1 Corinthians chapter 11. I'll look at verses that actually
deal with our Lord's Supper. We're going to partake tonight,
Lord willing, in a few moments of the Lord's Supper. And I'll look at through verse
29. Before we begin, let's take this time, ask our
Lord's blessing upon His Scriptures. And then we'll read verses 20
to 29. Let's pray together. Our Father,
we are so thankful that we can call upon You tonight and know
that, Lord, according to Your infinite mercy and grace, that
we are here. What a blessing! I ask You to
bless this Word to the glory of our precious Savior. Lord,
for the comfort in calling out the establishing of Your sheep.
Lord, speak to our hearts, we pray. Help us, for Christ's sake. Amen. 1 Corinthians 11, verse
20. When you come together, therefore,
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Let me
tell you why the Apostle Paul said that. The Corinthians were
coming together. And what they were doing is they
were just having what some would call a love feast. They'd all
bring a covered dish. I mean, just to let you know
what was going on. Everybody would bring some food and they'd
all get together and they'd all start eating. Some of them would
eat before the others. Those that were rich had more. Some of them that were poor didn't
have anything. What they did was they started
eating and drinking. Some of them would get drunk.
Then they were going to have the Lord's Supper. Let me start over at verse 20.
When you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to
eat the Lord's Supper. For in eating, every one taketh
before other his own supper. One is hungry. Another is drunken. What? Have you not houses to
eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God
and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall
I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when
he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he
took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup
of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. But let a man examine himself,
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." Tonight we've assembled ourselves
together to partake of the Lord's Supper. It's the Lord's Supper. It was
instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ. We just read in verse
23, the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed,
took breath. Verse 25 says, after the same
manner also He took the cup. The Lord instituted this supper. This is a blessed, precious supper. The way in which this supper
is to be administered has been recorded by the Holy Spirit in
the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures that we just read
said, He took the bread. Now the bread that we use, the
bread that the Lord used, I know, was unleavened bread. Our Lord was eating the Passover
with His disciples. And the Scripture says after
He had eaten that Passover, He was commanded by the law to keep those feasts every year,
one of which was the Passover. And in the taking of the Passover,
which the Lord had just taken before He instituted the supper,
He was eating of the unleavened bread. Now, back in Exodus 12,
I'll show you that. This is extremely important. The reason I'm making an issue
out of this is because the Scripture makes an issue out of it. Exodus
12, verse 11 of Exodus 12, speaking
of the Passover, and thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded,
your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and
ye shall eat it in haste. It's the Lord's Passover. Verse 15 says, seven days shall
ye eat unleavened bread. Even the first day ye shall put
away leaven, out of your houses, for whosoever eateth leavened
bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall
be cut off from Israel." Now, the reason that we use unleavened
bread, the reason that the Lord Jesus Christ was eating of the
unleavened bread, the unleavened bread, flour and water, That's
what it is. It's flour and water. It has
no leaven in it. A picture of sin. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. The deception of the Pharisees. Nothing added. It's flour and
water. That's it. Unleavened bread.
It is a picture and a perfect picture. of the absolute sinless
perfection of our Lord's humanity. No original sin. No actual sin. Unleavened bread. This is what
we use. Unleavened bread. This is what
He used. Unleavened bread. The Scripture
sets forth that when He took that bread, He broke it. Symbolic. Symbolic. of the crushing of our Lord's
body in death under the wrath of Almighty God in the accomplishment
of our redemption. When we come together, we're
not coming together just to try to make up something. We're looking
at these holy scriptures, and according to these scriptures,
we partake of the Lord's Supper. When we drink, we drink wine. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
Matthew 26, 29, 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. Why do we drink wine? Fermented wine sets forth the
precious sin atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by which
our sins have been washed away in His substitutionary death. We use unleavened bread. We use
wine. This is the elements that our
Lord used. Death is certain. And in the
dying for His people, being made sin, we being robed in His righteousness,
our sin having been put away, we now have peace with God. When we come together to eat
of this table, we come exactly the way our Lord commanded us
to come. Paul said, I received of the
Lord that which I delivered unto you. Almighty God Himself set
forth this is the way that it was to be done. When we come
together, we're not going to use soda crackers and grape juice.
