Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke
chapter 22 and verse 19. Luke 22 and verse 19. And He, the Lord Jesus, 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. Do you see there in verse 19
at the very end, He said, this do in remembrance of Me. Our Lord Jesus Christ is so gracious
to give us this ordinance to remember Him. To remember Him. You would think that sinners
for whom He's done so much, you would think that that we together
here as believers, for whom he's done everything, you'd think
we wouldn't need to be reminded of him, that we would remember
him. But we do, don't we? We do. Dust is easily moved by the wind,
and that's what we are, and our flesh is just dust. And we need
to constantly be reminded of what He's done for us, what He's
doing as we walk through this world to remember Him, to truly
remember Him. We forget. Just as soon as we
hear the Gospel, we begin to forget. Some little distraction
that doesn't have anything, that's of no importance whatsoever,
enters in and starts taking away everything we've heard, every
kind of earthly distraction. And we don't put up much of a
fight to resist it. And yet the Lord promises us,
he said, behold, I've graven you upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. I won't forget you. I won't forget
you. And so, just in case that we
let these things slip, these things that we hear, this gospel,
this good news, He gives us this ordinance to turn us to Him,
to make us have something to think upon, to remember Him by
continually. This do in remembrance of me. I want you to see here, this
one we're remembering is Christ. And I want to show you three
things that we're remembering that He is. The first thing we
remember is Christ is our worthiness. Christ is our worthiness. I'm talking about worthiness
to come into the very presence of God, holy God. Secondly, remember
Christ is our life. Christ is our life. And thirdly,
remember Christ is our communion with each other, our communion
with each other. Let's see these three things.
First of all, Christ is our worthiness. He's our worthiness altogether,
our worthiness. How so? How is he the worthiness
of his child, the worthiness of a believer? How is that? It's
very simply put right here in this ordinance. It's just so
simple. And exactly what He did when He instituted this ordinance,
He's showing us what He did to make His child worthy and accepted
of God. Look at what He did, verse 20.
He took bread. He took bread. He tells us here
that the bread and the wine represent His flesh and His blood. That's
what Christ did. He took bread. The children were
flesh and blood. And God the Son came down. He came to where His children
were in this world of sin, and He took flesh and blood. He took the likeness of our sinful
flesh. He took flesh and blood. He's
the Son given. God gave His Son. He's the child
born. He's God and He's man. He's the
God-man. All God and all man. God-man. Holy, spotless, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, is Christ Jesus, our High Priest. That's
something to remember. His holiness, the Holy One, the
Holy Man, That's God, Christ Jesus, come. The psalmist said,
sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the
remembrance of His holiness. His holiness. And then look what
He did. He gave thanks. Who did He give
thanks to? He gave thanks to His Father. He gave thanks to His Father.
When our Lord came into this earth, The whole time that he
walked this earth, from the beginning to the time he said, it is finished,
and gave up the ghost. His whole life, his entire life
was giving thanks to the Father. He gave to the Father exactly
what God deserves. Holy obedience. Perfect obedience
under the law. He gave God all the glory as
He walked this earth. He gave God a perpetual offering
up of Himself, a faithful submission, faithful righteousness unto God. He gave that offering to God
continually. That's who He is. That's what
His life is on behalf of His people, for His people. And then
look what He did. And He broke it. He broke that
bread and He poured out that wine for us. And that's exactly
what He did. He did it. He broke it. He poured it out. Christ Jesus
willingly laid down His life. He willingly took the form of
a servant. He willingly gave Himself into
the hands of wicked men. He willingly took the sin of
His children upon Himself. He willingly suffered under the
justice of God on the cross in their room instead. He willingly
broke the body and poured out the blood of His own life. And
then look what He did. And gave unto them, saying, He
gave unto them, saying, you know who assembled all of these children
that were at his table? You know who assembled them there
that night at his table? He did. He brought them, everyone
there. And you know what he did to them?
