Good evening let's all stand
together let's open our in our course books we'll sing number
16 in our course books. Number 16 in our course books. Jesus has a table spread, where
the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people,
come and dine. With his manna he doth feed,
and supplies our every need. Lord, tis sweet to sit with Jesus
all the day. You may feast at Jesus' table
all the time. If you've had the multitude,
turn the water into wine. To the hungry calleth now, come
and dine. The disciples came to land, thus
obeying Christ's command, for the Master called to them, O
come and dine. There they found their heart's
desire, hidden fish upon the fire, thus He satisfies the heart. the water into wine to the hungry
calleth now come and dine soon the lamb will take his pride
to be ever All the saints in spotless fright
And with Jesus' name we'll feast eternally ? May feast at Jesus' table all
the time ? You who feed the multitude ? Turn their water into wine
? To the hungry calleth now, come and dine ? Be seated. Number 212 in our hymnals. 212. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. In this I see Nothing but the
blood of Jesus For me it lives, in this my plea Nothing but the
blood of Jesus Oh, precious is the That makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, but the
one, the blood of Jesus. for sin atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus,
naught of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus, No other fount I know Nothing
but the blood of Jesus this is If you have your Bibles this evening,
open it up with me to the book of Psalms. I'd like to read Psalm
67. Psalm 67. Psalm 67, God be merciful unto
us and bless us. cause his face to shine upon
us, that thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health
among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O
God. Let all the people praise thee.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt
judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth.
Let the people praise thee. O God, let all the people praise
thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our
own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the
ends of the earth shall fear him. Our most high and heavenly Father,
Lord God Almighty, we come to you through your blessed Son.
We thank you for your word, been preserved through time for us.
We thank you for sending your Son. Thank you for giving us
the gospel, for teaching it to us, revealing yourself unto us.
We thank you for a pastor to study and explain and proclaim
the gospel. Lord, we ask that you would meet
with us tonight, guide our service, speak through our pastor to our
hearts, send your spirit to be among us. Lord, cause us to praise
thee, give thee all the glory. Lord, that you would get all the glory. Cause us to be thankful in our
hearts, Lord, for what you have given us. For everything that
you freely provide. For a salvation like no man could
imagine. No man could have made this up. Only a sovereign, righteous God. the one true living God. Lord,
we bless and praise you. We ask that thy will be done
on earth for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn number 226. 226. I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, but His right hand, He is one who
is my Savior. I take Him at His word indeed. Christ died for sinners, this
I read, For in my heart I find a need. of Him to be my Savior,
that He should leave His place on high and come for sin. Full man to die, you count it
strange, so once did I before I knew my Savior. ? May see the travel of His soul
in me ? And with His Word contented be ? As I with my dear Savior
? Yea, living, dying, let me bring my strength, my soul That He who lives to be my King
Wants I to be my Savior. Well, we've gathered this evening
to partake of the Lord's table. And it's my fault that we don't
do it more often. But if you'll turn with me to
Mark chapter 14. Turn with me to Mark chapter
14. I want to say a few things about about our Lord Jesus Christ. My subject tonight is the bread
and the cup. The bread and the cup. Look with me then in verse 22,
and I'll read down to verse 25. And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread, and blessed, and break it, and gave it to them, and
said, Take eat, this is my body. And he took the cup, and when
he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank
of it. And he said unto them, This is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily
I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine
until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God. You know, it's a blessed thing
that we understand what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us, have
some sense and some understanding of it. But every word and every
deed that our Lord Jesus Christ did was significant. He never wasted words. He never
wasted time. I mean the very fact, you know,
you know what? Significant was that he was the
creator of the world. The world that was made was made
by him. That's significant. That he was
born of a virgin, came into this life, came into this world. That's
significant. Then he grew up. He began to
do mighty works, wonderful deeds, gave people that was blind to
sight, gave deaf people that was deaf their hearing, gave
dead people that was laying in a grave, gave them life. So everything
that our Lord Jesus Christ did and said was significant, full
of meaning, full of meaning, and full of instruction for us
as His blessed children. John 21, 25 says this, I suppose
that if everything Jesus said and done was put in a book. I guess the worlds couldn't contain
him. That's what they said. That's how many things he'd done
if they'd have walked around and followed him and all that
he did. Now here's our Master. Here's our Lord Jesus with His
disciples. They're in the upper room. One
place He said, You go and get the upper room and prepare the