It's not consistent with our Lord's instructions and commandments.
They are a perversion of our Lord's supper. And it's a total
disregard of His Word and the glorious remembrance of His holy
body and blood. And it's man's attempt to wrest the Scriptures, to change
them, and to add man's hand upon it. This supper is taken in worship. Worship unto our Lord. And the
greatest of all privileges is what we're doing right now. To
be able to come together and to look into these Scriptures,
this, I believe, is the reason, more than likely. Brother Henry
made that statement. Brother Scott also said, at no
time are we closer in true worship. than when we partake of the Lord's
Supper because we have explicit instructions in how He said we're
to observe it. So we're here this evening to
worship. Worship. Worship. The very heart of worship is
obedience. Obedience. When Almighty God,
you remember, told Abraham, you take your son. your only son,
and you sacrifice him to me as a burnt offering." And Abraham said in that day
when he saw the place, he knew what he was going to do. He was
going up there to offer his son. And he said, the lad and I are
going to go yonder and worship to be able to come tonight and
worship God. to be able to be assembled together in this holy assembly. Yeah,
that's right. Know ye not that you're the temple
of the living God, robed in His righteousness? We
come this evening to eat. Who should eat of the Lord's
table? Our Lord said in verse 25, 26,
concerning the eating, the bread, the drinking, the cup, He said,
This do, at the end of verse 24, in remembrance of Me. Verse 25, the cup, as often you
drink it, in remembrance of Me. To remember the Lord Jesus Christ
by faith takes a new heart. to remember what He has said
concerning substitution. It takes a new heart. So all true believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ are to take of the Lord's Supper. This is
a table and it is open to God's children. A believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ is one who has been shown, first of all, his total inability
to do anything by his own self-righteous works to merit or establish his
salvation before God. A believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ believes himself to be totally unable. Total inability. What can I do? What can I do to establish, to
merit salvation before God Almighty? What can I do? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. A believer, secondly, he places
no confidence whatsoever. in His flesh and He shuns or
considers to be dung all former false hopes that He thought that
He had committed by His so-called free will. I told you last week
about my professions of faith. I think I walked down the aisle
three times. three times. I could walk that aisle right
there until I leave this world. And if Almighty God doesn't do
anything for me, I'm lost. A believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ believes the report, the doctrine that God has given concerning
Himself, concerning man, concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, concerning salvation. A believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ knows by faith that the Father chose a people
to Himself. Ephesians 1-4 says that. It is
not even up for debate. It is not even up for question.
There is no argument God Almighty has said it. And that ends it. That ends it. A believer believes that the
Lord Jesus Christ, the surety of God's sheep, the One who has
everlastingly stood as the surety, that He came into this world
for one purpose, to glorify God Almighty In the redemption of
all that the Father had given Him out of every nation and kindred
and tribe and tongue, God has a people that He chose and gave
them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And He laid down His life for
the sheep. How do I know that the Lord Jesus Christ died only
for the sheep? Because He said so. That ends it. A believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ believes that God Almighty, by His Holy Spirit,
will certainly, effectually call out all that the Father has given
Christ and Christ redeemed. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. There is no question whatsoever
that Almighty God is going to save His people. How do I know
that? Christ said so. All, all, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out. No debate. A believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ. possesses a true sense of his
personal sinfulness and his need of a Savior. I stand here knowing
in my heart as surely as I'm standing here, I can account
some of the faults of my waywardness. I can see some of them, but,
oh, how many I don't see. What I don't see. What I didn't
do. Things I should have done and
didn't do. Believers don't see themselves
as worthy in themselves. They have this opinion of themselves. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?" I'm telling you,
a believer will leave this earth with that thought right there.
Who will deliver me from the body of this death? Christ. Christ,
have mercy on me. Lord, have mercy on me. Have
mercy. Our worthiness is only in Christ. Christ who is our salvation. Christ who is our righteousness.
