If I'm a friend of God's creation,
I'll remember thee. And when we've played a little
game, Broke down, and my head is relieved. And I'll have it,
I'll take the long resort. And I'll have it, I'll take the
long resort. And I'll have it, I'll take the
long resort. Our Heavenly Father, in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we come here tonight and we need your help. We need your help to worship.
We need your spirit. Would you give us, by Spirit,
that we might watch with thee for one hour, that we might think
on things above, that we might truly do this in remembrance
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Lord, forgive us. of our sin, our worldliness,
ungodliness. We are poor disciples indeed. But thou art merciful, gracious,
full of compassion, slow to anger. And we need you to have compassion
on us this night. Remember us, remember our frame,
and look on us with favor. Eat this Passover with us, we
pray. For thy glory, for our good,
we pray and ask thee, amen. All right, Luke chapter 22. Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. Then came the day of unleavened
bread, when the Passover must be killed. The Passover must be killed. The Passover must be killed. The Passover must be killed. Our souls depend on it. If no word is in the passing,
the Passover must be killed. Do you know, does everyone in
here know what the Passover is? Do you know where it is? Exodus
chapter 12. Turn over there. Exodus chapter
12. Now, I just read, and I hate
to take our time mentioning this, but it was providential that
today in the Roanoke paper was a full-length report on Passover. The Jews are about to partake
of a week-long or a Passover feast. And they don't know what Passover
is. They don't know. Do you know? That's what this table is all
about. In Exodus 12 is where the Lord instituted the killing
of the Passover. And incidentally, in that article,
there was no mention whatsoever of a lamb, of the shedding of
blood, of any killing whatsoever. None. Passover. Well, this is where the Lord
instituted the killing of the Passover, the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb. Do you know
why? Do you know what this is all
about? The Passover lamb must be killed. You must understand this to take
his place. That's what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
11 when he said, don't eat this table worthily, eat it unworthily,
because they don't discern the body of the Lord, what this is
all about. This is not a ritual. This is
not a ceremony. This is, well, I'll tell you
more later. But you must understand where
it began, the Passover. In Exodus 11, look there first,
in Exodus 11, verses 4 and 5. Now, Egypt, Israel, Israel
was in bondage in Egypt. And they were going to be delivered.
They were right on the verge of being delivered. God raised
up a deliverer from among the people, chosen from among the
people. Moses, to deliver them from bondage
and bring them to freedom. Moses, all right? And just before that, look at
chapter 11, verses 4 and 5. Moses said, Thus saith the Lord,
About midnight I will go into the midst of Egypt, and all the
firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die. Egypt, which represents
the world, was going to feel the wrath of God's death. All right? Verse 7. But against
any of the children of Israel now, a dog won't wag his tongue. Against man or beast. You may
know now that the Lord doth put a difference. between the Egyptian
and Israel. He chose the Israelites. He has
a chosen people, and not a dog who's going to wag his tongue
at us. Nothing's going to happen to one of them. All of them are
going to be delivered and spared. All of them. Why? How? One reason. Chapter 12. All right? And all of this is a type of
Christ. Verse 3, Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel,
saying, In the tenth day of this month I shall take to them every
man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb
for a house. Verse 5, Your lamb shall be without
blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it out from
the sheep. Read on. Keep it up till the
14th day of the month. The whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take
of the blood of that lamb, that without blemish, spotless lamb
without blemish, a male, strike it on the two side posts on the
upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. their
dwelling places, their tabernacles. The blood is going to be applied.
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, they shall, roast
with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall
eat it, not raw or sodden with water, roast with fire, head,
legs, the whole lamb, the whole lamb. And ye shall let nothing
of it remain until the morning. That which remaineth of it until
the morning shall be burned with fire, and it all will be consumed. Thus shall ye eat it with your
loins girded, your shoes on your feet, staff in your hands, that
is, ready to go, shod with preparation. And you shall eat it in haste,
don't wait, don't tarry, eat it. It's the Lord's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will
smite all, I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
man and beast, against all the gods of Egypt. I will execute
judgment. I am the Lord and the blood. shall be to you for a token upon
the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you." Do you know what the Passover is? It's about a bloody lamb applied
to the dwelling places of the children of Israel. that spared
them the wrath of God, that wrath that they were deserving of as
much as the Egyptians. What was their salvation? The
blood. God said, when I see the blood.
