[0:00] Let us worship God by singing to his praise in Psalm 69 and from verse 16.
[0:19] Hear me, O Lord, because thy love and kindness is most good. Turn unto me according to thy mercy's multitude. Not from thy servant hide thy face.
[0:31] I am troubled, soon attend. Throw near my soul and it redeem me from my foes defend. To these my reproach well known, my shame and my disgrace.
[0:42] Those that mine adversaries be are all before thy face. Reproach hath broke my heart, I am full of grief. I look for one to pity me, but none I found. Comforters found I none.
[0:54] They also bid that God did give unto me for my meat. They gave me vinegar to drink, whenas my thirst was great. Let us sing then verses 16 to 21 of Psalm 69 to God's praise.
[1:09] Hear me, O Lord, because thy love and kindness is most good. Hear me, O Lord, because thy love and kindness is most good.
[1:32] Turn unto me, O Lord, because thy love and kindness is most good.
[1:49] Lord, because thy love and kindness is most good.
[2:19] Lord, because thy love and kindness is most good.
[2:49] January 3rd blood. kinderen, mandatinenia, ndarine, ndarineia, southbound.Why carol ndarineia, ndarineia, valley, ENOWICANIE, kabi teh calling of 1. Great Lord shall know my heart and hope, Of grief I live, our one.
[3:18] To give me the blood and the blood, Come, Lord, and I am.
[3:35] They also bid that God will give, Until we find my need.
[3:53] They give me the blood and the blood, Let us stand and call upon the name of God in prayer.
[4:14] Thank you.
[4:44] One who is not willing that any of his own should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And we come to thee, Lord, giving thanks that we are given the opportunity this morning to worship such a God.
[5:02] A God who is perfect in every way. One who does not change and one who is the same yesterday, today and forever. We come today, Lord, asking thee to meet with us in this place and to draw near to us.
[5:20] We are mindful that, like Moses, the ground on which we stand is holy ground. And that we must take the shoes of this world from off our feet.
[5:31] How often, Lord, we come into thy presence with the shoes of this world on our feet. How often we take with us the distractions and the cares of this world.
[5:42] How often they follow us even unawares. And yet, as we come on this communion Sabbath, as we come on the Lord's Day, remembering that it was on this day that our Saviour rose again from the dead.
[5:55] O we pray that as we gather, that our gathering would not be in vain, but that we would know the presence of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our midst.
[6:08] O we pray that we might have sincere hearts. That they might be purged of all pride and anything that would come between us and thee.
[6:20] Help us then, Lord, to see Jesus Christ today, especially, in all of his beauty and in all of his glory. As his supper will be set out and dispensed to the members of this place and to others who have joined with them.
[6:41] Lord, we give thanks for such an opportunity. We give thanks for the sacrament. That in it we are able to partake of Jesus Christ by faith.
[6:51] To feed on his flesh and to drink of his blood. And we pray that as we are given opportunity to do so, that we would drink to his glory.
[7:03] Giving thanks. Remembering all that he is and all that he has done. And all that he continues to do with thy right hand even today. We are mindful, Lord, that as we join together today and as we long for the Holy Spirit to be in our midst.
[7:19] We are mindful that other spirits seek to come into our midst as well. That the roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour.
[7:30] O help us then to resist him. To be sober. To be vigilant. To be steadfast in the faith. To put on even in these moments the full armor of God.
[7:43] That we might be able to withstand in the evil day. Be gracious to us then, Lord. And we do give thanks for this congregation.
[7:54] For the gathering of thy people here. For the members of this church. And those who are perhaps members by baptism. But not members by profession.
[8:07] And we do, Lord, ask thy blessing to be upon them as well. And grant that as they hear the gospel. And hear the preaching of Christ crucified.
[8:18] And as they see the Lord's people sit at the table. And as they see the marked division between them. That thou would speak to them. And give them ears to hear. And we are reminded each one.
[8:31] That our supper here today is but a foretaste. Of a supper that is to come. Of the marriage supper of the Lamb. When we shall eat bread and drink. Of the fruit of the vine.
[8:42] I knew with our Lord in his kingdom. And so, Lord, we pray. That we might be given grace today. To look to these things. And for these moments.
[8:54] To focus solely on our Lord. On what he has done. And what thou hast done through him. That God was in Christ. Reconciling the world to himself.
[9:06] That he made him sin. Him to be sin who knew no sin. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Oh, Lord, we are mindful that the cares of this world.
