I remember getting a picture
of him as a baby when I was at tech school in Chenute Air Force
Base, Illinois in 1966, I guess it was. So when were you born,
66? 65, yeah. I got a picture of him
while I was in the Air Force Base. I remember still got that
picture somewhere. You weren't near as big as you are now. It's good to have you with us.
Remember those who requested prayer, seek the Lord's help
for them. Continue to remember Bruce Crabtree.
I talked to Drew Deets yesterday, and Bruce is having a, you know,
he's grieving heavily for the loss of his wife, 50 years, so
remember him in your prayers. Let's begin our worship service
this morning, hymn number 256, It Is Well With My Soul. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this flesh not show. That Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate And hath shed his own blood for my soul It
is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as
a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 46. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Matthew,
the 27th chapter. I'm going to read a rather lengthy
portion of scripture. It is the account and record
of our Lord Jesus Christ going to the cross of Calvary. Matthew 27. When the morning
was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took
counsel against Jesus to put him to death, And when they had
bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius
Pilate, the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself and brought
again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.
And they said, what is that to us? See thou to it. And he cast down the pieces of
silver in the middle of the temple, departed and went and hanged
himself. And the chief priest took the silver pieces and said,
it is not lawful for to put them in the treasury because it is
the price of blood. And they took counsel and brought
them to the potter's field to bury strangers where that field
was called the field of blood until this day. Then was fulfilled
that which was spoken by Jeremiah, the prophet saying, and they
took the 30 pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued,
whom they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them
for a potter's field as the Lord's appointed me. And Jesus stood
before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art
thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said, Thou sayest.
And when he was accused, the chief priests and the elders,
he answered, Nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, Hearest thou
not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered
to him never a word, insomuch that the governor marveled greatly.
Now at that feast, the governor was wont to release unto the
people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner
called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered
together, Pilate said, Whom shall ye that I release unto you, Barabbas
or Jesus, which is called Christ? for he knew for envy that they
had delivered him. And when he sat down on the judgment
seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to
do with this just man? For I have suffered many things
this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and
the elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas
and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said
unto them, Whether the twain will be, will ye that I release
unto you? And they said, Barabbas. Pilate
said unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called
Christ? And they all say unto him, Let
him be crucified. And the governor said, Why? What
evil hath he done? But they cried out the more,
Let him be crucified. And when Pilate saw that he could
not prevail, or he could prevail nothing, But rather a tumult
was made. He took water and washed his
hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of
this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all
the people and said, His blood be on us and our children. Then released the Hebrew rabbis
unto them. And when he had scourged Jesus,
he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor
took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole
band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet
robe. And when they had planted a crown
of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right
hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying,
El, king of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took
the reed and smote him in the head. And after they had mocked
him, they took the robe off of him and put his own raiment on
him and led him away to crucify him. As they came out, they found
a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his
cross. And when they were come to a place called Golgotha, that
is to say the place of the skull, they gave him vinegar to drink
and meager with gall. And he tasted thereof he would
not drink. And they crucified him. and parted
his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled that which
was spoken of the prophet. They parted my garments among
them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down
they watched him there, and set up over his head his accusation
written, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. Then were there
two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand and the
other on the left. And they that pass by reviled
him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest
the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself, if
thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. And likewise
also the chief priests mocking him, with scribes and elders,
said, He saved others, himself he cannot save. If he be the
king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will
believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver
him now, if he will have him. For he said, I am the Son of
God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast
the same in their teeth. Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about
the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani, that is to say, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood there
when they heard that said, this man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran
and took a sponge and filled it with vinegar and put it on
a reed and gave it him to drink. And the rest said, let it be.
