Excuse me, Matthew 26 and 1 Corinthians
11. Now if you get those two places,
1 Corinthians 11. Matthew 26, 1 Corinthians 11. And we want to remember Daryl
Hardman's sister, Diane. She's a very sick woman. Looks like she has lung cancer,
tumor on her kidney and on the back of her shoulder. Doesn't
look good. She's lost a lot of weight. What a horrible disease and how
devastating it is to families people and families. Alright,
look here in verse 26 with me of Matthew 26. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed it. The word blessed means gave thanks
and break it and gave to the disciples and said take eat This
is my body. And he took the cup and gave
thanks and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. Now, 1 Corinthians 11. It's been a long time, I think,
since I've brought a message on the Lord's Table. I generally
bring my message and then make a comment or two on it. But tonight,
I want to bring a message on observing the Lord's Table right. Observing the Lord's Table right. And there are but two ordinances
for the church. Baptism. Baptism. And we always tell what baptism
means. That's how you confess faith
in Christ. It's by baptism. You want to
be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. That's your
confession. You want to be buried with Him. He lived and He died. Baptism, you go under the water,
symbolizes been buried with the Lord Jesus Christ. You come up
out of the water and you're raised with Him in the resurrection.
You're with Him in His resurrection. And as it says, and you walk
in newness of life even as the Lord raised up the Lord Jesus
Christ and He walked in newness of life to the glory of the Father.
And we walk in newness of life to the glory of God the Father.
From then on by our confession of faith. And then the Lord's
Supper, and I want to talk about the Lord's Supper. I don't want
to come to the table in ignorance. I don't want to come to the table
in ignorance. I want us together to comprehend what we're doing
and understand the spiritual meaning of this Lord's Table.
Now look with me then in verse 23. Look what the Apostle said. He said, For I have received
of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you. I didn't bring anything
to you except what the Lord Jesus Christ taught me. What He gave
to me is what I come and gave to you. And when He had given
thanks, which I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the
same night in which He was betrayed, took bread. took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he broke that bread, break it, and said,
take eat. Take some of this bread. This
is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of
me. And after the same manner, also,
he took the cup, got a cup, full of wine, And when he took a sup
out of that cup, he himself took a sup out of it, saying, This
cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as
you drank it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till
it come. Like I said, I don't want to
come to the Lord's table in ignorance. Down here in verse 20, the Apostle
said this, When you come together, therefore, into one place. When
you come together into one place. Verse 20. 1 Corinthians 11. And he tells how that some of
these folks came to the Lord's table in ignorance. They didn't
understand it. They did not discern the Lord's
table. and said, when you come together into one place, this
is not to eat the Lord's Supper. Or he says, you cannot eat the
Lord's Supper. For in eating, ever one taketh
before others his own supper. They came, they turned this into
a big feast, and they brought in a lot of food. And they'd
come in, and they'd bring in wine, And they say they have
their own supper and one is hungry. He sits there because he's poor.
He can't bring food. You don't have any food. And
everybody has their own supper. And one is hungry. And another,
they bring so much wine that they get drunk. They get drunk.
What? Paul says, Have you not houses
to eat and drink in? You eat your meals at home. Your supper at home. And you
drank at home. And look what he says. Or do
you despise the church of God? You want to shame the church
of God, the people of God? And shame them that have not?
Those that are not like you and have the wealth that you have?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I'm
not going to praise you. And then he says, how the Lord's
table is to be taken. For I received of the Lord that
which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the same
night when he was betrayed, he took bread and he took wine. Two elements. Two things. Two
things. And that's why we're not coming here tonight to do anything else.
then to honor our Lord Jesus Christ in this wonderful, wonderful
ordinance that He gave us. First of all, there's no set
time. He said it's as oft as you do this. There's no set time. You can do it in the day. You
can do it in the morning. You can do it at night. You can
do it once a month. There's no set place and there's
no set time. And these absolutely make no
difference, he said, as oft as you do this. As oft as you do
it. And here's the first thing I
want us to look at in observing the Lord's supper tonight, the
Lord's table. The form or the order of it.
The first thing that we ought to do when we come together is
this. Look what he said in verse 24.
