I believe we could go home, but I've got to do what I've
got to do. You know, we've gathered here
to take the Lord's table tonight, the bread and the wine, and we
don't take it often enough, But I certainly want to do what's right about it. I want
you to start with me then in verse 12. And the first day of unleavened
bread. Now this is the Passover. You
know they had unleavened bread seven days. put the Passover
up for 14 days, kept it. And when they had killed the
Passover, his disciples said unto him, where wilt thou that
we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the Passover? Remember, they
eat it. And he sent forth two disciples,
two of his disciples, and saith unto them, go ye into the city,
and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water, follow
him. And whatsoever he shall, wherever
so ever he shall go in, say you to the good men of the house,
the master saith, where is the guest chamber where I shall eat
the Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large
upper room furnished and prepared. There, make ready for us. And
his disciples went forth and came into the city, and found,
as he had said unto them, and they made ready the Passover.
One thing we can always count on, that whatever he says unto
us, it'll happen. It'll happen. Now he told them
exactly what was going to happen when they went into this town.
Exactly what was going to happen. And it happened just the way
he said it was going to happen. And they made ready the Passover,
and in verse 17, and in the evening he cometh with the twelve. And
as they sat and did eat, Jesus said, Verily I say unto you,
one of you which eateth with me shall betray me. And they
began to be sorrowful and say unto him, one by one, is it I? And another said, is it I? That's
a good question to ask, ain't it? Lord, would I ever betray
you? Would I ever be a Judas? Would
I ever sell you? What would it take? But is it
I? Is it I? And he answered and
said unto them, it is one of the 12 that dippeth with me in
the dish. The son of man indeed goeth that
is written of him, but woe to the man by whom the son of man
is betrayed. Good were it for that man if
he had never been born. And as they did eat, Jesus took
bread and blessed and break it and gave to them and said, take
eat, this is my body. And he took the cup and when
he had given thanks and gave it to them, and they all drank
of it. And he said unto them, this is
my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. Verily
I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine,
until I drink it new with you in the kingdom of God. Other
word, I guess when we get to glory, they're gonna have wine.
That's what he's saying. He said, until we get to the
kingdom of God, I won't have any more of the fruit of the
vine, but I'll drink it with you in the new kingdom. I'll
drink it with you when we get there. That's what he's saying. And
listen to this now. And when they had sung a hymn,
and it says in the margin, a psalm, they went out into the Mount
of Olives. Now, I want to talk a little
bit, say a few things about the Lord's Supper. It's called the
Lord's Table. Paul called it the Lord's Table. He said you
can't partake of the Lord's Table and the tables of devils at the
same time. You can't drink of the cup of
devils and the cup of the Lord. So it's called the Lord's Table.
And I want you to know it's not the Baptist Table, it's not the
Catholic Table, it's not the Presbyterian Table, it's the
Lord's Table. It's His. It's His. And the Lord,
when He takes notice, He takes notice of our hearts, where our
hearts are, what our hearts are thinking, what is going through
our hearts. He knows us, He knows us, and He knows us very, very
well. And I'm thankful that He does. I'm thankful that He does. And not only is it called the
Lord's Table, but it's also called the Lord's Supper. The Lord's
Supper. And it's a supper, it's a spiritual
meal. It's a spiritual meal. It's not a natural meal. You
know, it's called a communion. I want you to look with me over
here. Keep Mark, and I want you to look with me in 1 Corinthians
10. Look what it's called over here.
1 Corinthians 10. In verse 16. It's called the Lord's Supper.
It's a spiritual meal, a communion. Look what he said here. The cup of blessing which we
bless. God gives us this cup with the
blessing in it. We bless. Is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? And that word communion means
to be one with. to actually be one with, to commune
with, to have infinite communion with. And the bread which we
break, is it not the communion or our union of the body of Christ? For we being many are one body,
one bread and one body for all partakers of that bread. And
so what he's saying here is, is that that when we take this
bread and this wine, what we're doing is we're actually partaking,
having communion, our oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
called the body of Christ. And I'll tell you this, it's
for believers only. It's not for just anybody. It
really is. It's not for everybody. It's
only for believers. Only for people who know that
what God done for them, what Christ done for them, for those
who truly believe from their heart and their soul that the
Lord Jesus Christ did something for them, did something for them. And I tell you what, the reason
it's only for believers because only believers have communion
with the Lord Jesus Christ. The world don't have communion
with Christ. Religion don't have communion
with Christ. Lost people don't have communion
with Christ. And there's people that take
the bread and the wine every single week that wouldn't know
God from a goat. And I'm telling you, this is
for believers. Our Lord Jesus Christ was there
with his disciples. He wasn't there with the world.
