Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Desire the unadulterated milk of the word like a newborn baby that you may grow thereby. His divine power has given to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue. by which have been given to us many exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. Jesus prayed to the Father, sanctify them by means of truth. Thy word is truth. Before we open up God's word this morning, let's bow our heads together in prayer. Our Father, we're thankful that we can come to study your word, to reflect upon you, and especially to study this psalm, focusing on your faithful, loyal love to Israel, which is the same faithful, loyal love that you have for us, that you love us with a love that is without bounds and is not conditioned upon our behavior, not conditioned upon our works, but is based solely upon your character. So Father, now as we study these things, may we be impressed by how you have woven into this psalm aspects that are to be used later to teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ and about his death on the cross and your provision for us. And we pray these things in Christ's name, amen. This morning we're going to talk about Psalm 118 and relate it to the Lord's table. So this gives us an understanding of how God was preparing in many different ways through the different scriptures and both what I would call specific prophecy as well as through Now, a type comes from the Greek word tupos, which means something that is an example, something that is a pattern. It pictures for us either in an inanimate object, such as the matzo bread that we eat in the Lord's table from the Passover meal, and this was to teach something about the Word of God as well as our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God is called the Logos. That is also related to Christ, who is the Logos. And as such, he is also the bread of life that provides nourishment for us, as the Word of God is the bread that also provides nourishment, the spiritual bread that provides nourishment for us. And so that's what a type is. When we look at these different types in the Old Testament, there are not specific prophecy like a passage such as Micah 5-2 that tells us specifically that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, but we know, but there are pictures that are used later on to illustrate aspects of the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this particular psalm we have a thanksgiving, and the Greek word for thanksgiving is the word that's used in one way in which people speak of the Lord's Table. We usually refer to the Lord's Table as either the Lord's Table or communion. Communion, that idea comes from the Greek word for fellowship, koinonia, which indicates a partnership. So we're reminding ourselves that in Christ we have a partnership with God, an eternal fellowship, but we are also called to walk with him towards a common goal, which is what experiential fellowship is. And others will refer to the Lord's table by calling it the Eucharist. The Eucharist comes from the Greek word Eucharistia, which means Thanksgiving. So it is a focal point here. And if you look at what I've highlighted here in the core word, the Greek word charis. So the EU is a prefix that changes the meaning of the word. It has the idea usually of something good or something beautiful. For example, when you say nice things about a person at their memorial service or their funeral, that's called a eulogy. It has that e-e-u prefix from the Greek, plus the root is logos, so it's saying something, words that are pleasing, words that are good about someone. So, Eucharistia focuses on the fact that we are giving thanks, we are grateful for God's grace. In Latin, the word for grace is gratia, where we get our word gratitude. So there's this intimate connection between gratitude, thankfulness, and appreciating the grace of God. So Psalm 118 is both a thanksgiving psalm and a psalm that is that is a declarative praise. The people are talking about or singing about what God has done for them, not just saying, praise God, but actually none of us should really be saying, praise God, unless we're telling somebody to tell me what God has done in your life. It's a command. Hallelu-Yah. Hallelu is a command. Yah is the abbreviation for Yahweh. So it's a command to praise God, and that doesn't mean to say praise God. That means to talk about what God has done in your life, to give Him the credit for what He has done and to bring glory to Him. That word, to glorify God, means to give give weight to God, to stress the importance of God. The Greek word, I mean, the Hebrew word for glory means something that is heavy, something that is weighty, something that is significant and important. So when we glorify God, we are demonstrating this centrality of God in our lives, the importance of God in our lives. So this is a Thanksgiving psalm, and it is a declarative praise psalm. A couple of things about the background is that if you notice, it doesn't give any attribution to authorship. So we don't know who the author was, and we don't know the exact circumstances of the writing of this psalm, but we can guess at a few things that that help us. And I'll point those out as we go through this. So it was probably written, I mean a heavy probability, that it was written after the exile, because it is talking about a time when they were under severe distress, almost to the point of death. Now when we read through the Psalm, you see that there is a speaker who is addressing the body of the Israelites, And he calls upon them to worship. That's verses 1 through 4. And then he talks