Let be, let us see whether Elias will come and save him. Jesus,
when he had cried with a loud voice, saying, according to John
19, it is finished, yielded up the ghosts. And before the veil,
and behold, the veil of the temple was rent entwined from top to
bottom. The earth did quake and rocks rent. The graves were opened,
many bodies of saints which slept arose, came out of the graves
after the resurrection. After his resurrection, they
went into the holy city and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion
and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake and
those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying,
Truly, this was the Son of God. Let us pray. We are thankful
for your record that you've given your children, that you did not
leave yourself without a witness, that you've given us this great
and glorious book that reveals everything we must know, everything
we need to know in order to know who Jesus Christ is and who you
are and what we are. We are thankful for the honest
report of how men handled God, the only time in human history
that he allowed them to touch him. We are thankful for his
revelation of our depraved and ruined hearts. For it was us
out in the crowds crying, crucify him, let his blood be on our
heads. We are thankful for the report.
But we know and are thankful that it didn't end there. And
our Lord Jesus Christ finished salvation there, put an end to
transgression, and fulfilled the words of the prophecy, and
brought in an everlasting righteousness. But in due time and according
to your good pleasure, you sent your Spirit into this world,
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and through the preaching of the
gospel, you brought your children to Him. And as many as were named
to eternal life believed, We thank you that we can continually
read this report and be in awe of the great work and sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he made himself an offering for
sin. He offered himself to you, Father, and you accepted him
and accepted all who were in him when he died on that cross. We praise you for that. Pray
for those who are sick, those who are going through trials,
those who have lost a loved one. ask your help for them, strengthen
them in Christ, and point their eyes only to him. Help us now
to worship you, even as we finish this message this morning and
take the Lord's table. Let us do so with the knowledge
that what we have to rejoice in, in this earth, is the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us now, we pray to worship
you, in Christ's name, amen. Hymn number 46, Old for a Thousand
Tones to Sing. ? For a thousand tongues to sing
? ? My great Redeemer's praise ? ? The glories of my God and
King ? ? The triumphs of His grace ? ? My gracious Master
and my God ? ? Assist me to proclaim ? spread through all the earth
abroad the honors of thy name. He gives us a name that charms
our fears, that bids our sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's
ears, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of
canceled sin. His blood can make the foulest
clean, His blood availed for me. Hear Him ye deaf, His praise
ye dumb, Your lucid tongues employ, Ye blind behold your Savior come,
And leap ye lame for Him, ? For joy ? Glory to God and praise
and love be ? Ever, ever again ? My saints below and saints
above ? The church in earth and heaven I'm gonna ask Stan and
Steve to receive the altar this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
approach in the name of Jesus Christ, the marvelous name of
Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved. We are thankful for the unspeakable
gift of Christ. For we know that in him and with
him you freely gave us all things, and we have nothing that we have
not received. And as we return unto thee what
belongs to you, let us do so with joy in our hearts. For Christ's
sake, amen. and and and and and you. I draw your attention back to
Matthew chapter 27. All the apostles said to the
Corinthian church in his first letter, the first epistle ever
written, I determine to know nothing among you save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. To the Galatian church who read
God wrote, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ
by whom the world is crucified under me and I'm crucified under
the world. I just read to you the account
of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is clear that this glorious
event was a spectacle. We probably think that we wouldn't
have hung around, but if this was the only entertainment on
the hand at the time, we probably would have. I remember the days
of tent revivals in my neighborhood. When people didn't have TV and
radio, the only entertainment you was gonna get is some singing
and some preaching, and they'd all gather in tents. There wasn't
much more than religion and some highfalutin preacher getting
a lot of money, and my daddy used to work those things. As a cop, he went to an Oral
Roberts tent meeting one time, and he said they didn't pass
around plates, they passed around bushel baskets. He said, and
they didn't do it once. They did it about three or four
times during the service. He said, those things were always
full. They made a lot of money. It was a spectacle. And here on these three crosses,
these two malefactors and the one Lord Jesus Christ hung and
men and women gathered to watch it. This was the train wreck of the
day that people would gather around. They had the stomach to do so,
it seems, to watch the Lord Jesus Christ as he hung in agonies
and blood with a visage so marred that it astonished men, marred
more than the sons of men. He didn't look like a man. He
didn't look like these silly paintings that they have of him.