He didn't open up the door and say to everybody now who wants
to come in, have some of my flesh and some of my blood. You just
come on in here and have to help yourself. That's not what he
said. Now I don't believe in close communion in the sense
that you know that if you're not a member of this church,
you're not even allowed to come in the building when we do it.
I don't believe that, but I do believe that it's for God's people
and God's people only. I believe that. Because it's
only they who have communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. The
natural man, he can't have communion with Christ. And the communion
that we have with our Lord Jesus Christ is it's a bond of unity. a bond of unity and love that
we have with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the bond and unity that we
have that's among us as believers, among us as Christ's people,
the Lord's people. That's why we being many, many
of us here, but still we're just one body. God sees us as one
body, one body. And I tell you, let me ask you
this question. What is the Lord's Supper? What
is it? What is this communion? When
our Lord Jesus took that bread, and when our Lord Jesus took
that cup, what is he doing? What does this mean? Well, it's
a visible sermon. That's what it is. It's a visible
sermon. When our Lord Jesus did this, he was preaching a visible
sermon. Remember he told us in John chapter
six, except you eat the flesh, of the Son of Man, and drink
his blood, you have no life in you. But he that drinketh, eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, he hath eternal life. Now he
wasn't talking about eating his body. He wasn't talking about
cannibalism. So it's a visible sermon. And what it is, Paul said, is
showing the Lord's death till he comes. Showing the Lord's
death. And so by faith, We believe Christ
that He broke His body. We believe Christ shed His blood. And by faith we eat His flesh. And by faith we drink His blood.
And He says, you may reshow the Lord's death till He comes. And
that's what our Lord Jesus is doing here. When He's talked
about eating my flesh and drinking my blood, this is what He's talking
about. When He broke that body, He said, this is my flesh. This
is my body. And I tell you, we show the last
death and we show the purpose of his death. What was the purpose
about it? We show the purpose of his death.
Why did the Lord Jesus Christ die? If righteousness come by
the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And we show the effect
of it. We show that His work was effectual. His work and His blood and His
broken body actually saved people. It done what God intended for
it to do. He done what God intended. When
His body was broken on that cross, He intended for God to save certain
people. When He shed His blood there
on Calvary's tree, He intended for that blood to be counted
somebody to wash them from their sins and make them acceptable
to God. And so that's what we're talking
about here. We're talking about what our Lord Jesus Christ. This
bread and wine ain't gonna do a thing in the world for us.
We're not gonna get no grace through it. But I tell you, when
we get grace, we get grace from Him who lived. We get grace from
Him who died. We get grace from Him who was
buried. We get grace from Him who rose
again. His death is what saves us, not
the bread, not the wine. Oh, it's His death. And oh my,
we show His death, the purpose of it. Bless His holy name. Had He not went to that cross,
and He had not rose again, we'd just be wasting our time. Be
wasting our time. And look what happens now. Down
in verse 22. And as they did eat, they ate
the Passover now. Christ was our last Passover.
Jesus took bread. He took bread. You know another
place He took bread? And on that Emmaus road, walking
with those two disciples, they didn't know who He was. They
didn't know who He was. But he went in their house. They
said, stay with us. Spend the night with us. It's
too late. Come in here and eat with us. And when he sat down
and took that bread and broke that bread, they said, that's
the Lord. That's the Lord. And Jesus took
bread. He's the master. He's the Lord. He's the one that instituted
this blessed, blessed thing of this. It's not man's invention. It's not just a tradition that's
passed down. Our Lord Jesus took bread, took
bread, took bread, and then look what
it says, he blessed it. He blessed it. And he said, oh,
this is my body. And breaking, gave to them, said,
take eat, this is my body. He broke it first, and he blessed
it. And how blessed are we by the
broken body of the Lord Jesus Christ. All our blessings flow
from Him. All our blessings that we have
flows from our Lord Jesus Christ. He took just a piece of bread
and broke it and said, this is my body. This is my body, I broke it.
And He blessed it. And His body was broken. And
how blessed we have by His body being broken. By His body being
there on that cross. How blessed have we been. What
blessings we have because of what Christ did on that cross. He went to that cross on purpose.
His body was broken and beaten and mutilated. and had every
kind of wound in his body that's known to medical science. Every kind of wound known to
medical science was in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they broke it, that he shed
blood. All is bruised for our iniquities.
Chastisement of our peace was upon him. Stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted. Wounded for our transgressions.
Led as a lamb to the slaughter. Oh how his body that was broken,
how we were so blessed by it. How we're so blessed by it. And
then look what he says, and then he break it. He break it. You know what our Lord Jesus
Christ did? He did voluntarily. Nobody made
him do it. You know our Lord said in John
10, 17, He said, Herein doeth my Father love me. My Father
loves me for what I'm fixing to do. Because I lay down my
life. I lay it down. I lay it down. This is an act of my will. This
is a voluntary on my part. This is something I intend to
do. Then he said, I'll lay it down with myself. He said, there
ain't no man gonna take my body from me. Ain't no man gonna take
my life from me. There's nobody gonna take it. He said, you know when I'm gonna
die? When I say to my father, into
thy hands I commit my spirit, then that's when I'm gonna die.
