If you have a Bible, would you turn
to Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 11?
Isaiah 53 and verse 11.
And this is the real reason for taking
communion, and it's the basis of really taking
it, and not just eating bread and drinking
wine.
It's page 634 in that Revised Standard Version.
Isaiah 53 and 11.
Do you remember?
It's the miraculous description of Jesus' experience on
the cross, written eight centuries before Jesus was
crucified.
It's one of the greatest prophecies we have.
Verse 11.
He, my righteous servant, originally Israel, and really
meaning Jesus, he shall see the fruit of
the travail of his soul and be satisfied
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my
servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and
he shall bear their iniquities.
And you see the beginning of the verse,
he shall see the fruit of the travail
of his soul.
And it's just ma'amal in Hebrew.
Amal is trouble or travail, and the min
is from or after or in consequence of.
So it means in consequence of the travail
of his soul.
He shall see a sight that gives him
pleasure.
He shall see and be satisfied or be
pleased.
Do you know what the travail of Jesus'
soul was?
Think a lot of us, when we first
heard of Jesus' death, thought, well, it was
the pain, the physical pain that he was
bearing.
And then we thought a little more about
it and read a little more and heard
a little more.
And we went a bit further and we
said, well, it was his own feeling of
loneliness, being away from his father and being
surrounded with all these people who hated him.
And then some of us went a little
further and we said, well, it's more than
that.
It's the pain that any of us would
feel if somebody came in here and just
started to swear in Christ's name.
It would hurt us deep down because there's
something in us that loves Jesus.
And we would say the travail of Jesus'
soul was the pain of a pure, clean,
loving heart, being surrounded with so much hatred
and so much dirt and so much blasphemy
against God.
Well, loved ones, it was deeper than that.
Do you know the moments when you have
had real trouble speaking the truth to other
people?
You know those moments when you want to
say what you really believe, but you're afraid
of what they'll think of you.
And inside you want to, you want to
say what you know is right, but you're
afraid of what they'll think of you.
And you find that even though you want
to please God, for years you have been
pleasing men and women and your whole personality
seems bent that way.
You know that feeling.
And sometimes you say, my personality is so
used to this, I can't do it.
I want to.
I want to say what's right, but I
can't.
Because my personality seems bent in that direction,
I've got it used to this like a
drug addict for years.
I'm so used to people's praise that I'm
like a little puppy dog.
I'll just beg almost for it.
I sometimes go home at night and I'm
surprised at what a fool I've made of
myself and my own eyes, and nobody else's,
just because I've wanted them to praise me.
And I've seen what a conceited ass I
am.
Have you ever felt like that?
Now, what Jesus did on the cross, and
I know it's hard to realize, but what
he did on the cross was take your
personality that is so enslaved to people's opinions,
that it's bent that way.
And he took it in his own heart,
inside his own spirit.
He allowed it to become himself.
And then he looked up to his Father
and he said, Lord, burn this out.
Destroy it in me.
Destroy it utterly and absolutely.
Send it to hell in me.
That's part of the travail of Jesus' soul.
Loved ones, he bore the pain that you
and I could never have faced and that
we would have had to face at the
end of this life, and it would have
utterly destroyed us.
See, if I could describe it to you
like this, it's as if God is surrounded
by an invisible curtain of pure holiness, and
he is here, and you come through it
when you die, and it burns you up.
If there's anything unholy in you, it burns
you up.
If there's someone who loves men's praises more
than God's, that someone would turn heaven into
hell, and so as he comes through that
curtain of holiness, he himself is repulsed.
Now, that's what Jesus bore on Calvary for
you.
Jesus bore the agony and the pain of
that.
So do you see how true it is
that you don't have to get into Jesus?
See, I think a lot of us misunderstand
there, because we think, if tonight I repent
really, and I believe truly, I'll somehow get
into Jesus.
The truth of this dear word is that
we judge that one died for all, therefore
all died.
Every one of us here in this room
were crucified with Jesus.
Every one of us here, our personality, that
intractable part of us that will not obey,
it was destroyed and made a new in
Jesus.
It was.
It is not as you think.
You think when you lose your temper, I
can't do anything else.
I'm made that way.
That is the lie of Satan.
God says he has put you into a
son, Jesus, and he has completely renewed you.
That has been done.
It has been done.
The only question is whether you will believe
that or not and act upon it.
Do you see why it is such pain
to Jesus when you continue to say, but
I can't, I can't.
He knows you're not seeing that you're actually
in him and that that can't personality of
yours was destroyed in him and that he
is in you.
He is in you and he can through
you.
He is in you at this moment.
See, some of you, I think, don't believe
that tonight.
You think, no, you mean he will come
into me.
No, the Bible says God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself.
God has already placed us all in a
son, has already changed us all completely.
The only question is whether you will believe
that now and will live in the power
of that.
Now, do you begin to see the verse
says Jesus will see of the travail of
his soul and will be satisfied or after
the travail of his soul that he is
born for you, he will see a sight
that is pleasing to him.
What is that sight?
Well, it certainly isn't thousands and thousands of
people saying, I can't help losing my temper.
I can't help wanting the praise of men.
