All right, turn with me if you
would now to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. In a moment, we are going to
observe the Lord's table. And this portion of Romans chapter
5 is a clear declaration of what
a believer confesses in taking the Lord's table. This is a very,
very clear declaration. I don't know of a clearer explanation
of what we are saying when we take the Lord's table than this.
explanations as clear as this, but none clearer. In eating this bread and in drinking
this wine, we are not just going through religious motions, which
many people do. They show up to a church service
and they pass out bread and they pass out wine and people take
it because that's what you think you're supposed to do. We're
not going through a religious motion, we're saying something.
Everything that we do, every ordinance that has been given
to us, we are confessing in doing it, this is the belief of my
heart. This is what God has convinced
me of. In taking this, we are confessing
This is what God has convinced me of. All right, here it is.
This is what he's convinced us of. Romans five, verse six. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies,
We were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only
so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. If a man or a woman is going
to observe the Lord's table, And again, that does not just
mean eat the bread and drink the wine. If a man or a woman
is going to observe the Lord's table, and I want to approach
this fearfully myself, I don't want to just go through the motions.
We do this every so often. Observing the table is not just
eating the bread and drinking the wine. Men and women do go through the
motions not truly confessing what we just read. And the scary truth is many people
take this table confessing the exact opposite in their heart,
knowingly saying the exact opposite of what we just read. Many people
believe that there is something to this table itself. There is
something holy about the table itself. They believe somehow
the bread and the wine in this setting, people eat bread all
the time. People drink wine all the time.
But they think somehow in this setting, it makes us holier before
God, makes us more spiritual before God. What that does is
it turns the table from a confession of the finished and complete
work of Christ into a work of its own. When we do that, the
table becomes a work of its own. Thinking somehow this plays a
role in what I need to do for God to be satisfied with me. I had a man send an email to
me one time, saying that he is very,
very ill, and he's been a Christian for four months now, and he cannot
get to a church, and he's concerned that if he's not baptized, he's
not gonna finalize his salvation. That's what men and women think
of these ordinances. If that is how we approach the
ordinance, we are better off not taking the ordinance. We're
better off not observing it at all. That's what the Apostle
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11. Turn with me over there. 1 Corinthians 11 verse 26. The apostle Paul said, for as
often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the
Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a
man examine himself. We don't examine each other.
I don't need to examine anyone. Let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself. That's serious, isn't it? That
is serious. If that's what God wrote in His
book, That's what God means. That'll make a man or a woman
want to examine himself or examine herself to see, is my heart confessing
the truth before God as I take this? Because to confess the wrong
thing is to take the table unworthily. And the soul who takes it unworthily
is only eating and drinking damnation to himself. Now what is taking
the table unworthily? What does that mean? Is it coming
to the table as a sinner? Approaching the table as a completely
sinful man? Absolutely not. That's about
to be proven to us in our text. Taking the Lord's table unworthily
is, the end of verse 29, not discerning the Lord's body. That's taking it unworthily.
He that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Not discerning what
his broken body and his shed blood accomplished in his death. Not discerning who he accomplished
it for. What did it accomplish? What
did it accomplish? All of it. Who did He accomplish
it for? All that the Father gave to Him.
It's not discerning how complete the accomplishment is. Not discerning
His broken body and His shed blood to be the only hope that
I have before God. The only hope. It's not His body
and my decision. It's not His body in this ordinance. It's not the final component
of a man or woman's salvation. It's His broken body and the
precious blood that flowed out of His body alone. If we're not confessing that,
we would be better off not taking the table. Now this is the truth
of our salvation. And this is what we confess as
we observe this ordinance. Go with me back to Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 6, it says, for
when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. Now let's enter into the truth
of that. Who performed the work? Who made the sacrifice? Who died? Christ did. The Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 6 says, When we were yet
without strength, in due time, Christ died. Those two words,
if we could get a hold of those two words. Christ died. Christ died. Romans 8 says, Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. God's
only begotten Son died. The well-beloved of the Father.
