Alright, if you take your Bibles
and turn with me to Matthew chapter 26. Matthew chapter 26. And we begin our reading in verse 26. The Scripture says, And as they
were eating, Jesus took bread, and he 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, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not
drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when
I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. and when they
had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives." The
Lord's Supper. This we have here in our text,
the institution of the Lord Jesus Christ to His church. Now in
this text we see our Lord Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples
in that upper room celebrating the Passover feast. Now this
was a very special evening. This was an evening that was
determined of God and there has never been another service like
this one. Not since the Lord Jesus Christ
left this world. The Lord Jesus, this was a special
evening because it was the last time He would see His disciples
before He suffered for sin, before He was crucified. Now, Jesus
conveys to us the importance of this night in Luke 22 when
He said, With desire, with desire I have desired to
eat this Passover. with you before I suffer. Jesus desired to eat this Passover
with these chosen ones. These ones he loved even because
this was the last Passover ever to be true. Last true Passover. Before it was fulfilled by his
sufferings as the Lamb of God. See the Lord's anticipation to
fulfill then the law and ceremony which is a picture of our salvation,
His work of salvation. This Feast of Passover that they
were celebrating, it was intended to remind the Jews of their deliverance
from Egypt. They were to choose out a lamb
without spot or blemish, which truly could only be pictured
by Jesus Christ, who is the spotless Lamb of God, the spotless Son
of God. This lamb was to picture Him
becoming in the flesh and representing His elect people, who are pictured
by the Israelites. Now, they were to kill that lamb
and drain His blood, from his body and then they were to take
that blood and apply it to the door post and the lentil and the scripture says when I
see what? the blood I will pass over you
and that night the Lord God came through the land of Egypt and
every door that had the blood on it he passed over them But
every door that had not the blood of the Lamb, the firstborn, man
and beast, were killed by God that night. This surely pictures what Jesus
was to come and do. This whole thing of the Passover,
God intended it to be a picture to show you who His Christ was. To show you that Jesus Christ
is the Lamb of God who was to bear the iniquity of His people. That Jesus was appointed of God
to suffer and bleed for the sins of His people. And listen, as
that blood was applied to the door, that's a picture of what
the Holy Spirit does to us. He applies the blood to the doorposts
of our heart and therefore we who are in Christ have a refuge
from the justice of God. The justice of God as it passed
through Egypt will pass over all His creatures and everyone
who is in Christ, He will pass over us Because sin has already been
paid. I'm so glad God is just, aren't
you? I'm glad He's just. He's not
like you and me. We can wink at sin. And you know
what we do when we normally wink at somebody's transgression against
us? Usually, when they make us mad,
we come back. It comes back. God, who has paid
for our sins through the blood of His precious Son, will never,
never, never come back on us. Never. His blood is then applied
to our hearts by the grace of God, which is the regeneration
of the spirit from the dead. And therefore, Jesus, seeing
and knowing that the law was coming to a close, that these
pictures and types and these shadows were to be done away
with forever by His one offering for sin. We know that in Romans
10 it says, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. and so here he is at the end
eating he's eating what? he's eating the Passover he's
eating the last Passover meal with his disciples and knowing
that this Passover will be no more in his love for the church
he institutes an ordinance a New Testament ordinance It is called
what we call the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper or the Lord's
Table. He gives us this new ordinance,
not like the Passover. This is not what we have here.
