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welcome to everyone you can take your Bibles and turn to Psalm 63 for our call to worship this evening Psalm 63 I'll begin reading in verse 1 a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah oh god you are my god early will I seek you my soul thirsts for you my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water so I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory because your loving-kindness is better than life my lips shall praise you thus I will bless you while I live I will lift up my hands in your name my soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips when I remember you on my bed I meditate on you in the night watches because you have been my help therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice my soul follows close behind you your right hand upholds me but those who seek my life to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth they shall fall by the sword they shall be a portion for jackals but the king shall rejoice in God every one who swears by him shall glory but the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped amen well please take your Trinity hymnal and turn to 132 hymn number 132 will stand as we sing together [Music] [Applause] [Music] let us pray father thank you for this day thank you for the privilege to gather again on this Sabbath evening we thank you for the ordinance of the supper and we pray tonight that you would be glorified in our meeting that you would be pleased to bless and strengthen our hearts should increase our faith in the Savior and give us fresh resolve to leave from this place walking in conformity unto our Lord Jesus Christ we give all praise to You Father Son and Holy Spirit for so great a salvation we know it's freely given to us based on your sovereign good pleasure we were not deserving we didn't earn it we didn't work for it it's not because of any good in us but because of everything good in our great God how we thank you for these mercies and for your loving kindness to us how we thank you for the the new covenant the covenant of grace that that we are participants in through your grace and as we gather tonight help us to approach you and to worship you in spirit and in truth may our worship be marked by praise and glory given unto our God may there be a sober and adjust reflection upon ourselves before a holy God but may we be taken up fully in the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord do forgive us now for our sins and our transgressions wash us and cleanse us the scripture says that if we confess our sins you are faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and we count this very blessed news we thank you that the Apostle goes on to say that he writes so that we may not sin but if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the father even Jesus Christ the righteous we rejoice in this advocacy we rejoice in the mediator the Lord Jesus we rejoice that he has secured for us Redemption and forgiveness in all of the blessings associated with that covenant of grace so we confess that sin now asking for cleansing in the blood of the Lord Jesus we ask tonight that she would be with our brothers and our sisters in South Surrey we thank you for pastor Kirkpatrick we pray for him and for that flock that they would know your nearness and your kindness that they would know the blessing of God upon the Ministry of the word there and that they would be able to reach that community with the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord be with the Saints in Vernon we thank you for that body that is desirous those people that are desirous to establish a good solid Church in that community we ask that tonight as pastor Cosby preaches that you'd use him that you would bring Grace and help and strength to the Brethren there and father we do pray that you would provide a man long term for that work and that we could see another church established in that part of the world God we do pray that you'd raise up more and more faithful churches Jesus told us the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few and to that end we pray to the Lord of the harvest to raise men up to equip men and to send them out we asked you'd be with the seminary we thank you that classes are in session now we thank you that they are on their own and we pray that you would bless that work the men that have gone there for training we pray that they would be holy men god-fearing men men that walk in the according to scripture and we pray that they would be well trained and in time they would be sent out to plant churches or to go abroad to proclaim the gospel in foreign foreign lands and God we pray for our missionaries we thank you for those we know and love those we prayed for in the past we ask that you would just bless and prosper them we pray that you would protect them as some are in hostile lands we ask God that they would be used by you for the extension of Christ's Kingdom here on earth we have that blessed promise of our Savior that the gates of ale hell shall not prevail against the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ so we pray that they would be encouraged by that they would be strengthened that the reality that Christ is the one who builds his church and that you would be pleased to use the preaching of the gospel to save men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation and our God please continue with us now help us to worship you as you are as is appropriate to such a great and a holy and a glorious God and we pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord amen well please turn with me in your Trinity hymnal again to him number 96 96 we'll use a familiar tune and you can stand when you find that hymn number 96 [Music] well you can turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22 Psalm 22 for meditation this evening prior to the Lord's Supper Psalm 22 I'll begin reading in verse 1 to the chief musician set to the deer of the dawn a psalm of David my God my God why have you forsaken me why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning o my god I cry in the daytime but you do not hear and in the night season and AM NOT silent but you are holy and throned in the praises of Israel our fathers trusted in you they trusted and you delivered them they cried to you and were delivered they trusted in you and were not ashamed but I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised by the people all those who see me ridicule me they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying he trusted