Okay, now, today we have the
privilege of having God's Word before us and having read the
Word of the Lord. And I'm not going to use a particular
verse for a title, but look at verse 26, Matthew 26, 26. And here we have the Lord instituting
for us the Lord's table. As they were eating, Jesus took
bread. Our blessed Savior, Lord and
God, took bread. Simple, simple bread. And we
know it was unleavened bread because they were observing the
Feast of Unleavened Bread. And he blessed it. That is, he
gave thanks, as the marginal reference has, and he break the
bread up as his body was broken. And he gave it to the disciples
and said, you take it and you eat it. That's pretty straightforward,
isn't it? Anything you don't understand
about that? Take it. Eat it. This is my body. This is my body. It's broken
for you. 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 my blood of the New Testament,
the New Covenant. That's the word. Testament is
covenant. Which is shed for many. Shed
for many. for the remission of sins. Now, we see the Lord Jesus Christ
establishing the New Testament ordinance. We call it the Lord's
Table. When we observe this ordinance,
we call it observing the Lord's Table. And notice, this table
is not the church's table. This is the Lord's Table. Believers
are to observe this ordinance of the Lord with faith in their
heart, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ for all of salvation.
That's what saving faith does. It looks to Him who is the author
and finisher of our salvation. It's also recorded in Luke 22,
verse 19, and we don't have it here in Matthew 26, but there
it's added, our Lord said, this do, in remembrance of me, in
remembrance of me. Now we don't observe this ordinance
to be justified. We don't observe the Lord's table
to be sanctified. We simply do as the Lord and
the apostles commanded us to do in remembering the Lord's
great atonement for our sin. We've read that scripture many
times over in 1 Corinthians 11, he said, as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord's
death until He come. Now by God's purpose, sovereign
purpose, sovereign providence, and by the grace of God, the
Lord was observing this last Passover feast. You can read
about that in verse 17. Now the first day, the feast
of unleavened bread, when the disciples came saying
unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for to eat the Passover? Now this was a high feast for
the Jews to remember, and it goes back to that Egyptian bondage
when they were delivered from Egyptian bondage after 400 years,
and they were delivered through the blood of a lamb, put on the
door, go in and sit down. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Now that Old Testament Passover
feast melts away as Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, as Christ,
our Lord, came to fulfill what was pictured in type and shadow
in the establishment of the new covenant of grace through his
precious blood for us, his broken body and his blood. The Lord
Jesus Christ, we studied in the book of Hebrews, and I just One
of my pastor friends is preaching through the book of Hebrews right
now. And I wrote him and told him, I said, I just love that.
I just love that study in the book of Hebrews because it tells
us so much about how Christ is better. He's better at everything. But it says there in Hebrews
7.22, By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant.
Christ is better. He's a better priest with a better
sacrifice, with a better covenant. And then you remember Hebrews
13, the God of peace that brought again from the dead that Lord
Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. The Lord Jesus Christ institutes
this table in remembering that eternal covenant of grace. Now
that eternal covenant of grace is much older than that Old Testament
because it's eternal. It's the eternal covenant. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. As the Lord was finishing the
Passover meal with His apostles, the Lord institutes this new
ordinance for His New Testament church given to remind us of
His great sacrifice. Now when we take the Lord's table,
and we plan to do that in a couple weeks, on March 16th, I believe
the day is. But we do this in remembrance
of him. We do it because he commanded us to take, as believers, to
partake of the Lord's table. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Passover
lamb, was sacrificed for us. He is our Passover. He is our
Passover. Now let's look at a couple things
here. And as my pastor used to say, we're gonna go to school
this morning. We're gonna go to school this morning, and we're
gonna just simply and plainly look at these elements that we
use in the Lord's table. The meaning will be simple, simple
elements. He said there, as they were eating,
he took bread, verse 26, blessed it, break it, gave it to the
disciples, and said, take, eat, this is my body. This is my body. And then likewise, he took the
cup and gave thanks and said, drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Now, here we have the unleavened bread.
We know it was unleavened because they were observing a feast of
unleavened bread. And I'll tell you why in a minute.
And then we have this wine. They weren't using grape juice.