I try, but I can't help it.
When Jesus knows all the time, my son,
my daughter, that personality of yours was destroyed
in me and now I have become you
and you have become me.
You can, by one little turn of your
will and one little turn of your mind,
to believe that I have destroyed everything in
you that will not obey.
And Jesus looks down upon us tonight here
in this room after the travail of his
soul that he is born for each one
of us and he's looking not at all
at our prayers or our songs so much
or our good intentions.
He's looking at the way we're living tonight.
He's looking at every one of us that
is using the miracle that he wrought in
our personalities to actually live like him and
obey him.
Do you see that?
See, it's like, it must be like a
mum, you know, who goes through all the
agony and travail of bearing the child and
at last the child is born and then
the little one stops breathing, won't breathe.
And the mother has travailed to give it
life but the little one won't breathe or
it won't eat.
It must be that ten thousand times worse
when Jesus looks at us tonight and remembers
the travail of soul that he bore to
allow all that is wrong in you and
me to be destroyed and then sees us
not making a move but still pleading that
we can't be like him and he's saying,
you don't need to be like me.
All you need to do is believe that
my father has put you in me and
that I am in you and I can
be like myself in you if you'll just
give me freedom.
Just believe that I'm in you.
Believe that I'm able to love.
Believe that I'm able to repeat again what
I did on Calvary's cross to live independent
of people's praise or people's approval in your
life.
Loved ones, that's part of it.
That after the travail of a soul he
will see a sight that is pleasing to
him.
And you see that's the meaning of that
verse, he has borne our iniquities.
Not the punishment for our iniquities, he has
borne our iniquities.
There is not one unclean habit in your
life that Jesus did not take into himself
and allow to be destroyed in him.
There is not one unclean way of thinking
that you have that Jesus has not borne
the pain of its destruction already on Calvary.
In other words, he knows you and me
better than anybody else because he knows the
worst sides of us that nobody else knows.
Because those are the sides that he bore
on the cross and he bore them so
that we would live free from them.
And that's why we always say the victory
is faith.
The victory is do you believe that?
Or do you still keep on pleading the
good that I would, I cannot do?
And the evil I hate is the very
thing I do.
Do you keep on pleading I want to
care for God's praise and be contemptuous of
men's praise?
I want to but I can't.
Loved ones, Jesus has destroyed that personality that
was enslaved that way.
You can.
And that's the meaning of this communion service.
And so what is Jesus looking for?
Spoils, the spoils of victory.
That's the beautiful thing that he wants us
to present to him tonight, the spoils of
his victory.
New places in your life where tonight you're
changing.
New things that you've seen Jesus has destroyed
and I don't need to put up with
them any longer.
So Lord, I'm finished with them.
That's it.
That's what Jesus wants to see.
And that's all you have to do to
take communion seriously and really tonight, loved ones.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you
if he hasn't already revealed and he's revealed
to me just tonight something.
But if he hasn't already revealed to you,
to reveal to you something that Jesus allowed
to be destroyed in his dear heart on
Calvary.
Something that he bore travail of soul for
and something therefore that you can be free
of tonight.
And that you can stand up in his
personality and say, Lord, I am finished with
that.
I will obey from this moment on.
Loved ones, what I thought might help and
what we did in Ireland, I remember in
the old days, we would read some of
God's laws.
Usually we had it written into our liturgy
and we would read laws like the Ten
Commandments.
I thought it would be good to read
some laws in the New Testament that the
Holy Spirit might use to bring home to
your heart something from which the Holy Spirit
wants to free you tonight.
And so, will you turn to Matthew 5
and I'll just ask us to read two
chapters and or parts of two chapters and
then we can pray.
But it's Matthew 5 and 21.
Many of us know these verses and it's
page 838 in the Revised Standard Version and
Matthew 5 and verse 21.
And these are just very plain down to
earth commandments that Jesus has freed us to
obey and that it's a delight to obey,
that it's natural to obey.
You have heard that it was said, verse
21, you have heard that it was said
to the men of old, you shall not
kill and whoever kills shall be liable to
judgment.
But I say to you that everyone who
is angry with his brother shall be liable
to judgment.
Whoever insults his brother shall be liable to
the council and whoever says you fool shall
be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you are offering your gift at
the altar and there remember that your brother
has something against you, leave your gift there
before the altar and go.
First be reconciled to your brother and then
come and offer your gift.
Make friends quickly with your accuser while you
are going with him to court, lest your
accuser hand you over to the judge and
the judge to the guard and you be
put in prison.
Truly I say to you, you will never
get out till you have paid the last
penny.
You have heard that it was said you
shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that everyone who
looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
pluck it out and throw it away.
It is better that you lose one of
your members than that your whole body be
thrown into hell.
And if your right hand causes you to
sin, cut it off and throw it away.
It is better that you lose one of
your members than that your whole body go
into hell.
It was also said whoever divorces his wife,
let him give her a certificate of divorce.
But I say to you that everyone who
divorces his wife, except on the ground of
unchastity, makes her an adulteress.
And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Again you have heard that it was said
to the men of old, you shall not
swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord
what you have sworn.
