Alright, brethren, Luke 22. It was not planned and I like
it when that happens. Luke 22. Well, it was planned. Planned from the foundation of
the world. Luke 22. Let's begin reading in verse
17. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and 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 gave thanks
and break it and 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." Our subject is the Lord's table. And I want us to see here
how the Lord established this ordinance. How the Lord established
it. These are things that we see
that came from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. This is not from
traditions of men. This is what we see in the Word
of God in the Scripture. And these are things that we
need to know if we'll be able to truly enter into this ordinance
and what it means. Verse 17 there, it says, He took
the cup and He gave thanks and He said, Take this and divide
it among yourselves. He took the cup had the wine
in it. And he gave it to them and he
said, now you divide this amongst yourselves. Now you've seen the
Pope and Catholicism. Some of you have come out of
Catholicism. And you've seen the Pope and
sometimes preachers do this. They try to put themselves in
the place of Christ. Now the men will come up to the
Pope and they bow down before him. and they open their mouth,
stick out their tongue and he takes this wafer and dips it
in the wine and puts it on their tongue and claims the bread and
the wine actually turns into the body and blood of Christ.
That, you know, that's not what Christ did. And that's what Christ
did. Christ took the cup and gave
thanks and he told them, you take this and you divide it amongst
yourselves. The Pope claims to have authority
over men's salvation. If he refuses the cup to you,
if he refuses entrance to you into the church, he has the power
to absolve your sin, he says. If he refuses these things, you're
not saved. You're not saved. So he keeps
you in bondage. Keeps you in bondage. And more
importantly, Exhort money. Exhort money out of you. Sadly,
there's a lot of preachers who try to stand in the place of
Christ. Who want to be priests. Want
to be priests. Determining who can and who cannot
take the Lord's table. Our Lord gave it to His disciples.
And He said, you divide it amongst yourselves. The purpose of this
ordinance is not to see how many people we can exclude. It's not
to try to exclude folks and use it as a tool of discipline or
anything like that. It's to remember the Lord Jesus.
That's the purpose of the table. There's nobody in this world
who's a lord or a master over men but Christ. I'm not. No Pope is, no priest is, no
preacher is. Only the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Lord gives us very clear instructions here concerning
this ordinance. He said, this do. This do. That's what He said. This do.
What He's showing you right here. This do. We're to do what the
Master said. We do what He said do. He said,
this do. The Lord instituted this ordinance
while they were finishing up the last Passover meal. Christ
is the fulfillment of all Scripture, and He's our Passover, and He's
what the Passover pictured. And they're finishing the last
Passover meal. And He didn't get up then and
put on some special clothing and some special robe, and He
didn't have the disciples come up and bow to Him. And he didn't
say, now Peter, you're going to be the designated pope here,
and I'm going to hand this out through you, and then you do
tell the men what to do, and then you pass this office on
down through the ages. He didn't do any of that. They
were all together, and all together they took the bread and they
took the wine. Any time that we come into the
Lord's house to worship, or we're anywhere together, worshiping
together, anything like, we're not to try to create some kind
of mysterious spiritual, some kind of spirituality. We can't
do that, brethren. There's no way you can do that,
and we shouldn't do something like that. This wasn't some special
great celebration that they did. We don't do anything that's phony.
God hates that. Put on. Fake. Phony. Outward. He looked at the Pharisees and
He said, you clean up the outside. You make the outside of the cup
all nice and clean. But the inside is filthy and
dirty. It's like an open sepulcher.
It's like a grave full of dead men's bones. Preaching is serious. Reading
the Scriptures is serious. Praying is serious. Worshipping
God in His house is serious. But I preach to you in the same
voice I talk to you in. I don't get up here and try to
put on some special air and speak in some special voice and act
some special way and all of that. That's just phony. That's just
phony. And to do that impresses men
and it catches the eye of men and men will follow that. And
that's one of the main reasons God said don't do it. Don't do
it. Don't pray to be seen of men.
Don't do your alms to be seen of men. Don't do anything in
front of... Because men like that sort of
thing and you can get a following doing those things and attract
men doing those things. God hates those things. God looks
on the heart. He looks on the heart. On the
heart. This is not a mass. It's not
a perpetual repetition of Christ's death. That's not what this is.
