Alright brethren, let's go to
Luke chapter 22. Luke 22 and verse 17. The Lord is in the room with the disciples,
with his apostles. They observed the Passover and
it says, and he took the cup and he gave thanks. And he said,
take this and 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. And he took bread and he gave
thanks and he break it. And he 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. I want to speak on the subject
of the simplicity of the table, the simplicity of the table.
The purpose of the Lord's table is in verse 19. He says there
at the end, this do in remembrance of me. Now he gave a very clear
command there. This do in remembrance of me. It's a very simple ordinance
with a very simple command. Now, so many times the focus
becomes the form. The focus becomes how you go
about doing it and all these different things you do. And
that's, sadly, that's the case in other areas of religion. You
know, the form becomes the focus. The singing and the church building
and the things people wear and just all the form that you go
through. But this is a very simple ordinance
with a very simple command. This is the purpose of our singing.
It's the purpose of our scripture reading. It's the purpose of
our preaching. to remember Him, to look to Him. When we sing, it's not so much
about how well you sing or, you know, it's about the words that
help you look to Him and remember Him. The gospel message we preach
is always pointing one another to Christ, to Christ. You preach the message and you
had some, deep theological points and you were a great speaker
and you used language that just dazzled everybody, but you didn't
preach Christ and shut sinners up to Christ. It's worthless. This thing is about seeing him
and knowing him. So this was a very simple ordinance. Remember me, the Lord said, remember
me. It's not a tool to discipline
people. I've heard of churches using
the Lord's Table as a tool for discipline. It's not for that. It's the Lord's Table. It's for
remembering Him. We're not trying to exclude our
brethren, ever. We're trying to help brethren
remember Christ and look to Christ. That's the point. In everything,
that's the point, to look to Christ. Him only. Believe on
Him only. We're not to try to create some
mysterious religious atmosphere. We're not trying to do something
that appeals to men's sight and their flesh. That's not the purpose.
That's not the purpose. It's not an outward show, and
any kind of outward show's deadly. We're trying to, in spirit, we're
trying to remember our Lord and think on Him. Now this wine and
this bread is not a mass. It does not become the body of
Christ and the blood of Christ. This is a remembrance. This is
a simple token. Something to simply remember
him by. Unleavened bread and wine. Just
something to remember him by. That's what it's for. It's not
a perpetual repetition of Christ's death. If it became his body
and his blood, it would be like him repeating his crucifixion
over and over. No, that's done. It's done. It's
finished. They're just two simple elements,
bread and wine. The bread represents the body
of our Lord. It represents His body. He said
there in verse 19, this is my body which is given for you,
broken for you. That bread He gave them didn't
become Him. He was sitting there. He gave
it to them. And He says in verse 20, the
cup is the New Testament in my blood. It represents the New
Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. It was one time,
broken one time. His body broken one time, his
blood shed one time. And he knew who he's laying down
his life for. He said, my body which is given
for you. There was his apostles. Did he
mean all of them? He didn't mean all of them. Because
Judas was sitting there and he didn't die for Judas. If he had
died for Judas, Judas wouldn't have forsook him. Because he
wouldn't have let him. His spirit in him wouldn't have
let him. He wasn't laying down His life for Judah. You think
Christ didn't die for everybody? That's what people all over the
world say. Look at John 10. Look at John chapter 10. He knows
who He laid down His life for. The Lord gave Him a people, a
particular people, and that's who He laid down His life for.
Look here in John 10 and verse 15. He said, As the Father knows
me, So I know the Father, so know I the Father, and I lay
down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep.
