Gooding, David: 12 - The King Enters

So let us begin this final session by reading from the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke, first of all, in chapter nineteen And verse twenty nine. And it came to pass, when he drew nigh unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount that is called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, Go your way into the village over against you, in the which, as you enter, you shall find a colt tied, whereon never man ever yet sat. Loose him and bring him. And if anyone ask you, why do you loose him, thus shall ye say, the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went away and found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him. And they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their garments upon the colt and set Jesus thereon. And as he went, they spread their garments in the way. And as he was now drawing nigh, even at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, saying, Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said, I tell you that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out. Then from chapter twenty two, beginning at verse seven. And the day of unleavened bread came, on which the Passover sh- must be sacrificed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and make ready for us the Passover, that we may eat. And they said unto him, When wilt thou that we make ready? And he said unto them, Behold, when you are entered into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house whereinto he goes. And you shall say to the good man of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the guest chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room furnished, there make ready. And they went and found as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. When the hour was come, he sat down, and the apostles with him, and he said unto them, with desire I have desired to eat the Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not eat it until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink his- henceforth of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come. And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which is poured out for you. But behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man indeed goeth as it has been determined, but woe unto that man through whom he is betrayed. And they began to question among themselves which of them it was that should do this thing. The final section of the Gospel of Luke is a very large section, as is appropriate to the fact that the events of this week, which this section records, were in fact the f- center of the whole of human history. It is interesting to notice, therefore, that Luke has divided this section, as he has so many, into two halves, the beginning of which halves bear striking resemblance one to another. There were, Luke points out to us, two carefully formal entries into the city by our Lord Jesus in the course of that last week. We have read the accounts together, carefully prepared. I mean by that, that on the first occasion, as our Lord approached the city, he sent two of his disciples to make necessary preparation. They were to go and fetch a colt, an ass, and bring it to the Savior that he might ride there on into the city. And having given them the directions, the disciples went off, and says Luke, they found even as he said to them, and they brought the colt to Jesus and covering it with their cloaks, sat him there upon. Then on the second occasion, our Lord carefully prepared his final entry to the city, when once more he sent two disciples, this time into the city itself, to prepare the Passover. And when they inquired where was it his wish that they should prepare this Passover, he gave them certain signs that give every impression of being a secret arrangement that he had made with the, uh, owner of a particular house within the city. They were to go into the city, they would notice a man carrying a pitcher of water, they to were to follow that man and, uh, to follow him into the house into which he entered. And in the house, they were to inquire for the owner of the house, and they were to ask him, where is the guest chamber that Christ may, uh, use to keep the Passover with his disciples? And as though it had all been arranged beforehand with this particular man, the man would show them a large upper room furnished for the purpose. Two very well prepared entries, therefore, into the city by our Lord in the course of this last week. You will notice at once the difference between those two entries. The preparation for our Lord's first entry was the preparation for his official coming to the nation. In one sense, our Lord had come when he was born in Bethlehem. In another sense, he had come when John Baptist publicly baptized him and introduced to the nation our blessed Lord at the beginning of his public ministry. But now this was his coming in another sense. Whereas on previous occasions he had come with the pilgrims, and on one noted occasion he had come by himself deliberately in secret, slipping into the city when no one was noticing that he had arrived. On this occasion, he came with maximum and deliberately contrived publicity. Arranging for an ass to be brought him, he sat there upon, and in deliberate fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah chapter nine and verse nine, he rode into the city to the accompanying welcome of the crowd, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Thus had Zechariah prophesied of the time, behold, thy king cometh to thee, he is meek and lowly and riding on an ass and the fo- even the foal of an ass. A deliberate, outspoken pageantry, declaring himself to be Israel's, Zion's king, now coming in the full