I hope that today it is well with your soul indeed so Today we're gonna just be looking at various verses as it's communion Sunday, so I'm glad you guys are here for communion Sunday, and I hope it's a blessing to you as you guys are always a blessing to me and I Yeah, it's just a blessing. That song, It Is Well With My Soul, I would encourage you all to look at the background on that song. It's pretty fascinating when he wrote that song. I can't talk about it without crying, so we're not going to talk about it. So let's go ahead and pray, and then we'll start. Father, thank you again that we can come into your presence, Father, because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Father, I thank you that we all as your children can come and celebrate the Lord's Supper today because of what your son has done and we can look forward to one day celebrating it with him when we will see him face to face and our faith will no longer Be blind, but we will see and our faith will be with sight Father until that day may you continue to grow us and nurture us and give us Which we truly need which is more of your son. So today father. I just pray that Our hearts would be right before you I pray lord that you would be glorified in the preaching of your word I ask father that your spirit would come and help me Accompany the preaching of your word that your spirit would come and Convict us where we need to be convicted encourage us where we need to be convicted or encouraged Lord and lift us Lift us up that we would see Christ in a glorious way today Thank you father. We ask it in your name. Amen So worthy of worship The word worship comes from an old English word that means worthiness. Therefore, worship means to make known the worthiness of someone or something. So the Catholic Church, they worship relics that they will have. For example, they'll have a piece of the cross, which is worship, which they bring out and people bow down to. And it might not even be a piece of the cross. But they say that it is. It's a relic. They also have supposedly fragments of the bones of Peter and Paul. They have the crown of thorns, which we don't know if it's the original crown of thorns. But these are some things that are worshipped, relics that are worshipped. And we all have them in our lives. We have things that we worship in our lives. It could be our spouse. It could be our job. It could be our bank accounts. There's those things that we do worship. It could just be us. We worship ourselves. We believe we are the ones who are worthy enough to be worshiped. But the truth is, is that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are the only ones that deserve our full worship. They are the only ones who are truly worthy of our worship. They are the ones who have the most worth Henry Schugel, in a quote that I've quoted many times, says, the worth and excellency of a soul is measured by the object of its affections. What is it that you find the most worth in is the value you put on your soul, is what he's saying. So where are you today? Where am I today? Why do we come here today to worship? Is it just out of duty that this is what we're supposed to do, because the Bible says we're not to forsake the gathering with one another? So that's why I'm here, because I don't want to disappoint God today? Or are you here because your heart is truly in love with your Savior? That you're captivated by His glory, by His excellency, by His holiness, by His sacrifice. And that's why you're here. Only you can answer that question. I can't answer that for you. But answer that. Why are you here? Are you here to truly worship Him who is worthy? So let's take a few points and just look at what He is worthy for. Why He is worthy of worship? First of all, Jesus is worthy of worship, the Father is worthy of worship, the Triune God is worthy of worship, because Jesus makes the Father approachable. He makes the Father approachable. You and I have to remember that in the Old Testament, when we read the Old Testament, God was not approachable. You cannot just go into the Holy of Holies. Only one person could go into the Holy of Holies. And that was the high priest on the day of atonement. And he had to make sure that he was cleansed, that he went through papal cleansing, that he had given atonement or he had given sacrifice for his sin before he went in. So only one person was approachable to the Holy of Holies, and that was only on one day of the week or the year. But Jesus has made the Father approachable. But Timothy tells us that God dwells in unapproachable light. Listen to 1 Timothy 6, 16. Who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion, amen. So being sinful people, we had no way to God. He simply was unapproachable. But the cross of Jesus Christ makes God approachable. Jesus has made that way open and clear because what has he done? He has torn the veil from top to bottom. There's no more veil. There's no more curtain. We enter in to the throne room through Jesus and his sacrifice. The writer of the Hebrews letter says it very well when he says in Hebrews 10, 19 and 20, therefore brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. So we come into the presence of God by the work of Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 10.22 puts it this way, let us draw near, draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled, clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Again, in Hebrews 4.16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. Is that your attitude? Is your attitude with confidence when you come into the throne of grace because of the work of Jesus Christ? This is what we come to celebrate today. We come to celebrate his sacrifice on the cross for us so that now you and I can enter into that throne room with confidence that God is going to hear us because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We find that grace in the nick of time, in time of need. This is why we enter in confidently. Jesus tells us in John 14, 6, when he claims, he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. The only way that God is approachable is if we go through Jesus Christ. He's the only way to him. Jesus is the only way. Otherwise, we have no access. Stephen Lawson puts it this way. Listen to what he says. He says, by his death, Jesus removed the otherwise insurmountable barrier of the penalty of our sins. For all time, he took our sins out of the way that have previously prohibited our access to God. He opened up the one and only entrance to the Father. This previously unapproachable God is now approachable