about the cause for this worship, why we should be thankful. And that begins in verse 5 where he says, I called on the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. So this is the leader of the people, probably the political leader of the people. They didn't have a king after they returned from the exile. by the exile I mean God brought discipline on the nation and in 586 BC the Babylonian armies under Nebuchadnezzar defeated Israel there were three invasions by the Babylonians and the third time he executed his wrath upon the nation and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and burned the temple to the ground and so there was nothing left and then he took most of the people back as prisoners of war, as captives, back to Babylon. And this was what God had predicted, that if Israel continued to be disobedient, to be worshippers of idols, that God would bring increasingly intense stages of judgment against them. And the most horrendous of them was that he would take them out of the land that God had promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that's why the removal from the land is so important. It is a harsh discipline, but God always promised that he would bring them back. Now, when he brought them back in the Old Testament at the end of 70 years, they did not all come back. It was a partial return because they really had not quite learned their lesson, As is exhibited in the subsequent centuries, but there needed to be a people Jewish people in the land to receive the Messiah when he came So there had to be a body there, but it wasn't large It wasn't probably more than 20 or 25 percent or maybe 30 percent of the Jewish people worldwide it was a partial return nothing like what we've seen today where a Very close to 50% of Jews worldwide are now living in Israel. And it may surprise you, but since October 7, there has been a marked increase in Jewish people returning to their historic homeland. They want to go back. They want to fight. They want to help. They are upset by the anti-Semitism that they see around them all of a sudden. And so they've made up their mind to go back. So an increased number. Before October 7th, there was only about 48 or 49% of Jewish people lived in Israel, so I don't know what the new demographics are, but it's pushing close to 50%. So this is after the exile, after the 70 years, they came back to Israel, then they had to rebuild the temple. And so it is very likely that this psalm was written as a thanksgiving to God at that time because he had returned the people to the land and they are dedicating the temple at this particular time. In verse 5 he says, I called on the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me, set me in a broad place. And then he goes on to talk about, the Lord is on my side. What can man do to me? The Lord helped me. And he goes on then to explain that he all but died during the exile. So this makes more sense. It fits. And there was no other time like this where the nation of Israel was close to death. So there's no stated author, there's no stated circumstances, there's no stated historical context, but I think we can be pretty accurate in saying that it is after the exile. It's written by the political leader who represents the people, so that in many cases you have, we do this today, we will talk about Russia invading Ukraine, but we will say Putin invaded Ukraine. But Putin didn't set foot in Ukraine at all, but he sent his army. So we'll take a leader, talk about him, but we're talking about his whole army. We can talk historically about how Napoleon conquered Egypt. But he did that with his army. He's not there alone. And we do that many times as we're discussing things in history related to leaders. We talk about, if you're from Texas, we talk about how Santa Ana destroyed the Alamo. Well, it was Santa Ana's army that destroyed the Alamo. So we do that. So here you have the political leader who is speaking for the people and is representative of the people. So even though you have these first-person singular pronouns all the way through here, he's talking for the people, representing their praise to God. And the fourth thing in terms of background is that this is both a communal thanksgiving and a communal praise to God for delivering them from the nations that surrounded them. So when he says that they surrounded me, like in verse 12, he's not talking about as an individual, all the nations surrounded him. They surrounded Israel. And part of this is typology because it's talking about how the nations surrounded Israel in the Old Testament, first the Assyrian invasion and then the Babylonian invasion. But it also foreshadows the fact that the nations of the world will come against Israel in the future tribulation period that is called the time of Jacob's trouble, putting Israel at the center point of prophetic fulfillment. And we're seeing some foreshadowing of that today. Who would have thought before October 7th, that there was so much anti-Semitism, not only in the U.S. and in the universities in the U.S., but also around the world. Well, that will be intensified probably a thousandfold during the Tribulation period, and the nations will surround Israel And Israel will be all but destroyed as you come to that final military campaign of Armageddon, where the nations have come together. And then the Lord Jesus Christ will return to the earth. And that's part of what we see here, is that the Lord will return and give them victory. They will call upon the name of the Lord and he will give them victory. So in terms of the basic outliner structure, we see that it begins with a call to worship through giving