin that's so,
and the word is used here, is easily so easily besets us. How about
that? Think it'd be some kind of...
No, it's easily. It easily besets us because it's
what? It's what we were born with.
It's our own nature. It's our wickedness. We are lawless
felons by nature. Those who died in faith, spoken
of in verse 11, did not die because they were lawless felons. They
did not die because they were not good citizens. They died
because they refused to acknowledge anything other than the person
and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as entirely, the total,
the sum of their righteousness before God. That's what they
did. And they died for it. Paul calls this unbelief a weight,
a burden that inhibits us from movement. The word beset. Stan could probably tell us what
that means better than I could, because he's a judo fourth, third
dan, judo. And judo guys like to put guys
in choke hold, because choke hold will disable you and put
you out of business right quick. And that's basically what it
means. To skillfully surround and enwrap, as if curving the
arm around the neck, a veritable choke hold. So these things that
easily beset us, this sin that's a weight upon us, often has us
in a chokehold. Unbelief is a very skillful thing. It's subtle, and to the natural
mind it's a pinnacle of logical human reasoning. Faith makes
no sense to the old man. Faith makes no sense to him.
When Paul says, We do this, there's a race to run, a course to finish. And Paul doesn't say, Here's
how you do it. He said, There's a race to run and a course to
finish. Don't get caught up in the snare
of trying to figure out which course your race is. That's what
religion plays at. Paul does not map out the course.
He simply says, There's the goal. There's the prize. Run to that. And that speaks of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Religion plays fast and loose with men's imaginations,
telling them that they have to find out what their talent is
so they can use it for Jesus. Or find out what the will of
God is for their life. You know what the will of God
is for your life? Look at what you did this morning.
And then tomorrow, look back at what you did yesterday. There
it is, plain and simple. We don't look for the will of
God. We don't tell folks to get their lives so they can plot
the appropriate course and please God. Tell them to purchase a
book on how to do it. Paul simply says there's a race
to be run. There it is, plain and simple,
a race to be run, and it cannot be run in unbelief. Unbelief besets you, stops you,
puts a chokehold on you. What's my race, preacher, you
might ask? I don't know, but I know the goal, and I know the
prize. What's my course? I have no idea
what your course is. I don't even have any idea what
mine is. I'll find out when it's happening. You and I have a race to run.
but we are not trying to figure out what it is. You and I are
to look to the prize, and the race will take care of itself.
If we are beset by stopping and looking at the course or measuring
our presumed progress or how far we've come or seek to invent
better ways to run, we will be shut down by the sin and the
weight that so easily besets us. I don't run like I used to
run. I tried to skip the other day,
and I couldn't even skip very well. When you get a certain
age, gravity works differently only than when you're young.
I look at all these young children here, I just, there's a sense
of envy in one sense. They're just so young and vital
and strong. I used to could sprint pretty
good. I was a decent sprinter. In the
seventh grade, I ran the 100-yard dash back then. I didn't win,
but I ran. I was a fairly decent sprinter,
but I guarantee I couldn't sprint from here to that front door
without being out of breath. I don't run like I used to run.
But that's not how we run this race. Not with our physical strength. Age don't matter. Youth don't
count. We run this race looking. looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Most of our time we're going
to be like Simon walking toward Christ on the water. We'll be
sidetracked by the waves, sidetracked by the magnitude of what's going
on around us, sidetracked by circumstances. And you know what
we're going to end up saying as we sink? Lord, save me. or I perish. We know that the
steps of a righteous man or good man are ordered of the Lord.
The race and the course is already set. Do not bother yourself with
the particulars. Particulars engender unbelief.
Look to the prize. Look to the prize. Look to Christ. Says he's the author and the
finisher of the whole thing. He authored our faith and he'll
finish it. So what's up to you in that scenario? Nothing. He's the author and
he's the finisher. and be like that old lady that's
a cleaning lady up in Washington, D.C. when some great preacher
got up in the pulpit and it was a great orator and he preached.
Boy, could he preach. And he got up and preaching from
Revelation where it says Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. He
says, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. And the old lady's now sitting
up in the balcony said, and everything in between. That's the truth. Everything in between. He's the
author of it and the finisher of it, just like He was the author
of His purpose in salvation and the finisher of it. He endured
the cross. That was His race. That's why
He came to earth. He didn't come to earth to be
an example or to be a martyr or to set up an earthly kingdom.