He's the one who died. Alright, now who did He die for? The natural mind thinks, and
this is the honest truth, the natural mind thinks he died for
the godly. That's what the natural mind
thinks. He died for godly people. Natural fleshly reasoning says
if you want to go to heaven, then you have to be a godly person
because that's who he saves. He saves the good. He saves those who are trying
to walk the straight and narrow way. Do you know that when we observe
the Lord's table, and we don't just eat and drink
the wine, but we truly observe the Lord's table, we are saying
the exact opposite of that. God's people say the exact opposite. We are saying, believing, confessing. Verse 6, when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. The ungodly. That's who He died
for. That's who He saved. Therefore,
to take this table, whoever Whoever the Lord leads to take this table,
to take it is to confess before Him, that's what I am. If we
take it, then that's what we are confessing before God. I'm ungodly. That's what we're
saying. I am ungodly. If I'm confessing
that He saved me, and He saves the ungodly, Then that's what
I am, ungodly. That's what every child of God
confesses about him, about himself. Look at chapter 4, verse 2. It
says, For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the
glory, but not before God. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the
reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. In this, we confess that the
son of God himself is the one who gave up his life. And He
gave it up for the ungodly. And we thank Him for doing that
because that is exactly what we are in our sinful flesh, ungodly. Alright, now when did Christ
do this for the ungodly? Was it after they realized the
error of their ways? Was it after they cleaned up
their act and decided to turn over a new leaf? That's what
men will tell you. Here's what you need to do. First
of all, you need to realize the error of your ways. And then
you need to clean up your act. Is that when he did this? Was
it after a sinner made the decision to start pulling himself out
of that horrible pit? You know the Lord helps those
who help themselves. Did the Lord take the second
step after a sinner took the first step? When exactly did
Christ die for the ungodly? Verse six says, for when we were
yet without strength, no physical strength, no spiritual strength,
no moral strength, no strength at all because we were dead.
Verse six says we were without strength. Verse eight says God
commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners. While we were sinners. Verse
10 says we were enemies of His. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled. But it says in due time, In His
time, that means when it pleased Him. When it pleased Him. This is the glory of the Sovereign
God. Not when it pleased me. As men stand up and say, now
what are you going to do? It's time for you to make up
your, you know, make your decision. When it pleased Him. I was going
about my ungodly way. In His time, when it pleased
God at His appointed time, Christ came. Christ came to me. This is what we're saying. Christ
came to me. He found me where I was, in my
loathing, in my pollution, in my decay. And He made this ungodly
sinner to be in Him godly. He reconciled me to God with
His own death. That's what that's saying. He
reconciled me to God with His own death. It took His broken
body and it took His shed blood to put away my sin. That's what
had to happen. My sin was so great and it was
so wicked. It took the broken body of the
Son of God and the shed blood of the Son of God to reconcile
me to God. Now why did Christ do that? Why
would God send His only begotten Son into the world to do that
for a bunch of ungodly sinners against Him? Why would He do
that? Verse 6 says, For when we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for
a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure for a good man,
some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. When we take this table, we are
confessing he loved me. That's what we're confessing.
He loved me. Oh, how he loved me. Oh how he
loved me. Unto him that loved me and washed
me from my sin in his own blood. I love the story of Lazarus. I believe everybody loves the
story of Lazarus. It says, he was standing there
at Lazarus's tomb. He asked Mary and Martha to show
him where the tomb was. And all those who were standing
by were watching him as he wept. He stood there weeping. And they
just watched him standing there weeping at this tomb. And this
is what they said. They said, behold, how he loved
him. They were in awe of how he loved
him. The compassion he was showing,
the weeping, the sorrow. That's what we confess in this.
Behold how he loved us. Herein is love. Not that we loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Verse 9 says, Much more then,
being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through Him. In taking this table, we are
confessing that because we are now justified before God in His
blood, because He took our sinfulness from us, and gave His righteousness
to us, no wrath will ever come our way. That's what we're saying
when we take this table. No wrath will ever come our way. Not from the justice of God,
not from the writing of the law. All of the wrath we were supposed
to receive was given to Him in our place. Every bit of it. Verse
9 says, Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. That means
if He didn't cast us off when we were His enemies, Now that
He's reconciled us, He'll keep us forever. When He died, we died. We died
in Him. When He was buried, we were buried.
When He arose, we arose. We arose in Him. Our Lord said
in John 14, Because I live, you live also. Paul said, I am crucified with
Christ Nevertheless, I live. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. He said, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. In the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. That's what we confess. That's
what we confess in this. Not who I am and what I'm going
to do for him. That's not salvation. Salvation
is not in who I am and what I'm going to do for Him. Salvation
is who He is and what He has already done for me. That's what
we're saying. Who He is and what He's already
done for me. Verse 10 says, For if when we
were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have
now received the atonement. That's what we're confessing.
By him, we have now received the atonement. We've now received
the atonement, the covering. Is there anything else that we
desire to go meet God with than a covering for our sin? A blood
shed covering for our sin. An appeasement. An appeasement
for God's wrath. Total reconciliation. Total reconciliation. That's what we have in the blood
of Christ. Broken body and shed blood. Now we're going to observe
this table and I pray that Our Lord will cause all of us who
are going to observe it to observe it truly in remembrance of Him. Truly, truly in remembrance of
Him, confessing Him and everything that He's done for us to be our
only hope before God. That's our only hope before God
right there.