Well, we've spent several Lord's Days thinking about worship, and now I want to begin wrapping up this series on worship by thinking about the Lord's Day, the Christian Sabbath. One of the resources that I found especially helpful is a book entitled, On the First Day of the Week, God, the Christian, and the Sabbath. It was written by Dr. Ian Campbell and published in 2005. And Dr. Campbell tells an interesting story about the way that happened as he was working on his manuscript. Initially, as he started typing up the manuscript, he simply saved it under the title, The Sabbath. But like many authors, his writing project was plagued with good starts and then major stalls and good starts and major stalls. And apparently there were several instances when he decided to delete the file and begin to start again from scratch. And the author said he was struck by what his computer asked him when he wanted to perform the delete function on his file. One of those little dialogue boxes popped up on his computer and asked him, are you sure you want to delete the Sabbath? I doubt that Microsoft has ever asked a more profound a relevant question, and one that should be asked to a vast majority of professing evangelicals, as well as many within our own Reformed and Presbyterian camps. Are you sure you want to delete the Sabbath? Although Microsoft's dialog box was a simple bit of programming and not intended to make a moral statement, I have to admit, it reminded me of an article Time magazine published some 25 years ago. They did an exposé on Microsoft's founder that was entitled, In Search of Bill Gates. And in the article, the billionaire was asked why it is that he didn't believe in God. And here's how he responded. Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion's not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on Sunday morning. I doubt that it's much of a surprise that this is how an unbeliever views the Lord's Day. But I have to wonder if that isn't how a lot of professing Christians view it as well. Now, they may not say it in such crass and stark ways, but the idea of setting aside one whole day and seven, that seems especially inefficient. I mean, the truth is Christians have merchandise to buy. They have restaurants to visit. They have events to participate in. They've got destinations to travel to. They have friends to hang out with. They have business to conduct. They have schoolwork to finish. They need the Lord's day to fit all that in, clearly. If you'll allow me to ever so slightly tweak Bill Gates' statement, as it might sound if it was upon the lips of most Christians in the past 50 years, They might say it like this, just in terms of allocation of time resources, Sabbath keeping is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on Sunday rather than set aside a whole day for the Lord. And that really is the way most of our evangelical brothers and sisters see the Lord's day. And that mindset is increasingly being embraced in the Reformed community. And I was strenuously pushed back against that with Microsoft's question, are you sure you want to delete the Sabbath? And I would say for the sake of your soul's health and the church's vitality and your family's spiritual well-being and your Christian witness, don't push that key. Don't delete the Sabbath. And over the next few weeks, I'll be making the case for why the Lord Jesus would surely hit the save key. because he is the Lord of the Sabbath. And therefore, that's the key. We have to hit it too. So let's seek the Lord's blessing on the reading and preaching of his word, and then we'll move into this difficult topic. Pray with me once more, please. Our great God in heaven, we thank you so much that we can gather on the Lord's day with the expectation and anticipation, that you'll speak to your people through your word, even as it comes through a servant with clay feet. And so we pray that you would keep your servant from any error, to speak truth, truthfully and graciously, that our hearts would be prepared to hear it. We ask this in Jesus name. Well, let me ask you to open your Bibles to Exodus 20. We're going to read verses 8 through 11, then we're going to jump back and read from Genesis 1. And I'll tell you, keep your Bibles on your lap and keep your thumbs licked, because we're going to be moving from page to page this morning. But I do want to go ahead and set the stage by reading Exodus 20, verses 8 through 11. This is, of course, the fourth commandment, Exodus 20, verse 8. 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, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it. Then I want to turn back and read Genesis 1, verses 26, down through chapter 2 and verse 3. Genesis 1, verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God says, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed. To you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, to everything that creeps on the ground in which there's life, I've given every green herb for food. And it was so. Then God saw everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus it happened to the earth, and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested. on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. Therein is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. May it be blessed to our hearts this morning. Well, dearest congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the reason we began by reading the fourth commandment is that the first thing it teaches us is that to rightly understand the Sabbath, we