Christ died one time. He died one time. And he accomplished
the work when he died that one time. Look with me, if you will,
over to Hebrews chapter 10. He gave us two simple elements
here. He gave bread and wine. The bread is to picture his body.
He said, this is my body which is given for you. The wine is
to picture his blood. He said, this is my blood of
the New Testament which is shed for you. His body was broken
one time, his blood was shed one time, and he knew who he
was doing it for. He said, this is my body broken
for you. This is my blood shed for you.
He knew who he was shedding his blood for, didn't he? Didn't
he? He knew his disciples there,
and he knows his disciples now. He knows who he shed his blood
for. Look at Hebrews 10 and verse 11. Every priest standeth daily
ministering, often offering times the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. That was true then and that's
true now. He says, But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins, forever sat down on 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. For
by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified."
That's why he sat down, because the work was finished. Now, here's
why we know that this ordinance, brethren, is for believers. Now
that's the only fence this table needs around it, the only hedging
it needs, it's for believers. And here's how we know it's only
for believers. Because the Lord said there in
our text, this do in remembrance of me. This do in remembrance
of me." You can't remember somebody you don't know. You can't remember
somebody you've never met. It's an impossibility. He said,
this do. Now the believer born of Christ,
resting in Christ, trusting Christ, this is the commandment of our
Redeemer. This do. We are to do this. We are to
take this table. This do. But those who don't
know Him, those who are not resting in Him, those who are not called
by Him and saved by Him, they're not to come to the table, because
you can't remember Him. You just can't remember Him.
Look over at 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Verse 23, Paul here, he said,
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
He didn't add anything to it, take anything from it. He just
received it from the Lord, delivered it to them. That the Lord Jesus,
the same night which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given
thanks, he break it and said, Take ye, this is 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. You see, that's in remembrance
of Him. Now watch. As often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till He come. We're never told to observe the
Lord's birth. We're not told to observe the
Lord's resurrection. But we are told to observe the
Lord's death. The Lord's death. Look at this
now. He says, Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink
this cup of the Lord unworthily, unworthily shall be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord." Here's where men try to be a
priest, try to be the Pope. Men try to determine who's worthy
and who's not worthy. And they tell you now, you've
got unconfessed sin in your life, and you've got this sin and that
sin, you're not worthy. Is there anybody here that don't
have sin in your life? Anybody? Anybody? If that's going to make me worthy
to put the sin out of my life, I can't come to the table. Ever. Ever. Because I can't put it
away. I cannot put it away. You're
a maggot and I'm a maggot. And we're nothing above a maggot.
So our worthiness is not in us. It's not in us. This book don't
ever tell you to look for worthiness in you anywhere. No sir. But now here's what he tells
you. Don't be looking at the next person. Don't be looking
at that person over there. The preacher not to be trying
to examine the fruit, be a fruit examiner. Here's what he said.
Right here. But let a man examine himself. Let a man examine himself. I'll
show you what that means here. 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
or judgment to himself. Here's what it is not to drink
worthily or to drink unworthily. Not discerning the Lord's body. Not having spiritual discernment.
Not being able to remember Christ. That's how you drink it unworthily.
if you can't discern the Lord's body. The only qualification
for coming to this table, the only qualification for coming
to the table is spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment, brethren.
That's it. Discerning the Lord's body. Remembering
the Lord. He said, this doing remembrance
of me. I'm to examine myself. Not to try to find worthiness
in my deeds or worthiness in what sin I've put away or anything
like that. I'm to examine myself to see.
Is all my hope of salvation the Lord Jesus? Is He all my worthiness
to enter into God's presence? If He is, He's my worthiness
to come to this table. That's the only worthiness we
have for coming to the table. Resting in Christ, in His blood,
His broken body, trusting Him alone. Then I can remember Him.
Then I can discern Him. And the same is true of the other
ordinance, baptism. Look at Acts 8. Look at Acts
chapter 8. Look, the same thing is true
of this other ordinance. Acts chapter 8. Verse 36. As they went on their way, they
came to a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Philip said, Well, now, what we're going to have to do is
we're going to have to give you about a year or two and examine
you. And we're going to have to make
sure you know everything about our church history and everything
about where we came from and that you You measure up to our
standard. That's not what he did. He wouldn't
have made a very good preacher today, would he? Look what he
did. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. Philip couldn't see his heart,
could he? That eunuch is going to have
to examine himself. I believe, isn't he? Because Philip can't see his
heart. Look here. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the
chariot to stand still, and they went both down into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch. He baptized him. See, that's
the only qualification for being baptized. I believe the Lord.
