Please be seated. Our sermon this morning is from Psalm 105. I'll start the reading at verse five. And go through verse 12. Psalm 105, verse five through verse 12. Remember his wonders which he has done. His marvels and the judgments uttered by his mouth. O seed of Abraham, his servant. O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. He has remembered his covenant forever. The word which he commanded to a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham in his oath to Isaac. Then he confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, to you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance. When they were only a few men in number, very few, and strangers in it, and they wandered about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, he permitted no man to oppress them, and he reproved kings for their sakes. Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Pray with me. Father, help us now and bless us now as we seek you. Help us to understand who we are within your covenant. Help us to see us, see ourselves as your children, as members of a household that you will be being glorified. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen. It is a particular honor to be a member of an honorable house And the culture that I grew up in, my grandfather Amos was someone who was exalted, not always for great reasons. But when I could walk into a hospital room and visit a man, an old man, and the first time he saw me, he would look at me and say, there's a man that needs no introduction. And I'd ask, how's that, sir? Have we met? And he said, if you're not Amos' kin, I'll kiss your foot. The way I walked, the way I carried myself, the structure of my face made it clear that I was Amos Hammock's grandson. I was recognizable. We look at the scripture and we see that there is a household that those who are in Christ are a part of. greater than the household of Amos Hammock, greater than any household or father that you have had. In fact, to a degree, our names are taken away and you and I are engrafted into something very different, something that can't even be changed by the fall of a father. You and I are brought into a household that is certain and secure. It is called God's household. God's family that you and I are brought into as members. But with anything where there is great grace, there's also great judgment. There is a power and there is a presence to the household of God that you and I are brought into. We see that as God deals with people, he does so with a powerful and stark grace, but also a powerful and a stark judgment in the world that those who will trust in Christ are saved to the utmost forever and ever. But those who will reject him, are condemned forever and ever. There is a certainty of that. We see that as God's promises are sweet, his curse is bitter. As his promise is life, his curse is death. As his promise is eternal life, his curse is eternal damnation. There are consequences when we would be walking contrary to God's law. That is, walking contrary to life. And what would we expect if we walk contrary to blessing? Other than curse. Other than sorrow. Other than grief. So we are looking at God's household, and the call for you this morning is to walk as God's child. or even to walk as God's friend. Our first step, number one, is remember God's judgments. Can it ever be right to forget his judgments? The certainty of his justice, the certainty that he will leave no sin unpunished. Look with me at verses six and seven. God speaks to us even in the midst of the covenant of grace. O seed of Abraham, his servant. O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Him looking and seeing and declaring, this is life and blessing. This is death and curse. He looks on mankind, and since the fall, this has been the reality. God started off the world in the covenant of works, that is, obey me and live. Obey me and be blessed. That was the covenant, that was man's relationship with God. Hosea 6-7, describing the church, or describing Israel at that time, but like Adam, They have transgressed the covenant. God said, I made a relationship. I have told you what this relationship looks like. You have broken it. God goes on to say, they have dealt treacherously against me, Adam. A covenant breaker. Romans 12, five, or five, 12, rather, tells us that in Adam's sin, all mankind fell into this death. How is that the case? There was a covenant, there was an arrangement, but it was broken. Well, who broke it? Well, Adam broke it. Who broke it? Man. Adam was man. Who broke it? Mankind. Adam is a part of mankind. That is the kind we are. We are the kind that breaks covenant. That is mankind. We sin, we fall short of the glory of God. There is no one who pursues God. At the time when we were given the choice to obey him, mankind has always said no and broken the covenant. Even when Jesus had come into the world, John 3, 19, this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world. And men loved darkness rather than light, for their deeds were evil. Now, maybe you would look at this and say, but wait a second, Jesus came and he preached and some people followed him. People listened to his preaching, but what about when it came to the end? when they had made their oaths, or their vows, saying, I will go with you even to death. I will follow you no matter what. When he was arrested, even all of the disciples left him. They all ran. Oath breakers. Vow breakers. Covenant breakers. Now, in case we were to look and say, well, those were the Jews. That's the