Passover for us. Prepare the Passover. And there
He is up in that upper room and they're doing things. They're
eating. And it's the Last Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the last acts and the last words and the last deeds He did are
especially, especially significant. And what He's doing is handling
the symbols of His own body and His own blood, and this is the
night before He goes into Gethsemane, and the next morning they come
and take Him, and he's gonna die, be put on a cross at nine
o'clock the next morning. So here he is in the evening,
gonna die tomorrow, gonna be crucified tomorrow, and here
he is sitting, eating with his disciples. I think that's pretty
significant. Wonder how much he loved these
people that he's eating with. Wonder what all he meant when
he said, take eat, this is my bread. And as a dying man, knowing
that his death is imminent, as a dying man, he here calls his
disciples together and tells them by words and by deeds of
the will and the New Testament which is in his blood. You know,
look over here in Luke with me, chapter 22 for a moment, Luke
22. from verse 19, and he said this, And he took bread, and gave thanks,
and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which
is given for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also
the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament,
which is shed for you. But listen to this, But behold,
the hand of him that betrays me is on the table, on the table. So everything he did, I mean,
he did it with his people, and oh my, he said down here, He
said, with desire, with desire, have I desired to do this with
you. And that word desire means I long to, I crave to. And that's why Paul said, I desire
to depart and be with Christ. There's a couple of verses of
a hymn that said, Oh, on the night of us most trial with Gethsemane
was near. TRAITOR'S KISS AND FRIEND'S DENIAL,
CROSS OF SHAME AND PIERCING SPEAR, DOUBT DITH GIVE THE SYMBOLS HOLY
OF THY SACRIFICE AND LOVE, SPREADETH THE TABLE FOR MOST LOWLY, AND
TO PASS OF BLISS ABOVE. So our Lord Jesus Christ here,
doing this with His disciples, knowing that He's going to die,
be crucified the next morning, be so mistreated. But then look
what he says here in verse 22, And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread, took bread, and said, This is my body, my body. You know what's called the staff
of life? Bread, bread. You know how bread is made? They'll
have the wheat or the barley, or whatever it may be, and then
it has to be threshed, has to be harvested, then it has to
be crushed, has to be crushed, and has to be made into bread. And our Lord Jesus Christ says,
This is my body. This bread is my body. And I
tell you, as we say that bread is the staff of life, and our
Lord said, you know, your fathers ate bread, ate manna in the wilderness
and are dead. He said, but God giveth you that
true bread which cometh down from heaven, cometh down from
above. And this is that true bread.
I'm that true bread which came down from heaven. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood, he hath life. And I'll tell you,
He's that true bread to come. And just as we have to have bread
to sustain us and give us life, we must have the sufferings,
the broken body, the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
must have His bread. He must be our bread of life.
He must be the one and His sufferings. We must have the sufferings of
the body of Christ for our life and our salvation. WITHOUT HIS
BODY, AND WITHOUT IT BEING BROKEN, WITHOUT HIS SUFFERINGS, THERE'D
BE NO SALVATION FOR ANYBODY, NOBODY. IF THERE HAD ONLY BEEN
ONE SINNER, ONE SINNER, IT WOULD HAVE TOOK AS MUCH SUFFERING AS
IT DID FOR OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO SAVE THAT ONE, AS IT DID A
MULTITUDE THAT NO MAN CAN NUMBER. THEN LOOK WHAT HE SAID, THIS
IS MY BODY, TOOK BREAD AND BLESSED IT, And then he break it, then
he said he took it. Look what it said, he took it. He took this bread, he took it.
And it was his own voluntary will. This is a voluntary act
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Voluntary act. Nobody made Christ
do anything. Nobody made him do anything.
His father didn't make him do anything. He said, I came down
from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me. And He took
this. It was a voluntary act. It was
a will of His act. It's a will of His very will
itself. And you know, when He came into
this world, He took, He took upon Himself flesh. He took upon Himself a nature,
a manhood, a nature and a life that he never had before. He
was God eternally, but when he became a man in the womb of that
virgin, he took upon him flesh. He became a man. Oh, and he kept
upon himself, listen to this, the likeness of sinful flesh. You know why they couldn't, couldn't
recognize the Lord Jesus Christ? Nobody can recognize the Lord
Jesus Christ without Him revealing Himself. It s because He was
veiled in flesh. When they come to get Him on
Gethsemane s night, in the morning in Gethsemane, come out there
to get Him, they said, Who are you looking for? He said, We
re looking for Jesus of Nazareth. They didn t know what He looked
like. They couldn t distinguish Him from anybody else. And nobody
else can distinguish him from anybody else unless he makes
himself known. Mary didn't recognize him after
his resurrection. He said, Mary. Thomas wouldn't believe until
he touched his hands and said, here I am. Stick your fingers
in there if that's what it takes. Oh my, took upon himself the
likeness of sinful flesh. It wasn't sinful flesh, but it
was a body that looked like ours. IF CHRIST COME INTO A SERVICE,
IN HIS SERVICE, LIKE HE'D GO INTO THE SYNAGOGUE OR GO IN ANY
PLACE, MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN THERE WOULD NEVER HAVE RECOGNIZED
HIM. THE FIRST DAY, THE FIRST TIME
HE ENTERED INTO THE MINISTRY AND USED ISAIAH 66 AND QUOTED
FROM IT, THEY LOOKED AT HIM AND SAID, BOY, WHAT GRACIOUS WORDS!
