Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 11.
1 Corinthians 11. We find in verse 20, Paul says,
when you come together, therefore into one place, this is not to
eat the Lord's Supper. said, you're not observing the
Lord's Supper. They were having a supper before
the Lord's Supper in connection with the Lord's Supper and they
called it, the whole thing, they called it the Lord's Supper.
You know, Christ ate the Passover and then went after the Supper
of the Passover, He ordained the Lord's Supper. And they were
probably imitating Christ. They were probably doing this
Passover meal and then having the Lord's Supper. And he said,
this is not the Lord's Supper. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
Passover sacrifice for us. He ate the last Passover meal.
He put an end to that law because He's the fulfillment of it. He's
the fulfillment of it. He said, this whole thing is
not the Lord's Supper. And then verse 21, he says, because
in eating everyone taketh before the other his own supper, and
one's hungry and another's drunken. Everyone brought his own bread
and his own wine. And in addition, they were bringing
bitter herbs and lamb, which was to be eaten at the Passover.
I'm sure that was included. And each one brought his own
supper, though, just for himself. And they took their own supper
before others. They would, before others got
there, before everybody arrived, and then once everybody arrived,
they would spread out this big feast before the others. But
it was just for them. And then they would sit there
and just gorge themselves on it, while the others sat over
there and was hungry. And they would gorge themselves
to the point that they weren't drinking a thimble full of wine
like we are, they were getting drunk. They were drinking wine
and getting drunk. So not only was it an improper
observance of the Lord's Supper, it was a mistreatment of their
brethren, of those for whom Christ died. Thus it was a mistreatment
towards Christ Himself, because Christ and His people are one.
Verse 22, He says, what? Have you not houses to eat and
to drink in? Listen to how harsh Paul is here. Sometimes the word corrects,
and you want to do it gently, but I'm sure this came across
harshly to them because they needed to be corrected on it.
They've been taught wrong. What? Have you not houses to
eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God,
and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall
I praise you in this? I praise you not. Now God is
not forbidding us to eat a meal in a place in the same building
where we worship. But I want you to be sure to
understand that when we do have a common meal in the same place
where we worship, it's not in any way connected to the Lord's
Supper at all. It's not connected to the worship
of God at all. It's just brethren having a meal
together. And so we do learn some things here, though, about
even a common meal together. We learn some things about the
Lord's table and about a common meal. We ought to make sure all
are welcome, ought to make certain that there's enough food for
everybody. If I go down that line, I've got to remember if
I'm first, I've got to remember there's a bunch of folks coming
behind me. I'm not going to fill up my plate and take everything
so that the ones behind me can't have anything. And I'm not going
to go back through the line again until everybody's gone through
it. And if there's not enough for me to go back the same time,
I just won't go back a second time. Because this is for our
brethren, for our brethren, for one another. But when it comes
to the Lord's Tupper, the Lord's Table is not the place to satisfy
hunger. That's not the place to satisfy
hunger. And we do that at home. That's what He's saying here.
You don't come to the Lord's Table eat a meal like you do
at home. You do that at home. You come
to the Lord's table to observe the Lord's table. And this too
is included. The Lord's table is not to be
used in any way to despise or shame fellow believers. That should never be the case.
I don't know where preachers got the idea to use this table
as a disciplinary tool and shame people with it, but it ought
not to be. It ought not to be at all. Now, verse 23. Here's why. Here's the number
one reason why all this is so. For I have received of the Lord
that which I also delivered unto you. Down in verse 24, the Lord
had said, This do ye. This do ye. This came from the
Lord. This do you. As oft as you drink
it, and do it in remembrance of me. Don't have you focus on
anything but me. Verse 26, he says, for as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death till He come. You see, the Lord's Supper was
given to His church by Christ, directly from Christ. He gave
it to Paul, Paul gave it to the church, it's been passed down
to us unchanged. The Lord's Supper was given by
Christ. for the purpose of remembering the Lord Jesus, remembering His
body and remembering His blood, His death on the cross. That's
the purpose of this supper. Now Christ gave this ordinance
and passed it to them. So the important thing to remember
here, I think this is interesting, I think this is very significant. Our Lord only ordained two ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. And both of those ordinances
were to be carried out in a way that showed Christ and
His substitutionary death at Calvary. That's the important
thing. Baptism means immersion and we
immerse because it's a burial. You don't burial people by sprinkling
dirt on them. You bury them. You bury What if you don't have
water? I believe the God who is sovereign
enough to send Philip out on the back road and meet up with
one of his lost elect children and preach the gospel to him
and give him life. He's able at just the right time
to bring him to the point when after the Lord saved him to be
at that body of water to say, there's water, what hinders me
from being baptized. You believe God is sovereign?
