And for the rest of you, please turn in your Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14 And this is a passage that I I'm excited to preach. It's a passage that I think many of us are familiar with, and I know when we hear it, there are gonna be certain thoughts that come into our mind. There is very important and deep meaning in this passage, and also some very important and practical application for us in it as well. So our passage is going to be 2 Corinthians 6, 14, and we're gonna go through chapter seven, verse one. And let us give honor to the reading of God's word. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? for we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them says the Lord and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me says the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Will you pray with me? Our Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you continue to speak to us today We thank you, Lord, for the clarity with which you speak in your word. This morning, I pray as we look into this passage, I pray that the impact of what is being said here would really sink deeply within us. And that, Father, the fruit that it would bring forth in our lives would truly be that fruit of holiness to which we are called. So Father, please bless our time now. Minister to these your people whom you love so deeply. Bless them, I pray, in Christ's name, amen. Well, when we hear this passage being read, I can assume where a lot of our minds initially went to, and that is to the theme of dating and marriage. It's kind of like the, the battle cry of Christian relationships, isn't it? This verse 14, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. It's that word that announces to us the importance of being sure not to form these illicit bonds with unbelievers. And the bond that we immediately think about is, of course, that bond of marriage. And in a certain sense, that is, a very important application from this passage. But for as much as we like to think of the world of Christian dating and the world of marriage when we read this passage, Paul's concern here is actually much broader than that, as his concern is generally that believers do not form illicit bonds with unbelievers. And the primary context he's concerned with has to do with their spiritual allegiance, that they are not yoked together with those in the church who oppose the truth. This is what Paul's concern is here. You have to remember, Paul, his overarching concern, so much of what he is dealing with in these Corinthian letters is combating these false apostles, as they referred to in chapter 11, who have gone in and sought to disrupt the faith of the believers in the church in Corinth. They were doing this by undermining Paul's apostolic authority, and in doing so, pulling them away from the truth. And it's with that in mind that Paul is saying, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Meaning don't join together with these unbelievers in their false teaching. Don't partner with them or worship with them or in any way associate with them in their work of corrupting the church. That's his primary concern. And it's not just his concern for the church in first century Corinth, but it's his concern for the church in every age. As corruption from within is a constant threat the church faces. as those within the church, unbelievers in the church, who don't denounce the fact that they're unbelievers in the church, but who come in with all kinds of sideways, non-Christian ideas and teachings and lifestyles as they make their way into the church, join together with believers in the church, and in doing so, begin to corrupt the church from within. And this is something that we've seen happen. throughout the history of the church, and we've certainly seen it in our own day. I mean, you think about the LGBTQ movement and its ideologies, and you know, you ask yourself, you say, you know, where did this come from? and how did it make its way into the church? The church institutionally, certain denominations, certain churches, certain congregations, how did it make its way in there and become something that is acceptable? It didn't happen by unbelievers coming in saying, I reject Jesus Christ, I reject the authority of scripture, I reject the truth that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. It wasn't people coming in saying, I reject all of that. It was people coming in saying, I accept all of that. And in saying they accept all of that, they then begin to promote these ideologies, these non-Christian teachings. And this is typically the way it has happened in the history of the church, as the greatest threat to the church has historically been from within. This is something that we're warned about all throughout the Bible. I mean, you just go all the way back to the Old Testament church, to Israel and the false prophets. who were rising in Israel, and though Israel had corrupted the faith, though they had corrupted justice, though they had oppressed the poor, though they had embraced idolatry, you had these false prophets saying, peace, peace. It's okay. God doesn't mind. God is a God of love. It's okay. It's not a problem. Don't worry about it. And it was a big problem. But they were doing that in the Old Testament church. Jesus then warns us about it in the New Testament church. Matthew 7, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Notice, we don't go to them, they come to you. They come to the church. They come to the covenant community. Paul echoes this same thing in the book of Acts as he's saying his farewells to the elders in Ephesus in Acts 20. He says to them, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock and from among your own selves. will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. They'll come from your own midst. They'll rise up from among you. And they'll start saying