Turn with me to Matthew 26. Matthew chapter 26. I'm going
to be dealing with verses 26, 27 and 28. This is the account of our Lord
as he ate with his disciples before his crucifixion. But I'd like to look, first of
all, before we look at those verses, starting at the seventeenth verse 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? 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.' And the disciples did as Jesus had
appointed them, and they made ready the Passover. And when
the evening was come, he sat down with the twelve, and as
they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you
shall betray me." One of you is going to hand me over. And they were exceeding sorrowful.
And he began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it
I? 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. Then Judas, which betrayed him,
answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou
hast said." Now, before I look at the actual taking of the bread,
blessing, breaking, giving of the bread. I want us to stop
for just a minute and look at something that we just read in
those few verses. Judas had just Not very long
before, look back in verse 15, just not very long before, the
scripture said, well, in the 14th verse, Matthew 26, 14, one
of the twelve called Judas Iscariot went unto the chief priest, and
he said unto them, What will you give me? And I will deliver
him unto you. What will you give me? And I'll
betray him. I'll hand him over. How much? What's it worth? What's it worth
to you for me to betray him, hand him over?" And they covenanted
with him for thirty pieces of silver. Now, that's in verse
fifteen. And in verse twenty-five, Now,
I don't know how long the time period was, but it wasn't very
long. The Lord said, one of you is
going to betray me. Judas had just, not too long
before, met with the chief priest. What do you give me? I'll hand
him over. No big deal. No big deal. What's it worth? We'll give you thirty pieces
of silver. Done deal. Here, let's shake
them. My word is my bond. That's what
he said. They covenanted together. The Lord said, one of you is
going to betray me. began to say, Lord, is it I? I mentioned something about this
just a week or so ago, and I just wanted to pick up where I kind
of left off from there. Am I the one? Is it me? They were exceeding sorry. They knew. Leave me to myself. And I'll hand you over. I'd do
it. Any believer that sits here this morning that's not honest
enough to say that is fooling themselves. Leave me to myself. I'd turn him over. And I wouldn't
think anything about it. Judas, the Scripture says, answered and said the same thing.
Is it I? Oh, the deceitfulness of the
natural heart. It is desperately wicked and
deceitful above all things. There's nothing that is as deceitful
as the heart, the natural heart. I'll hand him over. How much
you give me? 30 pieces of silver, done deal. Lord, is it me? Am I the one? Man by nature despises Him, thinks nothing of Him. The carnal
mind is enmity, is an enemy, is what that word, enmity, is
an enemy of God. Am I the one? The Lord just said,
it would have been better if that man had not been born. It
would have been good for that, had he not been born. The Son
of Man is going to go as it is written. It is written. He came
for the redemption of His people. The Son of Man is going to go
as it is written of Him, but woe unto that man by whom the
Son of Man is betrayed. hand it over, woe to that man,
woe to that woman that thinks lightly of him."
Now, we read that right there, and I'll tell you what the carnal
heart thinks. This is the natural heart. Well,
that's way back then. Boy, that sure is a bad thing.
Can you imagine him doing that? Those that sit under the sound
of this message that are without Christ think the same thing.
No big deal. Been better if you'd not been
born than to leave this world without Christ. So, so what? I'm doing my duty. I'm doing
church. I showed up. Been better if you'd
never been born. Who cares? Oh, that God might be pleased
to call out His own this morning. As they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and He blessed it, and gave it to the disciples. And
He said, Take ye, this is my body. and gave thanks, and gave it
to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of
the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins." The crucifixion of our Lord was
imminent as He ate and drank of the Passover with His disciples.