He's going to provide water for His people. That's a lame excuse
to disobey God. And it's for believers because
only a believer can believe and confess, I was buried. I died
when Christ died. I was buried when Christ was
buried. My old man's put away and I rose again in Christ. Only
a believer can discern that. And that was the requirement.
What hinders me to be baptized? Well, let me put you on a six-month
church watch Let me put you on probation. You got to wait here
till I come back through this way again and maybe I'll find
you and I'll baptize you." No. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
with all your heart, you may. You think Paul told the Philippian
jailer that and then turned around and baptized the rest of his
house who had not believed on him? No, the Lord saved the jailer
and He saved his house, just like He did the jailer. And they
confessed Christ in believers' baptism. We confess that and
we profess that and we do it like Christ said do it, because
the important thing is Christ commanded it. Christ commanded
it. And He commanded it the best
way there is to show who He is and what He accomplished. You
want to rebel against Christ? You want to butt heads with Christ?
Christ commanded it. And then we observe the Lord's
table because it symbolically shows these elements show His
broken body which was broken for His people and it shows His
shed blood which was shed for His people. It's the best way. He ordained the elements that
would best show who He is and what He did for His people. And
he handed that down. And he said, this do. And so,
those who have a heart where he is speaking affectionately
into, you know what we do? You bow to Christ. And you obey
Him. So the important thing to a believer
is to observe this ordinance as Christ commanded it, as best
symbolizes Christ, His broken body and His shed blood. Because
He said there, as often as you eat this bread and drink this
cup, It's not the timing of it, and it's not the place of it,
and it's not the time of day of it that's the most important
thing. What's important here is you're showing the Lord's
death. You're showing the Lord's death
until He comes. Alright, so I've got two points
for you. First of all, the bread and the wine. Let's look at verse
23. This is what the Lord delivered to Paul and what he delivered
to the church. Verse 23. The Lord Jesus, the
same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given
thanks, he break it and said, Take, eat. This is my body which
is broken for you. A symbolical picture of my body
which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also, he
took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye, as oft as you drink
it, in remembrance of me. The Lord used unleavened bread
and he used fermented wine that had at least been fermented 40
days. And we know that because he did
this on the same night in which he was betrayed. The same night
in which he was betrayed. And that tells us that he did
this after he observed the Lord's Supper. Now, look over in Luke
22. Luke 22. He observed the last required
Passover meal. Now here in Luke 22, he ate that
last Passover meal in verses 13 through 18. Let me begin up
here in verse 7. Luke 22, 7. Then came the day
of unleavened bread. Bread is put for, speaks to food,
bread and wine. Unleavened bread, unleavened
food. When the Passover must be killed.
day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed.
And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover
that we may eat. And they said unto him, Wherewith
thou that we prepare? And he said unto them, Behold,
when you are entered into the city, there shall a man meet
you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house where
he entereth in. And you shall say unto the goodman
of the house, The master saith unto thee, Where is the guest
chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? See
there where I made the Passover with my disciples. And he shall
show you a large upper room furnished. Furnished. Christ prepared the
place. It's furnished. There make it
ready. And they went and found as he had said unto them, and
they made ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he
sat down and the twelve apostles with him. Now, verses 13 here
through 18, he's going to observe the Passover. It says, and he
said to them, with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with
you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God. 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. Now there was four cups at the
Passover. Four cups were used at the Passover.
And there's some disagreement on which one was the cup of blessing.
Most say it was the third cup was the cup of blessing. Because
he prayed over the cup and then he used the fourth cup now to
institute the Lord's table. But it's the same substance that
was in the cup and the same bread that was being used. Now he's
fixing to institute the Lord's table. 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
the Passover supper, saying, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood which is shed for you. And so they partook of it. Judas went out. When it was all
over, they went out and went to the Garden of Gethsemane and
he was betrayed. He was betrayed. Now these two
meals were eaten on the day of unleavened bread. The Day of
Unleavened Bread. On the first day of the Feast
of Unleavened Bread. Now turn to Exodus 12 with me.
