So, I want to look at John's
Gospel, Chapter 6. I thought while we were in John
last week, I wouldn't move away from it, because these words,
I think, are the very core of the Gospel of God's grace, and
are so vital to living Christianity. And I've called this message,
Eating the Flesh of Jesus, and if there'd been space, I would
have added, and Drinking His Blood. eating his flesh and drinking
his blood. And if you've got the bulletin
before you printed, there's an article that I've written, which
is not very long. And if you haven't got it, well,
you can get it online because I've sent it out. You know it's
on our website. So, this thing about eating flesh
and drinking blood. The service that was on the radio
this morning was from the Catholic Cathedral in Cardiff, and it
was a Mass. And everything that you might
have heard, and you wonder whether it's actually true about the
Catholic Mass, I can tell you from having just listened to
it, it's exactly right. It is a sacrifice. It's a sacrifice
again. They believe that the bread,
or the wafer, and the wine become the literal flesh and blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ, which is sacrifice. They kept using
that word, sacrificed, again. Now we think on the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but it was once for all. It's not
an oft-repeated sacrifice, not in the slightest. So what does
this mean, this eating of the flesh and drinking of the blood?
Jesus said in verse 53, verily, verily, I really mean this, I
say unto you, except unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you have no life in you, by which He means
true spiritual life, true eternal life, the life of God, the life
of eternity, the life of heaven. To have that life, and surely
you want to have that life, to have that life, you must, as
it says here, eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His
blood. What does it mean? Well let me
say right at the start that although we're having the Lord's Supper
this morning, and we'll share bread and wine later, he's not
actually talking about the Lord's Supper. No, he's not. He's not
talking about what the Catholics call the Mass. He's not talking
about that at this stage, because those are symbols of remembrance. Transubstantiation, that's the
Catholic doctrine, that the bread and the wine of their communion,
of their mass, become the literal flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is absurd. Absolutely absurd. It would be
cannibalism if that was true. We don't eat the flesh and the
blood of another human being, do we? That's cannibalism. That's
vile, that's revolting. It's an absurd notion. It's incredible
to even suggest that that's the case. And here's another thing
about it. They believe that by eating that
literal bread and that literal wine, which they literally believe
has become the body actually and the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, they believe that just doing that physical act confers
eternal life on them. except you eat the flesh and
drink the blood, you have no life. So we'll eat it and drink
it and therefore we have life. But it doesn't. The physical
act of eating the bread, whether it be the bread of communion
or what's implied here, doesn't impart life anymore than the
other true sacrament of the church, which is baptism, that doesn't
confer life either. What is baptism? It's a testimony
of what has happened, not a process that makes it happen. You are
not a Christian because you've been baptized. You show that
you're a Christian by being baptized. You show your union with Christ
as you go down into the water and you say, when he died, I
died with him and I was buried with him. I was counted in Him,
and when He rose from the dead, I rose from the dead, and I shall
rise to newness of life. It's a witness of a heart reality. It isn't something that confers
life. The eating of the bread and the
drinking of the wine in the Catholic Mass does nothing for the eternal
state of your soul, other than I would say, damn it, because
it's a blasphemy and completely contrary to the Word of God.
No. You see, again, even if you don't
take communion, you don't actually eat bread or drink the wine,
that doesn't bar from life. I'll give you an example. Think
of the thief on the cross. He'd lived a life in absolute
godless debauchery and crime. And on the cross, God opened
his eyes. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, this day you shall be with me in paradise. How sanctified was that man?