And he's sitting there speaking to Jews now, and he's saying,
not everybody in this Jewish fold is my sheep, but I'm laying
down my life for the sheep. But he says here, and other sheep
I have which are not of this fold. Me and you rejoice in that,
because we're Gentiles. And he's saying, I got some elect
sheep among the Gentiles. Them also I must bring, and they'll
hear my voice, and there'll be one foal and one shepherd. Therefore
does my Father love me, because I laid down my life, that I may
take it again. No man's taking it from me. I'm
doing this voluntarily, he said. I'm doing it voluntarily. Look
over here at verse 25. Jesus, these men came around
and they said, why are you making us to doubt? Why are you making
us to doubt? Won't you tell us plainly who
you are, what you're doing? He said, verse 25, I told you,
and you believe not, the works that I do in my Father's name,
they bear witness of me. Now watch this statement. But
you believe not, here's why you don't believe me, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. Now get what he said. He didn't say you're not my sheep
because you don't believe. He said the reason you don't
believe is you're not my sheep. Now watch. Watch what he said.
My sheep hear my voice. How do they hear? I know them.
He makes you know, He knows you and makes you know Him. And they
followed me, and I give them eternal life, and they'll never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My
Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man's
able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father
are one. He said, I'm laying down my life
for a particular people, and I'm gonna save them. Let me show
you something, Hebrews 10. Go over there and let me show
you this. I want you to see, this is why we say he laid down
his life for a particular people. They were sanctified, they were
set apart and made holy when the Father chose them before
the world was made. And he gave them to Christ, and
Christ came forth to lay down his life for that particular
people. And the reason we declare that is because he accomplished
making them perfect by what he did, by his blood. Look here,
Hebrews 10 11. Every priest stands daily ministering, offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. But this
man, speaking of Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those
that He set apart in divine election by sovereign grace and gave to
His Son, Christ died for. And when He died for them, He
perfected them forever. That means before the law, they're
perfected. So they have to be given faith,
they have to be given life, they have to be called to Him and
brought to glory. He perfected them before God's
holy law. That's the whole purpose of this
thing. It's not about you feeling good and learning how to live
in the world and having this, you know, God's got a wonderful
plan for you. I don't know if he does or not.
Maybe he does, maybe he don't. But this I do know, he purposed
to save a people to glorify himself. That's the purpose, to glorify
himself. And that's what he's doing in
this world. He's sending the gospel out to declare, I sent
my son. My son accomplished my will.
He redeemed the people. He satisfied the justice of God. He justified everybody for whom
he died. So now, God's showing he's just. He poured out wrath on his son
in the place of his people. He won't pour out wrath on those
people. Why? He satisfied justice for
them. If he poured out wrath on them,
once Christ has died for them already, that'd be double jeopardy.
He won't do that. Why? He satisfied justice on
his son. That's why Christ died. He didn't
die to give everybody a chance. We're not at the casino. He did
it. He came and accomplished it.
and he's sending this gospel, and he's calling out his sheep.
He said, I know them. I'm sending my gospel to them.
God's sovereign. He made this world. He created
everything in it, made it, and he's sovereign, and he didn't
wind it up and let it go. He's working everything that's
coming to pass in this world on purpose to call out that people
that he redeemed in his son. That's what he's doing. Look
at John 17. I'll show you this again. John
17. Look at verse 1. The Lord is speaking. This is
his intercessory prayer to Christ before He goes to the cross.
But He says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son that
Thy Son also may glorify Thee, as Thou hast given Him power
over all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. As many as thou hast given
him. Well what about those texts that
says he loved the world, he died for, the world he's talking about
is as many as the father gave to him. Now they're all over
the world, they're not just among the Jews, they're everywhere,
Jew and Gentile, male and female, rich and poor, but he's talking
about those the father gave to him. This is life eternal that they
may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou sent.
I've glorified thee on there. I've finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. I glorify thou me with thine
own self for the glory I had with thee before the world was.
Look here, I've manifested your name to the men which you gave
me out of the world. Thine they were and you gave
them me and they've kept thy word. And he says, look down
at verse nine, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they're thine. So he's,
my point is, this is for, he went to the cross, he stood there,
sat there that night and he gave him that bread and that wine
and he said, this is my body given for you. He knew he was
dying for. This is my blood shed for you.