And when he had given thanks, That's the first thing we ought
to do. Lord, we thank You. Oh, Father, thank You. Thank
You for that broken body. And He took the cup and it says
He likewise did the same. Lord, thank You for that precious
blood that You shed. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
when He gave the bread, He gave thanks for it when He handed
it to us. before he ever took a bite of
it himself. He took a bite of that bread himself. And when
he took that cup, he took a sip out of it and he handed it to
them. And he gave thanks before they ever took a drink. He gave
thanks. And I tell you, that's what we
ought to do. Oh, my soul, how thankful. How thankful for the
broken body and the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout
the whole thing, while we go through this, our hearts should
be so full of gratitude to Him. So thankful to Him. He's God's
unspeakable gift. And when He gave, He's the unspeakable
gift. He gave Himself and all that
He is. And He gives thanks for the cup.
And oh, how we ought to praise Him for giving us this memorial. to help our frail memories. He
said, as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. And
now, what would it take? What does it take for us to remember
our Lord Jesus Christ? What does it take for us to remember
the blessed person of our Savior? The blessed body of our Savior? The blessed life of our Savior? And the life of the flesh is
in the blood. And He shed that life's blood. And that body of His, that holy
body, that sinless body, that man, that holy sinless man, that
perfect man, they beat and bruised and mangled His body. It was
broken so bad, so bad. And, oh, beloved, He took the
cup and He gave thanks. He broke the bread and He gave
thanks and then He gave it to His disciples. And the Scripture
said He gave Himself for us. For us. And then He says, take
heed. Take heed. This is my body, which
is broken for you. And after the same manner, He
took the cup. Thanksgiving and blessing God.
If our Lord Jesus Christ gave thanks to God, for the sacrifice
that He Himself was fixing to give. And this was on the night
that He was betrayed. If He gave thanks to God and
says, this is my body which is broken for you. This
is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many. If He
gave thanks for the suffering and the sacrifice and the blood
shedding and the suffering that he was going through at that
time. How much more should we? And
when he gave them that cup, you know what he said? Drink all
of it. In other words, take all my blood. Take every bit of my blood. Drink all of it. Be a partaker
of everything that I'm doing. Take all of it. And then he says
in verse 24 and 25, he says this, this is my body which is broken
for you, this do in remembrance of me. Last part of verse 25,
as oft as you drank it, in remembrance of me. Now let me tell you something,
I can remember the Lord Jesus Christ. I can remember Him saving
me. I can remember Him revealing
Himself to me. I can remember all His precious
blood. I can remember when that blood
spoke peace to my conscience. I can remember when the Lord
Jesus Christ made me understand that He died for me, for me,
personally for me. I can remember so many times
when the Lord Jesus Christ was my comfort. I can remember so
many times when He's my strength. I can remember the Lord Jesus
Christ when I found out that His blood cleansed all my sins
past, present and future. I can remember so many things
about the Lord Jesus Christ. I can remember that body. I can
remember sitting on that tree early one morning and my heart
broke, tears flowed when I started thinking that our Lord Jesus
Christ was hanging there for me by myself because I was alone. Do you remember the Lord? Do
you remember what He's done for you? Do you remember His broken
body for you? Do you remember His blood shed
to cleanse you? Do you remember the, think, oh,
what a sinner I must be that this is what it took to save
me? Oh, do this, remember me. Remember who I am. Remember what I did? Remember who I did it for? James prayed and said, Lord,
I know I'm a sinner, but I know You're a Savior. I remember I'm
a sinner. Bless His holy name. I remember
He's a Savior too. Oh, bless His name. Oh, my. We don't come here to eat. We
don't come to get grace when we do this. We come because we've
been given grace. We don't come to the Lord's table
to get faith. We come because we have faith. So there's nothing saving in
this. And I'll tell you a reason this
is so important for us to do this and often as we do it. Because
the importance of the Lord's Saber is the Lord Jesus Christ
revealed it by Himself. He revealed it Himself. Ain't
that what Paul said? For I received of the Lord which
also I delivered unto you. It was the Lord Jesus that showed
us what this was and told us what it was. The Lord Jesus revealed
it to His disciples. He revealed it to the Apostle
Paul. And our Lord, He commanded us
to do this supper. He said, and this was the command
that He gave us, this do in remembrance of me. This do ye, as often as
ye drink it, in remembrance of me. Those who know Him and love
Him, surely, surely, enjoy this blessed, blessed time. And so
this supper, this Lord's table, was instituted by our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. And He first Himself set the
example for it to be observed. He set the example Himself. Even
in His baptism, when John said, Oh Lord, I need to be baptized
of Thee and You come to me for me to baptize You. I need You
to baptize me. And our Lord said, Suffer it
to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. And He showed us what the Lord's
suffering was and what baptism was. And He first blessed and
He broke the bread. He first gave thanks and He passed
the cup. Passed the cup. And He says this
cup is the new covenant. The new covenant. Not the old
covenant of works, not the old covenant of ceremonies and rituals.
