{"id":3192,"date":"2015-01-17T10:44:53","date_gmt":"2015-01-17T10:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3192"},"modified":"2015-01-17T10:44:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T10:44:53","slug":"bulletin-edition-240-january-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3192","title":{"rendered":"Bulletin Edition #240 January 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Agony in Gethsemane
\n<\/strong>
\nThe following is from Spurgeon’s sermon,
\n“The Agony in Gethsemane” #1199. Luke 22:44<\/p>\n

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Matthew 26:38
\n“And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of
\nblood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:44
\nSee the excellence and completeness of the atonement of Christ!
\nHow black I am, how filthy, how loathsome in the sight of God; I feel myself only fit to be
\ncast into the lowest hell, and I wonder that God has not long ago cast me there.
\nBut I go into Gethsemane, and I peer under those gnarled olive trees, and I see my Savior!
\nYes, I see him wallowing on the ground in anguish, and hear such groans come from
\nhim as never came from human breast before.
\nI look upon the ground and see it red with his blood, while his face is smeared with
\ngory sweat, and I say to myself, “My God, my Savior, why do you suffer so?”
\nI hear him reply, “I am suffering for your sin.”
\nNow I can understand how Jehovah can spare me, because he smote his Son in my stead!
\nSinner as I am, I stand before the burning throne of the severity of God, and am not afraid of it. Can you scorch me, O consuming fire, when you have not only scorched, but utterly consumed my substitute?
\nAll hell was distilled into that cup of which Jesus Christ was made to drink. The woe
\nthat broke over the Savior’s spirit, the great and fathomless ocean of inexpressible anguish
\nwhich dashed over the Savior’s soul when he died, was inconceivable.
\nOur Lord’s main suffering lay in his soul. His soul-sufferings were the soul of his sufferings.
\nHis position as a sin-bearer, and the desertion by his Father engrossed his contemplations.
\nThe bloody sweat of Jesus came from an utter faintness and prostration of soul.
\nHe was in an awful soul-swoon, and suffered an inward death, whose accompaniment was
\nnot watery tears from the eyes, but a weeping of blood from the entire man.
\nHe could say with David, “The pains of hell got hold upon me.”
\nAll God’s waves and billows went over him. Above him, beneath him, around him, and
\nwithin, all, all was anguish.<\/p>\n

The cup of wine we drink at the Lord\u2019s Table symbolizes the believer\u2019s communion with God accomplished by Christ\u2019s shed blood. How amazing that we have friendship with holy God and enjoy the blessings of grace such as righteousness, peace, and forgiveness! But never forget, in order for his children to drink of this cup of communion, our Head had to drink that bitter cup of wrath dry. (Zec 13: 7; Ps 22: 1-3) In the total darkness of the cross, there could be no communion with the Father for our Substitute until he had suffered all the consequences of sin to the full satisfaction of divine justice. (Rom 8: 32; <\/em>Lam 1: 12; Zec 12: 10; Is 53: 8) But by making satisfaction, Christ took that bitter cup out of our hands and gave us this sweet cup of communion.\u00a0\u00a0Clay Curtis.<\/p>\n

Weaned from feeding on husks and ashes<\/strong><\/p>\n

(J. C. Philpot, “Zion’s Blessings” 1843)<\/p>\n

“I will satisfy her poor <\/strong>with bread<\/strong>.” Psalm 132:15
\nThe Lord has given a special promise to Zion’s poor\u2014”I will satisfy her poor with bread<\/strong>.” <\/p>\n

Nothing else?\u00a0 Bread?\u00a0 Is that all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes! That is all God has promised\u2014bread, \u00a0the staff of life.
\nBut what does He mean by “bread”?<\/p>\n

The Lord Himself explains what bread is. He says, \u00a0“I am the Bread of life.<\/strong> He who comes to Me will \u00a0never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. I am the living Bread<\/strong> who came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” John 6:35,51
\nThe bread, then, that God gives to Zion’s poor is His own dear Son\u2014fed upon by living faith, under the special operations of the Holy Spirit in the heart.
\n“I will satisfy her poor<\/strong> with bread.” Psalm 132:15<\/p>\n

But must not we have an appetite <\/strong>before we can feed upon bread<\/strong>? The rich<\/strong> man who feasts continually upon juicy meat and savory sauces, would not live upon bread. To come down to live on such simple food as bread\u2014why, one must be really hungry to be satisfied with that.<\/p>\n