thanks, the giving of thanks to God for his loyal, steadfast love in the first four verses. Then the main body of the psalm expresses the cause of the reason for giving thanks to God in Psalm 118, verses 5 to 18. And then there is a declaration of praise. where they talk about exactly what God has done, and that's in verses 19 to 27, and then it closes with a reminder of the call to give thanks for His loyal, steadfast love in verses 28 to 29. So as we go through this, we see that opening call to worship, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. Why? Well, that's the next line. For his mercy endures forever. Many times when you see the word for, it introduces an explanation or a cause, a reason for the giving of thanks. His mercy endures forever. And this is the Hebrew word hesed, which emphasize a faithful, loyal love, a love based on a contract. Now, some people say, well, what kind of love is that? Well, it's the same kind of love that you characterize your marriage. Everybody now gets all caught up with these romantic emotions and feelings, but the kind of love that God has is a love that is based on integrity, based on His character, based on His promise, and it is exemplified in a marriage. You get married, you take out a marriage license, you make vows, you're in effect making a contract to love one another and be true and faithful to one another, throughout that marriage and so this is the focal point here is that Chesed, God is loyal to what he said in his in the Mosaic Law now that's interesting because his love involves two aspects one aspect is the way in which he is going to bless Israel the word blessing means to enrich something to improve it in many ways not just financial but in order to truly enrich and provide for someone. And then if they are disobedient, then God is going to take away from them. He is going to bring judgment upon them, and that would include famine. It would include military invasion and droughts, things of that nature. So love involves both discipline as well as positive, beneficial things. Parents should take note to that. We're going to get into parental responsibilities in the next several weeks as we get into parts of the last part of Ephesians chapter 5. So genuine love involves not only discipline, and in some cases a more firm discipline, a corporal discipline, and it also involves doing good positive things. So that is Well, so they're giving thanks, God is good, and that's defined in terms of his mercy enduring forever. Then it says, verse two, let Israel not say, calling upon those who are the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, say, his mercy endures forever. So they would say this, they would repeat this and chant this as they're in procession up to the temple. And then let the house of Aaron, the priest, Now say, His mercy endures forever. And then finally, let those who fear the Lord, all those, this would include Jew and Gentile, let all those who worship the Lord. So you have the call for the people. The phrase that is used for this in Hebrew is Am Yisrael. the word Am referring to Israel. Today you will hear Israelis chant or they will sign off with the phrase Am Israel Chai, which means the people of Israel live. And that is a very popular thing, especially when they're being existentially threatened right now. So all of those who come will worship. And then the reason why is then developed later, but in this chesed love, it has three basic parts that God has made a covenant with his people, and the three parts are that he will be faithful to the covenant, he will be faithful because he loves them, and this is his faithful, loyal covenant love. So they are to express gratitude, gratitude because God has answered their prayers and delivered them from their distress. So the leader, the political leader who is leading them in worship says, I called on Yahweh. Whenever you see L-O-R-D in uppercase, that's always translating Yahweh, the name of God. And Yahweh is associated with the covenant. So by using the name Yahweh, he is bringing to mind the promises he has made to Israel through the Mosaic covenant. and the Abrahamic covenant. So he says, I call on the Lord in distress. Now this word distress is a very picturesque word. It indicates someone who is trapped, someone who is under pressure physically. And it is a great way to describe Israel's discipline from God for their idolatry and their disobedience. But it applies to us in a way that often we are in circumstances where we feel very much under stress. We feel pressured by events and by people and by circumstances. And so we too can call upon the Lord in distress. And then he gives a response. He says, the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. Now, what's interesting is This word, broad place, is frequently used in the Old Testament to describe the open expanse of the land of Canaan, the land that God promised to Israel. So I believe what he is saying here, he answered me and brought us back to the land and set us in a broad place, that is, the land of Canaan. He then goes on to say, that we have nothing to fear because the Lord is on our side. Remember, the Lord is omnipotent and omniscient and omnipresent. And with the Lord on our side, it doesn't matter how horrible the circumstances may be. It doesn't matter how trapped you may be, feel, or how you may look at circumstances as if there's no way out, because God is for us. Paul says if God is for us, Who can be against us? He's reiterating this same doctrinal principle. So he says, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. See, it's very easy for us to start putting our eyes on