He went to the cross for a people. So that's what we're here to
remember. This is for you that he's called, you that he's given
faith, you he's given life to know that he's all you hope. When we take this bread and this
wine, what we're saying is, we're saying if he hadn't died for
me, I wouldn't have any hope. If he hadn't broke his body and
shed his blood for me, the justice of God said I'm guilty and I
must be forever punished in hell if he hadn't laid down his life
for me. I can't contribute to it. Nothing I can do can take
from it. He accomplished it. That's what
we're saying. We're taking this bread and this
wine and saying he is everything. He's all my righteousness. He's
all my holiness. Everything is wrapped up in him.
I'm redeemed by him. So this is why he did it. This
do in remembrance of me. We can't remember somebody we
don't know. So this is for believers, those
that know Him. It's for sinners. He died for
the ungodly. That's what we're saying when
we take the, in myself, I'm the ungodly. I'm without strength. I'm somebody that couldn't save
myself. He had to do all the saving. These are those born
again of the Spirit of God, given life, given faith by the Spirit
of God, not by our will, Not because of something in us, solely
by the grace of God. That's who this is for. Redeemed
by Christ, made righteous by Christ, resting in Christ. Now,
each believer is to examine ourselves. And here's why. Not to see if
you can come and partake of this worthily because of something
in you or something you have done to make yourself be able
to take of it worthily. What we examine ourselves for
is, do I know Him? Do I discern? Do I have spiritual
discernment to know and be able to remember and discern the Lord's
body? I look at 1 Corinthians 11, I'll
show you that. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. He says in verse 23, I received
of the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. When he'd
given thanks, he'd break it, and he 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, which he had
supped, saying, this cup's the New Testament in my blood, this
do, as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as
often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the
Lord's death till he comes. 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, and 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. That's why we
examine ourselves. If you can find some worthiness
in you that makes you be able to come and partake of this table
worthily, don't come partake of it. The only thing that makes
us be able to partake of this worthily is if Christ is the
only righteousness we have. He's the only hope we have. We
can't add anything to him. He alone. The only thing we bring
to the table is sin. He alone is our righteousness
that makes us partake worthily, discerning His body, discerning
His body. Now, as we partake of this table,
let's remember Him. Now let's look at some things
here to help us remember Him, and I'll be brief. First of all,
by the bread and the wine, we remember that the Son of God
became a real man. The Son of God, God who is a
spirit, The second person in the Trinity became a real man. It says there in our text, he
took bread. He took bread. He says, there
he says, this is my body which is given for you. He took the
cup. Well, the same way he took that
bread and he took that cup, the Son of God came down and took
flesh. He took flesh. He became a man. He became a man. Why did he become
a man? What was the purpose of that?
Well, as God, he's spirit. But God's gonna manifest himself.
He's gonna show his people who he is. And he came forth. God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is manifest
in a body, and that man, the God man, Christ Jesus. He's really
God, and he's really man. And He did it for His people. Go to Hebrews 2 and look at verse
14. Here's why He did it. Hebrews
2 verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took
part of the same that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham."
That's God's elect. Not everybody's a seed of Abraham.
Remember we saw that in Galatians? It's those that the father gave
to cry. He took upon him the nature of
the children that he came to die for. So in all things, it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. Here's why. That he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. And because he's touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, he's able also to comfort his
people. That was the two things a high
priest was to do. He had to go in to the holy place
and offer the sacrifice and sprinkle the blood and make reconciliation
for the sins of Israel. And at the same time, he was
a man taken from among them so he knew what they were going
through so he could come to them and talk to them and comfort
them and help them upon them to cry. That's why he became
our high priest. He's that spotless, holy, harmless
high priest separate from us who himself is the sacrifice,
who went in and laid down his life and sprinkled his own blood
in the holy place and made reconciliation for his people. And he's able
to come through this gospel and comfort us in our hearts and
keep us as we go through this world. That's what we're remembering. Leaven is a type of sin. It's a type of self-righteousness.