We're going to take the Lord's Supper today. What we have before
you here is not another Passover. This is not a continuation of
the Passover. This is a whole new ordinance. A new ordinance. The Passover
was a bloody ordinance. It required a sacrifice. This
table requires no sacrifice. Why? The sacrifice has already
been made. It doesn't require us to go out
and kill anything. Why? The Lamb has already been
slain. His blood has covered our sins,
and there's no need for another sacrifice. Now, once again, this
shows us that the Law is not just the Ten Commandments. The
Scripture tells us about this Passover feast that if anyone
didn't honor the Passover feast, they were breaking the Law. They were breaking the law of
God. This once again shows us that
the law is not just the Ten Commandments, but also includes all of the
feasts and sacrifices. And to fail to obey in any measure,
including thought and motive, resulted in a guilt, in guilt
of the whole law. Paul says, "...for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things written in
the book of the law to do them." See then that the ordinance of
the Lord's table is not an infusion nor an extension of the Passover. As the light of the stars are
inferior to the light of the sun, as they are different lights
and not the same, even so the Passover is inferior to the picture
we have here. It's inferior. It's inferior. Why? Because they had to do it
over and over again. They had to. It was the law. They had to. This, my friends,
this supper is a gracious supper. It's one that I know that there
are many that are not with us today because of sickness or
anything. You know they're not breaking
the law by not being here and eating this supper. They're not
breaking any law. And this supper is way more superior
to that old ordinance of the Passover. The first was the ordinance of
the law, but the second is an ordinance of grace. This is an
ordinance of grace. The first pictured a sacrifice
that was to be made. This pictures a sacrifice that
has already been made. A sacrifice that God has already
accepted forever. Now consider the Lord's love
for His disciples and His church by instituting this supper. Knowing
that there would be great confusion. Knowing that there would be a
transitional period. Consider that. They had all their
lives been attending this Passover. They had all their lives been
attending the feast and now that was gone. And so they were confused
as to what to do. And so the Lord gave them this
to settle our hearts. To settle our hearts. To give
us comfort and peace, not confusion. He left this for them and for
us. He left a very simple ordinance. Not a commandment. but in order
to obtain righteousness, but rather one to remind us that
righteousness has already been obtained. That's what this does. It reminds us that righteousness
has already been done. And this morning as we gather
to worship God, by hearing the word, we also will be reminded
by this supper of the successful Atonement of Jesus Christ. You know, that's what separates
the true Christ from every false Christ. Success. Success. Is Christ successful? Is he successful? This supper
proves, it shows us, it gives us comfort to know he was successful. He was successful. And he says
in our text, while they were yet eating, he took bread, break
it, and gave it to his disciples and said, take eat, this is my
body. And he took a cup, and gave thanks,
and gave it to his disciples, and drank you all of it. For
this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins." And this ordinance, listen, it contains
two elements, two things, bread and wine, bread and wine. Consider how these disciples,
after the Lord Jesus was taken from them, ascended to glory. Consider how they observed this
table. How do you think they... Every
time they ate this supper, what do you think they were thinking?
They were remembering the last time they ate this with Him.
I imagine Peter and John said, you remember when we ate this
with Him? You remember when he did this?
When he showed us how to do this? When he instituted? You remember?
And with great joy, they anticipated every time this supper was given,
they anticipated to remember him. It brought out those memories. Have you ever heard a song and
just memories flood you? Yeah, everybody does. It's in
aiding us to remember by sight and by smell. And you think that
the bread and the wine and the smell would just cause him to
remember Him. Remember Him. That's what this
is, friend. This is a memorial service. These two elements are to remember
Him. To remember Him. They did it with great fondness.
And this is what Jesus designed it for. To draw believers together in
unity. This is to unify us. A very simple
gospel message right here. Very simple. Bread, wine, remember. I like that, because the law
is complicated, isn't it? You read the law, and it sounds
like stereo instruction, doesn't it? You know, you got to make
the sacrifice, and then you got to, you know, do this, and this,
and this, and this, and it has to be right, and it has to be
the right. You remember those two priests
that brought the wrong spices? God killed them. God killed them. So, this is, this has nothing
like that. This is nothing like that. But
sadly, this thing that was meant to unify us and bring us together
truly has caused great division among the church, among God's
saints. This has caused great division
because men, like every other institute, everything the Lord
instituted, they pervert it. It's perverted. It becomes twisted
and wicked. because of false teachers who
preach Satan's gospel of works and free will religion. Therefore
this simple table has been made corrupt by evil legalists who
would complicate it. This morning I want to present
this supper to you as simply as it was presented by Christ. We do this in remembrance of
Him and we do it in accordance as He did it. Simply. We don't add anything to it.
And we don't take anything from it. Therefore, let us seek by
grace to observe the Lord's table as it was originally established
and not to pollute it. but rather observe it as the
Lord intended to unify us, to bring us together in Him. So first of all, let's look at
the elements. He said He took bread and He took a cup. This wine that they were drinking
at the Passover. And then we're going to look
at the purpose of this supper and then the presentation of
it. First the elements. Bread. Bread. The bread required
for Passover was not just any bread, but rather it was unleavened
bread. You could read if you want to
in Exodus 12. He said you were to bring unleavened bread. The law required that the Jews
bring this bread and eat this bread for seven days. That's
a Passover. We're going to do this in just
a few minutes. That Passover was a week long,
and that week long they had to eat crackers. That's what it is, unleavened
bread. They didn't have any yeast in it. There was no leaven in
it, in the bread nor in the Lord's table here. Jesus said early
in his ministry to his disciples beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. So what is leaven? Why is it
why does it have to be unleavened bread? Why did he choose that?