in the Lord let him rescue him let him deliver him since he delights in him but you are he who took me out of the womb you made me trust while on my mother's breasts I was cast upon you from birth from my mother's womb you have been my God be not far from me for trouble is near for there is none to help many bowls have surrounded me strong bulls of bation have encircled me they gape at me with their mouths like a raging and a roaring lion I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it is melted within me my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue clings to my jaws you have brought me to the dust of death for dogs have surrounded me the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet I can count all my bones they look and scare at me they divide my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots but you O Lord do not be far from me o my strength Aysen to help me deliver made from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog saved me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen you have answered me I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly I will praise you you who fear the Lord praise him all you descendants of Jacob glorify him and fear him all you offspring of Israel for he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted nor has he hidden his face from him but when he cried to him he heard my praise shall be a view in the great assembly I will pay my vows before those who fear Him the poor shall eat and be satisfied those who seek Him will praise the Lord let your heart live forever all the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord and all the families of the nation shall worship before you for the kingdom is the Lord's and He rules over the nation's all the prosperous of the earth shall eat in worship all those who go down to the dust shall bow before him even he who cannot keep himself alive a posterity shall serve him it will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation they will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has done this amen will let us ask God's help our Father in heaven we thank you for this word we feel in many respects that we were walking into very holy ground and we would pray that the Spirit would help us as we look at this prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ it's a psalm of David but the subject matters certainly David's greater son and we would pray father that you would encourage our hearts at what great lengths the Savior went through to save us from our sins help us to appreciate afresh the gospel of our salvation help us to engage in gratitude and thankfulness to you for the love that you have shown us in and through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and we ask that the Holy Spirit would guide us the Holy Spirit would teach us the Holy Spirit would seal to our hearts these things and we ask in Jesus name amen well Psalm 22 is obviously a very important Psalm it has certainly taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ himself and we will see that as we move through the psalm we're simply going to look at the first half the half for the the psalm basically follows the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus the first half deals with his humiliation the suffering the death that he underwent on our behalf and then that turned in 21 be when God answers when the father answers and then we moved to the exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ in fact in the language of Bonar in his commentary on the book of psalms he essentially says that this is what the psalm is about as soon as I find the quote here he says that it's the Messiah suffering and the Messiah crowned and I think that is a great way for us to appreciate the movement that we find here so I'm going to look quickly at the subject of the psalm and then secondly at the prophetic teaching of the psalm we won't look at every jot and tittle of it but we will look at some of the primary emphases in Psalm 22 note first in terms of the subject of the psalm this is a prophetic word of David now David as you well know if you've read the books of first and second Samuel had no small share of affliction and trial and difficulty in his life as soon as the Holy Spirit comes upon him in 1st Samuel chapter 16 his troubles begin in other words it's not the case that he had all of the sorts of things that afflicted him prior to the coming of the Spirit similar to the Lord Jesus remember Jesus after his baptism is then the Spirit comes upon him and then he's driven out into the wilderness where he suffers or where rather he is tested by the devil and the same sort of thing is true in David the Spirit comes and the trouble comes so David was chased David was hunted David was certainly not held in high regard by Saul for instance and by the enemy nations around Israel he even had issues in his own family the sword would never depart as a result of his sin but this Psalm transcends anything that David underwear this song far exceeds the sorts of things that david underwent moti r says the song goes beyond any experience of David's while it could arise from sometime of his suffering it goes far beyond such to torture and death when you read Psalm 22 you are reading an account of torture torture and death that would ultimately be experienced by our Lord Jesus Christ motya finishes by saying we're listening to David the prophet looking forward to the suffering Messiah in Acts chapter 2 at verse 30 we learned that David was in fact a prophet and in terms of the subject of the psalm we know that this is in fact the experience of our Lord Jesus Christ he suffered and he died on behalf of his people he was exalted by God we've seen all that movement in Acts chapter 2 Peter and his sermon on the day of Pentecost begins with the true humanity of the Lord Jesus he moves on to the predetermined death of the Lord Jesus and from there to the glorious resurrection and the triumphant exaltation so you see that same sort of movement reflected that we find in this particular Psalm so it is a prophetic word as well several of these verses in Psalm 22 are quoted in the New Testament obviously applied to our Lord Jesus Christ verse one is Matthew 27 verse 46 my God my God why have you forsaken me verse 8 is Matthew 27 43 remember the mockers at the base of the cross were ridiculing Jesus just as is described in Psalm 22 then verse 15 in the reference to his great thirst we see at least allusion of this in John 1928 when Jesus is on the cross verse 18 the division of Christ's garments we see that