In his sermon titled 'Christians in name only,' Peter Allison addresses the characteristics of individuals who outwardly profess Christianity but lack genuine faith and obedience to God's Word. Focusing on Luke 16, he critiques the Pharisees for their love of money and hypocrisy, emphasizing that true believers should serve God, not material wealth. He argues that 'Christians in name only' often justify themselves before others, attack messengers of truth, and esteem what God abominates. The sermon warns against corrupting the Word of God, urging believers to align actions with true faith and not merely adhere to traditions while neglecting genuine obedience and love for God. Allison calls for introspection and a heart aligned with God's will, encouraging believers to use worldly resources to build eternal treasures and serve the Lord faithfully.

Well, please turn to Luke chapter 16. I'd like to begin reading. I'd like to begin reading at verse 14. At verse 14. Luke 16 beginning at verse 14.

Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money also heard all these things and they derided him. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts, For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. Blessed are those who hear this word of God and keep it. Heavenly Father, we have been greatly blessed to hear your word. We ask that it might be mixed with faith. We ask that it would sanctify us and set us apart this morning as your vessels for your service.

We ask that your Holy Spirit might work through your Word to teach us to convict us, to comfort us, and strengthen us, to feed us. And I ask, Lord, that you might do this through a vessel of clay that the glory may be yours this morning through Jesus Christ amen well some time ago there was a major debate, maybe in some circles it's still going on, as to whether there is or was a class of people for whom Christ was their Savior but not their Lord. Such people were called carnal Christians. They were people who professed, supposedly professed to know Christ, but their lives did not reflect the priorities or the fruit of those who were born of the Holy Spirit, born from above. In this little transition here between the parable or the account of this unjust steward and the rich man and Lazarus which Lord willing we will look at next week, Jesus gives us the characteristics of these people whom the Puritans called fruitless professors, people who profess to know Christ, but by their deeds they deny Him.

We might today call these Christians in name only. Christians in name only. You see in the previous passage we looked at last week on the unjust steward, Jesus taught his disciples the proper use of the mammon of unrighteousness. He showed how even this unjust steward prepared for the future, for his earthly future, and he exhorted his disciples that they ought to be doing likewise for their eternal future with the same data, have the same kind of dedication, the same kind of foresight, the same kind of planning and care for their eternal dwelling as this steward was putting into preparing for his next job after his after he lost the one he had. Jesus told those disciples to use the mammon of unrighteousness to build treasure in heaven for the age to come.

See what we do on earth now matters for all eternity. Judgment is according to works. And these things matter. Some works are going to be burned up. Others will endure.

Some bear fruit a hundredfold, some 30, some 60. What we do today matters. And so we need, Jesus exhorted us to be faithful with the resources of this world, to be using our money for our needs, for investing in others, for giving generously. You see that the Master commended the unjust steward for his shrewdness and his laser focus on his goal. And Jesus said, we ought to be the same.

We ought to be the same. The application that Jesus made from that passage is that it's impossible to have two masters. It's impossible. It's impossible to try and serve two different people at the same time. It's impossible to serve money and God at the same time.

We will serve one or the other, but never both. Either hate one and love the other or you love one and despise the other. And so Jesus had addressed this discourse to his disciples specifically, but the Pharisees were listening in and Jesus and they responded in an unbelieving way to what Jesus had just said to that message about the use of the mammon of unrighteousness and the inability to serve two different masters. And Jesus confronted their unbelieving response and uses it to expose the characteristics of people who are Christians in name only. These are people who are in the church.

These are people who sit in the pews week after week. They come, they bring their Bible, they sit down, they listen to the preaching of the Word, they nod at all the right places, they stand and sing all the songs, maybe Maybe even with gusto. These are, but they're unbelievers. They're unbelievers. They're Christians in name only.

These are the tares that Jesus spoke of that grow among the wheat. And He said they will be there until the end of the age. See these two classes of people ordinarily look very similar. They both carry Bibles. They both dress nicely and come to church.

They both go to work on Monday morning and come home in the evening to their families. They say all the right things, they listen to all the right music. See outwardly they look very similar, but God looks at the heart. It's out of the heart that the issues of life spring. And so people, two people, two different people can perform the exact same action, outward action, like giving.

But do it from two very, very different hearts. One can give generously to be seen as a generous giver and to be known by others as a generous giver. Another gives generously because he loves God and he loves people and he wants to see people's needs met in a way that is consistent with the character of God. He wants to see people's needs met and God honored and glorified. One plows a field so that he can have a nice house and enjoy the pleasures that money can buy.

