My text is to be found in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and in verse 9. Let me read that verse. 2 Corinthians 8 at verse 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. You see the phrase that the apostle uses, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So let me begin by explaining what we mean by the word grace here. It means love, but love of a special kind. Some love is what we owe to one another. For instance, if a man and a woman get married, obviously they owe love to one another. That's why they've taken vows. I take this man to be my husband, this woman to be my wife. They owe it to one another to love one another. So we can refer to this as love which is owed. Now that's different from the word grace. Grace means love which is not owed to us. And that's the love that Jesus Christ is showing to us in the gospel. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is another way of saying the love which we do not deserve. You know what it is. Well, not many people do. Sadly, this is the problem of the unbeliever and the problem of the world. They do not know the love which Christ has shown to undeserving sinners like you and me, all of us, all of us, all of us. We do not deserve the least of his love. Why not? Well, because we were born sinners We have lived committing sin all our life, and most especially you can apply this text to the way they treated him, which we read about in the Gospel of John. They pierced my hands and feet. There was a cross behind Jesus. They made him lift up his hands, through each of those hands, taking a hammer and a nail, They smashed it through his hand and nailed him to the wooden cross. And that wasn't all they did. They did many other rotten things too. They ripped off his beard. Imagine that. They spat in his face. They mocked him. You fool, call yourself a son of God. Come off the cross if you can, you fool. That's the way they treated him. And yet our Lord never did anything but what was wonderfully kind, generous, and true. Whenever he preached a sermon, though he said some severe things, he said it out of love, that those who were the hearers might benefit from what he had to say. So now, what my text is saying this, it tells us about the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it does so by telling us, first of all, how rich he was, to start with. You know the riches of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then secondly, it tells us how poor he became. Though he was rich, yet he became poor. And then it tells us the reason why. So that you and me and all Christian believers might become rich. So those are briefly the three points we are looking at this morning. First, the Lord's riches. Second, the Lord's poverty. And thirdly, the riches which you and I, if we are true Christians, are receiving and shall receive from Christ. All right, in that order then. First of all, Christ's riches. Second, his poverty when he came to this world and died on the cross. And thirdly, how he makes believers in him, Christians, you true Christians, how he makes them to be rich. We begin then with the first point, which is Christ's riches. What riches did Christ have? Well, he was and is God. He has a human nature. He took a human nature into union with his divine nature. But from all eternity past, he was God and is. God, and ever will be God. He is the second person of the Holy Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father eternally begets the Son. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and from the Son. These three persons are each equally members of the divine Godhead. So that's the riches Jesus had, and in that capacity he was the creator of the universe. It was he who made the world. The sun, the moon, the stars, and because he made them, they are his. They're his property. If you build a house for yourself, it's your house. If you buy a motor car for yourself, it's your car. Jesus didn't need to buy anything, he made it all. And he made it out of nothing, by the mere word of his power. Let there be light, and there was light. Let there be a sun, and there was a sun. Let there be stars, and there were stars. Let there be a human being, and there was a human being. Everything Jesus made was out of his own personal power, and therefore belonged to him. You all have some property, don't you? Maybe it's a motor car, maybe a bank account, or maybe it's something else you possess. Well, it's your property, it's yours. That's what makes you wealthy. And the universe belongs to our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. So his riches then are identified in that way. Now, another form of his riches is this. He is the king over everything that exists. He is the king of the universe, the king of the world. And he's the king of all the nations. We know what's meant by a king, don't we? Because a few days ago in this country, when Her Majesty the Queen passed away, then the next was a king. And he now is the man with the highest honour in the country. You can't stand up and say, I'm the most important person in this country, because people will laugh at you. You are not. And I am not. But the king would have a right to stand up and say, look here, I am the ruling authority in this country. Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland. I am the authoritative person here above all other. And that's how Jesus is with his power and authority in the whole universe. It's all his. And all the angels know that and they bow before him except for the devil and his associates and they refuse to bow before him and so they were thrown out of the universe of those who were happy and they've been cast into a condition in which one day they'll be eternally unhappy in hellfire. So Jesus then has that authority as the king. Worshipped by the angels. Now I'm speaking about Christ's wealth, his riches. He has all the attributes of divinity. He is absolutely perfect in every way. Infinitely great. It's not just that he is powerful, but infinitely powerful. And he knows absolutely everything. We talk about clever men, don't we? Learned professors and those who are scholars. Well, all that's very well, but let's remind ourselves that the knowledge that Jesus has is absolutely perfect and infinite. Now, the world, the people, they smile at this because they've no idea how amazingly true it is. Jesus knows everything. And he forgets nothing. I wish I was like that. I forget so very much. I forget the people I used to be friends of. Their names have gone. I've forgotten them. People I used to know well, I've forgotten who they are. But he forgets nothing. Not only does he remember everything, but he knows everything that people are doing now. He sees everything people are doing now. When you hear the news and you hear about Ukraine and the war, when you hear about things in China, wherever it is, he knows it all. He sees everything. His eyes are upon everybody. That's a lesson for us all. Not everybody pays attention to that lesson. Think of these words in the Bible, be sure your sin will find you out. Well, that's the most amazing truth. It means that whatever you're doing, if it's something naughty, then be sure you will be found out. You won't get away from it, will you? Some people think, oh, he didn't see me, so I've nothing to worry about. Well, there's nothing he doesn't see. Jesus sees it all. And he knows before it happens what's going to happen. He knew very well they were going to crucify him. He knew very well exactly what they were going to do to him, to spit in his face and rip off his beard and nail his hands to the cross. He knew it all before it happened. Infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. That is how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all are. So it's infinite riches. You can't just compare that to anything. Absolute perfect riches. And let me add one more thing. He will judge the universe when time comes to an end. The day is going to come when all the clocks in the world will stop. Time is finished. The time will come when Jesus Christ will appear in his glory in the clouds of heaven with all his holy angels and he will shout the word and Heaven and earth will pass away and he will bring fire to destroy this wicked fallen world, burn it up. And he will summon all men and all angels, including you and me, to stand in front of him and to give an account for the way we have lived. Have we believed in him? Have we served Him? Have we loved Him? Have we helped other people to come to faith in Him? Or did we live simply to please ourselves? All that will be known in the great day because Christ is infinite in His riches and we must remember that. And then we're told here in my text It's verse nine. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor. So the second heading here is Jesus became poor. He chose to become poor. Let me tell you at least a little of his poverty. He became poor in that he added a human nature to his divine nature. Now that means poverty because he was placing himself at risk. Nobody can attack God, not even with atomic weapons, not even people in Russia with all sorts of terrible weapons. They can't attack God. but they can attack one another. But now you see, we must remember this. When the Lord Jesus Christ took human nature, he exposed himself to cruelty. He became poor. He was born in Bethlehem. He had a human mother, just like you and me. He had no human father because He had to be born the second Adam, the one who would put right the mischief of the first Adam. And to do that, he had to be without sin. Sin is imputed to all Adam's children. That's why you and I were born sinners and live sinners and die sinners. It's because the sin of Adam was imputed to him. But there is a second Adam. And Christ did not sin, and will not sin, and cannot sin, and that's how he can take away the sin of all those who trust in him. When you know Christ and are united to him and born again to his Holy Spirit, then all your sin, no matter how terrible, will be forgiven. And the Lord Jesus Christ then took a human nature and became poor in that sense. Born in a manger. His home was in Nazareth. When he preached his first sermon, Luke chapter 4 tells us, the people hated him and they were ready to take him and throw him off the brow of the hill. They wanted to kill him as soon as he began to preach because he preached so faithfully. Let me learn a lesson from that. Dear friends, please be extremely kind to your own minister and to all other true and faithful ministers. People don't realize how unkind some people are to ministers. But we must remember, we're answerable to God for the way we treat his servants. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He exposed himself by taking a human nature. He allowed himself to be tempted of the devil. Let me get this right. For six weeks almost, That's 40 days and 40 nights. He took no food, he fasted. I wouldn't like to be like that, would you? 40 days and 40 nights, I wouldn't like that. Six weeks, almost, without food. And he did that to humble himself. He made himself poor. And all of this he did in preparation for the most serious of all, his forms of poverty. He allowed his enemies to treat him with abomination and with cruelty and unspeakable nastiness. Oh, how they hated him. And the people that did that were not people you could say who were famous for being nasty. No, no. The people that did that to him were famous for being religious. Pharisees and Sadducees and scribes and scholars, all of them pretending to be and professing to be very devout, very strict in keeping the Sabbath day. That's a good thing as far as it goes, but it didn't go in the right direction with Christ. They hated him for his teaching. They hated him for what he said. They hated him for the truth he taught. And they hated him for his claims that he was the son of God. Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. And you see, that was his body. And he did destroy his body, but he raised it up. And that shows the extent to which our Lord was ready to expose himself to the cruelty of men and to suffer poverty. So that's the second point which the Apostle Paul makes here. Though he was rich, yet he became poor. Oh, what poverty it is to think our Lord is on the cross, blood coming out of his hands and feet. The way they were cursing him, swearing at him, spitting at him, thrusting their fists at him. Come down from the cross. If you're the Son of God, come down and prove it. You're a liar. You're a liar. Come down. Of course, all our Lord needed to do if he wanted to, he could just have done this. And the whole lot of them would have gone straight down to hell. But he didn't do that. Oh, my friends, what mercy Christ had. Oh, my friends, what goodness he showed to those he could so easily have sent down to hell. That's why you and I must not doubt Christ, you and I must believe Christ. Which is the third point here. Why did our Lord Jesus Christ, being rich, allow himself to become poor? Well, it was, this is the third point, to make us who believe rich. The first point is very clear, he was rich. The second point is equally clear, he became poor. And the third point explains why did our Lord do that? And the answer is to make us rich who believe in him. He makes us rich who believe in him in time, and in eternity. Those who believe in Jesus will be rich, not simply with blessings here below, but blessings above forever. Everlasting happiness we will have when our time to leave this world comes. Now, you know this, and I say it to you, not because I think you don't know it, because your faithful minister tells you these things regularly, I know. But let us just remind ourselves as we think of the communion table and the sufferings of Jesus, let us just think, my dear friends, how little you and I deserve this riches of love. Oh, what a price he paid to give us salvation. And how wonderful that salvation will be when we come into the fullness of it. It begins, of course, here. But the fullness of it is up there in the glory with God the Father. That was a wonderful thing Jesus told us we had yesterday. Blessed are they who are poor in spirit and meek and humble They will see God. And that's the happiness that you as a Christian, if you were a true Christian, will have. When you leave this world, you will see God throughout all the endless ages of eternity. You didn't deserve that, did you? Nor did I. And we can't buy that for money, can we? You could be a multimillionaire, but you can't buy your way into glory. This is the happiness that Jesus has paid for us. So dear friends, let's see how amazing this love is. He has cleared us of all our debt. God reckons no sin or guilt to anyone who puts his or her trust in Jesus. Oh, how does that come about? The answer is Jesus in his love paid the price for my sins. I deserve to be cast into hell fire but in his love and grace he paid the price for all my sins. Yesterday's sins, today's sins, tomorrow's sins. So whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Dear friends, that's why he instituted the Lord's Supper. It's that from time to time, on a regular basis, we should remind ourselves of what a debt we owe to him. It's true, we cannot put right what sinners did to him when he was on the cross, but he doesn't need that. On the third day, with his own power, he raised his human body, his human nature, from the dead. And as the time went by, the days went by, he ascended up in high and sits at the right hand of God. He did all that himself with his own divine nature. The resurrection and the second coming, when he will appear in the clouds of heaven. What a day that will be, won't it? People will be going about their business, some rushing to the public house to have another drink, some going off to spend money Gamble and see if they can get more money with their gambling. And people will be absolutely thoughtless of God or of Christ. But all of a sudden, when Jesus comes, they will see him in the clouds of glory with all his angels and the sound of a trumpet. And they will say, what's that noise? The trumpet will sound. The dead will be raised. Christ will come down. Heaven and Earth will pass away. He'll burn it all up, as you burn something which is rubbish. He'll burn this ruined universe, his fire. And he will summon us all into his presence. Some on the right hand, some on the left hand. And those on the right hand he will receive into glory and make them rich, rich, rich, rich, rich forever. And those on the left hand he will say, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, I never knew you. He will say that, not because he is not a person full of love, but he will say that to people who do not believe his gospel. And all who believe his gospel be they never so sinful. He will say to them all, oh come my dearly beloved people, come. and enter into the everlasting happiness of heaven, where you will be with me and with my Heavenly Father and with the Holy Spirit, with all the angels of God, with all the saints. We'll all be there happily