I'm resting in Him. He's all my hope. That's our
worthiness for coming to this temple. That's the worthiness
of both these ordinances. Now, briefly, I want to show
you five things, which is ordinance pictures. to help us to remember
Christ. How this ordinance shows us Christ
and how we remember Christ in it. First of all, the bread and
the wine remind us of Christ's incarnation. Incarnation. He said, this is my body. This
is my body. Now, it's a representation of
his body. But this is real bread. It's
real bread. And when he said this is my body,
he was speaking of a real body. Just like you have, just like
I have. Without sin. A real body. And this wine right
here is real wine because it represents his real blood. He said this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. And it represents his blood.
He had flesh and he had blood. The Son of God actually became
a man. The Son of God actually Isn't
that amazing? Became a man. Men want to splice
and dice every doctrine and cut it down to like a botanist who
takes a rose and cuts everything out of the rose so he can tell
you everything about that rose. But there ain't no beauty in
it anymore. There's no fragrance in it anymore. You wouldn't dare
give what's left of it to your valentine because he done cut
it to pieces. That's what most men do with
the doctrine of Christ. That's what most men do with
it. Try to explain this. God became
a man. I don't have to explain that,
but you know what I can do? I rejoice in it. I rejoice in
it. That's what I do with most everything
I know about the Lord. What I know about Him, it don't
amount to anything. Neither what you know about Him.
But I believe Him. I believe Him. I believe Him.
Taste it. Taste this bread. Taste this
wine. Feel of this bread. Feel of it,
that cup that you're holding. And as you feel it and you know
this is real bread, this is real wine. Remember, my God came to
where I am and became a real man. He never ceased being God. He became the God-man. All God
and all man in one person. The God-man. Remember that. Remember that when you take this
bread and this wine. Secondly, these elements remind
us of Christ's holiness. Brother Ravi read there at the
beginning of the chapter and he said, he said there that this
was the feast of unleavened bread. That's what the Passover was,
the feast of unleavened bread. Now we know that because that
this is what they had because that's what was required to observe
the Passover was unleavened bread. On the night of the Passover,
the Lord told them, you go through your house and you take out every
bit of leaven that's in the house. You make sure there's no leaven
in the house anywhere. Because leaven pictures sin and
leaven pictures evil. Leaven pictures glory in itself.
Leaven pictures that which is an abomination to God. That's
what leaven pictures. This is unleavened bread that
we're going to have here. This is a pure wine of the grape.
It's wine. It's not grape juice. It's wine.
It's what it is. And it's in the scripture that
picture of sin is leavens what's used to picture it. Paul told
the Corinthians. I mean the Lord told his disciples. He told them one day he said
you beware of the leaven of the scribes and the Pharisees. And
they thought he was talking about bread. And then they finally
figured out he was talking about their doctrine. Their doctrine
because they were teaching The free will works religion. That's
what they were teaching. They were teaching how you can
save yourself by your works, and your will, and your wisdom,
and you, you, you, you. That's what they were teaching.
And Paul said this in 1 Corinthians 5. You want to turn over there.
1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 6. Paul had been speaking to the
Corinthians and he said this phrase right here. Your glorying
is not good. That's never good. When we glory,
it's never good. Period. No matter what he's talking
about, that's just a simple truth. It's never good for you and me
to glory. We got nothing to glory in. Look at this. Know ye not
that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? A little leaven
leavens the whole lump. Put a little leaven in bread,
it leavens the whole lump of bread. Look at this, purge out
therefore the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you
are unleavened. You are unleavened. You see that
you are unleavened. Why? Because even Christ our
Passover is sacrificed for us. That's how His people became
unleavened. His people, does Christ have any sin seated at
the right hand of God? None. That's how His people are. The Scripture says you are complete
in Him. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. That means He's the completion
of the Godhead bodily. And you are as complete in Christ
as He is the completion of the Godhead bodily. That's complete,
brethren. That's who we are. That's what
might be. That's how we are. That's the
reality. That's the reality. And He says
here, you are unleavened. You are unleavened. And so, therefore,
let us keep the feast not with old leaven, neither with the
leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth. Sincerity and truth. Our Lord
and our Savior was without sin. When He walked this earth, He
was without sin. He wasn't born of Adam. He didn't
have Adam's corrupt blood flowing through Him like me and you do.
