1 Corinthians 10, 16, the cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood
of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? And the word communion
here is fellowship, association and joint participation. So it's
clear what's being said here. We gather as a family around
the Lord's table, and by his grace, and by his grace only,
we're made partakers of the table, and here's the key, all that
it represents, all that it represents, it's a symbol, the cup, and the
bread are symbols of the reality that all we who believe on Christ
have this in common, that his precious blood was shed for our
sins. Just like the atonement of Christ
itself, the precious blood that he shed, the sacrifice that he
made when he laid down his life for his sheep, If it's universal, then it's
meaningless. And that which symbolizes it,
if it's universal, it's meaningless. By definition. Because if the
Lord's blood was shed for Judas like it was for Simon, then what
does his blood have to do with salvation? And so this table,
you're invited to the table of communion with the Lord, if the
symbol of His precious blood and His body apply to you, in
that we're partakers together of the atonement made by that
blood. His blood has washed us from our sins. This is communion,
what we have in common, our association with one another. The thing that
we participate in, one and all, is the blood. and the body of the Lord Jesus.
His sacrifice for our sins on Calvary is our atonement with
God, our redemption, our salvation. Of all the things that men have
in common, you think of the things that draw men together into groups, into fellowships of different
sorts, causes them to be a sort of brotherhood Every group of people that identifies
as a group, they all have something in common that makes them what
they are. And of all those things, this is the most precious and
most special. People assemble in fellowship
who have survived a particular war, and I think that's good. Something like that brings people
together. Families get together because
they have the same mother and father, they grew up together.
People that enjoy reading might gather into a book club of some
kind. You may be thinking that being
a family is not the same thing as being a member of a book club,
and you're right. But I don't think anybody would
argue with me that you might get along more universally with
the people in your book club than you do your own family a
lot of times. So really as our Lord taught
us, being born into the same earthly family is not always
fellowship, it's not always communion with one another. But what bonds us as believers,
as the sheep of God, as the elect of God, is Christ himself. and that's taught throughout
the scriptures. Our bond is unlike any other. It transcends all other bonds,
even that of earthly family. The Lord himself said that those
who are his brothers and his mother are those who did the
will of the father at that time in hearing him and worshiping
him. And moreover, this communion
is different like any other in this sense, we actually are one. Don't think of the communion
that we have as the family of Christ, the body of Christ, as
we'll see in a minute, is figurative. It's not. It's literal. By the blood of Christ, we are
one. If God says we're one, we're
one. Ephesians 2 let's turn together
here to Ephesians chapter 2 We literally under God as God
sees man and wife as one flesh Even more Precious than that
Is the bond that believers? have in Christ Ephesians 2.12.
At that time you were without Christ being aliens. That word
aliens is the exact opposite of communion. Communion as I
said means fellowship and joint participation. Aliens means estranged
to be shut out from fellowship. Exactly the opposite word. And
that's important and that's Showing us that this is talking
about the same thing and we'll see that in a minute being aliens
being Non-participants Being shut out from the fellowship
of Christ without Christ From the Commonwealth of Israel
and strangers from the covenants of promise and You see, not just
not a Jew in a physical sense, in an earthly sense, but shut
up from the covenants of promise. The covenant of grace. He's talking
about spiritual Israel here, clearly. God's promises were
never made to the earthly nation of Israel. They're made to his
spiritual Israel. And earthly Israel, just a picture
of that. Having no hope. If you have not
Christ, where's your hope? And without God in the world. But now, you see, strange is
the opposite, but look what happened. In Christ Jesus, ye who were
at one time afar off are made nigh. How? Our text. Our communion is in the blood
of Christ. A person, Christ crucified, is
our bond. You're made nigh unto God and
to one another. Verse 14, for he is our peace
who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of
partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body." Again,
how? By the cross. That's what our
text is talking about. Is it not the blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ? Is that the cup of blessing which
we bless? Is it not the communion? that's
ours in his precious blood, by the cross, having slain the
enmity thereby and came and preached peace to you, which were far
off. There was peace before you ever
heard about it. Isn't that glorious? When you
hear the gospel, you're just hearing about what God did for
you, which is, Unspeakably wonderful peace is made me you reconcile
to God on what basis Substitution the precious blood of Christ By one body by the cross having
slain the enmity and came and preached peace to you verse 17
which were far off And to them that were nigh in an earthly
in as far as the outward Advantages of having the law and the covenants,
for through him, through him, what's our communion, what's
our unity? A person. Through him, we both have access
by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builded together for inhabitation of God through the Spirit. You
see what Paul is saying now about the communion of the blood. It
is by that precious blood, by Christ, through him, that we
have fellowship with one another. The table shows forth his death
till he come. It shows forth the reality of
what he did for us and who we are spiritually. It's not the actual wine that
we drink that makes us one. It's not some special wine or
certain substance that we drink that makes us one any more than
the Old Testament ordinances were anything but shadows. They
were shadows, glorious shadows, because they pointed back to
him who cast a shadow. The blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin and neither can a cup of wine take