[9:18] May cloud our thoughts. And yet, when we get clarity of thought. We are reminded that this is the only thing that matters. To be in Christ.
[9:31] To be with Christ. To be for Christ. For we must all leave these shores. And we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
[9:42] And we pray then. That when such a day will most certainly come. That we might have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. One who will stand for us and plead with us.
[9:55] One who will show his own finished work. All that he has done. For sinners such as we are. Help us, Lord, not to be found. On that day.
[10:06] Outside of that salvation. Having no hope. And being without God in the world. Bless the reading of thy word. And the preaching of it. And all that will be done. Here today in thy name.
[10:19] Draw near to us, we pray. Comfort our hearts. Quicken our souls. And feed us with manna from on high. And forgive us for our sin. For Christ's sake. Amen.
[10:30] Amen. Well, let us read God's word. As we find it in the scriptures of the Old Testament. And in the prophecy of Isaiah.
[10:45] Isaiah and 53. Chapter 53. We can read from the end of chapter 52. From verse 13. Down to the end of Isaiah 53.
[10:56] Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
[11:08] He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many as were astounded at thee. His visage was so marred more than any man. And his forum more than the sons of men.
[11:22] So shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths at him. For that which had not been told them shall they see. And that which they had not heard shall they consider.
[11:35] Who hath believed her report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. And as a root out of a dry ground.
[11:46] He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
[11:59] And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken.
[12:12] Smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.
[12:23] And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[12:36] He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb.
[12:48] So he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living.
[13:00] For the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
[13:13] Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
[13:29] He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. But he shall bear their iniquities.
[13:41] Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great. And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors.
[13:53] And he bare the sin of many. And made intercession for the transgressors. Amen. Amen. We pray that the Lord will bless his own word to us. And to his name be all the praise and all the glory.
[14:08] Let us sing again this time in Gaelic in Psalm 22. Reading from the beginning of the psalm. Let me read these verses in English first of all.
[14:25] My God, my God, why hast thou me forsaken? Why so far art thou from helping me, and from my words that roaring art? All day, my God, to thee I cry, yet I'm not heard by thee.
[14:38] And in the season of the night I cannot silent be. But thou art holy, thou that dost inhabit Israel's praise. Our fathers hoped in thee. They hoped and thou didst them release.
[14:51] language, you cage frankly, that weMore works in love. God bless you. Amen.
[15:02] Amen. Soiphate that were preached unto you. Holy cow, I pray, you bring the kingdom with you you. And this came for me, Lord. Lord fathu food for you to salvation be. May you pray for me, Lord.
[15:12] Lord fathu food for me. SAILIA Thank you.
[16:14] Thank you.
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[34:14] We can see the intensity of it before he even reaches the cross.
[34:48] And he's in the garden of Gethsemane and he's sweating great drops of blood. And he tells his disciples that his soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.
[35:00] Such is the weight of what he is about to do on his mind. This of course intensifies on the cross when the Father himself forsakes him and crushes his soul.
[35:14] With darkness. When the Father breaks the fellowship that is between them. That has been between them from all eternity. Because, well, what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness?
[35:31] And what communion hath light with darkness? Well, none at all. And here we have Christ and he is bearing the unrighteousness of his people.
[35:45] He is bearing the darkness of his people. And so he's being treated as unrighteous. He is being treated as darkness.
[35:57] It pleased the Lord to bruise him. I remember once, one of the few times that as an adult I heard the late Reverend Angus Smith preach.
[36:08] I remember him talking about this word, bruise. And relating it to the word crush. And he said that when the priests of the tabernacle, when they were preparing the incense to be burnt, so that it would give its sweet savour.
[36:28] He said they couldn't just take the herbs that they were using for the incense and put it into the altar and burn it and expect it to give the savour. They couldn't put the herbs in whole.
[36:39] It wouldn't work. The herbs had to be crushed. And it was only when the herbs were crushed that they would work as they ought to as incense.
[36:49] If the herbs weren't crushed, there would be no sweet-smelling savour. To use perhaps a more modern example of that.
[37:03] If you were wanting to make yourself a coffee, and if you were wanting to do it the proper way, you couldn't just put a few coffee beans in a cup and pour in some hot water and expect to get coffee.
[37:16] It wouldn't work. The beans themselves have to be crushed in order to do what they are supposed to do. So it is here. In order to fulfil the purpose, our Lord, our Saviour, had to be crushed.