can't begin at the fourth commandment. Listen again to that first phrase of the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. If you were reading through God's law and you came to the fourth commandment, you would find that this is the first of the four commandments that actually begins with a positive injunction. The first three commandments begin with a negative injunction. You shall not But when you get to the fourth commandment, it begins with a you shall. And what's initially commanded is you shall remember. So whatever this fourth commandment is obligating God's people to, it's remembrance. And at the end of the fourth commandment, we find out what we're to remember. But we're to remember that the Sabbath is actually a creational ordinance grounded in what God did in the beginning. And just the way the fourth commandment begins, we're taught that whatever obligations and restrictions that the fourth commandment might teach us, if we're to rightly understand the fourth commandment, It will necessarily require us to turn a few pages back to Genesis to give attention to the creation account. And we're going to do that in just a few moments. But I want to pause here because we learn something from the fourth commandment that teaches us about the way we interpret or the way we should interpret the Bible. That is to make sense of something like the Sabbath. We need the whole Bible. not just one verse, not just two verses, we need to think about it as it's unfolding in God's redemptive story from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible. And this is exactly how Reformed believers think of redemptive history. If you want to understand God's plan of redemption and how God accomplished redemption in the person and work of Jesus, you need the whole Bible. In other words, you need both sides of Matthew 1.1 if you're gonna understand even who Jesus is. You need the Old and the New Testament. They're necessary to teach us who the Lord is and what he came to do. And we find that principle given a little glimmer here to us as we're called to remember. In other words, Moses is saying, if you really wanna understand the Sabbath, you're actually gonna have to look at some other places in the Bible. Having this interpretive principle in our minds, a whole Bible interpretive principle is necessary if we're going to figure out what our right relationship to the Sabbath is as New Testament believers. So as I sometimes do, I want to come to the issue of the Sabbath by way of a side door that I hope will illustrate a right way to interpret the fourth commandment. In other words, I'm going to sort of take a few minutes and think about how the Reformed interpret the Bible, and then we'll come back and see how that applies to the Fourth Commandment. So I actually want to ask you to go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Genesis 17. Genesis 17. And I'm going to read verses 9 through 14. In this section, God's entered into a covenant with Abraham, and the Lord's going to renew that covenant, and He's going to give Abraham the covenant sign of circumcision. Genesis 17, beginning in verse 9. And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you, throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep between Me and you and your descendants after you. Every male child among you shall be circumcised, and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male child in your generation, he who is born in your house or bought with money from any foreigner who is not your descendant, he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised male child who's not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. Now I want to make a couple observations that I hope will be helpful. First, notice how closely God's covenant is associated with the sign. He says in verse 10, this is my covenant which you shall keep. All the baby boys have to be circumcised. Second, verse 13 tells us this covenant is for, excuse me, this sign is for an everlasting covenant. And then third, verse 14 tells us those who aren't circumcised. are cut off from God's covenant. Now those of you who are familiar with Presbyterianism, you probably know this is one of the foundational planks to explain why we Presbyterians baptize babies. We believe God said to include children in the visible covenant of grace in Genesis 17. And since he said this is for an everlasting covenant, and God at no time in redemptive history said that children shouldn't be included in the covenant, then we still administer a covenant sign even to our babies. It's our Christian duty. Because the promises made to Abraham and the obligations given to Abraham are part of an everlasting covenant that transcends the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's the covenant of grace. Of course, when you move forward in redemptive history, circumcision was fulfilled in Christ and gloriously transformed by Christ. So we no longer circumcise, we baptize, because that's what Jesus commanded in Matthew 28. And here's what I want us to get, just in terms of a broad interpretive principle. Circumcision was fulfilled by Christ. And circumcision was transformed by Christ to baptism. And yet there remains a Christian duty to include our children in the covenant community. And so we baptize them. You see? My point here, and I hope you're tracking with me, is that Christ fulfilling a covenant ordinance doesn't mean there aren't still obligations. Christ fulfilling a covenant ordinance doesn't mean there aren't New Testament obligations. Let's look at another example. Turn in your Bibles to Exodus 12. This is where, and we're gonna begin in verse 12, this is where Israel's given detailed instructions on how to keep and memorialize the Passover celebration. Exodus 12, beginning in verse 12. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on that night. houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting awareness. I would imagine most of you are pretty familiar with the Passover story. God's tenth and final plague upon Egypt was the death of the firstborn. And the only way to escape the judgment was for the blood of the Passover lamb to be spread upon the doorframe of the Hebrew homes. And when God saw that blood on the doors of the Hebrew homes, the destroyer would pass over that house. So the blood was a sign to the people that they've been redeemed by the blood. And then in Exodus 12, 14, you see, Israel's to memorialize the event so that they never forget God's redemption. And so they're given a covenant meal, a feast. And again, notice the language. This is to be an everlasting ordinance. When does that finish? When everlasting is done. Passover was a sign and seal of what God had done for them, and it's a sign that remains throughout the generations. But just as is the case with circumcision, Passover was fulfilled in Christ and translated by Christ to something even more glorious, the Lord's Supper. And now there still remains a duty for Christians to regularly participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Why? Because we regularly need to be reminded that we were redeemed by the blood. And again, at the risk of being redundant, you see, Christ fulfilling a covenant ordinance doesn't mean there aren't still obligations. He just translates them and glorifies them for New Testament believers. Because we're on the other side of the types and shadows, we have the substance. So if you're tracking with me, circumcision and Passover had perpetual covenant obligations. And while Christ fulfilled them and translated them into the sacraments that we have in the church this day, We have to understand the way redemptive history unfolds. There still remains a Christian duty to baptize people into the covenant community. There still remains a Christian duty for us to remember the Lord's redemption in the Lord's Supper. Now with that pattern of interpretation hopefully fresh in our minds, let me ask you to turn to Exodus 31. Exodus 31. We'll read verses 15 through 17. Exodus 31, beginning in verse 15. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath, throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day, he rested and was refreshed." Now, those are strong words that indicate how important obedience to the Sabbath was to and is to the Lord. But a way to hone in on just a couple things, verse 16 and 17, Israel's to keep the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It's a sign between me and the children of Israel forever. Again, since this is a perpetual covenant, we would expect it to continue on in redemptive history, even into the New Testament, and we would expect in some way that Christ is going to translate it in a glorious way. That there's going to be a duty, a Christian duty, to this Old Testament ordinance of the sacrament. Again, when Christ came, he came to fulfill the Sabbath. And Christ did fulfill the Sabbath. Praise the Lord. But he did translate it into something marvelous and wondrous. It's the day we now celebrate the resurrection. but could be more glorious. But Christ fulfilling it doesn't mean there doesn't remain a Christian duty. In fact, the writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 4.9, so then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Now, Hebrews doesn't tell us what our Christian duty is, and that's something we'll start to work out next week. But certainly we read this, and it's pretty clear there remains a Sabbath duty for Christians, right? And it's worth pointing out, we didn't read, I didn't read this, but the writer of Hebrews immediately grounds that in the creation account of Genesis 2. So, again, my side door to get us into the South. We have to think about how we're gonna interpret the Bible, right? To just say Christ fulfilled it, there's no more obligation can't stand up under biblical scrutiny. It really can't, right? Because Christ fulfilled all the commandments. And yet we're still obligated to obey them as believers. As Jay Doma puts it in his wonderful commentary on the Ten Commandments, in Christ, the law becomes the charter of our liberty. Of course, we still obey them. Here's the first application I want to make in this study. You need a theology of the South. You need to think it through. It's too important not to. Simply based on the language of Exodus 31, this tells you this is a covenant obligation on God's people. And God takes it incredibly serious. And so we have to take the Sabbath serious. And I can't impress this on us enough. I know there are all kinds of scholars in the Reformed community in the last 40 years, mostly, who become very light where the Sabbath is concerned. And I fear that often it's from a point of convenience, not a point of exegesis. And so they just dismiss it. You know what? I kind of like the way evangelicals do it. They can do whatever they want on Sunday, and that's a whole lot better. It's easier, frankly. Right? I don't want any obligations. I'll check that for you. That's what I want. Theology of the Sabbath is too important to do that. It is a fourth