This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter. This was the Lord's doing. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Beloved congregation, we have every reason to rejoice because the Lord who is the maker of heaven and earth greets us and he is the one who has redeemed us by the blood of the Lamb. As well as we celebrate the sacrament, we celebrate also communion in Christ and with one another. What joy, what peace, what unity. God is good. He's the God of our salvation and of grace. Receive now his benediction. Grace, mercy and peace be richly multiplied unto you from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Lord through the working of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's continue our worship in Psalm 230, Psalm 116. We'll sing the five stanzas, 230. ♪ For all his benefits to me ♪ ♪ How shall my soul thy grace restore ♪ ♪ In worthy thanks, O Lord, to thee ♪ ♪ Shall nations crown the blessing now ♪ I sing in awe of God, God's name, before the saints I pray, my God. Their death is precious in His sight. He has redeemed me from the grave, and in His service I delight. ♪ You can call upon God's name ♪ ♪ Before this stage you sigh, pay my due ♪ ♪ And hear my gratitude proclaim ♪ ♪ I dearly plead myself to God ♪ ♪ Learn all these things his grace prepared ♪ ♪ And join to sound his praise abroad ♪ And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. These Ten Commandments were spoken, and all of the people witnessed the thunderings and the lightnings and the flashes, the sound of the trumpet and the mountains smoking, and they trembled and stood afar off. This was at the occasion of the giving of the law first at Mount Sinai. Beloved, we ought to tremble and to fear, for the law teaches us of the majestic presence of God, and that we dare not enter into His presence in ourselves and in our sins. But in light of Mount Calvary and also the Mount of Heaven where Jesus is ascended, beloved, we can approach to God and we need not fear his wrath for Jesus Christ has borne our iniquities and borne them all the way. Jesus Christ himself tells us you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your soul. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And on these two commandments and all the law and the prophets. Let's continue our worship in song number 421. Let's sing the five stanzas 421. I will remember thee. I will remember thee. ♪ Thou shalt be ♪ ♪ Thine excellence upon my tree ♪ ♪ And thus remember me ♪ ♪ And thus remember me ♪ ♪ There's nothing that I forget ♪ ♪ Or that I can't let see ♪ ♪ And God remember thee ♪ ♪ And God remember thee ♪ ♪ Into the cross I turn my eyes ♪ ♪ And rest on Calvary ♪ ♪ All that I've done I sacrifice ♪ ♪ I must remember thee ♪ ♪ And when these failing lips grow dumb ♪ ♪ And my dead memory flee ♪ ♪ When thou shalt in thy kingdom come ♪ ♪ Then, Lord, remember me ♪ Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, what a great God you are. You remind us to remember you. in word, in song, in benediction, in greeting, in assembling together at the house of God, you remind us to remember you. In the preaching of the gospel soon we will be reminded to remember you. In the supper we shall be reminded to do this in remembrance of Jesus. Lord, we pray that our memories, our minds may be quickened to recall the things that you have done and especially in the person of your son to reflect with gratitude on the very memory of the things he has done. We pray, Father, to remember the Word that speaks of the things that He is doing and You are, through Him, doing, providing for good for all those who love You, leading them to glory. We pray also that You would remind us to remember the things that the Word says He shall do and you in him will come with clouds of glory soon, and there will be the establishment of new heavens and new earth. The future is so bright, so lovely, the glorious hope of the appearing of the Son of God. Lord, we remember this, though, this past week we've forgotten you. We have lost the sense, the spiritual sensitivity of just what it is to be children of God. We found our identity in things, in other persons, in our goals and careers or hopes and fears even. Fears have identified us. We with them, we've been locked into a perspective, not of faith, but of unbelief. We're sorry, Lord, we confess our sins, our lack of memory, our lack of attention, our lack of willingness and love, willingness to serve and love to serve the God whom we love and know and who remembers us in mercy. So we plead, Father, remember us in mercy now as we confess our sins to one another, as we confess that we are those who would rather sleep in than do anything else, maybe, or we would rather enjoy the things of this earth instead of being zealous for your kingdom and often in prayer. God, we pray that you would bless so that this service in preaching and in sacrament serves, and we might serve you and love you and grow in you. We pray your blessing, your