Like a comment briefly on worship in this hour. And then this evening we will see how in his last day Jacob was the best ever as he came to full maturity in his spiritual development with the Lord and worshipped him, leaning atop his staff. If you have your notes, look at page twelve. And we will make some comment on the worship that we are all involved in collectively. But first of all, some comments relating to the whole of the individual personal communion life. Corporate worship is a collection of individual worship as we gather together. The Lord above all things, remember the Samaritan woman discussion, the Lord above all things desires worshipers, worshipers in spirit and in truth. The Westminster Confession and many other confessions make this statement, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. That is a correct statement. Our niche in life. our reason to be eternally will be to worship God. And the more we are involved in that now, the more we are approaching our eternal destiny. And we are practicing now what we will most frequently do in eternity, worship the Lord. Psalm twenty-two it says that the Lord inhabits the praises of Israel. What's that mean? That means this, I think, where all the praises converge, that's where God lives. He is the center of worship and of praise. Collective worship is based on our private communion with God, the communion life of the believer. The communion that we have with God is made up of five particular elements, five parts to our communion life. I think it is an exhaustive list. I'm not certain, but I think it is. Made up of these five things. Prayer, Thanksgiving, worship, confession of sin, and the reading of the Word of God. Four of those originate with us and are directed toward God. I pray to God. I thank God. I worship God. I confess my sins to God. The fifth is His communion to us through the Word of God, primarily, through natural revelation, through intermediate sources of brothers and sisters in the Lord, but only as these substantiate the special revelation of the Word of God and flow from it. I speak to God in four ways. I pray to Him, I thank Him, I worship Him, I confess sin to Him. He speaks to me through His Word. Now that Word can be hidden in my heart. By our advanced stages, a lot of it is. And then it starts sliding out, doesn't it, when we have what we call senior moments. Yes. But we commune with God in these ways. I've struggled with that over my life, the communion life, have you? Some people call it the quiet time. Some folk think the first thing upon arising in the morning should be direct, immediate communion with God. As we get older, we say, which of those times did I get up in the morning should that be the case? And there are other thoughts that are a little more dominant than the Word of God sometimes as those things happen. We have had folks who have put very rigorous rules on how we should have communion life. No Bible, no breakfast. Anybody like that one? You got that on your refrigerator door? I don't like that one at all. I prefer no breakfast, no Bible myself. But that sounds so crude, you know. Wouldn't think of saying a thing like that. Most of these things in our private communion life cannot be scheduled. How can you schedule to pray for earthquakes? You cannot. Life comes flying at us. I have noticed virtually every day there has been another serious prayer request. Have you noticed that? Nobody knew about those things except God. Very difficult to schedule that. what is before us this day all the things that will be coming at us all those particulars we know very little about now certain things we can pray for regularly but most of the things we pray for come on us intermittently and our prayer is intermittent consequently what is prayer most Christians have a concept that any verbalization to God is prayer, any verbalization. Prayer has a very narrow meaning. It means to ask. When we pray, we ask God. We may be praying for ourselves. We may be praying for others, intercession. We may be entreating. We may be supplicating. We can do lots of things. in that prayer life. It's asking. When he answers, we thank him. And since he answers at his schedule, not ours, we thank him when the prayer is answered. Let your request be made known to God with thanksgiving. That likewise is largely intermittent. We worship God Now, words that relate to worship are praise, exaltation, adoration. These are different emphases in relationship to us individually thinking great thoughts about God. And we can do that and should do that as we see His handiwork round about because the heavens declare the glory of God. And we should observe that above all people. being children of God. And we worship Him. We're driving across that bridge. Is it the St. John River? East? And it was sunset. Golden sunset. And the whole river was beautiful as we went up that lovely bridge. Now we recognize that as God's great handiwork. And we praise him and worship him for his great hand of creation. The Psalms are full of that kind of praise. Creation. But then his mighty deeds done for the sons of men. And we specify in our worship and praise as we individually, day by day, meditate on the great grace of God and the love of God and the sustaining grace of God. And we worship him. When we sin, we confess our sin. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. And He speaks to us through His Word. Now the person who has been walking in that communion throughout the week, throughout the life, comes together with God's people. And we come to worship. And we come to pray. And we come to hear His Word. these things that we do individually we do likewise collectively and we build one another up in our most holy faith and we bring greater and more specific praise to God as one stimulates another collectively the church has done that for two thousand years and they have done that in what we call the breaking of bread or the communion service and different traditions will have different names. I grew up calling it morning meeting. How could you have the Lord's Supper at breakfast time? I've never been able to figure that one out. But you can't have morning meeting in the evening by definition. Yes, we gather together at communion, at breaking of bread. And it is a unique time because the church is gathering to worship. Not to be blessed, but as our brother said in the song service, to bless God. It's not amazing that we can say, Blessed be the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. in the heavenlies. We lift up the name of God together and stimulate one another to do that. And for two thousand years, people have practiced the breaking of bread. The other ordinances of the church, baptism is a once done thing. The Lord's Supper is an oft-repeated thing. I am convinced the early church not only broke bread collectively on the first day of the week. That seems to be the pattern when Paul says when you come together on the first day of the week. But Acts also says they broke bread daily from half to half. And I think that was more than just having hot dogs and rolls. Every meal when the small segments of the church would move from one place to another, every meal would commemorate the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. They broke bread daily from house to house. Jesus takes those common things of every meal, bread and drink, and says, remember me. I'd like to look at that in particular. In the structure that you and I practice normally, we set aside a whole hour, or forty-five minutes, depending on whatever practice your local church or this one has simply to remember the Lord, to break bread and to take the cup. And once again I would like to remind us of the symbolism. In an unstructured hour such as that, it is a simple thing to put our brains into neutral, isn't it? That meeting is not a simple meeting. Dave McLeod and I were talking about the breaking of bread service and he said, do you know it is a very sophisticated meeting? It requires a great deal of personal preparation to start with. it requires an understanding of the Word of God. If we are going to sing, and we do and should, it requires an understanding of a vast array of hymns. Because this is not just a haphazard sharing of anecdotal experiences in our lives. It is a worship of God that is to be done fittingly and in order. And one of the things that is amazing is to see the Holy Spirit lead and direct in that worship. How many times have I had my hymn book open or my wife in just reading through a hymn And a brother calls out that hymn. Have you ever experienced that? Now why is that? Because there's clear connection and we are listening and the Holy Spirit is prompting us in our great thoughts of God together. And while that can be a marvelous time, we also recognize that it is a time in which we can easily tune out and relax. Now the symbolism itself is so manifold, goes in so many directions that it is very helpful, I think, to understand so that we have these hooks, these guidelines that are in Scripture themselves as we continue to remember the Lord as He asked us to do. The obvious symbolism is seen in First Corinthians eleven. where Paul quotes what the Lord Jesus did on that last night in which it was betrayed. And he says he took bread and the cup. And he said, this bread stands for my body that is given for you. This cup stands for the blood that is shed for you. And the primary thing that we do, and it is so clear in the symbolism, is that we show forth the Lord's death till he come. He wants us to remember his death. That is ground zero in the Christian experience. Now it is his death he wants us to remember. It is blood separated from the body. You do show forth the Lord's death. We know he is resurrected. We know He is ascended to God's right hand. We know He's coming back for us. But the focus is His death. That is the basis of our redemption. He was raised not to justify us, but because in His death He had justified us. He is raised on account of our justification. When He said it is finished and died, the saving work was finished. And Jesus said, I want you to remember my death. Your life depends on my death. And we should never get far from that. You do show forth the Lord's death. Now some will say that meanings are too solemn. Death is solemn. It is sorrowful. He bore my sins. in his body on the tree. All my iniquity on him were laid. That's solemn. And it is fitting that we be solemn when we think about that. Let it touch our heart. It's altogether fitting that occasionally they even touch our tear ducts, would you not say? Thus might I hide my blushing face when His dear cross appears. Melt my heart to thankfulness. Bring my eyes to tears. You show forth the Lord's death. First Corinthians ten, another level of symbolism is specified, and it is a wonderful level of symbolism. There is one loaf, just like there is one body, the body of Christ, the larger body of Christ, the