It's a type of pride. Leaven puffs up. And anything
that puffs us up is is typical of sin, and it's that pride of
wanting self to be glorified, self-righteousness, self-will,
self-justification, self-sanctification, self, self, self, that's a picture
of leaven. This bread was unleavened. We
know that because it's the Passover, and they had to have unleavened
bread. And he's instituting this table because that unleavened
bread is a picture of Christ who knew no sin. There's only
two men in this world that started their lives out without any sin. That's Adam. He represented everybody
that would be born of him. And he sinned in the garden and
died. And so everybody born of him
was guilty and came forth with a sin nature. The only other
man came into this world that had no sin is the last Adam,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He had no sin because he's representing
his people. And he did no sin. He did no
sin. So he could represent his people.
He had to be holy. If he's going to go to the law
and represent us before the law, he had to be perfect. He couldn't
be guilty. So he was. And that's what we have a picture
of with this unleavened bread. He was without sin. And then
he gave his body to be broken. He says here, he took the bread,
he gave thanks, and he break it. He break it. We're going
to break this bread because it pictures Christ. who gave his
body to be broken. What does that mean? Well, he
went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and I don't know at what point
he did this, but the spotless Lamb of God at some point, the
Lord Jesus made him sin for his people. He took the sin of his
people and laid the sin of his people on his son, So that God
is manifesting His righteousness. Here's a spotless, harmless,
sinless man. And before God's going to pour
out judgment on him, He has to make him worthy of that judgment.
And so He laid the sins of His people on him. He did no sin.
but he laid the sins of his people on him and now God could pour
out wrath and justice upon him in the place of his people. He
said this is my body given for you. This is my blood shed for
you. It was a substitution. He laid
down his life for somebody and God poured out judgment upon
him and his body was broken. His blood was shed because without
the shedding of blood there's no remission. See here's the
I'm trying to make this as simple as I can. You and me come into this world
guilty. And whether we like it or not, whether we believe God
or not, if we pastor from this world, never believing on Christ,
we're going to stand before God in judgment. If we stand there
outside of Christ, not believing on Christ, not having him to
represent us to God, we're going to be guilty. That's just all
there is to it. And God's justice demands we
must die. We must be cast out and whatever
hell is, it's being separated from God. Not having his power
and his glory. Right now, if he took his hand
off this world, you'd be in hell because imagine if you could
do everything that comes into your heart. You'd kill people 100 times a
day. And imagine if everybody else
could do what's in their heart. That'd be hell, wouldn't it?
That's the way he describes it. He's taking away the presence
of his glory and there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth. But what makes it hell is not
having God. And knowing this would have been
yours just believing on Christ. Just resting in Him. And never
being able to have Him. Ever. But see, for His people,
when He was made sin and hung on that cross, that's why He
cried out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? So you and I would know, He was
forsaken. He bore that forsaking that his
people would have had to bore to satisfy the justice of God
and declare God just so that God now, in justice, can be merciful
to everybody for whom he died. I think in every other area of
our life, if somebody came to us and said, I'm gonna make you
so rich you won't even be able to fathom how rich you're gonna
be. All you gotta do is trust me to do it. Any other area in
our life I think we'd go, all right, I'll go for that. You're
gonna make me rich and you're gonna do it. Okay, I'll trust
you to do it. Why won't we do that when it
comes to eternal matters? That's what God's saying. He
who was rich became poor, that through his poverty we might
be made rich. What do I have to do? The one
thing that sinners just hate to do, trust God to do it all. The one thing we can't do unless
He gives you the heart to just trust Him and believe Him, and
that's trust Him to do everything. That's what we see all through
Galatia, brethren. That's what the problem was at
Galatia. Those that felt like they needed to come back under
the law, they weren't trusting Christ to do it all. And those
who didn't think they should be under the law and were upset
about them not being under the law, they wasn't trusting Christ
to take care of his own and bring them back to trust him. They
had put their hand to it. What's he teaching us? Trust
him. Trust him. Trust him. Well, we have to do something.