away sin or impart any grace to any sinner. But just like
the Old Testament Jews looked to the shadow and not to him
that cast the shadow, millions today glorify the ordinances
and not the one who ordained them. The wine is a picture of the
blood of Christ, which binds us to each other and to himself. But a precious one, one given
by God, one ordained by God and given to his church, for what
reason? Remember, remember what Christ
in all the hullabaloo of this wretched world Remember what
it's all about The Lord brings us back to the
table Whatever else we do in this world, whatever else we
do in this church Whatever else happens We are to regularly participate
in the Lord's table the Lord bringing us back to I've said
this to you before, I hope one day the messages that the Lord
gives me and he gives me grace to deliver the truth of Christ
so clearly and plainly that it's as simple and beautiful and profound
as his table. Everything else is fluff, but
him and what he did. Everything else is window dressing,
but Christ and him crucified And it's the same with the bread
the two elements Picturing him and what he did this person his
work His body his blood it just is
in the only other ordinance that the Lord gave the church to observe
In baptism, we identify with Him and Him dying for us. It's clearly we're being baptized
to show forth how that the Lord stands for us, He represents
us. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures and was buried. But He rose again the third day
for our justification. And we identify with Him in that.
When he died, when he paid the penalty of our sin, that's
me paid up. When he rose from the dead, that's
me alive now. The firstborn from the dead.
Chronologically, what difference? It's not about that. But he's
the firstborn. He's the one by whom we all live. And why death has no dominion
over us. Sin has no dominion over us,
nor its penalty, death. Because we're set free, the Son
shall make you free. You're free, you're plum free. And like that, like baptism,
we show forth Christ and Him crucified and declare by participation
that by his grace, we're in on that. By his grace, he's all
of our hope. By his grace, he's our salvation. By his grace, he's our atonement.
He's our fellowship with God and with one another. It says that we bless the cup
which we drink. Bless, we praise and celebrate. That's what that means, to praise
and to celebrate. Coming to the Lord's table is
a celebration. It's a remembrance, but it's
a remembrance so wonderful and so glorious. What's your best
memory in this world? What's your best memory? Your
children being born? The day you met your wife? The
day you married your husband or wife? What's your most wonderful
memory? Well, spiritually speaking, we
know what it is, don't we? It's the day that the Lord revealed
to us And we don't even know, we may
not even know the date and time, but the fact that God, in due
time, He revealed to our hearts what He did for us. And we remember
Him. Our best memory is somebody.
And it's a remembrance, but it's one so glorious we celebrate
it. We celebrate it. We celebrate birthdays. I'm glad,
because I like getting presents. I like giving presents, too.
People on their birthday. But that's a small thing, isn't
it? The day I was born, I mean, okay. That's fun, I like that. My goodness, when we remember
the Lord Jesus Christ saving our souls, when he took a wretch like me,
a worm like me and lifted me up and made a son of me. You think about that, it's time
to celebrate it. That's what we do when we worship,
we celebrate. We attribute worthiness to him
and rejoice in the fact that we're bought, that we're redeemed,
that we're his. And his table is a precious example
of that. It's like nothing else. We bless
by the means of that cup. The cup that we bless, we praise
and celebrate by drinking that cup. The Jews had this saying,
and it was a tradition, and I think it goes back, I believe, thousands
of years, at least hundreds of years for sure. I read about
this. They had, that which they called
the cup of blessing. Whenever they would gather for
an event of some kind, to have a meal maybe, or something else,
some other reason, they would gather together and they would
raise a cup. And they would say this is the cup of blessing because
by that cup of wine they praised and thanked the Lord for all
that he had done for them, both physically and spiritually. And
that's what Paul is referring to here. The cup of blessing
which we bless, it's the blood. It's the communion of his precious
blood. When he handed the cup at the
first supper, the first time this ordinance
was observed with the Lord himself and his disciples, he said, this
cup, is the new covenant in my blood. The precious blood of
Christ, that new covenant of grace that doesn't depend on
you at all. It's just the Lord saying, I will. I will, I will,
I will, and you shall. Not if, not if you keep it, not
if you obey, just I'm gonna bless you. The way he came to Abraham
and said, in blessing, I'm gonna bless you. I'm in the blessing
business, and you're fixing to get in on it. Isn't that beautiful? Not if, nothing dependent on
me, not because of, and not if, just I'm gonna bless you because
I want to. And all of the blessings of God
are ours by the precious blood of Christ. and ours jointly. We're all joint heirs with Jesus
Christ. We celebrate that. The cup of
blessing. They used wine in order to thank
the Lord for his blessings upon them at a meal or another occasion
of some kind. They might lift a glass of wine
and bless the Lord that way. But this wine, represents more than prosperity
and earthly blessing. It's the precious blood of Christ
that's represented here. And Paul is using that phrase
to talk about the cup of communion with Christ and with one another
in him. And we do, by drinking it, part
of what we do is praise him, we celebrate him, who he is and
what he did for us. We praise Him not just for temporal
blessings, but notice it says that we, the cup that we bless. When they raised a cup to thank
God for what they had and what He had done for them, they weren't
blessing the cup, they weren't blessing the wine, they were
blessing God. Paul says, we bless this cup, you know what? It's
the precious blood of Christ in picture and type. We bless the cup itself because
the blood that bought us and redeemed us from our sins that
brought us now into God and that which binds us together as his
body is pictured and represented by that cup. You can't ever make too much
of the blood of Christ. We can't sing about it enough.
