Alright, turn with me if you
would to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. We have an ordinance in front
of us. that our God has given to us
and commanded us to observe. This particular chapter, 1 Corinthians
11, it tells us about this ordinance. This is where it is given to
us. And in verse 23, the Apostle
Paul said, For I have received of the LORD
that which also I delivered unto you." This is a direct commandment
of the Lord. I received this directly of the
Lord to give to you. Now, not every person on earth
is commanded to observe this. Not every person on earth is
commanded to observe this. If you look at verse 27, It says,
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." So what is it to
take this ordinance unworthily? He said, whoever takes this unworthily,
and the world thinks that means as a sinner, whoever takes that
as a sinner, if you're not holy enough to take this, that's not
what it means at all. It's not what he said. What is
it to take this unworthily? The end of verse 29, he said,
not discerning the Lord's body. Whoever takes this not discerning
the Lord's body, whoever approaches worship with anything other than
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, That high priest went into the
temple with one thing. Do you think that high priest
had anything else in his mind to bring before God than blood,
the blood of the Lamb? One thing only. Not seeing Christ
crucified. Not seeing Christ crucified. Seeing ourselves to be worthy. Seeing ourselves to be good,
fine Christian people. unworthily, not seeing Christ,
not looking to Christ, not believing in the heart that what He accomplished
is all our salvation. What is my salvation? Here it
is, everything Christ accomplished, period. Nothing added to it,
nothing taken from it. No man or woman is able to discern
that. No man or woman naturally possesses
that discernment until it's given to them. It has to be given to
them. We cannot naturally discern the
Lord's body. We are chosen to that discernment.
chosen to seek Christ to be all regarding everything, everything
in our salvation, everything in our worship. But if we're
blind to that, if we at all worship the ordinance, worship the ordinance,
thinking that this is a more holy service than any of the
other services. Oh, I missed the Lord's table.
I missed the holy service. If we at all worship the ordinance
in thinking that by taking this, it makes us more holy, us more
acceptable to God. If we idolize this ordinance
at all, then it means that we are taking the focus of our heart
and the focus of our worship off of the body and the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We plead the same thing with
this ordinance that we plead without this ordinance. Christ
alone. What is the hope of glory? Christ
alone. What will God accept? Christ
alone. What will put away my sin death?
Christ alone. Christ alone. Not by works of
righteousness which we have done. Isn't that what the Apostle told
Timothy? There is no work of righteousness
that I have done. All my righteousnesses are filthy
rags. Filthy rags. We're saved by the
sacrifice of His blood and His body alone. So, if we are not
here to worship Him alone in this, Not only will taking this
ordinance do us no good, but it'll actually just cause us
to eat and drink damnation to our own souls. And here's the
reason why. It's not that it becomes poison. This is bread
and wine. It's because we will be taking
this ordinance and eating this ordinance, clinging to something
that can't save us, thinking this ordinance has a role in
our salvation. We will cling to something that
cannot save us. An ordinance cannot save us,
no matter what ordinance it is. An ordinance cannot save us. Christ saved us. So not everyone
is commanded to partake of this. Only those who have been called
to believe on Him. They are commanded. God's chosen
people. If you look at chapter 1, 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, Verse 2, He said, This is unto
the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified
in Christ, that means set apart in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Holy Spirit lays hold of a sinner and sets that sinner apart. Where
does He put the sinner? In Christ. Sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints. We don't decide to be saints.
We're called to be saints. With all that in every place,
this is not only to the Corinthians, along with all that in every
place, call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs
and ours, their Lord and our Lord. If we've been called to
be saints, chosen to be children of God, followers of God, believers
on Christ, If we call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
if we've been made to see that there is no other name given
among men, no other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. God has revealed that to us,
then this is to us. This ordinance is given to us
and this ordinance is for us. Now go with me back to chapter
11. Verse 23, it says, 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. Many people believe, you know,
and they even say, if I was alive back then, I wouldn't have done
it. That's not so. That's not so. This sinful, wicked
heart right here. But for the grace of God, there
go every single one of us. But our Lord, we read about it
a moment ago in the scripture reading, our Lord was willingly
betrayed. Purposefully betrayed. He knew that he was going to
be betrayed. He allowed himself to be betrayed. He sent the man out. He said,
go do what you have to do so that he could be betrayed. He was betrayed on purpose. The purpose of God is in everything.