blessing upon the whole flock. As we pray, we're thankful for the whole flock that you've given. We're sinners and saints, we're all together. Those who are weak, those who are strong, those who are of different size and different age and different background and different nationality and ethnicity, you are God. And you are the God of this congregation. You've gathered us together, you have, not our choosing but yours, to be one and to pursue together the glory of God here. to be faithful in preaching and in desiring faithful preaching. Godly elders, godly deacons, and godly men of God in the pulpit, we pray that your blessing would rest upon this ministry, this church, and upon the heads of homes, whether single or heads of families. We pray your blessing and with gratitude upon good men. and good women as well with those men, and who stand behind them and next to them, who are the beauty of the home as Christ Jesus shines in them, and who are those who help in great ways in the raising of the children. We thank you for the children, the godly seed. We thank you for the covenant promise, and you bless read and learn that way. And those who have the gift of reading the signs of the time may learn and read that way. Those who have good experience and who daily in the ordinary things of life would have wisdom, we pray for wisdom. And all of us, Father, may we be disciples, learners that way, sitting at Jesus' feet learning from what you're saying in your providences, what you give and what you take away, what you're not doing. May we learn this. May we learn, Father, from the Word of God and also from the silence, for it addresses not everything in the details we'd like to have it, because we're called to wisdom and to conclude and make godly conclusions in light of the great and all-sufficient Word that it is. God bless each and every one in the office of all believers. We're called here to be champions, nobility of the King. May we show this Lord in our worship this day, frequenting the house of God, loving you and one another, growing and growing so that we can pray throughout the week for one another. For those in distress and those in trial and need, we pray, we pray, Father, that you would bless those who are shut in here at this church as well. Evan Runner, we pray that you would bless him and cause, Father, that the quarantine may be lifted. He could enjoy visits. He could be stimulated in his mind and heart in the things of God. We pray, Father, for those of our midst who are sick and are afflicted in one way or another with infirmities of youth or middle age or old age, it doesn't matter. Those who are lonely, we pray for them. Those in the rest homes, Father, who are especially lonely because of the quarantines and the pandemic. God, have mercy. Have mercy upon them. Give them your visits every day. May they call upon you and know your peace. Lord, in this tumultuous time, may we all know your peace. In these evil times, may we know your goodness and be good. May we know especially the man of sorrows who was given for our transgressions, raised for our justification, Jesus Christ the righteous, Jehovah our righteousness, God in flesh appearing and God in flesh dying for our sins and living ever to make intercession for us. Hear our prayers and guide us in the way of peace and righteousness for Jesus' sake. Amen. Man of sorrows, what a name. ♪ With shame and scoffing moved ♪ ♪ With my place found empty stood ♪ ♪ Sealed my pardon with its blood ♪ ♪ Alleluia, what a Savior ♪ ♪ Lifted up was he to die with his finished body ♪ ♪ Now in heav'n exalted higher ♪ ♪ Alleluia, what a Savior! ♪ ♪ When he comes, our glorious King, ♪ ♪ All his grandson home to bring, ♪ ♪ Then a new, new song we'll sing, ♪ ♪ Alleluia, what a Savior! ♪ Now to form the basis for our sermon this morning, we would read from two passages as we consider in this Lenten season the passion of Jesus Christ. From the perspective of Isaiah 53, we're going to read from the first verses of that passage. Also, I'd like to link this to the activities themselves and the events of the Passion Week itself. So we're going to turn to the Gospel according to Mark as well. First we'll read from Isaiah 53 and the first six verses. Who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's as far as we'll read in Isaiah. Let's turn now to Mark chapter 14. And this is the week of the Passion, the night before Jesus goes to the cross and after Jesus has been teaching His disciples. and they're about to celebrate the Passover meal and also to institute the Lord's Supper. Mark 14, 16. So his disciples went out and came into the city of Jerusalem and found it just as he'd said to them, and they prepared the Passover. In the evening he came with the twelve. Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with me will betray me. And you note here how the suffering of the man of sorrows is brought out in the narratives of his suffering in this last week of his life on earth. One of you who eats with me will betray me. And they began to be sorrowful. They did. And to say to him one by one, is it I? And another said, is it I? See, they're all knowing their own natural depravity. And he answered and said to them, it's one of the 12 who dips with me in the dish. The son of man indeed goes just as it is written of him. But woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed. It would have been good for that man if he'd never been born. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to them and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup. When he'd given thanks, he gave it to them. They all drank from it. And he said to them, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many. Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God. And when they'd sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. And I'm going to be wanting to focus on that singing of the hymn as one of my points. Then Jesus said to them, All of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee. Peter said to him, Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be. Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times. But he spoke more vehemently, If I have to die with you, I will not deny you. And they all said likewise." Thus far we read the narrative of Jesus suffering as the man of sorrows for our salvation. And again we're going to take as our text here Isaiah 53, where Jesus is said to be the man of sorrows, in verse 3. There are two things that the Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets writing their prophecies, spoke of. The first, the sufferings of Christ. The second, the glory that should follow those sufferings of Christ. Two things. Peter tells us that, 1 Peter 1. Right here in Isaiah 53, we have them all, all the sufferings of Christ foretold and the glory that should follow. Isaiah 53, a monument of the gospel. In fact, some have even said it's a fifth gospel besides Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It's no prophecy. It's so clearly revealed and clearly speaking of Jesus, we have the gospel here. Others have said it's Mount Everest, the Mount Everest of prophecy. One writing says that Isaiah wrote as if he wrote beneath the cross. I love that. In fact, all of the prophets were writing as beneath the cross, but Isaiah at chapter 53 was very close to the cross. And therefore, this chapter is dear to our hearts. We are called to believe and rejoice in the report that Isaiah brings. And sadly, very few believe, and that's what we considered last time, who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Thank God He's given us faith. The only problem now we have with this is to take to heart the things that Isaiah is teaching over and over again. We show our waywardness. We're not taking to heart the things of the gospel. Martin Luther, in his own inimitable way, said that his catechumens were to memorize Isaiah, memorize it by heart. Now, beloved, your 21st century Luther, I suppose, though I pretend not to be as him, but a prophet indeed, urges us to take it to heart. Take to heart what now we would hear of Jesus, and in these sermons of Lent and the Passion Week, we take to heart everything, and especially now that Jesus is the man of sorrows. I want to consider that especially, but we're going to move on, of course, to the salvation that He affects through His sorrows, and then that supper that was instituted in the night of His sorrows before He went to Gethsemane and then when He went to the cross. Something unique there that speaks to us of the suffering of Jesus and His sorrows, but also of His salvation. Then that song, that remarkable song, the only one recorded that Jesus ever sang, and it's also recorded in Matthew 26, the same song, the night he was betrayed, the night he was going to the cross. So we hear of the sorrows, the man of sorrows, we consider this, and we consider first his sorrows, then the salvation, the supper, and the song. It is striking that Isaiah speaks of this distinction that Jesus has as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. This is the center of this whole passage narrating the truth of the Messiah. over which many stumble, but of which many are glad to draw near to the truth of his sorrowing and his being acquainted with grief. in our griefs, in our joys in life, we're the ones who are drawn to the man of sorrows who is the Savior and who has empathy with us in our sorrows. But He's the man. He's the man. Now, this is remarkable. And It's remarkable because the Messiah, of whom evidently Isaiah is speaking, needs be God. He needs be God. And everywhere in the Scriptures, Old Testament and New Testament, we need a Messiah, that's a Savior children, who must be God. And our catechism and other faithful catechisms remind us of the truth of the divinity of Christ. But here He is laid out in all of His humanity as a man, as the man even of sorrows. It doesn't sound like God to be a man and to be a man of