confidence of his divine majesty and his human Christhood. He was coming to the city, claiming to be Israel's king, and advertising it with the maximum publicity. When some in the cu- uh cu- uh in the crowd suggested to him that the acclamation of his disciples was excessive and bordering on the blasphemy, he rebuked them. If they did not cry out, the very stones would recognize their Lord Creator and Jerusalem's king and acclaim him when mortal tongues kept silence. It was a very different entry that he organized at the end of the week, though it was equally carefully prepared. During the week, he had daily taught in the temple, amidst a crowd of largely sympathetic hearers. But of course, the expected confrontation took place between him and the several authorities. Tense was the atmosphere, as first Sadducees and then Pharisees and the lawyers and the scribes pelted him with questions, all of them designed to discredit him in front of the crowd and to prove that his claims to Christhood were sheer nonsense and worse. It became apparent from the parable that the Lord Jesus told eventually that he was quite aware, it became apparent now to the crowd, that he was aware that the vineyard keepers, as he called them, were planning to destroy him. And solemnly he warned them what would be the fate that must necessarily, uh, come upon vineyard keepers who had not only beaten and killed the previous servants that had come in God's name to collect the fruit. What fate must overtake them, who when last of all God sent his beloved Son to collect the rights that were his sovereign due, the chief keepers of the vineyard took him, cast him out of the vineyard, and crucified him. The authorities, we are told, would like to have arrested him, uh, during that preparatory week to Passover. But they were not able to because still at this stage, the large crowds heard him gladly and for the most part were on his side. It was only afterwards at the end, when the priests, by careful manipulation, brought the crowd over to their side to yell to Pilate for the crucifixion of our Lord. But during the part of the week, the crowds were largely sympathetic. So we are told that our Lord, at the end of the day, went to the Mount of Olives. It would have been dangerous for him to have remained in the city, lest the authorities should have taken the opportunity to come and arrest him. So he went out to the Mount of Olives and only returned to the temple in daylight, when the crowds would be around, and by their very presence make the arrest impossible. When towards the end, the die had been cast, he knew and always had known what now it became apparent, that they were determined to destroy him. He left the temple for the last time. As he was going, some from among his apostles called his attention to the stately, uh, building and its votive offerings. But he sorrowfully replied that the time would come when not one stone would be left upon another. So when he sat on the mountain opposite the temple, his disciples came to him and asked further details of how this should happen, and in solemn terms he told them of what would subsequently come upon the nation. Because now these were the days of desolation, when the accumulated anger and wrath and displeasure of God at the nation's martyrdom of its prophets down the centuries would finally reach its full and be poured out. It was decreed that eventually the enemies of Israel would be allowed to come, encircle the city, destroy the city, and destroy the temple, not leaving one stone upon another. But mingled therein was hope. After the destruction of the city, after an unspecified interval, then there should begin the cosmic signs in the heavens that should herald and prelude the coming of the Son of Man. He would come in all his power and glory and take to himself the rights that had hitherto been denied him by the leaders of the nation and institute the kingdom of God. So if you had only that to the record, you might imagine now a king that had come to his capital city, Jerusalem, had been rejected, turned out, and was simply going to a felon's cross outside the city. Not our Lord. They had determined to kill him and stop the establishment of his kingdom, but he was determined quite otherwise. And before they let him out of the city to hang him on a tree, king of the capital city he still was, and organized his final entry into the city, carefully, meticulously organizing it, that there in that city, the very air of which breathed hostility against him, he should set up his kingdom there and then, and a kingdom that should never pass away. It was for that purpose, you will have noticed, that he entered the second time, not merely to say a loving farewell to disciples before his cross, but there to institute the new covenant. As with his disciples in that upper room, as the oil lamps burned cozily and comfortingly, he took the cup and handing the cup to his disciples said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. All of you drink from it. It was the symbol- symbolism that would express the significance of what was happening when presently outside Jerusalem's walls, the king himself was nailed to a cross. Lest their disciples should have been under any misapprehension as to what was happening when there he hung upon that cross, he now symbolized its significance before them in the upper room. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, said he. Not our new covenant, not a, uh, simply a covenant, but the new covenant. Our first task, then, is to remind ourselves once more of what was the significance of this covenant. Now, we have had vividly brought before our minds the significance of the old covenant, to which necessarily the new covenant calls our attention because it is the new covenant, but has now made that first covenant old, the old covenant. The old covenant, quite explicitly, was the instrument of God's government of his people. Twenty or thirty years ago, as Mr. Taylor has reminded us, the archaeologists discovered a number of Hittite and Canaanite covenants, you'll see. We shed their amount of light on the old covenant, particularly by the terms of those Canaanite Hittite covenants and the order of them. Apparently, so the experts tell me, uh, at different times those covenants took slightly different forms, but their main elements and contents were as follows. Take that delightfully named, uh, emperor Suppiluliumu, if that's how he liked to be pronounced. And he would begin his covenant that he made with his vassal kings. There was the big emperor, there were the vassal kings, and they in turn responsible to keep order in their little, uh, fiefdoms, do you see? And the covenant would begin by a declaration of who the aforesaid Supiluliumu was. I am Supiluliumu, if you didn't know, probably remember it. And then what he had done, which was generally in the terms I'd beaten you up and subdued you. And then there would follow the positive commands, you shall do this, and the negative prohibitions, you shan't do that. And then the solemn demand that you will not make a treaty with anybody else to serve them. Then the gods were called upon to witness, heard that the covenant had been made to bring down their blessings on those who kept it and their curses on those who disobeyed it. There would be a provision made also that the covenant terms should be taken out by apro- the appropriate vassal kings from time to time, while they assembled their people before them and rehearsed in the ears of the people the terms of the covenant to remind them of their loyalty to their supreme emperor. For people's memories are short, and they do constantly need to be reminded. When the archaeologists found these things and read the tablets, they were, of course, struck by the great similarity between the terms and the order of the terms in those covenants, the similarity between them and the terms of the Old Covenant, in which God, the supreme Lord and sovereign, de- begins by declaring who he is, I am the Lord, and proceeding to announce what he has done for these people, brought them out of the house of bondage. His stipulation that they shall have no other god but him. His commands thou shalt, and his prohibitions thou shalt not. Of course, Moses did not call upon the gods to witness, but when he rehearsed the covenant terms at the end of the book of Dero- Deuteronomy and the hearing of the people, he called upon heaven and earth to witness that God had made this covenant with his people. The blessings were pronounced on those that would keep the covenant, and the divine curses on those that would break it. Quite clearly, the old covenant was an instrument of government by God for his people. Not less, not less, my brothers and sisters, is the new covenant. For sure it is of grace, marvelous grace, that has set us singing and will keep us singing for all. But let not the fact that it is of grace hide from us that the new covenant is an instrument in the Lord's hands for the governing of us, his people. The terms of the new covenant are explicitly given us in the epistle to the Hebrews and chapter eight. But I'm sure that you have taken the cup of the covenant so many times from the hand of the Lord as you have met with his people to remember him. That now, of course, you can recite by heart, can you not, the terms of the new covenant. I was once preaching on these matters from First Corinthians eleven to a Christian congregation when wickedness overcame me, as it does sometimes, even in the pulpit. And I made the remark I have just made. You all have taken the cup at the Lord's Supper how many hundreds of times. You could all therefore recite, couldn't you, the terms of the New Covenant off by heart. I said, well, let's start. What about, uh, if I ask some members of the congregation, could they recite the terms of the New Covenant? But there were certain people that cringed back in their seats, do you see? Perhaps they were new converts. I suspect they were. I didn't, I didn't pursue the matter, of course not. That could have been cruel. But it is a fact that as the Lord himself handed the cup to his disciples, and as again and again and again his unseen hand offers to us the cup when we meet to remember him, he is saying the first thing about it is this, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Ours the responsibility to acquaint ourselves with the terms of that covenant, and the first term is this, I will write my laws on their hearts. It is an instrument of his government. That is why, just like the ancient Canaanite emperors, and indeed like Moses, uh, did, our Lord has commanded us to do this. To celebrate this covenant. Because we too are short of memory. We're asked to meet the Lord, absent in body but present in spirit with us, as remem- as we remember him in the breaking of bread and the taking of the cup. There is no other thing on earth so calculated to remind us of what is absolutely central to his relationship, to the relationship between us and him. That is his gracious government. He is our Lord, is he not? He is our king. And in handing us the symbols of memorial, he reminds us of his laws. I will write my laws on their hearts, and on their minds will I inscribe them. The wonder of it should never grow dim with us, should it? As Neville has so vividly reminded us, and in the studies, alas, I was not present having other another duty, also of our readings of two Corinthians three, The new covenant is in to the old. With the old, the laws were written, though with the