Well, let us turn to the Word
of God, and turning to that portion of Scripture that we were considering
earlier today in the morning hour, here in Luke chapter 22. I'll read then from verse 14. And when the hour was come, he
sat down and the twelve apostles with him. And he said unto them,
With desire I have desire to eat this Passover with you before
I suffer. where I say unto you I will not
any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God and he took the cup and gave thanks and said take this and
divide it among yourselves where 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 too 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. So we consider this morning something
concerning the institution of this supper that we will, in
the Lord's will, presently observe once again, the Holy Supper of
the Lord. And I want us tonight to concern
ourselves more especially with the simplicity of the service,
the ordinance that the Lord himself has appointed. I want us to consider
then the elements of the Lord's Supper, simply bread, and wine,
the bread and the cup. As I said, this morning we were
looking at the passage more generally, and we observed something of
the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ, amongst other things,
those remarkable words that we have In verse 15, with desire,
I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, he
says to his disciples. And I said then that we have
what is called a Hebraism there at the beginning of the verse,
where we have the word repeated, with desire, I have desire, he
says. Or as the Margin says, I have
heartily desire to show something of the intensity. of the feelings
of the Lord Jesus Christ. A man obviously of deep passion,
so much a real man. And we were observing this morning
what he is doing on this occasion really is to change what was
the Jewish Passover into that Christian ordinance of the Lord's
Supper. This was the occasion as we are
told back in verse 7 then came the day of unleavened bread when
the Passover must be killed and he sent Peter and John saying
go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat he is observing
then as a Jew that feast that was to be so much observed amongst
the Jews that what the Lord does really is to show that He is
the One who is the fulfillment of all that was foreshadowed,
all that was typified in the Passover and particularly in
the Paschal Lamb. Even Christ's Passover, His sacrifice
for us says Paul writing there in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 The
guy we remarked this morning on the significance of these
two words in verse 15. The noun Passover and the verb
to suffer. Because they're both from the
same roots. It's that particular word from which we get the word
Paschal. We speak of the Passover lamb
as the Paschal lamb. and the word for Passover is
Pascha and the verb to suffer is Pascho. Christ's suffering
is the fulfillment of all that is to be discerned there in the
Passover Lamb. These are some of the things
that we were observing this morning. It is to be a great feast of remembrance,
the Lord's Supper. Whereas the children of Israel
would remember that great deliverance out of Egypt and out of the destroying
angel that passed over all their houses as they sheltered under
the shed blood, so believers are to remember the Lord Jesus
in His sufferings. this do, he says, in remembrance
of me. But let us now turn to consider
more particularly these elements, the simplicity. It reminds us,
does it not, of the simplicity that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was much more ritual to be observed there in the Old
Testament. But as simple is what the Lord does here in verses
19 and 20. 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 or the new
covenant in my blood which is shed for you. Observing then
these two things. First to say something with regards
to the bread. And then secondly, something
with regards to the cup. With the bread then, I want to
observe some four things. Four things concerning the significance
of this bread. And first of all, we have to
take account of the symbolism that is so evident in the language
that the Lord is employing. He says in verse 19, this is
my bodice. He took the bread and gave thanks
and break it and gave unto them saying, this is my body. But that language is symbolic
language. Now, I'm sure many of you are
very much aware how the Roman Catholic Church takes that word
very literally. And on that basis they develop
their doctrine of transubstantiation. They say that when the priest
utters the appropriate words in conducting the Romish Mass,
so what is in effect a wafer, a physical wafer, by the words
of the priest it is transubstantiated and becomes the body of Christ. This is my body. It becomes,
they say, the body and the blood. the soul and the divinity of
the Lord Jesus Christ that is their understanding and yet it
seems really to be so absurd because the Lord Jesus Christ
is present when he says these words surely it is contrary to
common sense to imagine that the Lord transubstantiated the
bread and turned it into himself, into his body, his blood, his
soul, and divinity. And this was a great issue at
the time of the Protestant Reformation. And that is recognized even in
the doctrinal statements of the Church of England, as you're
probably aware, the 39 articles of the Church of England. There
was a time when every vicar or rector entering into his parish
would have to read and confess the doctrine contained in those
39 articles. Well, that day has long since
passed. But those articles are very much a product of the Protestant
Reformation, so not surprisingly they address this whole issue
of the doctrine of the mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation.