sorrows. But here He is. He's Jesus and we know from the rest of the Bible He's God with us. and that great is the mystery of godliness, God is manifest in the flesh. Our Savior is God, but we have no Savior. He is God Most High, but here shown to be someone who is condescended, some God who is remarkably condescended to become a man. The truth of Philippians chapter 2, being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God was made in the likeness of man, took upon him the form of a servant. This amazing prophecy is a song of the servant of Jehovah that Jesus became in the incarnation in flesh. But He's God, but He is also this man and He is this Messiah man, this servant of the Lord man who does the bidding of God as God in the flesh. now to be the perfect Savior. He must be God to save sinners. He must be a man to relate to them, to satisfy the justice of God that they had to satisfy, but He does in their place. He does this as the perfect kinsman-redeemer that the Bible calls the Goel, the redeemer of men from among men. But here what's brought out is that he's a man of sorrows, pains, griefs, and he's so full of these sorrows that he's acquainted with the grief of the sorrows so that, as it were, he brings them home to him. They are his home. He never is absent from the sorrows, nor they from Him. Griefs and pains stick to Him, and they're a part of His very constitution, as it were, as a human being. His being as human is full of sorrows. You see, it's not just He has some sorrows. It's not just he has some sorrows at all, but he is full of sorrows. You could change, as one has said, you could change his name from Jesus, I suppose, to Sorrows, or from Man of Sorrows just to Sorrows. He's just about Sorrows in the plural. And so, this is what we're led to think about here in this text and at the time of Jesus' demise, His suffering unto death. The effects of sin, that's what He's bearing here. That's what He's involved in. This man of sorrows in this world of sorrows. in which troubles rise up as the sparks fly upward when the fire is burning. He's full of these sorrows for sin, the consequences of them, the diseases as well. Some have even noted the fact that Matthew says when he heals of our transgressions, it was fulfilled, this prophecy, that he was bruised for, that he was one who was bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows." Verse 4. He's involved in this world and its effects. He will not be exempt from them in His humanity that is wonderfully joined to His divinity. He will become this complete man like us, sin accepted But also, in this exceptional way, he will be the man of sorrows, and there will be no sorrows like his sorrows, as Jeremiah laments in Lamentations. He's a singular man of sorrows. There is this outstanding one in our text here and in the Word made flesh who is full of these sorrows. They are something that is seen. People see his sorrows. That's why they run from him. They cower from him. We hid our faces from him. We esteemed him not, says the prophet. There's something about this ugliness of sin sorrows and diseases that is all over Jesus. Now, to be sure, let's remember this. Our Lord is glorious. The Bible teaches us everywhere that Jesus is the Lord of glory. His is the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He is the fairest of ten thousand, of whose glory we sing. This is our Jesus. But in His visage, in his countenance, in his marred appearance as the sin-bearer and the consequences of sin-bearing Savior, he is this man of sorrows, and it's ugly, beloved, it's ugly. He's not, but he is not to be desired because of the ugly sin and even the wrath of God for that sin that he's bearing. You see, when people see Jesus, when they saw him in his humiliation, they saw someone who was this one who was bearing our sins and bearing them all away, but he was bearing the wrath in bearing them all away, the wrath of God. Always he was the man of sorrows. Always he was the one who was this man of sorrows so that it characterized him completely. And in his being weighed down by the sorrows, this man of sorrows, even according to the psalmist, became like a worm crushed by the sorrows, the weight of the wrath of God. A worm and no man, Psalm 22. He became one who was this one who is going to hell soon. And this is the context in Mark chapter 14. The next day Jesus goes from earth to hell in bearing the agonies of the cross. The psalmist speaks of these in Psalm 22 to which I alluded. And I would just like to read some of the verses of this psalm and also Psalm 69. But Psalm 22 in the first place, the very first verse of which is the fourth word of the cross. