1 Corinthians 11, verse 27. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. This passage is one that the enemies of God, the enemies
of Christ, the enemies of the brethren have used to turn believers
away from Christ to ourselves, or to the work of our hands,
or to our sins, shortcomings. Anyone who has a desire to restrain you by physical means will use something
like the Lord's Table as leverage to turn you from Christ to yourself. It won't be said that that's
the reason it's happening. It'll be as sweet as sugar, that
it's just for your good, that it's just for your edification. But all the while, it is only serving to turn you from Christ
to yourself. And that's the opposite of what
this text teaches. It's the opposite, complete opposite
of what this text teaches. The only worthiness any sinner
has for coming to the Lord's table is the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. Have you cast all, all, all your
care on Christ? Do you believe Christ is the
Son of God, the Christ of God, the One who has fully eternally
accomplished your redemption. The one in whom you are eternally
secure with nothing whatsoever that you've done that's added
to that. Nothing. And nothing that you've
done that's subtracted from that. If we're going to treat these
bodies like they're dead, we're going to have to treat them like
they're dead. We don't regard them when they do something evil
and we don't regard them when they do something good. Treat
them like they're dead. We worship God in spirit. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
we have no confidence in his flesh at all. He's our worthiness. He said, for those who are worthy,
he commanded them to do this in remembrance of Him. That's
what this is about. Now, I want to show you that.
Let me give you a little background here, some context. The church
at Corinth was full of disorder. It was absolutely full of those
who professed Christ who were walking disorderly. If you saw
them and you saw what was going on in this church, it would probably
enter into your mind that you would say, how on earth could
those people really be believers and carry it on like they are?
How on earth could that be the case? Well, it was disorder which
causes a hindrance to being able to worship Christ Jesus the Lord. Any disorder does that. That's
what it does. And what it does is it causes
us to begin to look at one another rather than Christ. It causes
us to begin to look at ourselves rather than Christ. It causes
us to be hindered from seeing Christ. We talk about the world
coming between us and Christ. I've given you that illustration,
you know, of how you go out there at night sometimes and you look
up and the moon is so full and it's so bright and it's so beautiful.
It's just full of light, just completely full of light. Every
bit of that is reflected light. Every bit of that light's coming
from the sun. Just like the light that's in
a believer is not his own, it's coming from Christ the Lord.
And you know when it appears that that... You go out there
sometimes and there's just a little bitty sliver of light. You can't
hardly see any light at all. It's because the world has come
between that object and Christ. That's what happened here in
the church. The world, the flesh, division, disorder had come between
the people and Christ. And if you would have looked
at them by outward appearances, it would have appeared as just
not hardly any light there at all. But Paul, being a faithful
servant of God, he didn't come there looking for light in them. He came there telling them about
who is the light. Peace begins in the heart when
we're brought to the feet of Christ in humble submission to
Him by the Spirit of grace through the preaching of the gospel.
And that's how peace is continued. And so that's how Paul handled
this situation. Let's see it. 1 Corinthians 11
20. He says, When you come together,
therefore, into one place, This is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Paul is saying the manner in
which you're coming together is not a proper observance of
the Lord's Supper. You're not observing the Lord's
Supper in what you're doing. Now, look at verse 21. For in
eating, every one taketh before the other his own supper. And
one is hungry, and another is drunken. What, have ye 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, I want
to point out some things to you in this, and I want you to be
sure you get this now. It wasn't the act of them having
a meal together that's the problem. It wasn't even the act of them
having a meal together in the same place where they came to
worship God. That wasn't the problem. That
was not the problem. The problem was that, first of
all, they made it part of this show, this feast they were having,
they made it part of the worship service and actually called it
the observance of the Lord's Table. But here's where the problem,
the root of the problem was, is that they totally failed to wait on
one another, and to love one and to have any regard for those
for whom Christ died as well as any remembrance of the Lord
Jesus Christ whatsoever. It would be like if you came
in here this morning Everybody had their dishes and their picnic
basket and everything. And we walked in here this morning
and we called it worship and observance of the Lord's table
to walk in here and just everybody start spreading out their feast
on the table and everybody sitting down with their family and somebody
popping a cork on a bottle of wine and everybody just sitting
down and going to just eating They're just filling up their
belly with food and drinking wine and getting drunk. And somebody's
sitting over here, another brother that don't even have any food,
that didn't even bring any with them, and they're doing without.