And article 28, for example, says of the Roman Catholic doctrine
that he cannot be proved by holy writs but is repugnant to the
plain words of Scripture and hath given occasion to many superstitions. You know what happens in the
mass? The priest, having said the appropriate
words, then elevates the wafer, holds the wafer high so the people
can look upon it and the people bow down and they worship the
wafer. Because they are led to believe
that that wafer is nothing less than the body and blood, the
soul, and the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder
another article of those 39 articles of the Protestant Reformation
in the English Church, Article 31, says that masses are blasphemous
fables and dangerous deceits. We ought to be clear then with
regards to what the Lord is actually saying here in the text. We are
not to take this word in that literal sense when he says, this
is my body. The language is symbolic, metaphorical. It's the same on other occasions.
Remember how in John's Gospel we have the great I Am statements.
The Lord says, I am the door, I am the true vine. Obviously, when He makes those
sort of utterances, He's not saying that He is a door or a
vine. We are to recognize that this
is metaphoric language that the Lord is employing. And so here,
in verse 19, the language of the Lord Jesus is to be understood
in that symbolic sense. There is a wonder here. And Calvin
brings it out when he says that what the Lord is doing is to
paint the picture, paint the gospel as it were, in pictures. We have a picture here of the
gospel. How the Lord does something. He takes bread. And in the sight
of these apostles, He breaks it and gives it to them and tells
them what this represents. His body. His body broken. And His body broken for them.
He gives it to them and they partake. It's the gospel and
it's the gospel in pictures. The Lord, when He normally comes
to us to reveal Himself, comes by that sense of hearing. Faith
cometh by hearing, we're told, and hearing by the Word of God. There is a certain primacy given
to the sense of hearing when He comes to the way in which
God communicates with us. It's through His Word, the Word
of Scripture. And that is, of course, a name
that is also given to the eternal Son of God. He is the Word of
God. All the Scriptures and the Lord bear one tremendous name.
The written and the incarnate Word in all things are the same,
says Joseph Hart. How true! God in these last days
has spoken unto us by His Son. This is the final revelation
of God, the Word of God. God comes and He speaks to us. He communicates by that sense
of hearing. But when He comes to the Lord's
Supper, here is the amazing thing. It's not just the sense of hearing,
it's sight. There's something to be seen,
there's something to be observed. The Lord's Table then is not
the place for us to indulge in our private devotions, those
devotions we should do in the private place, in the secret
place. When we come to the Lord's table, we should be all ears
and all eyes. There's something to be seen.
As the Lord does here, something in the sight of these apostles. But there's not only the sense
of sight, there's a sense of touch, there's something to be
taken and handled. And not only the sense of touch,
there's a sense of taste. We partake of these things. We
eat the bread. We drink the wine. It's a remarkable
thing what the Lord is doing, you see, the symbolism of the
Lord's Supper. And it is symbolic also of that
blessed unity between those who are partaking. 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? For we, being many, are partakers of one bread and
one body. It's an expression of the unity. There's a sharing. There's a
partaking of one bread. There's a partaking of one cup.
It shows the unity of the Church, the people of God. This is the
first thing we must observe then with regards to this ordinance. The symbolism of it. but then
also here we are very much reminded of sacrifice and we really touched
on that this morning when the Lord uses that word in verse
15, I suffer and it is suffering in an absolute sense and it's
brought out, I said it this morning in the words of the Apostles
Creed He suffered He suffered under Pontius Pilate
was crucified dead and buried. The third day he rose again from
the dead. That's what's confessed in that
great creed of the ancient church concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he goes on to speak
of how he suffered. The ordinance then reminds us
very much of his sufferings. Paul brings it out there when
he recounts these things in the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians.