He plows so he can be known and respected in the community as a good man who provides for his family. But he makes decisions based on what brings the most money and what makes him look good or not good in front of other people in the community. On the other hand, another man plows out of his love to God Because out of his love to God, he delights in making the land productive. A land that he sees God as having given him. Because he delights out of his love to God in feeding people.

He delights out of his love to God in giving to needs. He delights out of his love to God in blessing his family and set an example before them of how to live before the Lord, how to walk in obedience, how to. Love the Lord, their God, and to love their neighbor as themselves. They're doing the exact same thing. They're both plowing a field, but they're doing it for two very different reasons.

And their hearts are very different in the whole affair. See, and that's what God looks at. God looks at the heart. And so the first characteristic of Christians in name only is that they are lovers of money. The Pharisees were lovers of money.

And in light of that, of the previous passage that we looked at last week, this verse that says you can't serve God and mammon. Can't do that at the same time in light of that verse. That means that these Pharisees saying they're not serve Christ. These were the leaders of the church. These were the preachers, if you will, of the day.

These were the church officers. The one who held the keys. And Jesus is saying they were lovers of money. They didn't love the Lord they proclaimed to follow. And they rejected Christ.

They were not in Christ, they were not serving Christ, they opposed him. Of course if the leaders of the church can be those who are opposing Christ, certainly others can too that are in the church. What does it mean to be a lover of money? Well it does not refer to having money or not having money. That's not the distinction between a lover of money and someone who isn't.

Poor people can love money just as much as wealthy people, and wealthy people can be free from the love of money just as much as a poor person. Many faithful people have been very wealthy. And the scriptures speak of the very power or ability to get wealth as coming from the Lord, as being a blessing of the Lord. So love of money is not simply having money or not having money. God is the one who gives it And being a lover of money does not.

Mean to work for money or a desire to grow our income or grow our wealth. Jesus commends servants who use the wealth that they've been given and increase it. Jesus says well done to them. James didn't commend people for planning to make money. He doesn't condemn people who are planning saying today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, make a profit.

He doesn't condemn those people. He condemns them for not acknowledging the Lord in those plans and saying, if the Lord wills, we will do these things. That's what he condemned. He condemned people who didn't acknowledge the Lord. Who didn't acknowledge the Lord.

Those who love money will get frustrated, discouraged, angry, or depressed if their plans are frustrated. If their plans to make money are frustrated, they become angry, upset. Those who are not lovers of money patiently and humbly acknowledge the providence of God in directing their paths or their steps in a different direction from what they had planned to do, from the money that they had planned to make. Those who are not lovers of money humbly and patiently acknowledge the providence of God in sending trials to bless them and to grow them to produce patience and character and perseverance And they're able to count those delays and those detours a joy. And ultimately even to give thanks for them.

Being a lover of money does not mean working hard, quickly, or efficiently, or long hours to make money. That's not necessarily a lover of money. That can be true of people who love money and people who don't. Yes, some people who love money work, or workaholics, and work long hours. But other people who don't love money also do that.

I mean Paul exhorted the Colossians, whatever you do, including your works, including what you do to earn a livelihood, whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ." Paul recounts some incredibly hard and arduous labor. Working hard, quickly, efficiently, or working long, that's not necessarily the love of money. The lovers of money are those that pursue money at the long-term expense of their family, their church, and their relationship with Christ and their spiritual disciplines. Lovers of money move simply for a better job when that might mean that you don't have a good church. They make a decision chasing the money and forget the other more important things of their life.

Or they leave an adequate job or a job that pays adequately, an adequate job, to take a position that pays more and has more prestige associated with it, but it's going to bring greater adversity on their family. They're chasing the money. They are chasing the money. See a heart that is loving money is never satisfied with an old job. It is always looking for a new one for no reason other than that it's better, makes more money.

Job situations certainly change. Needs change. And that necessitates changing jobs. Plans change. Goals change and so on.

But a heart that loves money is one that is just never satisfied, it's never content with the current place that God has us. Lovers of money become angry when their money or the things that they have acquired with their money are damaged They've gotten a new car and it gets a scratch in it And they blow their top Now such sometimes these kinds of losses of wealth are the result of disobedience or other sins and anger may be justified at those sins. So we need to be careful not to judge hearts that we cannot see. But does the thought of losing all your money make you depressed? Have you thought about that?