He came to die. That was His race. That was His
race. He did so with His eyes set on
the prize. He endured the cross despising
the shame and His sit down on the right hand of the Father,
the glory that awaited Him. He endured the cross. That word
despising means disregarding. He treated all that pain, all
that suffering at the hands of men and even at the wrath of
God. He treated it all as nothing. He disregarded it. because his
eyes were set on the glory that awaited him. What was the glory?
The glory of accomplishing salvation, of finishing salvation. This
word finisher is the same word used when he said he finished
salvation, when he says it is finished. He is the author and
finisher of faith and he is the author and finisher of salvation.
Now what did God do? What did God do when Jesus Christ
went to the cross and died the obedient death of the cross?
It says, God highly exalted him, lifted him up and gave him a
name that is above every name. In fact, it's the only name under
heaven whereby we must be saved. He exalted him and set him at
his right hand, the place of power, the right hand of salvation,
and all glory belongs to him. We worship the Lamb. slain from
the foundation of the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ sits at
the right hand of God as a man. There's a man in glory. A man
sits there at the right hand of God. He did it as a man believing. Believing God. He's called the
faithful one. The true and faithful. The one who's full of faith.
Faith was not given him by measure. He suffered a great deal. Loneliness,
betrayal, weakness of the human body, the anguish of dealing
with intractable human obstinacy, the terror of dealing with religion. He made religious men and religion
mad. He made religionists sad. and
he made sinners glad, all the while disregarding these things
for the goal set before him." So we do have an example of running
the race, and where do we find it? Looking unto Him that finished
the course. It is run looking to Him, the
One who raised faith to perfection, and so sent before us the highest
example of faith. his faith. Look at chapter 10. In verse 38 again it says, But the
just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul hath no pleasure in him. They live by faith, and faith
is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things
not seen. Then, how do we do it? Looking
unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't concern yourself with anything
in this world. We know that we are often victims
of circumstance. Things happen that we have absolutely
no control over. In fact, everything that happens
we have absolutely no control over. And it gets worse as you
get older. Trust me on this. We're victims, for lack of a
better word, of circumstance. The problem is we're looking
at circumstance as if that circumstance defines God. What we need to do is look to
the God who defines the circumstance. and who sins the circumstance. Don't bother yourself with the
particulars of this world. Trust me on this. You're not
going to get better. You're not going to make Adam
any better. Your old nature will never be anything other than
your old nature. Now you may reform. You may quit
drinking and chewing and smoking and going to the movie show.
All those things that used to beset us. You may quit all those
things. That's not salvation. That's
reformation. That's turning over a new leaf.
But in the end, the leaf fades and rots and drops to the ground.
Don't concern yourself with these things. Concern yourself with
one thing. There's a race to be run. You're
in it. You're on the track. Where am I? I don't know. How
close am I to the end? I'm closer than I was. Everybody
who's got hoary hairs upon their head know they're closer than
they was. When am I going to finish? When
I'm done. When the Lord's done with me. Until then, I'm immortal. I'm immortal until God's finished
with me. And when He's finished with me, as old Scott Richardson
used to say, I'm a gone Jesse. What should we do, brother? Sister? Look to Christ. Fly to Him. Look at the prize. Keep moving
toward Him. Paul said in Philippians, press
on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
That's what we do. He said, I was apprehended for
that. I was arrested for that. And I want to get a hold of what
I was arrested for. And what I was arrested for was
to press on to Christ, to look to Him, to trust Him. How do
you press on? You don't do it physically. You
do it in your heart and in your mind and in your thoughts, bringing
them all to the obedience of Christ. Trust in Christ. Trust Him alone. Look unto Him. Now, we're going to take the
Lord's table. The Lord's Table is for those who are trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who believe on Him for the salvation
of their soul and nothing else. It is not for unbelievers. So
if you're an unbeliever, if you're not trusting Christ, don't be
ashamed. Don't be upset. If you're the
Lord, He'll find you. He said, I'll search my lost
sheep until I find them. You're the Lord, you'll find
me. But this is a memorial for the child of God to commemorate
the reason why he is saved. And the reason why he is saved is because he owed God a debt,
and that debt was dead. And so we commemorate with the
Lord's table the elements that speak of and point to and exalt
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he said this was
about. He says when you eat this bread and drink this cup, You
show forth something. You don't get something from
it. There's no spiritual life in these things. There's no transference
of grace down from heaven to your soul when you take these
things. These things don't actually turn into anything else. This
unleavened bread, bread baked without yeast, it's wine. It's wine. Fermented grapes. These two elements are everywhere. You can find them anywhere. They
have no spiritual strength. They only have spiritual significance. And the significance is that
children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, gather together.