WHAT GRACIOUS WORDS! never heard anything like that,
and then they wanted to kill him next. Oh, my! The invisible God, the invisible
God took upon Himself visibility in the person of the Son of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. God, who inhabits eternity, come
down here and inhabited a body, so we could see Him, so He could
say, this is my body, this is my bread, this is my life, this
is what I give, and this, He took it, it belonged to Him,
and He gave it freely. Oh, my. You know, He said, God
has prepared Him a body, a body. Why did He need a body? Why'd
he need a body? He couldn't die as God, he had
to have a body to die in. He had to have a body that had
blood in it. He had to have a body that had
a heart to beat in. Had to have a body to identify
with us. Had to have a body. Oh my. Then look what else it says about
him. He took that bread, blessed it, then he blessed it. Oh my,
when I read that, Friday and look at my notes this afternoon
when I read that, he blessed it. We could put in there, he blessed
me. Just put that in there. He blessed
me. Instead of it, he blessed me. He blessed me. Oh my, but
he blessed it. He blessed it. His holy nature. blessed that human body in nature. And I'll tell you what, no wonder
the angel said that holy thing where shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. Oh, he blessed it. He took that
piece of bread and he blessed it. Gave thanks for it. And you know, everything he touches
is because a blessing goes with it. He touched a blind man, he'd
bless him with sight. Mary and Martha, they said, oh
Lord, don't take that stone away, he stinks. He took it away and
he said, Lazarus! And oh my, do you know the joy
that come into their heart when he come out of that tomb? Oh,
he blessed with life. Oh, bless his holy name. Adam
brought a curse on the human race. Our Lord Jesus Christ as
a sinless, holy, harmless, separate from sinners. as a man perfect
and blameless before God Almighty, offered His sinless, sinless
humanity. And I'll tell you, up on the
altar of His deity, on His Godhead, I'll tell you, He blessed with
infinite blessing, because He blessed that bread. He blessed
that bread, we get blessed too. Then look what it says, next
thing it said, And he broke it. He broke it. He broke it. He broke it. He broke it. He broke it. He didn't tell them
to break it. He didn't ask them to break it. That's what he said. He said,
and he gave it to them after he break it. Oh, he broke it. This was his own doing. This
was his own doing. He said, herein doeth my father
love me. Because I lay down, I lay down
my life. No man takes it from me. I've
got the power to lay it down. I've got the power to take it
up again. He said, nobody's gonna take it. But he break it. You know what, when he broke
that bread, but you know what we did? We broke it too. And I'll tell you how we broke
it. We, with wicked hands, took him and crucified him. He willingly,
willingly gave himself up for us. He willingly suffered. He gave his back to the smiters,
his face to those who plucked off His beard. His whole life
was nothing but an act of giving. Everything that God does for
anybody on this earth, he done it for Christ's sake because
Christ broke that bread and said, this is my body. And I tell you
what, our Lord, and then look what he said, and he gave it,
and he gave it to them. You know, if we get anything
from Him, He has to give it. But you know, the greatest gift
He ever gave was Himself. The greatest gift that God gave
was His Son. And He gave His life. He gave
it to them. He broke it, and then He handed
it to them. And I tell you, He gives life.
It's a gift. He gives it to whom He will.
It's not earned or it's not merited. He said, here's my body broken
for you. I lay down my life for the sheep.
I lay down my life for the sheep. Here's my body broken for you.
That's what he said. Oh my. And I thank God. Blessed be God for giving his
son. Blessed be the son for coming
to be our substitute. Blessed be the Holy Spirit that
cometh and applies it to our hearts. He took it. He break it. He gave it. He did it. He did it all. All to Him I owe. I hear the Savior say, Child
of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me thine all in all.