together. You shall never want anything again. So as I close, let me make one or two brief practical lessons and applications to us. The first one surely is this. Friends, there's nothing so important as having faith in Christ. Nothing. Doesn't matter who you are, a king, a prime minister, president of the United States of America, ruler of Russia, doesn't matter who you are, nothing is anything so important as having Jesus as your saviour. Oh, my dear friends, I don't know you very well, and I'm sure that many of you, if not all, are very interested in the Gospel. My plea with you today in love is, oh, see the grace of Christ. See what love Christ has shown to sinners like you and me. And he says to us, believe in me, and I will take you to heaven. So my last point of application is this. Dear friends, let us in the light of what Jesus has done, showing love, let us show love to one another. Let us show love to those that hate us and speak nasty things to us. Let us show them love and show that we want them to come to Christ. If we have friends, let us encourage them to come to the church and hear this faithful minister preaching the truth. Knock on a few doors round about where you live. And have a go at saying, you know, if you come with me to church on Sunday, I'll make you a nice dinner and you can come to church. And we'd love to have you listen to this dear man who is a preacher in our church because he tells the truth. There are plenty of preachers and they don't tell the truth. They don't tell you that you're a wicked sinner deserving hellfire. And then they don't tell you that Jesus is the only one who can save you from your sin. So as I close, my dearly beloved friends, let's learn this text off by heart. Let's think about it. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you might be made rich through his suffering. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable grace. Let us pray. O blessed Heavenly Father, what love it was that Thou didst not spare Thine own Son, but didst deliver Him up for us all. And we wish, O Lord, to give our hearts to Thee this day, and as we think of His blood that was shed and His body broken in the wine of the Lord's Supper, And in the bread of the Lord's Supper, we pray, Lord, for grace to give ourselves afresh today with adoration and thankfulness. Oh, be with us then, and make this sacrament truly to be one who changes our life. Hear our prayer, we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now, we're due to sing. Sorry, Psalm 69, verse 30. My mistake, I mislaid the piece of paper. 69, verse 30. So let us sing at that point then. I'll read a few verses here, 69. from verse 30. The name of God I with a song most cheerfully will praise, and I in giving thanks to him his name shall highly raise. This to the Lord a sacrifice more gracious shall prove than bullock, ox, or any beast that hath both horn and hoof. So from verse 30 we shall sing, To verse 32. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. The name of God I will adore. Lord hear our prayers, and grant us eternal rest. ♪ Praise to the Lord ♪ ♪ God shall revive ♪ ♪ For gracious shall prove ♪ ♪ That hath brought forth the new ♪ ♪ When days of old have passed away ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? To seek the Lord, your heart shall never leave. We now come to that part of our service, which is commonly called the fencing of the Lord's Table. It was called this by our Reformation forefathers because they were aware that in legal terms, whenever a king held court, then it would be announced as to why the king was wanting to meet with his subjects and who should come and who was allowed to enter into court. And from that, use of the word fencing followed into the church because the wonderful news of the gospel is that the Jesus who died on the cross, there was a prophet declaring the grace of God, there is a priest offering himself, there is a king destroying the powers of darkness on the cross, that he who made himself poor is now the exalted Lord of glory. God has raised him up on high and he is today still our prophet, still our priest, and still our king. As the king of the church, he comes here today to hold court. And therefore, why is he coming to hold court here today? And who is permitted to enter into the court? Well, the scriptures tell us that he is coming to remind us of his death. As we read in 1 Corinthians 11, for as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth, proclaiming, declaring the Lord's death till he come. He would have us remember his death, and although for anyone else that would be unusual, yet in the gospel that's so central because everything revolves around the death and the resurrection of Christ in heaven. How is John, how is the Lord Jesus often thought of? Well, we think of the book of Revelation and he's the lamb, the lamb as it had been slain. And that's how he is viewed today. Never ever shall the saints forget the death of Christ. And it's as if he is saying, look, in all the affairs of the church, and in all the different truths which need to be preached, and as we are shown how to live, In this world, as followers of Christ, we must never forget the death of Christ. If you go home and read the context of the text that we had this morning that Mr. Roberts preached on, what's he talking about there, Paul? He's talking about Christian giving. We might think that's not a very spiritual subject. Well, You think of the depths of doctrine. What does he focus in? The death of Christ. Give, he says, to the Lord's cause. Why? You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich. Do you see how the death of Christ is central to so many practical things? And