He had just said just a few verses before. He said, you go to a
certain man and tell him, my time is at hand. Remember how
many times in scriptures, for the sake of time, I won't do
it, but you know, you've read those scriptures before. His
time was not at hand. They were going to take him,
but his time was not at hand. His time was not at hand. It
is appointed unto him a time to be taken. a time to be crucified. It was a certain day that he
was going to be crucified on. I heard the other day a story
of Stonewall Jackson. He made a statement, and he said
this was his thought. This is where he found some comfort. He said, I know that God's sovereign. My time is appointed. At a certain
time, a certain day, in a But my time is up. He said, I won't
go until my time is here. He rallied his troops many times. The Lord said, My time is at
hand. It's time. It's time. That time that had
been appointed from the foundation of the world. Here it was, in
time. A person in this room this morning,
It's appointed unto you once to die. My time is going to be
a day. It's coming. It could be today.
I don't know. My time. Here He shows forth
as He sits and eats. There He was, God Himself in
human flesh, in the likeness of a man, likeness of human flesh. A body prepared by the Spirit
of God Himself. God Himself. The body had about
prepared for me. He sat and ate with me. They
looked at it. There it was. It was just almost
inconceivable. I just wonder as they looked
on it and saw it and thought to themselves, if I could just
grasp the moment and realize what's going on here. sitting
down with the Son of God Himself, this God. Peter wrote later, we looked
on Him, our hands touched Him, we handled Him, heard Him. I heard Him, or Peter said, we
heard Him preach. Like Himself, God Himself. Here they are. You just couldn't
grasp hold of them. the significance of what was
going on. They knew, as Brother Scott just
said, we know something about Him. We know something. One day, though, we'll see Him
as He is. We'll see Him. We'll know Him. Behold Him. He sat with His disciples. And here He showed not only the
imminence to let them know, I'm getting ready to go to the cross,
showed the certainty of that death and the purpose of that
death. What I am doing, he said, I am
showing you. In type, I am going to do what I do. Verse 28, my blood is going to
be shed for the remission of sins. Many are going to be forgiven. Many are going to be freed from,
pardoned from. Many. The many that the Father
gave me. I'm going to shed my blood for
many. Here's body. That body formed in the womb of a woman. place there, holy, that holy
thing, holy, one that He dwelt in, did
the will of God in, worked the works of God. Psalm 40 and verse
7, He said, Lo, I come in the volume of the book that is written
of Me. I delight to do Thy will, O My
God. Yea, thy law is written in my
heart." Here he is, God himself sitting, taking bread,
which is a picture of his body, and a cup that is wine, a symbol
of his blood. 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19 says, for
as much as you know that you were not redeemed, bought, paid
by, you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, silver and gold from your vain conversation or walk
of life, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot. Precious blood. I looked as hard as I could trying
to find out everything that I could find out about the word precious.
Precious. Precious. I mean, I hear it.
I know it. I must say, you know, what do you mean when you say
precious? Something that's precious to
you may not be precious to me. The word means great price, value. That's what it means. Precious.
That's a precious, you know. There's a brooch, you know. That belonged to my grandmother.
That thing's precious to me. Precious. Because it was hers,
you see. I loved it. Precious. You weren't
redeemed by corruptible things. Stuff is fading, but precious,
great value, great price. How great? Great! Precious blood, without the blemish
of original pollution and without the spot of actual sin. What is that? How can I say? What can I voice? How do I get it across? I don't
know. I can't. Precious. Precious blood. Precious to God
Almighty. That blood was shed, the Scripture
says, as a sweet-smelling savor. That sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that blood that was shed for the redemption, for the remission
of sins of many that the Father had everlastingly loved. How much did He love them? Without
measure. He loved them. How much did He
love them? He loved them. He loved them.
I mean, I know so little about that. I think about my My children,
one of my children are out here this morning. I say, how much
do you love her? I love her. At what point will
you stop? Will you just, would you stop
something till you finally, you know, would you give your own
life for her? Yeah, how much do you love her?
I love her. How much does Christ love His own? As the Father,
He says, love me, I love you. You weren't redeemed with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
precious to the Father and precious to all that believe. How precious
is it to you? I'll tell you how sad it is.
I don't know the depth of it. But for God's grace, it would
keep me. I would consider him to be light
bread. That's what they said about that
manna that fell in the wilderness. We're just tired of this light
bread. Christ said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. Moses
didn't give you bread. My Father gave you that bread.