Answer, not at all, apart from Christ. He wasn't sanctified
by anything he did. How could he? All the time he
was living as a believer, his feet and his hands were nailed
to a cross of wood. How could he do anything? How
could he do anything? And yet he has the promise of
God in Christ there. Today, when you leave this life,
you will be absent from the body, present with the Lord. You will
be with me in paradise." He didn't take communion, did he? He didn't
eat the bread and drink the wine. He wasn't even at the Last Supper
with the disciples, where they ate bread and drank wine. No,
it's not the physical eating that it can possibly be talking
about. And likewise, unregenerate people, those who are just putting
on a show, and I believe churches are full of hordes of people
who are just going through the ritual of their religious club,
quite honestly, rather than having any heart experience, the unregenerate
can take communion all they like, but they still have no true spiritual
life. But what we have here in these
words of our Lord Jesus Christ is the very core of true spiritual
life. It's the vital key to that life
which is eternal bliss. Is that not what we're about
with this gospel of God's grace? It's that eternal life which
is eternal bliss, and this is the key to it. So what does it
mean? What did Jesus mean when he said,
you must eat my flesh and drink my blood? What does it mean? And then the second point, what
results from it? First of all, the meaning of
it. What does he mean? Well, it's clear that he's using
a metaphor. Have you heard of metaphors,
Timmy? You've heard of a metaphor, haven't
you? A metaphor. It's using words that apply to
something else to convey a meaning. Let me give you some examples.
You might say of some woman that thinks quite a lot of herself,
you might say, she was fishing for compliments. She didn't actually
have a fishing rod casting a line, she wasn't fishing, but you know
what I mean. The notion of fishing to try and catch fish, she's
trying to catch compliments. That's a metaphor. Oh, that man,
he broke her heart. He didn't take her heart out
of her body and smash it in pieces, did he? But he broke her heart. You see, it's a metaphor. It's
using language to convey a meaning. Ah, cake is good, isn't it? Who
likes cake? Yes, you all like cake. Who likes
the icing on the cake? You know, cake is a good thing,
but you can have cake with icing on the cake. Ah, the icing! You
see, we talk about the icing on the cake meaning something
that's extra special good. We're not literally talking about
cake or icing, we're talking about something that's good and
something that then is a bonus on top of that which is good.
These are metaphors. When Jesus was speaking here,
he was using the metaphor of eating to convey the idea of
taking into your being. You must take me into your being. You must take what I am into
your being. He makes it clear in verse 63.
Look down at verse 63. He says, it's the spirit that
quickens, makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you
They are spirit and they are life. He was speaking spiritually,
not literally. When he talked about eating his
flesh and drinking his blood, he's speaking spiritually, not
physically. You eat bread and it becomes
part of your body. Is that not right? It becomes
part of your body. You eat bread and Parts of it,
some bits of the molecules are taken and used by your bones
in your white blood cells to make healthy blood cells, it
makes bone, it makes sinew, it makes flesh. If you eat too much
of it, it puts weight on, it gives you fat that you don't
want. It becomes part of your body, doesn't it? This is what
Christ is saying, you must eat me. Spiritually, you must take
me. into you. But why do you eat? Think, why do you eat? You eat
because you're hungry. Is that right? You eat, it says,
to the man who's truly hungry, the simplest crust of bread is
so sweet, such a sweet thing. Somebody that's done without
food for a long time, a little morsel of something is such a
sweet treasure. You eat because you're hungry.
Blessed are they, said Jesus, which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness. Which righteousness? The righteousness
we must have to be right with God. Pursue righteousness, follow
righteousness, follow holiness, without which no man shall see
the Lord. Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after the righteousness of God. Where am I going to get
the righteousness of God? Answer, because Christ who knew
no sin, was made the sin of his people, that they, his people,
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Made the righteousness
of God in him by that divine transfer. Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. What
are they going to be filled with? What is it they're going to be
filled with? Here's the answer. With the flesh and the blood
of Jesus Christ. That's what they're going to
be filled with. Now why flesh and blood? Why? Why are we talking
about this? The answer is this. His flesh
and his blood speak of his reality as a true man. A man there is,
a real man, with wounds still gaping wide from which blood
flowed. A real man. That real man is
God Almighty who became man. He was in the beginning with
the Father, the Word was in the beginning, the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. God in flesh. Why God in flesh? Because God alone is the one