Exodus 12. The law stated that no leaven,
no yeast, that's what leaven is, it's yeast. No yeast could
even be in the house during Passover. Couldn't even be in the house.
Look here, Exodus 12, 15. Seven days shall you eat unleavened
bread. They were doing this on the first
day of the feast of unleavened bread. In Exodus 12, verse 15,
he says there, Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread. Even
the first day you should put away leaven out of your houses.
For whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until
the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel." No leaven
could be in the house. When they brought sacrifices
to God, no leaven could be in those sacrifices. There was a
lot of drink offerings that included wine, and that wine could not
be leavened. It had to be unleavened wine,
which meant it had to be real fermented wine. on leavened wine. The reason that no leaven could
be present is because leaven symbolizes malice and wickedness
and evil. That's what leaven symbolizes.
It symbolizes that which puffs up. You know when you put yeast
in bread, it puffs it up. And all free will works religion. Religion that's of man does one
thing. It puffs up. It puffs up. That's all it does is puff up.
That's why the Lord referred to the leaven of the scribes
and the Pharisees and the leaven of the Sadducees and the leaven
of Herod. That's why He spoke of that.
Look at 1 Corinthians 5 and look at verse 8. This is so of the
believer by Christ. He says there, verse 6, your
glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump? When you glory in yourself, that's
leaven. And it'll leaven the whole lump.
It'll leaven you, it'll leaven you completely, and it'll leaven
the whole church. Purge out, therefore, the old
leaven, that you may be a new lump. Everything that you once
had any confidence in or thought was right, purge it out. Get
rid of it, because it's wrong. If it ain't been taught of God,
it's wrong. Not according to His words, wrong. Purge it out
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. Christ has
made His people unleavened. There is a new man in us that
is unleavened without sin, without spot, incorruptible, created
by Christ. For even Christ our Passover
is sacrificed for us. He was slain for us. That is
how we became unleavened. Therefore, let us keep the feast.
Not the Passover feast, His new feast. Not with old leaven, neither
with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth." Because that's what Christ has
made us. Now the bread and the wine of the Lord's Supper, just
like all the sacrifices that were offered, they symbolize
our perfect, sinless, holy High Priest. That's what they symbolize. The bread, unleavened bread,
being a picture of His body, typifies His sinless humanity,
His sinless body. And that unleavened fermented
wine shows Christ's perfect, sinless blood. His nature was
perfect. Perfect through and through,
unlike His people. unlike His people. And we know
this. We know our Lord instituted His supper using unleavened bread
and unleavened wine because that's what He used in the Passover.
He couldn't use yeast, anything that had yeast in it, because
it would not symbolize His body in His blood. It wouldn't symbolize
His holiness, His perfection. It wouldn't symbolize that. It
wouldn't symbolize that. And this applies to the cup.
I've been talking about bread, but I was trying to show you
bread and wine is included in the feast of bread. It includes
the wine. It had to be fermented wine,
which meant it had to be at least 40 days old to be fermented. Now, this shouldn't even have
to be spoken about. Satan wins the day when you have
to talk about this stuff, but I want you to see Christ in this. There's a lot of nonsense about
When the scriptures say wine, they really mean grape juice.
That's absurdity. That's men who have no idea to
discern what happened in those sacrifices. It had to be perfect
to be accepted of God. That's why you had to put a lamb
up and examine that lamb and there could be no spot or blemish
in him. If there was just one little hair that was a different
color, that lamb couldn't be offered. God wouldn't receive
it. That is to picture, brethren, the sinless offering that Christ
came to the Garden of Gethsemane with, that spotless Lamb, that
holy high priest on which the sins of His people were laid.
He couldn't have been made sin for us unless He was holy and
spotless. He had to be. So that's nonsense. I abhor anything religion says.
And that's religion saying that. That's just religion saying that.
I abhor it. with all my, every fiber of my
being. In Palestine, in that climate,
Christ could not have drank freshly squeezed grape juice. He couldn't
have done it. Here's why. On the vine, naturally
the grapes are covered in yeast and they're covered in bacteria.