That manna was a picture of him. They went out there. They didn't
have to work for him. They didn't make it. They just
took it. Ben just got it. There it was.
Free gift of God. A picture of Christ Himself.
And then there was a time when some of them that didn't think
anything of it said, we loathe that light bread. I'm sick of
it. I'm sick of it. This morning, but for God's grace,
He would be loathed within our hearts. We think like we know
Him. And we'd walk through this life and we would think no more
of Him than we think of any other person. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
precious to His people, for by it they are justified. Through
it, they have the forgiveness of sins and peace with God, and
reconciliation to Him is made by the blood of Christ. The blood,
the precious blood. Oh, the precious blood. By the
precious blood of Christ, God's people are sanctified. They are
set apart. These are mine. Women are all born the same way. We all, Paul said, had our conversation,
our manner of life, our walk. We all were born. We all came
forth from our mother's womb, speaking life. Every one of us
had none good. Not one. None. None. Why callest thou me good? That's
what the Lord said to that rich young girl. Why do you call me
good? And none good but God. In Adam is none good. And we're
redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says, He's eaten, even
with the meat. He took bread. loaf of bread,
unleavened bread, unleavened bread, unleavened picture of
sin. He took some unleavened bread,
took it, tied it himself, took that. John 6.33 says, The bread of
God is he which cometh down from heaven give us life unto the
world, the bread of life, that bread
that a man comes to, never hungers for, a man believes on, never
thirsts. Verse 35 of John 6 says, He that
cometh to me shall never hunger. Are you hungry? hungry for Christ. A hunger within
a heart that He has made hungry. Hunger. A new heart. A new mind. A new life. A new man. A new creation. Created in Christ Jesus. You are His workmanship. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger." A man or a woman that comes to Christ has come to Him
by God's grace. They've been made with Him to
come, and they come in their heart. I've used this illustration before. It's probably one of the best
I've ever heard. To me, you know, I'm just simple-minded. I just,
I don't know much. I heard Don Fortner say one time,
he said, you know, he said, I may be out in California. And he
said, Shelby may be back in Danville, Kentucky. And he said, when I
think on her, I come to her right there. In my mind, I just come
to her right there. He said, I may be miles and miles
apart. You know, a man comes to Christ,
comes by faith. It's a given thing. It's a given that you believe.
A man comes to Christ, and he comes by faith, by God's grace,
faith, he comes to Him. He just hungers after Him. And he says, like Jacob, I'm
not going to let you go. I can't. The reason he doesn't
let go is because God won't let go of him by faith. that my Father giveth me, come
to me." They come. They come right now. God's people, right now, they
hear of Him, the bread, and they come to Him. Long after that. Bread. A true and fit picture
and type of that which satisfies hunger. Bread. that spiritual hunger and thirst
after righteousness. He took bread, and he blessed
it. He blessed it. Again, I had looked
that word blessed up. We use these words all the time. We hear them. But what do they
mean? I looked it up, and the word
blessed means to speak well of. That's what it means. Bless. He took the bread and He blessed
it. Spoke well. Gave thanks. Gave thanks for it. Spoke well. Therefore, we call on the Lord. Lord, we call on You. We bless Your holy name. We speak
well of it. The Lord Jesus Christ He was spoken well of, spoken
well of by the Father. At his baptism, what did the
Father say? There was a voice heard out of
heaven. He said this, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased. I am well pleased to hear you
hear Him. And boy, I'm telling you, the
spiritual ears of God's people, they just kind of stand up. They
said, Lord, as you said, hear him. Lord, I want to hear him. I want to hear him. Lord, I want
to hear because if I've never truly heard before right now,
Lord, would you give me an ear to hear? The hearing is of God. The hearing is the seeing eye. I want to hear. The Lord Jesus Christ, He took
that bread and He blessed it. The word means also sanctified,
blessed it, blessed it, blessed it, blessed it. Christ Himself
took that bread and blessed it. He sanctified himself, that his