Church. We do it together. We pass that bread and you take a piece and I take a piece. And here we are, all redeemed by Jesus Christ. And it is a collective, corporate thing. And not only are we doing this, but Christians around the world, every given Sunday. in that one body, the body of Christ the Church, take part in the Lord's Supper. Aren't you glad for that? It's great to do it to worship with one another. That is especially significant. in a setting like this when there's conference time and people from this country and other countries gather together and we genuinely are one in Jesus Christ. And we show that as a person from the Midwest or the North or the West or Canada or other countries takes the bread right after I do and there's a reminder we are one in Jesus Christ. We are brothers and sisters in the Lord. We're in the family of God. It is a demonstration of the great unity of the body of Christ. And when you pass the bread to me and I to you, we are not only saying, I remember the Lord's death, but I remember that we are one in Jesus Christ. We are united in saying the same great things about our God and about our Savior. We do it. together. That's exciting to me. Unsafe people don't understand the club that we belong to. You know, we travel around the country and you head a stranger's home. You've never seen them. They throw the keys to the car at you. And here's the bedroom. Here's the refrigerator. Make yourself at home. Boy, how do you get into that kind of a club? There are no dues. The dues have been paid. once and we trust one another totally I've been in some of your homes yours and mine hey I don't have any questions about what you're going to do or you me I trust we're in the body of Christ and when we gather corporately together in church life we worship we are doing as a brothers and sisters in the Lord we are one by this shall men know that your mighty disciples, that you have love one to another. In John six, this is before the inception of the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus in that great bread of life discourse uses language that is so much like the Lord's Supper that you know he must have had that in mind. And he says something like this, unless you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you have no part with me. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And when we come to break bread, I am reminded of that striking parallel language of our Lord in John chapter six, where he is talking about salvation, my spiritual birthday. And when I take bread, I am reminded that there was day one in my spiritual experience when I trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, when I ate his flesh and drank his blood. And consequently, by assimilating Christ, by accepting, receiving, believing, I had eternal life. When my folks' first mom and dad passed away, at the end we were going through the various things in the apartment. One of the drawers we pulled out was a little postcard, about so big, you know, the postcard. They used to be, do you remember this? How did you describe a postcard? It was a penny postcard. Do you remember that? What is it now? Thirty-three cents? Twenty-one? I don't know. Who sends them anymore? We pulled out a postcard. I had written it. On the front of the postcard, there was a picture of the Inn at Greenwood Hills. Any of you know the Inn at Greenwood Hills? The back of the card, it was my writing. Dear mom and dad, I was saved today. Love Dave. And there's a stamp of the U.S. government. saying canceled and it's got the date on it and my mom and dad saved that postcard I would do the same and we have that in a collection of memorabilia right now very frequently when I take bread and wine together with the saints according to John six I go back to a day when I was a little unsaved boy on the way to hell. And thankfully a message by George Landis struck home to me by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit of God. And I believed that Christ died for my sins. August twelfth, fifty-one. I want some dates. When were you saved? Somebody give me the time. Quickly. November the third, nineteen thirty-six. November third, nineteen thirty-six. Ground zero in your Christian experience. Someone else. May six, nineteen twelve. That's beautiful. May six, nineteen twelve. Hardly a person is now alive. May six, nineteen twelve. That's the day. Someone else. September the nineteenth, nineteen twenty-one. September nineteenth, nineteen twenty-one. From death to life, kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And Jesus says, I want you to remember, you ate my flesh, you drank my blood. You became my child. Required the death of Jesus Christ. We will not get very far away from correct doctrine. when we come to the foot of the cross every Sunday morning and remember there was a day when I was lost but now I am found one of our hymns say ah the symbols pass away too soon the time is gone again it's too quick how could it happen that fast but we return to feed again And we do that regularly, and it is a picture as we come Sunday after Sunday after Sunday that we must feed on the Lord Jesus Christ to be sustained. Unlike baptism that says, you are dead to sin once and for all, this symbolism tells us that we live in Jesus Christ. And we come regularly to feed on him. and to remember him so that we continue to grow in our spiritual life out of an act of worship and devotion to him we do this in a very interesting way he says