Well, that was good singing.
And it's an answer to prayer.
How many of you pray ahead of the service?
! Raise your hand if you do.
Pray ahead of the service.
Would you raise your hand high so I can kind of see who it is that's praying in advance?
Okay.
I'm just...
You know what I would like?
Just do this so I can kind of see what it would be like visually.
Everybody raise your hand.
Just kind of raise it like this.
Go ahead.
Get it up.
Hey, get your hand up.
Okay.
That's what it should look like.
I mean, those who don't know Jesus, I can expect you to...
I understand if you don't pray about the services.
But if you know Christ, shouldn't you be begging for him to do a work among us?
And all God's people, this is when Baptists should say amen.
Okay.
I mean, I should be praying.
Okay.
Listen, I would plead with you.
Don't come to this hour without pleading for God to do a work.
It's reasonable.
It's understandable.
It's appropriate.
And so I would ask that if you know Christ, that you never come to a service anywhere
without asking God to make your heart ready to hear the word
and without asking God to help that earthy vessel that God has placed before you for that hour
to be an instrument of the Holy Spirit, to minister the glory of Christ and make him supreme.
Now, just as a sidebar, tomorrow morning at 840, I'm going to be preaching for 25 minutes
to Madison Christian, and that is 25 minutes.
I want you to know it can be done, and not today, but that's tomorrow.
But I want you to pray for me, okay?
And so next week, if I do remember, and I say how many of you are going to be prayed for the service next week,
all of you that know Christ are going to raise your hands and say, I did, because it's a responsibility.
I'm going to grow in being consistent in my prayer life for the preaching of the word of God
and for the singing of God's people and for the supremacy of Christ
when we gather to worship together.
And I'll probably ask you, did you pray for me on Monday?
Because I have the privilege of preaching to young people,
and I will, as you know, I'll probably weave two things together.
One is the gospel, and the other is the goodness of Christ's work in the life of the believer.
I'm going to use Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14 through 19, one of those favorites for me.
We are together this morning to take the Lord's table,
and these elements here in front, the bread and the cup,
are really here as we understand from Scripture,
in particular in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, don't turn there,
that these elements are here to remind us of some things.
We forget things, don't we?
Truthfully, we do.
And Scripture makes it very clear that reminders are important.
This morning in my personal devotions,
I was reading through the account of Joshua crossing the Jordan into the promised land,
and God gave instructions that when the people crossed through on dry land,
one man from each of the tribes was to pick up a stone and pick that stone up
and put it on his shoulder and stagger out and then set it down on the other side.
And here's what it says.
So that in the future, when your children say to you,
what meaneth?
That's the King James.
Hey, what are these stones doing here?
That's kind of the contemporary rendition.
Why here?
Well, we took those stones out of the River Jordan when God dried it up,
stacked all the water up behind it, and we walked over on dry land.
That's why these stones are here.
We need reminders.
And what we are being reminded of this morning
is what Christ did to save us.
You know, one of the things that is a way of kind of judging whether or not you need the reminder would be this.
I'm not going to ask you to turn to your neighbor and say,
I love Jesus.
But, you know, here's the truth.
Your genuine affection and love for Christ
are an indicator of just how thankful you are for his salvation.
And if you're kind of hearing, you know, well, you know, I'm here.
Isn't he glad?
The thing is, is do you love him?
Does his love govern your life?
And one of the purposes of the Lord's table
is to kind of encourage our affection for the Lord Jesus.
So this morning, what I would like you to do is just quietly, where you sit,
just stay to yourself, and you can do it with your eyes open.
Just say, according to Psalm 119, verse 18, here's what it says.
It says,
Open my eyes that I might behold wondrous truths out of your law.
Do something for me,
that I can see the beauty of your work and grace,
and that that would be the thing that overwhelms me
in the face of the adversity and the difficulty and the disappointments
that I go through.
I've got to go to work on Monday,
and people there don't always like me.
And things are going to break,
and things are going to go bad,
and life's going to have all these disappointments.
And Jesus, this morning, I want to be reminded of how precious you are
and how much you love me.
I want you to dig in
and get a hold of this cold heart
and give me an affection for you.
And so, with that prayer resonating in your heart,
I would ask that you turn in your Bible to Isaiah chapter 53.
Isaiah chapter 53 is a passage that,
for believers, many of us know,
all we like sheep have gone astray.
It is a passage that is probably one of the most well-recognized Old Testament texts.
In the Jewish community, it is one that is hardly known at all.
And that's not really an accident,
because it is one of the clearest indicators in the Old Testament of the Messiah
and his redemptive work for us.