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me and from the words of my groaning? You see his sorrows. His sorrows were from being, as he's bearing sin, pushed away from the presence of the God and Father he loves. He calls Him, my God, my God, no longer able to sense that God is his Father on the cross, but also in all of his life there was this trouble of being pushed away by God. Verse 6, But I am a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. And verses 7 and 8, All those who see me ridicule me, they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted in the Lord, let him rescue him, let him deliver him, since he delights in him. Verse 16 through 18, For dogs have surrounded me, the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me, they've pierced my hands and my feet, I can count all my bones. They look and stare at me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. 20 and 21, deliver me from the sword, my precious life, and the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth, from Satan, and from the horns of the wild oxen. Go to Psalm 69, another messianic song of the sufferings of Messiah. Save me, O God, Psalm 69, 1, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no standing. I have come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I'm weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. They are mighty who would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully. Though I've stolen nothing, I still must restore it. Seven through nine, because for your sake I've borne reproach, shame has covered my face. I've become a stranger to my brothers and an alien to my mother's children. Because zeal for your house has eaten me up and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. And on and on we could go. But you get the point. This Jesus, this man of sorrows is described here in all the prophecy of the Psalms as being maligned and misunderstood. And as Isaiah points out, not believed. Hebrews points out, contradicted this Word of God, this truth of God, so that He's called a Lord of dung, Beelzebub, Lord of waste. He's called a nothing. He's called a vain fellow, even a demon, and a demon's helper. And in fact, no one could help Him. nor would he help himself. He would bear our griefs and sorrows, because he's the man of sorrows on a mission, acquainted with grief, and he would be fully acquainted with our grief and our sorrows. Now, beloved, the result of this, being a man of sorrows, is not that people delighted in Him, as I said, but they rejected Him. In fact, the sorrows themselves could be called stumbling block sorrows. Every one of the sorrows of Jesus which marred Him, and spoke of God visiting sin for wrath was something from which people recoiled naturally. It spoke of their aversion to having to deal with their own sin. It spoke of God's wrath, and they didn't want to deal with God's wrath and holiness. They wanted to avoid Him. They were uncomfortable. They were, in fact, so uncomfortable they changed the narrative. They would say, well, these must be his sins for God, for God is punishing him. So just like Job's miserable comforters, Job, the most righteous man in the world, was called by his friends a sinner because surely God wouldn't punish someone like Job and visit him with such powerful chastisements unless he had some hidden sin. And this is what they said of Jesus. These people, in fact, would not believe the report of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the man of sorrows he needs to be in order to be the savior of sinners. They would not believe that report, and they are those who stumble over the stumbling block, which is suffering Messiah. Oh, beloved, gladly Jesus did not stumble Though He was Himself grieved and sorrowful, He did not stumble, He saved us." That's the gospel of the man of sorrows. The man of sorrows saves sinners. And of this we'll speak more at length as we continue to consider Isaiah 53. But just say a few things we would at this time. The man of sorrows is the man of salvation. Yes, indeed. In fact, Isaiah brings out clearly that his salvation is accomplished by his stripes. We are healed just by his stripes, not by anything plus his stripes, but just by his stripes, the mark of the whips on his back. the nail holes, his suffering and dying for sin, just by that we are saved. We're forgiven. There's this accomplishment of what had to be done, the satisfaction of God. Jesus Christ is the Word to God, that God must be God, and I will glorify God, and God is glorified in all that Jesus does to save sinners to the uttermost. And so, it is the case. It is accomplished. And this, of course, we know, and we know also as the great work of God for us on our behalf. Jesus is the substitute for sinners. Substitutionary atonement is front and center in Isaiah and the Gospel of Isaiah 53. For us is this God who is wonderfully above us and mysterious and awesome. He's for us, beloved. That's the sorrows of the man of sorrows. They're for us. The tears are shed for you. The blood is shed. The body is broken for you on your behalf in your place. All by the grace of God. And we know this. Because the arm of the Lord in Jesus. the broken arm, we could say, but the almighty arm that's become our salvation. is revealed to us and