Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Luke, chapter 22. Luke 22. And I'd like to read verse 19. Luke 22, verse 19. The Scripture says, And he took
bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying,
This is my body, which is given for you, this do in remembrance
of me." Let's pray together. Our Father, as we call upon You
this evening, Lord, it is so good to be able to pray and to
thank You and to bless You for who You are. Lord, the goodness,
longsuffering and mercy that You've shown us. How we pray
this evening, Lord, would You bless the Word to our understanding
and cause us to hear for Christ's sake. Amen. There is something that is marvelously
wonderful about eating the Lord's Supper. It's not merely the eating of
a little piece of unleavened bread and the drinking of a small
cup of wine. It's the eating of the elements
of the Lord's Supper with Him and in remembrance of Him. He said in this chapter, Luke
22, verse 15, He said unto them, that is, unto His disciples,
with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer." Now, I know that he was talking to his disciples. But what he was actually doing
was expressing his heart toward his people. It is a miracle of
God's grace. that Almighty God is pleased
to have fellowship with men. That the Lord of glory would
heartily desire to eat with His own. He said, I have with desire,
I desired to eat this Passover with you. Now, I know based upon
His Word. And where two or three are gathered
together in My Name, He said, there am I in the midst of them."
Now, I know. I've said before, I know. We're
in this place having assembled ourselves together and the Lord
Jesus Christ based upon His Word and there's no respect of persons
with his people, all loved with an everlasting love, all chosen
in him from before the foundation of the world. I know that. And
here we are this evening, part of his body, assembled together
and with desire as he desired to eat with his disciples. He
heartily desires to eat with us this evening. Oh, how good,
Psalm 133-1, and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together
in unity. To be in this place this evening,
to eat with Him in our presence, what a joy. Now in that last supper before
he suffered, laid down his life for his people, he gave this
command as he took, as he broke, as he gave the bread unto his
brethren. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. Now I read that verse of Scripture
again. And I began to think, based upon
what our Lord had said right here in this passage and another
passage or two, what are we remembering? This do in remembrance of me. Lord, what do we remember about
you? Well, the first thing that I
know is that we remember that He died being made like unto
his brethren as a man. Almighty God was made flesh. The Scripture says, Luke 22,
19, that we just read, And he took bread, gave thanks, break
it, gave unto them, saying, This is my body. This is my body. This bread is the visible symbol
of My body that is given for you." Now, I know that God is
Spirit. And for Him to die, for God to
lay down His life, for God to shed His blood. You know, we
looked at that Scripture the other day. The church that He
purchased with His own blood. I know for God Almighty to lay
down His life, He had to be flesh. The Scripture says in Hebrews
10.5 that a body was prepared Him. Now, here's what happened. A body was fitted for Him. Let's just look at Hebrews 10.5. That's what Scripture says concerning
him being made flesh. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. You may find in your margin
there it says, thou hast fitted me. A body was fitted him, a
real, natural body. that was flesh, human flesh. And that body that fitted Him
was made in all points like unto His brethren, but the Scripture
says, yet without sin. He had a body, a human body,
real flesh. Every part of Him was just like
His brethren, but there was no sin there. That body, now we
age. We age, we're going to die because
of sin. We hurt. We feel pain. All of the characteristics of
a human being are such that the pain, the aging, because of sin,
the effects of sin. But the Spirit of God fitted
Him a body. He was made flesh. A body was
prepared Him that was made in all points. He aged. He actually was born of a virgin. He was conceived by the Holy
Ghost. He was conceived in the womb
of a woman. And for nine months, that woman,
Mary, earthly mother. He was actually tied in with
her. That was her child conceived
by the Spirit of God. That holy thing that the Scripture
speaks of, that flesh that was fitted, a body that was fitted
Him, made Him by the Spirit of God and came forth Just like
every other human being is born a baby. That mother took care
of him, raised him, fed him. He grew. He aged. He grew, the Scripture
says, in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. He made in all points, like unto
his brethren, yet without sin. That body was prepared in the
book of God's purpose and was curiously formed by the Holy
Spirit in time, and He came forth that He might be clothed in human
flesh and perform the work of redemption for his people. He
was in the form of a servant that he might lay down his life.