The thought of losing all your money. Hebrews speaks of those saints that endured a great struggle with sufferings after they were saved. He says, partly while they were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations and partly while they became companions of those who were made a spectacle by reproaches and tribulations. For they joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods, knowing that they have a better and enduring possession for themselves in heaven. Here are people, here are believers, joyfully accepting the plundering of their goods because they know they have a better inheritance coming to them.

So who cares? Who cares if you lose something that's not very valuable to get something of greater value? The best time to buy a car is from somebody who has a new car and a better one. And they don't care about their old one. They're willing to practically give it away.

These Hebrew saints, not being lovers of money, but lovers of God, they joyfully accepted the loss of all their goods, unjustly certainly, because they had a more enduring and a better possession in heaven. The first characteristic of Christians in name only is that they are lovers of money and being lovers of money then they are not lovers of Christ, They are not serving God. They are serving themselves. But the second characteristic of false professors, Christians in name only, is that they attack the messenger when the message testifies against them, when it pinches their practices. See, when the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard Jesus talking, they mocked Jesus.

They derided him. They made fun of him. They treated they were scornful toward him and toward his message Now preachers might be mocked and scorned and derided when they are hypocrites and they don't practice what they're preaching and they earn that. But Christ was without sin. No sin in Him.

He is the Word made flesh. He is the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the wonderful Counselor, the mighty God. And they still mocked Him. If Christ was mocked for speaking the truth, how much more should we not expect to be mocked and ridiculed and scorned when we speak the truth into people's lives?

We'll see a bit later that this also leads to the corrupting of the Word of God. See when saints are confronted by the Word of God and they are convicted, they repent of the sin in their heart, they acknowledge that they were going the wrong way and they gratefully changed the direction they were going. Paul commended the Corinthian church and 2 Corinthians. He had come with a very strong rebuke, a very strong correction to them. And he said, but even if I made you sorry with my letter, that letter of correction, I don't regret it though I did regret it, for I perceived that the same epistle made you sorry though only for a while now I rejoice not that you were made sorry but that your sorrow led to repentance for you were made sorrow sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation not to be regretted but the sorrow of the world produces death for we observe this very thing that you sorrowed in a godly manner when they heard When Paul came to them with a message that confronted them, that stepped on their toes, that pinched them, that rebuked what they were doing and saying, It produced a godly sorrow.

What diligence, he said, it produced in you. What clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication In all things you proved to be clear in this matter. They changed. They received that word. It made them sorry, but it was to a good end.

And they responded with zeal, with vehement desire, with sorrow for their sin. See, when you bring truth to people in a false religion, when you bring truth to those who are Christians in name only, they will react against it. They will resist it. See, the false teachers in Corinth were a perfect example of this opposite response. Christians in name only.

And interestingly, they were also the leaders in the Corinthian church. They mocked Paul. They said that when he brought the truth of God's word to address their problems, they said his body was weak and his speech was contemptible. He was an ugly person. They attacked the messenger And that was the experience of all God's prophets in the Old Testament too.

Jeremiah complained that everyone mocked him every day because he spoke the word of God. His own family wanted to kill him. Elijah had the same complaint. Paul said in Romans 11, or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed all your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left. Of course, God had an answer, said, no, you're not alone left.

I have reserved for myself 7000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. See, all these people we've been talking about, these are all people in the church. These are all people who took God's name upon themselves. Well, is it any different today? Is today an era where there are no Christians in name only in God's churches?

No. It's true today of people in the church. When you just look around, when the truth pinches their life, when the message is uncomfortable, then they react and attack the messenger. Whether it's a message of modesty, or a message against the fashions of the day, or a message Against the great institution of God hating atheism in our day the government schools But a number of years ago There was a documentary that came out, and we were going to have a host community screening of it. And we went around contacting a number of churches in this county, a lot of churches in this county, and asked if they were interested in, or made them aware of this documentary exposing the God-hating corruption of our government schools.

And it was astounding how many of the leaders in these churches mocked the messengers. And They would say things, oh no, we could never support that. My wife teaches there, my daughters teach there, my family goes there, Or something of that sort. Or no, that would never fly in this congregation. We have too many teachers here.