And they take this table. They take this table and say
this by taking it. I discern and understand that
the death of Jesus Christ was my only salvation. And always. Nothing from me,
of me, by me, only His blood and His righteousness. Only His
body and His blood, represented by the red, which is without
leaven, which means without sin, and pure wine, which never will
go bad. Might turn into vinegar, but
it'll never go bad. It never will. There's some bottles of
wine that people have in their cellars from 500, 600, 700 years
old. They're still good. Why? Because wine purges itself of
impurities in the process of becoming wine. I used to make
it when I was a boy. Didn't do a very good job of
it. But that's what it does. Blood and blood. Blind and brave
represent the body and the blood to your strife. If you are a
believer, take this table. You're welcome to the school.
If you can discern that your hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' love and righteousness, take this table. If not, don't
take this table, because there is a warning in Scripture. When
Paul talked about taking this table, he said, those who take
this table are unworthy. Come on, sleep. Some of them
are sick. I don't know the full meaning
of that. But when God warns you about something, y'all pay attention.
Y'all pay attention. Take this table, trust in Jesus
Christ. This is another way of looking
to Him. What are we looking to? His death,
that He died in our room in the city. I'm gonna ask Stan, Steve,
why don't y'all have me serve him back here? assess the words of blessing
upon the elders our father we ask in the name of jesus christ
for the cause of what he has done for us on that cross of
calvary that he paid the sin debt that we owe him so we'll
never be collected from us he died that we might live and have
life more abundantly We thank you, Father, for that bed. We
thank you that we can pause for a moment and take these elements
that represent His death and remember that His death is our
salvation. Help us, Lord, to do so as we
consider these things. Bless these elements to our understanding.
For in Christ's name, amen. Let me help you with that line.
I'll pull some more. Okay. when the nine-year-old was betrayed
and took bread. It was the unleavened bread of the Passover feast,
the Passover that he had waited for so long to observe with his
disciples, to teach them what a Passover really meant. That
it was the night that the blood of the lamb was shed that saved
him out of Egypt and saves our souls. He took that bread and
he broke it. But he didn't know anything about
the crucifixion. He had told them, but they didn't believe
him. He said, soon my body's going to be broken. I'm going to give my back to
the smiters. They're going to beat me with
whips and cords, with sticks and with fists. I'm a bloody
mess and they're going to hang me on a tree and I'm going to die. This bread represents
that broken body. As often as you do this, All
the days you eat this bread, do it in the reverence of Him. The same night he took the
cup. And after he blessed it, he said,
this cup is the new covenant, the new testament in my blood.
What is the blood of Christ? When you see the word blood,
Christ, the word blood in Scripture does not mean just bleeding.
It can, on a couple of occasions. A person's cut or something like
that. Like the prophets of Baal cut themselves and they bled,
but that's not what it's talking about. It talks about blood in
Scripture. It's talking about death. When
a person has his blood, he's dead. That's what Christ is talking
about. This is my death. And when you
come, The old covenant had tons of deaths. Lambs, wolves, rams,
sheep, goats, all of that, turtledoves, all shed their blood. No sin
was ever taken away. No sin was ever remitted. He said, this is the old covenant. This is the new covenant in my
blood. My blood is the finishing salvation. When I die, those
for whom I die will never die. He said, as often as you take
this cup, you do so forth my death until I come again. Do this in remembrance of me. On that night, I sang a hymn,
and I rolled one out and was betrayed. Let's stand together. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, the weathered ground is sinking sand. Let each other
know you love, and then we'll go eat some fruit. God bless
you.