way they operated. Romans 3, 9 through 10, what then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks, or Gentiles, that's us, are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. In reading through 2 Thessalonians, Chapter two, verses 10 through 12, it describes us as not loving life, but rather taking pleasure in wickedness. Consider your own sin and how that lines up with that. Rather than loving life, taking pleasure in wickedness. That's a hard pill to swallow for me. I wanna say I love life. I wanna say I love things that are good, But yet when I look at the temptations that will pull me away, I have to admit when I yield to those, when I give myself to them, I'm actually loving wickedness. And I am rejecting the life that has been given. This puts us in that place where we are in need of mercy because of our prideful exaltation. Now we're going to look now and we're going to look at the two kingdoms. There's a technical theological term attached to that and I'm not using it in that sense. I'm using as the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. One is a self-exaltation as the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of Satan. The other is a leaning into and a trusting in grace. One is a A self-reliance, that's the kingdom of the world. The other is a reliance on Christ and calling on his name. I'm struck by the ways that this is unpacked, working through Genesis, as you see the pictures of the two kingdoms. We see Adam and Eve follow Satan, believing Satan rather than God. God says, eat and you die. Satan says, nuh-uh, eat it and it's good. And they said, we'll go with that guy. we'll go with the guy who says, it looks good, it must be good. It's good for food, it must be good. It's good for wisdom, it must be good. And they go for it. We see how they fall. And then we see what happens with Cain. Cain, in the same heart, in the same vein, decides to worship in accordance with his own desire. a self-reliance, an obstinance. Now this goes on, and you can trace the line of Cain and see what's taking place with him. Our second step is self-exaltation leads to hatred and murder. Genesis 4, 17 through 19, Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch, and he built a city and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of the sun. Now the Enoch was born Irad, and Irad became the father of Mehulijah, and Mehulijah became the father of Methuselah, and Methuselah became the father of Lamech. Now we're gonna look at Lamech in a minute. Lamech took to himself two wives. The name of the one was Adah, the name of the other was Zillah. Now this place, we see a self-exaltation and a pride. Genesis 4, 23 through 24, Lamech said to his wives, Adah and Zillah, listen to my voice, you wives of Lamech. Give heed to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me and a boy for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech 77-fold. I remember as a child or as a young man in the culture that I grew up in, If someone hit you, you had better hit them back. And you better hit them back faster and harder than he hit you. My policy, and I'm embarrassed to admit it now, was somebody hit you once, you better hit them 10 times. Because if you don't, you're going to have 10 people coming around you to hit you tomorrow. We see that kind of heart in this same self-exaltation here. Now, Lamech said to his wives, I have paid back, or I have avenged sevenfold. Jesus, in talking to Peter, Peter said, how many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times? And Jesus runs back to the seat of the serpent, and that attitude there, and he says, I tell you not seven, but 70 times seven. Jesus compares and contrasts the two kingdoms there. One forgives 77 times. The other hits back 77 times. There's a self-exaltation. We see the self-exaltation of Lamech. We saw the self-exaltation of Cain. Romans 12, 17, the business of the kingdom operates this way. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone is what we've been told. In John 8, 44, Jesus speaking to the Pharisees, he tells them, you are of your father, the devil. He shows them the other kingdom and says, you are a part of that kingdom. You want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature. for he is a liar and the father of lies. The Pharisees were jealous and they were standing in his place of exaltation for their own worship, for their own pride. Peter lays this out in his sermon in Acts 3.15, but you disowned the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. just like Adam did and Cain did. You denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be given to you. You put to death the prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. They stood in a place of self-reliance and self-exaltation. This is the line of Cain. Jesus warns us no one can serve two masters. You'll hate the one and love the other. and your self-exaltation, you will hate Christ. You will hate God. Anger, anger is that heart that leads to murder. As far as I know, so far, grace has held on to each of us here. As far as I know, none of us have murdered anyone. That would be because Christ has restrained us. Perhaps you are angry. Perhaps you're angry a lot of the time, Perhaps you're angry most of the time. Maybe you say, I'm just angry. You're never just angry. You're almost never just this or just that. The blossom of anger has a root that runs deep into the soul. That is the reality of the human heart. us seeing this draw and this pull to darkness. I call you now to call on the name of the Lord. I direct you to him. Verses eight through 10. He has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham in his oath to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant. I love we run through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We see Abraham in the heart of Abraham in Genesis 15, six. Then he believed in the Lord. This is what it says of Abraham. Then he believed in the Lord and he, the Lord, reckoned it to him as righteousness. Abraham, the believer, as we read in Galatians 3. Abraham, the father of all who believe, he believed and it was given to him or declared on him as righteousness. Romans 3, 21, but now apart from the law. