Alright brethren, let's go to
Matthew 26. Our text this morning is going to be verses 26 through 28 of Matthew 26. It says in verse 26, ìAnd as
they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and break it, and gave it to
the disciples, and said, ìTake, eat, this is my body.î And he
took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Now, our Lord Jesus had assembled
His disciples along with Judas the betrayer, and they were observing
the last Passover supper. Christ is the Passover, and so
He was fulfilling the last Passover supper, eating the last Passover
with His disciples. And as He was eating that Passover,
He then instituted the new covenant ordinance of the Lord's Table. So we don't observe the Passover
anymore, now we observe the Lord's Table. Now, as we do this, you
know, back when the Lord told them, when He instituted the
Passover, He said, if your children ask you why you do this, you
tell them. And so, in case anybody wonders
why we partake of the Lord's table, what these things mean,
we're going to tell you. We're going to see today Christ's
death in the table. Christ's death in the table.
Now here's what I want you to see. In the things that our Lord
did as He gave this ordinance, in each of those things He did
as He gave the ordinance, we see a picture of what Christ
actually did to make every one of His children complete through
His death. The first thing that our Lord
did is He took human flesh. It says here in verse 26, And
as they were eating, Jesus took bread. You remember Christ described
His flesh as the true bread. He said in John 6.51, I am the
living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And he defined the bread. He
said, and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I shall
give for the life of the world. So when you behold him here taking
bread, that's a picture of what he actually did for his people.
He took human flesh. He took the human nature of His
elect. Go to Hebrews 2. Why did He do
this? Hebrews 2 and verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took
part of the same. Now here's why. That through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. Here's another reason. 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. He took on him the nature of
God's elect who are called in Scripture the true children of
Abraham, the true seed of Abraham. Verse 17, Wherefore in all things
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. Here's a cause,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God. Because he took flesh, the Hebrew
writer goes on to say that every high priest was taken from among
men. and Christ was taken from among his brethren, that he might
be our faithful and merciful high priest. Merciful because
he knows the feeling of our infirmities. So he can empathize with us and
succor those who are tempted. He is a faithful and high priest
in things pertaining to God and to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people. That's what Christ came to do.
Now can anybody explain to me how the Son of God, who is invisible,
was made flesh? Can anybody here explain that? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Scripture says, without controversy,
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. But we don't not believe it simply
because we can't explain it. We just believe. He became the
God-man. Perfect, sinless, human flesh
and blood. That's why today when we observe
this table we're using unleavened bread. and wine. So today when you take the bread
and the wine, you remember, you think about the great condescension
of Christ for us who took our human nature, who came down and
took our human nature. That was a great, great stoop
to come down and take our flesh. And then secondly, He blessed
our human nature. He blessed our human nature.
Look here in verse 26. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it. Now as surely as Christ prayed
over that bread and blessed that physical bread and that physical
wine, Christ blessed the human nature of His elect by being
made flesh like unto us. What do you mean by that? I mean
unless He was made flesh, we would not have a Savior nor salvation. Because He took flesh, He preserved
human nature. He preserved it. He preserved
it. God loved the order of mankind
that He had made. And so He gave His Son to preserve
human nature. And that's what Christ did. Not
sinful human nature. I'm talking about spotless, perfect
human nature. And by merely taking flesh and
doing what He did for His people, He blessed that bread. He blessed the flesh. He blessed
our human nature. And not only that, when you see
Him there praying over that bread and thanking God for that bread,
remember this, that His whole life Everything He did from the
day He was born to the day He died, everything He did was one
perpetual thanksgiving to God. One perpetual blessing God for
His purpose in salvation. Everything He did was the blessing
of God. In His flesh and blood there
is no leaven of sin, there is no No unbelief. There's nothing but perfect faithfulness
and fidelity to His Father. And that is the perfect faith
and fidelity to God for His people. You and I have weak faith. We
have mustard seed faith. But it's not our faith that saves
us. It's the faith of Christ that saves us. So Him walking
this earth the whole time, He walked in that perfect faith,
Him thanking the Father for what He had done and blessing the
Father for what He had done and blessing His people. He said,
for the joy that was sent before Him, He endured the cross despising
the shame. What was the joy that was sent
before Him? It was the joy of blessing the Father. It was the
joy of showing the perfect nature of God our Father in human flesh. It was the glory of going to
the cross and laying down His life to declare God just and
the justifier of those that believe on Christ. It was to declare
His righteousness. And at the same time, the joy
set before Him was to redeem to Himself, to purchase to Himself
that elect people that God gave Him before the foundation of
the world. In his whole life, everything he did was one perpetual
fulfilling of the Father's will. And that, my friends, is the
essence of prayer. That's the essence of why we
take the bread and pray over it. We're thanking God and blessing
God for giving us this life through this bread. And that's what Christ
did in everything He did in this life, was thanking God and blessing
God for giving life and being the righteousness of His people
and being the salvation of His people in everything He did.