circumstances and events and to become anxious or worried or fearful. But we need to redirect our gaze. We need to be focused on the Lord. In the New Testament, we talk about this as being occupied with Christ. We focus upon the Lord and let the Lord deal with the details. The greatest example in the Gospels is when Peter is walking on the water, and then the waves come along, and he puts his focus on the waves and off of the Lord, and then he begins to sink. The waves represent the pressures, the stresses of life. And with Israel in the Old Testament, the worst thing that ever happened to them was that they were removed from the land through these horrible military defeats, eventuating in the destruction of the temple. So, the psalmist says, the Lord is on my side, the Lord is on the side of Israel. I will not fear. What can man do to me? No human being, no human army, no human event is greater than the power of God. And God may allow us to go through certain difficult circumstances. Sometimes it's the result of our own bad decisions, and God allows that to happen. If God allowed each of us to go through the consequences of our bad decisions, we would all be incredibly miserable. God in His grace often takes away those consequences. They don't happen, and we're just so grateful for that. Sometimes God lets us go through some of the consequences, but they become intensified because that's the divine discipline that is piled on top of those individual circumstances. And other times we're just suffering because we're living in a fallen world. We have leaders that are corrupt. We have leaders that are fallen, leaders that make bad decisions for bad reasons. and we are going to suffer by association with those leaders, and that frequently happens. But we have to ultimately realize that if we die, then we're face to face with the Lord, and God will forever take care of us. So verse seven says, the Lord is for me, and he is among those who help me. And this is the Hebrew verb azar, which comes from the noun, which is related to the noun ezer, which is what the woman is to be to her husband. The wife is to be an ezer to her husband, and she is to help him and assist him in pursuing the task that God has set before him in whatever way that is. that they become, the husband is part of the wife's mission. That doesn't mean that she can't do other things, but her God-given mission is to take care of her husband and enable him to do what God wants him to do without distraction. So God is also in need. See, feminists came along and say, oh, what you just said about women being a helper to the husband, putting the husband first, that's just a bunch of misogynistic chauvinism. No, it's not. That's how God designed us. God designed men to be one way and women to be another way, and he tells us how we are to function in our roles because he knows how he designed us, and he designed us to function in these specific and different roles. And they say, well, that's belittling for the woman to be assigned the role of an assistant. Well, God is our helper and our assistant. So to compare the woman's role as an assistant to what God does for us is a pretty elevating, honoring concept. It's not a belittling concept at all. So in these next two verses, we have an emphasis on trust. Now, the way it's translated in the New King James is it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. And then he repeats it, it's better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. The word translated trust is a word that means to take refuge, to take refuge. It's better to take refuge in the Lord. And the second word translated confidence is the word batakh, which has that emphasis of trust, relying upon something or depending upon something. So it should be translated, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put trust or confidence or reliance upon man. We have an election year coming up. I know you didn't know that. A lot of people think, well, we need to have this election turn out a certain way because we have so many problems, we need to change so many leaders, and we need to go in the right direction. Well, that's true. There's nothing wrong with that. But we have to keep it in perspective, and that is that God has a plan, and it may be that God is bringing judgment upon the United States because as a culture we have rejected God, and because as a culture we are pursuing everything that God is against, and we are at enmity with God. Those who love the world are the enemies of God, Scripture says. And so God may be bringing judgment and divine discipline upon our nation through these various things that we see. In fact, what we see, if you read through Romans chapter 1, is that homosexuality and gender confusion are part of judgment. They are not the cause of judgment, they are the result. They are judgment because we have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness. So we are to take refuge in the Lord and not take refuge in man or political systems or political parties. We have to be involved. We have to make the best decisions we can. We need to vote. We need to do more than that sometimes. We just had primary here in Texas. And so it's an opportunity to get involved with your precinct chairman and see if they have openings to be a representative at the Senate meeting. the next couple of meetings leading up to the party conventions in the summer. Last week during the conference, I ran into my precinct chairwoman at the restaurant where we were eating, and she said, oh, do you want to be a representative this time? Because I've been a representative a couple of times in the past. And when I got home, I