Jesus: Delivered By God & Acknowledged by Men

Introduction to Psalm 22: A Messianic Prophecy

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, January 3rd, 1999, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:12 Now let us turn again to the psalm that was read in our hearing, Psalm 22, the 22nd psalm. Those of you who have been present for the expositions in 1 Peter will, I trust, remember when we came to chapter 1, verses 10 and 11, where Peter is demonstrating that this great salvation in which the people of God now rejoice under new covenant light and privilege is a salvation with its tap roots in the Old Testament scriptures. And referring to that reality, Peter wrote that the prophets were continually searching what time or manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when he testified, beforehand, the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow. Telling us that the prophets often spoke beyond the sphere of their own understanding of the very things of which they were speaking or writing. And surely, if any Old Testament prophet must have scratched his head when contemplating his own writing, it would have been King David after he penned the 22nd psalm.

1:36 The psalms of David and the psalms of the other inspired Psalter authors, human authors, grow out of a personal experience of the psalmist. And as they are seeking God, praising God, describing the experience of the people of God, many times they then speak of things that find a greater fulfillment in the days of the gospel or in the person and work of the Messiah. But here in Psalm 22, one will search in vain for anything in the life of David that has any parallel with the words here recorded. For this psalm is not a psalm in which the author is describing what the old mystics called a dark night of the soul, an experience of internal spiritual desertion. Nor is the author...

2:36 describing a period of mere physical affliction or persecution and oppression from the enemies of God. But what we have described in Psalm 22 is nothing short of an execution and an execution by crucifixion. For you will remember that here in the heart of the psalm, he describes the experience of crucifixion. His strength is dried up like a puncture.

3:11 The dehydration that occurred in that agonizing death by crucifixion. He speaks of his hands and his feet being pierced in verse 16. He speaks in verse 17 of all of his bones being out of joint. And if there were any question in our minds that this psalm is purely about crucifixion, that this psalm is purely messianic, it points forward to the Lord Jesus from the first words to the last.

3:44 We need only turn to the New Testament. And we find the Lord Jesus using the very words of the opening verse when he hung upon the cross and cried out, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Further in John's Gospel chapter 19 and verse 24, John tells us that verse 18 found a literal fulfillment when the soldiers cast lots for the garment of the Lord Jesus.

4:18 And in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 12, we find the writer to the Hebrews quoting this psalm as directly referring to the Lord Jesus. Now even the very quick reading, the quick reading that we gave to the psalm in the earlier part of our service reveals that there is a marked division of the psalm into two major units of thought. Verses 1 through 21a, one might well describe as Jesus forsaken by God and abused by men. There is nothing in the first 21 and a half verses that cannot be subsumed under that very brief heading, Jesus forsaken by God and abused by men. But then verses 22 to the end of the psalm can be described as Jesus delivered by God and acknowledged by men. And as you read those verses, you find that that is the twin theme of the last half of the psalm. Jesus is now vindicated.

The Two Halves of Psalm 22: Forsakenness and Deliverance

5:36 Jesus is delivered by God and is acknowledged by men. And the transition occurs in the last phrase of verse 21. The New King James Version gives what I regard as the proper rendering. Save me from the lion's mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen.

6:00 Dash or exclamation point as the New King James renders it. And then this terse but marvelous exclamation, You have answered me. And when there is born to the soul of the suffering servant of Jehovah the consciousness brought to him in a manner not revealed to us in the Scriptures, then we find the suffering Lord Jesus, while yet upon the cross, speaking in the language of verses 22 to 31, confident that he will be delivered by God and acknowledged by men. The Scriptures tell us who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame. And whatever comprised the joy set before our Lord, surely what is, surely what is given to us in verses 22 to 31 is no little measure of that joy. The confidence that he would not only be delivered and vindicated by God, but eventually acknowledged by men to be the Savior and the rightful object of their trust and of their homage. And now tonight I want us to focus our attention

The Relationship Envisioned: Christ's Brethren

7:29 only upon verse 22, the first unit of thought after the transition from Jesus forsaken by God and abused by men into the section in which we have Jesus delivered by God and acknowledged by men. He says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the assembly will I praise thee. And I want you to notice with me in our relatively brief communion meditation three units of thought here in the text. First of all note the relationship envisioned.