So it is spiritually. A man fed upon ‘mere notions’ and a number of ‘speculative doctrines’ cannot descend to the simplicity of the gospel. To feed upon a crucified Christ,
\na bleeding Jesus!<\/strong>\u2014he is not sufficiently brought down to the starving point, to relish such spiritual food as this!<\/p>\n

Before, then, he can feed upon this Bread of life he mustbe made spiritually poor. <\/strong>And when he is brought to be nothing but a mass of wretchedness, filth, guilt, and misery
\n\u2014when he feels his soul sinking under the wrath of God, and has scarcely a hope to buoy up his poor tottering heart \u2014when he finds the world embittered to him, and he has no
\none object from which he can reap any abiding consolation \u2014then the Lord is pleased to open up in his conscience, and bring the sweet savor of the love of His dear Son
\ninto his heart\u2014and he begins to taste gospel bread.<\/p>\n

Being weaned from feeding on husks and ashes<\/strong>, and sick “of the vines of Sodom and the fields of Gomorrah,” and being brought to relish simple gospel food, he begins to taste a sweetness in ‘Christ crucified’ which he never could know\u2014until he was made experimentally poor. \u00a0The Lord has promised to satisfy such.<\/p>\n

Communion- Don Fortner<\/p>\n

The Elements<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is needful for us to understand the meaning of the elements our Lord used to give us the ordinance of the Lord\u2019s Supper. Our Savior simply took the unleavened bread and wine of the passover supper and incorporated them into the elements to be used in the Lord\u2019s Supper. He said, concerning the bread, \u201cthis is my body<\/em>,\u201d and concerning the wine, \u201cthis is my blood<\/em>.\u201d We need to understand the meaning of those words.<\/p>\n

Error concerning the meaning of our Lord\u2019s words can lead and has lead men to serious, deplorable idolatry and superstition. Papists tell us that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. In the mass the priest pronounces his mumbo-jumbo, waves his hands, and pretends to magically transform the bread and wine into Christ\u2019s body and blood. Thus, the mass becomes, in the idolaters\u2019 minds, a sacrifice, a recrucifixion of Christ to make atonement for sin!<\/p>\n

Luther taught that the bread and wine were mystically and spiritually transformed into the body and blood of Christ, so that the elements themselves became holy and conveyed grace to the communicants. Many today have a view similar to Luther\u2019s. They attach a pagan, idolatrous meaning to the bread and wine of the Lord\u2019s Table. I have friends who used to bury any bread and wine that was left over after communion. They had been taught that once it was consecrated, it could never be used again. Others make the ordinance (Christ\u2019s established symbol of his finished work) to be a sacrament (a means by which grace is conveyed to the soul).<\/p>\n

Without question, the meaning of our Lord\u2019s words is this: \u201cThis bread represents my body. This wine represents my blood.\u201d There is absolutely no indication that he meant any more than that. Frequently, in the Scriptures something is said to be what it merely represents simply because there was no term in the Hebrew language to express symbolism. Though the New Testament was written in Greek, it retains the idiom of the Hebrew. Words like \u201csignify,\u201d \u201cdenote,\u201d \u201cportray,\u201d \u201ctypify,\u201d or \u201crepresent\u201d are not found in the Old Testament. Here are some examples of things being said to be what they, obviously, only represent.<\/p>\n

Genesis 40:12 \u2013 \u201cThe three branches are<\/em> (represent) three days<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genesis 41:26 \u2014 \u201cThe seven kine are<\/em> (represent) seven years<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel 7:24 \u2014 \u201cThe ten horns are<\/em> (represent) ten kings<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matthew 13:18 \u2014 \u201cThe field is<\/em> (represents) the world<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revelation 1:20 \u2014 \u201cThe seven stars are<\/em> (represent) the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are<\/em> (represent) the seven churches<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bible is full of expressions similar to these, which we would never think of taking in a literal sense. Good sense demands that they be interpreted allegorically. Our Savior is called \u201cthe Lamb of God<\/em>,\u201d \u201cthe Door of the sheep<\/em>,\u201d \u201cthe Lion of Judah<\/em>,\u201d and \u201cthe Vine<\/em>.\u201d No one would ever think of saying that he is literally those things! And no one, whose mind has not been perverted by religious nonsense, would ever imagine that the bread and wine of the Lord\u2019s Supper are anything but representatives of our Redeemer\u2019s body and his blood. All you have to do is taste the bread to know that it is bread, not flesh! All you have to do is drink the wine to know that it is wine, not blood!<\/p>\n

