A reading for this evening is from Psalm 22 and we're looking forward of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, which is spoken by David, King David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest and the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in thee, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were not confounded. But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. But thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's belly. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. Many bulls have come past me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening 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 in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a pot shred, and my tongue cleavers to my jaws, and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell. all my bones. They look and stare upon me. They parted my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. But be not far from me, O Lord. O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword, my darling, from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him. All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him. And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted. Neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation, and I will pay my vows before them that fear him. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that seek him. Your heart shall live forever. All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord's, and he is the governor among the nations. All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship. All they that go down to the dust shall bow before him, and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this." So far the reading of God's precious word. The Lord's Supper is a celebration of the death of the Lord Jesus. It is a commemoration of what he has done. John Willison in one of his books writes, What glory to my dear Saviour, that he seeks no greater return for all the labours of his love than a thankful remembrance of it at his table. O shall I grudge to give such a small return to him who suffered the pains of death and hell for me? And that's a beautiful thought. We heard this morning, as Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper in Luke 22, this do in remembrance of me. If you contrast what He did and what He asks us to do, to remember it, thankfully and joyfully and humbly to re-meditate on the journeys of his sufferings and of his death. So that is what God's command is in regard to his sufferings and death, to remember it when we partake in the Lord's Supper. I'd like to read with you the remaining Lord's Day questions that we didn't read this morning around the Lord's Supper. So if you turn with me to the Heidelberg Catechism, we've read questions 75 to 77, so let's read 78, 79 and 80 this evening. 78 of course deals with the error of transubstantiation that was prevalent in the Roman Catholic Church, and answers that. Do then the bread and wine become the real, the very, the real body and blood of Jesus Christ? And the answer is not at all. But as the water in baptism is not changed into the blood of Christ, neither is the washing away of sin itself, being only the sign and the confirmation thereof appointed of God, so the bread in the Lord's supper is not changed into the very body of Christ, though agreeably to the nature and the properties of the sacraments, it is called the body of Jesus Christ. It is a holy sign and seal. It is a holy sign and seal. Even though it is common bread and a common wine, because of the sacramental dedication or consecration, it is holy. But it is still bread and it is still wine. Now that error is not really alive in our midst, so I don't presume I need to say more about that. Let's go to 79. Why then does Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood? Or the new covenant in his blood? And why does Paul call it the communion of the body and the blood of Christ? Christ speaks thus not without great reason. namely not only thereby to teach us that as bread and wine support this temporal life, so, in comparison, so his crucified body and his shed blood are the true meat and doctrine and drink whereby our souls are fed to eternal life. But more especially, by these visible signs and pledges to assure us that We are as really partakers of his true body and blood by the operation of the Holy Ghost as we receive by the mouth of our bodies these holy signs in remembrance of him. And that all his sufferings and his obedience are as certainly ours. as if we had in our own persons suffered and made satisfaction for our sins to God. It's a beautiful symbolism. As I eat a piece of bread, it becomes mine in my body. Every part of that becomes mine as I eat it. And so, as I believe in the Lord Jesus, everything He does and did becomes the believer. And that's symbolized as we eat and drink and therefore it's called the communion. Now question 80 deals with the difference between the Lord's Supper and the Pope's Mass. Apparently a question that John Calvin desired that they should include it as he reviewed the Catechism after it was finished. He says, you better write a question on that. And it is very full of instruction even though We again perhaps don't have as much relevancy of that. The teaching of it is beautiful. Let's read it. The Lord's Supper testifies to us, believers, that we have a full pardon of all sin by the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ. nothing else but except