in Matthew 27 at verse 35 and then note verse 22 in verse 22 I will declare your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly I will praise you that's in Hebrews chapter 2 at verse 12 and I think that is a great sermon or subject for another message look at what Jesus says in verse 22 I will declare your name to brethren in the midst of the assembly I will praise you Christ is present obviously in the preaching of the word but Christ is also present in the corporate worship of the Church of Jesus Christ Christ is ultimately the choir director Christ is ultimately the worship leader Christ is the one who with his people leads the faithful to Zion to sing the praises of God most high it's really a beautiful concept but let's look next at the prophetic teaching of the psalm and i want to look at three things here first the distress of the messiah verses 1 and 2 secondly the suffering of the messiah and then thirdly the confidence of the messiah but note the distress verses 1 & 2 my God my God why have you forsaken me why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning oh my god I cry in the daytime but you do not hear and in the night season and am not silent now when we dealt with this cry of the Savior from the cross in Matthew 27 I tried to demonstrate what it doesn't mean and tried to highlight what it does mean I want to rehearse a few of those things now because there's a lot of false teaching out there concerning this cry of distress or this cry of dereliction the idea being that the father completely abandoned the son the father turned his face away from the Sun in fact there's a very popular and a famous worship song that tells us that that the father turned away from the Sun while the Sun was on the cross if that is what this text is teaching then we have some big troubles I want to highlight what it doesn't mean first the cry of Jesus does not indicate any division among the persons of the Trinity secondly the cry of dereliction on the cross does not indicate any dissolution of the hypostatic Union in other words Christ is one person two natures and that is not affected with reference to this particular cry the cry of Jesus does not indicate as one man teaches that the three persons of the Trinity suffered on the cross that is simply in act that is bad theology the second person according to his humanity suffered on the cross not his deity not according to his godhood but according to his humanity and the cry does not indicate that the father abandoned without qualification the son in other words there was no rupture there was no breach there was no cessation of love visa vie the father to the son it wasn't as if in that moment when Christ hung upon the cross the father stopped loving him that simply cannot be the father loved him always the father never stopped loving him and the father never will stop loving him so what does that cry of dereliction indicate first the Lord Jesus according to his humanity suffered in our place on the cross many texts teach us that Matthew 20:28 remember the Lord Jesus Christ says the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many 2nd Corinthians 5:21 God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him Galatians 3:13 tells us that Christ was made a curse so it's in our humanity it's assuming or having the sins of man imputed unto him the father Hillary says it was we who were Forsaken and disregarded so that it was as appropriating our personality that he offered these prayers and then as well it's the reality that the father did not deliver the son from the agony of the Cross that's what's in view the agony of the Cross why have you forsaken me he does so according to the humanity where he assumes our sin and he takes the punishment of the Father when he asks the question why it's not a seeking out of information rather it expresses his distress it expresses the full weight of the wrath and fury of God Almighty received by Christ on behalf of his people he knew why he was on the cross he knew why he had gone to the place it had always been predetermined and he was following through in order to fulfill his obligations in terms of the Covenant of redemption as well this forsaken Ness was the withdrawal of the father's nearness and favor in terms of a closeness in terms of the that felt or that known of that experienced blessing you know that in your own life there are times and seasons where you walk with God you know the smile of God there are times and seasons where you're not walking with God and you don't always know the smile of God now it's not the case that Jesus wasn't walking but when our sin is heaped up upon the Savior and the father is punishing him in our stat in our place that was the experience of Christ he did not have that conscious smile of the Father at that particular time Matthew Henry said Christ was made sin for us a curse for us and therefore though God loved him as a son II frowned upon him as a surety if you get that if you begin to appropriate the theology behind statements like that it will help you tremendously not only in your Bible study but in your understanding of who God is Father Son and Holy Spirit John Gill says but he was now without a sense of the gracious presence of God and was filled notice as the surety of his people he's our substitute ease our surety he's our mediator our sin has heaped up upon him and as a result the father is punishing him and that elicits this cry of dereliction why hast thou forsaken me so Gill says with her but he was now without a sense of the gracious presence of God and was filled as the surety of his people with a sense of divine wrath which their iniquities he now bore now the psalm itself indicates that Jesus didn't interpret this cry of dereliction the way that others have if the father had abandoned him if the father had stopped loving him if the father had genuinely forsaken him then why would he continue to pray to the Father why would the father ultimately answer him why would the father ultimately deliver him and indicate him and exalt him to his right hand it may make for good song coffee too to fill our hearts with some sentimental SAP but it is simply not the case that there was a rupture that wakes the persons of the Trinity there was no problems in terms that the school the the Trinity am sorry the Trinity the Trinity of God the triune God came into some sort of a rupture or a breach among the persons that is simply unacceptable and I hope that you appreciate its Christ according to his humanity the Son of God took on our humanity and in our place as our surety he suffered and he