In this sermon, the preacher talks about his experience in a village where he encountered people who had been prepared to receive the message of Jesus. He emphasizes the importance of sharing the story of Jesus with those who have not heard it before. The preacher also highlights the pride of the Israelites in their covenant and revelation, but their lack of action. God, however, promises to do a new thing and bring salvation to nations considered unclean and pagan. The preacher connects this promise to the new covenant established by Jesus, as mentioned in 1 Peter chapter 2.

In preparation for coming to the Lord's table, we're going to have a Bible reading today. Bible reading is an expression that we've inherited from our good British friends. It doesn't mean that I'm simply going to read, but I'm going to tie together scriptures which have a point and a purpose, but they all relate to this matter of the Lord's table. Will you turn first, please, to Matthew chapter 26, and I would read beginning with verse 26. Matthew 26, 26. There will be no notes today, so if you'd like to make note of the scriptures, then you'd have them for your use in the days to come. I want you to pay particular attention to the word testament, the New Testament, which is literally the new covenant, and we shall consider the matter of covenant as it relates to the Lord's table. Begin reading then with verse 26 of Matthew 26. And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take eat, this is my body, and he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament, literally the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. There's going to be now a new covenant sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ about to be shed at the time he spoke this on Calvary's cross. You understood that in the Old Testament, covenants were always sealed with blood, and therefore this new covenant will be so sealed. Now if you'll turn please to Hebrews, the eighth chapter, you will understand why it was necessary for there to be a new covenant. Hebrews chapter eight, and I'd like you to begin reading. It's hard to begin in this chapter at a given point, but for time's sake, I will go back to the fifth verse. ...who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For, see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, for all the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. He's quoting from Ezekiel, the 36th chapter. But in order that we might see that there is, in the plan of God, this intention to do a new thing, I ask you to turn to Isaiah, chapter 43. The 43rd chapter of Isaiah, and I shall read for you verses 18 through 21. Now God, through Isaiah, is speaking to Israel and to Judah, and these are his words. Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. They took such great pride that they were the people of the covenant. They had the revelation, they had the temple, they had the tabernacle in the wilderness, they had the scripture. Oh, they were so proud of all this, but they'd done so little with it. In verse 22 he says, Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, and thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not honored me with thy sacrifice. Now, in verses 18 to 21, he tells them what he's going to do. Don't just stand there and talk about how great it was yesterday and what wonderful people we were. Behold, I will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth. Shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. This people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. What's he talking about? He's talking about turning away from Israel and Jacob that have been so smug and complacent that they're the heirs of all that God would do among man. And he says, I'm going to go to the beast of the field. Now, remember what it was that Peter saw in the vision there at Joppa when the sheep was let down from heaven? What was in it? All kinds of beasts of the field. Every, owls, cormorants, all the things that were unclean to Israel to eat. And he is saying, all of these people that you call unclean, all of these pagans, all of these Gentiles. And he denominates them by saying, beasts of the field, dragons and owls. Such were we. Such were we. Our forefathers, for the most part here, were from Europe. And when Paul said, the barbarian and the Scythian, you know who he's talking about? My forefathers. Not a very complimentary way to view it. But we certainly weren't included as the logical heirs of the promises made to Israel. So, what's God saying? Saying, look, I formed you for my praise, Israel. I called you to be a witness to me. And you wouldn't do it. And don't think that you've tied my hands. Don't think that I can't do something else. Behold, I'm going to do a new thing. I'm going to take these nations that you call unclean and call pagan, and I am going to bring rivers into the desert and water in the wilderness, and they're going to drink of that water, and they are going to show forth my praise. I'm going to do a new thing. I wish you'd turn to 1 Peter, the second chapter. 1 Peter, chapter 2. And let Peter add his testimony to that you've heard from Isaiah. Beginning with verse 9. But ye, who? The people to whom he's writing. And who is it that Peter included? Those that he saw in that sheet there at Joppa. That's the ones he's writing. To all the redeemed. But you are a chosen generation. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. A peculiar, a purchased people. That you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times past were not a people, which in times past were not the children of the covenant. You are the Gentiles and the pagans, which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. God's going to do a new thing. Let's go back to Jeremiah. Jeremiah had such a clear picture of this. Jeremiah chapter 31 and beginning with verse 31. Thrilling to realize that the churches of Jesus Christ, this new thing was not a new thing. God had talked about it in some detail long before. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. So when you take the cup and he says, This is the cup of the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood. What is a covenant? That all who will repent of their sins and savingly receive Jesus Christ will become part of this chosen people, this royal priesthood, this people that shall show forth His praise because you see He has brought rivers of water into the desert and into the wilderness. That those of us who were not privileged to be born of Abram's heritage might still drink and become children of Abram through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and thus part heirs of the promise. The new covenant, the new covenant sealed with the poured out blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That any and all who will repent of their sin and savingly embrace the Lord Jesus Christ will become part of God's new thing. I think it's important to understand the weight and the meaning of the words. Turn please in closing to 1 Corinthians chapter 11 which you may wish to hold open before you as we go to the Lord's table. Verse 25 After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. The new covenant sealed by my poured out life, by my shed blood. As often as you do this, as often as you drink of this, you are certifying again that you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ and you are in and under the new covenant. Not the New Testament in the sense as compared to the Old Testament. This is the New Testament. It sounds as though we're certifying the Scripture. No, we're certifying the relationship of a new people that have been brought out of death into life. People that had no part in the promises made to Abram as far as the sons of Isaac and Jacob were concerned. But now God has reached out, brought this river out to where we are. Even to Africa, the islands of the sea, and South America. And today, far more than the number of missionaries that we have on stations that are known to us, are those that are going out. When Marjorie and I were in the Sudan, I had a reason to go down to Dajo, to host the Anuak area where Dick Lye, who had been a church missionary, society missionary, now was a government official. And Dick had come into this area so that he could learn the Murale language and he could minister to this large tribe of people that never had the gospel. And he asked for permanent assignment. He'd go into government service as long as they would not move him because the custom was to move the district commissioners from one district to another on a rotation basis. He said, I'll come if I can stay there and not be moved. So he'd been there many years, the time I knew him. And he called to me one day, had the boy come up and said, please come down to my office. I have someone I'd like to have you meet. And when I got down there, there was a man who had come to the Lord through Dick's ministry. And he was sitting there, and he had in his hand a knotted piece of twine, just looked like a whipknot, all up and down the twine. And he said, before he starts, I ask that you come. And this man sat there, and he took the first place he'd gone after he'd left. He's now reporting to Dick Lye, the government official, on the trip that he had taken out into a part of Africa that still is unknown. It's not really mapped. No one has seriously investigated it. It's called the Triangle between Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Sudan. It's the least known part of the world today. This man had gone out. He knew the languages. And every knot was someone that he had won to the Lord. And a group of knots was a family. And a large knob of knots were the people in a village. Now, he started to talk, and he'd tell us, and Dick is translating to me as he's telling, about going into this village and finding people that had been prepared. They'd had a vision of the Lord. They'd seen someone they called Jesus. Do you know anybody by the name of Jesus? And they said someone would come and tell us about him. Do you have anything to tell us about someone named Jesus? And he would untie the knots, and as he did, he'd tell the story. Each knot was a person, and it opened his heart to Christ. Tribes whose languages had never been counted, never been included. Villages of people that had never been numbered. Places where no white man had ever gone. What's happening? The river is going into the villages. Not just the water from the mountains of Ethiopian Sudan, but the river of life that flowed from Calvary is being taken by an Anuak man who's going down and sitting in the villages and telling the people about Christ. And some years after I'd been there, when a missionary from the Sudan Interior Mission came down into that lowland part on the western slope of the Ethiopian mountains, they found a small hut dedicated to the worship of Jesus Christ and a company of people who were saying, we want you to baptize us. He said it was always that. And they found out later that it was this man who'd been going back and teaching them and instructing them. Oh, dear friends of him, I'm so glad that when he said, I'll do a new thing, he put all of his omniscience into the task. He put all of his love into the task. He made all of his power available for the task. And he uses everyone who's drunk of that water and found life. It isn't all going to be done by those of us from America and England and Europe. God is working today as the river of life is flowing out to the tribes. Someone said, but they haven't all heard. How do you know? How do you know they haven't all heard? Well, we don't have missionaries everywhere. But maybe God has witnesses we don't know anything about. I don't know. He knows. I'm glad that he's taking care of it. I'm satisfied that he did a new thing. And when we drink of this cup, we're certifying again that covenant that he made that the beasts of the fields and the owls and the cormorants and those that think men call unclean drink of that water will become part of that chosen generation and royal priesthood and holy nation that they may show forth the praises of him who called them out of death into life. Father of heaven, heaven, Father of Jesus, thank you for stirring our hearts with expectancy of our Lord's return. Thank you for encouraging us to understand that whereas we do the best we can, Thou dost do more than that and that Thou art working and moving in so many ways. And today, as we can visualize that water of life being carried by those whom the missions, ministry of the world know not but who are known to Thee, Thy servants, who love Thee and are walking with Thee and serving Thee. O Father, we come again to this table of remembrance. We lift the cup and we hear Him say, This is Thy blood shed for the remission of sin, the blood of the new covenant. Certifying it, testifying that we're part of it, that our lives are committed to Thee to extend this message of Thy grace out to all the others like ourselves who were beasts of the field, unclean, no part in Israel's heritage but still heirs of the promise through the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless this table of remembrance we ask this day for. In Jesus' name.