we are enlightened. That's why the salvation that's celebrated in Isaiah 53 is celebrated by persons who are being very personal in their acknowledgment of the man of sorrows. You note all the times, and children you could do this too. You could write this down and you could talk about this after the sermon All the time is the words we are used and our is used to identify the people who are responding well to this Word of God. There's people who have not believed our report, many who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed. But then it goes on, does the text to speak of we, who esteemed him not, we regarded him as a sinner, but then we who are suddenly made aware of the fact that all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We're made aware, and this is what salvation is all about, first thing, of our sin. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Everyone to his own way, scattered. As Jesus reminds the disciples, when the shepherd is smitten, the sheep will be scattered. The ones who say, is it I, are the ones who betray him. Not just Judah, Judas, but all the disciples betray him in one way or another. So you have this remarkable revelation, an arm that seems powerless, but it's revealed to them. Jesus is revealed to those people who say, yes, He's wounded for our transgressions, and we needed this because we're the sheep that have gone astray. What a wonderful, wonderful revelation. I pray that as we suddenly or soon go to the table, you would take this to heart. This table is for sinners, but sinners who know they're forgiven and sinners who love the Lord Jesus, the man of sorrows. You're a sinner, saved sinner. Remember the word of God here, the man of sorrows, the man of our salvation. But he's also the man of the supper. He's the man of this wonderful supper that's instituted the night he's betrayed. And now we go, of course, to Mark 14 and again some brief observations about this. At this time, Jesus is doing things, as it were, to set his house in order, his house being the church. He's preached to them of the many things that are to come, and the glorious Holy Spirit is to be poured out and will comfort them. They need not be afraid. Jesus is going to his Father's place, and he's going to prepare many mansions of glory, and then to come again for them. But there's many things to be feared in the future, namely persecution and persecutioners. And so they have to be forewarned. It's going to come. They hated you, or they hated me and therefore they'll hate you. And so He's teaching them all these kinds of things. He's establishing for them, you see, a pattern that they are to follow to remember all this. Teaching. They're to teach on His behalf. The church is to teach on Jesus' behalf. And then he institutes the supper, the means of grace. He gives another way whereby the people of his good pleasure, for whom he's the man of sorrows, can enter into fellowship increasingly with him. This is what the supper and the instruction of Jesus is all about. We are those for whom Jesus died, not only for whom, but in whom Jesus is, after all. This is what the supper is all about. This amazing identification of the Savior with us and we with Him. It's the Holy Spirit's presence and Jesus' presence in the Holy Spirit that is symbolized, sacramentalized in the supper. And so we can understand here Christ in us. We're taken into his fellowship. That's the point of the supper. We have fellowship identity in Jesus, not just in our sexuality, Certainly not in our sin, though we have sin all over the place, and this grieves us. We become men of sorrows, as it were. But our identity is Jesus. He is the one who gives us a name, Christian, follower of me. We are ones who are forgiven. This is the communion we have with Him. Besides that, we are given also to partake of His own sufferings, not atoningly, but to fellowship with Him in His suffering so that we're dead to sin. We writhe against it. We take up our cross. We fellowship with Him in His life. And again, Isaiah 53 is a champion prophecy of the life and success and the prosperity of Jesus who dies, who is risen now, and for whom his people now live in their service of him. So the man of sorrows is the man of salvation for us and of a supper that celebrates his life in us and his truth in us. But then, finally, there's a song. There's a song that the disciples sang with him. In Mark 14, in verse 26, we read, when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. I don't think it is a huge and certainly not a far-fetched step to bring this song that was sung on the night Jesus was betrayed as part of His sorrows into a sermon like this. What was sung here is most likely parts of the book of what's called the Hallel Psalms, from which we get hallelujah, which means praise God. They're called redemptive songs in the book, one of the five books of the Psalms that the Hebrews used. They sang one of these on Palm Sunday, Psalm 118. In fact, that's the last