Or they just ridiculed the idea that there was anything wrong with the government schools. When the message pinches us, those who are Christians in name only will attack the messenger, become angry at the messenger, as if destroying the messenger can somehow change the message. That's what these Pharisees did. They even derided Christ Himself. And the third characteristics of Christians in name only is that they justify themselves before men.

This is the pride of life that characterizes those outside of Christ. They can never be seen as wrong in the eyes of others. Never acknowledge their sin. If they're a teacher, they can never be seen not knowing something or never, God forbid, ever confess a fault. They can never be seen as less than outwardly perfect.

There's a fear of being known as they actually are. There's a fear of confessing sin, of being humbled before others. Just look at all the, when a leader falls tragically, You look at all the people that were following them and not following Christ. And you'll see that all the outward things they were doing, they stopped doing. And then you realize they were doing those outwardly just to be seen, just to be fit in, just to win the approval of this person that they were following.

I'm sure you, I know I've seen it, I'm sure you've seen it. Well, that's a clear sign that they're doing, people are doing things just to be seen by men, just to justify themselves in the sight of others, just to be known in the community as good people. Pride is something that those in Christ can battle and do battle, but those in Christ are putting it to death. They're progressing in their sanctification. They're mortifying the pride of life.

When a lawyer tested Jesus by by asking what he had to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus neatly turned the tables on this guy asking ungodly questions. He's asking a question not because he wanted to know an answer, he's asking a question to try and trap Jesus. And he's asking a question to make himself look better. And Jesus turned the tables on him and showed him that he already knew the answer to the question he was asking.

What shall I do, teacher? What shall I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said to him well what is written in the law what is your reading of it lawyer you're an expert in the law and so this lawyer answered that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, well, you got the answer right there, Mr. Lawyer. And so what did the lawyer do at that point?

He'd been made to look foolish. His plot of asking a question that he already knew the answer to was exposed and so he dug himself deeper. He said, well, who's my neighbor? Said, Well, who's my neighbor? Pharisees do things to be well thought of by men.

That's and Jesus condemned them many, many times. They made long prayers to be seen by men. Now, it's not long prayers by themselves that are the sign of somebody who's a Christian in name only. It's the long prayer to be seen of men. Jesus often prayed all night.

And those are long prayers. Making long prayers. Is not a problem, it's long prayers only to be seen of men. Only to sound good. To sound like you're somebody.

Or they fasted. Frequently. But they let everybody know that they were fasting. It wasn't fasting for the Lord. It was fasting to be seen of men.

How often do we do things to be seen of men? How often do we do things so that we will look good, so that we will be recognized as upright and good people. Sometimes our motives can even be mixed. And it might be hard to know. For a preacher, Is there just as much joy and zeal in preaching to a couple of people as there is in preaching to a crowded building?

It is, you see, it is the Lord who is the one that we need to be just before and justified by. But he who glories, let him glory in the Lord, for not he who commends himself is approved, and not he who others commend is approved. But what? He whom the Lord commends, that's the one that's approved. And remember, the Lord looks at our hearts, not the outward things that everybody else sees.

He knows why we are doing what we are doing and whether we are doing it out of love to Him or a love of money. The next characteristic of Christians in name only is that they esteem what God abominates What is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God See Christians in name only esteem those outward things about looking good, about appearing acceptable. It's all about outward appearances. But God hates those things. As God is great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience.

Obedience that comes from the heart. What do you find yourself liking? Where are your interests drawn? Are they drawn to the pleasures of this world? Is that where you would spend all your time if you did except for what you have to spend to make yourself look good to other people?

Or are we drawn to those things of the Lord? And sometimes those things are labors, hard labors, unseen labors. It doesn't matter. We know that the Lord sees what we do and we're not doing it to be seen by other people. The last characteristic I want to look at this morning of those who are Christians in name only is that they corrupt the Word.

Unbelievers in the church have always sought to corrupt the word, and the Pharisees were no exception. The law and the prophets were until John, since that time, the kingdom of God has been preached and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail. You see the law and the prophets is a reference to the Old Testament dispensation. The preaching of the kingdom of God is a reference to the New Testament dispensation.

The Old Testament dispensation, the law and the prophets, has ceased with John. And now the Gospel of the kingdom is preached and men are pressing into it. They are striving to enter it. They are working It says it's an effort And this is what Jesus said a few chapters earlier when someone asked him about who was saved, one said to him, Lord are there few that saved? And he said, strive, strive to enter through the narrow gate.