he knows we're liable to forget it, and therefore he says, look, I'm coming to hold court here today to remind you of my death. It's a feast, that's why we have a table, tablecloth, and we have food. He comes, you see, to feed his people. He has provided for us a feast in the wilderness. He knows that All the good things of this world can never really satisfy us and cannot really help us in and of themselves spiritually. And he's providing this feast for us in a spiritual wilderness. A simple meal, a little bread, a little wine, which focuses on himself. It's a reminder to us, I am the bread of life. that we're to find our satisfaction in Christ. We lose sight of that, don't we? Here's this reminder. So he comes to remind us of his death, to feed his people. And he comes to renew his covenant with his people. For this cup is a new testament of the new covenant in my blood, shed for many for the remission of sins. He comes. to read the peace treaty that exists between God and all those who believe in Jesus. And he is reading that peace treaty for two reasons. First of all, to remind us that he has pledged to be loyal to it and that God will do all he has said he has done. And that's a great comfort to us. And the second reason is that we might pledge anew our loyalty to him. He comes to remind us, I will continue to be your prophet, priest, and king. Do not worry, keep on trusting in me and following me. and he's encouraging us to sign it again and say, yes, I take Christ to be my all in all. And we eat and we drink worthily when we seek to do these things. Well, for whom then does he come to hold court? Who does he intend meeting with today? He doesn't come to meet with everyone. It's only those who are true subjects of the king. Especially, we might single out just one description of them that we were given last night, which would tie in with the words of our text. He comes to meet with those who are poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Why did Jesus die? It was to enrich those who were poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is theirs, not shall be. So that is partly of what he has included. But he's saying, actually to them, they are members of the kingdom of heaven. They are members of the kingdom of heaven, as it is seen on earth in the visible church. Whether you are one who is poor in spirit, the Lord's table is only for such, but for all such who are poor in spirit. He's not referring to financial poverty. Rich and poor form the church. He's not referring to spiritual poverty because the reality is we are all spiritually poor. He's not talking about those who are poor spirited or who have a lack of self-esteem, rather they are those who are poor in spirit. Are you humble? It's an attitude of humility. When you come before God, you come as a beggar before him, aware that you have no rights, as was said already, that you're only a hell-deserving sinner, not worthy of the least of the mercies of God. And you rejoice when you hear of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. the one who came to deal with sin. It's for those who have that true humility. And so it's the opposite of self-righteousness. The true believer is someone who is crushed by sin, brokenhearted. He has a broken and a contrite heart. He knows he has no rights of his own. and he submits to Christ and rejoices in what he has done. Even as a believer, he doesn't complain about God's dealings with him. Because he knows that really, he deserves nothing. He deserves nothing but condemnation. Dear believer, don't you often marvel that the Lord doesn't reject you when you think of your own inconsistency? You know you've got no rights. And if the Lord was to chasten us as we deserve, then where would we be? It's the opposite of self-confidence. The poor in spirit know they're weak, but they're relying on another. They know without me, ye can do nothing. It's for those who look to the Lord for strength, for direction and guidance. It's for those who find in the word of God, that which satisfies and strengthens their soul, increases their faith because they don't have any strength in themselves. And to find God's word, a light to their path. They listen to the voice of the king and his directions. That's who he meets with. So it's the opposite of that pushiness that's so prevalent today, that obsession with self-image and self-esteem that is destroying our nation. Do you desire God to be glorified? Is that the one who matters most? That's a believer. He's pure in spirit. He's not obsessed about himself and who he is and what he has. It is, in everything may God be glorified. He humbly worships. He adores the king. If you and I were invited to be in the presence of the king, then There would be something wrong if we're trying to upstage him the way we were appearing. How much more the king of kings. He must increase, I must decrease. It's for those who glory in the king. Well, it's for the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. and the King of heaven is coming to meet with his subjects today, to help us on in life, to give us a foretaste of heaven. All such, but only such, are welcomed at his table and his court. Now we see some of the differences in the Beatitudes. They were read to us last night, so we shall also read in Galatians 5 and at verse 16. Galatians 5, verse 16. There we find Christ by his apostle giving a distinction. He's talking about the battle that is in the life of God's people and the distinction between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Galatians 5 verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit. and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these. adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envians, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that he which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 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 vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another. Amen, and may God bless his word to us. Now we shall sing to God's praise from Psalm 118. Psalm 118. Now the elements have already been placed on the table, and so we shall sing from verse 19. From verse 19, Psalm 118 verse 19, And while we are singing, if the communicants would take their places round the table, just filling up round either side. Psalm 118 at verse 19. 