He taught them what this ordinance meant. And what this ordinance
means is the gospel. He taught them what He did. And the picture here, we see
it, of the way He assembled them and He taught them and what He
taught them is just exactly what Christ Jesus, the King and Head
of His Church, is doing, the Prophet, Priest, and King in
this earth. He's gathering all of His children to His table,
right here in this earth. And He's sitting us down at His
table And He's teaching every one of us what He has done. The fullness of what He has done
and accomplished on our behalf. He says in verse 19, saying,
This is My body which is given for you in your place. My body given for you. Look verse 20, likewise also
the cup after supper saying this cup is the New Testament in my
blood which is shed for you. Remember this brethren, Christ
is our lamb. There is no coming to God without
a lamb. There's no coming to God without
a lamb that has been slain. Our body of sin, our body of
death, It's got to be broken. It's got to be broken. It's got
to be put into the grave. It's got to be put away. Our
life has got to be laid down. The scripture says, the soul
that sinneth, it shall surely die. That's what God demands.
There is no remission, no putting away of sin without the shedding
of blood. You and I can't die. and at the
same time live of ourselves, we can't do that. It's an impossibility
for us. But this one who is God and man
in one person, he can and he has. He laid down his life for
his children, for his people. Christ is the lamb who gave his
life for those that the father gave to him. And in Christ, all
that he died for were justified when he did that, from all sin,
purged from all sin, made righteous before God by what he did. You
remember that prodigal son? You remember when they brought
him there and they put the robe on him? The Father said, bring
forth the best robe and put on him. That's Christ our righteousness. He's the best robe. the best
robe. And God has woven that robe and
He puts it on every one of His children that He brings to know
this good news. He puts it on them. Remember,
Christ is our covenant. Look at Hebrews 9.11. Hebrews
9.11. Christ is our covenant. He said
this is the New Testament in my blood. the New Testament,
the new covenant, the everlasting covenant, the covenant of God
made with His people. This is the New Testament in
my blood, covenant promise, that covenant made before the world
began between the triune God and Christ. Look at verse 15,
Hebrews 9, 15. He is the mediator of the New
Testament, of the everlasting covenant of grace. He's the one
who brings it from God down to his people, this good news, and
he's the one who in the same glorious person has fulfilled
everything that was written and brings his people up to God.
He's the one who does it. He's the mediator between God
and men of this everlasting, ever-eternal covenant of grace.
that by means of death, that's his blood, by means of death,
for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament,
that first covenant we saw broken in the garden in Adam, we saw
that Thursday night in Genesis 3, God's children died in that
covenant. The transgressions that Adam
committed is the transgression we committed. But Christ came
and redeemed us from those transgressions. And it says here, that they which
are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. When he calls, when he gathers
his child to his table and teaches us in his heart, he teaches us
that this promise is everlasting, this inheritance is eternal.
He tells us this in our heart, behold, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore, in loving kindness,
I've drawn you." I've drawn you. Christ is the covenant for His
people. Christ is the fulfillment of
the everlasting covenant for His people. And Christ is the
promise given in our hearts. You remember that prodigal son?
When they brought him there and they put that ring on his finger?
that ring that never has an end to it, never has an end to it.
He said, this is the covenant in my blood, everlasting, never-ending
love. That's the covenant. And Christ
is our resurrection. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11,
26, that as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,
you show the Lord's death till He come. That means That means
he rose from the dead and he's coming again. We're showing his
death, we're remembering his death in this, but we're remembering
he rose and he is our life, our resurrection. Just think about
this now. Here's the believer's worthiness. In Christ, by what he's done,
the believer has lived a thoroughly holy life from the womb all the
way until death. in Christ. In Christ Jesus we
fulfilled all the covenant promises. Every promise, every promise
that man, that Christ made to God to fulfill, that's what His
children have fulfilled. We have fulfilled it in Christ. He fulfilled it. God didn't leave
any, He left it in the hands of Adam in the beginning to show
us He can't leave He can't leave anything in our hands to make
good on a promise from us. And he sent forth the last Adam,
his son, and he fulfilled everything. And his people have fulfilled
all our end and obligation in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus,
we died the death required of holy justice. And in Christ Jesus,
we're risen at the right hand of the Father and seated there
with him right now in glory. Now, you remember they put shoes
on the feet of that prodigal son when he came back? This good
news of Christ and what he's accomplished for us, this is
the shoes on our feet. This is what keeps us walking.