Christ who is our hope. Believers don't come to the table
of our Lord with a personal perfection. They come with a personal faith. Lord, help me. That's what Peter
said. Lord, help me. I perish. Lord, help me. I know that if
He were to take His hand off of me, I would quit right now. I'd leave right now. And every
other believer would too. By eating the bread and drinking
the wine, we show our confidence in Christ who finished the work
of our redemption. We discern the body of our Lord. That is, we believe by faith,
by His obedience, by His death, He saved us. That's what it means
to discern the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the Apostle
sets forth as we consider who should eat of the Lord's Supper
this morning. He said in verse 27, Wherefore,
whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord
unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
He said in verse 29, For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body." If there's anybody in this congregation, I'm going
to tell you right now, that would feel themselves unworthy, it's
me. It'd be me. If you only knew me, if you only
knew my frailties, My wife knows me, not completely. There's a
lot of things I can even hide from her, but I guarantee she
can tell you a lot. Yeah, she can probably tell you
what happens when I get mad and things don't go my way and how
quickly I... Really, Marvin? Yeah, really.
Really. If you're talking about being,
oh, I feel so unworthy, I can feel unworthy. But the
Word is not unworthy. It's unworthily. And it means
irreverently. Or it means unfit for a thing. He that eateth and drinketh unfit
for this. The key to eating and drinking
unworthily It's found in the last part of verse 29. We just
mentioned it. Not discerning the Lord's body. He that eateth and drinketh unworthily
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Not discerning the
Lord's body. That is to say they do not know
in regenerating grace the meaning or the value of Christ's incarnation. His righteous obedience to God
is our substitute, as our representative and as our Redeemer. They possess
no faith in Him because their faith is in themselves and their
own works. Salvation, listen to me, listen
to me. If salvation, I can sum that
last point that I just made up about unworthy, I can sum it
up right here. If you believe that salvation
is a conditional thing by which God Almighty has done
His part in the grand scheme of salvation,
if you believe that God Almighty has done His part in salvation,
that is, You could say, well, He chose a people and He sent
a people. I mean, He sent the Lord Jesus
Christ into this world and the Lord Jesus Christ died for them. But it's going to take my decision. It's going to take my works.
It's going to take my free will to accept it before it becomes
effectual. That's conditional. That's not
the gospel. That's not the gospel. That is
not the gospel. Salvation is not conditioned
upon anything that a man can do. Salvation is all of grace. It's all of the Lord. God purposed
it. God accomplished it. God Almighty
sends it. God saves His people. This is
what it means to discern the Lord's body. It means this is
what He did. in the breaking of His body and
the shedding of His blood, to not believe that, to not believe
that salvation is all of grace, is to eat and drink unworthily.
Let a man, verse 28 says, examine himself. So let him eat of that
bread and drink of that cup. Here's my question to you and
then we're going to eat. Has the Lord Jesus Christ revealed
to you what you are as being born in Adam? Now listen, we're
here tonight and this life is a vapor. We're going to die. We're going
to die. And we're going to meet God.
And one of two things will show. Either God's Word is true or
God's Word is a lie. Now, you know the answer. My
question is this. Has the Lord revealed to you
what you are in yourself as being born in Adam, a rebel and a sinner
against God? Do you believe that salvation
is all of God's grace And when I say all of God's grace, I don't
mean that He graciously offered it and you powerfully by your
free will accepted it. That's not what I mean. When
I say grace, I mean this. God Almighty chose to show mercy
to you, and He showed mercy to you and compassion to you without
your help. And He regenerated you by grace
and power and told you what He did. and gave you faith to believe
it. That's grace. That's grace. Has He given you faith to cry
out from a heart for mercy from the Savior of sinners? I can't save myself. Lord, save me. Do you believe God's gospel?
Sovereign grace? and sovereign grace in Christ,
do you forsake all works of righteousness, self-righteousness that you can
do for salvation? If you are a believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Scripture says, so let him eat of that
bread and drink of that cup. This is the Lord's Supper. Our
Lord instituted this Supper He ate with His disciples. And
after He ate, He was betrayed that night. The very night in
which He was betrayed. And He bore that cross. And He
laid down His life for His people. And He redeemed them. And God
Almighty accepted it. And I'll tell you how I know
He did. Three days later, Mark, He came out of the ground. And
He's in heaven right now at the right hand of the throne of God,
interceding upon His own merit, praying for His people. Father,
receive them as You received me. Father, have mercy on them
for my sake. May God bless this message. Number
one, to the honor of our blessed Savior. Number two, for the comfort
of His people. Amen.