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. Nay, will I praise, for thou me hast my safety been. Now we shall sing as the communicants come forward and take their place at the table, and we shall continue singing until all are at the table. From verse 19, to God's praise. Send unto me the gates of righteousness. Then will I enter it. the Lord will bless. This is the gate of God by which the just shall enter in. Thee will I praise for all we have, and ask my safety, please. That story is made, that gardener's story, which builders did despise. This is the new way. And we're warned of the administration of the Lord's Supper. I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you, the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed to pray. When he had given thanks, he prayed it, and said, Take these. This is my body, which is broken for you. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had stopped saying, This cup is a good 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 to be come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord and work of it, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. But he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, he that drinketh damnation to himself, not deserving the Lord's body. For this cause many are weakened sickly among you, and many sleep. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, and we should not be condemned with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to me, tally one for another. If any man hunger, let him eat at full. If ye come not together unto condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come. Amen. We believe that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed to pray, when he had given thanks, he prayed that. O Lord our God, we come to Thee, and we rejoice that Thou art King and Lord of all, that the One who was crucified is our Highly Exalted, the Christ, the Mediator, but as the one who is King of kings and Lord of lords, enthroned at thy right hand. And all we thank thee that he comes to meet his people, and we pray that he would be amongst us today. For he is one who has received gifts for men, even for such as were rebellious, yet even for them, that God the Lord, in the midst of them, Lord, what amazing words, that thou should dwell with those and meet with those who are worms of the dust and sinful legs. We thank thee that thou, that the Lord Jesus was prepared to be treated as a worm and no man, and to suffer the curse of the law on the cross for who have held deserving sinners. This is thy gift, O God, even Jesus Christ, and we bless thee through him. We have peace with God, we have access, and that he comes to meet with us today. Grand Lord, that thou wouldst be amongst us, that thou wouldst bless us as individuals, that thou wouldst unite us together in the bonds of the gospel, as together we wrinkle that one cup and share in that one brain, reminding us that our faith is in the same Lord, and that, being seated together, we are brethren of our Lord, and brethren with one another. Increase our love to Thee, increase our love to one another, and grant us Thy peace. So be amongst us, that we may be enabled to sing. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was the law. He asked then that thou wouldst bless the worship, that thou wouldst bless the ordinance of the Lord's supper, that even as we set aside that which is used from a common to a sacred use, that it would be to us by faith Even with a broken body and shed blood as the Lord, we know that it is but bread and wine that we receive through the elements, and our fellowship will be by faith. Oh, be amongst us, sit at thy table, be at the head of the table, The Lord Jesus Christ, in his ordinance, offers himself and you to us. And as he offers himself to us, he says, please, get ready and therefore take me to him. And as we receive him, what do we say? Well, surely we can say this, my beloved is mine. My beloved, have you not come into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? Why do you love Him? Well, you love Him because He first loved you, He gave His life for you, and He threw you to Himself. And He comes here today to remind you of that love. For as a banner over the field, His banner over you. My beloved is my life, He is mine, He is all mine, I possess Him. The Father has given Christ to be your Savior and drawn you to Him. Or we might put it this way, Christ has betrothed Himself to be yours, He has given Himself He is mine. The wife will save her darling husband. My husband. He is mine. And these two become one flesh. And so are those who take counsel in this way. My beloved. He is mine. And he has given us this ordinance to assure us and to comfort us in the knowledge of that fact. You might not be feeling that at this present time, but it's good to remember it's true, even when you might feel your own coldness of deathness. See what he shares with us. We've heard a bit of that already, of how he has come to enrich you. My beloved is mine. He's not his life, your