thought, I need to make sure that I'm going to be in town. When are the dates of these different She gave me the dates, and I said, well, I'm going to be out of town both times, so I'm not going to be able to. But I mentioned this one time many years ago, and I was pleased that I had a number of people, because there's so few people who go vote at the primaries, that they'll come out of the primaries in maybe your precinct and send 20 people Or maybe they can send 10 people and they had one show up at the precinct meeting or two. So there'll probably be openings. And I was pleased to see a number of people who listen online who were around the state who went to their various conventions. So that gives you an opportunity to be involved at a grassroots level. You're not putting your ultimate hope and trust in government or in people or in princes. but you're recognizing that this is a government that necessitates the responsible involvement of citizens, and that we should be involved in that way. So the writer, the psalmist goes on to say, all nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. Now this is a fascinating little section here. Because when you look at these verses in 10, 11, and 12, what you will see is the statements ending with the phrase, I will destroy them. Three times I will destroy them. They are destroyed in the name of the Lord, but we have to understand what is this destruction? Now, there are a lot of words in Hebrew because there are a lot of battles and a lot of wars. So there's a lot of words in Hebrew that talk about The ways in which you can smite the enemy, hit the enemy, kill the enemy, all kinds of words. This is a very interesting word. This is the word moil. A couple people know what moil means. Moil means to circumcise. A mohel, the noun, is the rabbi who performs the ritual of circumcision on an infant. So let's think about this a minute. All nations surround me, but in the name of the Lord, I will circumcise them. Now, this never happened in history. You don't have a battle where everybody pulls out their little scalpel and goes around circumcising the enemy. Now, we know there's one instance where that's what David did, because Saul said, I want you to bring me a thousand foreskins from the Philistines. But that's not what this is talking about. Three times it says this. And this word, moil, means to circumcise. And we find it in passages like Deuteronomy 10, 16 and 30, verse 6, that are not talking about a physical circumcision, but a spiritual circumcision. So you see, this takes it out of the realm of the human leader, or the Israelite army in the ancient world, and is a type or picture of what the Messiah will do when he comes, and he is surrounded by the nations, which will occur in the campaign of Armageddon, and he will circumcise spiritually the nations. which means that he is, the word circumcision has to do with, it's a ritual that reflects a turning to God. And so he will bring them to God. So what you have here is Deuteronomy 10, 16, circumcise the foreskin of your heart. This is the idea that they were to not just go through the external physical ritual, but they were also to, that this reflected what should be happening spiritually And that is a spiritual turning to God. We often refer to this as repentance, which repentance has that idea of changing your mind. But in the Old Testament, you have this idea of a shoe to turn back to God. That's what's pictured in circumcision, turning to God. And so this is talked about in Deuteronomy 10, 16 and Deuteronomy 30, verse six. and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live." So this is talking about something that will occur in the future when the Messiah returns to establish his reign. Psalm 118, 10 to 12 here emphasizes also this phrase, in the name of the Lord, three times. So it is done on the basis of the character of God. Name of the Lord emphasizes His character. Verses 13 and 14, the writer talks about the discipline that they received. You pushed me violently. Who's the you? The you represents the nations. So you go back here, all the nations surrounded me. They, that is the nation, surrounded me in verses 11 and 12. And so you pushed me violently that I might fall. These nations that attacked Israel brought them almost to destroy their very existence. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but Yahweh Helped me again. You have that emphasis on yahweh as our helper and then he praises yahweh is my strength and song and he's become my Salvation now most of the time in the psalms when you have the word Yasha, which is the hebrew word for for saved It just like the sozo in the greek It not only means to be saved spiritually That is that what we talk about is justification, reconciliation, to be saved eternally. But many times in scripture, these words indicate a physical deliverance. They can be used of healing. So in most of the time in the Psalms, I would say north of 98% of the time in the Psalms, Yahshua, the word to save, means a physical deliverance from some some circumstances or from a military defeat. So the Lord is my strength and song and he has become my deliverer, my deliverance. He is talking about he delivered, they were in captivity, they were under divine judgment and God delivered them and brought them back to the land. And he expands on that in verses 15 through 18. He says, the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. Now, were they living in tents in Jerusalem before they were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon? No, they had great houses. They were made of stone. They were made of wood. But when they came back, there was