He'll give us plenty to do. Do you realize there's a lot
involved with just trusting him and speaking of him? And not, you know, we say, well,
you just mortified your flesh. You committed murder. Stop that. And then we get lifted up in
pride about somebody that has sinned, and get angry about it,
and we're bitter about it, and we're sideways about it. Well,
just stop that. If it's that easy, just stop
that. Just don't do it anymore. Just believe the Lord, and trust
Him, and look to Him. and speak to one another of Him,
and comfort one another with His Word, and wait on Him to
work in your child. We can't do any of that, unless
He gives us the heart to do it. We just can't. But see, He says, Walk in love as Christ also has
loved us. and giving himself for us an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. He's done. He's done. He's not going to let his child
fall away. He's not going to let any of
his people be lost. He's going to keep us looking
to him. But He's going to make us trust
Him. He's not going to let us blame
each other. He's not going to let us condemn each other. He's
not going to let us condemn our own self because we would fall
away. He's going to keep us looking
to Him and treating our flesh like what it is, condemned at
Calvary's cross and put away so that God says, I don't behold
iniquity in Jacob anymore. What is the sin he's keeping
us from? It's the first sin he convinces us of in the beginning.
The Spirit of God will convince him of sin because they believe
not on me. That's the sin he's turning us
from in every hour. He's turning us to say, I hadn't
been trusting him. That's my sin. I'm not looking
to him alone. He gonna convince you of righteousness.
that he completely established it, and he's risen, and that's
how you know he did it. And he's gonna convince you of
judgment. It's settled. He crushed the serpent's head,
and he's gonna bruise him under the feet of his people shortly.
It's done. He just keeps convincing us of
this. Every one of those is convincing us. Him, him, him. Trust him. Trust him. All right. He said this, I'm the living
bread. Any man eat of this bread, he'll live forever. The bread
that I give is my flesh, which I give for the life of my people
all over this world. He said, except you eat the flesh
of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
But whoso eats my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life and
I'll raise him up to the last day. So we're remembering his
sinless body. We're remembering how he laid
down his life as our substitute, shed his blood for us as we take
this broken bread and this wine. And then we're going to remember
this too. When you take it and you eat it and it becomes one
with you, He said, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood,
you don't have life in you. What's he saying by that? He's
saying, except you believe on me and trust me, you're not going
to have this life. So as you, believer, as you eat
this bread and it becomes one with you,
know this, because the Spirit of God has entered in and given
you a heart to believe Him and trust Him. He's in you. And you're in Him, and you're
one with Him, just like that bread and that wine is going
to be one with you when you drink it, when you eat it. And He says,
except you continue in Me, continue believing on Me, you have no
life in you. That's how He's going to manifest
those that are His and those that are not. Those that are
His, they're going to keep believing on Him, come what may. And those
that aren't, they just can't do it. but that's
what he's going to keep you looking to him because he's made you
one with him. We've been one with him when
he chose us, we were one with him at the cross, and now we're
one with him experimentally because he's given us life and faith
in him. So believer, and you that are
sitting here that haven't believed on him, I say to you today, just
if you find yourself believing on him, this is the, how do I
know I'm one of his elect? and you'll start believing him.
How do I know I've been born again of the spirit of God and
he did all the work to regenerate me? Whereas you couldn't believe
on him and you hated this message and you thought that's not fair
for God to choose some and pass by others. It's not fair that
he just redeemed a particular number. One day he takes you
from that side where you're on that side going, it's not fair
that he did that for them. And he puts you on that side
with him and makes you go. I don't deserve that He did this
for me. I didn't do anything. I was a
sinner. He just did it all. That's how
you know He chose you. That's how you know He redeemed
you. That's how you know He gave you this life. You just put it
all in His hand and say, I trust Him. I trust Him. Alright, so
He said, this do in remembrance of me. Alright, Brother Ben,
Could you and Brother Adam, can y'all come and pass these out?