8:10 The relationship envisioned. While the first 21 verses describe our Lord crying to God under the weight of being forsaken by God and abused by men, no sooner is he given a felt sense that his prayer is heard, but his mind now focuses upon those for whom he is dying. And having exclaimed, you have answered me, the first words from his mouth are these, I will declare your name unto my brethren. As he thinks of the fruit of his sufferings and the vindication and deliverance that God will give in answer to his cry, he envisions his people in what light? Not as subjects owning their rightful sovereign, though that will be true of all for whom he died. They will by the same grace that gave him up to death be brought through the operation of the Spirit to own him as their sovereign. But he does not say, I will declare your name unto my subjects, nor does he say, I will declare your name unto my disciples

9:38 who embrace him as their infallible teacher, though that is also always true when the Spirit of God savingly reveals the Lord Jesus. He is embraced as sovereign from the heart. He is embraced as infallible teacher from the heart. But he does not use that terminology, nor does he use the terminology of servants submitting to a gracious master, though again that is always true.

10:08 Whenever the Spirit of God savingly reveals Christ, the disposition of the renewed heart is that expressed in the language of Saul of Tarsus, Lord, what will you have me to do? But that which our Lord focuses upon is this, I will declare your name unto my brethren. What our Lord envisions with respect to the relationship he will sustain to those for whom he is being forsaken by God and abused by men is the relationship of brethren. Now you children, let me ask you, what makes people brothers and sisters? Well you say they are born or adopted. Born or adopted into the same family. And you are right.

11:03 They have the relationship of siblings. They are brethren. They are brothers and sisters. They are part of a domestic fraternal arrangement when they are brought into the family.

11:17 And here the Lord Jesus says, and this should encourage us to think in terms of what he was thinking when he hangs upon the cross.

11:28 Seeing beyond the few remaining moments upon the cross until he cries it is finished. Seeing beyond the three days spent in a borrowed tomb. Seeing beyond Easter morning. Seeing beyond Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit.

11:47 He envisions all those for whom he died as one vast family comprised of his brethren. And he says, I will declare your name unto my brethren. And furthermore in Hebrews chapter 2 and I want you to turn there with me for the third explicit reference to this Psalm in the New Testament. There are many other allusions to the Psalm but here is an explicit quotation.

12:20 Notice the setting of it. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 11. For both he who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. We're not sure what that one is.

12:36 One root in Adam. One father. One nature. But note, they that are sanctified and he who sanctifies are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

12:56 Saying, and then a direct quotation of our passage in Psalm 22. Now this is something we would not know. In what way does Jesus designate us brethren? Some of us have had relatives, even siblings.

13:13 That when we had to introduce them to others we didn't do so busting our buttons on our shirt. Perhaps there was something about their appearance, something about their reputation that made us less than enthusiastic when we had to introduce them. This is so and so and my brother. You had to acknowledge the nature and the fact of the relationship but you did it with an element of shame and reluctance.

13:42 But here we are told he is not ashamed to call us his brothers. For which cause he is not ashamed to designate them as his siblings. He is not ashamed to call us his brothers. Now how could that ever be?

14:01 Surely it's not because there is anything in us natively concerning which our Lord could proudly designate us as his brothers. When we take seriously the biblical doctrine of what we are in Adam and what we are by nature. There is everything in us concerning which the Lord Jesus could hang his head in shame to have any identification with us. And yet we are told he is not ashamed to call them brothers.

14:33 And no little part of that answer to that question. How can he envision us as his brothers and do so unashamedly? Well according to the scriptures the very goal of God's predestinating love and sovereign choice was that we might be his brothers. Remember the teaching of Romans 8, 29?

14:58 Whom he did foreknow them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Why? In order that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn, the preeminent one, among many what? Brethren.

15:17 Among many brethren. When God set his love upon a people who deserved nothing but his wrath, God purposed that they would eventually be conformed to the very moral likeness of his Son. And so he removes all of the legal barriers to accepting them. His Son lives the life they should live, dies the death they deserve to die.