He was conceived in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Spirit.
So that he was that holy man. He's the last Adam. He's the second head. And he's
the head of his people. He was holy through and through.
He was perfect in his body. No sin in his body. No sin in
him whatsoever. And so, we eat this unleavened
bread and we eat this pure wine. Drink this pure wine. And we
remember our substitute and we remember he was pure. pure and
holy. A man who is God, the God-man,
pure and holy when he walked this earth. Remember, he said,
this dude's remembrance of me. Remember, he was holy. Then look
here. These elements remind us of Christ's
suffering and death. The wine and the bread are separate.
We're not going to put them together. I'm not going to dip the bread
in the wine and hand it to you. It's separate. The bread and
the wine is separate. Right now, your body and your
blood are together and you have life. You take the blood away
from the body and you're going to die. You're going to die.
Well, Christ took bread separate from the wine and He said, this
is my body given, broken. And He took wine separate from
the bread and He said, this is my blood which is shed, which
is poured out. Poured out. And so it's to remind
us of his suffering and of his death. It reminds us, brethren,
that he poured out his blood for you who believe. He poured
out his blood for his people. That's what Christ did. And he
suffered as he did so. He suffered at the hands of men.
He gave himself, submitted himself. He showed us that when they came
to arrest him. They came out and he said his name and they
fell backwards. And he said, but this is your
hour. You never could take me before, but this is your hour.
This is the hour for darkness to have its way, because he gave
it permission. You think Satan can do a thing
that God don't let him do? Nothing. Nothing. You think he
took God by surprise when he came into the garden? If he did,
he's God. If he can do something without God preventing him, he's
God. But this was His hour, and Christ
submitted Himself, and men did what they wanted to do with Him.
He showed us what we would do. God left us to ourselves. That's
exactly what we'd do. God left us to ourselves. And
if we were there, we'd have done just what they did. Because that's
what we are, by nature. And Scripture says His visage
was marred more than any other man. More than any other man. We don't have any clue just how
bad it was. We really don't. And he was suffering
there at the hands of evil. We don't see what he suffered
at. Men can't paint pictures of it,
and you can't even enter into it, because there were things
going on there that you can't even see. As Paul told us, we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and
principalities and rulers of the darkness, fallen angels and
Satan and his powers and principalities. They were having their way because
He led them. He was suffering hell on the cross. He was suffering
what His people would have had to have suffered if He hadn't
have done it for them. And He was suffering there on that cross
in soul agony too because He was being forsaken of God on
the cross. He cried out, My God, My God,
why hast Thou forsaken Me? I think it's very important to
understand, I tell this to you a lot, that when Christ gave
up the ghost and He said, it's finished, and He physically died,
that was showing us, brethren, that what scriptures call the
second death, the death men will die after they physically died
and they meet God and they suffer that second death, that death
that never dies, that death that's eternal, that death that is the
worm that never dies, the fire that's never quenched, Well,
that's what he suffered on the cross for his people. I'm not
saying he went to hell. Hell is being forsaken of God. That's what he was suffering
on the cross because that's what his people deserved. That's the wages of
sin. Not just this physical death,
that death. And that's what he was bearing
on the cross, being forsaken of God. So that when he said
it's finished and gave up the ghost and physically died, that
was the exclamation point that death has been condemned. for
his people. Death has been conquered for
his people. He paid what justice owed for
his people. That's the suffering and the
death we're talking about. And he poured out his blood on
that cross. So when you take this wine separate from this
bread, you remember he poured out his life. Separated it from
his body, poured out his life for his people. All right, here's
the fourth thing. These elements remind us of Christ's
substitution for us. Christ said there, this is my
body which is given, which is broken for you. And this is my
blood which is shed for you. For you. We've looked at it enough. I don't want to labor this, but
you know for a fact that you know Christ didn't lay down His
life for everybody in the world. And anybody thinks that's foolish.