The idea of him dying and being a substitution for our sin
is undeniably clear in this passage,
and it is a convicting passage.
Keep your finger in Isaiah chapter 53.
I took you there to begin with,
but turn back, if you would, just for a bit.
We're just going to go for a second,
but go to Acts chapter 8.
In Acts chapter 8,
we find a very interesting little situation
where Philip ends up being taken by the Holy Spirit
to minister to a guy who's kind of trudging along in a chariot,
and he's reading the book of Isaiah.
And guess what chapter he's in?
Surprise.
Chapter 53 of Isaiah.
And now, in verse 32, it says,
Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this.
Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.
And the eunuch said to Philip,
About whom, I ask,
does the prophet say this about himself or someone else?
And as we look at that passage just for a moment,
we understand that here is this Ethiopian eunuch
who had traveled to Jerusalem to learn more about Judaism
and to kind of grow in his budding faith
and in the hope of the Messiah
and his desire to have his heart satisfied
is met on the road
when Philip opens up the Scripture and says,
Hey, this is talking about Jesus
who came and lived and died
and rose again for our sins.
And so what I want us to do this morning
is kind of ask the Holy Spirit
to help us understand what it is
that the Spirit of God communicates in Isaiah chapter 53.
Let's begin, first of all,
with understanding the tragedy of an unjust rejection.
As we take up Isaiah 53,
we find that the early verses kind of move us to sympathy.
Who's believed what he has heard from us
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no form or majesty that we should look at him
and no beauty that we should desire him.
You know, the average picture that most of us have
of Jesus is some incredibly handsome kind of rugged dude
that, you know, he's just the embodiment of perfection.
The way Isaiah describes him is that he was so nondescript
that had we been looking in the crowd,
we would, ooh, there he is.
Remember how Samuel the prophet
was kind of challenged by what we see on the outside?
I mean, after all, we are drawn to the outside.
Isn't that right?
Right.
And here it says, this is the Holy Spirit kind of giving us,
this is better than an artist's rendition
because it's the Holy Spirit telling us the truth.
It says, hey, we wouldn't have been impressed looking at him.
Not only that, but when you read through the scriptures,
you find that Jesus in his temperament and character
was not this, you know, crowd-pleasing, you know,
big stomping dude that, you know,
whenever he walked into the room, he's like, ooh, there's Jesus.
He was kind of a quiet guy.
It says that a guttering wick he would not snuff out
and a bruised reed he wouldn't break.
He was a gentle and tender guy.
And so you probably ask yourself,
why in the world would someone that was so nondescript
and didn't really go out of his way to offend people,
why would he end up being hated and so abused
and someone who made people angry and made them disgusted?
How does a humble person end up like that?
Well, I want you to understand that what the scriptures make very clear
when we kind of piece the thing together
is that Jesus was rejected because he addressed the world's sin.
I want you to think about that just for a minute.
Jesus was rejected because he pointed out the world's sin.
Let me have you look at a couple passages
that just kind of confirm this truth
so you get it clearly in your own mind in the scriptures.
Turn in your Bible to John 1.
John 1.
In that introductory portion of the book of John,
we find there in verse 10 and 11 that the apostle says this,
he was in the world and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him.
I mean, hey, the guy who did it all is in the room
and nobody knows he's there.
He came into his own, talking about the Jews,
and his own people did not receive him.
I mean, if anybody should have known who Jesus was,
it was the Jews.
And why?
Because they had received the message of the prophets
regarding the coming of the Messiah.
If you go back to the very beginning in Genesis,
you remember after Adam and Eve sinned,
God said there would come someone who would bring redemption.
And very interestingly,
if you kind of read in between the lines, so to speak,
the first child that Adam and Eve had,
do you know what Eve was thinking?
She was thinking,
this is the one.
This is the one.
This is the one who's going to help us in our mess.
And over and over again throughout the generations,
the idea and the ambition and the desire
of the sincere believer in the Old Testament was,
someday God will provide the perfect sacrifice,
the Messiah, who will be our Redeemer and our Savior.
And so here is Isaiah sharing the truth about Jesus.
And when Jesus came, he was rejected by the Jews.
And really, when you ask yourself,
let me understand that a little bit,
or go forward a little bit.
You're in John, so stay there just for a second
and go to John 3, verse 19.
By the way, it doesn't hurt to look at it.
Everybody smile at me.
I'm talking to you.
Do you know why we have Bibles in the pews?
How many of you, just put your finger on a Bible in the pew.
Go ahead, just touch it.
I don't want people touching hands doing this.
I mean, let's be good about this.
Just touch the Bible in front.