15:45 And God then graciously adopts them into his family, regenerates them. He dismantles the dominion of sin and by degrees he is dealing with their remaining sin and will ultimately glorify them. To what end? That he may have a happy family in which Jesus Christ is the firstborn, the chief one, the one in great preeminence among many brethren.

16:17 And here in the Hebrews passage we are told that that was what Jesus envisioned in the incarnation. Verse 14, Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood. He also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily not to angels does he give help, but he gives help to the seed of Abraham.

16:50 Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brother. His brethren. In order to accomplish our redemption he becomes like his brethren. Romans 8 tells us he takes of the very likeness of sinful flesh that he might accomplish his redemptive work on our behalf.

17:18 And dear brethren, my dear sisters in Christ, as we come to the table let us come in the status, in which our Lord envisioned us when he hung upon the cross. He's crying out from the deep sense of forsakenness, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He prays that he may be delivered and somehow God conveys to his heart he has been heard and his thoughts immediately go to the fruit of his suffering and he says, I will declare your name unto my brethren. We gather tonight as the brotherhood of the cross. That's how we gather. The brotherhood of the cross. The fraternal forged in the forsakenness of Jesus.

18:15 Our fraternal was forged in his forsakenness. And as brothers and sisters we joyfully acknowledge that all the credit for our salvation goes to our elder brother who this night without shame designates us his brethren. So much for those brief thoughts on the relationship envisioned. Note with me secondly the activities predicted.

The Activities Predicted: Declaration and Celebration

18:48 The activities predicted. Notice the futurity. I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the nations will I praise you. And the Lord Jesus speaks of two future activities in which he will be engaged.

19:14 Engaged as the fruit and the result of this forsakenness. He is deserted by God and abused by men not only to establish the relationship envisioned but in order to engage in these two activities. activities, an activity of declaration and an activity of celebration. I will declare your name unto my brethren. Jesus said he's going to declare something to his brethren, and what he's going to declare is the name of Jehovah. In verse 19, be not far off, O Lord, O Jehovah, O my helper, haste to help me. I will declare your name. Now, what does it mean to declare the name of God? Does it mean

20:10 simply to parrot the vocables, Yahweh, Jehovah, however it was pronounced? Does it mean simply to state the name of God in some kind of a magic ritual? No. To declare the name of God is to expound, to exegete the nature and the character of God. It is to describe the attributes of God. It is to describe the attributes of God. It is to describe the attributes of God. It is to declare the name of God. To declare the name of God is to expound who and what God is. And here Jesus predicts an activity as the fruit of his sufferings, described as declaration. I will declare your name. I will expound and I will explain the nature and character of Jehovah to my brethren. John Owen, in his comment upon this, says, In a very unique way, that which our Lord has in mind is to declare and manifest the love and the grace and the goodwill of God unto sinners. It is that which our Lord does supremely

21:21 as the fruit of his sufferings. But then we ask the question, how does he do that? Did he not subsequent to his death and resurrection, 40 days later, ascend to the right hand of the majesty on high? How does he declare the name of Jehovah? Well, he does this as he promised, by sending his spirit in unique way to the apostles. And they were given the privilege not only of the Lord's post-resurrection ministry, in which they were brought to understand the Old Testament scriptures, brought to understand so much about their Lord, which before the crucifixion and the resurrection, they now saw how it all fit into the scheme of God's purposes, and how the Old Testament scriptures all pointed to the sufferings and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And then the spirit was given to them, and the spirit gave them deeper insights into the significance of who Jesus was

22:28 and what he had come to do, and how his death and resurrection and the gift of the spirit fit into and lay the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ into their lives. And they were given the privilege not only of the foundation of all of God's redemptive activities to his people. And so the Lord Jesus is declaring the name of God unto his brethren, not only when he personally speaks to those apostles whom he calls his brethren subsequent to the resurrection, he uses that term specifically in John chapter 20, but he does this by revealing to them these great truths about Psalm 20. Psalm 22 Psalm 22 Psalm 23 Psalm 23 Psalm 33 Psalm 23 Psalm 24 Psalm have music Psalm 24 diagnosis Proclaim the name of God Proclaim the rupees Proclaim the bur เด Proclaim the full size... Proclaim the whole Proclaim the assets Proclaim theizado God, John says, the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. He has