This is what keeps us going. Maybe not always at the same
pace, but always in the same direction towards him. He's the
joy that is set before us, and we run this race looking to him,
the author, He wrote it, and the finisher. He fulfilled it. He purposed it. He fulfilled
it. Everything. I don't know if everybody
knows this, but I won't embarrass the whole Keller family, but William William, you know, was
at a park and thought, got a mix up in communication and ended
up at this park and nobody was there that he thought was supposed
to be there. So he came home and went seven
and a half miles home. And when I heard that, what I
thought about, I told William this Thursday night, what I thought
about when I heard that is When a believer is born of the Spirit
of God and he's given faith to see Christ and behold Christ
and see at the end of that course there's Christ and there you
are in Christ, he knows the way home. That believer born of God
knows the way home. And he doesn't turn to the left
and he doesn't turn to the right. He doesn't go into a stranger's
house and ask some stranger to bring him home. He doesn't go
because he knows the way. He knows how to get there. That's
what William told him. I knew how to get home. And he
said he ran some and then he walked some. But he was going
the same direction the whole time going home. That's what
a believer does who's been born of the Spirit of God. We may
not go at the same pace, we may not go, we may run some, or we
may walk some, but we always go in the same direction. We
got, we're in Christ's way, and we're following Him and walking
after Him. Feet to shoes on our feet. All
right, that's our worthiness. Christ is our worthiness, accepted
of holy God, right now, right now. All right, here's the second
thing. Remember that Christ is our life. He is our life. We have two ordinances
as believers. They're beautifully simple and
they're beautifully profound. They're beautifully simple and
they beautifully set forth to us the lover of our souls. The
first one is baptism. Baptism. The believer is only
baptized one time. You know why? Because the water
represents a grave. The water represents a grave.
We went into the grave one time in Christ Jesus. We were buried. We were crucified with Him. We
were buried with Him. And when a believer went into
that grave, the body of our sins, was put off. The body of our
sins died right there. And when He came out of that
grave, we rose with Him in newness of life. And we're seated with
Him in glory. And that's what we're declaring
in baptism. I've been crucified with Christ
and I'm risen with Him. I'm seated in glory with Him.
It's done. It's finished. The work is accomplished. There's nothing else for me to
do to gain any kind of acceptance. I don't need to do anything to
try to gain acceptance. It's done. And the second ordinance
we have is the Lord's Table. A table represents life. We come to our tables in our
homes repeatedly, continually, because we've got to eat, we've
got to drink, and we continually come to that table. And this
table is reminding us that we continually have our life in
Christ the living bread, in Christ the living waters, and we continually
eat upon this bread. And we must. Look at John 6,
55. He said, For my flesh is meat
indeed. And my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him." That's what it is to eat
his flesh and drink his blood is to dwell in him and him in
you. It's being made one in him and feeding upon him by faith,
by the hearing of faith. And he says, verse 57, is this
too much? This is too much that God has... It's not too much for a believer.