This new covenant is in my blood. In my blood. And he established
the Lord's table on a very, very special, special occasion. In
verse 23 it said, I received of the Lord, which I also delivered
unto you, and here's what he said, that the Lord Jesus, the
same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. The same night in which he was
betrayed. And you know what he did when
he came out there? When Judah sold him for 30 pieces
of silver. And Judah says, the one that
I go and I kiss, Because there's a huge, huge crowd with them. About 500 people. They've got
lanterns, they've got torches. And they're going out after the
Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord, Peter, James and John. So they've
got this crowd coming around there and Judas says, the one
whom I kiss, that's the one you take. And Judas came up to the
Lord Jesus Christ and kissed Him on His cheek. And you know
what our Lord said to him? Friend, how camest thou hither? How did
you get this far away? How did you get in such a state?
And that's what he said, friend. That's how he answered him when
he kissed him. And I'll tell you another thing he said that
night. Because he had done broke that bread. He had done shed
that blood. And he said, if you seek me, Let these go their way. You can't have us both. Because
these are mine. If you're going to take me, then
these get to go free. And because he was taken, he
was taken, led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before
shears was done, now because he did that, we get to go free. We get to go free. And he says, you know, our Lord
Jesus Christ had a peculiar personal motive in instituting this the
way it was. He says, do this in remembrance
of what? He didn't say in Christianity.
He didn't say in remembrance of doctrine. He didn't say in
remembrance of how long you've been in the church. He didn't
say in remembrance of your confession of faith. He didn't say in remembrance
of your personal worth or your piety or your holiness or your
good works. He said, Oh, do this in remembrance
of Me. You know, when you have somebody
that you love, love, love, love very, very much. And before they leave, they say,
I want you, this is what I want you to have after I'm gone. I
want you to have this. That's what I want you to have. And I want you, every time you
look at this, to remember me. To remember me. I want you to
treasure. And when somebody tells you that
and leaves you something, specifically, I want you to have this. And
when you look at it, you remember me. You would treasure that? And that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ said. He said, you know, I'm going
to leave you something. I'm going to leave you the most blessed
treasure. I'm going to leave you the most precious thing.
I'm going to leave you my broken body. And I'm going to leave
you my shed blood. And that will do more for you
than anything in this world can do for you. It will save you. It'll keep you. It'll make you
acceptable to My Father. It'll make you righteous. It'll
make you holy. It'll make you accepted in the
Beloved. Huh? Oh, listen, you traitor! And this is what our Lord Jesus
Christ left us to remember Him. And He gave this to us to remember
Him, His glorious Person. His blessed love that He has
towards us. His great tenderness and love
that He had for us. And if you love Him, and if you remember, oh, He says, come, come, come. Oh my, how sweet the name of
Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows,
heals his wounds, and dries away his fears. And how long are we
supposed to observe the Lord's table? How long are we supposed
to observe it? It says down here in verse 26, You do show the Lord's death
till He comes. We do this till He comes. You
know why we'll do it till He comes? Because when He comes,
we won't need to do it anymore. We'll actually have Him. We'll
actually have Him. And we'll see the evidences.