all kinds of twisted things within the church in order to draw you away. See, it's from within. It's from those who are Among you. This is the threat. And it's a constant threat throughout this age. You know, you think about that. Wonderful series of visions that John gives us in Revelation chapters 12 through 14. where he sort of draws for us initially in chapter 12 this overarching picture of the spiritual battle that his people would face throughout this entire age of tribulation between the first and second comings of Christ as the dragon would pursue the offspring of the woman through the wilderness. He would be pursuing the church, persecuting the church, seeking to destroy the church. That's kind of the overarching picture of chapter 12. Well, then you get into chapter 13 and we get into a bit of the details. And the first detail to emerge is this ominous figure, the beast. And it's this beast who arises out of the sea that the dragon, he inspires. And this beast is his main ally in attacking the church. And as we know, the beast is all of those ungodly, unchristian rulers and empires and emperors who hate Christ and hate his people and are seeking to persecute them and destroy them. That's the dragon's ally. But then in chapter 14, we're introduced to his second ally, another beast. a beast that comes up out of the land. And this beast is referred to later in the book of Revelation as the false prophet. And the false prophet is that ally of the dragon who makes his way into the church to speak those unchristian truths, those unchristian lies into the church in order to deceive them, in order to destroy them and draw them away, in order to corrupt them. And this is the reality of our life throughout this entire age of tribulation between the first and second comings of Christ. This false prophet voices from hell coming into the church, corrupting the church by speaking that which is not true within the church, doing it from behind pulpits with ordination licenses, seminary degrees, whatever it is. and leading God's people astray. As Paul said, I know when I depart, ravenous wolves are gonna come in. I know, and they will arise even from among you. Friends, this is the threat. And this was Paul's primary concern here when he says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. It's don't join together with them in their attempts to corrupt the church. No matter what they say, no matter how much they talk about, well, yes, I believe. Don't join with them. And so he says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Get away from these false apostles, get away from them, get rid of them. Now, the specific reference that Paul has in mind when he establishes this principle about not being unequally yoked with unbelievers, it comes from two places in the Old Testament, Leviticus chapter 19 and Deuteronomy chapter 22, where this principle is applied to four different arenas. The interbreeding of animals with one another, the plantings of different kinds of crops together, the making of a garment with two different kinds of material, and the yoking of two kinds of animals together to plow a field. These are some of those ceremonial laws that when we read them, we just kind of scratch our head and think, why? I mean, what's the big deal if you want to wear a shirt that's linen, cotton blend, you know? I mean, who cares, right? So you want to grow your strawberries next to your tomatoes. What's the big deal? Well, there were practical reasons for these laws. And I don't want to get too into all the practical reasons, but we can imagine, you know, in Deuteronomy 22, not yoking two animals together. It's an ox and a donkey are the ones that are sighted there. And of course, if you put an ox and a donkey together and you're trying to plow a field with them, they're not going to work well together. They're probably gonna end up just going in circles, the bigger, stronger one pulling and dragging the other one, perhaps even injuring it. I mean, there are practical reasons for these things. They didn't have sprinkler systems and greenhouses where they could control climates and grow things how they wanted. So crops grow, they have different water needs and they ripen at different times. And there are all of these practical reasons why these laws were given, but The main reason why these laws were given wasn't practical, but the reason was theological. As these ceremonial laws were laws which distinguished Israel from the pagan nations around them, they just didn't do things the nations surrounding them did. And that's why God gave them these ceremonial laws. It was to mark them off as being holy and distinct and separate from all of the pagan nations around them. And this is what Paul is drawing on here, these ceremonial laws as he is establishing this principle of not being unequally yoked with unbelievers. Now, in saying that and in pointing to Old Testament ceremonial laws in order to establish a principle, From there, it's always a challenge to go on and make those good and necessary inferences where we are drawing proper application from these principles that are derived from the ceremonial law, and certainly that is the case here. And so as we think about this principle of not being unequally yoked with unbelievers, what is it that would fall under that particular heading? Well, Paul doesn't give us a specific list here. I think when we, you know, see these sort of principial statements in Scripture, we want a list. We want to say, okay, well, here's what we can do and here's what we can't do. This is what it means and this is what it doesn't mean. We want it really just sort of spelled out for us, but Paul doesn't do that for us, but instead what he does is he He elaborates on this principle and in doing so helps us to kind of see what he's getting at here. And he does so by asking a series of five questions which intend to