He said this, in sacrifice and offerings, you had no pleasure
in those things. They did not bring satisfaction to God. All
they did was picture Christ. He said, ìIn sacrifice and offering
you have no pleasure therein.î So brethren, understand this.
You understand this who have not yet believed on God. Thereís
nothing you can do to come to a place where you think youíve
arrived at a certain level of whatever it is you think you
have to have so that God will receive you. Heís not going to
be satisfied with any of your offerings or any of your sacrifices.
He is pleased with one offering and one sacrifice. Christ said,
ìA body has thou prepared Me.î God prepared Him human flesh,
a human fleshly body, and He took that body. He said, ìIn
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.î
Then said I, ìLo, I come.î In the volume of the book itís written
of Me. ìI come to do thy will, O God.î And so now, as we give
thanks for the bread and the wine, We are going to pray over
the bread and the wine today before we take it. And as we
give thanks for that bread and that wine, I want you to remember
that Christ's incarnation blessed our human nature. And remember
that His whole life was one perpetual thanksgiving and blessing to
the Father for the salvation He provided for His people in
Christ. So as we pray over this bread,
you remember that. That's why we're not just thanking
God for that bread and that wine, we're thanking God for Christ
and His life whom that bread and that wine represents. Now
thirdly, Christ laid down His life by taking the cup that the
Father put into His hands. Christ laid down His life by
taking the cup the Father put into His hands. It says in verse
26, He break the bread. He break the bread. Verse 27
says, And He took the cup. You see the picture in that?
Christ willingly took the bitter cup. that God the Father gave
Him to drink dry for His people. He willingly took that cup. Look
down at verse 36, Matthew 26, 36. We're going to do some reading
here this morning. Matthew 26, 36 says, Then cometh
Jesus with His disciples into a place called Gethsemane. This
was a garden. This was a garden. And He said
unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And
he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began
to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, and
watch with me. He is saying, pray with me. And
he went a little further, and he fell on his face, and he prayed,
saying, O my father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from
me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples,
and he foundeth them asleep, and he said unto Peter, What?
Could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you
enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second
time, and he prayed, saying, ìO my Father, if this cup may
not pass from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.î And he
came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And
he left them, and he went away again, and he prayed the third
time, saying the same words. Now this is another great mystery,
brethren. Right there in the garden The
Father presented to Him the bitter cup of being made sin for His
people, of being made the sin that His people are. Christ was
made flesh like unto His brethren, and Christ was made sin like
unto His brethren. He bore the sin of His people.