died and as a result he calls out from the cross why have you forsaken me now let's look secondly at the suffering of the Messiah and again I don't know that the the gospel records even give us as much detail as does the psalm here one has observed herman ritter boss in his commentary on the the Gospel of John he says there's no end in any of the gospel narratives that there's some sort of you know rehearsed passion narrative celebrating the physical torture of Christ if you ever go to a Roman Catholic Church which I certainly don't recommend they have this thing called the Stations of the Cross and they're basically little pictures all along the walls of the the Roman Catholic Church and at different times during the year you walk with the priest and he has incense and he sort of shakes that before each of the the Stations of the Cross they may say a prayer they may rehearse a bit about what's going on but there's really this sort of celebration of the physical torture of Christ now not to mitigate or take away from the physical torture of Jesus Christ but the gospel records don't do that they don't sort of rehearse every single jot and tiddle of all the sufferings that our Savior underwent I don't think this psalm does either but it certainly does detail for us the sorts of things that the Savior encountered on our behalf and I think it's helpful for us to remember this I think it's encouraging it for us to see the great love with which he loved us and first notice the reproach of men experienced by the Savior in verses six to eight he says I am a worm and no man that the Lord Jesus Christ would utter such a thing that the Lord Jesus Christ would make such an admission it indicates this was the regard that men had for him he was no better than a worm and Christ understood that he was disdained this way he says I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised by the people all those who see me ridicule me they shoot out the lip they shake the head saying he trusted in the Lord let him rescue him let him deliver him since he delights in him we remember that at the base of the cross that is precisely what they were saying to the Savior at that particular time he was ridiculed now I think that for us we get a little ridicule we meet with a little opposition we meet with a little bit of disdain from another person and just about breaks us or we get very angry how in the world could they ever say such a thing well this was part and parcel of the Lord Jesus life he has no form or comeliness there was nothing about him that attracted us to him he came to his own according to John's Gospel and his own received him not he was in fact a man of sorrows he was acquainted with grief and one of those things was the reproach of men that he bore on behalf of his people secondly the multitude of beastly men that opposed him when you read this particular Psalm and you see bulls or you see lions or you see dogs or or oxen these are not the actual animals this is simply the psalmist's way of describing the sufferings of Jesus Christ at the hands of godless men that had descended to beastly needs they were not even humanistic in the way that they carried out this execution that grown people would say of an innocent and guiltless man away with him away with him crucify him that persons would Mock the Savior the way that they did that they would take a crown of thorns and embed it into his head that they would mock him when he's on the cross actually dying these were beasts and not men that that encompassed the Lord of glory notice in verse 12 many bulls have surrounded me strong Bulls of Bashan have encircled me they gape at me with their mouths like a raging and a roaring lion verse 19 but you O Lord do not be far from me o my strength ape hasten to help me deliver me from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog saved me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild ox set he's encompassed about by men to be sure a multitude of men many men but these men are acting in a beastly fashion Davis says he describes his suffering in beastly terms Bulls surround in verse 12 but in the next verse Bulls become a lion that tears up its prey and roars in verse 16 dogs circle around these are not the house pet variety but the half wild garbage moochers of the Near East but the canines are human they are a congregation of evildoers verse 16 be the beasts imagery implies as Alec Motor says that the assault lacks any of the constraints of humanity and I think you ought to appreciate that when you read through the gospel narrative again reading it for the factuality that is conveyed therein there are times brethren that you ought to read the passion narrative or Psalm 22 to feed your soul with the great love of the Lord Jesus Christ I think the Supper is a great time to do that as well when we eat this bread we drink this god what are we proclaiming corporately his death until he comes again in glory that is the means by which the Savior has wrought out our salvation he didn't pay a price in terms of money he had no silver or gold either but what he had he gave unto us namely his life and his death that is what the psalmist is recording for us in terms of prophecy that would face the Son of God as he came into this world so we see the reproach of men the multitude of beastly man and then notice the physical torture inflicted by men in verses 14 to 18 notice in verse 14 I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint that would probably be the most likely thing in execution by crucifixion I mean it was a very nasty way to dispatch someone a very horrific way to dispatch someone remember that when a man was sentenced to die by crucifixion he was first scourge so he didn't go to that cross full of health and vigour and zeal and ability to withstand the pain and torture on the cross for a time and the net and the beating that they gave a man deemed for crucifixion was extremely nasty it was extremely brutal it wasn't the one that was inflicted upon Jesus simply to try to satiate the bloodthirsty Jews this was the one that accompanied crucifixion pieces of bone pieces of metal within the scourge itself so that it would rip open the back that would rip open the body of the sufferer and then once on the cross he would die ultimately by asphyxiation and that is the reason why that small block of wood is down there by the feet that wasn't to provide relief it was rather to prolong the suffering see the man would be suffering he would be asphyxiated but he would find a little purchase on that piece of wood and he'd be able to gasp in some