They're just sitting there with nothing. And there's others over
here just living it up and eating and having a big time. And when
they got finished, they packed everything up and staggered out
the door and went home and said, boy, we observed the Lord's table
today. And Paul said, you're not observing the Lord's table.
Don't even resemble it. You look like a bunch of gluttonous
pigs in here to trough. That's not observing the Lord's
table. So let's see the second offense
that they were guilty of here. Well, let me show you something
here first though. This is the key here to the problem. Look
here in verse 22. What? Have ye not houses to eat
and to drink in? Now look at this word. Or despise
ye the church of God? That was the problem. They were
despising the church, the brethren, the ones for whom Christ died.
And shaming them, the brethren that have not. That's the offense. That's the offense. And then
here's the second one, verse 23. For I have received of the
Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when
he had given thanks, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he
took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come.
You see, the purpose of observing the Lord's Supper is to remember
the Lord. is to remember the Lord Jesus
Christ. First of all, remember whose
supper it is. It's the Lord's supper. The Lord
Jesus Christ instituted this ordinance. The same night in
which he was betrayed, he instituted this ordinance himself. This
is the Lord's supper. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
host of this supper. When you invite somebody to your
home, to your table, they're your guest and you're the host. And they come in and sit down
at your table. It's your table. This is the
Lord's table. He's the host at this table.
And this is The Lord Jesus Christ is the focus of this supper. It's the reason we come together
around this table. He said this do in remembrance
of me. And then secondly, two elements
are used. Two elements are used. Bread
and wine. When our Lord gave thanks here,
He didn't change the bread and the wine, nor did He change. Nothing changed. He held up some
bread, some unleavened bread, and He broke it. Christ is the
spotless Lamb of God. Spotless, unleavened. The Lamb
of sacrifice, broken. You see that? The spotless Lamb
of God. That blood, He said, this is
my body, which is a symbol of my body. It illustrates what
I'm about to do for you. And it's going to be broken.
Broken. this do and remembrance of me."
And then the wine represented His blood which was shed for
His people. That blood which bought the church,
like we talked about this morning, that paid the ransom price. That
blood in which the everlasting covenant, the New Testament,
is written. It's written in the blood of
the Son of God. You fellas ever get out playing
and you make an agreement with one another
or whatever, and you ever do the old blood brother deal, you
know, where you prick your hand or whatever and you shake on
it with blood? Well, I probably shouldn't have brought it up
to you then. Well, that's what we used to do. Stuff like that.
Or spit in your hand, you know, and do it like that. Well, this
covenant between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit is written, sealed up, bound up, written in the blood
of the Son of God, Christ Jesus the Lord. That means it's sure.
It's sure for those for whom He shed His blood. And then,
and they were to take this. He said, take, eat, and drink.
The apostles didn't receive any kind of special grace from this. Nothing special happened to them
when they took this. This is not, these are not sacraments,
okay? There is bread and there's wine.
When we get through with it, and we've left here today and
go home, I will probably eat some of that bread, because I
like it. I like it. It's just unleavened flour and
water, baked in the oven. That's all it is. There's nothing
effectual about this bread. We're doing this to remember
Christ's broken body and His shed blood. That's all. That's
what it is. Now, and then the Lord tells
us when to observe this supper. Verse 26. He said often, often. That might give us an idea of
what it is to worship God in the Spirit. It's not a letter. He didn't prescribe a strict
letter of how it had to be done or when it had to be done. He
said as often as you come together, do it. As often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, do this. He said, in remembrance
of Me. And this supper, verse 26, shows
the Lord's death until He comes again, until He returns. So,
it's in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It shows the Lord's
death, His broken body, His shed blood. It shows we believe He's
risen. And it shows we believe He's
returning again. And we'll do this and enjoy this
privilege together until He returns. Now, look at how the next verse
begins. Look at the word the next verse
begins with. Wherefore. Wherefore. We've seen two things here that
they were having a problem with. Two things. It was not loving
the brethren, and it was not discerning the Lord. They were
not remembering the Lord. And so Paul addresses the heart
of the issue. The heart itself. Listen now. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall
be guilty of the body of the blood of the Lord. How do you
eat and drink of this table unworthily? How do you do that? Well, The
elements used should be the right elements. It should be the proper
elements. We've got some instruction on
that. It should be observed at the
proper time, as often as you do it. It should be done with
reverence. Carrying on the way the Corinthians
were doing wasn't order. It just was not orderly at all. But Paul is pressing this point. to the heart. If the issue that
makes a man unworthy is sin, outward sin, if that's what makes
him unworthy, then Paul would have forbidden them to even practice
the observance of the Lord's table. But he didn't do that. He encouraged him to observe
the Lord's table. And he said, and there were other
things that were out of order. And he says, he says that the
last verse here in this passage, and I'll set the rest in order
when I get there. There were other things that
were out of order. So it wasn't that he was trying
to get him to reform some kind of, you know, outwardly. That would happen. But Paul's
dealing with a heart issue here. He's dealing with a heart issue.
