We're about to have the Lord's
Supper in a little while and I love the fact that this supper,
this particular night that we're looking at in John chapter 13,
is the last Passover that was ever celebrated. And the Lord Jesus, as you know,
took bread and he says, this is my body. Take, eat, this is
my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
This cup is the new testament, the new covenant in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10,
verse 16 it says, the cup of blessing which we bless, is it
not the communion of Christ. The bread which we
break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread
and one body, and for we are all partakers of that one bread. The Bible is full of beautiful
spiritual pictures and just as the Lord commanded the apostles
to love one another, he commanded us to celebrate that love and
that communion we have in his blood. I want us to Before we
participate in the Lord's Supper, I want us to be reminded of this
commandment again. It's interesting, isn't it? A
couple of things. Why would he command it? And what's new about it? If you read the Old Testament,
as he says in Matthew 22, the Old Testament hangs on the command
to love God out of Deuteronomy 6 and to love your neighbour
out of Leviticus 19. So they're not new in some sense,
are they? I want us to consider why they
are new and I want us to consider what it is for the Lord to command. Does that mean that we are now
back under an Old Testament law that thundered from Mount Sinai
or are we living in a covenant which is so much more beautiful
and so much more blessed? I do love, as you think about
Peter and his fall and the Lord turning to him and telling him,
in the midst of all of that, you're going to betray me and
this is going to be appalling. And that betrayal, if you have
a look in Luke's gospel, that betrayal is in the midst, in
the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ when Peter had denied
him the third time with cursings. The Lord looked at him. Talk
about sin. We have sins that we're so ashamed
of. And rightly so. But what a saviour. What a saviour
in the midst of that. The Lord knew exactly what was
going on that night. But I often think as Peter went
back and started reading and all the Bible I had was the Old
Testament, how many passages in the Old Testament must have
just thrilled his heart. Think about sinners when you
think about David. Sadly, we don't think about David as the
sweet psalmist of Israel. We think about David and his
sin against Bathsheba so often, and it's so sad, isn't it? Because
that sin was washed away in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But he says in 2 Samuel 23 verse 5, and this is a verse that if
Peter got to read this verse, he would have sat there with
a smile on his face rejoicing, wouldn't he? He says, although
my house, the house of the nation Israel, the house of his family,
but I think more particularly he's talking about the house
of this body of flesh that he's in. These are his last words.
This is what David died contemplating. It's a good thing to contemplate
on your death bed. Although my house be not so with
God, Yet he hath made. Who made the covenant? Who made
the promises? David made all sorts of promises
to God just like we make all sorts of promises. There's one
promise that matters and that's the promise that God the Father
and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit made and ratified. made
hath made with me. He makes a covenant with himself
and I'm included in that covenant in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
hath made with me an everlasting covenant. That everlasting covenant
is the covenant in which all the salvation of all people is
bound up in. This is the covenant that saved
Adam and Eve and Abel. This is the covenant that saved
Noah. This is the covenant that saved Abraham. This is the covenant
that saved everyone in the Old Testament, this covenant. He
hath made with me an everlasting covenant. Everlasting doesn't
mean that it has a beginning now and goes on into eternity.
It means it didn't have a beginning as we can understand things.
God is eternal. This covenant was the covenant
in the blood of his Son from before the foundation of the
world. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world and
all of God's people were in the Lamb slain and all of God's people,
according to the Scriptures, were saved before the foundation
of the world. This is where David gets his
comfort from. He can't look in himself, he can't look to his
family. He was a shocking father, David. Dysfunctional in so many
ways. And yet, he was loved by God. God has made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And then he says, for this is
all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. There's absolutely no reason
for an eternal everlasting covenant to grow. It can't get any bigger and it
can't get any smaller and it doesn't need to grow. It's fixed,
isn't it? The salvation of God's people
is fixed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a new commandment because
it's reflective of this wine and this bread that was shared
that night. It's new. It's new. It's new because it speaks of
a love that God puts in the heart of his people for himself. We
love him. God's people really love him.