With a little drop of blood dripping down from a crown of thorns and
wearing a cannon tea towel, he was buck naked, stripped down,
had hundreds of furrows plowed in his flesh down to the bone
from the cat-and-iron tails when Silas had him scourged. He had
the spittle of men on his face, bruises, wounds, and nails in
his hands and his feet. And men watched. Verse 36 of
our text says that the soldiers watched. As he's sitting down,
they watched him there. also says the same thing in verse
54 that those who had watched him, they were paying attention,
they were watching this spectacle. Many in religion today think
that they look at the scene of the cross as they over the sanitized
versions painted by men who have found a way to market this event
whether with paint or press or with a whittling knife They made
crosses and crucifixes a common way for folks to think they see
Christ and the events of the cross. Those who have such things,
desire such things, wear or display such things prove that they are
ignorant of this stupendous portent of this event. Neither understand
nor perceive what went on there between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. that
day. that the king of all kings allowed
himself to be manhandled, and then in perfect obedience offered
himself as a sacrifice unto God the Father, the judge of all
the earth. It has been said, and rightly
so, that the three areas of scripture that men and women are most ignorant
of is what happened in the fall, what happens when God saves a
sinner, and what took place on the cross of Calvary. These soldiers
who just moments before had treated our Lord with such malicious
cruelty were not there to learn of Christ. They did not stop
to consider what great things were happening right before their
eyes. In just a few swings of the clock's
pendulum, God will hang a black drape over the sun Hide the day
star and these who have gathered here to sit and leer, to laugh
and mock will miss altogether the wondrous magnitude of what
is, in just a blip of time, the thing that will alter the universe
of men. The darkness that will cloak
their eyes is no match for the darkness that permeates their
minds and hearts and souls. That which transpired these few
hours cannot be received by sight, for no man has seen with the
eye what transpired in that utter darkness. It is only by the scriptures
and by God-given faith, believing the scriptures, that someone
may get a hint of what went on when Christ the mighty maker
died for man the creature's sin. The report is that these soldiers
sat down and watched him there in the absence of illumination.
It intimates that they did what they did as a matter of course.
This was what people did like they used to do in the U.S. of
A. when they had public hangings. The whole town would show up
for it. These men saw nothing that they
considered to be astonishing. It was an everyday thing or of
great value or importance. It was a show. It was a show. We hear nothing from them at
all until they saw the graves opened and their own physical
lives were seen as kind of scary. They saw dead men walking and
that was kind of scary. And they felt the earthquake
beneath their feet and saw rocks split wide open. And then they
said, this is the Son of God. This must be the Son of God. now astounded at the visual display
of power beyond themselves, of the earth beneath their feet
shaking. I don't know whether you've ever been in an earthquake.
I was in two of them when I was in Japan. Two of them. It is some scary business. The
first one I was thrown out of my bunk while I was in the barracks.
It was like six o'clock in the morning. Threw me, actually threw
me out of my bunk, turned over the lamp in my room, and I ran
outside. There's a great big tree. I don't know what kind
of tree it was between the two barracks. I went and grabbed hold of that
tree, wrapped an arm around it. You know what that tree did?
It raised up and raised down and raised up again. And I looked
out and the earth was rolling like the sea. Like that. And I was scared. And I expect
I said, oh, Lord, save me. Probably did. Didn't mean it,
but at the time, it was scary enough. And that's what these
guys' response is. This must be the Son of God.
With this going on, many have said such things of Christ without
any understanding of what went on in Calvary. What do you see here? Well, these
men looking, what do you see? Do you see a martyr? Some self-help
guru? setting some sort of human example
to make yourself better. You see some failure who got
in his best shot or some philosophical fellow that spouted mottos to
adorn your walls. Someone trying to do a good thing,
really wanting to make something happen but failing. What do you
see when you look here? Our Lord asked these Pharisees
one time, what do you think of Christ? People say they can't hang you
for your thoughts. It'll be worse than a hanging
if you think wrong about Him. It'll be worse than a hanging.
There's nothing more important than the whole world for you
and me to learn and grasp what transpired on Golgotha. Do you
know even that even if you have no interest in Christ that He
is right now your owner and operator, your sole proprietor. 2 Peter
2 speaks of the Lord that bought them, and that's not talking
about redemption price. The word there for Lord is not
kurios, which we use as a term that we have a relationship with
Him. The word is despotos, means like a creator who made something
and owns it, and by right has rule over it. Men think they
act on their own will and opinion. They do what they think they
want to do, but the scripture says the Lord directs their steps.