Now, I want you to see this because it's very important. What did
Christ's broken body and His shed blood accomplish for all
those who are bid to come to this table? What did He accomplish?
Let's look at some Scripture. Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse
14. It says, by one offering, he
hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that, he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. This is the creation
of that new heart, that new spirit, taking the stony heart out and
giving us a heart of flesh, causing us to actually be able to behold
that Christ, by his one offering, hath perfected us forever. Now
look what he says, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. Won't bring them up any more. Why not? Verse 18. Now where
remission of these is, where they've been purged, where they've
been put away, where they'll never be brought up again, there's
no more offering for sin. And therefore, brethren, We have
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Look at
another verse with me, Ephesians 1, Ephesians 1, verse 6. This is how those who are bid
to come to this table, if this is said of you, this is what
Paul is saying. Is this said of you? Is this
your... Hope, is this where you put your
trust? Listen. We're saved to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in His
beloved Son. We're saved to the praise of
the glory of God the Father's grace wherein He hath made us
accepted in His beloved Son. in whom, in Christ, we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. And He abounded toward us through
the Holy Spirit in all wisdom and prudence and revealed this
in us. I read this to you last week.
Be turning to John 10 with me. I read this to you last week,
but now let me read this to you. Having seen that He perfected
them forever, knowing that by His one offering, His shed blood,
He perfected His saints forever, that now they've been born of
God in the Spirit, had this everlasting covenant written in their heart
by the Holy Spirit, that their praise now is to the glory of
God's grace. They see that they were saved
totally, completely by free, sovereign, unmerited, distinguishing,
particular grace that called them, that bought them, that
has brought them into this access of peace that we have. And then
the question was asked in Romans 8 then, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, that's
risen again, that's seated at God's right hand, who right now
is making intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Look at John 10, 27. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ saying, My sheep hear My voice, and I
know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand, no man. Those born of the Holy Spirit,
no matter how full of sin your life may be, no matter how full
of sin your life may be, if this one right here is your hope,
brethren, Your sins have been purged by the blood and body
of Christ, and they'll never be brought up again. That is
the only constraining love there is, His love for us that will
bring us to obedience, to trust Him alone and turn away from
our sins and our self-righteousnesses and walk after Him alone. That's
the only message that'll do it, brethren. Nothing else will do
it. Nothing will do it. I almost
brought a message to you today out of Isaiah chapter 9. And
without going ahead and preaching it, I'm going to just tell you
the gist of it here. The Lord poured out judgment after judgment
after judgment after judgment upon Israel. He kept saying over
and over, my hand is stretched out still. Judgment, justice,
wrath upon them. And He says, and yet they will
not repent and turn unto Me. Unless God sanctifies the judgment
through the hearts of His people, they'll never turn to Him whatsoever. But when He makes us to know
our sins, He makes us to know our Redeemer. Forgiveness is
what causes a believer to cry out in love to God our Savior.
It's because we behold the depths of our sins and we behold the
unsearchable depths of His love. That causes us to cry out. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. So what is it that
Paul means here when he says to eat and drink unworthily?