commandment right in the middle of the ten. You can't pull it out and pretend it doesn't exist. One of the reasons this is such a burden on my heart is because I'm amazed at how many young men are entering ministry and they're taking exception to what the Westminster teaches on the fourth commandment. And when challenged on it, they don't have a defense. It really comes down to It's probably not going to work in our culture. And here's the thing you need to understand. Up until 40 years ago, almost everyone in the evangelical world had a high view of the Sabbath, certainly 50 years ago. I was just reading about this. I was going to share this with you, but I'll just briefly mention it. I'm from Virginia. We had blue laws in Virginia until 1998. And the reason Virginia changed those laws is because Hackinger's, Best Buy, what was the other big store? Three big corporations said, no, no, we want to open on Sunday. And they sued and the laws were overturned, right? Because they were convinced people need to do their thing on Sunday. But prior to almost 2000, that didn't even happen in Virginia. In fact, up until just a few years ago, you still couldn't hunt on Saturday in Virginia. In Michigan, I don't know if this has changed in the last few years, but they have a blue law that says you can't buy a car. The car dealerships can't be open. My point is even civil society has understood the importance of one day of rest. And all those blue laws were grounded in the Christian Sabbath. And so why is there this sudden turn, this sudden new direction? It's because it's hard when the culture is doing something totally different. And so all this, by the way, is saying you have to work out a theology of the Sabbath. In fairness, there are people who see the Sabbath as being purely a ceremonial kind of law, and therefore Christ fulfilled it, and it's no longer your obligation to have a moral standard for that day. You can do it, you can worship because you think it's a good idea, but you don't see it as a moral commitment. There are theologians who took that position. Calvin was one. So it's not outside of our tradition. But what you can't do is say, it doesn't matter. I'm just going to choose the path of least resistance. And you have to know that all the Westminster tradition, all the three forms of unity tradition, all the confessional Baptist tradition, all held this view of the Sabbath. And it's perfectly all right to say, they're all wrong. Rick Phillips is wrong. Voddie Bachum is wrong. These guys are all wrong. That's totally cool. But you need to reckon with that. This is our tradition. Doesn't mean it's right, but it means you have to reckon with it. You need a biblical theology of the Sabbath. It deals with what you do with one-seventh of your life. So you need to know what you believe and why. And if you're going to say that none of the moral obligations are still binding, it's got to be because you're convinced that what the Bible teaches. Not because it makes life easier for you. I often share this with you guys. The law certainly was given as a moral directive for God's people. But what took place at Mount Sinai, and we just looked at this a few weeks ago, it was a marriage covenant, right? It was a marriage covenant, right? God delivered His people out of Egyptian bondage. He brought them to Mount Sinai to betroth them to Himself. And when he gave the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me, God was saying, you can't flirt with other gods. You're mine exclusively. And the second commandment, he said, you have to love me the way I tell you to love me. You can't make idols. The third commandment was, you've now got my name. It's now your name. So you have to live according to our family principles because you're my bride. And the fourth commandment was saying, I'm Lord of your time and you must spend one day in seven with me. So if you're gonna reject the Sabbath, know why you're rejecting it and do it with great caution. Well, all of these passages, all of these passages, they keep bringing us back to the creation account. So I wanna go back and take a couple minutes to look at Genesis 2, Genesis 2. My time is running out. Let me start with this. There's an incredible literary feature in Genesis 1 through Genesis 2 and verse 3, that you simply can't pick up in English. But it would have been clear as a bell to the original Hebrew readers. Beginning in Genesis 1-1 and down through Genesis 2-3, Moses, as he was writing this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, really highlighted and emphasized the significance of the number of seven, which means fruition or completion, the goal, the direction that things are heading. You see that all over this passage. Genesis 1-1, for example, in Hebrew is made up of seven words. And if you look at Genesis 1 down through Genesis 2-3, you see several other, just these brilliant little pictures of seven. The words create and make. in this section are both used seven times. In Genesis 1-1, there are three nouns, God, heavens, and earth. All those nouns are used with multiples of seven. And perhaps what's most significant is if you start in Genesis 1-1 and work down through Genesis 2-3, there are seven long sentences. or seven paragraphs. And when you get to Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3, that's the seventh paragraph. I don't miss the implication of that. All of creation was heading towards Sabbath. All of creation was moving in that direction toward Sabbath. So with that in mind, let me ask you to listen