They were using wine. There are many religious organizations,
sadly, who have grossly perverted this ordinance of the Lord to
make it much more than it really is and what the Lord intended
it to be. Many people in religion have
perverted this to make it grossly, a gross error, let's put it that
way. Some say these elements when
blessed by a certain person, that they actually become the
real body and actual blood of Christ. There are some people
that actually teach that. They have a big theological term
that is used, they call that transubstantiation. Now I know
you're not gonna remember that. But what that means is that the
bread, when the priest does his hocus pocus over the bread and
the wafer, the wafer and the wine, when he does his hocus
pocus, hocus pocus, that it becomes the body and blood of Christ. And then when they, that's what
the Catholic mass is all about. And when they partake of those
things, they believe they're actually partaking of salvation. Now, that's totally an error. It's not according to the word
of God. And those that practice such nonsense don't have salvation
at all, and they don't know what the true grace of God is. These
elements represent the body and blood of Christ. They do not
become his actual body and blood. I like what one old reformer
years ago, back in the days of Martin Luther, was arguing with
one of those priests who said that the blood actually becomes
real blood. And the old reformed preacher
said, well, let's see if that's true. You do your hocus pocus,
and you give that wine to that young altar boy, and you tell
him to drink it, and drink it, and drink it, and drink it. If
it's his real blood, he won't get drunk. Well, guess what? That young altar boy drank and
drank and drank and drank and he became drunk because it was
not blood, it was wine. He had a pretty good challenge,
didn't he? So these elements represent the body and blood
of Christ. They do not become the actual
body and blood of Christ. These are symbols. The Bible
is full of symbols that represent things, right? John said, behold, pointing to
the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, behold, the Lamb of God. Now,
was the Lord Jesus Christ an actual lamb? No. That lamb represents his sacrificial
character, doesn't it? So that was symbolic, wasn't
it? And then in Revelation 5, verse 5, we read about the Lion
of the tribe of Judah. Now, was the Lord Jesus Christ
an actual lion? No, but the lion is known as
the king of the jungle, right? The Lord Jesus Christ is King
of kings and Lord of lords. And then in John chapter 6, the
Lord Jesus Christ refers to Himself as the bread of life. Now, does that mean He's actually
a loaf of bread? No, it represents life by eating
Christ. And then the Lord said, I am
the door. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved. I am the door. Now, we know the
Lord Jesus Christ wasn't an actual door, was He? But you see, what
I'm getting at, it's symbolic, wasn't it? There's a door out
there. How'd you get in here? You came
through that door. You didn't climb through the
window, did you? You didn't climb up some other way. No, you came
through the door. Christ is our door. He's our access to the
Father. He said, no man come to the Father
but by me. You kind of get the idea, don't
you? The Lord Jesus Christ, He said, I'm a true vine. I'm a
true vine. Now what does the unleavened
bread represent? The unleavened bread, and we
use unleavened bread when we observe the Lord's table, the
unleavened bread represents and is symbolic of his sinless humanity. His sinless humanity. They were
observing the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Now, in the Scripture,
leaven represents sin. Now, when you ladies, I don't
know if you do that anymore, but used to be years ago, you
take a pinch of leaven, and you put it in a lump of flour, and
what would it do? I mean, it... It had a corrupting
influence. And leaven in Scripture is a
symbol of sin. You remember in Matthew 16, verse
6, he said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of their
sin. Now the Son of Man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is unleavened in His humanity. The Son of Man,
the God-Man, the one mediator, had no sin in His body or His
Spirit or his soul. He was a real man, but he had
no sin. Now this is critically important.
Why do you think he was virgin born? He couldn't be born of
the son of Adam, or conceived by the son of Adam. He had to
be conceived by God the Holy Spirit, which he was. The scriptures
tell us in Hebrews 7, such a high priest became us who was holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. We read in 1 John 3
verse 5, He was manifested to take away our sin, and in Him
is no sin. In 1 Peter chapter 2, it says
there that He did no sin. So he had no sin, he did no sin,
and in 2 Corinthians 5.21, you know this by heart, he knew no
sin. God made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. The Lord Jesus Christ then is
described in scripture as a spotless lamb of God. Even if you go back
to that Passover in Egypt, When they were to bring a Passover
lamb, you remember what they were to do first? They were to
put it up and observe it for two weeks, fourteen days, to
make sure it had no spot or blemish. Why'd they do that? Pointing
to the spotless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. blessed the bread, he gave thanks,
as it says there, he gave thanks, and we do in everything give
thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. And then he said, the bread was
broken, and that pictures the Lord's broken body for us. What broke his body? He bare
our sin and his own body on the tree, and his body was broken
because of our sin. And then the bread was received.