And I know that I'm going to go into that grave, but I'm going
to come out again. I tell you what, everything our
Lord did was voluntary. God never said, now listen, if
you don't go down there to heaven, then you know I don't know what
I'm going to do to save these people. Christ stood as our Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. He came here in time. And God gave him a body. And
our Lord Jesus Christ in that body who has made an offering
to God himself. And he said, Father, you need
a lamb? I'll be that lamb. Father, you need blood to satisfy
you? I'll shed my blood. You need
death for the sins of your people? I'll die. I'll do it. You don't have to
make me do it. You don't have to insist that
I do it. You just give me your will and
I'll do it. You tell me what to do and I'll
go do it. You give me the people that I'm
to die for and I'll go die for them. You show me the people
you want to assist to be on me and I'll bear them. And I tell you, He said, I lay
down my life. Ain't nobody going to take it
from me. Nobody. Nobody. I'm going to do that.
Oh, my. Broken body. Broken body. Wine poured out the blood. Oh my soul, how he must have
loved his people and loved his father to do that. For who? For who? For who? I stand amazed. How can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Oh my, how he must have loved
his people. And look what it says here, and
then he took that bread and gave it to them. He just, you know
who he gave it to? He gave it to them. That shows
us that he only gives his bread to his people, to his disciples. He gave it to them. And he didn't say, now would
you like to take and eat it? Would you want to do this to
remember me? No, no, he said it as a command,
take, eat. Take and eat, take and eat. Oh my, he said, this is my body. They finally understood what
he meant. You know, this is children's bread. That's what this is, children's
bread. Children's bread. It's like Israel
when that manna come down from heaven It wasn't for Egypt It
wasn't for nobody but Israel Yeah, that that manna that came
down came down only in the camp of Israel And Christ shed his
blood and broke his body only for spiritual Israel only for
spiritual Israel, and then he says take eat and This shows
us our mystic union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're one
with him by faith. We eat his flesh and we drink
his blood. It's like a marriage. You know,
when a person wants to get married and they're thinking about marriage,
the first thing they do is they choose their bride. They choose
a bride. God opens up the door and he
opens up, you know, somebody that he's chosen and it's an
elect person. You married the person you chose
to marry. It was an election, you chose
to do this. And then you got to win their
heart. They may not want to marry you, you know. Then you got to go out and win
their heart. Well, that's what Christ did for us. He said, this
is going to be my bride. And I've chosen them. They're
my elect. And you know what I'm going to
do? I'm going to go and I'm going to win them. I'm going to win
them to myself. I'm going to win their hearts.
I'm going to win their wills. I'm going to win their minds.
I'm going to win them. I'm going to win them. I'm going
to woo them and bring them to myself. And you know what? They're
gonna love me too. They're gonna want me. They're
gonna want me. They're gonna want me. Ain't
that right? And as eating sustains our life,
our spiritual life is nourished and sustained by living off of
Him and by Him, by Him. And take eat. When our Lord says
take eat, this shows the wisdom of God. You know how we fell? We fell by eating. We partook
of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and God in
His wisdom said, you fail by eating, you're going to be restored
by eating. We fail by eating forbidden fruit,
and in Christ, God in His wisdom said, I'm going to give you life-giving,
life-giving food, life-sustaining food, food for your soul. I'm gonna give you that. And
I tell you what, he said, this is my body. Then look what he
says there in verse 23. Then he took the cup, set the
bread down. They ate the bread. Then he took
that cup, took that cup, took the cup. And oh, I love this
right here. The blood he shed for us. As
Brad preached here recently, it's a, it's a, It's an eternal redemption he
obtained for us. And he said when he had took
the cup, and listen to this, when he had given thanks, what
do you reckon he's giving thanks for? What do you think he's giving
thanks for? He's giving thanks. Father, I thank you. I thank
you. I thank you for what you've done
for me. How you preserved me and kept me. How you spoke to
me. How you protected me, how you
preserved me. I thank you, Father, for those
that you've given me. I've kept all of them, I've not
lost one of them but the son of perdition. He said, I've kept
every one of them. And I've loved them right to
the very end. I thank you, Father. That as the hours come, I thank
you, Father. The hours come. I'm ready, I'm
willing, and I'm able. I thank you for bringing me to
this place. I thank you for these men who's
been with me. I thank you for these people.