We can't praise Him enough for it. We can't remember it often
enough. You can't make too much of it. Listen to Romans 3, 24.
This has always been a blessing to me since the Lord showed it
to me. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, we're redeemed by His blood. whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation. What's that? A sin offering.
And without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. And listen to the next phrase.
To set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. I can just hear some theologian
somewhere saying, we don't believe in his blood, we believe in him.
Come on. Do you believe in His blood?
Do you believe that the precious blood of Christ is precious enough
to pay an infinite debt of sin for you? By His grace, we do. You can't make too much of it.
You can't separate it from Him. It's His offering for our sins. He is our propitiation. Christ
and him crucified To declare his righteousness
For the remission of sins that are passed Through the forbearance
of God they notice the bread we break the bread we break the
bread and I usually am not a big proponent
of nitpicking, but when it comes to the table,
I think we need to be nitpickers. It's not complicated. It's not complicated. We used
to have the table on Sunday mornings, and I realized in the scripture,
it says it was night. And they went out from observing
the Lord's table, and it was night. And so we changed it. Does that mean it didn't mean
anything before? No, I don't believe so. Do you? But as we
know, as we realize and learn, I want it to be exactly, maybe
that doesn't make any difference whether you do it in the morning
or night. But they did it at night, so that's what we're gonna
do. You see what I'm saying? That's something I think needs
to be nitpicked about. And this thing of the breaking
of the bread, we don't have little pre-made discs of whatever that
stuff is. It's broken. It's broken bread. And in doing that, I believe
we show that Christ must needs have suffered. We do show forth
His death. How did he die? It pleased the
Lord to crush him. The word bruise there in Isaiah
53 means to crush. At the first table of communion,
the Lord broke the bread himself. You remember that? It says he
break it. He break it. And what a glorious picture that
is, signifying that he laid down his life himself for us. No one took it from him. When He laid down His life for
us, we're one with Him because of that, as we read. You can't
overstate, you can't make too much of the blood, and you cannot
overstate the oneness of us in Christ. You can't overstate it. We need to, and when I say we,
I do, and I think you're like me. Maybe I'm wrong about this. But we've got to come to understand just routinely that that which
is true spiritually is most true. That which is true physically,
you say, well, that's only true in Christ. Only true in Christ.
What's true in Christ is what's really true. Your eyes may deceive
you. Your perception of something
Maybe flawed. But what's true in Christ is
most true. Don't say that like, well, it's
not really true, but it is in Christ. No, that's what is real. We're creatures of sense, aren't
we? And so we fall behind, I believe in that. But we are one, we're
one. Well, that's only true in Christ. Listen to Hebrews 2.10, for it
became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things to
make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one. for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren. That's real. That's the truth
of it. Us being divided, or there being schisms in the body,
that's us. If we could possibly mess this
up, we would. If we could possibly mess it
up. But we're one in Christ. And
that don't change. I can't be a big enough idiot
to ruin that. And we ought to celebrate that.
Thank God for that. His precious blood is our communion. Look at verse 17. in our text,
and I believe this is as far as we'll get tonight, but for
we being many are one bread. It doesn't ignore the fact that
we're many. It doesn't ignore the fact that
we all have different personalities and different ways of looking
at things. But how many ways are there to look at Christ as
all? How many ways are there to look at that? For we are all partakers of that
one bread. He just quit talking about the
bread on the table, didn't he? We are all partakers of that
one bread. Partakers again, now, not just
of the bread of the Lord's table, but the one that it signifies.