The purpose of God is in every single thing. Nothing happens
outside of the purpose and will of God. Not one thing. Verse
23, it says, 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, Do we not give thanks for His
death on the cross? Do we not give thanks for His
death on the cross? Well, so did He. So did He. He was thankful for it. He was
so thankful. Why was He thankful for His death
on the cross? It's because He desired that
His people be with Him where He was. And there was no other
way possible for that to happen than that He should go to the
cross. No other way possible. There was nothing that they could
do to redeem themselves. We can't redeem ourselves. We
had to be redeemed. Verse 24, and when He had given
thanks, I love these three words. He break it. He break it. No one else broke
it. This bread, he took some bread. This bread represents
his body. He said in a minute, we're going
to read it. This is my body. This represents my body. This
represents my life. And he is the one who broke it. No one else broke His body. There was no one else involved. It was in no one else's hands,
but His. The entire cross was in the hands
of God Almighty. He said, no man takes my life
from me. No man. I will lay it down of
myself. I'll take it. I'll take it. When
it's my appointed time, I'll take it. The Jews did not take
it. Pilate did not take it. A centurion did not take it.
He took it. Verse 24 says, And when he had given thanks,
he break it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is
broken for you. Broken for you. He was not broken
for a general purpose. His death was not a general death
for men to take it or leave it if they want to. It's not just
out there for whoever wants to take it if they have time. I
know people are busy and a lot of people say, I just don't have
time right now. He was not a general death. He was not broken to open
up any possibilities. Well, now you know he made salvation
possible. No, sir. He did not die to open
up any possibilities. He was not broken to be an example
or a martyr for a cause. He said, my body was broken for
you. My body was broken for you. He said, Father, break me for
Gabe's sake. Break me for Gabe's sake. We
pray for Christ's sake. Oh, for Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. He prayed, Father, for their
sake. You see Him. Break me for His sake. Everything
that He is, everything that He has done, everything He deserves,
take it all out on me. Break me for Him. We just sang, wounded for me. Wounded for me. There on the
cross He was wounded for me. Why did Christ die? Why did Christ
die on the cross? For me. For me. Gone my transgressions
and now I'm free. All because the Lord Jesus was
wounded for me. Verse 24, it says, when he had
given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat, this is my body
which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. This do, do this to remember
what I've done for you. Remember what I've done for you.
Verse 25, it says, After the same manner also he took the
cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. The Old Testament said, Do this
and live. That's what the Old Testament
said. That's what the law said. Do this and live. But we couldn't
do it. We could not do it. We could
not satisfy God. So Christ came and he did it
for us. The Old Testament said, do. The New Testament says, done. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. Aren't you so glad we're not
under the letter of the law? Aren't you so glad we're not
commanded do, do? Aren't you so glad that's not
the message of good news? This is not the message of good
news. You have to do better. You better
do better. That's not a message of good
news. Here's the message of good news. It's done. It's finished. It's paid. Rest. Sleep. Peace. That's the good
news. It's done. The Old Testament said, live
by the law. How does a man live before God?
The Old Testament said, by the law. You know what the New Testament
says? By the blood. Live by the blood. Verse 25,
After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped,
saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft
as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show. You do show. We have something
here that we can see. We have something we can see.
You do show, you see a visual representation of what Christ
did. You get to see substitution. Here's the gospel. Substitution. This is the gospel. God said,
this is what I demand. I couldn't do it. Christ could
and did. He completely traded places with
me. Made Himself to be me. Made me
to be Him. He got everything I deserved.
I got everything He deserved. We get to see substitution. Verse 26 says, You do show the
Lord's death. You see Him laying there instead
of yourself. You do show that living, He loved
me. That's what we show. He came
to live the life for me that I couldn't live. And all the
while, He loved me. He lived on my behalf. He lived
with me continually on His mind. That's what we show as we take
this. You know, David said, and this
is a glorious thought, and this is the absolute truth. David
said, if I should number the thoughts that he has had toward
me, they are more than the sand. However many grains of sand there
are, it's more than that. It's a lot more than that. In this, in this ordinance, we
show that everything He did in the life that He lived, it was
for us. It was all for us. It was all
given to, the Scripture says, the usward, the elect. When the Father said, well done,
the Son knew as He was coming up out of the water. A dove descended
on him. The father said, well done. I'm
well pleased. At that moment, the son knew
he was beginning his ministry of telling the gospel. This is
what I've accomplished for you. All of his life leading up to
that, he knew that he had earned the favor of the father for us. Well done. Well done. Earned all the favor of the father
for his people. Our Lord knew that was going
to be applied to us. Living, He loved us. He was so
thankful, so happy to give it to us. Verse 26, He said, As oft as
you eat this bread and drink this cup, in this you do show
that living He loved us, dying He saved us. He gave His life,
He gave the life He lived to His people. He gave His body.