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, a righteousness based on faith. Genesis 12, 8. This is Abraham, then he proceeded from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord. There's worship specifically to the Lord. And he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. There he is trusting in mercy and justice, calling on the name of the Lord. In Genesis 4, where we followed the line of the serpent, look here again. Genesis 4, 25 through 26. Adam had relations with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. For she said, God has appointed me another offspring in the place of Abel, for Cain killed him. To Seth, to him also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. We see revival going on. We see people being brought to the place of faith. This is our household and this is our song. As we sing in Psalm 101, I will sing of loving kindness and justice. To you, oh Lord, I will sing praises. Our next step, number four, is walk in humility because you were chosen. I hated gym class in school. I hated all my classes in school, but I hated gym class too. And I hated when they lined up and they called people. Maybe you would be surprised to know I used to be called last. Maybe you wouldn't be surprised. It was a hard thing to be there last. to stand alone, to be considered unworthy, to be considered as if you are not valuable or worth calling or worth having on a team. Perhaps you imagine that in your salvation you were chosen because you were so good, so smart, so pretty, so godly. We understand that we were not chosen by any righteousness within us, but we were chosen by God's will by his mercy. Psalm 105, verse six. Let me check this again. Psalm 105, six. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, you chosen ones. It was understood in the old covenant that people were called out of the world by God's choice, not because they were bigger or stronger or better. If you look at Genesis 12, you see Abraham, right when he was called, he falls into what we would consider gross sin immediately. Ephesians 1.4, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. 2 Thessalonians 2.13-14 shows a humility there. but we should always give thanks to God for you. Brethren, beloved by the Lord, because he has chosen you from before the foundation of the world, the praise goes to God for having chosen a people. We look at ourselves and I call you to see that all of your sin, there's an idol involved in it. There's an altar involved in it. There's some sacrifice that you're making to yourself with your sin. Identify your sacrifice. Identify your altar. See it for what it is. Know it as shameful and disgusting. Putting off your sin, what has been most helpful for me recently, is identifying my own altars to myself. where I'm imagining myself as worthy, worthy of sacrifice, worthy of praise. We must be in the place where we see only Christ as worthy of sacrifice, as worthy of praise. Perhaps you desire other people to see you as worthy, and that's where your anger comes from. Perhaps you see yourself as a worthy sufferer or a worthy martyr, And that's where your sin comes from. Perhaps you see yourself worthy of grace or worthy of mercy because of your own sacrifices or because you have been rejected. Well, the place that we come to is to call on mercy and justice. Our fifth step, call on mercy and justice. From 105 verse eight, he has remembered his covenant forever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. We've come to a place of rejoicing, and we'll get into that in our next step. But John 8, 56, Jesus says, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and he was glad. We see the place that we have been brought into, that we are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. 1 Corinthians 11, 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Proclaiming the Lord's death is proclaiming God's justice and proclaiming God's mercy. We are existing in his loving kindness. We are existing in his mercy. Mercy because we are not consumed. justice because Christ was consumed. We proclaim the Lord's death, that is mercy and justice. In Matthew 26, 28, Jesus says, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. We can look on the bread and we can look on the cup and say, God is just and God is merciful. We look on the cup and we look on the bread, and in accordance with Romans 6.23, we say the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Do you see how the Lord's Supper is given for your spiritual nourishment? That we look and we see justice, we look and we see mercy, and we rejoice because we are in mercy, We rejoice because God has accomplished his justice and he hasn't poured out his wrath on us. Our sixth step is rejoice to see God's day. John 8, 39, they answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he was glad when he saw