He said there, As they were eating, He took bread and blessed it,
break it, gave it to them and said, take, eat. Take it and
eat it. Consume it. Consume it. We feed upon Christ. Consume
it. Take, eat. This is my body. Now,
we as believers, we receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. By faith, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is received by believing, not by doing. For by grace are
you saved through faith. That knowledge of yourself is
the gift of God. He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath eternal life, shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. The eating of this is symbolic
of receiving Christ by faith. And that's how we receive Him,
by faith. The wine represents, you all know what the wine represents,
don't you? His blood. His blood. His precious blood. God bought
the church with His own blood. It's just not some humble Jewish
man from Nazareth died. He who died is God, our Savior. It's just no ordinary blood of
a Jewish man. It's the blood of God. He said,
you're no more your own, you're bought with a price. We're bought
with His blood. His blood was not contaminated
with the sin of Adam. He's the only begotten of God.
He's the only well-beloved Son. The Word made flesh and brought
among us. His blood atonement, the blood
atonement of Christ, actually puts away all the sin of God's
people. For it is the blood, if you go
back to the law, Leviticus 1711, it's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. It's not the blood of bulls and
goats. But by His own precious blood, that pictured His blood,
His own precious blood, He put away our sin. His blood cleanses
us from all our sin, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sin, according to the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus.
We are redeemed, as Peter said, not with silver and gold, not
with our tradition, but with the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He obtained for us eternal redemption,
not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with His own blood.
It's the blood of the covenant of His grace, and that's what
the wine represents, not grape juice. The wine represents His
uncontaminated blood. You take back years and years
ago over in the old world before All this was around. Those old
bottles of wine, some of them are hundreds or thousands of
years old, and it's still fresh. There's no contamination in it.
And that pictures His blood. That's why we use the wine. The
wine. Now, look at the last part of
verse 28. This is my blood of a New Testament
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Now, here's
a very important question for us to consider. Who are the many
whose sins are remitted? Well, we read in Acts chapter
13, as many as were ordained to eternal life, believe Acts
13, 48. And then over here in, hold your
place there, and turn to Matthew 20. Turn back to Matthew 20.
He gave his life a ransom, a payment, for sin, the sin of His many
people. And Matthew 20, you see verse
28, Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give His life a ransom, a payment for
sin, for many. Doesn't say all the sins of all
men, does it? Many. Call His name Jesus, He
shall save His people from their sins. Matthew 1.21. We read in John chapter 10 that
the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life for the sheep, for the
many given to Him in that eternal covenant of grace. Called His
sheep, called His elect, called His jewels, called His covenant
children. That's for whom He died. He said,
all that the Father has given to me They'll come to me, and
those that come to me, I'll never cast them out. For I came down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
him may have an everlasting life. I'll raise him up at the last
day. We're studying the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, verse
10. Christ is called the captain
of our salvation. That's bringing many sons unto
glory. He's bringing His sons into glory. Christ suffered for our sins,
just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. The only way
we can come is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord Jesus Christ
died for the sins of His elect, His church, His people. He didn't
make an effort to try to put away their sin. we have remission. Believers have complete remission,
complete remission of all their sin. I asked my cancer doctor
when I went back, not my cancer doctor, my urologist, when I
went back after I had my cancer treatment, and I asked him if
I could use the word regarding my cancer treatment, can I say
that my cancer's in remission? And he said, don't say that.
Almost like it was a cuss word to him. I mean, he said, no,
no, no, don't say that. Now, I don't know how much of
my cancer is gone or removed, but I do know this. I have complete
remission of all my sin. That's the main point. That's
the only point that counts, isn't it? I have remission of sin. Whether I have remission of cancer
or not, I don't know. I don't know. God knows. God
knows. So, let's look down to verse
29. Matthew 26, 29. But I say unto
you, I will not drink henceforth, of the fruit of the vine, until
that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
Now, I had to look at this verse a while. The Lord tells them
that this is the last time he would observe the Passover feast,
because this evening, on this day, when he's instituting the
Lord's table, this very evening, if you read over the rest of
this chapter, Judas comes forth and kisses him and betrays him.
He's arrested and tried. And the next day, the next day,
tomorrow, he's executed. This would be the last time.