through the merit of Jesus Christ." So it's not by our works that we enter in, but it's by Jesus' work that we enter in to God's presence. Secondly, Jesus makes the Father knowable. He makes the Father knowable. Our Christian walk is not rooted in relics or rituals. It's not rooted in routines. It's rooted in a living relationship with God. It's to know God is to then have knowledge of God, a knowledge that is not merely in our minds, but it's in our heart also. Because we can have knowledge of God up here all we want. We can read the Bible and have that knowledge up here all we want, but has the Holy Spirit transferred it down to our hearts? This is where we have this true knowledge of who God is. And we get that true knowledge because it's an intimate knowledge because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. When the Holy Spirit came and He falls on us, He dwells in us now. He takes His abode up in us. He makes us His home. This is why we have this knowledge of God, and it's just not any certain kind of knowledge. Peter tells us this in 2 Peter 3.18, But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. We are to grow in this knowledge. We can't sit there and say, well, you know what? I've read it. I got it. Don't need to read it anymore. You know, preacher, you don't need to preach to me. I've read the Bible. We grow, we're constantly growing, right? The Lord is constantly feeding us his word, so we constantly grow in him, in his grace, in his mercy, in his wisdom. This is where we are to grow even more and more. Jesus tells us in the book of John that to know God is to have eternal life. John 17, three, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Jeremiah says that knowing God is our primary boast. What do you boast in? What do we boast in? Do we boast in that I'm a believer, that I know God, that I know Jesus, or do we boast in our abilities to do things? Or do we boast in our knowledge of the Bible? How about that? Well, I'm a theologian. I'm a theolog. You know, do we boast in that? Oh, well, I have, you know, 147 verses memorized. What do we boast in? Jeremiah tells us that our boast should be in knowing God. Listen to Jeremiah 9, 23 and 24. Thus says the Lord, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me. That I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, declares the Lord. But how do we boast in the Lord? Well, because Jesus has revealed Him to us. Listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 11, 27. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Jesus is the one who reveals God the Father to us, to our hearts, to our minds. so that we can grasp, a little bit we can grasp of Him. We have to remember that God is infinite in His being, so we can't grasp fully who He is. And so all of His attributes are infinite because He's infinite. We can't grasp infinite love, or infinite mercy, or infinite compassion, because all of ours is not infinite. It's finite. Our love for each other, finite. Our mercy for each other, finite. Our holiness is finite, but God's is infinite. But if we want a picture of who God the Father is, we need to read the Gospels, because Jesus puts the Father on display. He tells Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the father. Jesus puts him on glorious display of who the father is. He is the one who reveals that knowledge of who he is. Paul tells us that that knowledge for him was life-changing. It's what he sought after. He sought after this knowing Jesus more, knowing the Father more. We read in Philippians 3, eight through 10. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. This word rubbish means dung, means manure. That's what it means. Have you ever been around cows and they got manure or dung? This is what it means. Paul says that knowing Jesus surpasses all things. Everything else in comparison to knowing Jesus is dung. It's garbage. It's refuse. The only thing worth knowing is Him. And he continues when he says, And be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through the faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith, that I may know Him. and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." Are you and I willing to suffer as Paul suffered to know Christ better? Are we going to be able to say, as Paul says in Galatians, that I bear the brand marks of Jesus on my body? Could you imagine the scars he had? Beaten, whipped, stoned. He bears the brand marks, that branding like we brand a cow with our seal. This is what Paul's saying. I'm branded with the marks of Jesus. I suffer for his sake. Why? So I can know him better and know the power of his resurrection. That is a question we all have to ask ourselves. Are we willing to suffer like that that we would know Christ that much better? Brothers and sisters, I tell you this, when we know Christ like that, we will gladly suffer for him because we have that knowledge of him. Thirdly, they are worthy of worship because Jesus shows us what true worship of God is like, how we truly worship God. In Romans 12, one, it says this, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. So what happens in this context is Paul takes Romans one and through 11. And he shows us all these great things that Jesus has done. How he has redeemed us, how he has reconciled us, how he has propitiated God's wrath, how he has appeased God's wrath for us. He's the satisfaction for God's wrath. He shows us that we are justified by faith. He shows us our sanctification in Jesus Christ, our adoption in Christ, our election in Jesus Christ. He shows us all these great things that Jesus has accomplished on the cross. And he says, what is reasonable for you and I to do now is to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. Just reasonable. Not out of the ordinary. Don't want you to take a step above, but this is just reasonable because of everything He has done. This is true worship of Jesus Christ. When we present ourselves as a living sacrifice to Him. This is true worship of Christ. And this true worship is through the Spirit of God. Philippians 3 3 the Holy Spirit for we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and Glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh This is true worship brothers and sisters when we glory in Jesus Christ when our delight is in Jesus Christ when we look at the cross when we look at the communion table and we see the body given for us and the blood that was spilt for us glory in this brothers and sisters find joy in this because this is what Jesus has done for you and true worship demands all of our