his sacrifice, which he himself has once accomplished on the cross, and that we by the Holy Ghost are engrafted into Christ, who according to his human nature is now not on earth, but in heaven at the right hand of God his Father, and will there be worshipped by us. But the Mass teaches that the living and the dead have not the pardon of sins through the sufferings of Christ unless Christ is also daily offered for them by the priest. And further, that Christ is bodily under the form of bread and wine and therefore is to be worshipped in them. They worship the little wafer and the wine. so that the Mass at bottom is nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus Christ and rightly an accursed idolatry. Our forefathers were quite strong that we should never attend a Mass because it is an accursed idolatry and I would certainly like to recommend that same view even though This is a terrible error that keeps the Roman Catholic Church in the grip of darkness. As if Jesus' sacrifice on the cross is not enough. We need to re-offer Him in every Mass. That is a denial of the heart of the Gospel. And you can see why John Calvin having been bred in that church, having been delivered from it. So this is very important for us to keep reminding our churches about why we have left or are separate from that church. Now this evening, let us recall from this morning that Jesus commanded his disciples to remember him in the partaking of the Lord's Supper. We have tried to address the question this morning, who are commanded to partake? Now I repeat that, commanded to partake are all believers. They are commanded to use the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to the strengthening of their faith. Having dealt with that this morning, let us now look at the second and the third aspect. What are they to remember as they partake? And in some that is Him and His death, as I will bring out from the catechism as well as from the scriptures. And why has He commanded this? Because through the remembering, the Holy Spirit feeds and nourishes the faith. And that aids God's children to fight the good warfare. So what are we as believers to remember as we partake at the Lord's Supper table? You know what is so beautiful, congregation, about this catechism? It's so simplistic and so wonderfully biblical. There's a lot of mysticism around the Lord's Supper. But this catechism is not at all going that direction. It's dealing very biblically and very simply what are the people of God to do at the table. And they are to recall, to remember. It's an act of we are to recall together the journey, the work of the Lord Jesus. So, as we sit at that table, and as we may use it, we are to remember two things. First, what He has done for our salvation, and secondly, what He has accomplished by what He has done. And as we remember this, and eat and drink, as it were, the teachings of this, what He has done, we will be strengthened, according to His promise. in the faith. Now what has Jesus done? There are two things he has done and that we are to remember. We are to remember, and our forefathers often strongly suggested, as it were in your mind, begin with his journey in heaven and follow him in his journey through earth to the cross to heaven again. So let's remember tonight, let's now for a moment this evening, what did he do? He assumed our flesh and blood to take the place of his people. There is no greater stoop that God could make than to assume a body with flesh and blood, to become bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. And no scripture describes it better than what Paul does in Philippians chapter 2. Though Jesus is the Son of God and though he didn't have to again do any robbery to claim the title Son of God, yet, let this mind be in you, he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man, and being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. It wasn't too much, children of God, for your Lord and Savior to leave His Father's house and to leave the joy of the company of Father and angels. It was not too much for Him. to exchange that with the place on this earth in all kinds of poverty and suffering and rejection and pain throughout his entire journey. And Jesus wants us never to forget that. Remember, how I assumed your body and your blood as it were, your flesh and bones and your human nature, How I left my father's house and roped myself with the rags of a human nature, I was made in the likeness of Sinho Phlegm, the Son of God." He says, don't forget what I did for you. Nothing was too poor and too low for Him. To be born of poor parents, to grow up in the back country of Nazareth, to work for 30 years as a carpenter. Sweaty, hot, whatever we experience, it's been there. But he's the son of God. And Jesus says, don't forget what I did in order to bring salvation to you. I, the King of Glory, became a servant, the lowest. It wasn't too despicable for Him to take such a form of a servant and to be despised and to be rejected, to be no good. And every man spoke evil of Him. And He took it. How lovely is that Saviour. And Jesus says, remember, don't forget, call it back to your memory, what I did as I journeyed. The second thing that he did, he accepted God's holy wrath for every sin we did. People of God, as we are remembering what he did, remember that he did that in order to atone for every sin you've done, originally and actually. That's the great heart of the comfort, isn't it? Comfort ye my people, comfort ye my people, sayeth the Lord, and tell my people that their iniquity is pardoned, and that their bills are paid, and that everything is taken care of. And how? Remember how I need to suffer for that. Our master, children of God, wants us to remember that that cost him his life. does not want us to forget that it was a costly sacrifice. He accepted God's holy wrath for every sin we did, and God's wrath is as real as His love, as holy, as perfect, as intense. Though Jesus was sinless, Though he was not burdened with Adam's covenant breach, he accepted and bore, as our catechism says elsewhere, the full wrath of God that he had against the sin of mankind. And that was heavy. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? As we read Psalm 22 tonight, we get a little window inside the shepherd's heart. And what a pain, and what a suffering he describes there, in words that are pictured before us. The mockery, the rejection, the pain. I am no man, he says finally, I am like a worm and no man. cast off from God. Remember that every stroke of suffering was because of God's wrath for the sin He never did. And so when we eat of this bread and this wine, He wants us to recall and to remember the sins that you did I suffered for, I paid for, I laid my life down for. It is this what Jesus wants us to focus on when we are partaking of the Lord's Supper. He never lifted his heart to vanity. You did. He never spoke an ill word. You did. He never fought his younger siblings or classmates or fellow man. We do. He never broke his word, never spoke a lie, and yet he felt God's holy wrath in such intensity that he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken? Dear congregation, ponder about the intensity of this revelation. God forsook Jesus, though he was his dearest, his only child. because His holiness is real, His justice is real, His wrath is real, His love is also real. All those merge together in that cross, the centerpiece of God's revelation, the cross of Jesus. Let's remember, He suffered as He walked, He suffered as He talked, He suffered when he slept. He suffered when he was in company. He suffered when he was alone. He suffered when he faced a tempter. He suffered when no place was there to lay his head. And remember, every moment of his life is characterized by suffering. We never read Jesus left. We don't need to know what he actually did, but the Holy Spirit has not told us he did. Why? Because this man is the man of sorrows. From the moment he entered, till the moment he expired on the cross. And he said, now don't forget what I did for you. It is the suffering of Jesus that needs to be continually in the mind of God's church. To encourage him, to comfort, but also to stimulate us. Paul says, the life I live now today, I don't live by any other motivation than I know that Jesus so loved me and gave himself for me and died for me. That's what motivates me to live as I did. Remember the suffering of him and finally the full revelation of God's wrath was set before him in that last cup that he saw in Gethsemane before him. And remember how he struggled. And he knew, in a couple of hours, I will be forsaken. And everyone, even my father, will mark me as a transgressor. Nothing, nothing upset the soul of Jesus more than that. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. He'd say today, his heart is ripped apart with the pain and the sorrow of that reality. Crawling in Gethsemane, standing alone before his earthly judges, left alone on the cross. And yet he drank. And he says, remember, this is the cup that I drank to the bottom. for you. Dear congregation, God wants us to recall when we partake of the Lord's Supper. The focus is on Jesus, on His suffering, on His death, on His sacrifice. And then secondly, don't only remember what He did, but remember what He accomplished by this sacrifice, because that's the ultimate point. And there's two things he did accomplish by that. He accomplished the full penalty paid to God's holy justice. Hear him speak at the end. Finished! That is a cry of victory that he wants to re-echo in the minds of his people. Finished! What is finished? Finished paying every piece of the debt. Finished his passive suffering ministry to pay for the price of sin. And God calls his people to believe this. And therefore he calls his people to eat his body and to drink his blood. That's a visual picture. Why, in question 79, we're asked, why does God call it that, that we have to eat and drink? of his body and of his blood, to visualize something. He says, when you eat that bread and drink that wine, by the natural process, it becomes yours. Your body unites itself so intimately with that bread and that wine, it becomes yours. He says, and that's the picture of what happens when you may believe on me. And when you may trust your soul upon my work, and may commit your soul and your needs to me, and eat and drink as a word of promises that I gave, then everything I did becomes yours. Just like bread and wine, as you eat it, becomes yours, so my work becomes yours. And look, it says in question 79 in the answer, that to assure us by these signs and these pledges, that we are as really partakers of his true body and blood by the operation of the Holy Ghost, as we receive by our mouth, our bodies, these holy signs and remembrance of him, and that all his sufferings and all his obedience become really mine, as if we had in our own person suffered and made satisfaction to the sins of our God, the sins to our God. So as we partake and as we eat and