finger of God and therefore with authority, on tables of stone. Though I must say that's a comparat- comparatively easy job, isn't it? So if you have a nice chisel, you can write words on stone, however hard the stone be. But the trouble with that covenant was this, that Israel didn't continue in it, as Hebrews chapter eight says, quoting Jeremiah. But the trouble with that covenant was this, that Israel didn't continue in it, as Hebrews chapter eight says, quoting Jeremiah. That was the trouble. They did not continue in it. If the new covenant is to fare better than the old, this is the central point that his provisions will have to aim at. Israel didn't continue. How can God get us to continue in the covenant? And the first provision was the manner of the writing of the laws, no longer on the fleshy tables of the heart, uh, of, of tables of stone, but now written on the fleshy tables of the heart. A great and glorious metaphor, of course, for the new birth. When we are born from above, born of the Spirit of God, there is implanted within us the nature of God with its potential. Paul's metaphor, you will already remember from two Corinthians three, is vivid enough. He says, writing to these fickle Corinthians, the living Lord Christ has taken me as a man would take a pen, and using as ink the power of the Holy Spirit, he has written on your hearts his laws. It's a sizably difficult job writing laws on hearts, they are so fluid. But that is the miracle that the living Lord has done by his Holy Spirit. And the second great terms, you shall not need to teach every man saying, know the Lord. That doesn't mean we have no need of teachers today. The living Lord has given us teachers. But it is in contrast to Israel, where the majority of people had little immediate access to God, when they assembled to the public worship of God, the impression that was given was that they were kept at a distance. At Sinai, of course, they prepared, they were glad to keep at a distance. But at the tabernacle itself, the outer court kept most of the people out, some came in. Now the first curtain kept out all the lay persons. Only the priests entered there. The flea veil kept out all the priests. Only the high priest entered, and he but once a year. These priests were a special class, and by their very duties and special vestments, they marked themselves off by God's command from the laity. They were the men that knew the Lord. They were the men that had access to the Lord, and the rest of the people stood and watched as the whole process was done. Not so in the New Covenant, where there is no laity and, uh, clergy. But all shall know me, from the least to the greatest, in this sense, that all have immediate access to God and know him personally. No secondhand knowledge of God, no knowledge of God at second remove. Each has access to the Father. There is a delightful word from the pen of John in his first epistle, where he writes to the little children, the various infants in the faith. I've written to you, little children, he says, because you know the Father. Oh, what a delightful thing that is, the various babes in Christ, and they personally know by direct access the Lord of the universe that has become their father. And then to back up the wonders of this covenant, there is the third set of terms. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. I am so grateful to God that he put the terms of the covenant in that order, that he didn't start saying, your sins and iniquities are forgiven, now please keep my law, because I should then say, but what happens when as a believer, I come short and fail and transgress? What happens now? I'm glad it's the other way around. First, I will write my law on their hearts, and on their minds will I inscribe them. What happens when I fall and fail? Well, we shall see more of it in a moment. But with the due repentance, then we come and take the cup once more. And the final terms of the covenant are these: their sins and iniquities I will not bring up against them again forever. Marvelous, Lord. Marvelous covenant. There are some, of course, have been down the years, some schools of thought that have seriously suggested that the new covenant is not for the church. Some notable schools of prophecy hold that view. The reason they say it is a serious reason. They point out that when the Old Testament speaks of Israel, good hermeneutical practice will insist that God means Israel, which is hardly surprising. And when God in the Old Testament says Judah, good hermeneutical principle will insist that God means Judah. It was the habit of some, when they met the blessings of God pronounced on Israel in the Old Testament, to say that that meant the blessings of God on the church. And when they came across the curses of God on Israel, they said that meant meant Israel, do you see? But that was a questionable bit of hermeneutics. Adhering to that plain principle of hermeneutics, this school has served us well to elucidate many of the prophecies of the Old Testament. But then they came across this matter of the New Covenant, where in Jeremiah, and then as it is quoted in Hebrews, the covenant, the new covenant, according to the prophecy, is to be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And therefore, true to this particular principle, they suggested that the covenant is not for the church at all. If you have never met that, uh, theory, uh, forgive me this next two minutes because I was brought up under it and once believed it. The covenant, they say, is promised and will be made with Israel in a future. We come into the benefits of the blood of Christ. We may therefore come into the benefits of the covenant simply because the blood of Christ happens to be the blood of the covenant that God