He did not. Get that bulletin back there
and read that article about for the sins of the whole world.
He died for the sins of his people. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep.
And he looked right at some men and he said, the reason you do
not believe on me, the reason you don't believe on me is because
you are not my sheep. You are not my sheep. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. He said, Father, glorify thou
me that I may glorify thee, that I might give eternal life to
as many as you've given me. We saw that in John 17 in his
four requests. Over and over and over he kept
saying, I pray for them. I don't pray for the world. I
pray for as many as you've given me. I pray for them who shall
believe through their word. That's who he prayed for. That's
who he laid down his life for. Why is that important? Why is
that important? because Christ did not fail. And I'm not going to call Him
a failure. If there's one person that goes through this life and
leaves this world in unbelief and passes from this world and
is judged a second time, God's not just, if that could happen. Because when God poured out justice
on His Son, He satisfied justice. He satisfied justice. He satisfied
justice for everybody for whom Christ died. Christ succeeded
when He had by Himself purged our sin. He entered in once having
obtained eternal redemption. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. He has but one offering perfected
forever them that are sanctified. This is what Christ did when
He died. He accomplished the redemption
of His people. He accomplished the justification
of His people. He accomplished the reconciliation
of His people. He accomplished the redemption
of His people. That's why it's a certainty they
shall all be called out, and they'll all be given life, and
they'll all be given faith, because God's not willing that any should
perish, but that they all should come to repentance. And Peter
said, so count that the longsuffering of God is salvation. It is salvation. That's why we declare it. I'm
not trying to make somebody mad. I'm not trying to split hairs
with folks. I'm not just trying to defend the doctrine of particular
redemption. Doctrine ain't gonna save you.
Christ is gonna save you. But I want Christ to have the
honor because He said in Isaiah 52, I believe, He said, He shall
not fail till He has set judgment in the earth. And He did not
fail. And He shall not fail. This is
the Redeemer we're talking about here, brethren. Look here, believer,
in your stead, in your place, Christ gave His body to be broken
and His blood to be shed to satisfy justice for you. Look here in
2 Corinthians 5.21. 2 Corinthians 5.21. He hath made him sin. Look at these two words right
here. For us. For us. That's substitution. "...who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Look at Galatians
3.13. Galatians 3.13. You know these,
but I want you to see it. Galatians 3.13. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law. That means when He did that,
we were redeemed from the curse of the law. The curse can't come
back on us because He redeemed us from it then, when He died.
Now look, how did He do it? Being made a curse for us. Being made a curse for us. That
means He took the place of us. That means He went there and
became the substitute for us. Look at Ephesians 5 verse 2. 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." Was it a sweet-smelling
savor to God? Was His offering and His sacrifice
a sweet-smelling savor to God? Did God say, I'm satisfied? Did
God say, justice is satisfied, I'm glorified, I'm declared just
and the justifier of my people? Was it a sweet-smelling savor
to God when Christ died? It was for us. It was for somebody
in particular. In particular. And if God then
turns around and pours out justice on them, it would be God turning
around and saying, now I think it stinks. You think He'll do
that? No, sir. No, He won't do that. So brethren, as you eat this
bread and you drink this wine, You hear Christ say to you personally,
this is my body which is given for you. This is my blood which
is shed for you. What does it mean, my blood shed
in the New Testament? It means what David said. It
said he made a covenant with me. He made a testament with
me, ordered in all things and sure. What ordered it? God ordered it from the foundation
of the world, saying, here's who I'm giving to you, here's
what I'm going to do when you justify Him. Go justify Him. And He came and justified Him.
And He made it sure by His blood. This is the New Testament in
my blood which is shed for you. He made it sure. And hear Him
say that, it's shed for you. Justified freely by His blood
for you. redeemed from the curse for you,
for you. Remember that. This do remembrance
of me. And fifthly, this ordinance is
to remind us of our living union with Christ. We have a union
with Christ, a union with God. Explain that. I can't. I can't. That takes the that just disappoints
folks that want to, you know, debate, banter these things about
like it's a volleyball. I can't. I can't. But here's
what he said. John 6.51. He didn't try to explain
it either. John 6.51. He said this. Remember there
when he sat at that table, he told them, he said, you take
this and you eat it. You take this and you drink it.
