There you go. I'm bad about that.
We're going to take turning to Matthew verse 26, chapter 26,
and I'll be looking at verse 26. But I want to look at the
institution of the Lord's Supper. We've looked at scriptures before
and we've considered this, but I want us to look at this verse
of scripture again. The scripture says in Matthew
26, verse 26, 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. This glorious ordinance of the
Lord's Supper, I want us to just look for a few minutes at what
was truly being set forth. We do this, let's hear what the
Spirit of God has to say about the Lord's Supper. The scripture
says in verse 17 of Matthew 26, now the first day of the feast
of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying unto him,
where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the Passover? Now, here we've got the account
of the Lord Jesus keeping the Passover. He was made under the
law, made of a woman, made under the law. What does that mean?
He came and submitted himself to all the ordinances, all of
the law. He submitted himself to all of
the law. And this submission under the law, what he was doing,
was obeying the law of God in the earning of the righteousness
that is imputed to all that believe. Now when we talk about the imputed
righteousness of Christ, what we're talking about is that He
as the Man, Christ Jesus, the Man, the Son of Man, He obeyed
God in every point, every jot, every tittle, every infraction. You look at, when you write the
Hebrew, and I look at these little symbols, and I look at them,
and some of them, there might be just one little different,
one little hyphen or something like that, just a little, and
it gives a different meaning of that word. thing that was
demanded, everything that was written in the law of God, he
submitted himself. Now, the Passover was that time
in the land of Egypt, that was that time that the Lord was going
to deliver Israel out of Egypt, and you remember the last of
the plagues, God is going to send the last plague and he's
telling Moses now Pharaoh is going to let the people go. Tonight
I'm going to come through and I'm going to kill the firstborn.
Men, animals, I'm going to come to the lamb. Now I want you to
tell the people you take a lamb and you kill this lamb and you
take the blood of this lamb and you put it on the lentil, the
doorpost, and when I come through, when I see the blood, I'm going
to pass over you. I'll pass over you. Now that
ordinance, that obedience to that command was what they celebrated. Every year they were celebrating
the Passover. That time when God came through
and saw the blood on the doors of the people of Israel, and
where that blood was, He spared them. There was that picture
and that type of the Lord Jesus Christ shedding His blood, covering
that atonement. And where that blood was not
found, there was death. in that family. So here they
are, it's every year, every year, every year. Now the first day
of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the disciples came to Jesus saying
unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the
Passover? And he said, go into the city
to such a man and say unto him, the master saith, my time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples. Now the Lord knew that the time
of his death had arrived. You know how often we read in
the scriptures where they came to take him and his time was
not yet. the time according to the eternal
counsel and pleasure and goodwill of the Father instructs, the
Lord instructs His disciples. He said, now you go to this certain
man, a man that I'm going to send you to, and you tell him
that I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. Notice the authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God speaks, and it is. He doesn't beg, but rather He
sends them with authority. You tell them that I will. And
so it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. When His Spirit comes
to a vessel of His mercy, He speaks, and that heart, made
willing in the day of God's power, submits. He told Noah, come into
the ark. What'd Noah do? He came to the
ark. When the Lord bids, men come. He bids in power. He's not denied,
but rather, He comes in saving grace. And that new heart of
His creation bows to His voice. And the disciples, verse 19,
did, as Jesus had appointed them, And they made ready the Passover. Now there's again no hesitation
in his disciples. They did as they were bid. And the Lord Jesus said concerning
his own, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow
me. Christians hear. They recognize the voice of the
shepherd. When it says they hear my voice, you know when you speak to somebody,
your voice has a specific sound. The sound of your voice. Now
we could all get up and repeat the same sentence. And also I
said, all right, everybody, I'm going to get everybody up and
say, today is Wednesday. I want everybody to say that
individually. And you can listen to somebody
say that. And when, you know, Barrett,
when you'd say it, I'd say, well, OK, that's Barrett. That's Barrett's
voice. That was David's voice. I recognized that voice. Now
here's the amazing thing about a believer. No believer in this
room tonight has ever physically, like you're hearing my voice
right now with this ear, you're hearing it, no believer has ever
actually heard the voice, the actual, the man voice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. But there is a hearing, there
is a hearing ear and a seeing eye, and it's the new heart. There's a way that you hear it,
and when you hear it, it's consistent. It's the voice of the master.
