This evening in Matthew 26, verses
26 to 28, we're looking at the partaking of the Lord's Supper. And you know, when we partake
of the Lord's Supper, if we do that which we do, anything we
do, we never err in the observance of what we do if we adhere to
divine revelation. I've had people ask me, they
said, what do you think about this? Or what do you think about
that? How do you think that ought to be done? And I said, here's
a good rule of thumb. What did the disciples do? What did the Lord do? What did
He do? Did those that heard Him, what
did He instruct them to do? And more times than not, you're
going to find an example. And whatever He did, whatever
His disciples did, whatever the people of God did, that's a good
indication of what we ought to do. Now, the Apostle Paul said
concerning the observance of the Lord's Supper, He said in
1 Corinthians 11, He said, For I have received of the Lord that
which I delivered unto you. Now that's a good indication
right there. Whatever the Lord was pleased
to tell him. Whatever Almighty God mercifully
revealed to His people. concerning how they were to remember
Him in the eating of His supper. That's the way it ought to be
done. Now, He instituted this supper, the Scripture says, on
a night that held eternal consequences. The Scripture says the same night
in which He was betrayed. Now you know that he knew what
was going on. Here's God. Almighty God who
knows the end from the beginning. He knew. He knew just exactly
how this night was going to progress. He knew that he was going to
be betrayed into the hands of wicked men. He knew that he was going to
suffer unimaginable agony in the garden of Gethsemane. He
knew that. He knew that his disciples were
going to desert him. He knew that his body was going
to be broken. He knew that his precious blood
was going to be shed. And he knew that his betrayer
sat right there with him, ate with him, acting like he was
his friend. Now this evening, I'd like to
just consider a few questions concerning the Lord's Supper.
And consider the answers that we find in the observance of
the Lord's Supper from the Scriptures. How do we partake of the Lord's
table? Here's my first question. What do we eat? What do we drink
in the keeping of the Lord's supper? And why? Why do we do
what we do? Now the scripture says in 1 Corinthians
11.23, the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed,
took bread. Now, what they had been doing,
they were observing the Passover. Now, I want you to turn to Matthew
26. If you're still there, just look
at verses 17-19. Matthew 26, 17-19. It says, Now
the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus,
saying unto Him, Nowhere wilt thou that we prepare for thee
to eat the Passover. And He said, Go into the city
to such a man And saying to him, the Master saith, My time is
at hand. I will keep the Passover at thy
house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus
had appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. Now,
the Scripture says it was the first day of the feast of unleavened
bread. The Passover. And you remember
what they were doing in the observance of this Passover. They were remembering
the night in Egypt when the Lord passed over the children of Israel,
all that had the blood applied to the doorpost. And this Passover,
was observed according to the law. In fact, Exodus 12, 8, on
that night that the Passover was to be eaten, the Scripture
says that the Lord had given Moses instruction. And it says,
"...and they shall eat the flesh in that night." They were to
kill a lamb. It says, "...and roast with fire,
and unleavened bread, And with bitter herbs they shall eat it."
That was the way that they were to eat the Passover. Here was the type, the setting
forth of the true lamb. By faith, they ate this Passover. My son Abraham told Isaac, God
will provide himself. A lamb. Now, when they're eating
of that lamb, that's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they were to take that lamb, they were to roast it with fire,
showing the agonies of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only in the
garden, but on the cross under the wrath and judgment of Almighty
God as our substitute when the Lord Jesus Christ cried out,
My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?" And you know, he was made sin. And Almighty
God is of pure eyes and to behold iniquity. His Father forsook
him. Unleavened bread was to be eaten
on the night of that Passover and every other observance. Unleavened
bread. No leaven. No yeast. No nothing. Nothing could be added. Just
flour and water. Nothing. Showing the perfection
and the holiness of His sacrifice. Nothing was permitted to mingle. with the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ for acceptance before God." Nothing
is added to His sacrifice. Nothing of man. Nothing of His
works. Nothing of His will. Nothing
of His efforts. Nothing. Nothing. No unleavened
bread. So when they ate that unleavened
bread, what it was saying is this, salvation is of the Lord. Not by works of righteousness
that we've done. Unleavened bread. When we eat
of that unleavened bread right there. Flour and water. Nothing else. Him. That's what He said. That's what
the Lord said. You will use in the eating of
that Passover. It was to be eaten with bitter
herbs. That was expression of the true mourning of us over
our sins which crucified Him. You eat that with bitter herbs.