It's a great blessing to a believer. Look, this is the same as Him
when He walked this earth. Verse 57, "...as the Living Father
hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so He that eateth Me,
even He shall live by Me." Just as Christ lived and walked by
the Father in this earth. We live by Him, and we walk by
Him, and we feed upon Him. He said there, take, eat. He said, take, drink. That's
what He said. Many think that life in Christ
consists of making a decision for Christ and joining a church,
being baptized, vainly imagine that, just like they vainly imagine
that coming and partaking of this, this is just bread, and
it's just wine, that's all it is. And many people vainly imagine
that partaking of that somehow. They've got something, they've
got some kind of life. They have something by those
acts that they call acts of faith. Well, this is what the scripture
says. The just shall live by faith. They shall live by faith. Faith
in Christ is not an act of life. It's a way of life. It's a continual
life and living upon Christ who is our life. Brethren must eat
and drink natural bread. We have to eat and drink natural
bread. We have to eat and drink Christ our meat, not once. We must eat and drink continually
every day or we die. Or we die. Remember, that's what
we're being reminded here when we come to this table and we
take this natural bread and this natural wine, we're being reminded
Christ is our life. He's our bread and we live upon
him. Let me ask you this. This is
what, when Satan comes, and he comes, he comes, our adversary
the devil walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
And when he comes, he comes and he begins to tempt, he begins
to whisper, he begins to speak things in our heart, in our ear. And you walk around with those
things. You find yourself, these things that come to your mind.
Whenever Christ, as soon as he was baptized, he was taken into
the wilderness by the Spirit of God immediately to be tried.
And when he went into the wilderness, he fasted 40 days and 40 nights,
and he was hungry. And Satan came to him, and this
is what he said to him. If you be a child of God, if
you're really the son of God, Why don't you make these stones
bread? Make these stones bread. And
the Lord Jesus Christ said to him, man shall not live by bread
alone. Man shall not live by bread alone.
And when we take this bread and this wine, you hear Christ Jesus
the Lord saying to you, Believer, we don't live by natural bread
alone. We live upon every word, the
living word, Christ the true bread from heaven that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God, that comes forth from heaven. That's
our life. That's where we live. That's
where we live. If he's provided bread enough
for us in Christ Jesus, bread enough for our souls in Christ
Jesus, he says, I'll provide bread enough for your table,
for your earthly table. so that when Satan comes to you
and tempts you and says, give everything to make these stones
bread. Find life in these stones here
below. The Lord God whispers to you,
Christ our Lord, and He says, I'm the bread. I'm the bread. In all your daily trials, Every
one of them. Remember Christ is our life.
That's what we're being reminded of. Do you feel like sometimes
you feel like, I just, I feel like I live such a lowly existence
in this world. Christ did from the beginning
to the end. Do you feel like sometimes that
you're slandered by men? that you're spoken falsely against. Christ was continually when He
walked this earth. You think about Lot. That's what
we're coming to in 2 Peter. It says Lot, he went down into
Sodom and Gomorrah. You know why he went down there?
Because he got into an argument with Abraham and Abraham said,
you pick whatever one of these lot you want. And Lot said, some
in Gamora that looks very fertile. I'll take that. And he went down
there. And it ended up being a very
prosperous place. And the scripture says, and this
man who was just by God, it says his righteous soul, his soul
was vexed when he lived there amongst those people. Does your
soul become vexed living in this world, walking through this world
as a stranger? If Lot's soul was vexed living
in that place, imagine Christ Jesus, our holiness, the righteous,
holy one that walked through this earth, how his righteous
soul was vexed when he walked through this earth. He's, remember
this, he's our life, he's our bread, he's our shield, he's
our defender, and all these things. Or do you suffer? In all our
suffering, in everything we suffer in this life, remember Christ
is our life in all our suffering. Remember what He suffered. Remember
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Next time we suffer, next time
you suffer something, you remember Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He went into that garden and he's about to go forth and be
made the cursed thing that he hates. He's about to go forth
and bear the sin of his people in his own body on the tree.