it. You and I are brought into the place. What is the day of Jesus that you and I are able to rejoice in? It's unfolded as time goes on, but it is the day of salvation for you and me. It is the day where we stand in Christ Jesus. It is the day that we rejoice. It is the day that I can look on you and say, all you who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, blessing be upon you. You live in the day of salvation. Abraham was in that place where he believed wholeheartedly that God would provide the sacrifice, even to the place where he could lift the knife over his own son, Abraham. When God rescued Abraham, called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. That is, he provided salvation, he provided the sacrifice, he provided what was needed. If Abraham is your father, do the deeds of Abraham. Galatians 3.8, the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, all the nations will be blessed in you. Here we are in the United States of America, individually blessed and as families blessed, as a church household blessed. Galatians 3.16, now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say and to seeds, the same language used with David as referring to many, but to one and to your seed, that is Christ. We see the work that God does in us, for us, to us, in 2 Corinthians 6, 1. And working together with him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. You're receiving a sacrament today, a grace today. Three things, three means of grace we talk about. Three ways God works, three ways God changes you, builds you up, strengthens you. The word, that is the scripture. The sacraments, that's baptism and the Lord's Supper and prayer. I urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. He says, at the acceptable time, I listen to you. And on the day of salvation, I helped you. Behold, today is the acceptable time. Now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. You and I stand in salvation. We stand in God's pleasure. We stand in his grace. and together we are at his table, members of his household. In 1 Corinthians 11, 23 through 27, Paul describes the work of being in God's household, being at his table. For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. We have been given the Lord's supper by Jesus Christ to proclaim him and for your spiritual nourishment. We are warned not to partake of the Lord's supper in an unworthy manner. First Corinthians 11, 27 through 32 explains, a man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. We try to be careful in our churches. We understand that the church is a household, as it's described in 1 Timothy 3, overseen by elders, cared for by deacons. This is how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God. Those are God's specific words. So for this reason, For the care and love of the church, we only serve those people that we know, that we know, that we've met with, that are operating as God has commanded within his household. Otherwise, it would be a danger to them. We call this sometimes the Lord's Supper, sometimes communion. Communion means a sharing. We're safe to share and to commune together as we know each other, as we operate together. Lord Jesus, the same night which he was betrayed, he took the bread and also the cup. He displayed them to his disciples. This is my body, which is broken for you. This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Our Father, we come to you, resting in your Son alone, trusting in you alone. Father, as we have been directed to examine ourselves, we have examined ourselves. Father, if we have come without examining ourselves, please give us wisdom and discernment to see and to know we can come worthily now. if we can come in Christ, if we can throw off our sin now. Father, if we are holding on to our sin and we refuse to put it off, our God, convict us. Convict us by your Holy Spirit to hate our sin, to see it as disgusting and shameful. Our God, please work in us, move us, and change us. Our God, we need your help to throw off our sin. Father, now as we come together to participate in your supper, it is yours, it is your blessing, it is your gift, we now set this bread and this cup apart from a common use to a sacramental use by the name and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only King and Head of the Church. Amen. After the Lord Jesus has blessed the bread He broke it, a sacramental act significant of His suffering and death on the cross. Following His example, I break this bread now before you, and I give it to you, His disciples. As Christ said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Yeah. In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for sending your one and only son to be the sacrifice for our sins. Our Christ, we thank you. We thank you for showing us the greatest possible love. laying your life down for us, that we would be reconciled to you. Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit, for convicting us of sin and of righteousness and of salvation, who is with us always, the very Spirit of Christ, to the very end of the age. Father, we praise you. We praise you, Son. We praise you, Holy Spirit. We rejoice in you, the one true God. Lord, thank you for, thank you for this love. Thank you for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. We pray that we will be changed, that we will not receive the grace of the Lord in vain, but that we will be putting off our sin as we love you more and as we learn to love one another more in all purity. It is in Jesus' name we pray, amen.