The reason we have Bibles in the pews
is so you can get a hold of them
if for some reason you forgot your own.
It's all right.
Go ahead and use one of these.
In fact, listen to me.
If you want to take one home,
if you don't know where your Bible is this morning,
take it home.
Take the one that we have in the pew home.
We have more.
We'll replace the one you take
and we'll be tickled pink that you took.
Hey, take a Bible home if you don't have one.
You got that?
Everybody heard me say that.
Well, anyway, let's go back to verse 19.
It says, and this is the judgment,
the light, that's Jesus' code, right?
The light has come into the world
and people, what?
They love the darkness.
What?
I don't mind when people expose other people's sins.
In fact, I don't mind helping them do that.
But my sins?
Here's what it says.
It says,
they love the darkness rather than the light
because their works were evil.
How many of you have ever been driving down the road
and you hit that place where, you know,
the sheriff's department decide to set up
one of those little, you know, radar devices
that sits on two wheels and what does it say?
You know, they always put it,
providentially,
they always put it, you know,
about 100 yards or 100 feet
behind a posted speed sign, right?
The limit on this road is 35 miles an hour
and then right down the road,
they have this other thing that's going to blink,
blink, blink,
and as you zip along,
what's it saying?
And you're driving 53.
And you think,
why is that there?
I don't need that.
Until you see somebody else park just a little further
and you think,
you know, okay.
So here's what it says.
It says,
they don't like the light
because their deeds are evil.
And there in the passage in verse 20,
it says,
for everyone who does wicked things hates the light.
Why was Jesus rejected?
It's because he turned on the light
and exposed the reality of men's hearts
and they hated seeing the truth about themselves.
When I deal with marital counseling
and often when Pastor Saul deals with counseling
and Pastor Andrew deals with counseling,
one of the things that we end up in the situation
is saying to the people who are in our office
is you got a problem.
Now, they're fully persuaded
that the other party who came with them has problems
and it's kind of like an epiphany.
It's kind of like,
what, me?
Me?
Yeah.
In fact,
not only do you have a problem,
but you're the only one who can fix it.
And unless you fix your problem,
the problem is probably going to stay
about as bad as it is.
And here is John telling us
that people,
when they were brought into
face-to-face conviction
with the reality of their sin,
they didn't like it.
And kind of the idea
that Jesus is some ancient bearded dude
floating around
just kind of smack-talking with people
is not the Bible story.
Do you follow that?
I mean, he was right in people's space
and he wasn't arrogant or argumentative,
but his heart,
which communicated
the glory of his Father,
brought conviction
to the heart of every person.
He fully revealed
God's judgment against sin
and man's absolute inability
to save himself.
And so,
when you kind of stop
and think about this
humble individual
who is rejected,
understand that really behind it
is the second thing
we need to find out,
and that is that
there is a terror in sin.
We tend to not think about sin
as being all that bad,
at least the sins we do.
I mean, for a fact,
we do them over and over again.
Isn't that right?
And we have a wonderfully
well-developed vocabulary
about our sins.
Instead of calling them things
like blatant, arrogant,
stubborn, rebellious acts
against the holy God
and the creator of this universe,
we call our sins
by things like,
I made a mistake.
I mean, everybody does, right?
I drop my pencil.
I kick my dog.
You know,
whatever thing.
I made a mistake.
Or we have a well-developed,
I mean, the way I am
is because of the people
that I live around.
If you knew my parents,
you would sin too.
I mean,
you'd have the same problems.
Do you follow?
Hey, everybody has a reason
for being the jerk they are.
I was sharing with Connie
the other day.
Pastor Saul was in there
and we were talking
a little bit about ministry,
and I said that
there was a time in my life
where I had discipled
an individual
who was a dentist
in one of our
state correctional institutions.
How many of you
understand what I just said?
And he worked
day in and day out
as a dentist
dealing with people
who had advanced
dental difficulties,
and he said,
you know,
one of the interesting things
of working in the prison system
is that he never ever
up to that point
had met anybody
that deserved to be there.
everybody that he ever
dealt with
had been put into prison
unjustly
because of other people's
behavior or lies
or whatever else,
and they had never
done anything
to deserve the treatment
they were receiving.
And so,
one of the things
that Isaiah
helps us understand
is that sin
is a pretty ugly thing.
It really is.
And I want you
to get your hands
around this
by thinking about it
in personal terms.
When we sin,
we attempt
to un-God God.
Sin is a monstrous
offense
against the creator
and the God
of this universe.
Every sin
that we ever commit
shouts things like,
you're not in charge.
How many of you
ever had your kids
say that to you
at one point?
You know,
it's like they let you
know that you're not in charge.