These men who were hollowing, crucify him, crucify him. They
were full of anger and hatred and vitriol against the Lord
Jesus Christ. They wanted to destroy him. That's
the word destroy. They wanted to destroy Christ.
Destroy him. They said, we want to kill him
so bad that we don't care if his blood is on our heads and
our children's heads. We want to kill him and put him
out of business. And you know what they were doing?
According to Acts chapter 4, they were doing precisely and
exactly and to the numbers what God had foreordained to be done. Their minds were controlled. They were moved and manipulated
and herded and gathered by the God of all glory. The Lord owns His people. He
bought them. But He also bought some redemptively,
for it says that the Lord bought all men. It says that God, because
He loved His Son in John 3.35, has put all things in His hand.
God has put all His eggs in one basket, if you want to say it,
and that basket is Jesus Christ, but the Lord has also said in
John 17, in His high priestly prayer to the Lord, He has given
Him authority, or power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as God had given Him. This is why He
has power over everybody, because somebody out there is going to
receive His salvation. And it's going to take His power
over everybody to make sure that took place. Everybody has to
do their part. You see, in God's economy, there
is no unemployment. Everybody has a job, everybody
has a purpose, and everybody will fulfill it. This is God's
economy. If you know Him this hour, it
is because at Calvary He bought you redemptively with the price
of His blood, not as a despot. but as a kurios, a lord, redeemed
you by his blood, imputed the righteousness of God to your
account, and indeed was made by God to be your righteousness,
lives for you in intercessory glory, and will soon deliver
you from the present evil world to a state of eternal joy and
bliss, all by his hand, and his power, and his might. These few
hours in the realm of human history, and there's just a few. Nine
o'clock to three o'clock. That's the title of our message,
nine a.m. to three a.m. Not much time involved here,
just six hours. Everything that happened in time
and eternity before Calvary's about Calvary. You are about
Calvary. I am about Calvary. Everybody
in hell is about Calvary. The world is about Calvary. This
was the crisis moment. Now is my hour, the Lord said. Now is the prince of this world
cast out, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw him into myself.
He spoke of the death, which he should die. Everything that
happened in time and eternity before Calvary is about Calvary.
Everything that happened and shall happen in time and eternity
after Calvary is about Calvary. The angels shall sing of the
everlasting gospel in that place called heaven. and the new heaven
and the new earth. Your life, your death, your existence,
your job, your thoughts, your deeds, your actions, your heart,
and your mind are about these few hours that our Lord spent
on the cross. It's all right there. All right
there. If you live in grace, It is about
the cross of Christ. If you live in rebellion and
unbelief, of what? It's about the cross of Christ. Everything hangs here. Everything
hangs here. History, eternity hangs here. This is the hinge, the pivot,
the axle, the nail in a sure place. This is all of time and
tide. The universe, earth, and all
that dwell therein have to do with Christ and His cross. Because
the ultimate thing in the end is that light is coming to this
world. And men love darkness rather
than light. But he that believeth on him
shall not be condemned. Now, is there something else
that matters in this world? Is there some other deciding
factor in this whole world than that? This is the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In John 19, there's a word which
summarily defines what took place on Calvary. This word does not
list all that took place, but declares something about what
took place. In John 19, verse 27 and 30, you have three words
translated in different ways. One word is accomplished. The
other word is fulfilled, and the other one is three words.
It is finished, but it's all the same word. It's a Greek word,
teleo. This word is also used in Hebrews
chapter 10 and verse 14 and translated perfect. That's what the word
means in the Greek language. It means perfect, and it refers
to perfection in the sense of being completed and finished
and accomplished or made perfect. Think of that as you think as
these men sat and watched our Lord in agonies and blood, and
he cried with a loud voice, Teleo. Some say he said Tetelestai,
which is just a derivative of that word, but it's what he said. It's translated as finished.