who can satisfy His own perfect law, that He might redeem, that
He might pay the sin debt, that he might justify the people of
his choice, that the sinners who he has chosen might be qualified,
might be made meat to be partakers of the divine nature, might be
made meat to be inhabitants of the kingdom of God, when he comes
again in his glory. God, the eternal God, became
a real man. That real man lived. You know,
Simeon held him in his arms at the temple when he was a baby
of eight days old. A little baby. God contracted
to a span. He lived a life. He grew as you
boys are growing up now, different ages. He grew as a little boy. He learned the trade of Joseph. the husband of his mother. He
learned the trade of Joseph as a carpenter. He lived there in
that village in Nazareth. He went into his ministry. He
taught, not like the scribes and the Pharisees, but he taught
as one having authority. They'd never heard anyone with
words like he had. They'd never seen anybody perform
miracles like he performed. They'd never seen anything like
it. He put, he with no education, put to flight the scribes and
the Pharisees and all the religious leaders. They couldn't answer
him, they couldn't bring an accusation against him, they tried to trick
him constantly, they couldn't do it. He ministered, and then
they crucified him, and he died, bearing the sins of his people,
and was buried, and he rose from the dead, and they saw him, and
they touched him, and Thomas, doubting Thomas, saw him, and
touched him. Come here, Thomas. put your hands
in the nail prints in my hands and in the spear wound in my
side and he came and seeing it Thomas fell at his feet my Lord
and my God he saw there in that moment that this man this real
man was true almighty God a man there is a real man the truth
of God is that God in the person of his son came in real flesh
to accomplish the salvation for his elect. Why? How? The soul
that sins, it shall die. The life is in the blood. The
blood must be shed, the blood of his people. But because they're
in him, and he is the substitute and the representative for them,
the guarantor for them, and the infinite God in that same human
flesh that the children have partaken of, says Hebrews 2,
He came that He might die the death that their sins deserved,
that He might save His people from their sins, and that's why
He was called Jesus, to save His people from their sins. This
Word of God, this expression of God, this one by whom the
essence of God is revealed to mortal man, the Word of God,
John tells us, was made flesh. John 1.14. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. He means us disciples. And we,
disciples, beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. We beheld His glory. Others didn't see it. To the
others round about, he was just an ordinary man. To the others
round about, there was no comeliness, as Isaiah says, that we should
desire him. The others didn't see it. They
looked at him when he was 30 years old and said, who do you
think you are talking about seeing Abraham? You're not yet 50 years
old. He looked older than his years. There was no comeliness
that we should desire him. But to the disciples who saw
him, who heard Him, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And
they touched Him, and they lived with Him, and they ate with Him,
and they leaned on Him, as John often says, he leaned on Jesus'
breast. And Thomas really touched Him,
and this one really rose from the dead. in a physical body,
proving salvation was accomplished. To have the life of God in your
soul for eternity, you must believe this, about the real incarnation
and salvation accomplished by Christ in His body. A body you
have prepared for me, says the scripture. He couldn't save without
a body. He had to come in a real human
body, because the penalty for human sin is that human blood
must be shed, so He shed He's precious human blood. He's infinitely
precious human blood. And you must believe it. and
take it into your being as surely as you eat your daily food. Who's
eaten this morning? I certainly have. I guarantee
all of you have eaten this morning. And you love to eat and you take
it into your being and it makes you grow and it makes you feel
like you've got energy to do things. That's what we're talking
about. You must take this Christ into
your being as surely as you eat your daily food. We're not talking
about following his example. Oh yes, he's a splendid example,
but that isn't it. Eternal life isn't promised for
following his example, no. we must receive the truth of
his divine person in a human body, paying the sin debt for
his people by pouring out his own lifeblood. His own lifeblood
he poured out. Do you know it's the blood of
God that was poured out? How do I know that? Acts 20 verse
28, Paul to the elders of the Ephesian church on the beach
at Miletus, he says to them, feed the church of God, which
he, God, has purchased with his, God's, own blood. God has purchased
his church with his own blood. we must receive that truth of
his divine person in a human body, paying the sin debt for
his people by pouring out his lifeblood on their behalf, and
the justice of God is satisfied. The justice of God says, it is
enough. It is enough. It is finished.