It was in the first garden, in the very first garden, that his
people were made sin by the first Adam. And it was in the second
garden, the garden of Gethsemane, that the last Adam began to be
made sin to redeem his people. And he began to be sorrowful
and very heavy. He described it as a baptism
that he had to be baptized with. In other words, his whole being
began to be immersed in sin and shame and suffering. And that cup had a real effect
upon his soul. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even to the point of death. And his This cup had a great
effect on his body, his physical body. Luke says, being in an
agony, his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling
down to the ground. We read this morning in Hebrews,
it says, consider Christ lest you be faint in your minds because
you've not endured unto blood, striving against sin. That's what was taking place
here. He began to be under that tremendous weight of sin that
He's bearing for His people. And in the Garden, our Substitute
really did experience Himself just how weak our flesh really
is. He came back to them and He said,
The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. He was speaking
what He was right then experiencing in the garden. He knew the flesh
is weak. He said it was to the point of
dying. This is why some believe, and
I'm sort of the opinion too, that what He was praying for
there when He said, Let this cup pass from Me, was not going
to the cross and being made a curse for us. Let me not die right
here, right now, in this garden. But here's the great thing we
see in that. He took the cup. He took the cup that the Father
gave to him to drink. He took the cup. He took the
cup. He said, if this cup may not
pass from me except I drink it, thy will be done. And not only did He take the
cup, Also, He Himself laid down His life. He said, ìNo man takes
My life from Me. I lay it down of Myself.î And
in the picture we have in the Lordís table, He took the bread
and He break it. Now letís read on Matthew 26,
45. It says, ìThen cometh He to His
disciples and saith unto them, ìSleep on now and take your rest. Behold, the hour is at hand,
and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise,
let us be going. Behold, He is at hand that doth
betray Me. And while He yet spake, lo, Judas,
one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with
swords and staves from the chief priests and elders of the people.
Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever
I shall kiss, that same is he. Hold him fast. And forthwith
he came to Jesus, and he said, Hail, Master! And he kissed him. What hypocrisy! And Jesus said unto him, Friend,
wherefore art thou come? Then came they and laid hands
on Jesus and took Him. You know, in another one of the
Gospels, that happened only after Christ said, I am Jesus whom
you seek. And when He said that, they all
fell down on their rear end, fell backwards, showing that
at any time He could have delivered Himself, but He didn't. He laid
down His life. Look here. Verse 51, And behold,
one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, this
is Peter, and drew his sword, and he struck a servant of the
high priest and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him,
Put up again thy sword into its place, for all they that take
the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot
now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more
than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the Scripture
be fulfilled that thus it must be? In that same hour said Jesus
to the multitudes, Are you come out as against a thief with swords
and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching
in the temple, and you laid no hold on me. Why not? Because
He didn't allow them to. He had the power over them as
God and they couldn't take hold of Him. But now He's showing,
I'm giving Myself to you so that you can now lay hold on Me. But
all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.
And then all the disciples forsook Him and fled. So you see it was
Christ who willingly gave His body, laid it down and broke
it. He did it. He said in Isaiah
50 verse 6, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to
them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. And here's the faith of Christ
by which our faith is made perfect. He said because the Lord God
will help me. The Lord God will help me. You
know the Lord God couldn't help him though from the garden unto
that cross Until it was finished, God could not help him. He had to bear all that himself.
And how his body was broken and how his precious blood was shed.
He says there in Matthew 27-28, And they stripped him and put
on him a scarlet robe, And when they had planted a crown of thorns,
they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And
they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail,
King of the Jews. And they spit upon him, and took
the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had
mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own
raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. Verse 35 says,
ìAnd they crucified him and parted his garments, casting lots, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, ìThey
parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they
cast lots.î And sitting down they watched him there.î Verse
39, ìAnd they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads,
and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in
three days, save Thyself. If Thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests
mocking Him with the scribes and elders said, He saved others,
Himself He cannot save. And they didn't mean to speak
the gospel, but that is the gospel of substitution. If He's going
to save others, Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him.
They would not have. They would not have. He trusted
in God, let Him deliver Him now, if He'll have Him. For He said,
I am the Son of God. The thieves also which were crucified
with Him cast the same in His teeth. But let me tell you something,
far worse than that, far worse than anything He bore at the
hands of men is what He was bearing at the hands of God in fierce
wrath and judgment. Look here in verse 45, Matthew
27, 45. Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about
the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani. That is to say, my God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me? You see, enduring the cross involved
being made the shame of sin. Being made the shame of sin.