God revealed this Passover to them, not the Egyptians. He hid
this thing from the Egyptians. They revealed it unto these poor,
miserable Israelites. And it saved their souls, saved
their lives. Well, Christ is all of this. Christ is all and
in all of this. Christ is the Lamb. Christ is
the Passover Lamb. Christ is the Bread, the Unleavened
Bread. Christ is Moses. The deliverer. Christ is all of these things.
The Passover speaks of Christ. And God spares us for one reason. We're no better, not one whit
better than anyone in this world. We're sinners. All have sinned.
But here's the difference. Here's how God and God makes
it. Who maketh thee to differ? God
does. How? by applying the blood of
his son to us. And when he sees the blood, he
will pass over us. That's the only thing. That's
all our salvation. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now do you understand what this table represents? This table, back to the text
now, in Luke 22. These are mere symbols. This
wine does not turn into blood. It's just a symbol. It's just
wine. It's bread. One of our ladies
made it. There's nothing special about
it. It's just bread. These are just symbols. All right,
Luke 22, but they're symbolic of who our Lord is and what he's
done for us. We don't kill a lamb anymore,
although we have a lamb. We have the lamb. Christ is the
lamb. So we just use these symbols
to represent what he did. There's nothing saving in these
things. It's just a memory. Just a memory. All right? Read verses 7 through
11. Now let's read down through here.
Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must
be killed. Now do you see why I kept emphasizing
that? It must be. And he sent Peter
and John, saying, Go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat.
And they said unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare thee?
And he said unto them, Behold, when ye are entered into the
city, there shall a man meet you bearing a pitcher of water.
Follow him into the house, where he entereth in, and you shall
say unto the good man of the house, The master saith unto
thee, Where is the guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover
with my disciples? Matthew's account says it this
way. Listen to this. Matthew's account
reads this way. The Master saith, My time is
at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. He didn't ask this man either.
I like that. The Master saith, My time is
at hand, I will keep the Passover at thy house with my disciples. Our God, the Lord and Master
over all, doesn't ask anyone for anything, does He? I like
that. I have easily thought of Psalm
50, verse 12, where He said, If I were hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. I would just command it. And it would be so. He commands
and the world obeys. He speaks and all do His bidding. Jehovah, Jireh. The Lord will see to it. The Lord will provide. Verses
12 and 13, look at this. And he shall show you a large
upper room furnished, and there make ready. And they went and
found, as he had said unto them, and they made ready to pass on. When he came right in the room.
He gave orders go to find a cold man said on and lose him the
man asked you to say the master. And they. Bring it and it says
I went and I found. As he said. And if we'll wait, we're going
to find everything as he said to us. Everything. We're going to see. It's all
been pre-prepared by Jehovah John's. All pre-prepared. There's a place, Christ said,
prepared for you. If it were not so, I would have
told you. In my father's house and many
men there's an inheritance. We saw an inheritance reserved. Salvation has been. It is already furnished. Everything
is furnished. Everything has been prepared.
And we are going to find it even as he said unto us. Verses fourteen through sixteen.
When the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles
with him. And he said unto them, With desire,
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
eat any more, any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the
kingdom of God. For I said I've heartily desired
to eat this Passover with you. I thought of Psalm 122. Surely
it was the Lord who said, I was glad when they said unto me,
let's go unto the house of the Lord. That was the Lord Jesus
Christ saying that. Huh? I was glad when they said
unto me. And this is He fulfilling that
with desire, that I desire to fulfill this Passover, to eat
this Passover with you. He was glad and so glad. And
I thought Hebrews 12 where it says, for the joy of the sinner
for him, enduring the cross. Now this meal, now they ate a
meal before they partook of this bread and wine. They ate a meal
together. Because you remember, Judas sopped
with the Lord. Remember that? He sopped with
Him. The Lord revealed who it was
by the sop and said, what you do, go do quickly. And he left.