It is done. There's no more to do. Not just
mentally, You don't just know it mentally, you take it emotionally
into your being. Do you feel it? You've got to
take it emotionally into your being. You know like the Old
Testament peace offering, there's a lovely picture in the Old Testament
peace offering where somebody would bring one of the Israelites
would bring an animal sacrifice to the priest to make his peace
offering. And when the offering was sacrificed,
and when it was burnt with fire on the altar, then the one bringing
the sacrifice had to sit down with the priest and eat that
offering together. They had to feast together on
the sacrificed victim. That's what they had to do. He
would bring a lamb, let's say, and it would be killed and its
blood would be shed looking to Christ. And it would be burnt
on the altar, and then the priest and the one bringing the offering
would eat that sacrifice. Likewise, by faith, The believer
eats his Passover lamb. We don't eat him physically,
we don't drink his blood physically, but by faith we feed upon him. You know, faith is that gift
of God. Ephesians 2 verse 8, by grace
are you saved, through faith and that not of yourself. It's
by grace that you know, it's by grace you are saved, and it's
through faith that you realize it, that you appreciate it, you
apprehend it. By faith are we saved, by grace
are we saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. And it looks to Christ as the
Passover lamb. The Israelites celebrated the
Passover, that was that night in Egypt, when they came out
of Egypt finally, the last of the plagues, when God came with
the slaying angel of death to kill every firstborn. Why did
every firstborn have to die? Because every firstborn is guilty
of the sin that is the affront to the justice of God. And the
soul that sins, it shall die. So God was not unjust. God did
that which his law justly required. But for the Israelites, a lamb
had died in the place of them. Each of the houses had a lamb,
and they killed it, and they painted its blood over the doorposts,
so that the slaying angel, when the slaying angel came through
the land, killing all the firstborn, he saw that the death has already
occurred there. The lamb has already died there,
the blood has already been shed there, and he passed over those
houses. And it tells us in 1 Corinthians
5-7, Christ our Passover. You see, we don't celebrate the
Passover today as the Jews do. But we have a Passover, and He
is Christ. Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed
for us. He was sacrificed on Calvary,
once for all, never to be repeated. That's why the Mass is such a
blasphemy against the truth of God. It really is. It was once
for all. Read Hebrews. Those priests bring
the sacrifice daily, which can never take away sins, oft repeated. But He, once, once for all. You see, God has set him forth,
him alone, Christ alone, the one who came in flesh and blood,
that we have to partake of that coming and that doing to accomplish
salvation. It says in Romans 3.25 that him,
Christ, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation. What's
a propitiation? It's a turning away of anger. It's soothing the just anger
of God and turning it away. The death of Christ has soothed,
has taken away the anger of God for the sins of His people. And
how do we appropriate it? Through faith in His blood. We
believe Him. We trust Him. We look to Him.
to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins. He
has justly saved His people from their sins. He has justly taken
away the curse of the law by Him being made a curse for them.
And just as the animal sacrifice had to be eaten, They couldn't
just sit down and look at it, the one offering the sacrifice
and the priest, they couldn't just sit down and look at the
sacrifice, they had to eat it, they had to imbibe it, they had
to make it part of them, not just look at it. So in the same
way, it is essential that by faith you take into your very
being the necessity of Christ's substitutionary death to propitiate
for your sin. The flesh and blood of Christ,
his real human accomplishment of redemption, must become part
of you as much as bread and water does when you eat and drink them.
Have you so believed Christ Jesus that he has become part of you?
You say, I don't know. I'm not sure. How do I know? Well, it's by faith that you
know. Faith, you know like when you
eat food, you need gastric juices, you need your digestive juices
to break the food down, that the molecules go into your being.
Well, faith is like gastric juices, it is your faith. that digests
that body and blood of Christ. Faith assimilates, I hope I'm
not using too many complicated words for you youngsters, but
it means you take into yourself, you grab hold of it. Faith assimilates
the truth of Christ's redemption, for me. Faith takes it, faith
grasps it and digests it and takes it into your very being.
just like digested food. The bits of the bread I ate yesterday
that are now new blood cells in my body, you can't take it
away. You can't take it away. It's
your very life. It's the very core of your life.
As Paul says to the Philippians, in Philippians 1.21, he says,
for to me, to live is Christ. If I'm living, it's Christ. And
to die? Well, that's just gain, isn't
it? That's not loss. The world thinks
it's loss, but it's gain. Having tasted and felt the soul
satisfaction of the person and work of Christ, no other soul
food can satisfy. It's the only one that can satisfy.