nothing. They lived in tents for a while. So this also reinforces the idea that this was after the exile. The voice of rejoicing salvation is in the tense of the righteous. Righteous are those who have trusted in the salvation promise of God in the Old Testament, and like Abraham, they have been declared righteous. Genesis 15, 6, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him as righteousness. So it's talking about the believers who are rejoicing in the fact that God has delivered them, brought them back to Jerusalem. And he says, the right hand of God, this often speaks of God's omnipotence, His power. The right hand of God, the omnipotence of God is exalted. And the right hand of the Lord does valiantly. And then he says, I shall not die. See, they thought that it was the end of the nation. They were out of the land. It was over with. They would never come back. There was no future for Israel. They were in this in despair. They were despondent and they were going to make it just have to suck it up and make a new home out of the land. But God miraculously brought them back to the land. And where there was no nation, a nation was born again, just like what we saw in the last century with Israel being restored as a nation in 1948. So the psalmist is saying for the people, we could translate it, it would show our interpretation, he would say, we shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely. See, that only fits with that period of the exile. But He has not given me over to death. They expected that that was the end, that they had been totally destroyed. But God brought them back. And so now we have a focus on this processional going up to the temple, and they're focusing on what God has done, what God has provided for them. So here it is antiphonal the priest will say one thing the people will answer And you just you can't read it as if it's all just the the writer talking of himself So the people come to the gate and they it's like coming to the front door of church, but it's different because they have a there were Levites at the gate that you had to be able to demonstrate that you were qualified to come into worship, that you had brought the right sacrifices, that you were a righteous person, you were a believer in the promise of God. And so that's what it means when the people come, they say, open to me the gates of righteousness. And the gates of righteousness are the gates for the righteous people to enter. And so they would come and the gatekeepers, the Levites, would then ask them several questions. Now, how would you like that if you came to church and the ushers were standing outside at the front door and the back door and you came in? They said, well, are you a believer? How do you know that? When did you believe in Christ? Have you confessed your sins today? Are you in right relationship with the Lord? But that is in effect what the Levites were doing. You had to be qualified to come in and to worship. Most of the time they ignored that, but that was what the standard was. So the people say, open to us the gates of righteousness. I'll go through them and we'll praise the Lord. And the gatekeepers answer, this is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter. You can't come in unless you're righteous. And the people express their praise. I will praise you, God, for you have answered me and have become my salvation. So they're expressing their reason for coming to give thanks to the Lord. And then we find a verse that you will recognize as having some familiarity because it's quoted in the New Testament. This is the we've gone through this before, that there are four different ways in which Old Testament passages are cited as being fulfilled in the New Testament. Only the first one is a literal historical prophecy that was given, predictive prophecy that is literally fulfilled, such as Micah 5.2, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, or Isaiah 7.14, that a virgin would conceive and give birth to the Messiah. And so this is not that. This talks about what happened historically as they're dedicating the temple and praising God for his deliverance. But what they are saying is then taken in the New Testament and applied to the Lord. That's the second usage of the four. So the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. So you see what the picture here is of builders who are using their tools and their materials to build, but they've come to something that really doesn't look like what they want, and so they reject it. And we understand this as we address this question. The word stone then becomes rejected, but it becomes the chief cornerstone. So who are the builders? We need to ask the question, what is the stone? In context, the stone historically was Israel. Secondly, in the historical context, the nation builders or empire builders of the ancient world were the Assyrians and the Babylonians, later the Greeks. And so the builders, now that the Babylonian Empire was destroyed by the Persians, the Persians look at the Jews and they say, we can't do anything with these people. They're not significant for building an empire. Let's send them home. They're rejected. And so they go home. Nobody else was sent home. Moabites weren't sent home. Edomites weren't sent home. The Hittites weren't sent home. But the Israelites were sent home. By typology, this is applied to the Lord Jesus. Who were the builders at the time of the Lord Jesus? The Herodians, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they're trying to build their empire. And they look at Jesus and they reject him. He's the stone that is rejected. We see this in Matthew 21, 42 to 