[37:33] He had to be crushed by his own Father. Because justice had to be satisfied. And because his anger had to be pacified.
[37:43] It would have been unjust for God today. We hear a lot about justice in our day, don't we? It would have been unjust for God to have said, Well, you know what?
[37:53] These people have sinned. They have sinned against me, against my holiness, against my love. But you know, I'm just going to forgive them. I'm just going to give them a blanket pardon, and that's it.
[38:05] Well, you think about it. You think about if that man in Thailand had been caught before he managed to take his own life. And what a crime he committed, and what an atrocity.
[38:19] What if the judge there had said, had had him there standing in the dock, and said, You've done an awful thing. You've done a terrible thing. And justice says that, well, today they would say, justice says that they should be imprisoned.
[38:34] The Bible says, justice says that they should be put to death for that. That's what the Bible says. Whoso sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed.
[38:46] But what if that? What if that judge had said, Despite all that you've done, I will let you go. Here is your pardon.
[38:57] Off you go. Don't do it again. Well, there would be outrage, wouldn't there? But why would there be outrage? Do we not delight in mercy? Do we not delight in forgiveness?
[39:08] Well, we do. But we also delight in justice. We also delight in fairness. And so in the same way, it would have been speaking reverently, it would have been wrong of God, to say, You're forgiven.
[39:25] No price needs to be paid. No justice needs to be satisfied. It would have been utterly wrong. Someone had to pay the price.
[39:36] And the only one who could do it was the God-man. The one who identified with us by taking bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
[39:47] By being made God incarnate. by being born in a manger in Bethlehem and living amongst us as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, being fully human in order that the punishment that humans deserved would be paid by a human, but at the same time being fully divine.
[40:09] Because what man? What man can bear the intensity, the infinity of the wrath of God, the just anger of God in his soul, but one who is fully human and fully divine.
[40:26] Only one who was infinite in himself could bear and could swallow up the infinite wrath of God. And so the Father says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow.
[40:47] Awake, O sword, of justice and enter into his very heart and satisfy yourself that mercy might be freed, that mercy might be shown to men and to women.
[41:02] Awake, O sword, bruise him, grind him under the millstone of your wrath. Friends, his soul had to be poured out even to death.
[41:15] It wasn't enough for Christ to shed drops of blood from his forehead in Gethsemane. It wasn't enough for him to be betrayed, to be condemned, to be mocked, to be humiliated.
[41:32] It wasn't enough for him to have a crown of thorns upon his head. It wasn't enough for him to be flogged, to be scourged. It wasn't enough. It wasn't enough for him even to go to the cross and to hang there for a number of hours with nails in his hands and nails in his feet.
[41:52] It wasn't enough for him to suffer to the very point of death and yet not to die. because death, the curse of sin is death, the wages of sin is death.
[42:05] What did God say to Adam? In the day that thou eatest thereof, in the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt surely die.
[42:16] dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return and sow out, Lord, to bear the curse in all of its fullness had to die.
[42:33] He had to enter into the dust. He had to humble himself further than all of the humbling that had already taken place and he had to enter into death for three days.
[42:49] So it pleased the Lord to bruise him. But what about this word that pleased the Lord? You know, and as many of you do know, it's an awful thing to see someone who you love suffer, isn't it?
[43:11] If possible, it's even more excruciating to see a son or a daughter suffer. And yet this pleased the Lord when he gave his only begotten son when he gave him up to be a propitiation for our sins, when he gave him up to pour out his own infinite wrath upon him, yet it pleased him.
[43:41] The sufferings of our Lord. You know, we read of these sufferings and there is always an element of shock if we are where we ought to be spiritually. I think it's something in our humanity even, even without grace.
[43:58] It's something in our makeup, in our mental makeup being made in God's image that there is an element of horror when we read of such suffering, when we read of such violence.
[44:11] It goes against our very nature. It causes us almost to cringe and almost to tense up. when we read about anybody's sufferings.
[44:24] More so when we read about the sufferings of those whom we love. Well, we know that the Father loves the Son and that he gave all things into his hand.
[44:37] This is my beloved Son, he could say, in whom I am well pleased. We know that there was no lack in the love of the Father. There never was and there never will be.
[44:49] It is a perfect love between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And yet, it pleased him to see his son suffer.
[45:01] That word, it pleased him, can mean it delighted him. It gave him delight to bruise his son.