23:42 exegeted Him. And He has done so in the full corpus of our Bibles. And when the Scriptures are faithfully expounded, and particularly when Christ in the uniqueness of His person and the sufficiency of His work are proclaimed, it is Christ Himself declaring the name of God to His brethren. Paul could write in Ephesians 2.17 to people who never saw the Lord Jesus in the days of His flesh, he could say, He, Jesus, came and preached peace to you who are afar off and to those who are near. Well, when did Christ come and preach at Ephesus? When His servant came to Ephesus and preached concerning the Lord Jesus, it was Christ declaring the name of God unto His brethren. And so the activity predicted by the dying Savior is an activity of declaration, but then it is an activity of celebration. I will declare Thy name unto my brethren in the midst

24:52 of the assembly will I praise You. Now, one possibility is that, as you learned, I trust, in the adult class some months ago with Hebrew parallelism, sometimes the same thought, is repeated with a different nuance. And some would suggest that what we have is precisely that. I will declare Your name unto my brethren. How will He do that? In the midst of the assembly, Jesus will praise the Father for all that He has done, and in His praise will be the substance of declaring and exegeting the name, the character, the attributes, the ways, the wonders of God. . . .

25:36 . . . Here's one more chief aspect of the text what Famil 6 says.

25:46 I have to show you here. For those who think, for granted, that this is the second coming in Hebrew poetry, you have an advancement and an expansion of the original thought. That's what I believe and most commentators that I have consulted believe have here. So that the declaration is not explained by the celebration, but is, in addition to the celebration, Here the suffering servant of the Lord anticipates a time when he will praise Jehovah.

26:17 Now I must confess, when I bent my mind to contemplate what is said in the text, I said, Lord, that's a strange thought to me. When we gather in our worship, Christ is the object of our praise, and rightly so. Now, he is the mediator who takes our praise to God and makes it acceptable. Hebrews 13, 15 says, through him, let us offer to God the sacrifice of praise continually.

26:51 So we think of Christ as the object of our praise. We just sang a hymn of praise to him, O sacred head, once wounded, now wounded with grief, weighed down. We sang a hymn of praise. To Christ.

27:07 Our prayers were presented through Christ. Our opening hymn of praise taken from Psalm 22 was presented primarily to God the Father, but surely we recognize that that praise can only be a sweet savor in his nostrils as it comes fragrant with the mediation of the Lord Jesus. But here in our text, it is not Christ the object of our praise, or Christ the medium of the acceptance. It is not the ability of our praise to the Father, but it is Christ himself praising the Father, praising Jehovah.

27:48 You say, well, when you search the Gospel records, do you find anywhere where Jesus is engaged in praise? You find a number of instances, particularly in the Gospel of Luke, seven of them, where Jesus prays. But we do have at least a little pointer. You remember in Luke chapter 11, in the parallel passage in Matthew chapter 11?

28:07 At that season, Jesus is engaged in praise. At that season, Jesus is engaged in praise. At that season, Jesus is engaged in praise. At that season, Jesus is engaged in praise.

28:09 At that season, Jesus is engaged in praise. Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, O Father, I thank you, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and did reveal them unto babes. For even so, Father, it seemed good in your sight. He is praising the Father for his gracious work of humbling human pride and opening the eyes of babes to spiritual realities and veiling them to the proud, and the wise of this world.

28:42 Surely then, taking a clue from that explicit reference, where the Lord Jesus undertakes to submit himself to all of the desertion by God and the abuse of men with such promises as those that are given in Isaiah, behold my servant whom I uphold. The Father had committed to uphold him in all of his life, all of his work as the messianic suffering servant of Jehovah. Now as he is culminating that work upon the cross, feeling in his own soul the depths of the excruciating pain of abandonment by the Father, and he cries out, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Literally, why did you forsake me? Apparently, the light is beginning to break, and while he sees the cruelty of men, and he's crying and there is no felt sense of the nearness of God, and then he says, You have answered me! You have answered me!

29:51 What does he think of? Not only the fruit of his sufferings, that he will have a brotherhood based upon his own redemptive work, but why was he upheld in that deepest hour of abysmal darkness when he's plunged into the abyss of darkness, our hell? Why does he not despair? Because the Father has kept his promise and upheld him.