highlight the nature of the boundary that is being established. And that boundary is between the holy and the profane. And we see this in the questions he asks, that there is, throughout these five questions, there is a binary. There is one that is holy, there is one that is profane. So he asks, what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Belial was a common name for the devil in ancient Jewish literature. What portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? Now, you hear those questions, you know, well, you know, I could see, you know, I mean, Christ and the devil, they've got a few things in, no. No, there's nothing in common between any of these. They're binaries. They're mutually exclusive. They're opposites. They cannot coexist together. And that's the point here. And that's what Paul is doing here is establishing the fact that there is no neutrality, but it's either one or the other. It's either the holy or it's the profane. So you are either righteous, i.e. clothed with the righteousness of Christ, or you are not. You are clothed with the lawlessness of your own sin. You have either been translated into the kingdom of light, or you are still in the kingdom of darkness. You are either in fellowship with Christ or you are being held captive by the devil to do his will. You are either a believer or an unbeliever. You are either the temple of God or you are an idolater. See, it's either one or the other, and this is what Paul wants us to see. And he wants us to see it in order to establish the fact that in spiritual matters, in spiritual matters, it is a binary. There is no common ground between the holy and the profane, which is to say there is no compatibility between the Christian faith, and this is a real genius statement, and that which opposes the Christian faith, right? Hey, some pretty strong deduction there, isn't it? There's no compatibility between the Christian faith and that which opposes the Christian faith. And so you can't mix the deity with Christ, the deity of Christ, with the idea that Christ is actually a created being. Those don't mix together. Those are incompatible with one another. You can't mix the hypostatic union. The fact that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man with, one of those ancient heresies like docetism, which says that Christ only appeared to be human. You can't mix those things together. You can't be a Christian and a docetist. You can't mix the gospel of Jesus Christ with salvation by works. You can't do that. They're incompatible with each other. They're mutually exclusive. And as we saw, this is Paul's primary concern here. and thus the primary point of application. It's that the church remains pure by not mixing that which opposes or is contradictory to Christianity with Christianity. We don't say, oh yeah, gay marriage is okay. We don't take that which is outside of what is Christian and say, this is actually something that you can incorporate into Christianity. We don't do that. I know there's actually a technical term for this, probably any of you have heard of it, syncretism, where two belief systems or two religions are are fused together. Something that happens in many tribal regions around the world is the gospel comes in and is preached and many believe and what they do is they take that Christianity that they have just heard and they just incorporate it together with their existing tribal animistic beliefs. This is something, I mean, J.J. would tell you this is all over the place in Africa. I mean, our own hemisphere, we see it with voodoo and centuria, how it's blended with Caribbean Christianity, how there's this blending together. In the ancient world, this was Manichaeism, which took Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism and blended it together. And throughout the world, this is a big problem where you're taking Christianity and you're saying, yeah, well, we can just sort of add this stuff into Christianity or take Christianity and add it into this stuff here when there are components within it that are completely mutually exclusive. You cannot have them both exist together. And that's what Paul's saying here. Jesus has no accord with Belial. Jesus doesn't mix with demons. And so this is what Paul's talking about here. Now in saying all of that, does this mean that Christians and non-Christians can't work together or conduct business together, socialize together? play sports together, engage in other civil activities together? Absolutely not. It doesn't in any way mean that. But on the contrary, the Bible commands us to love our neighbors ourselves, which means we are going to engage with them. We're going to live life with them. In 1 Corinthians, you'll recall, I mean, when Paul's listing off all these sort of ungodly practices, and he's saying, I'm not saying that you can't be around people that do these things, otherwise you have to leave the world. Like we're going to mix with them. We're going to engage with them. We are going to conduct business and the affairs of life with them. We're going to shop in their stores and buy their products and go out to dinner with them and, and watch them play sports on TV. And our kids are going to play on their sports teams. All of these things are part of life in the civil kingdom. And it's supposed to be, but in the church, it's different. coming to the church, and this is Christian ground, and it has truth that must be defended within it, always with great love, but also with a spine of steel, that it's not compromised. It's not compromised. And so when Paul says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, he isn't telling us to wall ourselves off in these, you know, Christian communities where the only people we ever interact with are other Christians. He is absolutely positively not saying that. But this is about mixing Christianity with unchristian beliefs and