own might be sanctified through the truth. That's what John 17,
19 says. I sanctify myself. I set myself
apart, that those that the Father has given me might be sanctified
in me. We're sanctified, set apart,
blessed by God himself. totally on the merit of our blessed
Savior. We have nothing whatsoever to
glory in. As you sit this morning, if you
hear and believe and trust, come, cast yourself upon, it is by
God's grace that you are doing that. You believe, you remember
what the Lord told Peter, I prayed for you that your faith failed
You believe this morning, you are kept by the power of God
through faith. The elect, they are not worthy
of themselves. The Lord said, I sanctify myself,
I set myself apart as the Lamb of Almighty God. with the Father on his own merit, applied himself to God's justice,
one ready to lay down his life, a ransom for many, this blood shed for many. And in blessing of that bread,
we see the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, sanctified,
set apart, devoting himself. Here is the glorified man. Here
is God-man set apart on high, the object
of his people's affection and worship. All that the Father
is displayed in him. Here you see sovereign grace,
sovereign saving grace. He took that bread and blessed
it. picture of himself, the blessed
saint, the blessed bread, the bread of heaven, blessed. He took it, blessed it, and he
broke it. He broke it. The same thing that
says, you go back and read it here again, I won't do it, but
Luke 24, 30, it talks about those two that was on the road to Emmaus,
Lord King The same thing. He came into the house. He took
the bread. He blessed it. He broke it. And
they even gave a count later in verse 35. They said when He
broke that bread, when He broke it, they saw Him. They knew Him. His disciples,
they saw the significance of what was going on. He'd break
it. It's like corn or wheat bruised
or ground in a mill, and it's baked in an oven. Christ himself
was bruised, pierced by our sins. As I said last week, oh, that
I might enter in truly. If I hear it, I hear what I'm
saying. I know by faith this is so. But I know that I don't see it
as I ought to. But what I'm talking about right
now, for my own salvation, for my own redemption, for our own
keeping, what I'm talking about right here is everything. This is everything, everything.
He took bread, blessed it, broke it. This is my body, He said,
broken for you. He suffered in our stead with
our sin, the sin of His elect, the sin of His people, the guilt
of His church. It was on Him He was made to
be sin. Body broken with our guilt on
Him actually suffered under God's justice and wrath. He died and died. He died. Wages of sin. What is it? Death. Does that
change? No. That doesn't change. He died
and died for His own. This is my body. which is broken
for you, not to make it possible that I save you. I'm going to save you. I'm going
to redeem you. I'm paying the price for you. This is my body broken for you. And he gave it to the disciples,
gave himself for us. Gives himself to us. My sheep, John 10, 27, 28, they
hear my voice. Let me ask you this one. And some of you, I know, can
answer in the affirmative. You hear him? Is he precious
to you? To you, therefore, that believe,
he's precious. How precious? Precious. Great value. How valuable? Great value. Do you know the
depth of His value? No, I don't. I don't. But I know this, whatever was
demanded by Almighty God, He paid it. How much was demanded? All of it. How much did He pay?
All of it. How much was held back? None
of it. God, this is my body, broken. My sheep hear my voice. I know
them. I know them affectionately. I know them. Like in that last
day, many will say unto him, you know, Lord, haven't we done
all these mighty works in your name? We prophesied in your name.
We cast out devils in your name. And he'll say, I never knew you.
I never knew you. I never knew you affectionately,
lovingly, savingly. I never knew you graciously.
I never knew you. You think that he just didn't
know who they were? Oh no. He knows who they are.
I never knew you in that covenant of grace. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them. And they follow me. They follow
me. They follow after me. They long
to come after Him. They long to be guided by Him.
Lord, Lord, I want to hear You. I want to come after You. And I give unto them eternal
life. And they'll never perish. Oh,
one of these days, that's going to mean something, and it is.
It ought to. It means something now. But one of these days, I, by God's grace, will
say this, Lord, the half of it was never told.