And Satan is trying his best to get him to turn away from
God, trying his best. And Christ Jesus, he sweat great
drops of blood. When you suffer, remember, that
Christ is our life. Remember Him suffering before
the cruel soldiers. Those soldiers took Him in there
and they stripped Him absolutely down to nothing. They stripped
Him completely, totally naked. Naked. Can you imagine how shameful
that was to treat Him? And they blindfolded him, and
they balled up their fist and ran back and just punched him
hard as they could with their fist and said, who hit you? Tell
us who hit you, if you know so much. Tell us who hit you. They
spit in his face. They spit upon him. Spit upon
him. You know how bad it hurts to
pull? It hurts me, brings tears to
my eyes, to pull one hair. They just reached and grabbed
his beard and just snatched by the handfuls the hair out of
his face. And then they took that crown
of thorns. You know how a crown of thorns
burns? If you ever get stuck by a thorn,
it burns. They took a crown of thorns and
they just forced it down on the Savior's head, into His skin,
into His brow. That burning, piercing thorn. If you have a thorn in your flesh, remember that thorn. Remember
those thorns that He bore in His flesh. Consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you be wearied
and faint in your minds." And He tells us in all this suffering,
I'm your life, I'm your bread, I'm your strength. And especially
remember Christ on the cross and what He suffered on the cross.
He's hanging there between heaven and earth. made sin in place
of his people. And his visage so marred more
than any man, his form more than the sons of men. And he cried
out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know why? You who are believers, you who've
been born of His Spirit, called by His grace, taught something
of this gracious, wonderful suffering that He bore. Do you know why
He suffered? When He gave that bread and that
wine, He said, this is my body broken for you. This represents
my blood shed for you. And for you, by that suffering,
He made full, complete atonement with God. He made full, complete
justification before God's holy God and His holy law. He made
full, complete satisfaction of God. He fully reconciled His
fallen children to God. Fully. When you hear him cry,
it is finished. You hear him crying for you,
it is finished. That's what every believer, that's
what we need to be reminded of continually when we suffer. Because
he was forsaken of God for you, you'll never be forsaken of God
ever. You realize that? You realize
that? When everything in this world's
a bitter cup, when everything in this world is, we've been
brought to that hour where we're just suffering like we've never
suffered before, and it's the worst thing we've ever endured.
Remember this. Come to His throne of grace.
Remember Him. Remember Him. He knows the Spirit's
willing, but the flesh is weak. Come to Him. He'll give you life
in your heart. He'll give you strength in your
soul. He'll give you peace in the inner man. He'll give you
life where life is. So that you can say, you can
say as He said, now is my soul troubled, what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour. before this hour came out into
this hour. Father, glorify your name. That's
what he'll give his people the heart to pray in our inner man. Father, I've been brought to
this hour on purpose. I haven't been brought here by
mistake. Father, glorify your name. Just glorify your name. That's what he does. And we're
coming to the hour of death, and we'll remember Christ as
our life in that hour. He said He obeyed the Father
right up until the end. His spirit wasn't taken from
Him. Our Lord was in control the whole
time. He did what He did willingly
the whole time. And the Lord Jesus said, Father,
into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit. Do you know who God's hands are? Christ's hands. They're Christ's
hands. And into Christ's hands we trust
all. All. Into His hands. When He was sitting at that table
with His apostles and He was sitting there, who took the bread
and broke it and gave it to them and said, eat this? His hands
did. His hands did. Who's feeding
you now? Do you hear Him? Can you rejoice
in what He's done? If He's fed you once, He will
continue to feed you until the end. Trust everything into His
hands. But then, remember Christ in
this time. This is when we need to remember Him the most,
I think. How often do your sins burden
you? How often do you hear Satan come
to you and say, if you were really a child of God, you wouldn't
think this way. You ever think that about yourself?
You ever walk around and think, if I was really God's child,
I wouldn't think this way. I wouldn't do this. I wouldn't
say this. If I was really his child, I
wouldn't say this. I wouldn't do this. We want to be free from sin.
But you know, brethren, Satan comes and says that to make you
think. You're not His child. But Christ
says to us, He says, you remember me. You remember my suffering. You remember what I've done.