drink, as our Lord says it in question 75, how are you admonished now and taught and assured by the Lord's Supper that you are a partaker of that one sacrifice and of all the benefits? This is what Christ commanded, that believers eat and drink this bread, adding this promise, first that this body was offered and broken on the cross for me, that his blood was shed for me, as certainly as I see with my eyes the bread broken, and the cup communicated, and further, that he feeds and nourishes my soul to everlasting life with this crucified and shed blood, as assuredly as I receive from the hands of the minister, and thirdly, and taste with my mouth." And all these things are taking place as we partake of the Lord's Supper. Remember what is pictured. It is His promise that those who may entrust themselves to Him, all His becomes yours, all yours becomes His. So what are we to remember? That He paid the full requirement of God's holy law for us, His children. We have to believe that. But that's so hard to believe. That is what he wants his children to believe. That's why he has instituted this sacrament, in order to strengthen that faith in his work. And as we believe, then we'll experience the rest that he promised. Come unto me, all ye that labour, Lay your soul needs upon me, trust me for the priestly work and the kingly work, and your soul shall find rest." God wants his children to taste rest. And so, then lastly, why has God commanded us to remember him in this way? Now, let us consider that as we sing together. Let's do Psalter 290, verse 2, verse 4 and 5. What I try today is impossible. Well, sing it. What tongue can tell his mighty deeds? What tongue can tell his wondrous works and ways and show his glory forth other all his praise? Well, certainly not my tongue, but let us sing that together. Three, four, and five of Psalter 290. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Ever be in grace, ev'ry salvation see, The great love shown through Thy saints, ♪ And grace be given to thee ♪ ♪ Let me be of thy people too ♪ and in the Lord rejoice. May thy power and goodness Our last consideration is why did God and Jesus instituted this Lord's Supper and calls us to remember. The word remember is the Greek word refresh your memory, recall, meditate and recall on the details of my journey of love for you. Now there's three reasons why God has instituted this. The first, because he knows how forgetful we are. It's easy to forget, especially when you're busy and distracted with the things of life. And it's more easy yet, when you are not physically, and we are physical beings, see the person. We have to live by the word. And so I think that's one reason why God stoops down to our weakness and to our forgetfulness as his people to be so easily distracted. But the second and really the real reason is, another reason is that he knows we so much focus on ourselves. Remember me, he says. Remember my sufferings, my death. instead of looking at yourself. We have a tendency to focus too much on ourselves. You know, searching your heart is very necessary and very good. And especially in this week we should. We should not too quickly assume we're saved without having searched it and continue to search it. We're deceitful people. You and I can be totally wrong in our assessment of our own spiritual condition. Either wrong by assuming there is nothing when there is something, or assuming there is something when there is nothing. Those are two realities. And so, searching by the throne of God, let us never forsake that. Let us never think, oh, been there, done that, let's all settle now. No. Listen to the saints of God. Listen to David. Psalm 19. Keep thy servant back, Lord, from presumptuous sins. Let him not have dominion, then shall I be upright. Who can understand this error? Even Paul, the great apostle Paul, makes this incredible statement about his own sensitivity to the fact he could be wrong. He writes that in chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians. I was looking at that verse this week, because he really often struggles with that. He says, look, I keep my body under and subjected, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I was reading a couple of commentaries on that verse this week. It was quite searching. We can be preaching to others. We can be used to bring people to conversion. And still Paul says I could be a castaway. I could still not be truly, personally saved. So that's a great apostle who is saying that about himself. Let us not be. And he's wiser than he is. So let's search out this question. Indeed, focusing on your heart, searching it through the lens of the scripture, the biblical patterns of true spiritual experience. However, McChain said, well, for one look at ourselves, we are to cast a hundred at Jesus Christ. And that's why Jesus says, remember me. Remember my word, remember what I have done. My acceptance, your acceptance, our acceptance is never who I am. It's never what I experience. It's never what I have experienced. It's never that congregation. I'll give you an example from the Holy Scriptures on that, on the night of the Passover. Let's listen to this. And the blood shall be a token for you upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you." Just for a moment look at that statement, when I see the blood. Nothing else is going to make him pass over. Not what has taken place the night before. Not what has been experienced in that house. Not what these people felt. Not how they have applied that