John, in John's account then, It was a blessed, blessed time
after Judas fled. It was a blessed, blessed time.
He said, With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you.
If you remember in John's account, there were three chapters of
intimate, the Lord with his disciples. Chapters 14, 15, 16 of John. What words can say about the
intimate conversation of the Lord with his disciples. If there
ever was a passage of scripture where unregenerate men should
not tread, that's it. Along with his prayer in chapter
17. But chapter 14, 15, and 16, it was a rather long interval
here, right here, right here, right after that, where he gave
all of those things. You remember when they were all
expressing their fears, you know? Remember? Thomas Moore, show
us the way. John 14, 16. I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Philip, show us the Father. Remember? All of those things, and I'm
the vine and so forth. He washed their feet. A lot of
things took place here at this time. He said, with desire I
desired it. Truly our fellowship was with the Father and with
His Son. This is a blessed time, it really
is. The Lord heartily desired it. He said, with desire I desired
it. Lord, give me that desire. What
desire? I desire. I bet you the disciples hung
on his every word. I know they did. From their questions
and all, they hung on his every word, as if their lives depended
on it. They did, Henry. They did. Thou is the words of life. Well, it doesn't appear that
the Lord partook of these things with him. Look at it. It says, verse 17, he took the
cup and gave thanks and said, take this, divide it among yourselves. Verse 19, he took the bread and
gave it unto them. Likewise, the cup, he gave it
to them. He didn't drink it. He didn't eat it. I thought,
why? Well, he said, verse 16, I will
not eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom
of God. But it's fitting that the Lord
did not partake of this because Jehovah Jireh. He's providing, not for himself,
but for his own. He came, our great high priest,
not to make a sacrifice for himself. He didn't need one, right? He
didn't need to remember himself. This was for us. The Lord went
without. We might go with him. The Lord
emptied himself. that we might be full. The Lord
became poor that we might be made rich. The Lord was made
sin that we might be made the righteousness of God. And he
was eating bread. He was eating bread. Do you know
what that might be? He was eating bread. He ate bread
from the day he arrived here on earth. You remember one time
they said, eat Lord. He said, Oh, I have meat to eat,
but you don't know how. Man does not live by bread alone,
but by what? Every word that proceeds from
the mouth of God. He was chewing on that the whole
time. He had a cup to drink from, and
he began drinking it the day he was born. You know that? He said the cup that the Father
has given me, shall I not drink it? He had a cup, God's wrath. And verse 16 said, I won't eat
it again until the kingdom of God be fulfilled. I will not
eat again until, verse 18, until the kingdom of God shall come.
The Mary's supper of the Lamb in heaven, what do you suppose
we will eat and drink? But there's no doubt in my mind,
he already told me. The principal ingredients at
the marriage supper of the Lamb will be, beyond a shadow of a
doubt, bread and wine. Every instant, when Melchizedek
came and Abraham, they ate bread and wine. Bread and wine. The marriage supper of the Lamb
will be a table all seated with Christ. This wasn't the last supper. No, it wasn't. I don't know where
they got that. That wasn't the last supper.