air well that simply prolong the amount of time that he would suffer that's why ultimately they would break the legs of the victim so that they would indeed give up the ghost at that particular time if the suffering was prolonged such that it would start to go into the next day or it was something that was you know going on or taking too far too long that's why they break the legs to speed up the death process and to get rid of the victim that's why Pilate was was shocked or surprised at the reality that Christ was dead they didn't have to break his legs they pierced his side the suffering that Christ went through is what is depicted here I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it is melted within me my strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue clings to my jaws you have brought me to the dust of death and I never forget that Messiah never forgot what was happening yes these bowls encompassed him yes these Lions gaped at him yes these dogs were certainly nipping at him but it was the father that brought the son to this point this is parallel to isaiah 53:10 yahweh was pleased to bruise him you see the reality is it was the predetermined plan of God the Father that Christ come into this world that he assumed our humanity and that he ultimately live and die and rise on our behalf and Christ understood that in Christ knew that so the physical torture inflicted by men we see the effects of crucifixion in verses 14 and 15 but notice the specific reference to crucifixion in verses 16 to 18 or 16 and 17 16 says dogs have surrounded me the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me notice they pierced my hands and my feet now remember when David wrote this particular Psalm it was probably nine hundred thousand years before the actual crucifixion as far as I know they didn't practice crucifixion at the time of David and yet he speaks about messiahs feet and hands being pierced now most of you have the New King James or many of you have the New King James I think it's represented as well in the English standard version I think the NIV and the new American Standard all reflect this reading they pierced my hands and my feet but if you look in the margin of the New King James you see Mt that means Masoretic tax the standard receive text in terms of the Hebrew Scriptures like a lion instead of they pierced now there's a sort of a lexical reason or a translational reason involved but as well there is textual sort of data involved now I don't want to confuse anyone but I simply want to say that this does reflect and older and proper reading and it's very intriguing because we typically translate the Old Testament based off the Masoretic text well here is an instance where the New King James translators went with what was called the Septuagint the Septuagint being older preserved an older reading fact there was a manuscript discovered in 1997 that was I think substantially older than the Masoretic tax and it preserved this same reading as well you need to understand something about the Masoretic text they were not Christians they were not pro Jesus and I'm not saying they were duplicitous I'm not saying get rid of your English versions based on the Masoretic text for the most part it's most excellent but in clearly messianic texts that referred to the Lord Jesus Christ there are times this being one of them where they obscure that again they're not Pro Jesus they're not Pro him as Messiah fact Mitel Michael Riedel Nick in a very excellent book all the hope of Israel a Jew himself that had been converted to Jesus Christ he says plainly the Masoretic text rendering that's the margin that you have there in the New King James the Masoretic text rendering avoids the christological implications of predicting the crucifixion thereby taking the less messianic rendering and making it more acceptable to Judaism there's a school of thought out there that the lxx of the Septuagint is always bad now at times the Septuagint preserves older readings and certainly more Christological readings readings that apply specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ and all of that to simply say that long before the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ David prophesied David stated David stipulated and one wonders how the persons that operated against the Lord Jesus could possibly pillow their heads at night based on what they would have known from Psalm 22 that they act out very specifically and particularly what is prophesied here by King David of Israel they inflict upon this Jesus of Nazareth so he suffered at the hands of men he suffered the physical torture and the specific reference to crucifixion is there in verse 16 so we see the distress verses 1 & 2 we see the suffering all throughout the psalm let's look finally at the confidence of the Messiah Lord's why hast thou forsaken me was not interpreted by Messiah as I can't pray to him anymore I can't call upon him anymore no it pertains specifically to the sufferings and the agony of the Cross but all through that ordeal this is what Christ does he casts himself wholly and fully upon the Father he refreshes himself at the thought of who God is and I think there are four things or three things rather we ought to appreciate first the perfections of God secondly the faithfulness of God and thirdly the presence of God but know one of the things that encouraged Messiah was the reality that God was holy look at verse 3 but you are holy and throned in the praises of Israel that's pretty counterintuitive to the way that you and I operate I would suggest maybe not maybe you've got it mastered but I think for God's people at times when they go through distress when they are tried when they are afflicted the first thing called into question is the integrity of God in other words how could you let this happen to me we may not voice it at a prayer meeting quite like that but that might be the heartbeat of our soul how in the world could a good a gracious and a holy God ever allow such calamity to fall upon me Messiah will never entertain that thought Messiah will always entertain the reality that you are holy whatever may be happening around me whatever bulls or dogs or lions encompass me about whatever physical torture I am undergoing whatever hardships I impressed with this one thing is true God is holy he is enthroned and the praises of his Israel there is no shadow of turning with them there is no variation gods immutability and gods impassibility encouraged the Savior on the cross the reality that God is holy is non-negotiable and brethren I would suggest without