Because it's the best picture of him It's the best picture
of him leaven is a picture of sin. I A little leaven leaveneth
the whole lump. You put a little yeast in bread
and it rises up. That's what sin is. A little
sin destroys the whole thing. So leaven is a picture of sin.
And if this is to be a picture, as the Lord says, this is my
body, then it must be unleavened bread because he was without
sin. Without sin, Jesus declares this importance. This is a picture of my body. Now, I want to take a moment
to expose a heresy. I know you understand, at least
you've heard of it. The Mass, Catholic Mass, is nothing
more than idolatrous heresy. as well as any other Protestants
or Lutherans or whoever does it, because they believe that
this bread and wine literally, mysteriously becomes the real
flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. That, my friend, is absolute
adult idolatry, heresy, heresy. They believe that this turns
into the literal body of Christ, this bread. And therefore understand,
it is no mere error, but they believe that every time this
supper is observed, listen to me, Jesus Christ is re-crucified. Every time they observe the Mass,
they are saying that this body, that Jesus actually, His body
is broken again and His blood is shed again. Therefore, it's
blasphemy to have the body and blood of Christ crucified afresh
every time they offer the Mass. The apostles His argument for
the sacrifices of the law being put away was this. You read the whole book of Hebrews
and I believe this word once in Hebrews is mentioned over
12 or 13 times, once. That's a very important word
because Jesus, the argument is the law continually offered sacrifice
after sacrifice. But Jesus once offered himself. How many times is once? You don't
need to be a great mathematician to understand one, do you? One time Jesus offered himself
and that's it. This morning Jesus is not offering
himself again in this ordinance. These who would have us have
the Lord crucified afresh daily in the mass count his blood as
nothing but a common thing to be shed over and over and over
and over again. In other words, what are they
saying? They're saying by that that Jesus' one sacrifice was
not enough. They're saying that He must be
crucified again and again and again. I'll tell you, those people
who believe that are truly what the Romans believed. Cannibals. That's what they are. They're
cannibals. They think they're eating the flesh of Jesus Christ. They're cannibals. But look what Jesus said in John
chapter 6. Go over to John chapter 6. Jesus explains this very clearly. It's not something that's not
complicated to understand. They just refuse to understand
it. They refuse to believe it. Look at John 6 verse 48. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. Now are we to understand that
Jesus was confessing himself to be bread? Is that what he
was confessing? That he was a literal loaf of
bread when he said, I am the bread of life. Of course not. That would be silly. He wasn't
real bread. It was a picture of what He had
come to do. He said, I am the bread of life.
It would be foolish to think the Lord was literally a piece
of bread. And He says down further, Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This
is the bread which come 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 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." He
said, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you don't
have life. And what happened? Look what
the Jews did. Verse 52. The Jews argued. They strove among themselves
saying, How can this man give us his flesh? What did they think
he was talking about? They understood him to be literal. That he was actually going to
cut off pieces of his flesh and give it to them to eat. How foolish
is that? We know that's foolish because
Jesus tells us. I'm glad he don't leave this
to opinion. I'm not giving you any opinion about this. Listen
to what he said in verse 61. He said, does this offend you? What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit
that quickeneth. Listen, the flesh profiteth nothing.
These words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they
are life. These are spiritual representations
of the gospel. That's what He's telling them. Jesus is not saying, I'm bread.
He's saying bread is a picture of Himself. The manna that fell
from heaven was not Christ, but it was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, a representation of Jesus Christ. And the Word of God is full of
this language. I don't want to go to every one of these for
time's sake, but I'm just going to mention them. Genesis 40,
when that cupbearer, Pharaoh's cupbearer, he had that dream,
and he saw three branches in his dream. And what did Joseph
tell him? He said, these three branches
are three days. Now, is he telling us that branches
on a tree are days of the week? No. He's telling us they represent
three days. When Pharaoh had that dream,
he saw seven cows. And Joseph said, the seven cows
are seven years. Now, am I going to go around
counting cows or do I count years? They're not the same. Yet, it's
a representation. Jesus said in one of his parables,
the field is the world. Now am I to take it literally
that that field he was standing in is the world? No! It is a picture of the world.