[45:12] He took pleasure in it. How do we understand that? How do we understand it? Well, we can only understand it in the context of what this achieved.
[45:25] What it achieved. The aim of the high priest as he stood at the altar and offered his sacrifice was to please God, to pacify God, to offer a sacrifice that would be acceptable to God.
[45:43] That is what he was doing. That was the sole purpose of his work. That was the aim of the day, to offer a sacrifice that would turn away the wrath of God, that would please him, that would bring the people back into his pleasure and into his favor.
[46:04] We have to remember that when we read about these sacrifices, sacrifices, that there were two elements to them. They weren't just trying to cover their own sin, and they weren't just trying to remove their own guilt.
[46:21] By this institution of sacrifice that was given to them, they were seeking to bring themselves into the favor of God. It wasn't to bring themselves into a position of neutrality.
[46:34] It was to bring themselves by following God's ordinances into a position of favor. And that was the great joy of the day of atonement, wasn't it?
[46:46] Not just that their sins were forgiven, but that they were brought into God's favor, that they were brought into God's fellowship. When our great high priest stands at the altar, when he hangs upon the cross, that is what he is doing.
[47:05] he is giving himself for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling favor. A savor.
[47:16] That is what he is seeking to achieve. That is what he expects to achieve. That is what he is being told in the scriptures, that his work will achieve.
[47:26] That he must offer himself, that he must sacrifice himself, that he must enter down into the dust of death. death, but only that what he does might be delightful to God, that it might be a sweet-smelling savor to God.
[47:43] And you know, friends, when Christ offered himself on the cross, the salvation, the eternal salvation of God's elect depended on this. It depended on the father smelling the sacrifice, seeing what was done, seeing all the detail of it, seeing all the heart of it, seeing all the motivation that was in it, and being pleased with it.
[48:11] It depended on him being able to see that this was the perfect sacrifice, that in every other sacrifice there had been lack, there had been want, there had been shortcoming, because the blood of bulls and of goats cannot truly remove the sins of men and women, except in that, in what they point forward towards.
[48:41] He had to see that this offering, that the blood of this lamb, that he was without blemish and without spot, in all of his person and in all of his work, and only then would he be pleased, only then would he be delighted with it, and he sees it, he sees it all, and he is pleased, he is delighted, he takes pleasure in what is done, because sin has been atoned for, and the great work of redemption, and the planning from all eternity, has been accomplished, and that brings delight to the father, the father is delighted, he can ask for no more, the work is finished, the plan is complete, there will be a people, there will be a seat that will serve him throughout the ages of eternity, and so friends, in this bruising today, we have an acceptable sacrifice, we have a suitable offering for sin, we have a standing standing before
[49:58] God, we have a righteousness to be clothed with, a garment, clean white, which is the righteousness of the sins, to be covered by, a Christian, it pleased the Lord to bruise his son, so that you, so that you might be saved, so that you might have a salvation, so that you might have forgiveness, so that you might enter into glory at the end of your course, it pleased the Lord that you should have that, despite the great cost of it to him, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, and yet despite the cost to himself, he is delighted that there are a people, there are a people here today, who have, by his grace and the power of his spirit, given their lives to
[51:00] Christ. God commendeth his love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is how he condemns, this is how he commends his love to us, in allowing, in giving, in sending Christ to die for us, despite our sin.
[51:27] What love, friends, we have here. There is much here that horrifies us in our nature and in our humanity, reading of the suffering. There is much here of the justice of God.
[51:40] There is much here of the holy anger of God, but there is much, and it overarches it all, of the love of God as well, isn't there? And the love of God for sinners such as we are.
[51:54] And so, friends, today we gather to remember what Christ has done and what God has done in Christ. And we gather to thank him for it, and we gather to proclaim all that he has done, and to testify to it, and to tell the world about it.
[52:14] and we gather to feed upon this Christ by faith. And as we do so, we don't do so in the sure and certain knowledge that the Father is pleased with all that has been done in Christ, and with all that his spirit has done in you.
[52:37] Amen. Let us pray. A gracious God, we pray that as we think together on all that Christ has done on the behalf of his people, all we pray that our hearts would be moved within us, that we would know something of a holy love rising up in ourselves.
[53:07] oh, what cost, what pain, what anguish that our Saviour bore, what love to us, and we pray that we might, by thy grace, see something of that and know something of that, and that we might be nourished and refreshed by it and by the knowledge of it, and indeed sanctified, made holy through our considering it by faith.