And so when you squeeze out those grapes and make grape juice out
of it, you've put yeast in that juice. And there's yeast in that
juice. And Christ wouldn't have used
that to symbolize his holy humanity at all. He would not have done
that. It had yeast in it. It had leaven in it. He wouldn't
have done that. And furthermore, in a hot climate
like that, almost immediately when you squeeze that grape juice
into a vessel, it starts to ferment. You have to leave it in an open
vat. or put it in a wineskin that's new that has some stretch
in it because it's going to expand because it's got yeast in it.
It's going to puff up. It takes 40 days of fermentation
to kill the yeast. And when that yeast is killed,
that's when it's wine, fermented wine, naturally fermented wine. And the yeast and the bacteria
and all that's left, it goes down to the bottom. And that's
called lees, L-E-E-S, lees. And that's what God was saying
when He said, In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make
unto all people a feast of fat thing, a feast of wines on the
lees, well refined. Well refined. That's not in grape
juice. It's just in wine that's been
fermented through this process, natural process. It symbolizes the sinless perfection,
the holiness He's made His people in Christ, in our new man, united
with Him. And it symbolizes that One who
made us that, which is Christ, who is our holy, sinless perfection. It symbolizes Him. In Him is
no sin, no malice, no wickedness, nothing to puff up. And in that
new man He makes, there's no malice and wickedness and sin
and nothing to puff up. That's in the flesh that came
from Adam, the old nature, but not that of Christ creating.
And there's another natural reason I know that Christ was not using
squeezed grape juice during this time. And this is probably the
best reason that He couldn't have been using squeezed grape
juice for that. It's because grapes were harvested and pressed
in late summer. In that area, they were harvested
in late summer. The Passover was observed half
a year or more later in the Hebrew month Nisan, which is our March
in April. The moment they put those, those
grapes couldn't have been preserved that long, or they'd have turned
into raisins. And the moment that they were
squeezed, which they had to have been done, the moment they were
squeezed to preserve it, they started to ferment, and when
40 days passed, it was wine. So a half a year, a year later,
our Lord was using wine. You couldn't just go to the store
and pick out a bottle of grape juice in those days. Because
in that time, you wouldn't have had grape juice in that season,
in the spring. It wouldn't have been possible.
They didn't have refrigeration. They didn't have pasteurization. You couldn't have had grape juice
in that time. That's just silly. That's Satan trying to throw
a diversion in to get people's attention off of where it ought
to be. Christ. Why then do we not use pasteurized
grape juice? Why don't we use pasteurized
grape juice? Here's the number one reason. Christ didn't command
it. Christ didn't command it. We
do what Christ commanded. Throughout the scripture, here's
the next reason. Throughout the scripture, God uses fermented
wine to symbolize the joy and perfection of Christ and that
joy and perfection His elect have in Christ by His broken
body and His shed blood. Throughout the scriptures, it's
used to symbolize that. If we've gotten smarter than
God, shouldn't He have... He's the one who gave a man the
brain to pasteurize to know what that is. Why didn't He give it
back then so we could have pasteurized grape juice and all those offerings
if that was the better way to show it? Because He's God and
what He does is right. Another reason is that we don't
promote or support anything that's founded on the principles of
self-righteousness. Now listen carefully. 1,869 years after Christ instituted
the Lord's Supper, you think how many saints observed the
Lord's table using fermented wine? It was unheard of to do
anything but that. 1,869 years later, God, according
to his own will, gave a man an understanding to pasteurize. Pasteurization. And a man named
Thomas Welch patented pasteurized grape juice and began to sell
it. And he named it Dr. Welch's Unfermented
Wine. Why didn't he call it grape juice?
That's what they call it today in the store. Why didn't he call
it that? because he was marketing it as a substitute for wine at
the Lord's table. Why on earth would somebody do
that? Why would you change something that Christ ordained and that
was used throughout the scriptures and had been used for 1,869 years? Why would you change that? Because
the first reason is obvious. If you've got the patent on it,
you're going to get paid. But the second reason is He was
a teetotaler. He was brought up in the abolition
and taught that sin was in things. He was a follower of John Wesley,
who is a staunch opponent of everything I preach from this
book. He hated free grace. If you don't believe me, read
his article called Free Grace. He hated it. That's what founded
this whole nonsense of using grape juice at the Lord's table.