But I say to you, do not swear
at all, either by heaven, for it is
the throne of God, or by the earth,
for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great
king.
And do not swear by your head, for
you cannot make one hair white or black.
Let what you say be simply yes or
no.
Anything more than this comes from evil.
You have heard that it was said, an
eye for an eye and a tooth for
a tooth.
But I say to you, do not resist
one who is evil.
But if anyone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if anyone would sue you and take
your coat, let him off your cloak as
well.
If anyone forces you to go one mile,
go with him two miles.
Give to him who begs from you, and
do not refuse him who would borrow from
you.
You have heard that it was said, you
shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, so
that you may be sons of your Father
who is in heaven.
For he makes a sun rise on the
evil and on the good, and sends rain
on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you,
what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the
same?
And if you salute only your brethren, what
more are you doing than others?
Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly
Father is perfect.
It should mean if any of us have
anything between ourselves and another person here, or
at home, or at work, we should fix
it this very night, or first thing tomorrow
morning.
That's the way Jesus would see after the
travel of his soul.
He would see a sight that is pleasing.
He would see that it was worth it
all.
I see.
And just a few verses, loved ones, in
Philippians 4 then.
Philippians 4.
Just ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to
you if this has something to say in
your life and about your behavior.
Philippians, it's page 1024.
Philippians 4 and verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Could I just say that that means don't
complain.
Do you see that?
Some of us have a wee bit of
trouble with the translation there.
But it means don't complain.
Wonder how often, how often we don't see
that as failing to rejoice.
But it isn't.
And it brings pain to others.
It spreads Satan's negativism.
It destroys and kills.
You can't rejoice and complain at the same
time.
If you're complaining, you're not rejoicing.
If you say to me, oh, can you
rejoice when the house is burning down?
Yes, you can.
Yes.
Many people have rejoiced as dastardly things have
happened, and they have seen God turn them
around because they have kept faith that he
was in control.
Whereas the complainers have shown that they didn't
trust God at all.
They were utterly caught up with what they
could see, and they walked by sight and
not by faith.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again, I will say rejoice, whether you feel
like it or not.
That's a command.
Thou shalt not kill.
Well, I feel like killing today.
Thou shalt not covet.
Well, I feel like coveting today.
Well, this is the same order.
Rejoice.
Well, I don't feel like rejoicing.
It doesn't matter.
It's a command.
You rejoice.
I remember a brother who went into one
of the Anglican brotherhoods in England, and that's
the way the day starts, you know.
The brothers are all sleeping in their cells,
and then the brother whose job it is
to knock everyone up, you know, knocks on
the door and says, this is the, oh,
what is it?
This is the day.
This is the day that the Lord hath
made, and the brother has to answer, we
will rejoice and be glad in it.
And it's good in a way.
It's good, you know.
Start the day rejoicing, obeying God's command, really.
Let all men know your forbearance.
The Lord is at hand.
I just ask you who are in offices
and me who are in offices all day,
do all men know our forbearance?
Or do all men know our irritability and
our impatience?
Do all men think it's amazing what he
puts up with?
Do all men think that of us and
the ladies among us?
Do all men think that?
Let all men know your forbearance.
The Lord is at hand.
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God.
Do you see the command, have no anxiety?
It's not an exhortation.
It's not a piece of good advice.
It's a command, have no anxiety.
So there's no room for self-pity.
Oh, but poor me, if you knew what
I have to put up with, you'd be
anxious too.
No, God says, have no anxiety, that's a
command.
You have no anxiety, I'll take care of
the thing.
You have anxiety, I can't take care of
it.
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything
by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your
requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God which passes all
understanding will keep your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
And then, this is beautiful, in verse 8.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
And no negativism.
Now, if I could share one little thing
with you.
It's very interesting that the men and women
who are suffering the most in the Siberias
of this world and in the prisons of
this world are those to whom those verses
are most precious, and are those who are
most positive in their thinking.
And it's very interesting that it's often those
of us who have so much, and have
so many good things, that find it so
hard to be positive, and to keep our
eyes on the blessings of God.
So, let's just go before God, and I'm
going to do the same thing, and let's
just, let's ask Him to give us light,
and just pray as God guides you, you
know.
Sometimes praise, and sometimes confession.
Dear Father, we come before you as a
people who want to be honest and real
with you tonight.
And Father, we want first of all to
thank you for Jesus, and oh Lord Jesus,
we cannot thank you enough when we consider
the travail of your soul for us.
Lord, thank you.
Lord, you have borne what we couldn't bear
ourselves, and what no other man could bear.
Lord, thank you.
And we can't understand how you still love
us, having seen all the things that we
are, and then having borne them in your
own clean and spotless dear heart.
But Lord, we thank you tonight, and we
see that there is only one thing that
we can do.
If we really believe we are in you,
Lord, there's only one thing to do, and
that's to repent in dust and ashes, and
to turn gladly from those things that you're
showing us tonight, and to commit ourselves to
a new way of life, and to a
new attitude, taking up our position in you,
and from now on treating ourselves as you,
as you, treating this body as yours, and
all our job as yours, and letting you
be yourself, Lord.
Thank you.