Matthew 26, look at verse 26. This is after they were in the
upper room. Judas has been exposed as being
the betrayer. You know how the disciples, you
know when the Lord told them this, they had no idea that Judas
was the man and he showed no signs of this before and again
that tells us that a person can seem or look like a believer
but not be one and what that should do is not scare us to
the point of legal investigations of ourselves but it should cause
us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith as it says
in the book of second corinthians and when i when i talk about
self-examination there's basically two things that we need to understand
there number one i need to know that the christ i believe in
and rest in and trust is the true christ of this book because
there are false christs There are false messiahs. Paul spoke
of that in 2 Corinthians 11. He said they come preaching another
Jesus. And of course Christ identifies
himself in the book of God as God manifest in the flesh. He's
God man. And that's a concept that is
so awesome. to wrap your mind around that.
Somebody told me one time, said, I can't wrap my mind around that. And I said, well, join the club. But he is, he is fully God. And he's fully manned without
sin. And I always emphasize the without
sin because of the current heresies that are going around today about
Christ being made a sinner and stuff like that. He was never
made a sinner. He was the sinless, spotless lamb of God. And he
was made sin, the scripture says, but how was he made sin? That's
by the imputation or the charging, the accounting of our sin debt
to him. And that's why he died on the
cross. And that's where he's headed now. So Judas has been
exposed. And so the finished work of Christ,
that he successfully brought about the salvation of all for
whom he died. There'll be no one in hell for
whom Christ died. And they'll all be brought to
faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. So that's the
first thing in self-examination. Am I trusting the true Christ
of this book and not a counterfeit? The second thing we need to be
concerned with is, am I really trusting? Am I looking elsewhere for salvation? A lot of people will tell you,
they'll say, well, you trust Christ, but then you've got to
do this and do that and get right with God. No, it's all Christ. And the Bible, there's so many
places in God's word And so many verses and so many statements
that say this, but one that I go to quite often, you'll hear me
in my preaching, is Hebrews 12 too, where it talks about living
the Christian life and how we live it. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and the what? Finisher of our faith. He didn't
start it and we finish it. He's the author of it and the
finisher of it. And that doesn't give us an excuse
to sin. That causes us to look to him
and rest in him and follow him and fight the sins of the flesh. We're in a warfare. And that's
another thing about self-examination. Am I in a warfare with the flesh
and the devil and the world? You see what I'm saying? And
how do we find rest in this warfare? Christ has already won it. Paul said, he said, who shall
deliver me from this body of death? He said, I thank God through
Jesus Christ, my Lord. And he said, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ, those who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. And what is it to
walk after the spirit? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. So here he is, look at verse
26. It says, as they were eating, Jesus took bread, This is Matthew
26, 26. And he blessed it. That means that he gave thanks
is what that means. When we take the Lord's Supper,
Brother Mark and Brother Jim are gonna give thanks over the
elements. And that's what Christ did here.
He gave thanks and he break it, the bread, he tore it. They had
one piece and he tore it in pieces. And it says he gave it to the
disciples and said, take eat, this is my body. And then in
verse 27, it says, he took the cup and he gave thanks. And he gave it to them, said,
drink ye all of it. And then verse 28, for this is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. So there he's instituting the
Lord's Supper, which is a memorial ordinance. Now from what we see
in the New Testament, there are two New Testament ordinances. And number one is believer's
baptism. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
And that's not saying that you've got to be baptized to be saved. when you're saved by the grace
of God, brought to the new birth, then you confess Christ in believer's
baptism, which is by immersion, not pouring or sprinkling now.
Because what happens, see, we're identifying with Christ. You
remember when Christ was baptized in Matthew three, he went down
into the water and he said, suffer it to be so for us to fulfill
all righteousness. How was he gonna do that? His
obedience unto death, his burial and his resurrection. So that
when we confess Christ publicly by believer's baptism, we confess
that we died with Him as He's our surety, our representative.
We go down into the grave with Him and we come up out of the
grave risen with Him. And that's what believer's baptism
is about. So there's no such thing in the
Bible as any command from God to be baptized in order to be
saved. And listen to me here now. The ordinance of baptism
does not apply the blood of Christ to our persons. Now, there's
some who say that, and that's kind of a subtle thing, you know.
They'll say, well, you're not saved by, but when you get down
to the water, that's the blood being applied to. No, the blood's
already applied to us. It was applied to us long ago. So, the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin, the scripture says. And so that's
the first ordinance. The second ordinance is the Lord's
Supper. And that's just what he's instituting
here. Now there's arguments over how often should you take it.