will one day make with Judah and Israel. But strictly speaking, the covenant is not for the church. In my humble submission, that you cannot be correct. In the first place, Hebrews chapter eight tells us that this covenant has already been enacted. The Greek word meaning thus to pass a law and get it enacted is in the perfect tense. It has been, says the writer, already enacted. It's not a question of it will be made. The covenant has been enacted, for covenants are made and enacted when the sacri- the covenant victims are killed and the covenant, uh, ceremonies gone through. When was the blood of the covenant shed? When was the covenant therefore made? It was made when our blessed Lord died at Calvary. How then shall we reconcile the fact that it was made with Israel and Judah, if we Gentiles in the church are to, are to be included therein? The simple answer seems to me to be given us in the words of Ephesians chapter two. As Gentiles, we once were strangers from the covenants of promise. We're not now, are we? Moreover, in the church were these believers to whom the letter to the Hebrews is written. They were Jews, of course. And they are being urged to leave behind the old covenant and all the ceremonies that pertain thereto, the ancient high priest, the sacrifices, and the tabernacle, the laws that run r- uh, govern the old covenant in its ceremonial applications. They're being urged to leave them. How will they leave the old covenant if the new covenant was not already in operation? They are assured that they have forgiveness. The old law is no longer required of priesthood, nor the sacrifices to be repeated. Their high priest is Christ. Their, uh, tabernacle is the true, not made with hands. And the covenant on which they now draw near to God is the new covenant. It is on that basis that they have complete forgiveness of sins, such as no longer requires the offering of any further sacrifice. So I myself conclude that the new covenant is for us who belong to the church. Say not it is not for us. See once more the parallel. Imagine again the scene that Neville Taylor depicted before us, with God come down to Sinai to meet his people. Oh yes, it was filled with fear and horror for them, and rightly so. On the other hand, looking back after many centuries, God, through the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter two, remembered those days and used the term of a lover going to court his beloved to attract her to say yes to him and to fall into the arms of his embrace. I remember the joy of your espousals, he says. Ah, what a fickle bride and wife Israel had been. But even as they incurred his displeasure, God's memory was going back to the wilderness and those first early days of his courtship of Israel, how he came down to meet them, and the man who managed the marriage, so to speak, the go-between was Moses, and Moses brought out the people to meet God. Oh, what a magnificent scene, where the very God of the universe come down to court his redeemed people and gave to Moses the proposition to put before the people. Would they have it? And they said yes. When they said yes, Moses took the basin with the blood and sprinkled it on the book and on the people. Can you see him holding the basin in front of the people and taking the and sprinkling the people? Behold the blood of the covenant, says he. What a ceremony. That wasn't to be done in just a few minutes in the course of something else. Shall we attach less significance to that solemn moment? Though there were no clouds and thunders, nothing but the gracious voice of the Savior in the upper room, when he took the cup and holding it out in front of his disciples said, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And shall we attach less significance to those times when we meet as churches, and the unseen Lord who has promised to be with us stands amongst us and holds out to us the cup and says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Take and drink it in remembrance of me and of my covenant. Oh, my dear brethren, this is not a thing to be regarded as a short interlude, a minor episode in a gathering that is convened largely for other purposes and that concentrates on other things. This is so wonderful, so solemn, so joyous, so crucial in our Lord's relationship with his people, as the Lord and King stands before us to remind us of his covenant, that we should ever more deeply enter into its significance. This constant repetition of the terms of the covenant and its basis. These are the instruments by which the Lord and head of the church governs us, his people. I was in a country far from here, conducting some intensive Bible studies. And afterwards there came two gentlemen. They turned out to be elders from a distant church. They explained that they had had a church leader who was a bit of a tyrant, and they weren't altogether sorry that now he had gone. But as a young church, they were finding their way and seeking perhaps to study, uh, God's word as to how they ought to conduct themselves, and as elders they found this a great responsibility, naturally. They asked, would I come and visit them for a weekend and, and be with them? I gladly assented. On the Lord's Day, there were two sessions in the morning. One was the Lord's Supper, and I was asked thereafter to speak a word to the believers. The next was what I thought was what in some circles is called a family hour, when the general public is invited to come, and there too I was asked to preach, and I did. At the day's end, as they were driving me the long distance back to my lodgings, they were naturally a little inquisitive to know what I had felt of their meeting that day. I said how lovely it was to be with them, and how glad I was, uh, to see the numbers that came. I