But what was he saying? In the moment that men look at
him and say he's the weakest a person could ever be, the worst
condition a person could ever be, he cries, perfect. I've done
it. I've finished the salvation of
my people. I've finished their redemption.
The word is used in verse 30 and translated in John 19 as
it is finished. The word is used in Hebrews 10,
14 in reference to the estate of all those for whom our Lord
suffered. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. And they are sanctified according
to the previous verse by the will of God. They have been perfected
by the death of Christ. That's what we're going to do
in just a few minutes. We're going to take the Lord's table.
If you're a believer, you are welcome to this table. If you're
not, leave it alone. But if you can discern the body
and blood of Jesus Christ, that He actually and truly saved those
whom He came to save, that He perfected them for whom He made
that offering, then you can take this table with joy. You'll see
anything less than absolute success in planned purpose and consummation
concerning Calvary, and then you don't see it at all. This
is not some mishap. There's no sense ever in all
the Holy Bible, in all of Holy Writ, that what Christ did on
Calvary may be seen, viewed, or construed as anything other
than a perfect thing, an immaculate accomplishment, or precisely
what he intended to be done. He did it, you see. It's done,
the old song said. The great transaction's done. It is done, accomplished, finished,
perfect. To what may we apply this declaration? Done. We may apply it to what
His name means in Matthew 1, 21. It says, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall, S-H-A-L-L, shall save His people
from their sins. Done. Scripture says, He came to seek
and save. Done. He came to make God just, to
save sinners by His propitiatory work according to Romans 3. That's
done. He came to justify His people. He did by His death, burial,
and resurrection. That's done. He came to glorify
His people. That's done. Sanctify His people.
He's become their sanctification. That's done. All the prophecies,
types, and pictures, and shadows of the Old Testament are done.
In these six hours, some 100 and so prophecies of the Old
Testament are fulfilled. in just in these six hours. The
eternal purpose of God and redemption was done right here. That's where
it happened. That's where it happened. This is the promise
given. He was already said to be the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world in Revelation 13, and he accomplished
salvation. Scripture says he shall see of
when God shall offer, when he shall offer his soul a sacrifice
for sin, it'll please the Lord. And he shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. God's travail on the cross, Christ's
travail, which is, you women know something about, that's
birth pains. Travail is when Christ travailed on the cross
to save his people, there were no miscarriages, there were no
stillbirths. He was satisfied with his travail.
And you as a mother, you mothers know that there ain't no satisfaction
in bringing forth a child after carrying it eight months that
don't live. No satisfaction in that. But he shall be satisfied
with all that which is travail brought forth. God's love for his people right
here. How much did he love us? He loved us and gave himself
for us. He loved us. and bought us with
His blood. He loved us and died in our room
instead. Died the death that we owed Him.
He did it all. He did it all. We see God's hatred
for sin. That's done. You wanna know how
God feels about sin? Don't go to the bars and the
bordellos. Don't look at today's politics and gripe and moan about
that. You wanna know about sin and
the penalty for sin and what it costs for sin, you look at
the cross of Calvary. For there the Son of God, when
He was made to be sin for us, suffered the full wrath of man
and the full wrath of God. That's how much God hates sin.
Shed his own blood for it in order to save people as wretched
as we are. When his son was made sin, God
poured out his wrath on him. Christ even cried, Eloi, Eloi,
lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
God the Judge dealt with Christ at surety and exacted the payment
of the debt that He had assumed in all eternity. God hates sin
and must punish it for He is holy and just and right and true. We see full eternal redemption
was done. That's the language of Scripture.
full and eternal redemption all that the father giveth me shall
come to me and him that cometh to me I will let no wise cast
out for I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the
will of him that sent me this is my father's will which has
sent me and of all he's given me all he's given me I should
lose nothing but raise it up again in the last day full and
eternal eternal redemption and the full declaration of God's
character and attributes. You don't see it anywhere else.