24 hours later, he's gone. He's with the Father. This is
the last time he would observe the Passover and the Lord Jesus
Christ came here to fulfill the Passover sacrifice for us. In
that eternal heavenly kingdom that will be established when
he comes again, we will drink it with him anew in the everlasting
covenant of grace and forever partake of His salvation in eternal
glory. Isn't that a good thing? He says
in Luke 22, verse 30, I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father
hath appointed unto me, that you may eat and drink at my table
in my kingdom. We're going to enjoy His fellowship
and communion with Him forever and ever. Now, let me give you
this. The second thing I want us to
see is this, the purpose and object and reason of this ordinance. It says in Luke 22 and 1 Corinthians
11, it's not given to us here, but the Lord said, do this in
remembrance of me. So, we do this and we observe
this as he's commanded in remembrance of him. We remember his person,
who he is, God Almighty manifest in the flesh, he's God our Savior.
We remember his priestly work for us. When he by himself purged
our sin, he sat down on the right hand of God. We remember his
priestly work of redemption, and we remember his obedience
and faithfulness, which he impugned to us as our righteousness before
God. So we remember his person, his
work of redemption, his work of righteousness established,
and then we remember it's all about his glory, isn't it? The
gospel's all about his glory. That's, I like what the old preacher
said back in the 1700s, Jonathan Edwards, the grand design of
redemption is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The simple
ordinance is not the mean, listen to me, it's not the mean to convey
grace or give grace or establish righteousness or salvation, but
rather to show his grace and mercy to us and for us in his
sacrifice for us. We declare our need of a savior
when we partake of the table. We express our faith and commitment
toward him. Paul says, as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come. In closing, notice carefully
this. Those who participated, who should partake of the Lord's
table? Everyone who is a believer. Everyone who is a believer should
participate in the Lord's table. All his disciples, all his disciples,
when they had sung a hymn, they went out. Verse 31, all shall
be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will
smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. But after
I'm risen again, I'll go before you into Galilee. All the disciples, including
Judas, partook of the Lord's table. The Lord knew who would
betray him, right? The Lord knew all the disciples
would forsake him. It says over here in verse 56,
but all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might
be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook
him and fled. He knew exactly what they would
do, and yet he said, you can't partake of my table. The table's for sinners, for
sinners in need of mercy. The Lord knew who would betray
him. The Lord knew that disciples would forsake him. The Lord knew
that Peter would deny him. But Peter partook of the Lord's
table, yet the Lord does not prevent any of them from partaking
of the table. The Lord's table is set for all
sinners who see their need of a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who it's for. For sinners.
For sinners. He came to seek and to save the
lost. The Lord Jesus, this is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation, He came to save sinners. Sinners. The Lord declares unto us in
verse 31 that He will lay down His life according to the Scriptures. I will smite the shepherd as
it is written. Never think of the Lord Jesus
Christ crucified as a terrible tragedy or an accident. He's appointed sacrifice. the
appointed sacrifice of Almighty God to put away our sin. And
it was not what men did that day, that's our hope, it's what
God was doing. He said, I will smite the shepherd
and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered. It's what God was
doing at the cross. It pleased God to bruise him
in our room and on our stead. Our Lord said, no man takes my
life. I have power to lay it down, I have power to take it
in, this commandment have I received of my father. He also declared
that the weak, depraved, frail sheep would be scattered, but
he also tells them he will not forsake them, but will gather
them. As we read earlier there in Zechariah
13, he says, I will turn my hand upon the little ones. They all
forsook him and fled. The Lord did not forsake them.
He gathered them unto himself, didn't he? He laid his hand of
mercy and grace and power, and he draws us to himself. Then he declares, verse 32, his
resurrection victory for us. He said, after I'm risen, I like
that positive language, don't you? After I'm risen, I will
go before you into Galilee. He declares his resurrection
victory for us. He said, I'll go before you and
recover you from your weakness and sin. Still true today, the
Lord is still gathering out his little ones. The Lord is still
laying his hands of mercy upon his children and drawing us into
himself. We know he was delivered for
our offenses and he was raised again He's raised again because
he justified us by his grace, by his grace. Even though Peter
said, I'll never, I'll never. Yes, you will, Peter. You see,
our salvation, Peter's salvation wasn't based upon his faithfulness,
was it? Upon Peter's faithfulness? Oh,
no. It was based upon the Lord's
faithfulness for Peter, for Peter.