practices, which we don't do. For the Corinthians, this is what they were in danger of doing by embracing the false apostles who had made their way in among them as they were corrupting the truth of Christian faith as was taught by Paul and the other apostles. Now, in saying that, it's important to note that while Paul is primarily talking about the church and about the Christian faith, The principle of not being unequally yoked does have application into certain arenas of life, arenas where we are going to want to ask this question if it's wisest to engage with certain unbelievers in particular things. And the one area where there is a very clear application is, of course, in the area of marriage. And it's important that we see this. It's really important that we see this. For all of you who are young, all of you who are single, all of you who want to become married one day, you need to see this, that you can't, for you as a Christian, marry somebody who is not a Christian. It's just, it's disobedient to scripture. And it's important to see this because it's not uncommon for a Christian woman to meet a non-Christian guy, and he's a great guy. He's really nice, he's really kind, he's really respectful and hardworking. He's somebody that has got values that resonate with you. He's financially stable, he loves you a lot, and you just sort of brush aside the fact that he's not a Christian. Say, you know, he's just a great guy, and he loves me so much, he's so good to me. And you marry that person. Well, to do so is to disobey scripture. And so the question that you always want to ask is, is this person a Christian? And not only is this person a Christian, but does this person stand in full agreement with the main tenants of the historic Christian faith? It's not just, oh yeah, this person says they're a Christian. Well, that's like all the false apostles, everybody else that's coming in, all the examples that we've given. No, no. Do they stand in full accord with all the main tenets of the historic Christian faith? And they align themselves with a healthy, strong, solid church. So you should always be able to call You meet a guy, he says he goes to this church. You should be able to say, great, I wanna go and talk to the elders, talk to the pastor. They should know this guy. They should be able to tell you about him, because he's a part of that church. He's there every Sunday. They know this guy. Anybody who's a member here, I could have some suitor call me, hey, I'm really interested in so-and-so. I hear she's a member of your church. She is. I can tell you she's fantastic. I'd love to meet you. Like there should be something that's substantial. Not just, oh yeah, I said I'm a Christian. It's like, no, we need more. That's the whole point of this. That's Paul saying ravenous wolves will arise from among you. We need more. But this is what matters most. You know, the Bible's clear. Marry whom you will in the Lord. So, two Christians, two Christians. So long as one's a man, one's a woman, and there isn't an unbiblical divorce in one's history, marry whom you will in the Lord. Now, from there, there's question of should you marry a person? Those are the compatibility questions you always want to flesh out and answer and so forth. But marriage can only be between two believers or two unbelievers. That's it. We love when unbelievers get married to each other. It's better for society. More married couples, the better. But not marriage between a believer and an unbeliever. And you might think, why is this? I mean, why is this? You know, my parents tell me this and I always hear about this. Why is this the case? I mean, he was a good guy. He's a good guy. She's a nice girl. She's a nice girl. Well, the reason why is because invariably your worldviews will collide and it will create real problems in very important areas of life, and none more so than in the raising of your children. I mean, if you are married to an unbeliever, how will your children be raised? Will they be raised in a Christian home? Will they be taught Christian beliefs and Christian values? The scriptures be read in your home. Will prayer be something that takes place in your home? Will your children grow up in the church, prioritizing Lord's Day worship and faithfully attending? Will they be taught about life and its challenges and its hardships and relationships from a Christian perspective? Like those will lead to huge disagreements. If you are married to an unbeliever, because invariably the answer to these questions will be no. And I've seen it enough times as have many of you to know this to be the case. And not only is this the case, but sadly what so often happens as well is that the influence of the unbeliever, even though he could be the nicest guy, the guy you'd want as your next door neighbor, I mean, the guy that you dislike, or the girl you'd want to sit next to in class, whatever it is, invariably, that unbelief, it takes a toll, it has an impact, and it's so easy for it to just pull you away from the faith. This is why under the old covenant, Israel was forbidden from marrying any of the foreign people from the foreign nations surrounding them. It's because God knew this was the threat. You think about Solomon, read 1 Kings 11. and Solomon, he took all these foreign brides to himself, and then, voom, he was gone, starts worshiping their gods. Well, I don't really need to be in church this week. Oh, yeah, I guess. No, we'll sleep in. Oh, we'll go out to brunch together. Oh, and pretty soon, it's, you're just drift, drift, drift, drift, drift. And it's just, it's just what happens. And so when Paul says to not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, marriage is a very appropriate application of this principle. And so we have the principle established, we have some application that we understand, but Paul's not done. And so he knows in order for us to