To 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 ye drink
it in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread,
and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death that he come.
Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup
of the Lord, unworthily shall be guilty of the body and of
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat that bread, and drink of that cup. For he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh judgment
or damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body."
I've got just a few things I want to say about the Lord's Supper
this evening, the Lord's Table. The first thing I want to say
about it is the time of examination. And a person needs to examine
themselves even before they get here. And ain't that what he
says there in verse 28? But let a man examine himself.
Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that cup. Let
him drink of that cup. Now, I'm not to examine anybody.
It's not my responsibility to examine people. It's not my responsibility
to set in judgment on who can and who cannot take the Lord's
table. I know some places that they have what they call closed
communion, but this is the Lord's table. It's not the Baptist table.
It's not the Camelot's table. It's the Lord's supper. It's
the Lord's table. But it's a time of examination.
And they said, let a man examine himself. Everybody here that's
going to take the Lord's table, you examine yourself. And here's
what it is that you do to examine yourself. How do you examine
yourself? Do you examine how you've lived? How you've lived
good lives, do you examine how holy you've been? Do you examine
how committed you are, how devoted you are? Do you examine how many
good works you've done, how many prayers you've prayed, and how
much money you've given since the last time you took the Lord's
table? If a person examined themselves in the light of the way they
feel themselves, and the way they feel about themselves, and
the way they are, nobody would ever be able to take the Lord's
table. But here's how you examine yourself. When he says, discerning
the Lord's body, do you, do you, do I come as someone who has
come to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith? Because we felt our
need of Him, we were sinners in need of a Savior. We were
helpless, with no strength to save ourselves. with no help
to do anything for ourselves, no ability to do anything for
ourselves, and still no ability to do anything for ourselves,
God forbid. And that the Lord Jesus Christ did it all. I discerned
that when Christ died on the cross, that He not come and died
for me, I would not be acceptable to God. I would still be in my
sins, I'd still be without faith, I'd still be without God, I'd
still be without Christ, and I'd be without hope. But Christ
came and made me know my desperate need of Him, and He has kept
me in that position before Him of my desperate need of Him.
And that's how I examine myself. Am I a sinner, and do I need
Christ? Is Christ my only plea before
God? Is Christ what I come here tonight
and find my worthiness only in Him? Do I find my worthiness
only in His blood and His righteousness, only in His holy life, only in
His obedience? Now, that's how I examine myself.
If I sit down and start thinking about the how I am and what I
say and where I go and what I do, I'll just throw up my hands and
say, I'll never take the Lord's table. So that's how we accept
ourselves. All of our acceptance before
a holy God is through our Lord Jesus Christ. If we examine ourselves
like that, that's another ballgame altogether. And then secondly,
this table, this supper, this bread and wine was instituted
by our Lord himself. Now look with me, you keep 1
Corinthians 11 and look over Matthew 26, just a moment. Matthew
26, our Lord's the one who said, that's what Paul said, as I receive
of the Lord, so I deliver it unto you. The Lord was the one
who started this. And when you start thinking about
the things that the Lord Jesus Christ said, either He had the
greatest ego and the greatest imposter, or He was actually
who He said He was. When he said, you know, do this
in remembrance of me. This is my blood. This is my
body. This is my body that's broken, my blood that's shed.
And except you come unto me, no man can come unto the Father
except through by me. And so nobody else could make
these claims and live up to these claims. And here in Matthew 26
and verse 26, look what it says. And as they were eating, Jesus
took bread and blessed him. And over there in the margin,
it says, gave thanks for it. You know, that's what, when we
said, Darrell, he says this, we return the blessings, or return
thanks, return thanks. And that's what we do. God gives
us something, we return thanks to him for it. And that's what
our Lord Jesus Christ did. He took the bread, and He lifted
His eyes to the Father. And the Father always heard Him.
The Father always heard Him pray. And He gave thanks for this bread. Gave thanks for the fact that
His body was going to be broken. Gave thanks for the fact that
His blood was going to be shed. He took that bread, and He broke
it, and He began to thank God for it. He began to thank God
for what this bread was going to accomplish, what this broken
body was going to accomplish, and what it represented. And
then look what he said. And he gave it to the disciples
and said, take it. This is my body. Now, we know
it wasn't his body, but it represented his body. It's the typical of
his body. He said, I'm that heavenly man,
I'm that true man which came down from heaven. And this is
one of our Lord Jesus was the one who instituted this. This
is one of only two divine appointed ordinances in the scriptures
that our Lord gave for his people on this earth. It was taking
his, eating the bread, and taking the wine, and taking the believer's
baptism. And both of these things are
only for believers. Only for believers. Only believers
take the bread and drink the wine. Only believers are baptized. You don't baptize unbelievers.
You bury people that have died with Christ, and people that
have been crucified with Christ, and risen with Christ, and partook
in the blood of Christ. They're the ones that take this
bread and this wine. And then back over in 1 Corinthians
11, look what else it says. Down in verse 24. It's a recollection. It's a recollection. of who our
Lord Jesus Christ is, and what he did, and why he did it, and
where he is now. He says that in verse 24. And
when he hath given thanks, he breaketh and saith, Take eat.