To be guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ? What is
he talking about here? Look down at verse 29. He that
eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. The Holy Spirit says plainly
that those who eat and drink unworthily are those who do so
not discerning the Lord's body. What must we have to be able
to discern the Lord's body? Paul had dealt with this already
in this very letter right here. Look back with me, 1 Corinthians
chapter 2. Look back. Verse 9, as it is written, I
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man. These are the natural faculties,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
Only the man knows what's really in his heart, even so the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. We can understand
that. You got that? You understand
that? And he says, Now we have received not the Spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God, which things also
we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual,
but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things. Yet he himself is judged of no
man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
him?" Who knows what the Lord has given us? We do, because
we have the mind of Christ. We've been taught by the Spirit
of Christ in the inward man. So then, back in our text now,
look back at verse 28. Paul says, But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." Now here's
the first thing. Let a man examine himself. 2 Corinthians, look there, you
need to look at these with me. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse
5. What's Paul saying? This is the
point, this is the heart of the matter of what Paul's dealing
with here. He's not going to the outward externals, the outward
things that are going on outside. He's going to the only place
where they can be turned, where these people can truly enter
into what the Lord's table is all about. And this is what he's
saying, 2 Corinthians 13, 5. Examine yourselves. Whether ye
be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves how
that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Either
Christ is in you or you're reprobate. Then in 2 Peter 1.10, Peter said,
Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling
and election sure. For if you do these things, you
shall never fall. That's what Paul is telling them
here. Let a man examine himself. Make your calling and election
sure. Is this the Christ, the one I just talked to you about,
who bought His people, whose people can never be lost, whose
blood has purged them, who now stand complete and accepted,
unblameable, unreprovable in His sight? Is this your God? Is this your Savior? Is this
your Christ? Are you yet trusted in something
in your hand?" Paul said. Examine yourself. Examine yourself. You can't remember someone you've
never met. Can you? You can't show forth
his death if you have no idea who it was that died, or why
he died, or what that death accomplished. Prove yourself. Be honest with
yourself. Paul said, this is a time for
honesty now. You can't discern the value of
his broken body and the preciousness of his shed blood unless you're
totally unable to save yourself. Then you understand something
of how precious that blood is to you. But not until then. You
can't hope for his return if you don't believe he's risen.
So let a man examine himself. And here's the second thing.
And so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Now this
is spoken to the man who examines himself as well as his brethren.
Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. Paul didn't examine the Corinthian
brethren. And Paul didn't call on them
to examine one another. If that had been the case, if
they had done that and if Paul had called on them to do that,
Do you think anything at all would have changed in this congregation?
They were carnal. They were divided. And carnal
babes in Christ like nothing better than to look to the flesh
and exalt themselves through the flesh. And it would have
just been more and more division. The only way to solve this problem,
the only way to solve the divisive spirit is to teach sinners to
look away from their flesh and examine themselves. Go into your
closet. Go into your heart's closet and
meditate upon your personal relationship between you and Christ Jesus,
the Son of God. Do you know Him? Do you really
know Him? That's the issue. There was going
to be some that would come there that probably still had the smell
of wine on their breath when they came there from the feast
they had at home. He's not talking about that.
He's talking about come to this table, examining yourself so
that you can truly come here discerning the Lord's body, thinking
on the Lord Jesus Christ, remembering the Lord Jesus Christ, and not
looking to this love feast and to those that don't have and
all the carnal things that were going on. What we just read what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit which is in him I can't
examine you I'd make I'd probably make a mistake I'd probably make
a stay I probably pick some I'd probably root up Root up some
wheat and leave some tears growing. I can't discern it You know your
heart You examine your heart. I'll examine mine. I And this
thing is, who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his
own master he standeth or falleth. He'll be holding up. God's able
to make him stand. I trust that. I'm trusting that
I just tell you this and God will apply it to you however
you need it. I can't do it. I can't even make
you understand this the way you need to hear it. Because I don't
know how you need to hear it. But he can. And I trust he can.
And I'm trusting him to do that. And Paul, he's not only calling
on each one of them to put away the disorder before coming to
the Lord's table. And when I say that, I mean in
themselves. If you truly examine yourself
and you truly behold Christ, the first thought that a believer
is going to have is, I don't want to sin. I abhor
myself. I abhor the way I behave. Don't
you feel that way? Do you find yourselves at times,
when you truly get a glimpse of Christ, you find yourselves
at times thinking, what a wretched excuse for a believer I am. What a wretched, wretched, wretched
man that I am. And now he's talking to him here
and he says, verse 30, for this cause, many are weak and sickly
among you and many sleep. For this cause. Was it because
they were coming in that show and they were having that feast
and doing all those things? Is that the issue he's dealing
with? The issue he's dealing with is because Christ was not
in their heart. Those things are the result of
what's going on in here. You don't start out here and
expect that just because you've gotten something to look good
out here, that something's happened in the heart. Paul's going where
God's messengers go, to the heart. And he says, for the cause of
not beholding Christ. There's many among you that are
sickly, they're weak, and there's some that just are asleep. There's
some that just flat out don't know the Lord. And then for this
cause, because they were carnal and they were divided, and there
was no heart's desire for their brethren. for this cause, because
they spent more time examining others, more time justifying
themselves, looking to the works of their hands, rather than examining
themselves and considering themselves. Have you ever thought about this?
