Anyone who's really, truly seen
their need of Christ don't have to be begged, pulled, cajoled,
cornered, bargained with, bribed to come
to Christ, do they? They see their need in Him and
they say, I've got to have Him. I've got to have Him. I need
Him. Any truly guilty sinner, anyone who has seen and heard
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel desires Him. That's
what it is to eat. Desire and hunger and thirst
to win Christ be found in him to know him. And if so be that
you have tasted and what you've got a taste of Christ in the
gospel if so be you have taken the Lord is gracious number three.
What it is to eat Christ is to keep eating. To keep eating simple
faith. It's not desiring enjoy. And you keep eating. Once you've
tasted now the Lord is gracious this honey out of the rock. You
can't get enough of it and you keep eating. That's what it is
to eat of Christ is to keep eating. It's not a one time thing. How
many of you ate ten years ago and said that won't suffice?
That'll suffice. Mama told me to eat my green
beans that one time and I've never eaten them since. No. You
keep eating. Some of you quite regularly,
more than regular. Keep eating, keep eating, because
you enjoy. And not only that, out of need, but out of enjoyment,
you can't get enough of it. You can't get enough of hearing.
Do you? Let me ask you that, really. Can you get enough of hearing
the gospel? You're eating crap. You have
eaten, you've tasted, and you're still eating. You're still at
the table. You're still sitting up at the table. You're eating
of Christ, right now. You already eat. And you're still
eating. Can't get enough of it. Hearing
about his person, his work, the gospel. Peter talked about to
whom coming. He keep coming back to the table.
He keep coming, keep eating. Keep coming back to the table
where good food is served. I'm going to stay with that little
woman of mine because I'm going to get a good meal every time
I get up to the table. Every time. I know where good
food is served. And I keep coming back to the
table. And I know where my food and my drink is. It's in Christ.
It's in this gospel right here. And I keep coming back. Keep
coming back. And also, I see, and you see,
if you keep eating, you realize the necessity of it. The necessity
of it. You get strength, growth, nourishment,
good health. Brother John Chapman one time
preached a message. I'll never forget it. The title
of it was, Give Me Christ or Else I Die. Now that's a man
who has eaten of Christ, tasted him. A true partaker of the Lord
Jesus Christ realizes his need of him all the time and more
and more every day. More and more every day. Now some people, let me say this
for the comfort of some people who stay away from the table
a little bit, you may get sick and lose your appetite. You know,
that's a sign of sickness, spiritual sickness. It's a sign of physical
illness if you lose your appetite and don't come to the table.
Something's wrong. You can't hold food down or can't digest
it or have no desire for it. Something is wrong. You need
to go see about it, right? And if, spiritually speaking,
if you can stay away from this table any length of time at all,
something's wrong. Something's wrong. You need the
Lord. Ask the Great Physician to heal you. Do something about
it. But you may get sick and lose
your appetite, but the Holy Spirit, if you've ever partaken of the
Lord truly, eaten, He's gone down in you and He says He's
in you and He'll never leave you, the Holy Spirit won't let
you stay sick long. Thank God. He won't let you starve
to death finally. He'll let you get so low and
so weak and so sickly and so frail looking, but finally he'll
break that fever. The fever will break. That person's
in a fit. They're out of their minds, you
know, when they leave the gospel. But he'll break that fever, rekindle
the appetite until food is good again. And it's desirous one
more time. And you think, you come back
and say, how could I have ever stayed away? Two things we need for salvation. Two things. And our brethren talked about
them. Two things we need for the saving
of our souls. Number one, we need the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? We need that perfect righteousness
imputed to our account. That's the body of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He took a body of flesh and worked
out perfect righteousness for us in it. He took the body of
a man, entered the body of a man in the flesh. God was made flesh
and dwelt among us and worked out a perfect righteousness as
a man. We need that righteousness. He did that in a body. Number
two, what do we need? Blood. It's the blood that makes
atonement for the soul. And he poured out his life's
blood as an atonement for our sin. Two things. Do you see your
need of Christ? Huh? Do you? Have you eaten? Have you tasted
that the Lord is gracious? And once tasted, you keep coming
back. I believe some of you have. Then
you can partake of this table. You can partake of this table.
We don't police it. I ask you to examine yourself,
as the scripture says, examine yourself and see whether or not
you discern and see your need for Christ and have tasted, believe
Him, trust Him, confess Him, a believer's baptism, and then
just come here just to take this table just to remember Him by.
Just remember, Lord, I need You. I thank You for what You've done
for me, and I'm doing this right now. as a memorial for what you've
done for me. Thank you. Thank you.