2 Corinthians 7.10 gives good indication of this. It says,
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented
of. It was my guilt. It was my sin
that He bore. I'm a rebel against God. Not
him. He was without sin. Holy, just,
perfect. Made sin for his people. But it was my fault. I'm guilty. So we eat unleavened bread. The Lord Jesus Christ was eating
the Passover. That was the bread that was there.
That was the bread according to law. And that's why we don't
buy little wafers. We don't buy hot rolls. We use unleavened bread. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
used on the night in which He was betrayed. That's what we
use. Secondly, we use wine. Wine. 1 Corinthians 11.25 says,
after the same manner also, he took the cup. You say, well,
it just says the cup. Well, hold on. Wine is set forth in the Scripture
as a beautiful and a fit symbol of the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Whenever Melchizedek who met Abraham. Abraham was
coming back from the slaughter of the kings. Remember when Lot,
his nephew, was taken hostage by these kings. And Abraham went
after him. Get Lot back. And he got him. He got him. And when he was coming
back from the slaughter of these kings, Melchizedek met him. And Melchizedek, for sure, was
a type I know of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe he was
the Lord, just as when the Lord met with Abraham, when the Lord
met with him and told him, Sarah is going to have a wife, and
he sent those two angels into Sodom. That was the Lord. Whenever
the Lord met with Gideon, and spoke with him, accepted the
sacrifice of the Lord. He met in different times in
the Scriptures. I believe that Melchizedek didn't
have beginning of days, didn't have end of days. There was no
genealogy. Mom and Daddy wasn't listed,
no time of his birth, no time of his death. It was just there. No record ever what happened
to him. The Scripture says that Melchizedek, king of Salem, this
is Genesis 14a, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the
priest of the Most High God. Now here was when Almighty God
set forth for the first time the symbols of God's blessing
through a sacrifice. What did Melchizedek, what did
he have? What did he set forth? He had
bread, he had wine. Now our Lord, turn to Luke 22. Luke 22. Our Lord actually revealed the
elements that he used in his supper. Luke 22, verse 14 through verse
19. And when the hour was come, he
sat down and the twelve apostles with him, and he said unto them
with desire, I have heartily desired. With desire I have desired
to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I say unto
you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled
in the kingdom of God." He took the cup, gave thanks, and said,
Take this, divide it among yourselves, for I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. He took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it unto them,
saying, This is my body which is given for you, this do in
remembrance of me. And I looked it up. to see what
it was referring to as the fruit of the vine, wine. Our Lord set
forth that which He used. That fruit of that vine, that
grape, squeezed in the wine press, that juice comes forth, fermented,
Wine is made, all the impurities taken out just as the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ was squeezed in justice when it pleased God
to bruise Him. Scripture sets forth in Psalm
104.15, wine maketh glad the heart. The blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ shed for needy sinners. sets forth and speaks of the
joy and the gladness to the heart of God's people. When the Lord
Jesus Christ went to a marriage in Cana of Galilee, the scripture
says the first miracle that He performed there in Cana of Galilee,
He took water and He turned it into wine. And there was an interesting
statement made by the man that was in charge, I guess you'd
say, of the wedding. They had run out of wine. And
you know Mary came to the Lord Jesus Christ and she told him
they were out of wine. That's when he told them to take
those water pots. He said to fill them to the brim.
And the Scripture says that the Lord turned that water into wine. And the man that was in charge
there tasted the wine. And he said, this is unusual. Usually they set forth the best
wine first. And when men are well drunken,
they serve the worst of it. You can't tell as much. You've
saved the best. until last. And in that miracle
where the Lord Jesus Christ turned that water into wine, what He
did is we beheld that all the miracles and the types and the
shadows of His coming were good. They were wonderful. I love looking at the types and
shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we see Him, when you see
that brazen serpent raised there in the desert when the people
were being bitten by the snakes, and the Lord told Moses, said,
make a brazen serpent, make a snake, put it up on a pole. That was
a symbol of what was biting the people. A picture of sin that
was biting the people. When the people look, They'll
live. Just look. Look. You see that
rock that was smitten? That rock that followed them,
the Scripture says. Man, that amazes me. That rock
followed them. Followed those people and gave
them water out of that rock. That rock of Christ. You see
the ark when Noah got in it. You see all these beautiful pictures
and types. And we love looking at those.