Everything is settled right here. God's love, God's mercy, God's
grace, God's wrath, God's holiness, God's justice. All right here
in these three hours is fully displayed. Nowhere else in scripture
do you see it. He is a just God and a Savior. He says that in
Isaiah chapter 45. And many times you see him as
a just God. Many times you see him as a Savior. But you never
see him fully displayed as he is right here. is the God of all glory, the
God of all grace, the judge of all the earth that shall do right,
full and eternal redemption, holiness, righteousness, justice,
mercy, grace, and love all displayed. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. You know, I'm a preacher of the
gospel. All I need to preach concerning what men call practicality
is done. Would I preach humility? Where do I get the idea from?
Where do I get the example? He who hangs there said, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. Would I preach
obedience? where would I get the idea for
that? He was obedient even to the death of the cross, it says
in Philippians chapter 2. Would I preach selflessness?
He lives to intercede for us, not for himself. Would I preach
love? Hereby we understand the love
of God that he gave himself for us, it says. Would I preach forgiveness? On what basis? He's forgiven
me. Would I preach the giving? I've never preached a message
on tithing. Ain't about to and won't do it. And I've only preached
to it in 43 years on giving and that's because it was in the
context in which I was preaching. Why don't I preach on giving?
Because God's people are giving people. Why? Because God gave
himself for them. That's the heart of the child
of God. You ain't got to make him pay some kind of tax under
the law. Turn him loose. will be a car
we say he don't want me with the Lord now he says you know
once I found out it wasn't my money it's kinda easy to speak
can be easy to give away want to bow down and what my we have
anything is as everything we have we've received by we boasts
we've not received with our preach giving he gave himself for us
This is the cross of Jesus Christ. This is where it all took place.
This is it, my friend. Brothers and sisters, and if
you don't know Christ, this is it. Now listen very carefully,
this is it. This is it. Don't think that
you don't have to do with this, or this has nothing to do with
you. It has everything to do with you. And you ought to thank
God that you got the chance to hear that it did. There's thousands
and millions in this world that never know this. And if you don't
believe what I've said this morning, when you walk out those doors,
you'll know what you don't believe. You'll be sure of that, won't
you? You'll know what you don't believe if you don't believe
what I've said this morning. This is it. The cause of Christ's
death. Sam, you and Jim want to help
me this morning? And Paul the Apostle, when he
recorded it, in the 11th chapter of Corinthians, what this table
was, he said it was for those who are able to discern or understand
or see and grasp the meaning of what the call is. To understand
and discern the body and blood of Jesus Christ as pictured by
the elements that we're about to receive. If you're a believer,
you're welcome to this table. If you're a sinner saved by grace,
you're welcome. In fact, if you're not a sinner,
you can't take this. Because this is for sinners saved
by grace. The elements of this table are
unleavened bread, which is used in the Passover feast, and wine.
And these two ellipses are what was used. These are not the body
and blood of Jesus Christ. They don't become the body and
blood of Jesus Christ, whether spiritually or physically, not
in consubstantiation or transubstantiation, neither one of those. These are
representative of the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And when
you eat this body and this blood, this typical body and blood,
when you eat this bread and this wine, you're saying something. You're showing forth something.
If you say, as the Lord said, and often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you can show forth my death. I was talking
about that. You can show forth his death.
Here, in the simplest form, every one of us, children of God, brothers
and sisters in Christ, can declare the gospel by taking this grace. Father, we ask you now to bless
these elements that we might partake of them with our eyes
and hearts set upon Jesus Christ who went to the cross of Calvary,
shed his own blood, died in the womb instead of his people. who
was buried and rose the third day for our justification and
ascended to the right hand of the Father, ever live to make
intercession for us. We're thankful for that debt,
because that's what we owed you. And we couldn't pay our debt
with an amount of anything. That's why hell, it goes on forever.
Because human beings' debts never pay their debts. Oh, but he paid
the debt for his people in Gastor. Give us thankful hearts that
we may receive this table in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Yeah. On the night I was betrayed,
he took bread and he break it. And he said, take heed. He said,
my body broke in two years. Do this in remembrance of me. On the same night, he took the
cup. And after he had blessed me, he said, this cup is the
new cup of the new testament in my blood. As often as you
drink this cup, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood. Now, if you're not familiar with
this assembly, we generally end this time together with a show
of affection and love for each one another, usually with a hug. If you don't feel like hugging,
just do an elbow bump. Right now.