The unleavened bread represents the holy human body of our Savior. We dare not use soda crackers or light bread. Our Lord used unleavened bread for a reason. Leaven represents sin; and our Savior had no sin. Therefore, he used unleavened bread to represent his body.<\/p>\n

The wine represents his precious, sin-atoning blood. Many today have found excuses for using grape juice, kool-aid, and other things in the celebration of the Lord\u2019s Supper. But no excuse will justify such perverse behavior in the house of God. Wine is used because, like the unleavened bread, it is free of corruption, and thus a proper representation of our Savior\u2019s blood. In verse 28 our Lord tells us four things about his blood.<\/p>\n

He says it is \u201cmy blood<\/em>\u201d (Acts 20:8), the blood of that man who is God: infinitely meritorious blood, sin-atoning, precious blood.<\/p>\n

This is \u201cthe blood of the new testament,<\/em>\u201d the everlasting, new covenant (Heb. 13:20).<\/p>\n

His blood was \u201cshed for many<\/em>.\u201d It was not shed for all, but for many; the many who are the objects of his mercy, love, and grace; the many who are redeemed and saved by it.<\/p>\n

His blood was shed \u201cfor the remission of sins<\/em>.\u201d There was no other way by which God could, in his holiness, justice, and truth, forgive the sins of his people. Only by the shedding of Christ\u2019s blood can he be both \u201ca just God and a Savior,<\/em>\u201d both just and the Justifier (Isa. 45:20; Rom. 3:24-28).<\/p>\n

When we come together around the Lord\u2019s Table, we should take great care to focus our attention on the incarnation, life, and death of Christ as our Substitute. That is what is represented to us by the unleavened bread and wine.<\/p>\n

The Purpose<\/strong><\/p>\n

When he established the Lord\u2019s Supper as a standing ordinance of divine worship, our Savior plainly stated the purpose of the ordinance. The Holy Spirit tells us in 1 Corinthians 11:24 that he said, \u201cThis do in remembrance of me<\/em>.\u201d The Lord\u2019s Supper was established by Christ to be a memorial of him and his great sacrifice of love for us, by which he redeemed his elect, no more and no less.<\/p>\n

Immense harm has been done by those who have taught God\u2019s people that this is a mysterious, complex thing. The fact is, as I have already shown you, it could not have been established with greater simplicity.<\/p>\n

The Lord\u2019s Supper is a symbolic memorial ordinance of public worship<\/strong>. It is not an ordinance to be observed privately, but publicly. It is an ordinance for redeemed sinners, for believers, for men and women who are born again by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. By our public observance of this ordinance, eating the bread and drinking the wine, we openly declare to all that we are sinners in need of Christ alone as our sin-atoning Savior, looking to him alone for salvation and eternal life, trusting him just as we did in our baptism when we were symbolically buried with him in the watery grave and arose with him to walk in the newness of life.<\/p>\n

The Lord\u2019s Supper is a solemn, but joyful ordinance of worship. At the end of the Supper, our Lord and his disciples sang a hymn. Every remembrance of our redemption accomplished by Christ should fill us with joy. John Trapp suggested that we ought to leave the Lord\u2019s Table with \u201cshouting as a giant after his wine, singing and making melody to the Lord in our hearts. We should come from the Lord\u2019s table, as Moses did from the mount, with our faces shining; as the good women did from the sepulchre, \u2018with fear and great joy<\/em>;\u2019 as the people went to their tents from Solomon\u2019s feast, \u2018joyful and glad of heart\u2019<\/em> (1 Kings 8:66). If those in the wilderness were so cheered and cherished by their idolatrous feast before the golden calf that they \u2018eat and drink, and rise up to play\u2019 (1 Cor. 10:7), how much more should we by this blessed banquet?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Agony in Gethsemane The following is from Spurgeon’s sermon, “The Agony in Gethsemane” #1199. Luke 22:44 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” Matthew 26:38 “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletin-editions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3194,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3192\/revisions\/3194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}