That's where it got started. We're warned in Colossians 2,
don't preach, touch not, taste not, and handle not. Don't preach
it. Why? It has a show of wisdom
in will works religion. It's a vain show is all it is,
but it does nothing to mortify the flesh. It does nothing to
bring a man into obedience to God at all. What do we preach
then? We preach the unleavened bread
and the unleavened wine of Christ Jesus our Redeemer. And He brings
you into submission and obedience to Him. Sin's not in things. The Lord nowhere forbid drinking
wine. The Lord forbids drunkenness.
Drunkenness. And Christ drank wine. They didn't
call Him a wine bible because He was drinking Dr. Welch's unfermented
wine. They called him a winebibber
because he was drinking wine. And these folks here that came
there that day and were gorging themselves and getting drunk,
wasn't getting drunk off of Mr. Welch's Unfermented Grape Juice. But I can tell you this, a thimble
full of wine, if you took every bit of wine on that tray right
there and put it in one glass, you wouldn't even have a good
glass of wine. A thimble full of wine. There's not enough wine
there to get you drunk if you drink at all, much less if you
just drink a thimble. And the God who ordained it will
see to it that He blesses it to His body spiritually just
like He has to bless food to your body or it will not nourish
you at all. He will do that. Do you believe
He's sovereign to do that? He will do that. You think He
is going to let a child of God be baptized and catch pneumonia
and die? He ordered it. He is obeying
Christ because Christ ordained it and He led Him to do it. He
is going to keep Him. He said, He that honors Me, My
Father will honor. And He is going to honor Him.
He is going to honor Him. He is the one who produced that
obedience. He is going to honor Him. So
we hear Paul declare this and we receive what the Lord commanded
and we say we want to do this according to how the Lord did
it. And we're not going to do something that's established
on unbiblical principles of self-righteous will workers. We're just not
going to do it. Now lastly, here's what the concern should be before
we even come to the Lord's table. Verse 29. He said, well let me
read verse 28. He says, I'm sorry, verse 27. He says there, when you eat this
bread, I'm sorry, verse 26. He says, when you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death till he come.
Now down here in verse 29, he says, but he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation, judgment
to himself, because he's not discerning the Lord's body. He
doesn't discern the Lord's body. Now this ought to be my question
to myself. Not should I have wine or grape
juice or leavened bread or unleavened bread. The question ought to
be, do I have spiritual discernment given to me from Christ or is
my discernment from men? I'm going to obey whichever one
it's from. You can mark that down. You can
mark that down. Effectual, irresistible grace
will make certain His people are going to obey Him. That's
certain. A man should even approach this
table until the only thing that God allows him to have his spiritual
discernment upon is Christ. My focus ought not to be you,
or me, or the chairs, or the building, or anything else, but
these elements and discerning Christ's body and how these elements
portray His body and His blood. That's where my focus should
be. all the time. He said this, 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. What
is it to discern his body? is to discern this, that he said,
this is a symbol of my body, holy, spotless, without sin. Yet I went for you and I was
made sin for you so that God could justly break me in your
place. That's what I want to have my
focus on. Broken for you. Broken, broken, broken for a
chosen race and not for one more. For people He shall regenerate
and call, and not one more. For people He shall save to follow
glory, and not one more. Broken for you. Broken under
the hands of wicked men. Broken under the hand of Satan.
Broken under the divine hand of God and His justice. Broken,
broken, broken for you. He didn't deserve that in Himself.
He's unleavened in Himself. He didn't deserve that in Himself.
Yet He went to that cross and for His people He was made to
bear our sin and be broken for us. Shame on me. Shame on me. If I partake of this table unworthily
by not having my focus on Christ alone, It's broken because God put my
sin on Him and demanded He be broken for me. And then verse
25, He says, After the same manner also He took the cup when He
had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This One whose blood was holy,
perfect, remitted all the sins of all His people. He remitted
all the sins of all His people by shedding, willingly shedding
His own life's blood. Without shedding of blood is
no remission of sin. The life is in the blood. And
he's saying here, this is my life that's flowed out of me
for you. Flowed out of me for you. I died
for you. He ratified and He signed the
everlasting covenant, the New Testament, in His blood. He says,
this is the New Testament in my blood. This is our gospel. In His blood is our gospel. And
He took that. He is the covenant. And He went
and fulfilled the covenant, all the stipulations of the covenant.