30:18 The Father has kept every promise made to his Son, and he knows that he will be raised from the dead. You remember in interacting with the disciples, how again and again he said, The Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem, and there be bruised and beaten and rejected and killed, but there never was any sin, there never was any doubt. He always followed it by saying, And the third day shall be raised up. There was never any doubt.

30:49 In his moments of abandonment, and the mind and spirit and body and soul of our blessed Lord is held in the jaws of the intense suffering described in verses 1 to 21. Perhaps the confidence, the consciousness, I should say not the confidence, but the consciousness, of the upholding hand of his Father was at its lowest point. And when he can say, You have answered me, he now is able to say, I will celebrate the faithfulness of my Father. I gave myself to the work of redemption. He has given himself to all of his covenant engagements with me. He will raise me from the dead. He will give me the seed promised.

31:45 Read the remainder of this Psalm. A seed shall serve him. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord. One affirmation of faith after another, confident that every promise made to him by the Father will find its appropriate fulfillment.

32:06 The activities predicted, declaration, and also, celebration. May I say briefly by way of application how grateful we should be that God's name is declared to us against the full blazing light of Bethlehem, Emmanuel, God with us. Against the backdrop of his wilderness temptation. Against the backdrop of Jordan where he identified with us in the sinner's ordinance.

32:39 Against the backdrop of his miracles. Validating his identity. The backdrop of his vicarious sufferings. His triumphant resurrection.

32:50 His ascension. The sending forth of the Holy Spirit. He has declared the name of God to us. We now know Jehovah in the full revelation made of his love and mercy and pity to sinners as manifested in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.

33:14 And how thankful we should be that Jesus is now no longer crying out in the pain of desertion, but he is praising the Father for vindication and for validation of all of his work for sinners. But now very briefly having looked at the relationship envisioned, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. The activities predicted, declaration and celebration. Thirdly then note the setting identified.

The Setting Identified: Christ's Presence in the Assembly

33:48 The setting identified. I will declare your name unto my brethren in the midst of the assembly will I praise you. In the midst of the assembly, the Qaha, the quotation in the New Testament, in the midst of the church, the ecclesia, will I praise you. Now let me ask two questions.

34:17 How can Jesus do this unless he is present in the assembly? If you were to have said to your children, I plan to praise God in the assembly of his people tonight and then you stayed at home, you couldn't do it. You had to be here to praise God in the assembly of his people. To praise God in the church, you got to be there to engage in praise.

34:43 Well here Jesus says in the midst of the assembly will I praise him. How can you do this if he is not in the assembly? Where is he? You say he is at the right hand of the Father.

34:59 Yes he is. But he is also somewhere else. Did he not say where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I and that same little word is used in the midst of them. There am I in the midst of them.

35:24 Not present in his glorified body. That's a teaching held by one wing of the professing church called the ubiquity of the humanity of Christ. No, his glorified body has spatial dimensions. It is at the right hand of the Father.

35:41 But he says where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them. In other words his presence is real. It is not physical but it is real. And surely you do not think that all reality is bounded by the physical.

36:00 Can you show me the sound waves that come out of my mouth and get on your ear? Can you hold them in your hand? You know they exist. You know that this room right now is full of all kinds of radio waves and TV signals.

36:16 All you need is a TV or a radio to pick them out of the air. Reality is not bounded by what we can see and touch. And he says there am I in the midst. And his closing words in Matthew 28 he says to the eleven when he gives them that commission that is now merged into the standing life and privilege and duty of the church Lo, I am with you always even unto the consummation of the age.

36:45 Lo, I am with you. I am with you. I am with you. I am with you.

36:51 And how wonderfully the Lord taught the disciples what that meant. Remember in those post resurrection experiences several times they were gathered behind shut doors for fear of the Jews and it says suddenly Jesus appeared in the midst. And it was the eighth day first day of the week. Sort of a pointer to the Lord's day Sabbath.

37:12 So that when they saw Jesus and that terminology is used in the midst it is Jesus. It is our resurrected Lord. In a few short days he's gone and what are they doing? Mourning that they don't have his presence?