Now I know some who take it every Sunday. Others take it, we do
it every quarter, every fifth Sunday. So if you want to mark
that on your calendars, unless we, for some providential reason,
we have to change. But look, the Lord's Supper is
a New Testament memorial ordinance. We don't take the Lord's Supper
to be saved. We take the Lord's Supper in
memory of our salvation by Christ, the grace of God. And it's a
constant reminder. Now, every service, when I sit
here, I started to say stand here, and when I sit here and
preach, I remind you and myself of what Christ has done for us.
But in these elements, symbolically, we're reminded too. And it's
a good thing. And he gave it to us. It's a
New Testament memorial ordinance given to the church as a constant
reminder of his obedience unto death to put away our sins and
to establish righteousness. That's the perfection of the
law that Christ accomplished in his obedience unto death for
our salvation, our justification. And that's what we do. Now, those
who believe are commanded to take the Lord's Supper. If you're
an unbeliever, you do wrong to take it. In fact, there's a scripture
in 2 Corinthians where it says that you eat and drink to your
damnation. In other words, you're just performing a religious act
that doesn't mean anything to you. So that's why I caution
people, and we don't have a committee or a board that tries to figure
out who everybody is and what you believe. It's up to you to
examine yourself. Let a man examine himself, or
a woman examine herself, and so let him eat. So that's between
you and the Lord. But that's what this is about.
Now, what's the difference between his body and his blood? The body
represents his sinless human body, which was offered as a
sacrifice for our sins. And I want you to turn to Hebrews
chapter two. I want you to look at this. I
always go to this verse, and there are other verses we can
go to, but this kind of like summarizes it. You know, Hebrews
chapter two, Christ, the Bible talks about those whose names
were written in the Lamb's book of life. This is Revelation 13. The names written before the
foundation of the world, the Lamb slain. So Christ, that's
who he is. He's the Lamb slain. Well now,
he's God. And you can't kill God. God cannot
die. You understand that? And therefore, in order for him
to die, he had to have a human body and soul, a sinless human
body and soul. And that was set out from the
very beginning in God's plan and purpose to save his people.
Christ having been made the surety of his people, which means our
sins, the sins of Christ's sheep, were imputed to him. And learn
that word imputed, because it is important. Sin imputed to
Christ, and righteousness, his righteousness, imputed to us.
That's the great exchange. That's what 2 Corinthians 5.21,
for God made him to be sin for us, Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That's our justification. And the ground of that justification
is his righteousness imputed to us. Well, he was a sinless
person. So how could he justly go under
the wrath of God? Because he had no sin. He never
committed sin. He never had a thought of sin.
Spotlessly. Well, there's only one way. Based
upon our sins charged to him. God justly poured his wrath down
upon his son. And he drank damnation dry. He drank the cup of the wrath
of God for the sins of his people. in order for him to do the work
of assurity. You know what assurity is, somebody
who stands for the dead of another. And that's what Christ was made
before the foundation of the world for his people, for God's
elect. Our sins were charged to him.
He had our sin dead on. Well, look at verse 14 of Hebrews
chapter two. It says, for as much then as
the children, that's God's children, that's the elect, that's the
ones whom he chose before the foundation of the world, are
partakers of flesh and blood, he, Christ, also himself likewise,
took part of the same. That is, he had to have flesh
and blood, because the ones for whom he stood surety, the ones
for whom he represented, for whom he died and was buried and
rose again, were flesh and blood. And he had to die. Well, as I
said, God cannot die. But this person who is God did
die and that's to be attributed to his human self, his humanity. This is my body which is broken
for you. And so he took part of the same
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. Now the devil doesn't have any
power to kill anybody. So what power does the devil
have? He's the accuser of the brethren. He's going to accuse
you. And you know what he's gonna
say? You're a sinner. You deserve death. And he's right. Except there's one thing that
stands in his way by which we cannot be condemned. His accusations
don't stick when it comes to God's people. Romans 8, 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect, it's God that justifies. Who can condemn
us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again. Seated at the right hand of the
Father. Ever living to make intercession for us. We have a substitute.
We have a surety. Who died in our place. Who took
the death that we deserved. And He satisfied the justice
of God. So that when the devil accuses
us, either himself or through his minions, The charges don't
stick because Christ died in our place. And everyone for whom
he died shall be saved. So he says in verse 15 here of
Hebrews, deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. And that's what we are. In our
natural state as unbelievers, we're subject to bondage. And
you know what that bondage is? The law. Because by nature, before
we're saved, before we're born again, before we hear the gospel
and believe, we think salvation's conditioned on us. And that's
bondage. Well, what conditions do you
have to meet? Depends on what denomination
you go to. But they're all wrong. Salvation was conditioned on
Christ. And all the promises of God are
in him, yea, and in him, amen. He fulfilled those conditions.
For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. And so it says in verse 16, for
verily he took not on him the nature of angels. See, when Christ
united himself with his humanity, it wasn't angelic, it wasn't
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Now who's the seed of Abraham?
all who are brought by God to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ."