They recognize it. That's what I'm getting at. You
recognize the voice. And it's the voice that's consistent
with these scriptures. It says, that which you know
in your heart, taught by the Spirit of God to be so. And they
know that voice to be the voice of Him who loves them. That's
my Master's voice. That's the Savior's, that's the
Redeemer's. That's the voice of my husband.
And they yield to it. They read it. You can read the
Scriptures. And in your heart, you hear Him
speaking. And they seek to be led by Him. My sheep hear My voice. I know them. I know them in grace. I know them as those given to
Me in electing mercy by My Father. I know My sheep. He knows where
they are. And they follow me. Every believer has that struggle. I agree with
that old man. Two men. That old carnal man
that rebels, but there's a new man. I want to follow you. What believer doesn't truly,
in that new heart, want to follow the Master? I want to do that
which is right. I want to do that which is pleasing.
I want to follow after Him. Is there a believer in here that
doesn't have a desire to follow after the Master? No, there's
no believer in here that is separated from a heart that longs for Him.
I want to be where He is. And when the eve in verse 20
was come, He sat down with the twelve, and as they did eat,
Now listen to this, they're eating the Passover. And while they're eating, he's
eating with them. They're eating, he's eating.
And as they did eat, he says, verily, truly, I say
unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Now, the Lord is God. He's omniscient. He knows all
things. He knows that which shall befall
Himself while He's there. He orders all things after the
counsel of His own will. All power is given unto Him,
heaven and earth, that He should give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given Him. And He knew that before the foundation
of the world, He knew this was His lot. He came into this world
as the Lamb of God. To what? To give Himself. Remember when Isaac was going
with Abraham and his daddy, and they were going up on the hill,
they were going to go worship God, that's what Abraham said. The
son says, here's the wood, here's the fire, where's the Lamb? God will provide Himself. a lamb. And here's the lamb provided. Here's the one who is submitted
to the will of the Father. And he knew that he was going
to be forsaken. He knew that. It was prophesied. Hold your place and turn to Psalm
55.12. Psalm 55.12. He knew that he was going to
be forsaken. But he knew also that he was
gonna be one within that inner circle of his chosen, he knew
that. Listen to this Psalm 55, verse
12. For it was not an enemy that
reproached me, then I could have borne it. Neither was it he that
hated me that did magnify himself against me. Then I would have
hid myself from him, but it was thou, a man mine equal, mine
guide, mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together,
walked to the house of God in company. Let death seize upon
them, let them go down quick to hell for wickedness is in
their dwellings and among them." The Lord is saying, it wasn't. It wasn't one that I didn't know. He chose twelve apostles. There were only twelve. Twelve
men. And he said, one of you is the
devil. But here he's got this, the twelve are sitting there.
And they're eating the Passover together and he tells them, one
of you is going to forsake me, deny me. Now the Lord was going
to give Himself into the hands of wicked men. He would willingly
go to the cross of Calvary. He was going to be made sin.
He was going to suffer the penalty of the broken law, that law that
was broken by his sheep, the sheep of his affection. He's
going to pay the price of redemption. He's going to pay for the debt
of his bride. And he's going to do all these
things according to the means of God's choosing. How is that? He's going to be forsaken by
one of his own. Verse 22 says, they were exceeding
sorrowful and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord,
is it I? They were truly troubled to hear
that their master was going to be betrayed. But what troubled
them most was to hear that it was going to be one of them that
did it. Now, if he would have said, I'm
going to be betrayed by the Jews, well, we figured that. They've
been nothing but trouble from the time that you've started
your ministry. If it's going to be one of the
world, if it's going to be one of us, one of the 12, Every one of those men except
one knew and felt something of the
frailty of their flesh. They knew something of the tendency
of that old man that was there And here was the Lord saying
that one of you is going to do something that eleven of them
had not even considered. Betraying the Lord? There were eleven among that
group that considered, though I have never thought about betraying
Him, I wouldn't put it past myself.