Oh, listen, child of weakness, Oh my, it took a gift of God. It took a work of God. It took
the body of Christ to do something for us. It took his death, took
that broken body. And those folks that ate that
manna in the wilderness, they ate it and died. We have the body of Christ. We
have his body and we have his blood and we eat it spiritually. We eat it by the grace of God.
We partake of it by the grace of God. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, we actually get life from it. They ate it and died.
We're gonna die physically, but we'll never die spiritually.
Never, never, never. No, no, you can't have Christ.
He said, I give unto them eternal life. When he gave them that
bread, he said, this bread is my life. This bread is me. This bread is me, it's me. It's me. And oh my, then look
what he said in verse 23. Now the blood, the blood, the
cup, a symbol of his blood. Oh my. And he took the cup. Oh my. You know what the Leviticus 17
11 says? I know you've probably heard
me say it many times. It says the life of the flesh
is in the blood. I'm giving His blood, our Lord
Jesus Christ. The life of the flesh is in the
blood, and it's the blood that maketh atonement upon the altar.
And our Lord Jesus Christ, in giving His blood, He poured out
His soul unto death, unto death. When we think of blood, You know,
I can just barely scratch myself and I bleed. I was just bending
a little old box today and just ripped my hand just on a box
that I was breaking down. Just hit me in the corner. Scratched
myself yesterday and dripped blood through the house. But
my blood don't mean nothing. But when you talk about the blood
of Christ, you know what it's called? The precious blood. You
know what it's called? The powerful blood. You know
what it's called? The sin atoning blood. You know
what it's called? A blood that washes away all
our sin. Oh my. And he said, the life
of the flesh is, and he poured out his soul unto death. And look what he took. He said
here in verse 23, and he took the cup. He took the cup. He took the cup. Now look over
here in verse 23, excuse me, verse 36 over here
where it says what our Lord said. In chapter 14. And he said, Abba, Father, all
things are possible unto thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless,
not what I will, but thy will. He took the cup. Wonder what
that, you know that cup, was full of wine, full of wine, real
wine. Not grape juice, real wine. But
he took that cup, the cup of suffering and sorrow. He took
the cup of justice and the cup of God's wrath. And oh, I tell you, he said he
took this cup. And I tell you, do you know the
scriptures tells us that he tasted death. He tasted death. How in the world do you taste
death? How do you taste death? How do you do it? How do you
taste death? It said in Hebrews 2 that he
tasted death. You know, there was absolutely
no reason for our Lord Jesus Christ to die, none whatsoever. He had no sin of His own. He
was sinless. He was harmless. He was holy. So He had no reason to die. He had no reason to suffer. The
only reason He suffered, the only reason He had that blood,
was not for Himself, but for a multitude that God gave to
Him. That's what they sang about in
glory. He took that cup, and oh my, when he took that cup,
and he asked the Father, Lord, if you will, take this cup away
from me. And that cup had death in it.
And I tell you when death, he put death away once and for all.
But he tasted death that we might taste life. He tested what would
separate us from God. He tasted the justice of God
from His Father so that we might taste the graciousness of God
from Him. Oh my, He tasted justice that
we might taste grace. He tasted wrath that we might
taste mercy. He took a cup of all this. Now
He gives us a cup of mercy, gives us a cup of grace, gives us a
cup of love, gives us everything that's good in a cup. when everything
in his cup was bad, suffering. Then look what it says, and he
gave thanks for it. And when he had given thanks,
can you imagine? He gets up and goes into Gethsemane immediately
after this happens. Goes into Gethsemane. Prayed
over there till his sweat became as it were, great drops of blood.
But he gave thanks for this. How in the world can he give
thanks, give thanks knowing what's coming upon him? And giving thanks
for his own suffering. Giving thanks for the suffering
that he's fixing to endure. Giving thanks for that blood
that's fixing to be shed on Calvary's cross. Giving thanks for the
awful agony that he's fixing to go through. Giving thanks
for the death he's fixing to die. Giving thanks for bearing
our sins on his own body on that tree the next day. And do you
know what he said about it? He said, I delight to do thy
will. Oh God, I will, I delight to do. And God said, the scripture
said, God saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. And
then look what happens next. And when he had given thanks,
God had given thanks for what he's fixing to go through, given
thanks, given thanks, given thanks. Can you give thanks for your
suffering? We ought to be as grateful for
our sufferings as we ought to be for our health. All those
things that God uses us to draw near to himself, make us depend
on him. He does. And then he turned around
and he gave it to them. What was he giving them? His
blood. What was it, is the New Testament,
that will, that new will, that covenant of grace, that covenant
that God made with His elect before the foundation of the
world. This is my blood. And He didn't say it's shed for
everybody, He said it's shed for many, shed for many. He gave
it to them, and He gave us His blood. And it's His blood that
cleanses us from all sin. And over in 1 Corinthians 11,
Paul said, after he had supped, he said, do this in remembrance
of me. Remembrance of me. Remember my
life. Remember my death. Remember my
love. Remember my suffering. Remember, I bared your sins.