The body of the Lord Jesus Christ was broken. The bed is broken.
Not a bone of him was broken, but how his body was broken.
How the blood came from his many wounds. His pierced brow, his
lacerated back, his pierced hands and feet. The spear thrust into his side,
his body broken. It was a sacrifice. And it's
interesting thinking of the bread because if you turn back to Leviticus,
chapter 21, there you will see in the opening verses, in verse
6 and verse 8, that what the priest offers upon the altar
is referred to as the bread of God. The priest offered the bread
of God, that is, the food of God, that is a sacrifice. But
he's spoken of as bread. And so this bread that the Lord
takes and returns thanks for and brightens. It speaks of sacrifice. He's speaking of himself as the
one who is the fulfillment of all those Levitical sacrifices. All that was the food of God,
the bread of God under the Old Testament laws. There is symbolism
here, there is sacrifice. And then of course there is also
the great truth and we again are simply re-emphasizing what
we said this morning, their substitution. The great doctrine of substitutionary
atonement. This is my body, he says, which
is given for you. And David is the same with the
cup, the cup of the New Testament in my blood, he says, which is
shed for you. Oh how the Lord Jesus Christ
dies, and he dies to atone for sins not his own. For the wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. That's the language of the Lord
of God. That Lord in which we see so
much the holiness and the righteousness and the justice of God, He can
by no means clear the guilt of those who are the transgressors
of His holy law. They must bear the punishment
that that law demands. And the law requires full, complete,
perfect obedience. And if a man should keep the
whole law of God and yet offend, in one point James says, he is
guilty, he is guilty of all is worthy of death, but the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one who was dying as a substitute. All the Lord Jesus Christ, remember,
all together without sin. We said this morning, going back
to the language in Exodus chapter 12 concerning that Paschal lamp,
without blemish, without blemish, How they had to examine the animal
and make sure that it was perfect. No imperfection in this sacrifice. Why? It prefigures Him who is
the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. And
Christ is that One who is altogether without sin, free. Free from
sin, free from original sin. As Mary was told, when he was
so miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in her womb,
in the womb of a virgin, that holy thing, said the angel, that
holy thing, that shall be born of thee, shall be called the
Son of God, that holy thing, that human nature, body and soul,
not tainted by Adam's sin, He is not born in the normal
way. He has no human father. He is the seed of the woman,
as God promised back in Genesis chapter 3. But He is a real man,
but a sinless man, preserved free from all the taints of Adam's
original sin. And we all, of course, all of
us partakers of Adam's sin. We all sinned in Adam. All but
this man, he is free from all that. And as he is sinless in
his birth, so he is sinless in his life, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Why? Here is
why. who is so suitable to be the
sacrifice for sinners he has no sins of his own that he has
to atone for could this man ever die? there was no sin in him
and yet he dies and why so? because he is dying as a substitute
God hath made him to be sin for us says Paul who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him again what Paul
says Peter repeats 1 Peter 3.18 Christ also hath once suffered
for sins the just for the unjust to bring us to God he is the
just one and yet he dies for the unjust, he is a sinless one
he dies for sinners observe then the significance
of all that this bread speaks of it's symbolic it's symbolic we're not to understand these
things in any literal sense, it wasn't that that bread became
the body of Christ. What a symbol it is to us. It's
symbolic. And then also we see how it speaks
of sacrifice. And what sort of a sacrifice?
Why, a substitutionary sacrifice. The great truth of substitutionary
atonement. But then also Fourthly, with
regards to the bread, we observe the blessed truth of satisfaction.
Now, that's twofold in a sense. What he does satisfies God. Satisfies the justice of God.