Have you ever thought, when you hear the Lord speak, and it's
just, it's all about me forgiving you,
It's all about you sinning against me and me forgiving you infinite
number of times. Just as much as you can sin against
me, I forgive you that much more. Well, if everybody did that,
if we all did that, It wouldn't matter how much we sinned against
each other. This flesh wouldn't have any
bearing on our love for each other at all, would it? Because
we would constantly be loving each other, be concerned for
the glory and honor of our Redeemer, and whether we were sinning or
not, or being sinned against or not, wouldn't even come into
the picture, would it? That's what Paul is telling us.
That shouldn't even come into the picture. But because that's
all you see, there's many among you that are weak and sickly
and some can't even see, can't even behold Him because it's
just this disorderly show that's going on. See, that illustration
I keep telling you, you can't go down to the Gulf of Mexico
and try to turn the Mississippi River. You can't go down there
where it's branching out of its banks and going all out into
the bayous and all out into the rice fields and expect that you're
going to contain the Mississippi River and make it do what you
want it to do. But for some reason, Ah! Christ-haters come into this
world and they'll come and try to make you reform on the outside. And it's all about the outside,
the outside, the outside. Instead of preaching Christ Jesus
the Lord, preaching Christ who has redeemed the people, perfected
them forever, that Christ might come in the power of His love
and grace and cause them from their heart to say, Oh Lord,
thank you for forgiving me. Thank you. I abhor myself. I
repent dust and ashes. And it don't matter what I say
about your repentance. It don't matter what I view as
your repentance. All that matters, and the only
way that this thing is governed is, is if you reach some sort
of acceptable, measurable measure of repentance that I can view
and say, now that's repentance. It won't do any good whatsoever.
No good whatsoever. It's a hard work. Faith and repentance
is a hard work. I'm not looking, I don't, I don't,
I've told some of you, when you talk to me and you'll start talking
to me about this sin and that sin or whatever, look, you don't
have to bring that up to me. If Christ died for you, He ain't
bringing it up to you and I ain't bringing it up to you either.
Go to Him. Pour out your heart to Him. And
He will cleanse you. He'll purge your conscience so
that you can behold that you're perfect in Him. And that's the
thing. That's the power. That's the
grace that causes a sinner to want to let go. of whatever it
is that's in His hand that's prohibiting Him from worshiping
Christ, that's prohibiting Him from loving His brethren, that's
prohibiting Him from being a peacemaker in the church, that's prohibiting
Him from worshiping Christ and honoring Him and being able to
discern the Lord's body. It's His power and His grace.
It's the gospel of what He's done for us. He alone can accomplish
it. He alone could choose a people
and set His affection on them. He alone could enter into an
everlasting covenant to redeem them. He alone could devise the
purpose of His grace and how He would come and accomplish
it. He alone could make the world in which He would make it happen.
He alone could create the people that He would save in the end. He alone could direct their path
and move them carry them about to where He used whole nations
to illustrate what He was going to do, and that He could record
it in His Word so that in the fullness of time, when we come
into being 30, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, we came into being
in all our lives. He guided us and brought our
path to where He crossed us with the Gospel. And we behold that
He did that from the foundation of the world. He ordered everything,
moved everything, directed everything, and brought it all down to pass
so that you could hear the Gospel preached, and He would come to
you in spirit and show you that He went to the cross at Calvary
and took the sin that you are upon Himself and laid down His
life and made you eternally accepted of a thrice holy God. That's the message wherein sinners
are brought to obedience of faith. And the obedience of faith just
don't resemble what this world thinks it looks like. It just
don't resemble what this world thinks it looks like. Sometimes
it looks like a King David who is triumphant and victorious.
And sometimes it looks like a King David who commits adultery and
has her husband killed and didn't change his favor with God whatsoever. Not whatsoever. Is that the kind
of gospel you hear this world preaching? Is that the kind of
acceptance we have with God that this world preaches? That no
matter what you do, it does not alter your standing with God
whatsoever? That scares carnal religion to
death. They're so afraid that if they
say that, well, man will just run out and sin all he wants
to. You don't sin all you want to? Do you want to sin more? That's what they're saying. If
I did that, I'd just go out and believe like that. I'd just go
out and sin all I want to because I ain't sinning near as much
as I'd like to. It's exactly what they're saying. Brethren,
this grace I'm talking about makes a man not want to sin.