of the Hallel Psalms, Psalm 113, 114, 115, 116, and 117, and 118, six of them. And they speak of the redemptive work of God in saving them from Egypt, the salvation that he affects, which humbles them all, but which also gives them great encouragement. Jesus was singing this song, and the disciples with him. You see, what is distinguished in Isaiah 53 is a man, one man, from all other men and women and children, one man, he's outstanding. But now at this point in the actual playing out of his sufferings, the night he's betrayed, he's about to go to the cross. There's a people who themselves have been pricked in their hearts to wonder if it's them who would betray him and who would betray him. A people, nevertheless, that's singing with him the Hallel. In them has been worked, in fact, faith and communion, so that the communion has been real to them, a communion with their Savior, whom they hardly understood and would not until the Spirit was poured out. You see what Jesus is doing. having taught them, having instituted the supper for them and for the church of all ages, as 1 Corinthians reminds us, it's for the church of all ages as his preaching. What he's doing for them is he's giving them to know in their heart what Isaiah has said. They are to learn this not only by heart, but in the heart. They are to be God's people, really, and not just with some vain profession, and not just when it's easy, but when it's hard, when it takes courage, and in the sorrows of life, when we're tempted to forget this man of sorrows and to say, what's the use? He wants us to take it to heart. And so, He works in His disciples to sing as never, ever before, the Hallel. How could they not sing this? Those for whom this supper was instituted, who drank the cup in remembrance of Him that first Lord's Supper night. How could they not have been pricked in their hearts of and by the Holy Spirit of whom Jesus spoke and of the truths of the kingdom to come? Now they were singing. They were singing the songs of Psalm 116, for example, where Jesus says, I love the Lord because he's heard my voice and my supplications, because he's inclined his ear to me. Therefore, I will call upon him as long as I live. The pains of death surrounded me and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord. Oh, Lord, I implore you, deliver my soul. And then this. I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of His people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, is the death of Jesus." Psalm 116. Psalm 118, you see, mixed then with the man of sorrow's sorrowing. is this confidence of deliverance, this confidence of the Father's lifting Him up from the grave and of salvation. And of this somehow, those disciples who would flee like sheep were beginning to understand. And they would remember when Jesus rose, the spirits poured out, they would sing. So, beloved, I leave you with this. If we would understand the man of sorrows and his salvation and his supper communion, we need to sing the song. We need to sing the song. And we need to do that in a world which is changing the whole narrative of life, of history, and of the gospel. If Jesus is the man of sorrows, and He is, Men would celebrate men of sorrows, that is, they would be more concerned with men of sorrows and correcting those sorrows and those diseases and those injustices. Men of sorrows, this is what the world is all about. Men with rights to be delivered from their sorrows and so instead of the man of sorrows who is the man of salvation and reconciliation with God. They celebrate man's salvation and vaccines and government payouts and all the policies of peace that men come up with. If indeed there would be a communion At the table in the church there will be another communion, the communion of man in the cause of man, from which we will be dissociated and expelled, and increasingly this is the case. There is no room in the narrative of men for the man of sorrows, his salvation, and the communion of the saints in the church of Jesus Christ. There is no communion either with God or the church among those who are rewriting the narrative. And if, in fact, the children of God sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, who have joy in the Holy Ghost, there are those who sing the song of self. They write and compose things that would imagine religion out of the way, and they would despise Jesus that way in their singing of themselves, in fact, in their whole culture. And here, beloved, is what I want to leave you with. Have a culture. Cultivate a life. of song and joy and righteousness and true peace in the Holy Ghost as a result of the man of sorrows and of the salvation of the man of sorrows and of the supper communion. Sing that song. Live that life. Rejoice in that Messiah. Sing the song of hope. And may you be exhilarated, as yours truly is, as we continue on until Jesus comes again, and we all drink and we sup with Him in that communion of the marriage feast of the Lamb. Amen.