And because Christ has died, the sinner is now free. But there's
also this aspect, there's satisfaction for that sinner. What is bread? Why bread is called the staff
of life. It nourishes our lives, it supports
our lives. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the staff of spiritual life. That's the The teaching that we find in
that sixth chapter of John, again, we've referred to these words
so many times, we saw them this morning, where Christ speaks
of himself as that bread of God that comes down from heaven. And what does he say? Verily,
verily, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, ye have no life in you. who so eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up at the
last day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. Why, here is satisfaction. Here is eternal life. He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. As the Living Father hath sent
me, I live by the Father. So he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. What satisfaction. Oh, He satisfies
the longing soul. He filleth the hungry soul with
goodness. Oh, friends, do we know that?
Do we feel that? The Lord Jesus Christ, does He
satisfy your soul? You want to know more of Him?
You want to know more of the wonder of His person? Oh, that
great mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
we cannot really begin to understand, we can't comprehend it but we
can seek to meditate in these things and ponder these things
to think of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ how that in
everything that he does here upon the earth he is never anything
less than God-man and we cannot divide those natures, we must
not divide those natures that's the wonder of the union He is ever God-man. Even that
little Bible. So dependent as a babe upon his
mother and yet God. What a mystery. Or do we contemplate these things?
But not only the person. That glorious work that Christ
came to accomplish. Do we think upon Him in His threefold
office? Do we seek as we read the Gospels
to understand that here He is, He is a King? Oh, and we want
to know Him as a King, we want Him to come and reign in our
heart, we want Him to rule over us and to subdue every iniquity
within us. We cannot deliver ourselves from
what we are as sinners, He only can do it. But how He is mighty
to save, able to save, to save for the Ottomans. Why is King
of Kings, Lord of Lords? Or do we consider Him in His
kingly office, in His priestly office? We want Him to be our
teacher. We want Him to instruct us. Or we would bow to His authority.
He is that One who is the Prince of all preachers. He is the Great
Prophet of God. why He has revealed God so fully,
so finally. Are we those friends who seek
to be instructed by Him and to embrace all His teaching? All
we love is promises. We delight in His promises. Why
all those promises of God in Him, they're yay and they're
amen. It's no yay and nay gospel with
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all yay and amen. It's an
accomplished salvation. but we also love his precepts.
And that's how we show something of our devotion to him. He says
himself, if ye love me, if ye love me, keep my commandments.
Do you keep his commandments? Why do we observe the Lord's
Supper? It's the Lord's commandment. He says this too. But we know
the way to the table is of course through that first ordinance
of baptism, how important it is. that we obey Him at every
point we are to be those who would
profess His name, we submit then to His ordinances both baptism
and the Lord's Supper we are to delight in all His commandments
is that our chief concern to understand what the will of the
Lord is to understand that will of the Lord that I might do it
that I might do the thing that is right and pleasing in His
sight. Oh, He satisfies. He satisfies
the souls of sinners. Does He satisfy your soul? He is the bread of life. That
that is such a staple part of our diet, our spiritual diet. Oh, but how it cost Him. How
do we get bread? Bread has to be prepared. Bread
has to be prepared. The wheat has to be grown. And
the wheat has to be harvested. But then, what comes after the
harvesting? Why? There's the threshing of
the wheat. There's the bruising and the
grinding in the mill, in order to produce the flour. Then there's
the taking of the flour and making the dough and baking in the oven. That's how we get bread. And
so too with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is he not that one who is bruised? Bruised between the millstones
of God's justice and the sins of his people. Oh,
how he was bruised. How he was scorched in the oven
of the wrath of God. And we see it. It's remarkable
how these things are brought out to us in the Scriptures.