And He bore that, despising that shame. For the Scripture says,
He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And then due to our
sin, because He was made sin, then in these hours of darkness,
we see Him being made a curse. God forsook Him. God forsook
Him. And so He was bruised for our
iniquities. A bruising far worse than that
outward visage being marred and that outward form being marred.
A bruising, spiritual bruising. But this was required to uphold
God's justice and honor God's law, honor God's justice. In
behalf of all those He will save. The wages of sin is death and
we had to die And Christ took our place and bore our sin and
bore our curse and satisfied that justice to uphold God's
law. And at the same time to declare
that God is the one who justified us. And that's what He was doing
on that cross. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. That means it made satisfaction
to justice when the Lord bruised Him. And the Scripture says,
He shall prolong days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in His hand. Look at verse 50, Matthew 27,
50. Jesus, when He had cried again
with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. See, He gave. Nobody ever did that. At the
time appointed, at the time that they would, yield their spirit
into the hands of the Father. He laid down His life Himself.
And then let me read you something that John says. He says, didn't
they, you know, this was happening and it was nearing the Sabbath
day. It was nearing Saturday. And they didn't want Christ and
these other two thieves to be on the cross on the Sabbath day
because that would be breaking the Sabbath. Christ is the Sabbath. But they were more concerned
with breaking a day. And so they sent forth these
men to break their legs so that they couldn't push themselves
up. You know, when you're crucified, you're drowning in your own fluid. But if they pushed themselves
up, they could get some relief from it. So they sent them forth
to break their legs so they couldn't push themselves up anymore. But
the Scripture says, but when they came to Jesus and saw that
He was dead already, they break not His legs. But one of the
soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came
out blood and water." That's the symbol of justification by
the blood and sanctification by the water. And it says, these
things were done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, a bone of
him shall not be broken. Even that was fulfilling the
Scripture. Now back here in Matthew 27.59 it says, And when Joseph
had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and
laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the
rock. And he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher
and departed. So now brethren, as you eat the
bread, you break it, you hear that bread snap, that bread break,
And you drank this wine that was crushed, that was brought
forth by grapes being crushed and broken. As you eat the bread
and drink the wine, remember Christ who laid down His life
for you, who broke the bread of His flesh for you and crushed
the grape and out of Him came His precious blood. to redeem
us. So remember that when you break
the bread and you drink the wine. Now, fourthly, brethren, He gave
Himself into our hearts through God-given faith. He came out
of that tomb. He didn't stay in that tomb.
He's at God's right hand. And He sent the Gospel to us
and through the preaching of the Word, He sent forth the Holy
Spirit and He gave Himself to us in our hearts. Now look, we
have it pictured back in Matthew 26, 26. As they were eating,
Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to
the disciples and said, take, eat. This is My body which is
broken for you. And He took the cup, and He gave
thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drank ye all of it, for
this is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. Since Christ redeemed all God's
elect, made us spotless in Him, made us a sweet savor unto God
in Him, At the appointed hour, the season of His love, He sent
the Gospel to us and through the Spirit regenerated us, gave
us life, He gave us faith, and He was formed in us. He gave Himself within us, just
like He took that bread and gave it to them and said, take, eat. He gave Himself into our hearts
and He commanded eat. And when He gives the command,
you obey Him. And we believed. Just like He
took that wine and He gave it to them and said, drink ye all
of it. He was formed in us and He made
us to drink all, to put all confidence and all trust and all our faith
in His precious blood. That's what He did. Thus saith
the Lord, Thee, Lord, Thy God, that pleaded the cause of His
people. Behold, I have taken out of Thine hand the cup of
trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury, and Thou
shalt no more drink it again." Because He took that cup and
drank that bitter cup that the Father gave to Him, now He says,
I've taken that cup out of Your hand. Now you just have this
sweet cup. of faith in Christ. You don't
have to go back and try to fulfill the law. You don't have to go
back and try to drink of that cup anymore. That cup's bitter
and you know you cannot keep the law. Now you have this sweet
cup, this good bread of simply believing on Christ. And through
faith in Him, we've established the entire law of God. and to
make us remember what He did for us by His broken body and
His shed blood. He's given us this... He's taken
that bitter cup out of our hand. He's given us this sweet cup
of wine. And He says, now, as you drink this, you remember,
you'll never drink that bitter cup again. God will not punish
sin twice. That would not be justice. God
will not punish Christ and satisfy His justice, then turn around
and punish one for whom Christ died. That would not be justice.