There's going to be one, and it's never going to end. The
marriage supper. All right. Now this is when the
disciples of Christ were given the Lord's table. The Lord's table. Look at verse
30. That's a scriptural term. Christ
said, you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. The Lord's table. And that is
fitting. It is the Lord's table. Some call it communion. Do you
know where they get that? That's scriptural to first Corinthians
chapter ten. Turn over there. First Corinthians
chapter ten communion is a scriptural term. First Corinthians ten. We have it verse sixteen. 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? So that's what this is. Number
one, it's the Lord's table. The Lord's table. Men have tried to put a fence
around this table. Tried to police it. Some call
it closed communion. Then fence, bare table. But you can't do that with the
Lord's table. And the Lord gave command, he
said, I shall eat the Passover. I will feed the Passover with
my disciples. I was reminded of a true story. A preacher went to visit another
church one time. And this was a preacher and he,
a believer. And he sat in on the service
and they were serving the Lord's table. And they were passing the elements
and they came to him. And he started to reach forward
and he pulled it back. They said, you can't partake
of our table. He said, oh, well, I don't want
to. I want to partake of the Lord's
table. Who may partake? The Lord's own. That's it. It's his paper. And
it's communion. What is this all about? I said
I'd tell you more later. This is communion. This is fellowship
with Christ. That's what this is. This is
a believer taking part in something, just the elements which simply
bring to mind who Christ is and what he's done, and they do these
things, eat, drink, with a heart of thanksgiving to the Lord. The reason we need to keep it
as simple as possible, this is not a show, this is not the show,
This is a simple, this is communion, this is... I wish I didn't have to stand
up here. I wish I could sit out there with you and be anonymous.
You see, that's what this is. This is a believer in his own
heart and mind before the Lord, taking of these things in remembrance
of him. Communion in his heart. Praying
in his heart. That's what prayer is. Communion. Communicating. Communion with
the Lord. Taking of these things. Saying,
Lord, thank you. That every time they ate and
drank, they gave thanks. They gave thanks. They gave thanks.
This is communion. Communion. Baptism is confession. Two things our Lord commanded.
Two things. Two ordinances with all the churches
to partake in it. All disciples. Baptism is a confession
of faith, a public confession. The Lord's table is personal
communion with the Lord. You understand the difference?
This is not a confession. This is communion. You understand? You understand? All right. All right. And notice the substance
that we're going to partake of. It's important. What our Lord
institutes, what our Lord said to use is important. It's important. It represents him and his work,
and the simplicity in which it's to be done. The substance and
the simplicity. It's important. All right? They're
ordinary. All right? Verse 19 says, They
took bread, unleavened bread. Verse 7, the day of unleavened
bread. Not any old bread will do, but unleavened bread. Leavened
being yeast. You ladies that cook know what
yeast is. A little leaven will leaven a
whole lot, won't it? A little yeast will fill a mixture,
won't it? Unleavened bread now, no yeast. And our Lord said in one place,
Beware the leaven of the Pharisees. That represents many things.
The principal thing is sin. Leaven being seen. A little sin. Leaven it the whole month. Self-righteousness. Legalism. Sin in any form. Sin
is sin. Our Lord is the unleavened bread. In Him is no sin. You see, it's
got to be unleavened bread because it represents our sinless Lord. You see that? You understand
why we... The apostle of Egypt does it,
that's for sure. A priest will stand up there and he'll, I'm
not a priest. I don't break anything. Christ
said this is my body, broken. Who broke it? Who did the breaking
here? The Lord did. So we don't do
that symbolically, because the Lord broke it. He broke it himself
and he must serve it. And no elaborate ceremony. No
elaborate ceremony whatsoever. Very simple. Because nothing
is to get in the way of and obscure what this is about. Understand
that? Not to wear all these robes and
go through all these things. No liturgy, Latin liturgy. I
want you to understand what I'm saying. We don't go through any elaborate
ceremonies. We don't go through all of these,
all the candles and all that. Where do you stand? What do they
do stand? They're sitting at a table. The
Lord says plain old unleavened bread. Broke it. Eat it. That's it. Cup of wine. That's it. Didn't say a silver
cup. Didn't say a chalice. The Holy Grail. I bet it was an earthen vessel.
I guarantee you it was an earthen vessel. Wine. Bread. This is why we do this. See, there's a substance and
the simplicity. Why do we do this? Verse 19 says,
This is my body which is given for you. Who? For who? It doesn't say all of
it. For you. Who's it going to? I
will eat my Passover with my disciples. This is particular
bread. Representing particular redemption
for a particular or peculiar chosen generation. This is my
body given for you, this do, why do we do this? This do in
remembrance of the simple memorial of who Christ is and what he
did and why. All right, verse 20 says, likewise
also the cup, the cup after supper is saved. is the New Testament
in my blood which is shed for you. So bread and wine, very
simple service, and Thanksgiving was given upon the serving of
each element. Thanksgiving to remember Christ,
to thank him, and this due and remembrance, to think on him,
who he is, what he did, and to thank him for doing that. That's
all this is about. No saving, efficacy in there. It doesn't turn into the blood
of Christ, no. It's one sacrifice made forever.