[53:39] Continue with us now, bless us, and go before us in what remains, and forgive us for Christ's sake, amen. Well, let us sing again this time in the same psalm, psalm 22, but the end of the psalm from verse 28.
[53:57] because the kingdom to the Lord doth appertain as his, likewise among the nations the governor he is, earth's fat ones eat and worship shall, all who to dust descend shall bow to him none of them can his soul from death defend, a seed shall serve as due to him unto the Lord it shall be for a generation reckoned in ages all, they shall come and they shall declare his truth and righteousness unto a people yet unborn and that he hath done this.
[54:42] Let us sing then verses 28 to 31 of Psalm 22 to God's praise because the kingdom to the Lord doth appertain his house. because the kingdom to the Lord shall offer did assist and wise among the nations the God for love he is.
[55:29] There shall one sing and worship shall on who to dust descend shall burn to him none of that can his hope complete defense hans a he shall serve his truth to him unto the Lord it shall before a generation record record their nature's home they shall command they shall declare his truth and righteousness unto a people yet and more and not he and and lives as we come now to the fancing of the table if you turn with me to the epistle
[57:23] Paul's epistle to the Galatians and chapter five Galatians chapter five and we can read together from verse sixteen this I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lasted against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would but if you be led of the spirit you are not under the law now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication uncleanness of seriousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murder drunkenness revelings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
[58:52] God but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another amen and we pray that the Lord would bless his word to us to his name be all the praise and the glory well as we approach the Lord's table it is right and proper biblical that we should stipulate who should be at the table and who should not be at the table and
[59:54] I suppose the first thing that we have to say and which I'm sure is very clear to you is that the Lord's table is not for everyone and I'm sure that you know that but it's important that we continue to say that from this pulpit you will often hear calls please to come to Christ to come to the Lord but you don't hear the same please to come to the Lord's table because there's a sense in which there are no qualifications to come to Christ the qualifications are fulfilled in what Christ has done but there are qualifications before we come to the Lord's table I heard someone once say that all are invited to the gospel table but only those who have already come to the gospel table are invited to the
[60:56] Lord's table so the Lord's table is open to those who have come to Christ if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious if you love the Lord with all of your heart if you are trusting in him for your salvation and for nothing else and in nothing else sorry then you ought to be at the Lord's table you ought to be at the Lord's table and if you are not if all of your hope is not in Christ if you have any trust in yourself if you don't know the Lord if you haven't tasted that he is gracious if you don't love the Lord you ought to stay away and you would do well to stay away you would only harm yourself by coming if you're not a Christian it's important that we say this because in some places there really is no fencing of the table and there really is no distinction and really anybody who wants to is invited to sit at the
[62:00] Lord's supper at some places you don't have the division that you have here everybody sits together and the cup is just passed round and you can decide whether you take it or not and that has essentially happened because people stopped fencing the table and people stopped stipulating who ought to be there and once you do that you are only going to fall into decline and the Lord's table itself is only going to fall into decline now I said that those who trust in the Lord ought to be at the Lord's table and generally speaking that is true but we can go slightly further than that as well it is customary and it has been customary to read Galatians 5 at the fencing of the table and I am aware in some places that they have stopped doing that and I can understand why they stopped doing it and
[63:11] I think the reason why it stopped being done is because people forgot why it was done in the first place they read this chapter or the half of this chapter about the fruit of the spirit and about what the Christian ought to be and how the Christian ought to live and they felt well what has that got to do with trusting in Christ and what has that got to do with sitting at the Lord's table well actually it has everything to do with it it has everything to do with it this chapter was read for a reason and it's good that instead of just dispensing with these things that we think about why they were done and that we think about what the purpose of them was and the purpose was essentially this that when God brings you to a place where you are able to sit at the Lord's table when he works for you in Christ he also works in you by his Holy Spirit so when the spirit by his grace works faith in your heart and enables you to trust in
[64:19] Christ and shows you the preciousness of the Savior he doesn't just stop there he continues to work in you to work in your life to work certain graces in you work certain fruit in you and that's what we read about here the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance and so on if the Lord has worked for you in Christ if your trust is in him if your faith is in him if you have been born again then this will be true of you as well this will be true of you as well no not in perfection you won't love perfectly you won't have perfect joy or I'm mindful that that word perfect is used differently in the New Testament and we can speak about having perfection of joy in terms of fullness of joy and maturity and so on and indeed perfect love however