44. Now, when does this happen in Matthew 21? This happens at the time that Jesus has entered into Jerusalem on what we refer to as Palm Sunday, the Sunday before the crucifixion. And so he's being questioned by the different religious groups of religious leaders. And he responds to them, and he says, have you never read the scriptures? I just love the way he does this. He'd never read Carnegie's book on how to win friends and influence people. Because these Pharisees, all of these groups had memorized most of the Old Testament in Hebrew. And he said, haven't you read this? So it's a little insulting. He said, have you never read the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected? And see, they're rejecting him. This became the chief cornerstone or the head of the corner. This was the Lord's doing. And it is marvelous in our eyes. And then he says to them, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. Now, that doesn't mean it's going to another nation. This isn't a replacement theologian will say, see, it's taken from Israel and it's given to the church. No, it isn't. The nation that it will be given to is not the nation of Israel in 33 AD. It is the nation of Israel that calls on the name of the Lord and at the time of the second coming. Remember, because Jesus says a little later on in Matthew 23, I won't come back until I hear, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So he's saying the kingdom of God will be given to that future Jewish nation. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. So the stone, remember in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar sees this vision of this huge statue and it depicts the history of the empires, and a stone cut without hands comes and smashes the empires. That's what Jesus is talking about here. Whoever falls on this stone will be broken. So, verses 23 and 24 go on to say, this was the Lord's doing. What's the Lord's doing? The resurrection of the nation in the past at that historical event where God brought them basically back to life as a nation and restored them. It implies also the resurrection of the future, so that when Jesus is saying, this is the day the Lord made, he's not talking about some Sunday morning when you look outside, oh, it's so beautiful and nice, the temperature's great, it's not humid, this is the day the Lord has made. The day the Lord has made is a specific day in history related to God's restoration of his people. And that occurred in 538 when they were restored. Cyrus's decree sent them back to the land. And it's going to occur at the end of the tribulation when God restores the nation at the beginning of the millennium. So it sort of trivializes it and makes it a cliche. when we sing these songs. Now, there's a song, chorus, this is the day the Lord has made, but if you look at the second verse, the second verse talks about the resurrection of Christ. So the author had some idea that this is a reference to something where there's a restoration of life. In verses 25 and 26, we see the phrase, save now, I pray, O Lord, Lord I pray sin now prosperity see their return to the land. They need this prosperity Prosperity God should bless them. But what they say when they say save now in Hebrew, it's Hoshi on new When you bring that over into Greek, it's Hosanna and that's what they are saying in Matthew 21 9 Hosanna to the son of David Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Now, we have this phrase, blessed are you who come in the name of the Lord, in all of these different verses, Matthew 21.9, Mark 11.9 and 10 and Luke 13.35 and 19.38, all of these verses. But at the end of Matthew 23.39, it's the most significant because after reading, going through this list of seven or eight curses or judgments on the Pharisees, He's talking to his disciples and they're wondering, well, what's going to happen? And he says, you will see me no more until until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And he takes that right out of out of Psalm 118. And that's what will happen at the end of the tribulation. Finally, when a third of Israel escapes and they get down to the area of Basra, they will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. and the Lord will return, rescue them, and deliver them, and lead them in a victory march to destroy the armies of the Antichrist." It has that idea the Messiah was the one who would come. Daniel 9 talks about the one who will come. Here it is used by Martha in her response when Jesus says, the resurrection and the life. And she said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come. You are the one we're expecting. And so she believed him. And so then we read in verse 27, God is the Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with the cords to the horns of the altar. Now, remember. On the night before he went to the cross, when he's celebrating the Seder, the Passover meal with his disciples. It's the last thing they do before they leave is they sing Psalm 117, Psalm 118. The Hillel Psalms are Psalm 113 to 118. They would sing all of these at every major festival. But at Passover they would sing 113 to 116 at the beginning of the meal, and then at the end they'd sing 117, and if you just Turn your page, you'll see that 117 has two verses, so that was quick. And then you have Psalm 118. And just before they leave, they sing this, bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. These things on the corners of the altar are the horns. You would take, you know, think about taking an 800-pound heifer and putting it up there, and you're going to roast it. You're going to tie it down so it doesn't fall off or roll off or