And so we remember tonight, this do in remembrance of me, this
is what we're remembering, that little piece of bread, unleavened
bread. What do we remember when we eat
that bread? We eat that bread and we remember
that great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in
the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world and received up into
glory. We remember that a body was fitted Him, made Him flesh. especially prepared, a body that
could be just like His brethren, yet without sin, and could age
and could hurt and could thirst. He could feel. He knew the effects. He knew the effects of sin. He was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. That body was specially made
by the Spirit of God. That's what we remember. He said,
this is my body. Secondly, we remember that he
died willingly according to God's purpose at the express time of
God's choosing. I want you to turn back. Hold
your finger there in Luke 22. Turn back to Matthew 26. Matthew
26, verse 18. He died at the express time. You know, there were many times
that Scripture says that a man wanted to take Him, but it wasn't
yet his time. What is time? Well, the Scripture
says in Matthew 26, 18, 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. We remember that when He died,
He died, you know, The Passover. He was the Passover lamb. Back
in Egypt, you remember, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
years before this, a lamb was taken, set apart, was to be slain. The blood was to be applied on
the lintel of the doorpost. That lintel of the doorpost faced
the outside. The people were told, go inside. Stay in the house. Stay inside
the house. The Lord said, I will come through. And when I see the blood, not
the people on the inside. They couldn't see the blood.
But when I see the blood, I'll pass over you on the night of
the Passover. It was a certain night. And that
Passover was observed. Exactly as God Almighty set forth
that that Passover, the remembrance of the Passover, was to be observed. And the Lord Jesus Christ, that
Lamb pictured Him. And on the Passover, the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Passover Lamb, His time was now at hand. Until this time, no one could
touch Him at that perfect time of God's choosing. He obediently
laid down His life as the Lamb of God. Here is the fire. Here
is the wood. Father, where is the Lamb? Abraham
told Isaac, My son, God will provide Himself a Lamb. The Lamb of God's provision. And now, here is the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's Lamb. This is my body, back in Luke
22, 19, which is given for you. No man takes my life from me.
Nobody took his life from him. He gave himself. Thirdly, we
remember that he died as the particular substitute. Luke 22, 19, He took bread, gave
thanks, break it, gave unto them saying, This is my body which
is given for you. This is my body which is given
in particular in the place and the stead of His people. John 10, 19, how many times have
we considered that? He said He laid down His life
for the sheep. I laid down my life for the sheep. Look at Isaiah 53.11. Isaiah
53.11. Let's start in verse 10. Isaiah 53.10. Isaiah 53, verse 10, Yet he pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities."
I looked up that word, many, to just know exactly what it
meant. And it actually is great in number, great in number, not
meaning all. He shall justify many. Who shall
He justify? The same number that he spoke
in John 10, 11, he said, I lay down my life for the sheep. And lest he would not have clarified
it, he told those Pharisees in that same chapter, he said, you
don't believe because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my
voice. They follow me. I know them. I had someone that greatly tried
to take me to task on this issue. And I do. I want to be as truthful and kind. And in fact,
I ended up telling him in the email. I said, I want you to
know I truly love you. I do. I love you enough to tell
you the truth. I said, I'll lose your friendship
before I'll not tell you the truth. I said, if you never want
to speak to me again, that's okay. But when it comes to the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ laying down His life for His
sheep, the issue is not with the preacher. The issue is with
Almighty God because the Lord is the one that said that. I
didn't say it. I repeated it, but I did not
come up with this truth. When he said, Jeff, I laid down
my life for the sheep, God said that. God Almighty said that. What do we remember? We remember
that he took upon himself flesh. He died as the substitute and
federal head of his people. and secured their absolute redemption. He, as their atonement, as their
covering, as their satisfaction, He put away the debt that was
owed to His people. And in no wise did the Lord Jesus
Christ do anything other than what He said He did. He said,
this is my body. which is given for you. For you, His people. And then fourthly, we remember
that this supper, a supper of His anointing, has His blessing
upon it. Back in Luke 22, 19, He took
bread and gave thanks. and break it, and gave unto them,
saying, This is my body which is given for you, this do in
remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper,
saying, This cup is the New Testament, in my blood which is shed for
you." He blessed. He took. He gave thanks. and broke it. Thankful that the
Father had given Him a people that He redeemed. Thanking the
Lord for the redemption of His elect, His bride. Washing them
in His precious blood. We remember and we eat tonight
with this command. This do. And we eat with a heart
of appreciation, knowing that without His blessing, without
His presence, without His death, without His obedience, we've
met in vain. Lord, as we eat of this bread
and drink of this cup, cause us to remember, for Christ's
sake. Amen.