He gave His blood. He laid down His life for His
sheep, His particular sheep. This is what He said of us. He
said it in John 15. He said, You are My friends. You're My friends. I'll bear all their sins. I will
sorrow unto death for them. I will number myself with the
transgressors for them. I'll number myself. I'll remove
them from it and stand in their place. In this we do show that
up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful morn, walked Christ our Savior,
weary and worn, facing for sinners. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. I didn't come to call the good church-going
people. I came for sinners. I came for
sinners against God, facing for sinners death on the cross that
He might save them, save us from endless loss. A righteous man
doesn't need to be saved from endless loss, but a sinner does. And as he hung there, in the
sin that he made to be his own. My sin became his. He hung there in all of my guilt. He hung there in the guilt of
everything I've ever done and will ever do. That breaks my
heart to think of what this old sinful flesh is capable of doing
in the future. But blessed be the Lord. He hung
in that sin too. All of it. As he hung there in
the sin that he made to be his own, he said, Father, as a substitute
for my people, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having
said thus, he gave up the ghost. And he died. Instead of his people. He said, whoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. He died instead of his people. And a dear man and a brother
in the Lord named Joseph of Arimathea took his holy lifeless body down
from the cross and carefully and reverently wrapped him in
spices and linen and laid his weary and worn body in a tomb
and sealed the door. As often as we eat this bread
and drink this cup, in doing this every believer cries, living
he loved me, dying he saved me, buried he carried my sins far
away. He made Himself to be our scapegoat. He took them all away. He carried
our sins far away, never to be seen ever again. Verse 26 says,
for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
do show the Lord's death, now watch these last three words,
till He comes. Till He come. What do you mean
till He come? The One who died? The One who laid down His life? What do you mean till He come?
Turn with me to Psalm 18. It's a wonderful verse. Psalm
18. Verse 46, it says, The Lord liveth. I would love to holler that at
the top of my lungs. I'd love to hear one of the angels
hark. The Lord liveth. And blessed
be my rock. And let the God of my salvation
be exalted. Don't we cry, not unto us, not
unto us, unto thy name give glory. Thank God He lives. He lives. Blessed be my rock,
let the God of my salvation be exalted." In this, we do show
that He accomplished what He came to do. He finished the work
that He came to do. Salvation is finished. Salvation
is finished. There's nothing left to be done.
If there was something left to be done, He would be the most
unsuccessful Savior that has ever come into the world. But
He's not unsuccessful. It is all finished. And we are
remembering in this, we are remembering the Living God. God raised Him
from the dead. He is seated on His throne and
reigning and ruling and doing as He will with whom He will. The God of heaven and earth.
He did not used to be. He did not save us, die for us,
and used to be. He is. He is. And all His work concerning us
is finished. It's all finished. Go with me
over to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew 28 verse 5, it says,
And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye,
for I know that you seek Jesus which was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen
as He said. Exactly the way that He said
it was going to be has come to pass. Everything he said has
come to pass. He said, I'm going to give myself
as a sacrifice to God for you. And when God is satisfied, as
soon as God is satisfied with punishing you, He is gonna punish
you for everything you've done and take out all of His vengeance
and all of His wrath on you for your sin against Him, in myself,
Christ said. And as soon as He's satisfied,
as soon as He says enough, that's it, He is going to raise me from
the dead. And when He raises me from the
dead, He's gonna raise you in me. You with me. And the angel right here cried,
God is satisfied. God is satisfied. Christ is not here. That's the
only place I've ever wanted him to not be. He's not here. The Lord liveth in Christ, in
himself. in His Father's choice in giving
us to Him. Living, He loved us. Dying, He
saved us. Buried, He carried our sins far
away. Rising, He justified us before
God freely. It cost Him everything. What
does it cost us? Freely? How long will His work
last? How long is His work good for?
forever. One day, He's coming. One day, He is coming to gather
His saints. The saints that He purchased,
we are bought with a price. And one day, He is coming for
all of His people and oh, what a glorious day that will be.
And until that day comes, by His grace, everything is by His
grace. We'll remember. That's what we're doing right
now. We're remembering. We're recalling. We're recounting.
This is who He is. This is what He did. This is
why He did it. This is where He is now. And
this is what's coming next. By His grace, we will keep on
remembering. By His grace. He won't leave
us to ourselves. We won't run out into who knows
where. He'll keep us right here and we'll keep remembering. And
we'll keep remembering who He is and what He's done for us
until the day He comes. By His grace, we'll do it until
the day He comes. I pray His will be done. That's my prayer. But I would
love for all of us to be right here. I'd love to be right here
together. Today's the day. It's here. Lord, help us to remember. All
right, let's show our remembrance. Brother Brandon, you come.