blood. Jesus said, God didn't say, I'm going to look at how you have applied that blood. Jesus said, only when I see the blood, I will pass by. And that for you and me is a critical reminder. It is not about my faith. It is not about my repentance. It is not about my tears, not about my experience spiritually. There's only one thing that matters when it comes to my relationship with God. and His holy justice, if I see the blood, I will pass on. That is the essential aspect you and I need to continually examine in our lives. It is not based on my obedience, my righteousness, but His alone, when I see the blood. I imagine that there might have been Jews who took that blood and doubtfully applied it, or shyly applied it, or with great struggles applied it, with a shaking hand, it didn't matter, as long as they had used the blood of the Lamb. And if they hadn't, they wouldn't make it. So it is with you and me today. What are you and have you done with the blood of the Lord Jesus? God says, I want you to remember, it is not your faith, it is not your obedience, it is not your doing, it is mine. I want you to remember. My blood. My doings. Now thirdly, why does God want his children to remember it? Because God strengthens faith through remembering. Psalm 77 and 79. It is through the remembering act that God has promised to strengthen and feed and nourish the believers through his body and blood as they eat and drink the cup and remember what it all means. That is God's design. He strengthens faith as we remember and as we eat and drink in what we remember what He has done. The same way He strengthens your body when you eat and drink. Not just looking at it, but as you eat and drink and make it yourself, so the Holy God strengthens your body for the daily work. And now spiritually the same, he says, in the remembering as you are using this and as you remember me, so I by the Holy Spirit mysteriously strengthens faith in the use of this sacrament. That is why it is not a good habit when we do not use the means that God has given. To try to be saved without using the means is tempting God that is trying to live without eating and trying to live without making responsible choices. And the soul spiritually, young people, old ones, we are sensible people. We have a darkened mind, but we still have some sensibilities. God says, use the means I gave you for conversion, for your salvation. And so he says to his people, use the means I've given to strengthen faith, which is the word and the sacraments that are to be used. And so as we remember, eating and drinking, the Holy Spirit quietly strengthens faith. Now what must I expect at this Lord's table? What are the expectations? What happens when I sit at the Lord's table? Often these are also very unscriptural expectations and then people come out from using the supper with a very disillusioned sense, oh wow, nothing really special happened. But a special thing happens when you are remembered, as you eat and drink, as you meditate, can bring a quietness in the heart and peacefulness. can bring in holy awe and joy as you meditate on the work of Christ. It may again strengthen your resolve to go forth in this world and to follow Christ. It may again enable you to take up the cross and the burdens of your life. It may make it easier to face this wicked world, as you know what he suffered, and as he cried and struggled himself. And so quietly, As we remember and partake in this food and drink, the Holy Spirit strengthens the faith and feeds His Church. Yes, there are sometimes very special moments as well, as people may experience at the table, when God comes very clear and very near to them. But that's special. That's not the common way. So let us then close this evening with two questions Because I've been speaking now so much this Sunday to the Lord's people and those who are here, believers. But what about you? Who must say this night, I know I'm not right, I'm not in the right with God. May I just ask your attention to think with me for a few moments on this first question. Do you remember that you have a soul? and that your time is dreadfully short on this earth. Our soul is not ours. That's the temple of God. Your mind, your will, your affections are not yours. They all belong to our Creator. He made us to serve Him. He made us to love Him. He made us to obey Him. And remember that you have a soul and that the time for the salvation of your soul is very short. The Apostle Paul again writes in 1 Corinthians 7 this very moving exhortation. Let me take the time to read it for you. He says, But this I say, brethren, the time is short. It remains that both they that have wives be as though they have none. that they that weep as though they wept not, that they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, that they that buy as though they possessed not, and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of the world passes away. It all goes swiftly. Time rolls by. And children, maybe you're saying I'm only six, got so many years yet, seven maybe, ten or thirteen, maybe just a teenager, got so much time. We don't have much time. Jesus says the judge stands at the door, already stands at the door. And he's waiting at the time appointed when he will say return and opens the door as it were. Do you have the blood on your soul already? Have you indeed thought about that? The Lamb of God is slain, the blood has been given, Lord even has shewed you on your forehead, and also to you. He holds out that wonderful way of