really embrace what he's saying here and live in the way that he's calling us to, he needs for us to be clear about who we are. about our identity and about where we stand in relation to this binary. And so he says in verse 16, for we are the temple of the living God. Some of the Greek manuscripts say you, some say we, doesn't matter. They're both true. We collectively, the church, are the temple of the living God. This is the place where God dwells as we as his people are gathered together to hear the word, to partake of the sacraments, to worship him. He is here with us. This is the temple of the living God. We corporately, but also we individually, you individually are the temple of the living God. This is the beautiful picture we find at Pentecost. Tongues of fire rest above and upon each and every believer, symbolic of the divine presence. Each individual, the dwelling place of God. And this is what is meant by temple. Temple refers to the dwelling place of God. In the Old Testament, he dwelled in visible glory in the Jerusalem temple. Heaven is said to be His holy temple, because this is the dwelling place of God. Jesus, His own body, He refers to as a temple, because in Him, the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily. In all of these things, this is representative. When you say temple, you are talking about the dwelling place of God. And this is you individually? God dwells in you? It's like wild. And it's us corporately. God is here right now, present with us. His word is preached. As songs are sung, as the sacraments are taken. And this, the fact that we are the temple of living God, is the primary reason Paul gives as to why Christians should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. It's because you are the dwelling place with God. And because of that, you need to reject all that opposes him. It's not your house or my house, it's his house. To reinforce this point, Paul goes on to cite a series of Old Testament passages to show that all of this, that God dwelling in his people, among his people, is something that was anticipated. So initially he cites Leviticus 26.11. I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. Joins that together with this promise spoken a number of places in the Old Testament, most notably Genesis 17.8. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now together these are kind of the center point promises of God's covenant with man. It's that man and God would live together in communion with one another. God is our God and we as his people. And this of course is what we as Christians enjoy. And it's what ultimately it's where our pilgrimage ends. Think of Revelation 21. John sees this wonderful vision of the new heavens and the new earth, and he hears, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. So this is our destiny, that which we get a foretaste of now, with God dwelling in us, dwelling among us, is something we will experience in its fullest, in its consummate form, in the new heavens and new earth. Next, he cites Isaiah 52, 11. This is what we read earlier. I said, don't worry, we won't leave you totally in the dark with Isaiah 52. But there, in verse 11, we read, therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing, then I will welcome you. Now, in its context here, Paul is speaking to his people in Babylon and they're in Babylonian captivity. And in this text, what he's doing is he's comforting them by pointing ahead to the reality that though they're in captivity, they will be delivered from captivity. And so the motif here is really a second exodus so that just as they were held captive in Egypt and God delivered them and led them through the wilderness into the promised land, so too God will deliver his people from Babylonian captivity and deliver them and bring them back into the promised land. And in doing so, as a people who have been set free, he is saying they are to separate themselves from the pagan idolatry that was part of their previous life in captivity. So the parallel is easy to see. For us, now that we are those who have been set free from sin and death and captivity to the devil, we are to separate ourselves from those non-Christian ways of thinking and living and go on to live in a way that is honoring to the Lord. Next, Paul cites Ezekiel 20, then I will welcome you. Literally, I will gather you. God's promise that he would gather the exiles again. It's a statement of communion that he will have with his people together with them. And then lastly, Paul takes a line from 2 Samuel 7, the Davidic covenant. I will be a father to you and you shall be sons and daughters to me. Now, originally this promise was spoken of Christ as he was David's true son and the heir who would sit on his throne forever. having been fulfilled in Christ, Paul extends this promise to all who are now in Christ. And thus, he says, sons and daughters. So this is for everybody. And thus, if we take these four promises, we can spend a lot of time kind of going through each of these Old Testament texts. But if we take these four Old Testament promises and take them together, they impress upon us the greatness of our privileged identity, that we are those who have been set free from sin and captivity. We are those who have been blessed with all of the realities that were spoken of under that time of the types and shadows, as we are those live life in fellowship with God as heirs of his kingdom, living in communion with him and dwelt by his spirit. And this is who you are. You see, remember, Paul's whole focus here is is to have us not be unequally yoked with non-Christian ways of thinking and behaving and certainly in the church to reject all of that. And so in order to really just inspire this within us, he wants us to know who we are. He wants you to know, if you know who you are, you are not going to tolerate this sort of admixture into the Christian