affections It demands all of our affections. Deuteronomy 6.5 says this, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Jesus reiterates what Deuteronomy says in Matthew 22.37 when he says, And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. Luke puts it this way, and he answered, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. You notice the alls. All your heart. We're to worship God when we come here with all of our heart. This is the seat of our emotions. All of our joy. Should we direct it towards Him? Our affections, our desires, or do we come and do we sit here and say, okay, I got a half hour and then I'm gonna go do all of this other stuff that captivates my heart? Or for a half hour, brothers and sisters, can we come and can we sit and give God all of our heart? all of our affections, all of our emotions, all of our desires. Can we desire Him for a half hour? We would think that would be possible, right? But we cannot love the Lord our God with all of our heart for one minute. because we're sinful people. But the thing is, is Jesus did love God with all of his heart, all of the time. His desires were always to do the Father's will. How about our mind? With all of our mind, with all of our intellect, are we in tune every time we're singing the songs? Is our mind triggered by the songs that we sing? Oh, precious is the flow. Do we really grasp that in our minds? Our intellect is engaged. Our understanding of the word is engaged because our heart is engaged. This is true worship. When our heart is engaged, our mind will be engaged. And then we will have strength to worship God. This might, this power, this ability. He gives us this ability through the Holy Spirit to truly worship who He is, to see His glory, to see His excellency, to see His majesty, and to sing of those things. True worship praises God for the victory through Jesus Christ. Do we come here knowing that He is our victor? He is the one who's won the battle. Yeah, sure, we still battle sin. We're gonna battle it all the time, right? But Jesus has taken away on the cross, he's taken away the penalty of sin to where we are no longer condemned. He's taken away the punishment of sin, but he hasn't taken away the presence of sin, right? We're still in the presence of sin. That's what makes heaven heaven. There's no presence of sin. Sin is gone. But Jesus, on the cross, he has taken all of our sin. If you're a believer here today, he has taken all of your sin, past, present, and future. And he has done away with it. He has satisfied God's righteous anger for your sin. And this should engage our hearts to worship him. Listen to 2 Corinthians 2.14. But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. And through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. Right? But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession. Through Christ. Because Christ is the one who is conquered. He is the one who is the victor. Colossians 2.15. Speaking of Jesus. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. He put them to shame, the authorities, the rulers, by triumphing over them in Christ Jesus. You see, on the cross, Satan thought that he had Jesus on the cross. But what Satan didn't realize was that was his defeat at the cross. This is how Jesus wins the battle, is he dies for sin, and he is raised for our justification. The battle is won. And not only do we truly worship God here, but there's gonna be true worship in heaven. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what the worship is gonna be like in heaven, when it's every tribe, every nation, every tongue, and we're all in one accord, and we can worship God with all of our mind, and all of our heart, and all of our strength, and all of our soul? This is what worship will really be like in heaven. It'll be pure, it'll be undefiled. It'll be all these. Listen to Revelation 4.11. He says, "...worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." This is what we will be saying when we worship God, that He is worthy. Worthy of all of our praise. He's deserving of all of our praise. He's deserving of all of our worship. Because why? Because He has created. Because all things exist for Him. This is why we'll be there. We will ascribe to Him glory and honor and power. We should practice that now. So then when we do get to heaven, we got a little edge on everything. Right? Do we do that? Does your heart do that when we come to worship? Is he really worthy of worship for you? This is a question we have to ask. Does he command your heart? Revelations 5, 9 through 12 says this way, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, language, and people, and nations. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. We come to celebrate this today because we look at the table, and we see the cup we take, and the bread that we take, and we are to sit there and say, what? Worthy is the Lamb who was slain for you and I. He is our substitute. So brothers and sisters, we have to understand this. One, the more you and I grow in our relationship to God, the more we will behold his glory and excellence. The more we grow, the more we see how beautiful he is. Do you know what our problem is a lot of times? Our problem is we've got this really precious jewel of who Jesus is, right? He's this pearl that the guy found and he sold all of his land so that he would have this pearl. He's this precious, precious jewel. But what happens is we have people that come along that are Christians, that bring hurt and they bring sorrow to other believers. We have pastors that hurt people, that are self-righteous in their own ways. And so what they do is they take Jesus and they put all the dung over that precious jewel. And so all the people see that are hurt, they don't see the preciousness of Jesus. They see all the hurt, but when we wipe away all the hurt and all the garbage, we see that precious jewel of Jesus. This is what happens when we grow in that relationship with Jesus. We start to put all the miry muck off to the side and we see the glory and the beauty of who he is. Secondly, the more you and I grow in our relationship, the more we behold his worthiness. The more our hearts are changed and we come here with the right perspective. We come here with a heart that is fully engaged in who Jesus Christ is and what He wants from me. We truly come before Him and we bow the knee because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And finally, the more we grow in our relationship, our heart's cry would be the same as the cry of Moses. Show me your glory. That will be our heart's cry.