We often talk when we're having our readings together and praying,
we often talk about this. How empty is the experience of
the world around us without Christ and without any knowledge of
God. How utterly vacuous is their existence. How utterly empty
is their conversation. How utterly pointless it is without
hope, without Christ and without hope in this world. He says in
the Psalms, Psalm 107 verse 9, He, God, satisfies the longing
soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. What's the goodness
that He fills the hungry soul with? You know, blessed is he
that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, for he shall be
filled, filled with Christ, filled with the doing and dying of Christ,
living on the good of it, feeding on the good of it, knowing that
it is well with my soul because of what he has done, taking him
into myself, lying down to sleep at night in peace, knowing that
I sleep peacefully because he has saved me from my sins. Now
what's the result of this eating? Well, just like food sustains
life, you know, you might be able to go two or three weeks
without food, you'd be in a pretty poor state. If you go a month
without food, you'll probably die, because your body needs
it. Food sustains life. So, look
at verse 50. This is the bread which comes
down from heaven. He's speaking of himself, that
a man may eat thereof and not die. You eat of him, this truth
of Christ, and his saving grace, and you will not die. Verse 51.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. What an outstanding
claim. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. Verse 53, except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you. Without imbibing Christ, you
have no life in you. Verse 54, Whoever eats my flesh
and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. I will rise from death. I know
I will rise from death to eternal glory because of this. Verse
58. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. He is that bread which came down.
He is the bread of God which came down from heaven. That man
shall not live by bread alone, physical, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. And who is the word of God? Christ
is the word of God. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna. You harp
on, you Jews, you harp on about what a wonderful miracle it was
to feed them for 40 years. Why can't we have free food for
40 years? This would be a good thing if
you came and gave us free food like Moses did for 40 years.
No, not as that, because they ate it and they died. Every single
one of them died for their disobedience and unbelief. he that eats of
this bread, which is Christ himself, shall live for ever. Unless Christ
is daily fed upon, you feed upon him The message of this is that
except that happens, unless that is the case, you are utterly
dead spiritually. You do not have the life of God
in your soul, you do not have spiritual eternal life, except
you eat and drink that flesh and blood of Christ by faith.
You apprehend it by faith, you take it into your being by faith.
You see, everything else to do with a religious life, your baptism,
partaking of communion, fellowship with one another, listening to
preaching. I know there are some people
who are almost like preaching groupies out on the internet,
I mean it's good to be well taught, it really is. I'll tell you what's
not so good, and that's when we have almost like these preaching
contests between different ones. So hearing preaching, if that's
all it is, just for its own sake, it's worthless, unless the flesh
and blood of Christ is taken in, is imbibed. And unlike the
mere shadows of the Old Testament sacrifice, you see, they had
their temple, they had their animal sacrifices, they had all
of the rites and everything else. Look at verse 55. Compared with
those animal sacrifices, Jesus says, my flesh is meat indeed. In other words, My flesh is nourishing
for your soul. My flesh is that which truly
will feed your soul. Not those animal sacrifices which
were mere pictures. My blood is drink indeed. That
really is that which takes away the sin of his people. This is
why preaching that is not completely focused on Christ is nothing
other than empty moralizing. I've said for years, why on earth
would anybody go to a church where the preaching is not 100%
focused on the Lord Jesus Christ? and his doing and dying, his
death and salvation of his people. He is the story of Scripture.
He is the message of Scripture. His person is the message of
Scripture. What think ye of Christ? This
is the test. This is why Paul said to the
Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 2, he said, I determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I remember years ago, 30 odd
years ago, Some of us in a church we were
at were asked to go and supply a pulpit, on the Isle of Wight
it happened to be, and while we weren't just asked, on an ad hoc basis to go I do
not know but anyway it had to be organized and planned and
coordinated and all the rest of it and they said well what
are we going to preach on and I said well we preach on Christ
what else is there to preach on and you know one of the men
there said, do you know I get tired of all this talking about
constantly preaching Christ? He said, we need to be telling
people about the holiness of God. We need to be getting people
to bow down before the majesty of God. I'm sick to death of
hearing constantly about Jesus. We're not telling people the
whole truth. I'm telling you. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
whole truth of God. There is no other truth of God
than Jesus Christ. He is the whole, the sum and
the substance of everything God has to reveal. Paul said, I determine
not to know anything among you. Well, won't the people get fed
up of it? The children of God won't get fed up of it. The true
believers won't get fed up of it. What do you need? Do you
get fed up of bread? Do you? No, I don't. I love bread. I can eat bread every day. I
love my toast with my breakfast in the morning. I love bread.