Our fellowship is in Christ. Turn with me to John chapter
six. John chapter six. And verse 30. John 6.30. They said, and therefore unto
him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? They wanted to see something
in order to believe. The gospel didn't mean anything
to them. We want to see something. We
want to see something. It's like the rich man that woke
up in hell. If somebody goes back from the
dead, my brothers will believe. No, they won't. No, they have
Moses and the prophets. They have the word of God. And
if they don't believe the gospel, they're not ever gonna see the
Lord. They're not ever gonna believe because of some fantastic
show put on by somebody. And look what they said to him.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written,
he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Yeah, and they all hated
it. He sounds like he's bragging on them and saying, you know,
they had a reason to believe manna actually fell from heaven.
That wasn't a cause for belief among them. They couldn't stand
that stuff. They murmured against God because
of it. Don't brag on the fathers. They're
just as wretched as we are. Verse 32, then Jesus said unto
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses didn't give you that
bread from heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from
heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. And then
said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. They're still
thinking in physical, earthly, fleshly terms. And Jesus said
unto them, I am the bread of life. You think about how glorious
that statement is. And that's the last thing they
wanted to hear. They wanted food, free food. God did just, you
know, sustain them without them having to work or what is it? What is the, the
working and, when the Lord said, by the sweat of your face, you'll
eat bread. That's the result of sin. They
just wanted to be out of that. They didn't care anything about
the Lord himself. The most glorious thing, I am
the bread of life. That's the last thing they wanted
to hear. They thought they were gonna get a handout from God. That's what people think now.
You got my mansion ready, Lord? He that cometh to me, verse 35,
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that
of all which He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. and I will raise him up at the
last day. Then the Jews then murmured at him because he said,
I am the bread which came down from heaven. Not only was that
the last thing they wanted to hear, they hated him for that. And they said, is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he sayeth, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore
answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves.
No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me
draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
to me. Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which
is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? You say, well, that sounds really
stupid. Is it more stupid than religion today? That's what they're
still saying. This is his real flesh. We're
eating his real flesh. You talk about blindness. They're still thinking about
earthly, fleshly things. When the Lord is talking about
giving Himself on Calvary, pictured by this table we're talking about. Verse 53, then Jesus said unto
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh
of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And
I will raise him up at the last day. It's all or nothing, isn't
it? You either have eternal life or no life. And the difference
is not your decision. It's not your will. It's the
person of Christ. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me
even shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. It's the gospel. just like everything
in the Old Testament pointed to Christ and his one sacrifice
for sin by which he obtained eternal redemption for his elect. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. So it's Christ. He is our life
and it's he that makes us one. And think about that now, for
we being many are one bread and one body, for we're all in him. We're partakers of that one bread,
the true bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's Christ
himself that binds us, that unites us, not that we're all Calvinists.
Is that why we're all here tonight? Because everybody here is a Calvinist.
That ain't it. We might be. It's not even that we like each
other. That's not our bond. It's Christ that makes us one. Paul began this part of his instruction
to the church at Corinth this way in verse 15. Look at what
he said, and we'll close. I speak as to wise men. Judge ye what I say. When someone is speaking of Christ
and what he did, what he is to us, how do we judge what's being
said? He's a real smart preacher. But whether it makes sense to
us or not, you know where this is going.
Christ is our wisdom. If we can in any sense whatsoever
be called wise, it's because of what Paul wrote at the beginning
of this book. We have by God's grace the mind
of Christ. We comprehend everything that
God revealed that he's revealed. Whether we understand this or
not, we believe it. Because God said so. And we celebrate
it. Because it's wonderful. Too wonderful
for us. Isn't that what David said? It's
too wonderful for me. I can't, it's high. I cannot
attain unto it. But by his grace, we believe.
By grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we have to take that
which is which reveals our sin. We have to take the bad news
by faith, because you have no idea how bad you are. You got
to take God's word for it, don't you? But I'll tell you what else you
have to take by faith, if you're going to ever know it, how wonderful
Christ is, how blessed we are in him. You got to take the good
part by faith too, because you have no, it's high. It's too good to be true, surely. May God cause us to believe the
bad news that we might flee to Christ and hold always to Christ
our rock. He who is the lover of our soul,
but may God cause us also to believe the good news, all of
it, the extent of it. When we think, That's too good
to be true. Cause us to understand that it
is true in Christ. It's true. It's what is true. That we might rejoice in him
always. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your precious
word What an encouragement and a comfort it is to see you again
in your word and how gracious and wonderful you are, Lord,
how you've bound us to yourself and one another by the precious
blood shed for our sins. Lord, may we always be conscious
of that. And always, Lord, as you commanded us, love one another.
And give us grace to love you more and more. In Christ's name
we ask these things, amen. Amen, you're dismissed.