[65:24] I'm using it in the way that we I suppose use it in our day that word perfect that in which there is no want that in which there is no lack there will always be want there will always be lack there will always be shortcoming in your graces here but the graces will be there these things won't be perfectly true of you but they will be true of you and if they're not if you know nothing of love love for the Lord and for his people if you know nothing of joy nothing of peace nothing of long suffering nothing of gentleness towards others goodness faith if you're not meek if you're not temperate self controlled in any way then you have to ask yourself has the spirit worked in my life is he active in my Christian experience at all in leading me to Christ so it's important for his friends that if we are living contrary to these fruits these graces if we know more in our experience of adultery fornication uncleanness idolatry hatred wrath strife sedition envy if we know more about that then it tells us a great deal about ourselves and it tells us a great deal about whether we should be at the table or whether we should not be at the table and of course there are times friends and this is why when
[67:01] I said that if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious you should be at the table I said I was speaking generally I am speaking generally because can be at a point at a communion weekend when they haven't repented of these sins and when they're refusing to repent of these sins and it's very clear that Jesus himself gives the answer if your brother has something against you if you've done nothing about it if you haven't even tried to put it right then leave your gift at the altar go and reconcile but we can say that of Greyfriars preaching in Glasgow as a young Christian at a Lord's Supper and being shocked by what he said at the time as a young Christian and he said if you are here today intending to go to the
[68:04] Lord's Supper and if you intend to go out to the world and to sin tomorrow even if you really are a Christian don't come to the Lord's Supper he said and I was shocked there is in it and how much truth there is in it but let me say this to encourage you sometimes you have to look deep into yourself to see these fruits that you know ought to be there sometimes they can be difficult to see sometimes you don't feel very long suffering very gentle very meek or temperate but God calls us and he calls us Christ calls us in the context of the supper itself to examine ourselves not to examine ourselves overly critically but to examine ourselves honestly and as you do that if you are the Lord's you will see something of these things in you you will see even a whisper of them in your life and let that encourage you and let that be a token for you that the
[69:14] Lord has not forsaken you but that he is working in you and through Christ what he has done for you and what he has done in you that you have every right in him to be at the table amen let us now turn to sing in Psalm 118 and while we are singing the elders will prepare the table and if any who intend to communicate behind the table now this is the time for you to come forward and take your place among the Lord's people we'll sing from verse 15 down to verse 21 or down to the point where the elders have finished preparing the table in dwellings of the righteous is heard the melody of joy and health the Lord's right hand doth ever valiantly the right hand of the mighty
[70:16] Lord exalted is on high the right hand of the mighty Lord doth ever valiantly I shall not die but live and shall the works of God discover the Lord of me just dies its sore but not to death given over O set ye open unto me the gates of righteousness then will I enter into them and I the Lord will bless this is the gate of God by it the just shall enter in thee will I praise for thou me heardst and hast my safety been let us sing these verses then as we rise to the table in dwellings of the righteous is heard the melody of the righteous is heard the melody of joy and heaven the course right and the heaven that can be the right of the mighty
[71:47] Lord exalted in song night the right hand of the mighty Lord condemn valiantly me I shall not die but live and shall the words of God is alert the Lord hath me just I say so but not to death in all air for say ye old man unto me me that gives all righteousness then will
[73:22] I enter into then and I the Lord will bless this is the gate of God by it the child shall enter in thee will my praise for whom he heard and does my safe keep in pain well as we come to the
[74:27] Lord's Supper it is proper for us to read an institution for the sacrament we find in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 17 we can read together from verse 17 verse 17 verse 17 now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not that you come together not for the better but for the worse but first of all when you come together in the church I hear that there be divisions among you and I heartling believe it for there must be also heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest among you when you come together therefore into one place this is not to eat the Lord's Supper for in eating everyone take it before other his own supper one is hungry and another is drunken what have you not houses to eat and to drink in or despise ye the church of God and shame them that have not what shall I say to you shall I praise you in this
[75:46] I praise you not for I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you but the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed to bread and when he had given thanks he break it and said take it this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me after the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying this cup is the new testament in my blood this do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance of me for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death till he come and so on well as the Lord before he broke bread gave thanks we will follow his example and give thanks gracious and ever-blessed God we have much to be thankful for today as we gather together around thy word and around the Lord's Supper we have many temporal blessings laid out for us we have we are a fortunate people in every respect every provision is made for our physical needs but we are mindful especially at this time of the great provision made for our spiritual needs that a great feast is laid out for us a feast of