of that body and that blood. I will still say they saw him
as a lamb as it had been slain. And all will see the evidences,
but oh my, no more bread, no more wine will have him himself. Oh my. And I tell you, beloved,
everyone who can truly partake of the Lord's Supper shows the
Lord's death. And what does that mean? That
means they preach the gospel by this act. When you show the
Lord's death, you're preaching the gospel. You show and you
understand what took place by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. You're understanding, you're
showing by taking that bread and taking that wine, I understand
what took place there on Calvary. I understand what it was for
His body to be broken. I understand what it means for
that blood to be shed. I'll understand it, I'll believe
it, and I'll rejoice in it, and I'll remember what He did for
me. And so that's why if you come, we're showing, we're preaching
the Gospel by this. This is the Gospel. And oh my! And we're showing,
He's showing what His death accomplished. That's why He says down there
in verse 29, He says, For he that eateth and
drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. And what that discerning
means, not making the right judgment about his body. Not making the
right judgment, not discerning what took place in that broken
body, in that shed blood. And if you understand, that's
what he said, if you understand, If you understand in your heart,
in your soul, and you discern the Lord's body,
you discern who He was, you have the right judgment about who
He was. You have the right judgment about
what He accomplished. You have the right judgment about
the broken body and the shed blood. You have the right judgment
about His burial and His resurrection and His ascension back to glory
and Him sitting there interceding for you. If you have that right
judgment and you believe that in your heart, He says, do this
and remember it. Oh my! What kind of spirit should
we come to the Lord's table in? What kind of spirit should we
come to the table? Well, some people come with great
fear, afraid that they'll dishonor
the Lord. How could you dishonor Him by believing Him and doing
what He Himself told us to do? But we should come with deep,
deep humility. Deep humility. Ain't it humbling to know, humbling
to know that we need something like this to remind us of our
Lord's death for us. Look at this wine. That's telling
us that that's emblematic of His blood that was shed. See that little pieces of bread? That's telling us about His broken
body. that it would take such a sacrifice. Such a sacrifice. Are we so sinful
that it took this kind of a sacrifice to save us? Yes. Yes. Yes. We don't know just
that it took the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, beaten to a bloody pulp,
A spear stuck in his side so the blood would run out. Blood
from his head, blood from his hands, blood from his feet, blood
from his side. Blood, blood, back from his back. Blood everywhere. And a broken
body. Oh God have mercy on me for being
so sinful that it took such a thing to save me. And it takes that to keep me
saved. It takes that to keep me saved. Not only come with
humility, but come with very thankful. Come with such thankfulness. Oh, be so thankful to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And come with thoughtfulness.
Come with thoughtfulness, discerning the Lord's body. Discerning the
Lord's body. Understanding of who it was that
suffered. You see, it's not how much suffering
He did, it's who was that that suffered. It's who it was that
suffered. Not how much blood even was shed,
it was whose blood that was shed. And oh, discern the Lord's body
and discern what He has prepared for us. He prepared a way for us to come
into the presence of an infinitely holy God. And come with thoughtfulness
about the bread and what it symbolizes. Come with thoughtfulness about
the wine and what it symbolizes. And God help us all, help me
especially, to fix my thoughts upon Him. Upon Him. Not my worthiness. Not my worthiness
or anything I've thought, said or done. Not even my sinfulness.
But to have my thoughts fixed upon Him. Oh, Lord Jesus. Remember this when you come.
Remember this when you come. Our Lord Jesus Christ is for
us. He is for us. He is for us. He took His disciples. His disciples. And He says, this is my body
which is broken for you. This is my body which is broken
for you. And for you. And for you. And
for you. For you. This is my body which
is broken for you. And that means the Lord Jesus
is for us. The bread and the wine and the
body and blood is for us. And I tell you, remember this
when you come. His blood His blood has sealed
the covenant. He said, this cup is the New
Testament in my blood. And He sealed this covenant with
His own blood. One covenant cursed us. That's
the covenant of works. Another covenant blessed us.
The covenant of grace. And this covenant of grace is
signed, sealed, ratified, ordered in all things ensured, sealed
with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessed thing to do.
What a wonderful thing to do. Our Lord Jesus must love us.
Oh, how He must love us to do what He did. Our Father, Thank you, thank
you, thank you, thank you. Blessed be your name. Blessed
be your name for your gospel, for your gospel. As we gather
tonight to take this bread and take this wine, we do it in remembrance
of you. Thank you for what you did. God
bless these men as they start. Help us to honor and glorify
Your holy name. For Christ's sake, amen. Amen.