That's Abraham's spiritual seed, you can read about that in Galatians
3 and we won't go there. But look at verse 17, wherefore
for this reason in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, he had to have a human body and soul. And
that word behooved is the Greek word for debt, he had a debt
laid upon him for the foundation of the world and because he had
that debt and had to pay that debt he had to be made like unto
his brethren humanity but he had to be sinless the scripture
says. And he says that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. And he did that by his death.
Now let's go back to Matthew 26. So that's his humanity, the
human body and soul. Now the cup is the wine that
represents his blood. So here's his body, broken. That's
his suffering under death. And what was the result? His
blood, which is his death, means this, satisfaction. Get that word in your mind. Satisfaction
to God's law and justice for the sins of his people. The Bible
summarized in a word that you don't hear very much today, but
it's propitiation. Used, what, four times in the
New Testament? And you find it in other forms.
In fact, you remember the story of the Pharisee and the publican?
Where the Pharisee stood up and said, I thank God I'm not like
other men. I don't do this, I don't do that. See the ground of his
salvation was what he thought God had enabled him to do but
that's wrong. The ground of our salvation is
not what God enabled. Now listen, in salvation God
enables us to do things that we couldn't do before. For example,
he enables us to believe and in our natural state we couldn't
do that. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. So we're unable to do that. But God doesn't save us
or forgive us or justify us based upon what he enables us to do.
He saves us and forgives us and justifies us based upon what
Christ did in his obedience unto death. So the blood means satisfaction
to God's law and justice. He drank damnation dry. He didn't
leave it for us to do anything in order to attain or maintain
salvation. You got that? We have it, it's
a free gift. That's what grace is all about. God's righteousness that we find
in Christ. And that's what the blood is
all about. He says in verse 28, this is my blood of the New Testament. Now that word testament is covenant. And that's the new covenant.
Well, if you read the book of Hebrews, it really settles that
issue. The old covenant is over. It's abolished by way of fulfillment.
And you might hear some other preachers say, well, no, you're
preaching replacement theology. No, I'm not. I'm preaching fulfillment
theology. In other words, Christ fulfilled
the law. All those pictures and types
of the old covenant, He fulfilled it, and it's over. And he's instituted
the new covenant. Well, what is the new covenant?
Well, it's the gospel covenant. It's the span of time that God
worked out for his church leading up to his second coming, whereupon
the church goes out into the world, preaching the gospel,
seeking his sheep, that's what we're doing, preaching to anybody
who'll listen, Telling that the salvation is for anybody who
wants it, but as I said last week, the problem with man by
nature, he doesn't want it. Or he wants it his own way. But
if you're one of Christ's sheep, if you're one of God's elect,
you're gonna want it, he's gonna make you want it. That's why
he said in Jeremiah 31, he said, I'll give them a new heart, I'll
give them a new spirit, I'll cause them to walk in my statutes,
they'll believe. It's the gift of faith, you see. All of that, that new covenant.
Well, the new covenant is the fulfillment in time of an everlasting
covenant made before time. Now did you get that? That's
what the new covenant is. The new covenant is just the
manifestation that Christ has already come and he's already
done what he was purposed to do and we're living in that span
of time. but the covenant is one of grace,
and really, the terms and the conditions of the new covenant
are older than the world itself. Think about that. The gospel,
we believe. 2 Timothy chapter one speaks
of a salvation that was given us in Jesus Christ before the
world began. Now, how's that possible? Well,
that's in the mind and the purpose of God. So what God purposed
before time in the salvation of his people by his grace through
Christ is accomplished in time. And so what he purposed before
time, that's the everlasting covenant of grace. Hebrews 13,
20 and 21 took the blood of Jesus Christ is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. So the new covenant is the actual
accomplishment of all that in time. And so we're a new covenant
church. We don't sacrifice lambs today. We don't have a building called
a temple or a tabernacle. Some people say, well, the church
is. Not this building. The church is his people. You
see that? And Christ is the tabernacle.
John 1 14, the word was made flesh. And what does it say,
Jim? The word was made flesh. Dwelt among us, that word dwelt
is tabernacled. That's what it is literally.
So he tabernacled among us. You want to find the presence
of God, look to Christ and his people surrounded by him. Now,
the eating of this bread and the drinking of this cup symbolizes
God-given faith in him. And I've got listed in here John
chapter 6. You go read that whole passage.
You know, this is where Christ said, if you don't eat my body
and drink my blood, you cannot be. He's not talking about cannibalism
there. He's talking about faith. And that's what we do, we believe
in him. And that's what eating this bread
and drinking this cup symbolizes. And listen, the false Catholic
Church, I'm sorry, their doctrine of what they call transubstantiation,
where they actually say that when the priest blesses the wafer
and the wine, it actually turns into the body and the blood of
Jesus Christ. And then they eat it. even though
it retains the properties of bread and wine. But they claim
that it does. And that's why they have their
mass. Why is a mass an abomination? Because they're crucifying the
Lord of glory again. Every time they meet. And that's
blasphemy. By one offering, he settled the
issue. One time. We're not meet here
to crucify him again. We're met here to preach about
the one time that he was crucified and put away our sins forever.