Do we have eyes to see these things? Do we seek to search
out these things? These strange verses that we
sometimes find in different parts of Holy Scripture. That that
we have at the end of Isaiah 28. What do we read? Bread corn
is bruised. Bread corn is bruised, because
he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel
of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh
forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel,
excellent in working." Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ here? Is
He not that bread corn, bruised, threshed? This is how Christ
comes to satisfy His people. And here in this very chapter
why in the portion we read we see something of his sufferings. Now there in the garden of Gethsemane
the Lord Jesus Christ was so sorely pressed. Verse 44 we read,
being in an agony. Being in an agony he prayed more
earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood
falling down to the ground. what was transpiring in the human
soul of the Lord Jesus Christ when he passed through this remarkable
experience agonizing in prayers sweating and he sweats as great drops of blood falling
down to the ground we can sometimes, but we don't often sing it, it's
one of those hymns that's more suited to meditation than the
public worship of God, but read through that 153rd hymn on Christ's
Passion, Gethsemane. We read verse 2, Gethsemane the
olive press. That's of course the very meaning
of the word. Gethsemane literally means the olive press. Gethsemane
the olive press and why so called? Let Christians guess. fit name,
fit place where vengeance strove and gripped and grappled hard
with love. T'was here the Lord of life appeared
and sighed and groaned and prayed and feared but all incarnate
God could bear with strength enough and none to spare. There in the garden He's contemplating
what is before Him. He's going to make the great
sin atoning sacrifice upon the cross and He agonises. and his soul is like a great
olive press heaving away in the prospects of all that
burden of the sin of his people that will be laid upon him. Oh,
he has made satisfaction. He has made satisfaction to God.
He has paid the dreadful penalty that the Holy Lord of God demands. Justice is satisfied. Are we
those sinners who are also satisfied? We are satisfied with this Saviour.
All such a Saviour is Jesus Christ. The significance then of the
bread. He took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave
unto them saying this is my body which is given for you, this
too in remembrance of me. But let me just say something
concerning the cup also. There was quite an elaborate
ritual In the Passover feast there was more than one cup at
that feast and we see it here. There is the what we might term
the Paschal cup spoken of in verse 17. He took the cup and
gave thanks and said take this and divide it among yourselves.
And then there is the other cup after the supper. Likewise also
the cup after supper we read verse 20. saying this copies
the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you. But when we come to the Lord's
ordinance, as I said at the outset, we have the simplicity that is
in Christ Jesus. And there is symbolism. And the
symbolism of the cup is not dissimilar to what we see in the bread.
Likewise. It says here in verse 20, you
see he took the bread first. Likewise. It says in verse 20,
also the cup. And we have it again brought
out in what Paul says there in the familiar words of 1 Corinthians
11, after the same manner also he
took the cup. Just as he had taken the bread
after the same manner, there's a similarity. Now I say now that
the one bread speaks of unity, the unity between Christ and
his church, the unity of those who come together and sit together
at the table of the Lord and also With the cup there is that
expression of unity. The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? What
does communion mean? It means, well it's the same
or similar to the idea of community, of oneness. a oneness with the
Lord, a oneness with each other and the Lord says in Matthew
26 when he gives them the cup he says drink ye all of it it
doesn't mean drink it so that you drain it no that expression
drink ye all of it, it means all of you drink of it as we
have it here in In verse 17, take this, he says, and divide
it among yourselves, share it. Each of you partake of it. This
is why we share the cup. So many places today, as you
know, they like to have individual little medicine glasses that
they take the wine in. They have no cup in that sense,
no common cup. But we say that the symbolism
is not without significance, it's important, it speaks. And
it speaks of the unity of those who are sharing in that service
of holy communion. But what does the Lord say? He
speaks of the cup in this fashion. He says it is the cup of the
New Testament. This cup is the New Testament
in my name. And the words that we have, testament,
is the word that elsewhere is translated covenant. It has that
twofold sense really. It can be understood in terms
of the covenant, it can be understood in terms of a testament. I just
want to consider for a while that twofold meaning of the words. First of all, the idea of the
covenant. His cup is the new covenant in my blood. Our blood is clearly associated
with the covenant. Now that's the case with regards
to the old covenant when God brings the children of Israel
out of Egypt and brings them to himself at Mount Sinai, enters
into covenant with them And God having spoken those 10 commandments,
then we have Moses in the mount, 40 days and 40 nights, receiving
further instruction and direction. And there in Exodus 24 and verse
6 we have this statement, Behold the blood of the covenant which
the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. There is the
blood of the covenant. There, with regards to that old
covenant, And remember how Paul, when he
writes in his epistle to the Hebrews, speaks in some detail
concerning these things. Here in the ninth chapter of
that epistle, at verse 18 following, he says, Whereupon neither the
first testament or covenants was dedicated without blood,
For when Moses had spoken every priest said to all the people
according to the law he took the blood of calves and of goats
and with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both
the book and all the people saying this is the blood of the testament
which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with
blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry
and almost all things are by the law purged with blood. and
without shedding of blood there is no remission. And then we
come to this. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heaven should be purified with
these, but the heavenly the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these for Christ is not entered into the holy
place made with hands which are the figures of the true but into
heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us all
the better things what are the better things it's the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ this new covenant that is the old
covenant But this New Covenant is also sealed with blood. We call it the New Covenant, whereas really it is the Ancient,
the Eternal Covenant. We call it the New Covenant because
we have the fullness of the Revelation only with the coming of Christ.