Take it and drink it. Take it and eat it. When I take
it and I eat it and I drink it, it's going to be one with me.
Be one with me. Now look what he said right here.
John 6, 51. I'm the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I'll give for the
life of the world. And the Jews therefore strove
among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh
to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily... He didn't explain to them how
He can... He just said this, I say unto
you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His
blood, you have no life in you. Now if you did that literally,
it wouldn't do you any good. It'd be cannibalism and it wouldn't
do you any good. All it'd do is feed your belly. Look what he said. Whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood has eternal life. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. How do you eat his flesh and
drink his blood? Look at verse 63. It's the spirit
that quickeneth. The flesh profits nothing. The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. They are life. We're just dead
in sin. That's all we are by nature.
Can't hear him, can't understand him. You can understand doctrine.
You can get a lot of doctrine and take on religion and all
that stuff and maybe be good at doctrine. I could argue for
doctrine pretty well when I was dead as a hammer. I really could.
But he makes it quit being doctrine. He makes it become Christ. He
puts the love of God in your heart so that it quits being
just about doctrine and arguing and it becomes Christ himself.
There's a huge difference. It goes from up here down to
here. from the head to the heart. But
he comes to you, he illustrated that at that table, he comes
to you with this gospel, speaking through one of his preachers,
and he comes to you in spirit, and his words enter you, they
enter you, and he says to you, take and eat. And now, for the
first time, you have life, because life has come into you. And you
know what you do? You take and you eat. And you
haven't moved a muscle. You haven't moved a hand or a
toe, and folks couldn't tell whatever even happened to you.
But you've taken and you've eaten. You've eaten His flesh and you've
drank His blood. You believe on Him. You believe
on Him. old Levi sitting at that receipt
of customs, and he was making money hand over fist. And a soul
that came around that could make that man give up the job he had.
He had a crooked job, and he had the okay from the crooked
folks above him, and he was making money hand over fist, and had
the world by the tail on a downhill drag, and there was no way he
would give up that job. And Christ came to him and said,
Christ said, take and eat. And Luke said, He rose up. He rose up. He took and He ate
and He followed Him. He rose up. For He moved a muscle. For He
moved a finger. For He moved anything. He followed
Him. He followed Him. In his heart,
he believed him. That's what he's saying here.
And when that happens, brethren, he's made you one with him. We
were in him before the foundation of the world. We were in his
loins, just like Levi was in the loins of Melchizedek whenever
Abraham paid the tithe, so that Levi paid tithes in Abraham.
We paid everything that was due, everything that we owed to God,
we paid it in Christ our head. But now, because He's come and
given you life by the incorruptible seed, by the Word of God which
is preached unto you, and you have life in you now, now, experimentally,
you're one with Him. You're one with Him. And He said
it can't ever be severed. This union can't ever be severed. It's better than husband and
wife. It's better than son and daughter. It's better than brother
and sister, because death's going to sever that union. Nothing's
going to sever this union. We're united with Him forever.
Forever. Forever. I mean, He gives us
things. He made things in the world to
illustrate this, brethren. A man and a woman, they unite
together, and by a seed, a child is formed inside a woman. That's
how he describes it in 2 Peter. You're born of the incorruptible
seed and a new man is created within you. And that new man
is Christ in you, the hope of glory, so that you're one with
Christ. Spiritual. It's spiritual. I
can't go further. I can't explain it further than
that. But when you take the bread and the wine and you eat it and
it becomes one with you, remember that. Remember, I'm one with
Christ. I'm one with Christ. Who's going
to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus?
Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. You see,
this is a beautiful, simple ordinance. It's not to be complicated and
confused with all this junk. And if you know Him, you don't
want it that way. Just like you want the gospel, you want it
simple. Simple. I try to preach to the smallest,
youngest one in here. And if they can get it in their
head, then the most brilliant brainiac in here can get it if
he wants to get it. We want it simple. But God gives
it to you in your heart. He makes it simple, doesn't he?
Christ is all. Christ is all. I had a man email
me the other day, a ton of questions. I just emailed him back, Christ
is all. Never heard another word. So, when you take it, remember
the Son of God became a man. Remember He's holy. Remember
His suffering and His death. Remember His substitution for
us. And remember our living union
with Him. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. Alright.