trying to moralize the tax we take our cue from Messiah here never let your thoughts of God run too hard when you are suffering affliction do not entertain hard thoughts of God rather encourage your heart that he is holy and throned in the praises of Israel listen to Spurgeon he said however ill things may look there is no ill in thee Oh God we are very apt to think and speak hard ly of God when we are under his afflicting hand but not so the obedient son he knows too well his father's goodness to let outward circumstances liable his character there is no unrighteousness with the God of Jacob he deserves no censures let him do what he will he is to be praised and terrain and throned am amid the songs of his chosen people you see a couple of years ago our particular Association of churches went through a sort of a theological debate or a theological sort of pursuit with reference to the doctrine of divine impossibility and while I don't want to rehearse all of the contours of that I would simply like to say that that is one of the areas an association of churches should fight for in other words it has to do with who God is I think that for the people of God as long as you know we get a little bit of Bible reading a little bit of prayer and you know we don't fall into some major calamitous sin or trial or difficulty or hardship we're pretty good with that you know for the the Scriptures we are told by our Lord Jesus Christ that this is eternal life that they may know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou has sang the psalmist elsewhere said greater the works of the Lord they are studied by all who have pleasure in them towards brethren theology proper is not simply a pursuit for James dolezal theology proper isn't simply something that John Owens spent a great deal of time on theology proper isn't something located only in the 17th century confessions of faith theology proper is the ballast of the soul who God is is going to keep you from losing your mind who God is is going to steady you in the midst of affliction in the midst of trial in the midst of hardship you don't need to know who you are in terms of those things because you already do you need to know who God is and in the midst of distress in the midst of calamity in the midst of suffering the Lord Christ encourages his own heart with this bit of theology proper you are holy and thrown in the praises of Israel brethren learned from Messiah learn your Bible learn the doctrine of God and may that be the ballast of the soul may that be encouragement in the times of difficulty that you will no doubt face it is God that speaks peace to the heart you know this has always perplexed me oh you know we just need practical sorts of lessons for our lives no you need a good big fat dose of theology proper for your life you need to know that God is spirit infinite eternal and unchangeable in his being wisdom power holiness justice goodness and truth you need to meditate upon that you need to find comfort in that you need to find encouragement in that and then you'll be able to deal with those practical issues in your life the practical issues in life how to be a faithful husband how to be a faithful wife how to be a faithful father I mean we need preaching on that I'm not against that I have preached on that we'll probably continue to preach on that but it's not rocket science you just do what God says basically isn't that it yeah yeah everybody with me what do we do to be a good husband do what God says love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her how do I be a good and godly woman submit to your own husband as the church does to the Lord honor him respect him thank him for his hard work how do we raise these children well you just apply some love and correction and a whole lot of Prayer now again detailed practical specific instruction is helpful I'm not against that but don't be so busy pursuing that that you miss god this is eternal life that they know that they may know how to effectively bring up their children not minimizing bringing up children I hope everybody gets that but that they may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent this is what encourages Messiah when he's on the cross in distress the fact is that God is holy notice secondly the faithfulness of God verses 4 & 5 the past faithfulness of God provides present comfort to the Messiah our fathers trusted in you they trusted and you delivered them they cried to you and were delivered they trusted in you and we're not ashamed before we look at that in more detail look at what Jesus says here our fathers notice in verse 22 I will declare your name to my brethren Jesus identifies with us they are our fathers according to Jesus we are his brethren according to Jesus union with Christ brings us into this familial relationship with Father Son and Holy Spirit union with Christ brings us into a place of blessing adoption as sons adoption with which or by which we are entitled to all the privileges of the firstborn this is what Paul says in Romans chapter 8 we are joint heirs with Christ Christ speaks of our fathers and he speaks to us or of us as my brethren but this refreshes the Savior our fathers trusted in you they trusted and you delivered them they cried to you and were delivered they trusted in you and were not ashamed you see in order for Messiah to be able to remind himself of this in the midst of suffering he would have had to known it from the beginning in other words you need to understand the movement of God in the history of his people the exodus comes up so many times in the Bible subsequent to the exodus as the the magnificent display of the power of God in the redemption of his people and for us in the New Covenant there's a new Exodus and that is from the bondage of sin via the Lord Jesus Christ we need to know that data so that we can refresh our spirits in the midst of present suffering with a reminder of the past faithfulness of Yahweh that's what Christ does here our fathers trusted in you they trusted and you delivered them they cried to you and were delivered they trusted in you and we're not ashamed that is how we ought to be encouraging ourselves notice as well the faithfulness of God displayed to Messiah previous to the cross ver 9 you are he who took me out of the womb you made me trust while on my mother's breasts I was cast upon you from birth from my mother's womb you have been my god you see you never left me you've never forsaken me you've never departed me you've never abandoned me now that doesn't mean every step of the way was only rose petals and blue