But really it is the Everlasting Covenant. And that's what Paul
says there at the end of Hebrews, chapter 13, the blood of the
Everlasting Covenant. You know that benediction, we
sometimes use it at the Lord's Supper. The God of peace that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever. or there is the blood of the
new covenant. That everlasting covenant. And
what is that everlasting covenant? It is the inter-trinitarian covenant. It is that council of the Trinity.
The eternal council of the Godhead. What God purposed, the great
salvation that was predestinated before the foundation of the
world and it is interesting that what we have here in verse 20 this copies the New Testament
or as I said we could render it the New Covenant and that
word is from exactly the same root as what we find later in
verse 29 the verb I appoint as my father hath appointed look
at the language of the Lord to his own apostles they had continued
with him all his life all his temptations they were ever with
him and I appoint unto you a kingdom as my father hath appointed unto
me and the verb to appoint is from the same root as the word
covenant or testament. When was his kingdom appointed?
It was appointed in the eternal inter-trinitarian covenant. Oh,
these are the things that we come to remember at the Lord's
Supper. Oh, there is much for us to think on, much for us to
meditate on, to feed our souls with. the glorious fullness that
we find in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the cup. It is not just any cup, it is
the cup of the New Covenant, or as we have it here, this cup
is the New Testament. And so, as we close, let me just
say something with regards to the word Testament. The New Testament
in my blood. Oh, the testator has died. The
testator has died. Therefore, his testament is in
force. That's what Paul tells us there
in that ninth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. We just
referred to one part of it. We see another part there in
Hebrews chapter 9. At verse 15, in the following
verses, we read that he is the mediator of the New Testament,
that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. There is an inheritance. But
when do those who have an interest in that inheritance enter into
the possession of it? When the testator dies. For where
a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. For a testament is a force after
men are dead. Otherwise it is of no strength
at all while the testator liveth. Christ must die. that we might
inherit the blessing, that great salvation, that glorious redemption. Or as we come to the supper,
let us remember Him. He says, this do in remembrance
of me. Going back, going back to the
type that we have there in Exodus chapter 12, the Paschal Lamb,
The institution of the feast of the Passover, we are told,
how it was a night much to be observed. In Israel it was. It was a night much to be observed.
Oh, there was so much to remember. And friends, is there not so
much for us to remember? As we come to observe that holy
ordinance, of our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet all the simplicity
of it all, the gospel of the grace of God. How He speaks to
us now in bread, broken bread, and wine, all that cup of blessing
that we bless, the communion of the blood of Christ, that
bread that we break, the communion of the body of Christ. O God,
grant then that we might be those who as we come are able to partake
in faith. Whatsoever is not of faith, remember,
is sin. O God, grant us that gift of
faith, that faith of His own work and His own operation, that
we might come and by faith truly feed upon our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord then bless His word to us. Amen.