And so it is as where He took His blood and signed the covenant,
the everlasting covenant in His own blood. He said, I did this
for you. That's what I ought to be discerning. His blood poured out for me. I want to take that cup of wine
and I want to think about how holy and spotless Christ was
and how that this holy one, this spotless one, this one who is
the life, He went to the cross and for me He poured out His
blood that His life might pour into me. and I might have eternal
life. And those He bids come to this
table, He commands, do it in remembrance of Me. Do it to show
forth My death till I come. They are the ones who are righteous
and holy and accepted in Christ. They are the ones who trust His
sovereignty in salvation and His sovereignty in providence.
They are the ones who trust that this body was broken for me because
he spoke it affectionately to me. These are the ones who believe
his blood was shed for me because he spoke it to me. And only those
he's given discernment to be able to discern why this bread
and this wine is what it is and why it's that way because of who it symbolizes
and what it pictures, only those that can discern His body and
believe Him and trust Him are welcome to the table. But everyone
that do trust Him are commanded by Him. This do. Do it just like
Christ handed it to Paul. Do it. And do it remembering
Him. Do it discerning Him. Nothing
else. Him. This thing men do is they
try to scare men and, you know, if you got unconfessed sin in
your life, you know, well, tell me who at Lord's Table don't
have unconfessed sin in their life? You got sin you don't even
know about. You ain't confessed that. This thing is not a tool to enforce
obedience and try to whip somebody into doing what you want them
to do. This thing is a to show Christ and to show His body and
His blood. That's all it's for. And the unworthiness is not discerning
His body. That's to drink unworthily, not
discerning His body. Without discernment, a man drinks
unworthily. And look what he said here. Look
what he said here. The reason is, verse 26, because
you're showing the Lord's death till He comes. That's what we're
doing. Wherefore, he says, verse 26, wherefore, whosoever shall
eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Verse 29,
for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh
judgment to himself. How? Not discerning the Lord's
body. You see, it's a vain show. What
he's saying there is if a man comes to this table who isn't
discerning the Lord, the only reason he's doing this is to
do it for you to see it. The only reason he's doing this
is for you to see it. It's like the rest of his religion.
It's all put on. It's all what you wear on your
sleeve so other people can see it. And inwardly, he's just full
of dead men's bones. And he's not discerning the Lord's
body at all. But those who are His who are
discerning the Lord's body, He said this, this is the cause,
verse 30, for this cause, for this cause many are weak and
sick among you. For this cause many are weak
and sick among you, and many sleep. Why? For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. Do I discern the Lord's body?
That's what he's talking about. If I judge, do I discern the
Lord's body? Am I discerning the Lord's body? If I would judge
myself, I wouldn't be chastened by the Lord. But if I drink not
discerning, I'm going to be chastened by Him. The Lord's going to have
all the focus on Him. That's just how it is. He said that's
why many are sick and weak and some sleep. It's because the
Lord's chastening, chastening His people. But when we're judged,
we're chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with
the world. It's good that we're chastened. Am I sick? Am I getting sick over this thing?
Am I getting weak over this? Am I going through this thing?
What's the problem? Where's the focus of this? He
said, I'm being chastened of the Lord because I'm not casting
all my care on Christ and trusting Him alone. Anything that comes
between us and Christ and turns us, the Lord's going to turn
us back to Christ. Because he is going to have his people focused
on Christ only. Christ only. And the devil will
do everything he can, if he is permitted, to get you to look
at something else. But Christ is going to turn you
back, if you hear. Wherefore, my brethren, when
you come together to eat, tarry for one another. Tarry one for
another. We are going to pass these elements out. We are going
to wait until everybody gets it. And we will eat together. And if any man hunger, This ain't
not going to fill you up. If any man hunger, don't turn
the Lord's table into a big old meal. Go home. Let him eat at
home. That you come not together unto
condemnation, and the rest I'll set in order when I come. When
we finish this service and we're done, the service is over, the
worship service is done, and we eat a meal together, it has
nothing to do with this table. But this table is not to be a
meal to feed us. It's to be a meal to have all
our hearts focus on Christ. On Christ. I hope that helps. I told you, imagine what they
felt like when Paul said all that to them. Should I praise
you for this? I praise you not. That's pretty
strong. and that no chastening is pleasant.
But I pray the Lord bless it and cause us to see these things
are important. That which shows Christ ought
to be done as Christ said it shows me. All right, brethren. Brother Kevin.