again to Genesis 2 verses 1 through 3. Thus it happened in the earth and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had done. He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. So the Lord's work is finished. Nothing more needs to be added to God's creation. It perfectly reflects His glory. We know that because Genesis 1.31 says, Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day, and He rested. Everything's very good. Six days. And he rested. So what is God's rest? Well, it's his self-satisfaction in all that he made. God's rest is his own delight and contentment in himself as creator and in the spectacular works of his hands. So we can say God's rest is his own eternal bliss and ultimate contentment and supreme happiness in himself and in the things he's made. And that helps us understand verse 3, then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. So God blessed the day. And He sanctified it. Think about that. Up to this point, and in almost all cases in redemptive history, God blesses things and people. But here He blesses time. A particular time. The Sabbath. And He not only blessed it, He set it aside. God did this. And something you know, this is one of those duh statements, but this is before the fall into sin. This isn't a perfect creation that perfectly reflects God's glory. And Adam, who was a reflection of God's image wonderfully at that point, needed a day that was especially blessed and set apart. Isn't that something? And here's something maybe you've thought about, maybe you haven't. Adam and Eve's first full day was the Sabbath. That's a remarkable truth. In other words, their first day, Adam's first day, was a day of rest. This will become significant when we think about how the last day was translated to the first day under Christ. But think about what you have a picture of. To be sure, Israel's history is going to be six days of labor, then rest. But even before you get that, before sin entered the world, he starts with rest. That was Adam's first day. And when you get to the last Adam, he'll rise on the first day and make that the day that's blessed and sanctified. One of the things we might ask from this initial creation account is, how should that help us think about the Christian Sabbath? Well, God's rest was his own delight and contentment in himself as creator and then the spectacular work of his hands. And Adam was invited to enter into that rest, right? In fact, remember, Adam is made in God's image. Adam's call is to take dominion, that is, work. And then Adam's call is to rest. That's Sabbath. That's what Adam's to do as he reflects God's image because that's what God did. You see? And so when we gather for the Lord's Day, one of the things we do is we revel in contentment that God's finished His work of salvation for us. And there's no more labor we can do for our salvation because Christ did it all for us. And so the whole day, I'll just leave it with this, the whole day should be ordained, or it should be saturated with a kind of God-centeredness. I'm trying to move quick here. I want to make a quick bridge between what we're learning here to our coming to the Lord's Supper It helps us to see some of the connections in the way Christ does fulfill the Sabbath. So let me ask you to turn to one other passage. Genesis 16. I'm sorry, Exodus 16. Exodus 16. Again, this is before the law of God is ever given. Exodus 16. I want to begin reading in verse one. And a journey from Elim and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the 15th day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full, for you brought us into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. And the people should go out and gather a certain quota every day that I may test them, whether they'll walk in my law or not. Again, this is gonna be a Sabbath law before Moses ever gives this to them in the fourth commandment. The Sabbath law that was grounded in creation, that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. So the Lord is inculcating in this people This idea that you're gonna labor six days, and the seventh day is gonna be a day of rest, and that the seventh day will be a day of supernatural blessing, right? Because all of this is coming from heaven. All the bread of heaven, excuse me, all the bread of heaven is coming down from God as a gift to His people. And they're to take twice as much on Friday, that's God's provision, so that they can rest. and fully enjoy him on Sunday. And again, if you were reading through this passage and you stopped at verse three, and the people are complaining, Moses, you're not giving us the food we want, you're not giving us enough of it, and we need more, and we need more. Aren't you glad that we're not God? I'd have zapped him, that would have been it. Boom, you're gone, no more Israel. But God's grace is amazing. He not only provides for them, He provides the blessed food from heaven. And He provides them twice what they'll need on Friday so that they can rest on Saturday and enjoy the presence of their God. That's what we do on the Christian Sabbath. We rest and we enjoy the presence of God. And we'll see this fulfilled when we come to the Lord's Supper. Let's pray and we'll come to that. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it's true. We pray that you help us to think rightly about the Sabbath. That we be men and women who seek to honor you and glorify you. Give us wisdom as we work through these issues. Give us hearts that long to please you and you alone. As we prepare to come to the Lord's Supper, help us to see how this wonderful event in Exodus 16 was fulfilled by the Lord Jesus, who is the bread, who came down from heaven, who is our supernatural blessing and provision. Help us to see that, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we prepare to come to the Lord's Table, brothers and sisters. As you know, we always fence the table. What that means is we say that being invited to this table or the invitation to participate in this table is extended to all those who are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation, to men and women who know their centers and know their salvation is grounded in nothing but the finished work of Jesus Christ. If that's your hope and you're a member in good standing of a Bible-believing church, then please, come and feast with and upon the Lord, if that doesn't describe you, or you're living in unrepentant sin, then when the elements are distributed, simply let them pass by. To that end, as we prepare to come to the table, we confess with the historic church what we believe, usually using the Apostle's Creed that you can find on page 851 in the back of your hymnal, page 851. But dear Christian, what do you believe? I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven. and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. I want you to give your attention. I'm gonna read John 6, verses 30 through 37, then skip down to Another portion, verses 47 through 56. If you'd like to turn there or simply listen, but John 6 beginning in verse 30. This is the passage, by the way, Jesus has fed the 5,000. He took a boat across the water and they were still looking for him. So a group of people followed him over. Beginning in verse 30 of John 6, therefore they said to him, what sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it's written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven. and gives life to the world. Then they said to Him, Lord, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But as I said to you, you've seen me and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I'll by no means cast out. Verse 47. Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he'll live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. and I'll raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. I thought it might be helpful to use the catechism, the Hutterberg catechism, to think through some of the language in John 6 and to what it means for us as we come to the Lord's table. So I actually printed this in your bulletin thinking it might be easier But I'm going to read question and answer 76 through 79 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Question 76 asks, what does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink his poured out blood? It means to accept with a believing heart the entire suffering and death of Christ, and in this way to receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But it means more. Through the Holy Spirit who lives both in Christ and in us, we are united more and more to Christ's blessed body. And so although he is in heaven and we're on earth, we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. And we forever live on and are governed by one spirit as the members of our body are by one soul. Question 77, where does Christ promise to nourish and refresh believers with his body and blood as surely as they eat this broken bread and drink this cup? Answer. in the institution of the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. This promise is repeated by Paul in these words, that the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of that one bread. Question 78. Do the bread and wine become the real body? and blood of Christ? Answer, no. Just as the water of baptism is not changed into Christ's blood and does not itself wash away sins, but is simply a divine sign and assurance of these things, so too the holy bread of the Lord's Supper does not become the body of Christ itself, even though it's called the body of Christ in keeping with the nature and language of sacraments. And finally, question 79. Why then does Christ call the bread his body and the cup his blood, or the new covenant in his blood? And Paul used the words, a sharing in Christ's body and blood. Christ has good reason for these words. He wants to teach us that just as bread and wine nourish the temporal life, so too his crucified body and poured out blood are the true food and drink of our souls for eternal life. But more important, He wants to assure us by the visible sign and pledge that we, through the Holy Spirit's work, share in his true body and blood as surely as our mouth receives these holy signs in his remembrance, and that all of his suffering and obedience are as definitely ours as if we personally had suffered and made satisfaction for our sins. Well, that's right. Our great God, we come to this communion table to commune with, to fellowship with the Lord Jesus, the one who gave his body for us, the one who is indeed the bread of heaven, and in that way becomes the most wonderful dainty food for God's people. As our catechism reminds us, the bread remains bread, The wine remains wine. But when we partake of these elements with the hand of faith, we are spiritually nourished and fed by the true bread that comes now from heaven. So nourish us, feed us, and strengthen us in participation of this sacrament for the glory of Jesus. Amen. We'll receive the Lord's benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever and all of God's people said, Amen.