salvation. Do you have that blood, child, on your forehead? on your heart. That means, have you learned also to trust on that only sacrifice? Think about it. Last week, Monday, I buried a 90-year-old mother in Iowa. Grandmother, great-grandmother. Ninety years old, she lived long, but there was one missing. in that family. It was her great-grandchild. She died before great-grandma died. See, that happens. So, it can happen to you children. And us, we're all in the frame of mind sometimes of Martha, except, I don't know, whether we're always as busy with the most worthy things like Martha was. You know Martha, you are so busy Martha, distracted, encumbered, that you are forgetting the one thing needful. I wish we would all be like Martha at least in the way that she was busy with good things. But are we like that? Everything that we busy ourselves with throughout the weeks and all our free times especially, for the good thing, for the one thing needful, What is the one thing needful that Jesus said Mary was at least seeking for and had chosen to sit at his feet for it? That is that restored relationship with our Maker. And Mary had chosen the good power to sit at Jesus' feet. Will Jesus see you sitting at his feet this week, children? Will Jesus see us sitting at his feet, fathers and mothers? Will we take the time this week again? This is a week of preparation, not only for God's children. And next week there is a call here, there is a reminder here. So we all have a week of preparation to seek out that one thing needful. And then my last question is, do you remember that eternity is very real and hell is very long and real? There's no better way for us to picture hell than to think of Jesus. I've been meditating this week about how Jesus never cried about physical pain, and he had lots of it. He never cried about all the sufferings they inflicted on him, either mentally or physically. But he cried and he sweat blood when he saw the reality of hell. Forsaken of his father. It's a long time. An everlasting place of being forsaken. That's a real place. And we can park it somewhere there and think, well, we'll deal with that. No. No, no. Today. Jesus' last sermon on the way to the cross is an earnest message, as he sees the women in compassion probably crying about him. Jesus turning and said, daughters of Jerusalem, don't ever weep for me. But weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bear, and the peps with never gave suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us and hills cover us. For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" The green tree, that's Jesus. The innocent one who took on him. the punishment for others. What shall the dry be like when we must face God on our self on account? So, if nothing moves you, one of our Puritan forefathers Joseph Alain wrote, then meditate seriously about hell. I don't like to do that. But is that what Jesus often spoke about? The reality of that. Because he knew what it was. He trembled at that cup, that last part. It's the reality of hell. And that urged him on also tonight, and that urges us this evening to call you again. Do not waste your soul, but say to yourself daily, my soul, let me seek the Lord. Let me set myself in the way where God speaks and where God works and work can wait and friends can wait and everything can wait. Let me not stop first to seek the Lord. I might have told you the story before, I'm not closing it anyway again. That boy which we would call in our language a mongoloid or a down syndrome He couldn't do his math, he couldn't do a whole lot in school, but he helped his uncle every day on the job as a builder. Cleaned up, swept, and so on. Loved the work. One day his uncle stands at the door, blowing the horn of the car, and he happened to wake up the young man, he was probably in his thirties at that stage. He overslept. Opened his window, and guess what he said? It says, Uncle Al, you'll have to wait because I first have to seek the Lord. What a wise man he was. Will you be like that? Let's pray. Amen. Lord, let this day be a day of blessing, as we've heard the Word, as we've tried to understand also the intention of the Lord's Supper by these instructions, and we pray that as we remember and recall and meditate upon those intense sufferings of Jesus Christ, that thou would comfort and strengthen thy people in their faith and assurance, O God, that their joy may be unspeakable, that thou would wipe away the doubts, the fears, the standing afar off, and enable them to drink abundantly of that fountain of thy love and mercy. Lord, also wilt thou will Thou bind upon us the call of Thy Word to give heed to our soul as we again may be reminded about the reality of hell. There is no place where we see it more vivid than in the pale and the struggling features of the Son of God. O, we pray Thee, O God, that that vision or that view of the Lord Jesus may also instill in our heart a wholesome fear and a wholesome hastening for our life's sake, while Thou art still having the market of free grace open. O soul, help us to seek Thee, guide us in this day, guide us in this week, lead us all and teach us all and keep us all. on that straight and narrow path, as we live our life in a world full of the distractions of sin and evil. Be with us in different study places, Lord, also our children and grandchildren that may be studying and living elsewhere, we commend them to Thee. All this we ask in the name of Thy dear and beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.