In Revelation 1 in verse 20, when Jesus walked among the candlesticks,
He said the candlesticks are the churches. Does that mean a church is a
candlestick? Do every time we meet together, do we turn into
candlesticks? No, no, that is a representation
of us. And so when Jesus says in our
text, go back there, when he said, taking this is my body,
he is not saying that bread turned into his body. Why? He was standing there in his
body. He was already present in the
body. He didn't need that bread to
turn into his body. He said, this is the blood, this
is my blood. He's saying this is a representation. Another use of this language
is when Jesus is called the Lamb of God. Now, when you go to heaven,
do you expect to see a lamb there on the throne? Huh? When Jesus is the lion of
the tribe of Judah, do you expect a beast, a lion, to be sitting
on that throne? No. Do you see how foolish this
makes that argument? Do you see how foolish that argument
is? And they just, and I mean, they
stick to it, boy. They'll say, ah, this is his
word from the holy lips of Jesus. Well, it was the word that, it
was his word that he was bread. So I should expect to see a loaf
of bread in heaven. Right? I should expect to see
a lion on the throne. I should expect to see a lamb
on the throne because he said he is the Lamb of God. So don't,
that argument's foolish. The argument's really just nothing
but superstitious nonsense that this turns into the body and
the blood of Christ. No. These elements do not turn
into the body and blood of Christ by some chanting and bowing of
the body and ceremonial gestures. It doesn't turn into the actual
blood and body of Christ. And I won't go into all the details. I know one man actually counted
how many times they had to bow and to make the sign of the cross
and to chant and to pray None of that is found in Scripture
anywhere. You see what they've done? They've
taken a simple ordinance of bread and wine to remember the Lord,
and they've turned it into a religious show. That's what man does with God's
Word. They take the simple Word of God, and they twist it and
manipulate it to some legalistic, binding law. They take it and bind it with
Passover. This whole false doctrine is
founded on the lie that the body and blood of Christ are in these
elements. Yet Jesus, when He instituted
this table, which men have perverted by their carnal superstitious
nonsense, He surely used these simple elements as pictures to
remember Him. The unleavened bread pictured
his sinless humanity. So today, as you hold this bread
in your hand, what you should remember is his sinless perfection. Is that complicated? When you hold it, you should
remember how sinless he was. And by his own hand, by his own
obedience, how he obtained for us righteousness by his obedience. That's what you should remember
when you hold that bread. You should remember His sinless
perfection, that He obtained righteousness for us. Now, I'm not, as I eat this with
you today, I'm not made righteous by eating it. I eat it because I'm already
righteous. Because He has already provided my righteousness, obtained
it for me. I have righteousness, the righteousness
of God, imputed and imparted to me by faith. And as we break
this bread, even as the body of Christ was broken, we see
it's a broken bread. Even so was His body broken for
us. As that veil separated, you think
of that veil and how it separated the temple. from the outer holy
place to the holy of holies. The scripture says that veil
pictured his flesh and it was torn, broken, ripped from the
top to the bottom. and made the way into the Most
Holy accessible to us. Accessible. So when you take
this bread in your hand, you should remember how the Lord
made it possible. Made it so that you should be
accepted in the presence of God this morning and be heard of
Him. Believer, as we eat this broken
bread, see that the body was broken for us. and now it has
been given freely to us and we eat it freely the wine in this
is a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ as his body was
broken what pours out of a broken body you cut yourself you bleed
when his body was broken out poured blood blood and this blood that poured out
of his broken body he tells us this is my blood of the New Testament
which was shed for many for the remission of sins and so as you
hold this cup and you look into the wine you can remember that
his blood was shed to put away our sins forever that's what
we remember when we take these things scripture says without the shedding
of blood is no remission therefore Jesus said this is my blood of
the new covenant the New Testament not of works but of the eternal
covenant of grace, the Son of God was made flesh, so that He
should Himself be offered unto God." How many times? How many
times? Once. Once. I do want to show it to you.
Go to Hebrews 7. Hebrews 7. I told you this word once is
in there quite a few times, but we'll look at a couple. Hebrews
7, verse 27. who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer sacrifice, first for his own sins, then
for the sins of the people. For this Christ did... How many times? Once, when he
offered himself. Look at Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9,
verse 15. And for this cause he is the
mediator of the new covenant, that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgression that were under the first testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where the testament is, there
must also of necessity be the death of the testator." The death
of the testator. Now look over in verse 26. This
is speaking of that death. verse 27. We read verse 26. For then He must have offered
sacrifice, He must often have sacrificed since the foundation
of the world. But now Once, in the end of the
world, he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself, according as it is appointed unto man once to die. But after this the judgment,
so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." How many
times? Once. Once. And so as you look
at this blood, these two elements, simple, unleavened bread and
wine, They picture the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the purpose of this
supper. Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians, I mean chapter 11.