Why? Because he first loved us. We love him because he first
loved us. And the love of Christ, as I
said earlier, the love of Christ is a love that encapsulates all
of the attributes of God. It is holy, it is sovereign,
it's efficacious, it gets the job done. I love what 2 Corinthians
5 says, we like sheep, are running astray all the time,
and each of us has turned to his own way. That's the life,
isn't it? That's what happens all the time. But I love what
1 Corinthians 5.14 says, For the love of Christ, that's Christ's
love for us, constraineth us. Some of you have been on farms
and things and if you have a beast, a wild beast, you make a race
and it gets narrower and narrower to the point where some nurse... like Tash can come along and
do terrible things to a huge beast that weighs a ton and a
half. Because why? It's constrained, isn't it? That's
what he's saying. The love of Christ constrains
us. We would wander this way and that way. God's love constrains
us. It constrains us because we judge
that if one died for all, then all are dead. We believe that
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ our sins are constrained
and then He in sovereign love comes to those of the time of
love. And he has hedged the way, these
people, like Hosea says about Gomer, he's hedged the way with
thorns and he says you can go this far. And if I think of my
wandering life before the Lord saved me, I wandered down the
most appalling path that this world could ever have and loved
every minute of it until I was brought to a place where it bit
me really so hard and I was pushed back here and then I wandered
off into self-righteousness. And I spent several years thinking
that I was probably one of the holiest people that was walking
around the place. And then the Lord brought me
crashing down. See, Peter's fall is a necessary
fall because you're a Peter and I'm a Peter. We fall so readily
and so quickly. And the love of Christ, because
it's an infinite and eternal love, and it cannot lose one
single object for whom He's placed that love upon, He'll constrain
us. He'll constrain us, and He will
move everything in this universe to get every single one of His
children into His arms. That's why he calls us little
children. My little children. Where are the little children
the safest? Where's a baby the safest? Crying, it's crying,
it's crying, and you put it in its mother's arms, and all of
a sudden they'll stop almost instantly. You can do all sorts
of things. I'm maybe not allowed to do it
anymore, but I used to throw our children up in the air, and
the higher you threw them, the more they loved it, and they'd
giggle and squeal and think it was absolutely wonderful. because I was going to catch
them. They just believed, didn't they? They had a childlike faith
in the fact that no matter what was the apparent circumstances
of their life, like Moses underneath her everlasting arms, and that's
how the children of God are in this world. We are made to be
little children, little children are dependent, little children
find joy and peace in things of fellowship rather than the
things of this world. They just teach us so many things
about what really matters in life, isn't it? It's about love
and it's about fellowship and it's about relationship. and the new covenant is the eternal
covenant in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and every time
we have. the Lord's Supper we are declaring
the new covenant and we're declaring the eternal covenant in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that blood that was shed. That night
he said, I'm going and you can't come with me. He said, I must
tread this winepress alone. In the garden, I alone must take
this cup of all of the sins of all of God's people that's been
given to me by my father. There was a transaction in the
garden, on the cross, a transaction that was enacted, in a sense,
in all of eternity. And yet it has its fulfillment
in the physical realities of what happened to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The point is, of course, isn't it, that spiritual realities
superintend and supersede all the physical realities. And if
we spend our lives looking at the physical realities and don't
see the spiritual realities, we're just going to be lost again
and again and again. We'll be caught up in all sorts
of things. He must tread the winepress aglow, and He must
take that cup. He must go to the judgment halls
of Pilate and the Jews, and He must suffer that guilt and that
shame alone. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, when He had by Himself washed our sins completely clean,
He sat down. He must be forsaken. that I and
all of his children will never be forsaken. He must go into
that dark tomb alone. He bore the burden to Calvary
and he suffered and died alone. Like David of old, he goes alone,
doesn't he? He goes alone out into the field
of battle with Satan. for us and he comes back triumphant.
That's exactly what the resurrection is and we are here to declare
a reigning, resurrected, glorious Saviour. But what a commandment,
what a commandment to leave with us. Did you love one another
as I have loved you? It's new, it's new because it's
just a reflection of the fact of God's work in the hearts of
all of his people. He says, I'll put my spirit within
you. Ezekiel 36 is just such a wonderful,
wonderful passage of scripture. You listen to the promises of
God. He says, a new heart I'll give you, a heart that can love
God, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of
flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you. Cause you, we love him because? He causes His people to love
Him. And we love Him willingly because
He is so beautiful. We love Him delightfully because
of what He's done and what He is doing in this world right
now. He says, I will also save you
from all your uncleannesses, and I will multiply the fruit. And at the end of that extraordinary
passage of scripture in verse 38, he says, as a holy flock,
the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast, So shall the way
of cities be filled with flocks of men, and they shall know that
I am the Lord. The eternal covenant that David
rejoiced on his dying pillow, and all of God's saints always
will rejoice in, is a covenant where God says, I will, and they
shall. I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Flesh gives birth to flesh, the
Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus. Spirit gives birth to spirit.
His words are spirit and they are life. It's new, it's a new
commandment, as I said earlier, because it's a natural outflowing
of Christ in you, the hope of glory. There is a God-wrought
union between the children of God. We have one father. We have
one mother. We're all born from the mother
above, the Jerusalem that is above, the mother of us all.