something like that. And so they're singing that. They've got the Lamb of God who is going to be bound to the cross in front of them. They are going to sing this and then walk to Gethsemane. Jesus will be arrested and taken to the cross. And all of this is typology is being fulfilled, has been fulfilled right before their eyes during this last week before the crucifixion. And then they close with, you are my God and I will praise you. You are my God, I will exalt you. I'll give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His mercy endures forever. And so we come now, having looked at this, getting greater appreciation for what is going on in that room as all of these Old Testament prophecies and types are coming together. And the Lord is talking to his disciples, and then they will go out and they will go to Gethsemane and go to the cross. And it was at that supper that our Lord told them, gave new meaning to elements in the Passover meal, that the bread represented his humanity. This is my body. He's saying this represents who I am in my humanity, that we are to eat the bread, which pictures taking something in and making it a part of our life. And then he talks about, takes the cup, the third cup, the cup of redemption. And he said, this cup is the new covenant of my blood, which is shed for you or given for you. As often as you drink this, do so in remembrance of me." And so the eating and the drinking is this picture of accepting Christ as our Savior, believing He is who He said He is, the Son of God, the Messiah, and that He did what He said He would do. He died on the cross for our sins. So we'll close out our service this morning by observing the Lord's Table, and I'm going to have the deacons come forward. I'm going to ask Bryce Birch to come on up as he comes forward to give thanks for the bread. Let's bow in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this time that we can pause and reflect and remember our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Look first at the bread. We know that it represents His humanity, His perfect, sinless humanity. Father, we know that He was just like us. He learned things just like us. He thirsted like we do. He hungered like we do. Everything about Him was just like us. He was tested as we are, but yet without sin. And Father, when we reflect on the whole crucifixion event when we think of our Lord and the horrible treatment, the beating and the scourging and the humiliation, the mocking that He endured. And then He was taken out and nailed to a cross and threw out all that, Father. He never once committed a sin. Rather, He asked you, Father, to forgive them. And so, Father, as we partake of this bread, we remember Lord, in his perfect, sinless humanity, and we ask that you bless this element. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. It is our custom to retain the bread until all have been served. you you When they came to the bread, our Lord took the bread, the matzah, and he broke it, passed it out to his disciples. And he said, this is my body, which is given as a substitute for you. Take and eat. Ask Greg Freehoff to please come up and return thanks for the cup. Let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, as we prepare to take the bread of the cup this morning, we're reminded of the verse in Romans that says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But even though we were born condemned, you and your mercy intervened in history and sent your son to go to the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. so that we could be redeemed once and for all, for all time, forever. And we thank you that with a simple act of faith, we could be born again and no longer condemned based upon the work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So we pray that as we prepare to take the cup, you would help us to focus our attention on our Lord's work for us on the cross. We ask that you would bless this cup to the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen. It is our custom to retain the cup until all have been served. do do The Lord then came to the third cup in the Seder meal, the cup of redemption, and he said, this is the new covenant of my blood, which is shed for you. As often as you drink this, do so in remembrance of me. As we just learned, as the disciples, before the disciples went out, they sang from Psalm 118. We sing, when I survey the wondrous cross, we'll sing the version that's on the inside of your back cover. When I survey the wondrous cross, please stand. And when we finish, I'm going to ask Greg Freehoff to please come up and dismiss us in closing prayer. On which the Prince of Glory died, Thy riches gained by countless loss, And more the debt of love. Save in the death of Christ my God, All the great things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to thee. His hands, his feet, shall bow and bow from him again. In e'er such harm and sorrow meet, For help of nature kind That will a peasant far too small A soul amazing, soul divine Demands thy support Now with me as we close our service in prayer this morning, our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much that we have another opportunity to come to worship you, to learn from your word, and to study under our pastor who's so devoted to digging out things in the word that have been hidden for so many years. And we thank you for this wonderful Psalm 118 that teaches us that you are our rock that we need to depend on you in both prosperity and adversity. We just pray that you would challenge us to keep on trusting you in all of our lives. And we ask all these things, Father, in Christ's name, amen.