That's blasphemy. It doesn't turn in. It just stays
wine, and whatever's left over, we'll throw it in the sink. One time, if you can prepare
to serve the bread, one time I was pouring the bottles, or
pouring the glasses, and we had a half a bottle of wine. I thought,
I hope there's enough to go around. I really did. I thought, I hope
there's enough for everybody. We never have to worry about
that, with Christ's blood. And then you know what I thought
about doing? It just, just crossed my mind. I'll put a little water
in it. And I thought, oh no. Now I'm going to water down the
blood. All right, let's start with the
brain again. Thank you very much. Unleavened bread, as we say, is a type of Christ.
Sinless Christ. In Him, no sin. His body, He
never committed one sin. Not one. That's amazing isn't
it? Bread though is interesting.
The reason our Lord chose bread. Bread is called the bread. He called himself the bread of
the life. Isn't it interesting the latest
diet has us doing without it? That's very typical. Probably
got that some religion somewhere. Go without bread. We're in a
day without bread, that's for sure. But bread is interesting. We can't live without it. The
bread of life. Bread starts in the seed. except the corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die. Scripture says it. It starts
with a seed and it falls into the ground and grows up as a
tender plant, a root. And then it grows up and in its
prime it begins to bear fruit. A stalk of corn, a stalk of wheat,
whatever, rice. In its prime it begins to bear
fruit. And then in its prime, what do we do with it? When it's
bearing fruit, in its full fruition, we cut it down. Cut off from the land of the
living. Cut it down, and then it's ground. Ground under a wheel. Ground to powder. Ground to flour. And then it's cast into an oven. And then it out comes bread,
and we eat it, and we live by it. See the picture of Christ
in all that? See why he chose bread as a symbol
of him, not me, although he is me? Well, I thought, which came
first, the seed or the stalk? We know which. The stalk, the
full flower. Christ was the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world and in the beginning with the Father.
Unleavened bread, no sin. Bread, the bread of life, the
staff of life, tender plant, fullness of time, cut down, cut
off, ground under the wrath of God and healed the threshing
floor Cast in the oven, into the burial, came forth our bread. Moses gave us not that bread,
but you, our Father, in heaven. Christ gives that bread which
a man eat of and never hunger again. May he bless us, Lord,
by faith to partake of him. We eat this bread, not discerning
as we would, as we should. Lord, that we believe, help our
unbelief. And we do give thanks that Christ's
body was broken for us, that sinless, perfect, beautiful body
which we shall someday handle ourselves. He himself. Thank you for having that body
bruised for us. We give thanks in Christ's name.
Amen. Q. Sir, I have a question. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It says in verse 20, likewise,
that is, in the same manner, he took a cup and gave thanks,
and he said, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which
is shed for you. We use wine. It doesn't say wine,
though, it says cup. It's wine. Wine is wine. Wine is wine. And it has alcohol in it. That's
wine. It can't be wine if it doesn't,
if it's not fermented. So what's the importance of that?
What's the significance of that? Wine. That's very significant. Purity. purity. Wine begins, true wine, begins,
it comes from an aged vine. No young vine will produce grape. It won't do it, will it? It takes
years. It takes a lot of years to produce
good grapes, good wine, fine wine. And then, when that vine
bears much fruit, it's time of harvest, fullness of time in
the fall. All the fruit is gathered from
that vine, and then the fruit is crushed. I mean, it's crushed,
it's beaten to a pulp. Usually how? What's the old-fashioned
way of crushing grapes? Underfoot. Underfoot. And then after it's crushed,
the juice is bottled and put away for a time. This is the
fermentation process. It's put away a year at the least. Sometimes
much longer. But it's put away. It must, in
order for it to ferment. For that alcohol, the sugars
in it, the sweetness, the sweet savor of it, to purify that whole
thing. And then, in the fullest of time,
it comes forth as wine. New wine, old wine, it's wine.