It was told. I just didn't know it. I didn't
see it. Lord, thank you. Thank you for your mercy. Thank
you for your grace. Thank you that you wouldn't leave
me to myself. Lord, thank you that you didn't
mark iniquity. Who could stand? He gave that bread to his disciples
as he gives eternal life to his sheep. Eternal life not earned,
merited, won by man's efforts or cunning or will. It's the
free gift of God. Sovereignly bestowed. Sovereign
grace. That's what we believe. That's
what we believe right here. God, in His own purpose, chose
a people because it pleased Him. Gave them, chose them in His
Son. His Son redeemed them. Paid them. Paid their debt. And He calls them out of darkness.
And they come. They hear him and they come.
Gives him a heart made willing in the day of his power. Comes
out there and just removes that heart of rebellion and gives
him a heart of flesh. They believe. Lord, I see. I see. Take the eat. This is my body. Christ, by faith, is feasted
upon. We eat of him. our peace from. He is our peace. He said, ìUnless
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you.î Boy, those are deep words. How would we
know that unless God Almighty would tell us in His Word? What
a blessing! The Word of God. Written Word.
There it is. What a treasure. What a treasure. It takes a new heart, though,
to realize the message of this book is Christ. Psalm 34, verse 8, says, Oh,
taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that
trusteth in Him. The bread that he gives is his
flesh, it's the offering of himself. He took the bread, he blessed
it, he broke it, he gave it. He gave it to him and told him,
he said, take it, take it, take it. And when he speaks, you take
it, you want it, desire it, hunger after it. We feast upon our risen Savior,
the one who died. is ascended and lives, ever lives,
to make intercession. Stop. Just a minute. Think about
this. This Lord of whom we read right
here, this Lord, He ever lived, right now, to make intercession
for the saints. Right now. Right now. Right now. He said, ìWhere two or three
are gathered in my name, I am in the midst of you.î Just stop
for a moment and realize this. He has, by His sovereign grace,
has blessed us with His presence. And He is worthy to be spoken
of even now. We say, ìLord, take this word
and speak to us.î He took the cup, verse 27, and
gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it. This is my blood of the New Testament,
shed for many for the remission of sins. The body was broken,
blood was shed, spilt. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins, no forgiveness, no putting away
without the shedding of blood. God's just. He's just. He is a just God. No plea bargaining. He's God. No sweeping it under
the rugs. Well, I know you didn't mean
it. Almighty God is absolutely just. I tell you how just He is. Scripture
says He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He is just
when He forgives us of our sins. For Christ's sake, He's just
in doing that. Why? Christ paid for us. Put
them away. Paid the debt. Now He's faithful
and just to do it. He justly forgives us of our
sins. Justice from a just God and a
Savior is the blood. That blood in Egypt was taken
from that lamb that was slain and applied to the doorpost.
And when God saw the blood, it passed over. You think right
now, right now, the blood, it's the blood. Almighty God passes
over, forgives. This blood is shed for many for
the remission of sin. Blood. When I see the blood,
the blood applied, Christ's blood, precious blood, valuable blood,
great Christ's blood, when I see the blood, it is my blood. Drink
it. Drink all of it. Shed for many by that blood. the church is purchased by that
blood were cleansed from all sin. Oh, I just passed by yesterday. We were driving around. I went
past a graveyard, and I made comment. I thought, there's people's bodies that
are buried there. And while they were alive, they
just thought, just like I do, I'm going to live forever. I'm
not going to die. Oh, I say I am, but somehow I
just kind of passed that over. Oh, that right now, while I'm
walking on this earth, that he would grant me the grace and
the mercy. To give me a heart, to see Him,
behold Him as the bread that's come down from heaven. That bread
that I long after, that I feast on, that blood that I by faith
drink, drink it, all of it. To see Him as my Redeemer, as my bread and my blood. Him,
the bread, and His blood that I drink of. That's a miracle
of God's grace. This morning, may God bless these
words to our hearts and hide them in our hearts. This morning, may we behold Him
as the bread of life. For Christ's sake, we ask these
things.