37:26 No, it says they were continually in the temple praising and glorifying God. Why? They got the message. Yes, he's going back to the Father.

37:36 As to his physical presence he is no longer with us but he is fulfilling his promise when we meet in his name he is in the midst. He is with us even to the consummation of the age. How can he do this if he's not here? He can't.

Christ as Leader of Praise in the Church

37:56 But he is here. What an amazing and blessed reality. As a result of his rejection by God and abuse by men he will have a host of brethren. They are made brethren as Jesus through the word declares the name of God to them.

38:14 And then as brethren they become part of his church the assembly. And when they gather he gathers with them in all the livingness of his resurrection life and power. And so this night he is the rightful object of our praise and the expressions of our gratitude and devotion. Yes.

38:33 But he's also the leader in our praise. Think of it. Jesus is here tonight not only to be loved and worshipped but for us by faith to believe what he says in the midst of the assembly. Well I praise you.

38:52 He is here praising the Father. For what? This is some of the fruit of his sufferings. Think of the Lord Jesus at this table.

39:03 Not physically present but spiritually present. Not in the bread and in the fruit of the vine but by the spirit present to every believing expectant heart. And what is he here to do? Yes.

39:19 To convey new dimensions of his grace to us. To succor us in our need. To come and mend the broken heart here. To give direction and guidance to the distressed and perplexed heart there.

39:32 But he's here to do something even more grand and noble. He is among us praising the Father. For the Father's faithfulness to him because he now sits with the fruit of his sufferings. And could we ask him Lord Jesus was it worth it to have a much to have a motley bunch like this?

39:54 He would turn and say these are my brethren. And I'm not ashamed to call them my brethren. They are the fruit of my suffering. When I cried my God my God why have you forsaken me?

Application: Invitation to the Brotherhood and Joy at the Table

40:13 If an answer had come back from heaven it would be I must forsake you if I'm to receive them. Their sins are such that nothing but plunging you my beloved son into the abyss of vicariously born damnation will ever be the grounds on which I can release them from the just penalty of their sins and accept everyone who will own his sin and trust in you my beloved son. And so the Lord Jesus is among us praising God for sustaining him for hearing him for upholding him and for giving to him the rewards of his suffering. Oh my unsaved friend have we made you a little jealous to be one of the brethren to think that the one who will be the judge at the last day here and now owns us without shame as his brethren and he will vindicate us as his brethren in the last day. Remember the words of Matthew 25 inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these my what? My brethren the sheep set on the right hand he calls my brethren my family the fraternal purchased in my agony and in my blood. My unconverted friend you can become part

41:41 of that brotherhood by taking seriously the sin that caused the Savior to die by acknowledging that what you are as a sinner in Adam and by practice is such that nothing less than the bloodletting of Emmanuel God with us in flesh deity could answer all the claims of an incensed and offended holy God upon a throne of inflexible justice. Come owning the reality of your sinnerhood in the language of the latter part of the Psalm pay your vows to him bow before him serve him trust him cast yourself upon him and dear children of God think of it while on the cross Jesus saw beyond whatever moments were yet left to him before he would say it is finished Father into your hands I commend my spirit the moment God lifted that oppressive crushing sense of abandonment and he says you have answered his first thought is his own is his brethren his first thought is his brethren his assembly he goes down into that abyss of darkness on our behalf as he is being brought out of it we are the first thought

43:11 of his mind and of his heart and he looked forward to this night when in the midst of the church he would sing the praises of his God and Father with us joyfully own us as his brethren may we all brethren may we come to the table with a joy that is in some measure commensurate with our privilege and as we enter this new year beginning it as a congregation about this table know about the Lord of the table may we do so in the confidence that he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things let us pray our Father we thank you for your holy word we thank you for this portion upon which we have been privileged to meditate and we confess that you have revealed things that stagger our minds and that cause us to cry out with that man Lord I believe help my unbelief how we thank you that you Lord Jesus are not ashamed to call us brethren you won't own us as your fraternal of blood-bought men and women boys and girls

44:40 and may we by your grace bear well the family likeness we pray now as we would express our love and confidence in you at the table that you Lord Jesus will be present to our hearts by the Spirit unveiling new dimensions of your grace and love to us meet with us then we pray that you will lead amen