1 Corinthians chapter 11. The apostle here gives us the
purpose very simply. This is what he received of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said in verse 24, take eat, This is my body, which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me."
Now, if Jesus' body and blood were literally present with us,
the carnal bread and the carnal wine, we would have no need to remember
Him. Isn't that right? If He was actually in this, why
would you have need of remembering Him? I mean, if my wife is here, I
don't need to remember her, do I? She's here. And so, if He
were here, then we would have no need to remember Him. But
we do have need because He is not bodily here. He is bodily
in heaven. He is seated on the throne of
God. And so, the purpose of this is
to remember Him. Now Jesus truly is in the midst
of us by His Holy Spirit. But yet His body, we know this,
is seated on the throne of God. And this supper, friends, is
no sacrifice. It is a memorial service. As
I've said, Jesus offered himself once for sin, and after offering
once for sin, purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Therefore, believers, we are
not to use the word sacrament. Have you used that? I've used
that word before. You know what that, that has to do with the
sacrifice. This is not a sacrifice. The sacrifice has already been
made. This table is a table of remembrance. It is to be a public
display of the believer's identification with Christ. With Christ. By this we declare that we are
sinners by nature and by choice and in need of His broken body
and blood. This ordinance is just like baptism
or joining the church. It cannot save you. So this morning,
you eat this, you know this is not gonna save you? I hope you
know that. That's not gonna do anything
for you. You eat this and drink this, it's not gonna do anything
for you. Not gonna save you. The purpose of this supper is
only for believers and it is only for us to remember the body
and blood of Christ. And also remember this, When you eat this and drink this,
what happens to the bread and wine? They become part of you. They're
put in union with you. They are nourishing to your body. And they give joy. Isn't that
a picture of what Jesus Christ is to us? We are in union with
the Son of the living God. His blood and body are in union
with us. Isn't that His prayer? He said,
Father, I will. I will that they be one even
as we are one. I in them and thou in me. We're one with Him. So that's
what this picture is. As you eat and drink this, you
need to remember that you are in union with the Son of God.
What then can separate you from Him? Nothing. Who shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus?
I tell you, nothing and no one. Nothing and no one not in time
or eternity not in heaven or in hell Not men or demons and
listen not even my own sin will separate me from him 2nd Timothy
1 2nd Timothy 2 I believe it's verse 13 the scripture says he
cannot Deny himself You realize to deny you, he would have to
deny himself. And as you eat this, that's what
you should be thinking about. You should be remembering this.
Remember this. Therefore, believer, when God
sees you, remember that He sees you as He sees His own Son. As He sees His own Son. He is
our body, we are His body, and He is our head. And nothing can
separate us from Him. And lastly, this supper, to whom
is it for? Who is this supper for? Only
for believers. only for those who have been
called by the Holy Spirit to life and faith. It is for the
elect, the redeemed, and the called. Well, preacher, may I take of
this table? You may if you are one of the
elect. You may if you've been redeemed
by the blood of Christ. You may if you've been called
by the Holy Spirit. I know people who have confessed
their sins and weep over their sins but have not believed on
the Son of God. You know, that doesn't do you
any good. Salvation comes to sinners who are cast out and
their only hope is in Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus Christ to me is
not a choice. I must have him. And I, by the grace of God, lay
hold on him as all my hope and righteousness. If that's your case, it's for you. This thing's for
you. He did it for you. He instituted
it for you who believe. And therefore, I'm not to pick
out who's to take it and who don't. I know many churches that
do that because they think they see this as it is. It's a truly
wonderful institution. They try to protect it. And so
what they do is then they go about and make rules. What are
they doing? They're ruining the simplicity
of it. There's no rules. Believe. Eat and remember. Eat and remember. It's a message in and of itself. If the blood is a pride to the
heart, your heart, then, my friends, you may well eat. Now, I warn you, if you do not
believe, you should not take it because this only adds to
your condemnation. You stand before God and you
have not believed on Christ. This is just another one of your
many sins that will be added to you. He'll say in judgment,
you had the picture, didn't you? Didn't the preacher show you
what this was? Didn't he tell you? And yet you
ate it and still would not believe. That'll only add to your condemnation. I tell you, believe. Lay hold on Him. And this is yours. This is for
us to remember. Simple. Bread, a picture of His
sinless body, righteousness, blood, His successful atonement. And as we drink this, we see
it as it comes in union with us. We see our unity with Christ.
And you know what they did after that? They sang a hymn. They rejoiced. And that's what
this is for. It's for your joy. It's for your
comfort.