For many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able. So there was a change in administration between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but not a change in substance. Salvation was by faith in Christ in the Old Testament, just as much as it is today in the New. And the law is just as binding today in the New Testament as it was in the Old Testament. Jesus said those who break the least commandments and teach others to do so are least in the kingdom of heaven.

Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their feet when they wash their hands when they eat bread. And Jesus answered and said, Why do you transgress the commandment of God? Because of your tradition, because of your tradition. For God has commanded honor your father and mother.

And he who curses father and mother let him put to death. But you say whoever says to his father or mother whatever profit you may have received from me as a gift of God, Then he need not honor his father or mother and thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition hypocrites Well, did Isaiah prophesy about you saying these people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips But Their heart is far from me in vain. They worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. You see, these are people in the church. These are people who are worshipping God, but God says it's in vain.

You've corrupted the word of God. You've adulterated it and changed it to fit what you want to do. What are these least commandments? Well, those are the many applications of the Word of God, of the Law of God, to the many situations that we face. And yes, sometimes we are wrong in our understanding and application of them.

And maybe we even teach wrongly on some of them. But to the extent that we do that, those works will be burned up and destroyed. They won't last. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, John tells us. That's a change.

That's not a change between the testaments. The law, grace and truth came through Christ in the Old Testament. And the law still comes through Moses today in the New Testament. See, the Pharisees in Jesus' day had corrupted the Word of God. They had their oral traditions.

Those oral traditions were later written down into what is become known or called the Talmud, a satanic document. This is what Jesus was saying when he said many times in the New Testament, you've heard it said such and such, but I say to you something else. We know what these oral traditions are because they have been written in the Talmud. Talmud makes a number of blasphemous claims about Christ. That he and his disciples practiced sorcery and black magic, and Jesus led the Jews into idolatry, and that he was sexually immoral and worshipped statutes.

Just blasphemous stuff. That he learned witchcraft in Egypt. This is what their oral traditions were. Jesus said, you've heard it said of old you shall not murder. He said, but I say to you, those who hate their brother are guilty of murder.

See that the Pharisees had corrupted the word of God. You've heard it said, of old you shall not commit adultery. Jesus said, but I say to you, you commit adultery if you lust after a woman, looking at a woman. You have heard it said, Jesus said. What does he mean when he says you have heard it said?

He's referring to these oral traditions, things that are written in the Talmud. Making things corbin, We read about that. Somebody says, well whatever I have that's dedicated to the Lord so therefore I can't give it to you, dad and mom. Jesus said you make the tradition, the commandments of God in no effect by your empty traditions. The example that Jesus gives here in this case is the law about divorce.

The Talmud, the oral tradition, corrupted the Word of God and taught that Divorce was permissible for any reason, almost. Any trivial little thing. And they corrupted what God taught in Deuteronomy 24 about divorce. That spoke to sexual immorality. He has found in her some uncleanness, then there was permitted a divorce because of the hardness of their heart.

Wasn't that way from the beginning. The hardness of their heart meant there was no repentance. When there was sin there was no repentance. Divorce is permissible in that case because of the hardness of heart where there's no repentance. But they had changed it and corrupted it to make divorce permissible at any little trivial thing.

The wife burns the supper. She doesn't look nice. If somebody prettier comes along, well these these Pharisees, these Christians in name only, corrupted God's law and said well divorce was okay. Sounds very similar to our laws today, doesn't it? Christians though, in our day, have corrupted the Word in this country when they stopped believing the Bible.

Just read the Auburn Affirmation. This was a document signed by the ministers of the Presbyterian Church of the United States in America. And these ministers said, we affirm and declare our acceptance of the Westminster Confession of Faith as we did at our ordination." In other words, we're still holding fast to our ordination vows. We believe that the Westminster Confession of Faith contains a system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures, and we sincerely hold the historic testimony of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of which we are loyal ministers. Now, that sounds wonderful, right?

But what did they actually mean? They go on to say, But there is no assertion in the scriptures that their writers were kept from error They didn't believe the Bible was was infallible was without air What? Ministers loyal ministers Don't believe the Bible is without error. Furthermore, they say they reject the attempts to commit their church to certain theories concerning the inspiration of the Bible, the incarnation, the atonement, the resurrection, and the continuing life and supernatural power of the Lord Jesus Christ. They say we most certainly hold to these great facts and doctrines.