It's my daily food. I love it. Save Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's got to be the message.
Not moralizing. Not empty moralizing. Not just
giving us examples, not teaching us how we ought to live so that
we become more sanctified before the law of Moses and make ourselves
fit for heaven. That's what the majority of preaching
is like in the majority of Reformed Baptist churches in this country
in these days. No. Christ is the message. He's the whole message. This
is, you know, you say, well, Paul, wasn't there other more
interesting things to speak about? Well, Paul preached the whole
counsel of God. Ah, so surely he spoke of something
else. No, the whole counsel of God is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He said to those same elders
on the beach at Miletus, he said, I have not shunned to declare
to you. the whole counsel of God. Because
in preaching Christ, you've declared the whole counsel of God. And
look, it's a vital life union. Look at this in verse 56. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I
in him. When you do this spiritual imbibing
of Christ and his salvation in a real body as a man, God become
man to save his people from their sins, you dwell in him. You live in the good of experienced
justification, knowing it's well with my soul, that you've apprehended,
that you've taken hold of by faith. and knowing I am free
from guilt before God's justice. But also, not only do I dwell
in him, but he, Jesus, dwells in me. I in him, he says. He comes and dwells within. He
says, the Father and I will come and make our abode with Him.
They come by the Spirit of God and make their abode with the
child of God. And they put, they impart, a
new holy nature of God. A new sanctifying nature of Christ
in the inner man. This is the very basis of true
spiritual life. Look at verse 59. Sorry, not
verse 59. Verse 57. As the Living Father hath sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. We as believers, we as the children
of God, need to live, truly live by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is true life. This is what he called in another
place, abundant life. I am come that they might have
life and have it more abundantly. Just as Paul testifies in Galatians
2.20, he says, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I
live. Look, I'm living. Yet not I,
but Christ lives in me. That's what he said there, verse
56. I will dwell in him. And the
life which I now live in this flesh, as long as I'm still on
this earth, I live by the faith. I live grounded on what Christ
faithfully accomplished. It's the faith of the Son of
God that I live by. Not my faith in Him. My faith
in Him is what gets me to apprehend what He has done. I live by the
fact that He faithfully accomplished salvation. He loved me and gave
Himself for me. So, finally, what is communion? We're going to have communion,
bread and wine in a moment. The bread and wine of communion.
Let me remind you. It's simply this. Physical emblems
to remind us. Just to remind us. Read Matthew
26 with me. Matthew 26 and verse 26. Matthew's
Gospel, chapter 26 and verse 26. This is the Last Supper. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to the disciples
and said, take, eat, this is my body. What he meant there
was not this is physically, literally my body, his body was still there
handing out bits of bread to them. He meant this is symbolical,
this is a reminder of my body that is essential to your salvation. And he took the cup, and gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for
this is my blood. This is the reminder. This is
the symbol, the reminder. of my blood of the New Testament,
of the new covenant, the new covenant of God, not the covenant
of works, but the covenant of grace, which he shed for many
for the remission of sins. Not a literal body and blood,
but emblems to remind and testify to the necessity of Christ's
real broken body and shed blood to put away sin. What is the
qualification? For taking the bread and the
wine in this act of remembrance, it's discerning the Lord's body.
That's what 1 Corinthians 11 tells us. It's discerning the
Lord's body. Is it not surely what we've been
thinking of in John chapter 6? It's eating his flesh and drinking
his blood by faith. Spiritually, by faith, eating
and drinking him daily. What about you? 1 Corinthians
11, 28 and 29 says this. Let a man examine himself, and
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Examine
yourself as to whether you are in the faith. Examine yourself
as to whether This doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his body broken and his blood shed, is for you the very essence
and center of your soul and your hope for eternity. He that eateth
and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,
not discerning the Lord's body. Amen.