life. You might feel a decadence in your soul, but remember, Christ is our one. He is our one. What's he doing? We're offering him a strength and reminding us, I am your strength. As food, strengthen your body. So we say, I strengthen your soul. He's ours. That means his righteousness is ours. Perhaps you're here today and you're feeling your own sin and corruption, and therefore your own unworthiness. It does no harm to feel these things, it's good for us. But on the other hand, let us remember, this righteousness is ours. And so being justified by faith in the peace of God, there is no condemnation. He comes to share the sanctifying grace with us. He's begun that work already in drawing you to himself, having renewed you. Yes, it's a great way to go. But he's saying here, look, I'll give you that sanctifying grace. I'll enable you to grow in grace. Grow out of my fullness. All that I have. He promises us a spirit, a spirit of Christ, sent in His name. He sends Him into our heart and ministers to us, to give guidance, to give help. He's saying, look out, you're here. I will help you. I will be with you. And He shares His names and orders. There's nothing he doesn't share with his people. He should dare shame them. But now Christ calls us his brethren. He calls us sons of God. He's promised us the hope of heaven. And indeed he's pledging it. This inheritance I have isn't just for me. We are joined in him. father's house to look forward to. Indeed, what we have in our forties, as we sit round the table today, we think the day is coming when we shall unendingly sit around the three bars of this house. Let us therefore say, he is mine, and remember, always. We will eat the Lord Jesus, the night in which he was betrayed to death. And when he had broken it, he said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this food and members of you. This cup is a new testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show forth the Lord's name till ye talk. My beloved is mine, and I am his. How should we respond to the grace of Christ? The one who is rich, for our sakes became poor that we, through this poverty, might become rich. Well, he's mine. How should we respond? give ourselves to Him. That is what we are pledged to do. We have renewed our covenant vows, our salvation vows. We have embraced that covenant of grace, that peace we've seen. Yes, that's my only goal. Is to pledge ourselves and you to behold Christ. And you can't divide Christ. You either have or you don't. There must be a whole Christ. So, we're not to be divided either. Let us rise from the cave and resolve to be wholly His. Is His life my life? Well, let my life be lived for Him. Let us go forth with that determination. I want to live for Christ. Whatever I'm doing, I want to do it for Him, to give glory to God through Jesus Christ. I'm no longer my own, and what I have is no longer my own. It's all Christ's. and let us give all the gifts back to Him. My possessions and gifts consecrated to Him in His service. My gifts come from Him. The talents I have, Lord, get me to use them for the needy. For the needy do it. And if you can say, I am this, you know even your joys are this. Your joys are even this. Because He rejoices in the joy of His people. On your age, rejoice in Him. He makes them happy. He feeds on the rivers and affections the soul of the cross to others people. and isn't as assured as the desires of good. And whatever happens as we go on, there might be difficulties and trials, who knows what the future holds. But give some joy to see us spiritually fruitful and to bless us. And let us not forget that. Well, it's a privilege to have Christ as our Lord. Let us rise from the people, pledging to be more and more as my beloved is mine and thine is. While let us rise from the people, we shall sing of the God's praise in Psalm 103. Psalm 103, we'll sing verses 1 to 5. Thou my soul, blessed art the Lord, God alone has bestirred up His Holy Name to magnify and bless. Let no man sold the Lord thy God, and not forgetful be of all His gracious benefits which hath bestowed on thee. To thou, my soul, bless God and Lord, and all that in me is. Peace evermore His holy name to magnify and bless. Bless all God and not forgetful be. His gracious benefits, He hath bestowed on thee. O thine iniquities, O thou most great. ♪ Justly forgiv'n ♪ ♪ Good tidings each day ♪ ♪ Hope and grace ♪ ♪ God feel at thee ♪ we we Who doth redeem thy life, that thou to death mayst not go down? Who thee with lovingkindness doth attend. ♪ Who with the abundance of good things ♪ ♪ Doth satisfy thy mouth ♪ Let us pray. O Lord our God, we draw near to Thee and thank Thee for all Thy mercies. We bless Thee that Thy people here were enabled to gather round Thy table. We pray that Thou wouldst follow with Thy blessing their profession of Thee and that Thou in deeds would continue to bless word and ordinance to each one. We thank thee for thy grace, in humbling thyself so low, that thou mightest highly exalt thy people. For this is the blessing that thy people have. Even now they are seated with Christ in heavenly places, and the day is coming when they shall physically be there. O Lord, what a wonderful hope thou hast given thy people. We thank thee that Christ was forsaken, that his people might never be forsaken. As we go from this place, may we go as all to continue to feed upon thee the bread of life, and may we have sweet fellowship with one another and with thee, and meditate upon thy grace. So part us with thy blessing, we pray. Gather us again in the evening to call upon thy name. Oh, bless us and do us good. Remember those who are not at thy table, for they yet come when they are amongst thy people.