you do this until he comes and it is described and this is the most difficult symbolism in it all It is described as the blood of the new covenant that we take. The new covenant is recorded in Jeremiah chapter thirty-one and in Ezekiel thirty-six and thirty-seven. It is one of the many covenants made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the children of Israel, the Abrahamic covenant and the Palestinian covenant and the Davidic covenant. the new covenant and the new covenant is the death now to the old covenant the mosaic covenant it's a covenant made with Israel it will be in effect in the millennium yet we are linked with that Paul calls us ministers of the new covenant and it is the blood of the new covenant that we take in symbol form Sunday after Sunday And he, according to Hebrews, is the mediator of a better covenant, the new covenant, and we participate in that. I think Darby is correct in saying that we enter into some of the spiritual blessings of the new covenant. We have that in common with Israel. And what will secure Israel's future and the repentance of Israel and the establishment of the kingdom The death of Christ is the same thing that makes salvation possible for us. New Covenant people are born again people. Nicodemus is chided by the Lord. Are you a teacher in Israel and you do not know that you must have the Jeremiah thirty-one experience? You must be born again. Little interpretation there. We likewise are born again. Excuse me. We are partakers of the New Covenant. And we take that blood. And I like to look forward to that day as I take the blood of the new covenant. New covenant. That's a great thing. Let the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I will not eat this till I eat it afresh in the kingdom, will one day with us and with all the Old Testament saints on this good earth. Remember the death of Jesus Christ. He will lead praise in the midst of the congregation. We together, all of us together, all of God's people, all together, will on this earth one day remember the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will lead praise in the midst of the congregation. And I look forward to that day as I've mentioned already. I look at every Sunday morning as practice for worship in the millennium. And if we practice regularly, I think we're going to get a front row seat. And I'd like to be that close to the Lord when He leads praise in the midst of the congregation. If we're proud, we get a back row seat. So I have tensions there. Lead praise. One day. this earth so out of control so misgoverned so rejecting of Jesus Christ we'll see the Lord Jesus and all his saints and in the day of visitation when he comes again acknowledge Jesus as Lord I look forward to that day And as we worship together, as we bring those individual thoughts of worship from a week, we come together to raise our praise and worship to God. And as I said in the first session, you can do that better than anybody. This is where the youngsters have to give way to the folks who have lived with God for so many years. You know God in a way. that the students at a mass cannot possibly know him yet. Maturity takes time, and you have walked with God for lots of years. You are prepared to be worshippers, and you, by very definition, can worship better than any of God's people now, because you know God the best, having walked with him for so long. And you bring full baskets to worship Him, while others have to bring their juvenile thoughts. I hear juvenile thoughts a lot in worship. I hear statements like this, Father, I thank you for dying on the cross. Now, I think that gets straightened out, don't you? I think the Father leans over to the Son and says, He meant you. But the little kids get, hey, the motivation is genuine. That's no problem. I don't hit them over the head for that. I do instruct them. But, hey, the motivation is genuine. But they haven't had the life experience that you have. And the depth of being in the Word. And the strengthening of God through all those hard times so that, like Jacob now, My years have been few, my days few, and they've really been hard, but can I worship God because of that? And tonight we'll see that great Jacob pulling himself up with the last of his strength and saying great things about God that he could never have said as a young man. What does God want most of all? It's not the service of Martha, it's the worship of Mary. God desires worshipers. That's what he wants. And the blessed place that you find yourself now is that you can be a worshiper of God like nobody else that is serving him now can be. That's the beauty of being elderly. A life of experience out of which we can worship God together. Worship. Remember me. Remember the body. Remember that you need to feed on me. Remember that one day I'll come again. and we gather together on a regular basis to do what we do individually, the highest call for the Christian to be a worshiper of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Lord, we are thankful for the many opportunities we have had over the years to break bread together. to be able to think on the death of Christ, our spiritual birthday, the oneness of the body, the sustaining grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sure return. We pray as we contemplate individually that even this coming Lord's Day, we be collective worshipers bringing glory and praise. out of an individual life of praise to you. So we pray for your glory. Amen.