It comes forth as wine. Grape juice will spoil. Wine won't. You say, oh, well,
it'll turn to vinegar. Vinegar's good for you. It's
good. I had a woman that knows wine one
time tell me, you know that wine never, it always is a lie. She
didn't know what she was saying when she told me that. Barbara,
she knew not what she said, but she said, you know, the wine,
after it ferments, it's always alive. There's a living organism
in it. I said, yep, sure is. And this is a picture. You say
wine, we must use wine. See what wine represents. It's
the picture of Christ, His blood, the life, the flesh. Right? Shedding of his blood. Christ himself was that vine. In John 15, he said, I'm the
vine. Christ bore the fruit, the fruit of righteousness for
us. And in the fullest time, when he fulfilled all righteousness
for us, he was cut down. We claim that truth, but he walked
the wine press, God's wrath. He was trodden on the foot, that's
what, by God himself. Crushed, bruised, or other, and
by his blood we are redeemed. Our sins are paid for. This is
redemption's price, the blood. the blood, and by his blood we
are redeemed. Sins are gone. That's what this
represents. Let's give thanks. Our heavenly Father. Again, we give thanks for Christ,
the one thing needed. For we find in him our all and
end all, our bread and our wine, our food and our drink, Our justification,
our sanctification. Our substitution, satisfaction. We find in Him all that we need. Salvation is of the Lord Jesus
Christ. How we thank You for revealing
this to us. Oh Lord, reveal Christ in us.
May He mean more to us than He does. Lord, we don't do this
often enough, but now we partake of it. Enable us to remember
Thee. Give thanks from a heartfelt
gratitude for what You've done. Who's sufficient? Who can pray?
Who can give thanks properly? No man, Lord. With man it's impossible. But our Holy Spirit surely takes
intercession for us with the groanings we cannot utter. And
you know what things we pray and ask. You know our faith and
you know our lack of it. You know our sincerity and our
hypocrisy. You know us, Lord. You know our
heart. Not a word in our mouths, you
don't know it, but thought from the heart says, Lord, we do give
thanks for Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb, who was killed
for us, now ever live to make intercession for us. Thank you, Lord, for the shed
blood. In Christ's name, amen. He said, this is the new testament. The new testament in my blood. New testament, new covenant,
no more lambs sacrificed. One sacrifice made, this is the
new and living way. And as we said, this is this
and these are the only ordinances that our Lord gave to this church. One to confess Him, one to remember
Him. And it's a high honor and privilege
to have partaken of this table with His hand up. A lot of this
goes on. A lot of that goes on, but Hall
said in 1 Corinthians 11, many drink damnation or drink judgment
to themselves, not discerning the body of our Lord. It's going through a ritual.
Bad enough to draw near with our lips in the worship service,
but this, you can go wild with it and consider it a high honor. God bless you. Lord, forgive
us for not doing it as we should. But in Matthew and Mark's account,
it says after this, they sung a hymn. They sung a hymn. But this is scripture. We're
going to do everything just like they were. Number eight, turn
in your hymnals. Number 8 is taken from Psalm
100. This is a psalm, a hymn based
on a psalm. Which one? I don't know. It may have been this one. I
don't know. It may have been Psalm 22. That
could very well be it. But this is the song. The music
of the song set the song one in number eight was banned. This is to the tune of. All people that on earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, Him serve with fear, His
grace foretell. Come ye before Him and rejoice,
Know that the Lord is God indeed. With honor he did us make, We
are his folk he doth us keep, And for his keep he doth us take. O enter then His gates with praise,
Approach with joy His courts unto you. Praise, laud, and bless
His name always, For it is He we sought to do. For by the Lord our God is good,
His mercy is forever sure, His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.