He says to His people, you'll never drink that bitter cup again.
You'll never drink it again. Now when we take and we eat bread,
and we drink wine, that bread and that wine becomes one with
our body. When you take bread and you eat
it, and you drink wine, it becomes one with your body. Now, I want
you sitting here to understand, you that have never believed
on Christ, I want you to understand. It's not enough to simply admire
Christ. It's not enough to simply believe
the Bible is the Word of God. It's not enough to come and attend
the hearing of the Gospel, even though you might be here every
time the Gospel is preached. It's not enough. You must eat
His flesh and drink His blood. That is, you must believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Put all your confidence in Him
alone, trusting Him alone to be all your righteousness, all
your redemption, all your wisdom, all your holiness, your all.
And you must confess Him. in believers' baptism. He said,
he that confesses Me, I will confess. But he that is ashamed
to confess Me, I will not confess him before my Father. And that
is simply the only reason why sinners will not confess Christ
is they're ashamed of Christ. That's the reason. But when he gives faith, as brother
Rob read, he makes it so you're not ashamed to confess Him. And there's something else involved
in this thing. It doesn't stop there. We live by faith upon
Christ. All our days, from the time He
calls us to Him, to faith in Him, we live eating His flesh
and drinking His blood. We live partaking of Him through
the preaching of the gospel, through the observance of this
ordinance, and simply living, looking to Him as our All-in-all. This is the thing I'm talking
about. It's not enough just to admire Him. You must believe
on Him. You must confess Him. And you must live upon Him. You
know, life for the believer is not just by being baptized and
joining the church. Life for the believer is a way
of life. It's living upon Christ. And
believer, for you that do believe Him, as this bread and this wine
is presented to you, and as you take it and it becomes one with
your body, remember this, because Christ sent this Word to you,
and through the Word, that incorruptible Word, Created life in you. And Christ was formed in you.
And He's made Himself one with you and you one with Him. So
that we have communion with Him. This is called communion. We
have communion with Christ. And we have communion with one
another in Christ. This is why only baptized believers
can come to the table. And this is why all baptized
believers are commanded to come to the table. Because only those
Christ has made one with Him, or making Himself one with us,
have this communion with Him and with one another. Christ
has revealed to you that His body was broken for you, believer,
and His blood was shed for you. So as we take this bread and
we drink this wine, we're remembering these words Christ said. This
represents My body which is given for you. And this represents
My blood which is shed for you. Listen to this. Listen to this. He hath made Him sin for us. That's substitution. That we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Listen to this.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. Or it's written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. Listen to this. Walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us. An offering. and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. You see, this is what we know
by faith. We don't have to give an offering
to God and we don't have to try to create a sweet-smelling savor
to God. Christ gave Himself for us an
offering and a sweet-smelling savor unto God. So that now,
in Christ, we are that sweet-smelling savor and God accepts us. So now you see why. If anybody
asks the question, why do you observe this ordinance? Why do
you eat this bread and drink this cup? We do it to show Christ's
death till He comes. We do it to show Christ's death
till He comes. And this is why Christ commands
every believer, this do in remembrance of me. Alright, let's... Brother Kevin Thacker and Brother
Eric, will you all come and get the bread. Alright, let's break the bread. Now let's bless the bread. Our Father, we thank You for
this bread. We pray, Lord, that You would
use it now to truly make us remember our Lord Jesus Christ who took
human flesh and who break His own body for His people. Make
us put everything else out of our minds. Make every true believer
here look to Christ and remember the great sacrifice, the great
offering He's made for us. We ask this in Christ's name.
Amen. so so so so so so so