We have one husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have one way
of salvation. He does it all. All. Long, long ago. He does it all. One way of salvation, by grace,
through faith, are you saved, and it's the gift of God, and
it's Ephesians 2. There is a union that is evidenced. in the church, the one place
where God has promised to give glory for his son, glory for
his holy name, is in the church. And in this church, in his church
where the Lord Jesus Christ is raised up and this covenant is
preached, see where God works, he brings this covenant to his
people, 2 Corinthians 3. He causes his ministers eternal
covenant. This eternal covenant where God
says I will do it all and you'll be my people and I'll move your
hearts to love me. I'll move your hearts with a
new heart that I give you. It's new because it rejoices
in Christ's drawing power. His everlasting love draws his
people to himself. It's new because In the Old Testament
law you had to get out of bed in the morning and look to whether
you'd sinned and every step of your day you had to think about
whether you'd sinned and whether you'd trodden on something. You
had to be worried about what you looked up into the sky, there
were unclean birds, you looked into the water, there were unclean
things creeping around. You never know, you never knew
that all was right with God and God said it must be perfect to
be accepted. good enough with God, it must
be holy to be accepted. It's new because it rejoices
in our eternal home forever. All of God's children are destined
to live with each other in glory forever. We get glimpses of what
it's like for those that have gone before us to be rejoicing
in heaven right now. One day we'll join them, and
we'll be rejoicing as well. But that's not the end of it
all, isn't it? There's a new creation coming, and the Lord
Jesus is coming back to gather all of his people to himself,
and that's what he's saying in John 13. Don't let your hearts
be troubled on coming back. I've got this world, and everything
in this world, and everything that wriggles in this world is
moving exactly as I've ordained it to move. It's new because
of the new power that's at work, which is God Almighty indwelling
His people. It's new because of the revelation
of a union with the Lord Jesus Christ. You listen to what the
Lord said in that high priestly prayer. I just beg of you to spend time
looking at John chapter 17 and looking at the petitions that
the Lord Jesus Christ made. His cry to his father before
he went to the cross and these amazing promises. He says, I
don't pray for these alone, I'm praying for them, verse 20, for
them also which shall believe on me through their word. That's
the believers today throughout this world. that they may be
one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me. That's that love that he's talking
about, isn't it, in John 13. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me. Do you see how important church
is? That the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. I'm so thankful that God doesn't
tell us we have to understand those things, but to believe
and rejoice. Isn't that extraordinary? It's
new, because it's always welcoming sinners. Fallen Peter, restored
to fellowship with God. Fallen Peter, used of God to
proclaim the gospel on the day of Pentecost. Paul to write half the New Testament. God came into this world to save
sinners, to save sinners. It's new because our mercies
are new every morning from his fullness that we all received
grace from grace. He says I will heal their backsliding
says Isaiah 14. I'll heal heal their backslidings.
If they wander away from me, I'll heal them and I'll come
as a great shepherd and I'll gather them to myself and I'll
pick them up and I'll put them in my arms and I'll bring them
back into the fold. Don't you love a shepherd that
does that? If you're a wanderer like me, I just love the fact
that he's the one that's made these promises. I will heal their
backsidings. It's new because now this love
of God is shared abroad in our heart. Love is the basis of this
covenant of grace. Love brought the gift of this
covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth. Loving kindness
from our God Jesus Christ. No man can come to me unless
the Father which has sent me draw him. Everyone that comes
will never ever be cast away. Love is the bond of the everlasting
covenant. We are kept by the power of God. Love is the bond of an eternal
union between God and his people. I love what Augustine, I think
it was, said, Lord, command what you will and perform the commandment.
Command what you will and do it. Under the eternal everlasting
new covenant The demands of God upon us are turned into promises
of what God will do in us. And that's what he's done. That's
what he's done for this sinner, and that's what he does for all
of us. And that's what this is about,
isn't it? This blood. We are brought near to each other
by this blood. we're brought to be one with
God through this blood. We are made by the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to be perfectly fit vessels in which God dwells. The holy God that came to a mountain
Call Sinai with darkness and blackness and the whole earth
shook at the presence of God that God calls us to his company
right now. He says, take and eat. It's the
cup of blessing, a cup of the blessing of our great high priest. It's a cup of blessing. Let me
read it again out of 1 Corinthians chapter 10. One qualification
for taking the cup of blessing. Believe. The one cause of troubled
hearts being untroubled. Believe also in me. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread
which we break, is it not the communion? I love that word.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would cause us to eat and drink in faith, and in love and in thankfulness
to our glorious God and Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless
your word to our hearts, work faith in us, rule and command
and direct and keep us in your love our father for the glory
of your son and for the comfort of each of us as we walk through
this world continually getting our feet dirty we thank you for
the washing in the blood of your dear and precious son pray in
his name and for his glory and for the comfort of your people
our father amen