faith. You are not gonna tolerate this sort of behavior in your own life. Because in the truest sense, we live and act in accordance with our identity. This is why the scriptures are so intent on wanting us to know who we are. And it's why these destructive ideologies that are in the world right now are causing so much harm, because people have no idea who they are. And so God is always trying to just impress upon us the truth of who we are. You are the temple of the living God. God dwells in you. You are sons and daughters. This is who you are. You are those former captives who have been set free. This is who you are. He wants you to know who you are so that you act in accord with that identity. I'm a Christian, how could I? And this is the conclusion Paul draws in verse one. So he says, since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. In light of these promises, all that was spoken. and all that has been fulfilled in you as new covenant believers in light of this, who you are and what is true of you in light of all of that, that you are the recipient of all of this. Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. And so ultimately this is This is His goal for us. It's for us to live as a people who are separate, and the church not tolerating the corruption of the faith within, and for us to conduct ourselves in all of our ways as a set-apart, separate people. And this is why Paul gives us this passage, and this is the motivation for us to do it. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the many blessings and privileges you give to us in Christ. Thank you so much for rescuing us from the domain of darkness, setting us free from the captivity of sin and death and Satan. Thank you for adopting us into your families, your sons and daughters, and coming to dwell, not only with us, but dwell in us by person of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for all of the wonderful, wonderful privileges that are ours in Christ. We thank you, and I ask that you would please help us, Father, to conduct ourselves in a way that is honoring to you, to conduct ourselves in a way that reflects our true identity as Christians. that father you would protect us in the church and keep the church pure and help us father to guard and protect the church. And likewise father. To guard and protect our own lives. That we would live in a way that is honoring to you. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. When the prince alive for ransom Shed for us his precious blood He will never be surmounted throughout every journey. On the mount of crucifixion, the fountains roar and the people cry. ♪ And all my love accepted ♪ ♪ And all His love for all my days ♪ ♪ Let me sing Thy praise for me ♪ ♪ And my life to Thee I pray ♪ ♪ God, You have made my glory ♪ ♪ God, in heaven, on high ♪ ♪ Now let them sanctify me ♪ ♪ Thou alone take good care of me ♪ ♪ Thou alone help me in my good deeds ♪ ♪ Thou alone I see ♪ ♪ Thou alone let them sanctify me ♪ Well, as we come now to the Lord's Supper, I wanna read again our catechism question. Just point it to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. What is a sacrament? A sacrament is in holy ordinance instituted by Christ in his church. We read those words of institution every week when we partake. take, eat, this is my body and so forth, Christ in it. And he did so to signify, that means to point to, to seal, that means confirm, and to exhibit, that means to put on display unto those that are within the covenant of grace, that is professing believers, those who are within the church, the benefits of his mediation. In other words, what he accomplished. virtue of his life, death, and resurrection, to strengthen and increase their faith. So as we partake, and we are understanding, we're partaking by faith, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and what it is that he has done for us. These sacraments strengthen and increase their faith and all other graces. They oblige us to obedience, to testify, so these also testify, and cherish our love and communion with one another. We partake with one another. That's why it's called communion. And to distinguish them from those who are without, that's why we fence the table. If you are not a believer, this communion meal is not intended for you. And so each week when we come and partake, these elements, they are doing these very things signifying, sealing, and exhibiting the wonder of the gospel, what God has done for us in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. And as we partake in faith, we are strengthened in some mysterious way, believing indeed that God is at work in us by his spirit. And so if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you've been baptized, which signifies, again, God's name upon you, that you are a part of this visible covenant community, the covenant of grace. Then I invite you to comment, to partake. If you are not a Christian, the gospel is for you. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. This is the invitation that is for you. But if you are firm in your own belief, then please do not partake. To do so is to eat and drink condemnation. And so with that, the worship team will lead us in song. As they do, please come forward, take of the elements, return to your seats, and we'll partake together. Let us pray. Our Father, thank you for all that you have done to save us from our sins and from the wrath and judgment that we deserve because of them. Thank you. We thank you so much for the great love that you have for us, a love that is beyond compare. And I ask, Father, that you would please now minister to us, minister to the weak and to the struggling, to the tempted, to the doubting, to the hurting, to the afflicted. Lord, we are often a bruised people. Christian life isn't an easy life, so please strengthen us, renew us, and refresh us. In Jesus' name, amen.