So all that stuff about him turning, and there are some who believe
what they call the doctrine of consubstantiation, where they
say it symbolically turns into the, no it doesn't. These are
symbols, period. And that's all they are. So when
we drink the wine and eat the unleavened bread, and it's got
to be unleavened bread because leaven in the Bible usually is
a type of sin. Christ had no sin. His broken
body was not a sinful body. Sin was imputed to him. but he
broke it, he's suffering unto death, all of that. Now let's
go on, look at verse 29. He says, 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.
Did I skip a verse or something? Oh no, okay. He says in verse
30, okay, I got it. And when they had sung a hymn,
they went out into the Mount of Olives, And then Jesus saith
unto them all you shall be offended because of me this night for
it is written I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the
flock shall be scattered abroad. That's quoted from Zechariah
13 7 prophesying and he says. But after I'm risen again, I
will go before you into Galilee. Now what's he talking about in
verse 29? I won't eat this with you again until henceforth, until
the day when I drink it new in the Father's kingdom. He's talking
about that future great feast, which in Revelation 19 is called
the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's when all of Christ's sheep
are called into the kingdom, and he comes again and gathers
his church up together, and we'll feast with him in that day. That's what he's talking about.
And then he tells the disciples, he says, after they sang a hymn,
they were worshiping, they sang hymns, and went to the Mount
of Olives, he said, you shall be offended. That means you're
gonna stumble. And brother, that's a story of
our lives a lot of time, isn't it? Stumbling. We believe in the doctrine of
perseverance of the saints. All right? The security of the
saved. Saved by the grace of God, kept
by the grace of God, and in her glory by the grace of God. I
believe this, and I know this is so, that when we stand before
God, there's not one blessing of salvation that I can look
at Christ and say, well, I earned that. I deserve that, not one. And that includes the very next
breath you take. That's a gift from God. Believers
realize that. Now, unbelievers, it's still
even a providential gift, but they don't realize it. And that's
why we hope and pray that God will bring them to faith. But
the very next breath I take is a gift from God. It's all. They're going to stumble. Now,
when he was arrested and taken to trial, they scattered somewhat. Of course, you know about Peter's
situation, how he denied the Lord three times. And we'll see
about that later on. But eventually, after the crucifixion
and after the resurrection, they came back together. They were
brought back together for a while. And they pretty much stayed together
until a little bit after Pentecost. And then people like Saul of
Tarsus made havoc of the church, and they were scattered throughout.
And of course, we know that's the plan and the purpose of God
to get the gospel out all over the world, because God has a
people out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. But one thing
you need to see here is this. What he's reminding them of is,
look, we're just weak people. If we're saved, We're saved by
the grace of God. If we persevere, it's the preservation
of the Lord. Do you know, you can think about
this. Look at verse 32. He says, but after I'm risen
again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said
unto him, though all men shall be offended because of thee,
yet I will never be offended. I won't stumble. Verse 34, Jesus
said unto him, Verily I say unto you, that this night before the
cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice, three times. Peter said
unto him, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny
thee? Likewise also said all the disciples. The other disciples said the
same thing. Well, we know what happened. Peter in his weakness,
he denied Christ three times. But you know what? Peter being
one of God's sheep, one of Christ's elect, Christ didn't let him
go, held him. So if we persevere, it's because
he preserves, and that's it. And of course, you know what
happened to Peter. He wept bitterly, wept bitterly, and that's what
we do. But like all of us, Peter needed
to learn the grace and the gift of godly humility. Don't ever
look around and say, I won't do what that person did. Understand me here. You're either a sinner lost in
your sins or a sinner saved by grace. And somebody asked me
one time, said, well, what is it that believers will not do?
I can only think of one thing in the scriptures that I could
say I will not do if I'm one of God's sheep. And that is,
I will not apostatize unto damnation. I will not totally leave Christ
unto damnation. And you can read about that in
1 John 2 and 3 and other passages. Jude 24 and 25, he keeps us. He says, none shall pluck them
out of my Father's hand. But you know, in his weak human
flesh, Peter was no different than Judas. That's right. Peter denied it, Judas denied
it, Peter did too. What made the difference then?
The grace of God. The grace of God makes us, what
makes us to differ in any area? Spiritual gifts, whatever, who
makes us to differ? God does. And if he doesn't make
the difference, there'll be no difference. But thank God that
by His grace we're saved and kept unto glory. Amen. Okay.