That's what they're saying. I wouldn't put it past me. I know that there's an old man
in me. But they never suspected Judas. Not one of them said. Well, if
it's going to be one of us, I guarantee you it's Judas. He's been acting
real strange lately. That man Judas, he was one of
the chosen preachers. He was one that heard the gospel
from the mouth of the Lord just like the other eleven. He was a trusted officer in the
group. He was the treasurer. He held
the bag. They trusted him. They trusted
him. They trusted Him with the money,
the finances, they trusted Him. They trusted Him in the pulpit.
I don't doubt that there were many things that He did, just
like all the other eleven. They never suspected. But prior
to that revelation of the Lord, there were some that just never
considered Our Lord had mentioned He's going to the cross, but
He's going... You're saying that one of us? We all would do well to take
heed to ourselves and consider ourselves liable to anything
that the Lord doesn't keep us from. I've heard people say,
I would never do that. Oh my, my. You'd never do that? I think scripture bears a difference. True disciples will always be
jealous and watchful over themselves with godly jealousy, especially
in trying times. Be careful, be careful, be careful. We don't know how weak we are.
We don't realize how strongly that we can be tempted or how
far God may allow us to go. Therefore, we have no reason
to be high-minded but rather fear lest we be taken in a fault. Lord, is it me? If I'm the one, I wouldn't put
it past me. Lord, if you don't keep me, I'll
do it, Lord, if you don't keep me. Verse 23-24, And He answered
and said, He that dippeth his hand with Me in the dish, the
same shall betray Me. The Son of Man goeth as it is
written of Him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man
is betrayed. It had been good for that man
if he had not been born. The traitor was a familiar friend. It's also said in Psalm 41.9,
yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did
eat my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. The Lord told them, one of you
that's sitting right here with me right now, been with me three
and a half years, beheld the miracles. And now you're going
to turn me over. You're going to betray me. And
the way he was going to betray him, you know how. He was going
to be with a kiss. This is the way of false religion. It's always under the guise of
love. Under the guise of love. Judas
had just And look at verse 14 of the chapter we're in right
now. He's already been to the chief priest before this time.
Look at verse 14, 15. Then one of the 12 called Judas
Iscariot went unto the chief priest and said to them, what
will ye give me? And I will deliver him unto you.
And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver. And from that time, he sought
opportunity to betray him. After this supper, they're going
to go out and he's going to go to the garden, garden of Gethsemane,
garden of agony, garden of sweat, blood. And Judas is going to
come up to him and he's going to give him a kiss. That's the
sign. That's the sign. Always under
the guise of love. One of you is going to betray
me. And the Lord said, He said that the Son of Man, it goeth
as it is written of Him. He's going to be betrayed. He's
going to suffer humiliation. He's going to die on the cross.
It's going to happen. But woe unto that man by whom
the Son of Man is betrayed. Almighty God has set forth this
is the way it's going to be. And here's this man that had
seen the Lord heal the sick and give sight to the blind and feed
thousands with a few fish and some loaves of bread. He's going
to be the traitor. And he's witnessed this. And
the Lord said to him, one of you is going to betray me. And
Judas knew it was him. He's already covenanted with
the chief of the Jews. And the scripture says, as they
were eating. No, I'm sorry, verse 25. Then
Judas, which betrayed him, hadn't done it yet openly, but
he's already covenanted. He's already betrayed him. He
just hadn't followed through with it, answered and said, Master,
now listen to this. He said, I? And he said unto him, thou hast
said. Judas, all the others were asking,
is it I? Is it I? Now if Judas don't say
something, they gonna know. So he says, possibly to avoid
coming under suspicion of the others by silence, Master, is
it I? He knew it was Himself, but oh,
how the old man is quick to justify itself before men. Put on a good
face. Judas knew, at least in his head,
you know, men know God is God. But he never deviated from his
rebellion. Now here's the Lord speaking.