birds singing tunes of joy on my way to heaven the Savior prior to the cross new trial new sorrow new hardship but he knew the faithful presence of God in the midst of that you see brethren what Christ does on the cross again not to moralize it but simply to try to encourage us to take a similar tack remind yourself of the perfections of God and remind yourself of the past faithfulness of God in your own life in the lives of the people of God throughout the history of redemption and then notice thirdly terms the confidence of the Messiah the presence of God he invokes it he prays for it he pleads to God or pleads with God notice in verse 11 be not far for from me for trouble is near for there is none to help the imminence of trouble the imminence of suffering evokes from the Savior that cry be not far from me so again whatever we interpret verse 1 as it doesn't mean abandonment total does it mean forsaken this total the Lord Christ invokes the presence of the Father in the midst of his calamity verses 19 to 21 a but you O Lord do not be far from me o my strength hasten to help me deliver me from the sword my precious life from the power of the dog saved me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild ox set he petitions God Most High that God would be there for him that he would be near and that he would bring salvation and deliverance from this gaggle of enemies that had confronted the the Messiah and then of course we have in verse 21 be you have answered me and the psalm then shifts directions amazingly we move from the suffering of the Messiah to the crown of the Messiah when he enjoys that exaltation given him by the father for his having performed the work as surety of the New Covenant well brethren as I said this is indeed holy ground it's a bit of a scratch the surface may it encourage our hearts and may it draw from us a great appreciation for the great love with which the Savior loved us and he gave himself for us Paul does this in the New Testament he says this who loved me and who gave himself for me perhaps some of our struggles in the Christian life is because we're not thinking theologically we're not refreshing our hearts with who God is we're not refreshing our minds with what God does we get this idea that well you know he's always been there in the past but in this present circumstance I have no confident expectation whatsoever that he will deliver me he has proven himself faithful I love that bit Spurgeon said when he said pray as those who have tried and proven their God pray as those who have tried and proven their God because essentially that's what we have done we have tried him we have proven him he is faithful and he will never relinquish he will never depart he will never leave us nor will he forsake us well let us close in a word of Prayer thank you Father for your word and thank you for this psalm this prophecy concerning the Messiah and thank you for the new covenant documents that show us these things lived out experienced by the son of man on behalf of his people we give praise to you for so great a salvation and we pray to you that you would give us this mindset help us to ponder the perfections of God help us to consider the faithfulness of God help us in the midst of trial and affliction and hardship and difficulty not to jump ship but to refresh our minds with who you are and with what you've done in the past in the lives of the people of God at large and specifically in our lives you've always been there you're always faithful you will never cease from being thus you've promised to never leave us nor forsake us and in this we greatly rejoice and we do thank you that our Lord Jesus Christ underwent what he underwent on the cross the he did have this experience he did suffer on our behalf so that we may have everlasting life we give all praise and glory unto you Father Son and Holy Spirit and we pray through Christ Jesus our Lord amen I'll read the surrounding portions of the actual giving of the supper by the Apostle Paul after we read those surrounding portions I'll just make a few comments and then the brothers can come up and pass out the bread and we will sing while they do so but I think it's always good for us to rehearse what we find here in first Corinthians 11 also in Matthew chapter 26 in terms of the supper those things that inform our understanding when it comes to this particular ordinance it's not magic it's not something we do by way of earning something from our Lord God Most High the Lord has given baptism and the supper to the church and the supper is to be practiced by the church until he comes again so is baptism but it's not repeated and duplicated in the lives of God's people but beginning in verse 17 of 1st Corinthians 11 he addresses the improper conduct affecting the people in Corinth now in giving these instructions I do not praise you since you come together not for the better but for the worse for first of all when you come together as a church I hear that there are divisions among you and in part I believe it but there must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you therefore when you come together in one place it is not to eat the Lord's Supper for in eating each one takes his own supper ahead of others and one is hungry and another is drunk what do you not have houses to eat and drink in or do you despise the Church of God and shame those who have nothing what shall I say to you shall I praise you in this I do not praise you Paul understands that there are problems in Corinth and so Paul deals with it it's a beautiful thing about biblical religion when there's issues we deal with it we don't just leave it on dealt with rather we address it we seek to fix it and by the grace of God we find peace and resolution the people of God are big boys and big girls and they ought to be able to take a bit of reproof and dust themselves off and be able to go forward Paul then highlights the importance of examination by passing verses 23 to 26 for now notice the importance of examination in verse 27 he says therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in and on the manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord but let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself not discerning the Lord's body for this reason many are weak and sick among you and many sleep for if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged but when we are judged we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world therefore my brethren when you come together to eat wait for one another but if anyone is hungry let him eat at home lest you come