Oh, yes I am.
And there's the door
if you don't think so.
You know,
well,
people say,
you're not in charge
or what you think
is not important.
I'm amazed
at how often
we don't really realize
we're saying that
when we say that.
Do you understand
what I'm saying?
Whenever we sin,
it's not just an accident,
it's a conscious,
deliberate choice
to do certain things.
And you see this
in children so clearly.
Wally,
don't put your finger
in the light socket.
You know,
that's what you say.
And Wally goes over there
and just to kind of
amplify the opportunity,
he digs through your drawer
and finds a paper clip
so he can get in there
deep enough.
And then he pushes
that thing in there
and what happens?
The law of justice
helps him understand
that what you said
was incredibly brilliant.
But you know what?
You tell kids,
don't do it
and what do they think?
I mean,
you have parents here.
You ever had a kid?
Don't do this.
Watch me.
You know?
And so,
what you think
is not that important.
You're unkind.
You just don't want me
to have my way.
That's true.
You're so controlling.
You're just so petty.
Well,
if I had different parents
that loved me more,
I would get my way.
Yeah,
and man,
man,
man.
And then you have this little,
I hate you.
How many of you
ever had children
say that to you?
How many of you
have I hate to tell you
I've had it?
My kids grew up
by the grace of God,
but I've had a couple
of my children
say to me on occasion
when I would not
let them have their way
or I was disciplining them
for some of their
sinful misbehavior,
they would,
this was kind of
early in the stream.
They learned
as they grew
that it wasn't
a good thing
to say that
because what it did
was it was a force multiplier.
How many of you
understand what I mean?
Isn't that code,
force multiplier?
I hate you.
Really?
Well,
I'm going to help you
with that.
And here's the thing.
I don't want us
to miss the point.
Here is,
the fact is
our heart hates
the justice
and the holiness of God
and he tells us
what's right
and what's wrong.
I want you to understand
that the supreme
offense of sin
brings the supreme
wrath of God.
Why is it
that
somebody else
had to die
in my place
for my sin?
Why is that?
It's because
sin is a
supremely
offensive thing
to a supremely
infinitely
holy God.
So,
there you are
in McDonald's.
You're hungry
and a fry drops
on the floor.
Some of you
are going to kick it
under the table
and pretend
that it didn't happen.
I'm going to pick it up
because I paid for it.
I'm sorry.
I know you're
just going off
on that one
but I grew up
in boarding school
in India
and let me tell you
something.
I'm figuring
that floor
is infinitely cleaner
than whatever
I was in
when I was growing up
and it's like
I paid for that puppy
and I'm having it.
I may dust it off
just to be careful.
But,
if I'm at
Ruth Chris Steakhouse
and I've never
been there
in case you're
wondering
but Ruth Chris Steakhouse
is where you're
supposed to go
when you want
really good steak
and,
you know,
so you're at
Ruth Chris Steakhouse
and the potato
falls off my plate
and falls on the floor
I'm saying,
hey,
take it back.
See,
the little sins
that we think
are okay
are horribly
offensive to God
and we don't think
that
but they are.
dealing with
an individual
who every third
or fourth word
to me is
I'll be honest
with you.
I've said to him,
hey,
let me try to
understand this.
Are you saying
you're not honest
between those things?
Look at Isaiah
chapter 53
verse 4 and 5
would you please?
Surely he has
borne our griefs
and carried
our sorrows
and we esteemed
him stricken,
smitten,
by God
and afflicted.
He was wounded
for our transgressions.
He was crushed
for our iniquities
and with his stripes
we are healed.
Those words
describe
the judgment
of a holy God
against every sin.
and I want to tell you
apart from the sense
of the terror
of God's holy judgment
we remain
completely indifferent
to sin.
That's the truth.
True gospel preaching
declares the holiness
of God
and the blackness
of the human heart.
One of the joys
that I have
in gospel preaching
and sharing the gospel
with individuals
wherever it is
whether it's here
or in a car
with someone
or on a work environment
wherever it is
you know
one of the things
I like to say
is that guess what
Jesus stands ready
to forgive you
for all of your sins
and wipe away
the debt
and the shame
of your life
instantly.
I like
and I know
that to be true.