said it's a good, healthy church, as far as I can see, the Lord's people at the Lord's Supper, how I had enjoyed that. I said I was particularly also glad to see what a large number of unconverted people came to the second session. No, they said. No. No, there were very few unconverted people there. They were the members of the church too. What I said? Not present at the breaking of bread, but just coming to the second one. Yes, they said that. That's how it is in our church. They said you can't command, uh, the people to come to the Lord's Supper, can you? I'd never heard it put like that before. So I did a little mini exposition on Acts chapter two. How that when people profess to be converted and to repent of the murder of their king, they were baptized publicly in the name of Jesus, and they continued in the apostles' doctrine. Of course they did. You can't profess to accept the king and then refuse the doctrine of his apostles. They continued in the apostles' doctrine and in the breaking of bread. Of course they did. For they were people that had genuinely repented of having rejected the king, and now they had received him. How could you reconcile their claim to have received the king? If one of his prime expressed wishes and command, this do in remembrance of me, they were neglecting. For the essence of the new covenant, let's remind ourselves, is this: Christ has promised to write his laws on our hearts. That work of writing did not cease, surely, when we first trusted him. It is the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in the Lord's hands, constantly to engrave that writing ever more deeply on our consciousness and thus on our behavior. Is it not a prime duty to come and stand to the covenant. And as we come to take the cup, to bare our breasts and do business with the king. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, had a very potent turn of phrase as he reminded these fickle Corinthians about the Lord's Supper. It was, says Paul, on the night in which he was betrayed. What a solemn thought that our Lord had to say as he offered the emblems, behold the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. And the apostles said one after the other, it's not me, Lord, is it? Not me, not me. Any believer would shrink back in horror from the thought. Surely I would never betray the Lord. Then says Paul as we come to the celebration of the New Covenant, and come, and come, and come again. We must come prepared to do business with the Lord. So let a man examine himself. It is not required that we should have lived a sinlessly perfect life before we come. That would be utterly unrealistic, wouldn't it? It is required that we examine ourselves. We're coming before the king. We're coming to celebrate his covenant. Let us examine ourselves and confess our sins. The Greek word is apparently stronger, so I'm told. If we would discern ourselves. At any one moment, if we looked within, we should be aware that there are attitudes in our hearts that are not as they should be. Our friends see them, we ourselves are so often blind to them. We need God's grace to discern ourselves, don't we? For this is real business. The Lord is continuing and wanting to continue to write his laws on our hearts. We need to know, little by little in life, as we can bear it, and the Lord develops us. What attitudes still remain that are not as they should be, that we might acknowledge them, and as we come, thank the Lord for the marvel of his promise. You needn't despair. I am covenanted in my blood to write my laws upon your hearts. And as for your failings that you have confessed, the promise stands. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. What happens if a believer will not thus confess his sins? What happens if a believer will not take the matter seriously? What happens if people dismiss the Lord's Supper to the fringe of their thinking? What happens if I live carelessly and come and take that cup? What will the Lord do? And the covenant tells me that he'll do what he has covenanted to do. He has covenanted to make me holy. He will, God bless his name, he will do it with my cooperation and to the maximum possible of my comfort, though pain it will cause from time to time. But if not, if I will not cooperate, he will do it, says Paul. For his covenant is to make his people holy. And if we will not take him seriously and cooperate with him, then he will judge us. He will chasten us, not out of spite or revenge, but in loving faithfulness to us. He will chasten us to bring us to a better frame of mind, so that he may present us one day faultless before his Father's glory with exceeding joy. We need, therefore, to high keep in high regard and in prominent observation the Lord's Supper and the celebration of the New Covenant. Its frequent, deliberate observation will help me to remember in the intervening days the chief business I have in life with the Lord. And even yet and again, it will be a constant source of renewal of hope, for as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show forth the Lord's death until that glorious moment, soon to be upon us, that the Lord shall come. Shall we pray? Our Father, now we thank thee for these holy things. We thank thee for thy grace and thy wisdom that has seen the inevitable weakness of the human heart and realistically made provision to make us holy. For this new covenant, for the cost that it meant for Christ our Lord, we do praise thee. What a king he is, that would die for his subjects and his rebel subjects to boot. Keep it fresh in our memory and in the memory of the church, we do beseech thee. May our repeated celebrations of this covenant become ever richer in our experience and gratify the heart of the Lord Jesus as his objectives are achieved.