When the Lord said, The Son of Man goeth as it is written of
Him, but woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
Don't you think that that word right there would have struck
fear? The Lord who healed all these people, who fed those people,
made blind see, walked on the water. He's God. He's God. They've seen the evidence
of it. And for Him to say, the Son of
Man goeth as it's written of Him, but woe unto... Do you know
what He was saying? Woe unto that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed. That man's going to hell. He's
going to be under the judgment of God. You know what it's going to take
for a man to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ? It's going to take
more than just the natural hearing of this right here. God's going
to have to give me a new heart. I'm going to have to be made
alive. That word of our precious Savior fell on a dead, cold,
rebellious heart, and it did not make any difference to him. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread, and blessed it, and break it, gave it to the disciples,
and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he took the cup,
and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 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, we behold the institution. of this gospel ordinance of the
Lord's Supper. The Lord and his disciples had
just eaten of the Passover, that remembrance of when God passed
over. In all the pictures and types
that that Passover set forth, picture and type, and now he's
going to institute what we're about to do right here. And he
said, now this is what all of that pictured. He said, it pictures
me. He said, I was spoken of. He
said, here's, he's going to take that bread and he's going to,
he took that bread and the scripture says that he took that bread
and he broke it. He break it. He blessed it, I'm
sorry, blessed it. Or pronounced a blessing of good
pleasure of God upon the one that that bread set forth. He took that bread and He blessed
it. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear Him. The Father blessed
Him. He blessed Him. And this is what
Christ did. He took that bread and He blessed it. And He's speaking
of Himself. He's blessed of the Father. And
He'd break it. And when He broke that bread,
what He was saying that He said, this is me, this is my body. that is going to suffer the scourging
and the thorns and the nails and the spear. My body is going
to be broken. And he gave it to his disciples. John 13, 27 reveals that even
Judas was given the sop. And as soon as the Lord gave
him the sop, The scripture says that Satan entered into him and
Judas went out to do quickly that which he had purpose to
do. He ate of that bread. He ate of that bread just like
the other eleven did. And he died in his sins. Life
is not in this ordinance right here. Life is not in this ordinance. Life is not in baptism. Life
is in Christ. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is a picture, this is a remembrance. The Lord told us, you do this
in remembrance of me. And what we're doing tonight,
we're doing exactly what He commanded us to do. He took bread, He blessed
it. He's the blessed Lamb, the blessed
Redeemer. And He'd break it. This is what
I'm going to give my life for you. And He gave it to His disciples. He told them. He said, this is
my body. They were eating. He took bread.
He blessed it. He gave it to the disciples.
Take, eat all of this. Took the cup. Gave thanks. Drink all of
it. For this is my blood of the New
Testament. This is my blood of that everlasting
covenant of grace that was made for you. That covenant between
the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for a people of God's
choosing. That covenant whereby He said,
I've come into this world to lay down my life for the sheep. And this is what we're remembering,
the blood of that New Testament, that covenant of grace. He said,
this is my blood which confirms the surety of that covenant. What God has promised, Christ
procured by the shedding of His own blood. And the scripture
says in verses 29 and 30, He said now, I'm in the latter part
of verse 28. This is my blood of the New Testament
which is shed for many. Not for all, but for many. And I look that word many up. You always do well to do that.
It says, a large part of mankind. That's the definition. Many.
A large part of mankind. This is my blood which is shed
for many for the remission, for the forgiveness of sins. And then in verse 29 and 30,
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." And when they had sung a hymn, they went out
into the Mount of Olives. This was going to be the only
supper that he was going to physically eat with them. Spiritually, he
would be with them every time. We know the Lord's here tonight.
He said he was here. Two or three had gathered together
in my name. He said, I am in the midst of you. And the same
Lord Jesus that sat with His disciples on that evening right
there is here tonight. And as we partake of these elements
that He's instructed us to partake, we do so in remembrance and thanksgiving
unto Him. And I pray that as we do, just
a minute, We'll pass them out and we'll do like we always do.
But having heard what the scriptures say concerning the institution
of this, what happened on that night of that supper? May we
remember that if we know Him in saving grace, it's by His
grace and by His mercy that He's shown us to have a heart to remember
it and be thankful. for that which God's been pleased
to, eternally pleased to do for us. I pray the Lord bless this
to our hearts. For Christ's sake, for our good. Amen. All right.