together for judgment and the rest I will set in order when I calm well just a few observations based on what we read here in this section we know at first that the ordinance of the supper is given to the church it's given to the people of God gathered together as the people of God and in this particular context they had it in conjunction with a common meal then at that common meal some were eating to the point of gluttony so I'm we're drinking to the point of drunkenness and Paul addresses or he puts his thumb right on the juggler of the problem he says this brings disunity to the people of God this communion is not only vertical but it's also horizontal it is an expression of the one body Ness that we share it with each other it is a church ordinance it is to be participated in it is given by way of command we also ought to appreciate the necessity of self-examination now the examination doesn't mean that we if we find sin we cannot participate that would mean that we would never be able to participate it has to do with undealt with sin sin that we're not taking to God sin that we're not repenting up Paul I think summarizes the ethic that the people of God should have well in the book of Acts he says I strive to maintain a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men that ought to be our disposition and that is what I think he is is getting at we are trying to live at peace with all men we are seeking to be faithful with reference to God and so this call to examination is not to determine whether or not you're sinless because nobody would ever be able to take but rather are you dealing with your sin also this ordinance because it's given to the church because it's given to those who are called to examine themselves we can rightly can that is for believers some have taught in the history of the church that it's a converting ordinance in other words we give the Supper to the unconverted in the hopes that the supper will be the means of conversion Jonathan Edwards the famous American pastor faced that in his pastor ed that is not how we are to interpret the Supper it is for the people of God it is for believers it is for the children of God the dedicate our the early church rather mentions that when the church would transition to the point in time where they would have the supper they would ask unbelievers to leave you obviously couldn't do that today because everybody would cry that you were bigoted and prejudiced and all that sort of a thing but the the early church saw it as that intimate meal between the people of God and their God that the Lord Jesus had commanded and then as well in terms of practicality we ought to remember that the bread and the wine do not change they do not change in terms of their substance they don't actually transubstantiated to something else the Roman Catholic Church's is wrong here it's heretical here they say that there's an actual change in terms of the substance such that when the priest holds up the host and he holds up the wine the people of God or rather the professing people of God in the pews are worshiping that host or worshiping that wine that's what's happening in the Roman Catholic Mass it's an act of idolatry played out right before everybody's eyes the altar boy shakes the bells the priest raises the host and the people are supposed to direct their worship unto that know these bread or these elements rather remain bread and wine they represent they signify when Jesus says this is my body he doesn't mean there's a there's an actual substantial change he doesn't mean that this is now the the flesh that that you are ingesting they would have never understood it that way it represents it signifies this is a token this is a an emblem this is something given to feed you and to encourage you and to help you along in your Christian walk and then real practically when the wine comes a the juice is in the outer ring if you would rather have juice than wine it is in the outer ring well if I could ask the brothers to come out up and pass out the bread please don't take until we read that section and we pray to God for His blessing will sing number 195 while they do that and you may remain seated number 195 [Music] verse 23 we read for I receive from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me let us pray blessed God we thank you for this wonderful gift that you have given to us in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ scripture says that you so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son and how we thank you for the faith to lay hold upon him thank you for the graces that you have given to us to close with him and thank you that he is altogether lovely in chief among ten thousand and as we rehearse the prophetic Psalm Psalm 22 as we see what David announces concerning his greater son we see something in the great love with which he loved us the blessedness of our Lord Jesus Christ who underwent those things so that we might have everlasting life we rejoice in your goodness and in your kindness we rejoice in your love to us and we praise you through Christ our Lord amen well we'll take together please turn to 357 again remain seated 357 [Music] verse 425 we read in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes let us pray lord thank you for the new covenant brought out by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ thank you for the the mercies associated with that covenant announced by the Prophet Jeremiah brought to fulfillment in and through our Lord Jesus that final realization in the New Testament we give praise to you for the blood of Christ that does cleanse us from all sin we give praise to you for the privilege now that we have as the the corporate body of Christ to proclaim his death until he comes and this ordinance points us to that blessed reality that he is coming again in glory to judge the living in the dead he will collect his bride he will bring us into that that blessed state of consummated glory for all eternity we look forward to that may it encourage our hearts as we traverse this lower world and may it be that which causes us to rejoice and and sees us through in the midst of the trials or one of the elements that sees us through in the trials and the difficulties we face in this world thank you for the promise of glorification thank you that we will one day be with you and we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord amen we'll take together we can turn to 175 that great compendium of gospel truth in song 175 will stand as we sing together [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] you you