I even thank you for those ones who betrayed me. Because Lord,
it just shows how you love your elect, and you're not going to
lose one of them. Oh Lord, I thank you. I thank
you. And oh my, now man can be restored
to God. And then he took that cup and
he gave thanks. And again, it says, look what
it says here, he gave it to them. He gave it to them. And listen
to this now. And they all drank of it. You know, when I love Jesus,
shed his blood. It was for all, and all of us
drank it. All of us come faithfully to
it. All of us come to it so grateful. And look what he says down there
in verse 24. And he said unto them, this is
my blood of the New Testament. That New Testament means the
will, the new will, my will. This is the blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many. Now I want you to look
over here at Hebrews 10, let's look at this wheel, this New
Testament, this wheel. Christ is the mediator of the
New Testament, a better testament. But look here in Hebrews chapter
10, and then look in verse 5 with me. Oh, talking
about this blood, this New Testament in my, this blood in my new,
shed for many, laid down my life for many. It's the blood of His
will, the blood of His Testament. And the Testament means a will.
And oh my. And here He says this, wherefore
when He cometh into the world, He says sacrifice and offering,
that wasn't never your will, but a body hast thou prepared
made. and burn orphans and sacrifice
for sins. You never had no pleasure, no
satisfaction in them. Then I stood up and I said, Lord,
Lord, I come. And the volume of the book is
written of me. How did I come to do thy will? Above, when he said this before,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin.
It was never your will. It was never going to save anybody.
You had no pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then
this is why Christ said, Lord I come to do thy will. He takes
away the first. He took away the first Adam.
He took away the law, took away the ceremonies, took away the
rituals, took away all the Old Testament sacrifices. He took
away all those things that he may establish the second. And
listen to this. Now this is what I want to get
to right here. By the which will, I come to do thy will, oh by
the which will, which will? The will that he came to do thy
will, oh God. By the which will, we are sanctified
by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He said, this is my will, this
is the testament, this is my will. I'm delighted to do thy
will. By that will, we're sanctified
by the body of the Lord Jesus Christ once and for all. Once
and for all. And oh my, so he gave the cup
to them and they all drank it. All drank it. And I tell you
what, and then when they had sung a hymn, verse 26, and when
they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
And you know, I started outside saying that this is a visible
sermon. We do it in remembrance of him.
When someone dies, sometimes they'll give you a memorial.
They'll give you something, say, remember me by, I want you to
remember me by this right here. But I tell you, we remember,
oh, how He loved us. Oh, how He loved us. We have
no idea how deeply, how infinitely, how eternally, how gloriously
Christ loved us. And how in the world could He
love worms, maggots, sinners, But he did. And then remember
this, how he lived for us. He lived for us. He didn't live
for himself, he lived for us. He lived for us. And oh, don't never, never, never,
never, never forget this. He died for us. He died. Death will not tell you when
death comes and get this way coming back. But death come and
got him. He tasted death. And he died. Who did he die for? For his people. For his elect. For those the Father gave to
him. He was our substitute. He is our sin offering. Bless
his holy name. And let me tell you something
else. Not only did he die, but the scripture said he was raised
up for us. God raised him back up for who?
For us! For our justification. So God
can look at us and say, them people are justified, they're
righteous in my sight. Who's gonna condemn them? Who's gonna lay anything to the
charge of them? And oh my, remember this. He says that God's right hand
in the scripture says He makes intercession for us. He prays
for us. When you're heartbroken, when
you're fearful, and things are not going the way you would like
for them to go, and they rarely do, they rarely do, but I tell
you what, But he's sentenced up there right
now. Every single one of us, there's never been a time that
he hasn't interceded for us when we was in trouble. When your heart's cold and the
devil tells you, no, you're a hypocrite, what in the world do you want
to go to church for? Why do you want to go up there and make
a mockery out of it? He intercedes for you. Says, Lord, move on
their heart. Take that out. Take that fear
out. Take that doubt out. Take that
anxiety out. Take that worry out. Oh, Lord,
give them strength. It looks like they're fixing
to fall, fixing to fall. Give them strength, Lord. And never, never, never forget
this. He saved us by His grace. We never did anything to deserve
salvation. But everything He did, He did
to save us. Nothing caused Him to save us,
good or bad. You know, people worry about,
you know, I did such a bad thing, you know, I don't know, I don't
know if I'm saved or not. Well, if you thought you'd done
something good, you'd say, oh Lord, I can't believe I thought
that. Well, good or bad, we're the
Lord's. We're His. This is my body, which is broken
for you. This is my blood, which is shed
for you. Take it and eat it. Take it and
drink it. And we'll show the Lord's death
till it comes. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of Christ our Lord, as we go this evening to take this
bread, take this wine, help us, Lord, in our heart of hearts,
remember you, remember you. You're such a blessed master,
such a good master, such a blessed Lord, such a wonderful Savior. Oh Lord, if we had 10,000 souls,
we could trust you with every single one of them. And Lord,
we trust you with our souls tonight. We bless you and praise you in
Christ's name. Amen. Amen.