Yesterday
I was driving back
from teaching
a group of deacons
over in Dayton
in one of our
sister churches
and as I was praying
and thinking about
this morning
for some strange reason
my little pea brain
began to think about
some of the wicked things
I did as a child
and as a young man
and I wasn't
it wasn't like
I thought
let me see
what kind of bad things
did I do
I had such a variety
that I
there's lots of choices
and I was just
driving along
and you know
I found myself
for a moment
just overwhelmed
with the shame
and guilt
for some of the things
I had done
and then I thought
to myself
and those things
have been forgiven
because Jesus died
and rose again
and he put his blood
over top
of those offenses
and you know me
by the way
I'm a kind of
an emotional guy
you figured that one out
it's like
I was going from tears
to joyful tears
you know
it's like
man
Jesus has forgiven me
and I don't have to have
that burden
and that debt
and that shame
and that fear
of judgment
weighing on my soul
and I know for certain
that all my sins
have been forgiven
because of Christ
it's gone
Spurgeon wrote
something that I posted
in the bulletin
on Wednesday night
and I want to recite it here
and I want you to think
with me about
what he had to say
possibly much of the
flimsy piety
the word piety
is talking about
sense of concern
for godliness
possibly much of the
flimsy piety
of the present day
arises from the ease
with which men attain
to peace and joy
in these evangelistic days
hey
try God
too many
think lightly
of sin
therefore
think lightly
of the Savior
he who stood
before God
and has been
convicted and condemned
with a rope
about his neck
is the man
to weep
for joy
when he is
pardoned
to hate
the evil
of which he
has been forgiven
and to live
with a desire
to honor the
Redeemer
with whose blood
he's been cleansed
and so
this morning
as we
look at
these elements
and I want you
to think with me
about them
we're going
to take
bread
that reminds us
that Jesus
died
to pay
the penalty
for my sins
do you understand
that that's what
you're taking
when you take
that bread
you're saying
Jesus died
in my place
he satisfied
the debt
of my sin
and if your heart
truthfully
is not affected
with affection
for the Lord
Jesus Christ
at that moment
when you think
about that
I got to tell you
there's something
that's not right
that's
something's wrong
I'm not telling you
you're not saved
but here's the
purpose of this
table
it is to
refresh
and to kindle
and to stir
our affections
for the Lord
of glory
who has saved
us
and has died
in our place
and if you
are not
affected
by the thought
of him
taking your place
you don't think
much of where
you were
and you know
what the cup
says
this is
I made a promise
it's called
the cup
of the new
covenant
and the cup
of the new
covenant
says
this whole
business
of salvation
is not
Tim's doing
or your doing
but it is
the work
of God
he has
done
a work
in drawing
me
first of all
to the misery
of seeing
the blackness
of my heart
and realizing
I cannot
save myself
and crushing
me with the truth
I stand
condemned
before a holy
God
and then
opening up
to me
the sweetness
of the gospel
that says
and there is
complete forgiveness
in the blood
of Christ
I'm going to
ask the men
to come
as we come
to this table
this morning
and let me
encourage you
to know
that
as we take
these elements
this bread
and this cup
they are
things
that those
who know
the Lord
Jesus Christ
should take
and
if you would
sit just
for a moment
men
I would
encourage you
to take them
with a clear
conscience
with a sensitivity
and the scriptures
encourages us
to come to this
table
having
asked the Lord
to search our
hearts
to see whether
there is any
unconfessed sin
and let me tell you
something
one of the things
Tim Kenoyer knows
is it's fairly
easy to let
sin kind of
glom on
you know
get attached
and it's like
I'm okay
with that
and then my
wife will help
me know
no you're not
or the Holy
Spirit will say
no you're not
and so this
morning
we need to pray
and say
is there something
I need to deal
with so that
when I take
these elements
I don't take
them in that
shameful state
of indifference
to what
offends God
let's pray
and ask him
to give us
a clear conscience
holy father
this morning
as we come
to this table
and we remind
ourselves that
Jesus died
in our place
we understand
that to take
this bread
and take
this cup
is in one
way
it's really
a public
affirmation
we're saying
to other people
I know Jesus
as my savior
and he's real
to me
and he's important
I've been saved
by him
my life
belongs to him
and I live
my day
and draw
my breath
so that
the way
I live
and the way
I talk
and the things
I think
all reflect
back favorably
on Jesus
and holy
father
this morning
if as we
prepare our
hearts
our conscience
troubles us
and we
recognize
that that
anger
that we're
quite comfortable
with and think
is justified
is offensive
to you
or that
private
struggle
with lust
that nobody
else knows
about
that bothers
you
or that
covetousness
that is never
satisfied
with things
grieves
!
that we
would humble
ourselves this
morning and ask
that you would
first of all
forgive us
and then that you
would do
whatever it
takes to
cut that
out
and that's
our prayer
that this
morning would
be a time
and a place
where we
as believers
rededicate
ourselves
with thanksgiving
to the one
who paid the
price for our
sins
and we
ask this in
Jesus name
amen