You remember that when I went into that grave, I put away your
sin. You remember when I came out
of that grave, you came out with me. You remember now that where
I'm seated, you're seated. You remember now that your acceptance
with God is in Christ Jesus, not in you. And don't turn again
to that bondage, and don't turn again to that sinful flesh, and
don't turn again to that horrid thing called our flesh. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation. Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief, Paul said. I know when
my sin is ever before me and I begin to just look at these
things. I don't want to sin. I do not
want to sin. And believers, I know you sitting
here, you don't want to sin. You just don't want to think
thoughts that are against God. You don't want to do anything
against God. You want to be free from this presence of this sin
once and for all. I know you do. I do. I do too. We want to be free from it. But
He came to save sinners. That's who He came to save. Don't
let your sin make you flee from Christ. Let your sin make you
flee to Him. Come to Him and confess everything
to Him. Come to Him and say, Father,
I don't want to sin. I don't want to sin. I am sin. I don't want to sin. All I do
is sin. I don't want to do it. He says
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin. When all around my soul gives
way, He's all my hope and stay. All my hope and stay. I was on
a river one time, and we were at a camp. Melinda bought me
a watch for my birthday. That's what made me think of
this. I only ever had one watch before that was really a real nice watch. And it's why
I've never had a nice watch since. I had been swimming in the river,
and I took that watch off when I went swimming in the river.
And I set it down on a little walkway there on this houseboat
I was on. And I set that watch and my clothes
and stuff there, and I jumped in the river and was swimming.
And when I came back to get my clothes, I picked up my shirt.
And when I picked up my shirt, I had laid my watch on top of
it so I'd see my watch first, you know. And when I picked up
my shirt, that watch flipped in the air. a 14 karat gold Elgin
watch, what it was. It flipped in the air and it
landed on that walkway on the side of that houseboat. And there
was little spaces in between those boards on that houseboat. And it landed right on one of
those boards, just right by that little spot. And my buddy Will
McGee was with me. I looked at Will and I said,
Man, I'm glad that thing didn't go in the river. Whoa, did you
see how close that come to going in the river? And I raced down
to get it, and when I raced down to get it, I touched it, and
it went right in the river. Right in the river. Don't let this truth that Christ
is sitting before us slip out of our hands, slip out of our
memory, slip out of our conscience, slip out of our heart and out
of our soul like that watch slipped out and went in that river. Remember
Him. Remember Him continually. Here's
the last thing. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 10.
1 Corinthians 10. and look at verse 16. Paul said, I speak as to wise
men, judge ye what I say. 1 Corinthians 10, 16. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread
which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? You know what communion is? We
use the word most commonly, community. Community. You know where you
live? You live in a community. Your neighbor that lives by you,
they live right there with you. They're with you in that community.
This blood and this bread, I mean this wine and this bread we bless,
it's the communion. of our hearts together, together. Look at verse 17. For we being
many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that
one bread. That one bread is Christ, the
living bread. The Scripture says of the early
saints in Acts 2.46, they continuing daily with one accord, one accord. in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house to eat their meat with gladness and singleness
of heart." You know where all their hearts were set? All their
hearts were united in Christ Jesus. They were all united in
this one communion of His body together. He's the head and His
church is the body and we're members in particular of that
body. Each one of us, we have communion with each other and
we take of that bread and we drink of that spiritual meat
and that spiritual drink and that spiritual meat is Christ
our rock. Look with me over at Proverbs
25. If you want to, turn to Song of Solomon verse 8 that I read
to you in the beginning. in our Scripture reading. But
in Song of Solomon verse 8, in verse 6, set me as a seal upon
thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm. And he's telling us, for
the love of Christ is strong as death. And look what he says
about it at the end of verse 6. The coals thereof are coals
of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give
all the substance of his house for love, it would just be contempt. to try to give everything to
equal the love that Christ has shown to His children whereby
He has made us one. Look with me over at Proverbs
25. Go back to your left there, Proverbs
25. When your soul is cast down within
you, when even your dearest brother disappoints you and treats you
as if he was an enemy to you, Do we long, when we're in that
place, do we long for miserable comforters? Do we long for somebody
to come and just be railed on us and all those things when
we're cast down? Well, in those times, brethren,
remember the love of Christ for you when you were as an enemy
to Him, whereby He made us one with each other. The love of
Christ for His children is like coals of fire. They're the most
vehement flame. Many waters can't quench that
love. Many floods can't drown that love. Now, look here at
Proverbs 25, 21. If thine enemy be hungry, give
him bread to eat. If you treat it as if one another
treats you as if they were an enemy to you, just know they're
hungry, just know they're thirsty. For what? Christ the bread, Christ
the water. If your enemy be hungry, give
him bread to eat. If he be thirsty, give him water
to drink. Christ the bread, Christ the
living water. Look, for thou shalt heap coals
of fire upon His head. Coals of fire upon His head.