fat things and of wines and of beans and we thank thee Lord for all that we feast upon Christ we thank thee that we can eat and drink to his glory we thank thee for the work of thy Holy Spirit in quickening us in awakening us in giving us holy desires even desires to be amongst thy people today oh that thou wouldst show us then that which we have come to see show us Christ in all of his beauty and in all of his glory and as we and as we eat of the bread and drink of the wine laid out for us we pray that these elements would be changed for us from a common to a holy use and that we would indeed be nourished by our partaking of them we ask thy blessing to be upon us individually and corporately as we are mindful that this is a family meal that we eat not just individually and drink not just for ourselves but that we drink one with another beside our brothers and our sisters in Christ and we thank thee Lord that we know that we have passed from death until life because we love the brethren we ask thee then to go with us now and to be gracious to us and to forgive us for our sins for the reason for the reason for the sake of the Father for the sake of the Father and bruising the Son and I hope as well of our own delight in that which has been done for us on the cross but what about the sufferer what about the sufferer what about our Lord himself what about the servant of whom we have read well we read that that pleased the Lord of Jerusalem he had put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed
[79:48] he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities well of course if we have spent half an hour thinking about one of these phrases we would need I am sure a half an hour for each of the rest of the phrases as well but perhaps for a moment we can think about these words that he shall see his seed when a soul is made an offering for sin he shall see his seed and then we read in verse 11 that he shall see of the travail of his soul now I know that some people say that perhaps this is speaking about what the father sees and there are others who argue that this speaking about what the son sees one of the commentators
[80:57] I am not sure exactly I can't remember exactly who it was said and I think wisely I think wisely that there is deliberate ambiguity here that it could be speaking either of what the father sees or what the son sees but I think that we are certainly justified in saying that truly we have wanted to say that this is speaking about what the son himself sees he shall see of his seed and he shall see of the travail of his soul now these things are essentially the same when he is looking at his seed and when he is looking at the travail of his soul he is looking at the same thing we sang together in Psalm 22 that a seed shall serve him a seed shall do service to him that he shall have a people who will follow them that he shall have disciples who shall sit at his feet throughout the ages of eternity that he shall have a church which he shall gather and which will be faithful to him he shall see his seed and you can trace this this word seed throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation sometimes it speaks particularly of Christ himself he is the seed of a woman but sometimes like here it speaks of the church he shall have a seed but he shall only have a seed as a result of the travail the labour pains of his soul and what a labour it was and we have seen something of that and what pain and what travail that he experienced in his sufferings in Gethsemane onwards to the bitter end of the cross that we can say this that had he not travelled had he not laboured had he not endured had he not suffered had he not died then there would be no seed there would be no people he would have no treasure he would have no reward there would be no joy set before him well there would be joy
[83:17] I'm sure there was eternal joy in heaven but not the joy of which it speaks there in Hebrews for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despising the shame he knew that he needed to suffer he knew that if he wanted to see his seed that he had to see his travail as well and that he had to see his labour that he had to see it through and so when he looks upon his church even today and when he says here is my seed here is my people who are doing me service and here is my people who are following me he can say also here is the travail of my soul here is what I suffered for here is what I endured my labour pains for and he sees that and friend Christian he sees you today he sees this gathering he sees this church he sees this table he sees us as individuals he sees us as Christians and he sees us as his finished work and he sees us as the joy that he has set before him he sees you as the fruit of his labour and he is satisfied with that he is satisfied to him it was worth it we might say that he is pleased that he is delighted with it and let us remember that now as we come to the table and as we think particularly of what he suffered and as we think particularly of the blood that he shed without which there is no remission for sin let us remember that the father is pleased with our salvation and the son is satisfied with it and if we can assure him we can be sure that the spirit himself acquiesces and is delighted in all that has been done for his people and all that continues to be done as men and women are born again throughout their districts throughout their nation throughout their world that there is mutual delight in the Godhead and if they are delighted with what has been done with you surely there ought to be delight in your own soul as well as you take of these elements of the bread and of the wine which speaks so vividly and so powerfully of that which has been done these elements which we will withhold from you no longer we read that that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed that he took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and he said take it my body which is broken for you this do in remembrance of me and after the same manner he also took the cup which he had supped saying this cup is a new testament in my blood this do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance me as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death till he come women a руkeb of america here went and to we
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