We believe from our hearts that the writers of the Bible were inspired, but they didn't write without error apparently. That Jesus Christ was God manifested in the flesh, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and that through him we have redemption, that having died for our sins, he rose from the dead and is our ever living savior. And we believe that in His earthly ministry He wrought many mighty works, and by His vicarious death He's able to save to the uttermost. Some of us regard the particular theories as satisfactory explanations of these facts. And they're talking about a document passed in 1923 that affirmed the inerrancy of the scripture, the deity of Christ, the miracles and so forth.

And they're saying, well, some of us believe what you're saying about these facts, but we are united in believing that these are not the only theories allowed by the Scriptures. What? This is corrupting, corrupting the Word of God. And today this continues. Christians in name only reject all manner of teachings in the scripture.

Today we see abounding around us any rejection of the idea that the Bible condemns homosexual fornication. Entire books are written by people who call themselves evangelical Christians who corrupt the word of God in this area. People who think some forms of fornication are OK. Or what about the word of God concerning creation and the age of the earth? It's not that the age of the earth is all that important.

What matters is what's the Bible say? The Bible says the earth is this old then it is that old and we corrupt the scriptures when we believe otherwise We can't We cannot remove any any of the commands from the Word of God. Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation day and night, the psalmist said. That is the characteristic of a believer, believes the Word of God.

That these scriptures have been given to us and preserved infallible and that every word in them is true and not one jot or one tittle will pass away from this law, that it endures forever and that it speaks to our lives and to every area of our life. And that we want God's Word to come to us and where we are ignorant of it, we want to learn it and where we are in transgressing it, we want to know that so that we can repent. That's our desire. That's our desire. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word, for its beauty, its glory, its power, for it is living and active and powerful. And Lord, we want that power of your Word in our lives. We want that work of your Holy Spirit applying it to our hearts, bringing us certainty and comfort, bringing to us a knowledge of the truth, bringing to us you as you've revealed yourself. Lord, may we behold the beauty of your word, And may this one thing be the desire of our life that we may That we may see you That we may inquire in your house That we may know you and make you known. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm 49a. And my ears and ears are filled with love. I should not hear evil things when my heart sings around. Leaving those who trust and when your heart says it allows. Even those who trust him will know God says it alone.

No land can lie any near, even though he's made some noise. For the vengeance of his soul will make it cancel then. Of his land so bright, for the purchase of his heart, the name it gives of last. And his love he longed and yearned to live eternally. So that we will never die nor wealth or option see.

For these sins have washed in blood those that sinned, sinned, and sinned. They will hear their wealth behind The other men do. Killing within themselves, Their alms will always be, So every angel sing. God lands on our well-born crowns. His light will be seen to the end.

Christ will be the way of the world and those who implement. A swan sheep where last day lived O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That your shepherd just may know when and where he shall be. And the bread from self-sacrifice in the family's ear shall be, and you'll not be denied so from that spirit we sing. Please be seated.

The closing words of the Bible give us this admonition for Revelation 22, for I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He who testifies to these things says surely I am coming quickly. Jesus Christ is the Word who was made flesh.

This Word, when we take away from this Word, we are attacking Christ. How can anyone who attacked the one by whom they have been saved? The one who has died in their place, forgiven them their sins, the one who has loved them and laid down his life for them, the one who provides for us, who knows us. This is one thing if we think of the Bible as just some words over there. But it's quite another thing when we have a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and we have communion with him that we should ever be tempted to take away or to annul anything that is in His Word.

And so this table, as we come to it, we ought to come rejoicing in our Savior Christ and in what He has provided for us and in His Word, which is beautiful and it is wonderful, and it is our delight. And it should also be a warning to us that when we take away from it, we are directly attacking the one that we profess to love. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this bread in this cup, Elements that you have given to us in a sacrament that you commanded us to observe until you come again in the flesh. You've given this table to us as a remembrance, but you've also, Lord, promised to us grace at this table.

Lord, we stand in great need of your grace, grace to love you more fully, to serve you more faithfully, grace to because of that love to love one another. Lord may this table be a sign of our fellowship that we have with you and also with one another. And may Lord, what is represented at this table as you sup with us, Lord, may that be a true and accurate representation of this body and of our fellowship, one with another. Oh, Lord, may you use this table to strengthen those ties that bind us together in you. May you use this table to grant to us the grace to love one another as you have loved us and to be willing to lay down our lives even as you have laid down your life and call us to do.

We ask Lord that we may love you more and more. We pray that you would sup with us now at this table through Jesus Christ. Amen.