And the Lord shall reward thee. You see, when we were enemies,
hungry and thirsty, Christ gave us His life. He gave us His bread
and His blood, the water of life to drink. And in so doing, He
heaped coals of fire upon us. He heaped love upon our head,
which many waters can't quench and no flood can drown. So let's
comfort each other. Let's strengthen one another
to remember Christ our life. He's the nourishment of our inner
heart. He's the giver of every grace whereby we have precious
communion with God and with each other. Let nothing, nothing ever
attempt to sever this communion we have with each other in Christ.
Nothing. Nothing. Now let me give you
one final word. The scripture tells us, the Lord
through Paul said, take heed to yourselves. He that eateth
and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Don't come to this table carelessly. Don't come to hear the gospel
carelessly. And don't come to this table
carelessly. Come here carelessly. This is
the remembrance of Christ. He said, this do in remembrance
of me. And this remembrance is in spirit. Listen now, this remembrance
is in spirit. We didn't see him in the flesh.
Nobody here saw him in the flesh. This is not a remembrance of
a historical, historical things. We're not remembering him after
the flesh. This is a remembrance after the
spirit by a holy God, by the spirit of God. That's what this
is. What we have never known, we
cannot remember. He says, discern the Lord's body. That's a spiritual discernment.
We can't discern His body. We can't discern these things
that I'm telling you about and delight in them until Christ
has been formed in our souls by the Spirit of God. And so,
it's better not to eat than to eat if Christ alone is not all
your worthiness. If Christ is not all your worthiness,
if he's not all your life, if he's not your communion with
God and with his people, it's better not to eat of this table
at all. For he that eateth drinketh damnation to himself. But to
you whom Christ is all, and that's what he is, brethren, to every
sinner who's called by his grace and born of his spirit, Christ
is all to us. Christ is all to us. Now to us
who he says this to, he says this do. He says this do. As disobedient as it is for a
sinner who's yet trusting in his own worthiness to come to
this table, as disobedient as it is for a man who's trusting
in his own worthiness to come to this table, So it is for those
Christ has made worthy not to come to this feast that He's
prepared. It's just that disobedient. One time when I was younger,
my grandmother has always served in her kitchen. The Lord gave
her a heart for Christ and He gave her a heart to serve right
where He put her. And what he'd given her a gift
to do is cook. And that woman can cook. I'm
telling you, she can cook. And she loves to cook. And when
she cooks, she puts a feast on that table. I mean, there's just
room enough for everybody to sit down at that table with their
plate, because it's covered in a feast. And one time she cooked
for us, and I was younger. And I was off playing. And she
said, it's ready. And everybody went to the table. And I was off playing. And my grandfather said, son,
how to respect for the cook. How to respect for the one who's
prepared this. Come to the table when she calls
you to the table. The Lord said, I've spread this
feast. I've prepared this meal for you.
The Lord said, I've done all this for my people. And the Lord
says, come to the table. And when he says, come, we come
to the table. Take eat. and take drink." And
he said, in this do, in remembrance of me, remembering He's all my
worthiness with the Father, remembering He's all my life, I continually
feed upon Him and am preserved and strengthened by His Spirit
in this world, and remembering He's my communion with my brethren. I've been made one with You. Amen.