It makes him want to believe, but it makes him also forgive
his brethren. If we just spend our time examining
ourselves, Spend all our time examining ourselves and considering
where we are with the Lord and praying to Him and confessing
our sins to Him. It would help us to be forgiving
of others. It would help us to be forgiving
of our brethren. The Spirit of grace doesn't look for a reason
to discipline a brother or sister in Christ. The Spirit of grace
is not a fruit inspector that goes around trying to decide
if you're ripe as you ought to be. The Spirit of Grace, if a
church was going to bring up somebody, and there's times,
we'll look at these things, there's times when it had to be done.
It's an exception. It's not the rule, brethren.
But you talk to these fellows and they make it the rule. I'd
like to say the next time that you fellows all get together
and you decide this person has got to be something, discipline's
got to be taking place on him, how about you take their place?
How about you just say, I'll tell you what, I'll take their
place. and do it to me, and let them sit here and hear the gospel
preached. It's always somebody else that needs to be disciplined.
They don't ever come and say, you know, I need some discipline.
It's always somebody else. Okay, let's go on here. What
did the Lord say? Look now, what's the next statement
say? Verse 31. For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. We sure can make it difficult,
can't we? If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Now
remember, this is still personal matter between the believer and
the Lord. That's what Paul is talking about here. Let a man
examine himself, let a man judge himself, take sides with God
and confess his sin before God, and God deals with us as sons.
Isn't that what John said? If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. If we confess our
sins, to who? To some silly fellow with his
collar backwards sitting behind a cage? No. To Christ, our High
Priest, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word's
not in us. Look at the next verse. But when
we're judged, what's He talking about? Who's He talking about
that's judging us? But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord. that we should not be condemned
with the world. This is the Lord's work too.
You see this? This is the Lord's work. Is what
Paul is saying a rebuke? Sure it is. Sure it is. But how
is he doing it? How is he doing it? You see the
spirit that he's doing this in? It's not to cause a further hindrance
to them. It's not to cause them separation
from Christ further than they already are. It's to remove the
hindrance and to bring them in their heart to Christ's feet
to behold Him. And he says, now, if this word
rebukes you, if it chastens you, we're chastened of the Lord that
we should not be condemned with the world. What did we see in
Hebrews 12, 5? Have you forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children? My son, despise not
thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons." Paul's saying, take sides with
God, not against Him. Because what happens when your
children take sides against you? They're corrected, aren't they?
Who does it? You do it, don't you? That's
exactly what Paul said. If you would take sides with
God, confess your need of Him, and fall at His feet, there won't
be no correcting. There won't be no chasing. You'll
be hugged up on Him, won't you? Loving Him. That's what He's
doing. He's bringing you there. But
now, if you want to take sides against Him, Paul said, He's
going to chase you. He'll correct you. He's going
to bring you to Him, if He is. So, now, let's come down to the
last of this. Now, I want you to remember that
these are the very ones who were all engaging in this drunken
feast and gluttonous feast that they were engaged in. And there's
some things you can read about some things. They were divided.
One was saying, I love Paul. Another one was saying, no, I
love Cephas. And another one, they were just, you could think
of a way of them being divided. That's how they were divided.
But Paul did not come to them and say, you bunch of heathens,
you're going to have to step aside and take a time out for
a little while, then you can come back to this table if you
act right. That's not what he said. Look at the next verse.
Wherefore, verse 33, my brethren, my brethren, Paul put himself right there
with them. A man that knows something about what he is, will put himself
right there with the sinner. He said, my brethren, when you
come together, that's what he's promoting, unity, not division. When you come together to eat,
tarry one for another, love one another, be gracious to one another. If you discern the reason that
you're coming here, for the Lord, to remember the Lord whose body
was broken and blood was shed. Remember, it was done for these
ones. And Paul knew it was done for
them. And so he said, Brethren, when you come together, love
one another, tarry for one another. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? And he
said, verse 34, And if any man hunger, If you just want to do
this for a physical carnal reason to fill your belly, just go home
and do that. You can do that at the house.
But come here, come here and don't come here under condemnation.
And he says, and the rest I will set in order when I come. Now
let's don't add to this and let's don't diminish from it by our
yoke. that we like to put on one another. And let's not invent something
that the Lord don't say and do. Let's come now and do this. Examine yourselves. Remember the Lord. And love one another. What has Christ called us to? To remember Him and to love our
brethren. That's what Paul's dealing with.