But in every type, it never comes up to the original, does it? No. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
Word of God, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word with
God, and the Word was God. And Scripture says, and the Word
was made flesh to save the best to last. Why? Setting forth the glory. Why
do we eat unleavened bread? Why do we drink the wine? Because
that's what the Lord used. That's what the Lord was pleased.
Secondly, when do we eat the Lord's Supper? Well, the Scripture
says 1 Corinthians 11.26, for as often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup. Now here is what the Scriptures
set forth. There's no time set in Scriptures
on how often we should observe the Lord's table. But when it says, as often, and
here again, it's important that we look and we find out what
does the Scripture say. I looked up that phrase, but
as often, and here's what it means. As many times as. And therefore, it insinuates
that the Lord's Supper, the observance of it, should be frequently. As many times as. Our Lord ate
the supper. It was at night. I've thought
about that word supper. It was the Lord's supper. I'm
going to eat this supper with you. John 13, verse 2, it says,
And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart
of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, I looked up the
word supper. Here's what it means. The formal
meal, which was usually eaten at night. Now, let me tell you
this. The Scripture, I don't believe it demands that the Lord's
Supper is to be eaten at any particular interval, or that
it must be eaten at night. I'm not saying that. Here's what
I'm saying. This is when the Lord did it.
This is when the Lord did it. I'm just setting forth and telling
you how He did it. This is how He ate the bread. This is what He ate. This is
what He drank. This is when he did it. The Scripture
sets forth as often as you do it. Number three, who should
eat of the Lord's Supper? The Scripture sets forth, obviously,
that if we're going to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
got to be a heart of remembrance there. So all true believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm going to show you the scripture
in just a second. Eating of the Lord's supper must never be restricted
to only members of a single local church. That practice was never
set forth in scriptures. You'd never find that. I want
you to turn to Acts 2. Acts chapter 2. What I mean is this. If we're
eating of the Lord's Supper this evening, and someone comes in
that has professed the Lord Jesus Christ, baptized, confessed Him,
one of our brethren that comes in, one of the fellow pastors,
some of the fellow members of churches, we know they give a
good confession to faith. Are they to eat with us? Absolutely.
As I've said before, whose supper is it? It's the Lord's supper. The Scripture sets forth in Acts
2, verse 41-42, "...then they that gladly received His word," how many is that? "...they that
gladly received His word were baptized, and the same day there
were added unto them about 3,000 souls." And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers. Baptized believers. Eight in fellowship. Shared partnership. That's what fellowship means.
Shared partnership. All things common. Our fellowship. Our fellowship, the Scripture
says, is in Jesus Christ. All things in common with Him. Our fellowship. What He has,
we have in Him. What He has rewarded, we are
rewarded in Him. As the Father looks upon Him,
He looks upon us in Him. We have fellowship, and our fellowship
Our fellowship. Believers come together and we
observe, we eat, and we remember the Lord Jesus Christ. Believers,
you that feel the unworthiness of your heart, eat. Eat. This is my body. Take, eat, this is my body. Our worthiness is not in ourselves. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our righteousness. We are one body in Him. Whatever my hand, is subject
to, so is my foot. This is my body. I have one body. And whatever this hand over here
is welcome to, my foot is welcome to also. This shoulder right
here, welcome. Welcome. Fellowship in Christ. By eating the bread and drinking
the cup, What we're actually doing is expressing our confidence
in Christ who finished the work of redemption. We're saying by
eating this, I know that in myself I'm not worthy. I know that. By eating the bread and drinking
the cup, I'm saying I need a substitute. I need a Savior. I need one to
answer for me. I need one to intercede for me.
I need a Savior, a Lord. I need a great high priest. There
has never been a time when our admittance of sin and need of
actually acknowledging our need of redemption, of regeneration,
and being kept by His power is more wonderfully set forth than
in the observance of the Lord's Supper. What we're saying right
here as believers, having confessed Him, Lord, I need to be reminded what
You've done for me. I need to be told again what
You've done for me. And my fourth question is this,
Why do we eat it? What do we eat? Why do we eat
it? Who should eat it? When should
we eat it? Why do we eat it? Here's the answer. We're commanded
to. That's the answer. We're commanded
to. This do in remembrance of me. I'll ask the men if they'll come
forward at this time.