I bared your sins. And look what it says there now.
He told them to eat his bread, and then he said down there,
and look what it says, and they all drank of it. They all drank of it. They all drank of it. But look
what our Lord said back up here in verse 18. Mark 14. And in the evening he cometh
with the twelve, and as they sat and did eat, Jesus said,
Verily I say unto you, one of you which eateth with me shall
betray me. One of you sitting here at the
table with me is going to betray me. You're going to betray me. That's why he says, you know,
I shed my blood for many, many. And one thing I don't never want
to do, I remember an old song some black folks sang one time.
Lord, don't let me, I want to be a Christian in my heart, in
my heart. I want to be a Christian in my
heart. And Lord, don't let me be a Judas in my heart, in my
heart. Don't let me be a Judas. Don't
let me be a Judas. And he said, there's one of you
sitting right here at the table with me. You're going to betray
me. You're going to betray me. You're
going to go against me. You're going to go out here and
you're going to say, now, listen, when you go with us and said
that said, I'll get the man that you're supposed to take. And
you know what I'll do? I'll kiss him and said, that's
the one you get. And you know what our Lord said
to Judas, when Judas came up to kiss him, He said, Why comest
thou here, friend? Friend? Oh, don't let me betray the Lord. And I tell you what, and he said,
This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. You know,
in observing the Lord's table, let me tell you what, we're not
told to remember. We're not told to remember Him
as a teacher. We're not told to remember him as an example.
We're told to remember him as a sacrifice, broken body, shed
blood, suffering savior, sacrificial lamb. Some want his body and blood
both. Blood was shed. When you think
about the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, There's no telling how much blood
come out of his body. No telling how much blood come
out of his body. Really, there's no telling how
much blood come out of his body. When that soldier, when that
soldier reached up and pierced his side, blood, blood gushed
out. and every ounce of suffering
that he did, every moment of suffering he did, all the blood
he shed, all the things that was done to his body, how mangled
it was, and how broken it was, and how much blood was shed,
it was all, all, he said, do this in remembrance of me, and
you do show the Lord's death By this here, we're saying, Lord,
we remember you. We remember your blood being
shed for us. We remember your body being humiliated
and mangled for us. And Lord, we want to show that
it's you we look to, not nobody else. We're looking to you. We're
looking to you. Lord, thank you. Thank you. Blessed be your name. Please
enable us to glorify and honor you tonight for Christ's sake. Amen. You brethren come. You want to say 22, 222. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Let sinners plunge beneath that
flood. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. Lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. ? No doubt, yes, she did. ? Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I Though thou hast
seen, wash all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood, be saved to sin be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. Be saved to sin no more. There spins my faith, I saw the
stream, thy flowing blue supply. Redeeming love has been thy thing. And shall we do, my God? And shall we do, my God? and shall be till I die. Redeeming love has been my thing. ? And shall be till I die ? ?
With this boreless being ? ? Staring down my silence in the grave
? ? In an open sweet grave ? I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. And if thou don't bless me here
so, I'll sing thy power to save. Amen. Lord God Almighty, most high and heavenly Father,
Father, we come in your presence giving you thanks. Lord, we thank you that you did foreknow when you came and
took on as sinful flesh, took on the likeness of man as
God, knowing what you would endure in your body. We only come in the living perfect
life, just and holy, as the only man to ever walk this earth and
do so, being God Almighty and man, knowing that you would take on the sin of a multitude
that no man can number in that body, that you would bear it
to be broken. Words we take to spread it, We
ask that you would instill in our hearts to always continually remember
that you came to be what no other could be. To give what no other man could
give. We praise you, honor thy holy
name, and ask again that you would Cause us to do this for
thy glory. In Christ's name I ask these things,
amen. One more time, Precious Mother
of God, we gather together. and live a perfect life. And he died, one man died. Another
no man can know. We thank you for that Lord. We were covered
by his blood. Perfect blood was sacrificed
to see carry him. Thank the Lord for this. Thank
the Lord for you all. We miss you very much. Good night
and God bless you. Love all of you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay.
About Don Bell
Don Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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