This is my body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance
of me. Down in verse 25, as often as
you drank it, in remembrance of me. Remember what about him. Remember who he is. Who is the
Lord Jesus Christ? Who is He? Do you understand,
beloved, in all my soul? This is Immanuel. He read Immanuel,
come to be with us. This is God and man in one blessed
person. Only God can satisfy God, and
only man can die. God can't shed blood, but man
can shed blood. God can only save a sinner, but
a man can only die for a sinner. Only God can raise a man from
the dead, but only a man can die, and that's what our Lord
Jesus Christ. He was God and man in one blessed
person. And look what He did. What did
he do? He says, take heed, this is my
body which is broken for you. Remember me. Remember this broken
body. Remember what it means. Remember
this shed blood. Oh, my. Remember it. And I'll tell you what, there's
some times that you get overwhelmed, overwhelmed with what Christ,
who He is and what He did. You get overwhelmed with the
fact that His body was just beaten bloody broken and mangled until
nobody could recognize that he was even a body anymore, he was
beaten so badly. And yet, beloved, he said, this
was done. And remember it when you think
about it. When you take that bread, he said, you remember
my body, how beaten and bruised and mangled it was. And remember
the blood that flowed from my wounds. Remember the blood that
flowed from the side that was riven. Remember the blood and
how it flowed. And this blood washes sinners
away. This blood satisfies the justice
of God. This blood was taken on the altar
into the holiness of holy and put in God's holy presence itself. And God smelled it and said,
Oh, this is a sweet smelling savor. Oh, bless His name. And oh, my soul. And oh, why
did He do this? Why did He do it? There's two
reasons. Two reasons. First, to satisfy God. That's
the first reason. Scott Richardson's the first
one I ever heard say this. He said, God had to do something
for Himself before He could ever do anything for us. And He'd
done something for God. We were talking about singing
the song Hark the Herald Angels, and it says, God and sinners
reconciled. Mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. That's what happened. Here's
God justice, God angry with the wicked every day. God cannot
by no means look on the guilty. There he was, high and holy and
lifted up. Here we are down here, worms,
maggots of the earth, grasshoppers, old flesh, grass, nothing. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
down here and so identified with us. And He took that sinless,
holy life and that blessed blood, and He took that blood and He
took it into the presence of God and put it on God's altar.
God smelled it and said, I'm satisfied with Him. And He says,
now everyone that looks to my Son, I'm as satisfied with Him
as I am with Him. And that's the second thing He
did. He put away all sin for all time by the sacrifice of
Himself. Oh, and I'll tell you who He
did it for. We say sinners. Well, we have
to qualify that when we say sinners, because I'll tell you, everybody's
not a sinner. A sinner's a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. First people in this building
tonight is not sinners. They're not sinners. They haven't
never closed with Christ. They ain't never bowed to Christ.
They ain't never felt their need of Christ. They ain't never felt
like they need to come to Christ with nothing but nothing. Just
come to Christ empty. Helpless and hopeless. And until
a person's brought to that place, they're not a sinner yet. But
when God makes you a sinner, when God makes you, the Holy
Ghost makes you a sinner, you'll be so sacred that He won't let
you do nothing until you come to Christ and the blood of Christ
cleanses you from your sins and your conscience and you make
you understand that you do, then you're a sinner. You won't come
to Christ until you're a sinner. And once you come as a sinner,
You'll come the same way every single time from then on. You'll
come just like you did the first time. Ain't that right? Oh, my. And so he says, do this
in remembrance of me. Do this in remembrance of me. Do this, remember me. Remember
my great love wherewith I loved you. Remember that I loved you
unto the dead. Remember that I said, I'll never
leave you and I'll never forsake you. Remember that I said to
God's right hand, make an intercession for you. Remember me, remember
me. And oh, beloved, and then it
symbolizes his death. He says in verse 26, he says,
for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
do show the Lord's death. Now, what does it mean, show
the Lord's death till he come? We're showing what that death
meant to us. We're letting everybody know
what this death meant to us. That that broken body was for
me. That shed blood was for me. I
cannot take this bread for you. It's going to take it for myself.
You'll take it for yourself. You'll take that cup of wine
for yourself. I'll take it for myself. And
by me doing that, I'm telling the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm
telling you and you're telling me and we're telling anybody
else that I believe that we are showing here that our Lord Jesus
Christ, by his death, that's the only hope we have, that his
broken body and shed blood on Calvary 2000 years ago is the
only hope and plea we have. We're showing what his death
accomplished. We're showing who his death was
for. But this is for believing. This shows us that by his Christ,
we are healed. We're shown that He was wounded
for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, and the chastisement
of our peace was upon Him. And when we take that wine, it
sets forth that precious blood that was shed for the redemption
of our sins. Precious blood. Precious, precious
blood. And I tell you, I feel the effects
of that blood every day of my life since the Lord Jesus cleansed
me and applied that blood to my conscience. I felt the effects
of that blood every day since then. I felt the power of that
blood. The power of that blood and the
power of His cleansing blood has such power that enables me
and enables you to come to Christ constantly, continually, day
or night, any time. And I mean from the time He applied
it, It gives you the power and the confidence to come to God.
Huh? And when you've sinned your most
greedless, that's when you come and plead that blood. Plead that
blood. Lord, we come in your name. It's
you that dies, your blood that wash my sins away. Can the Father
turn away the Lord Jesus Christ? Can the Father turn away the
power of His blood? Can the Father charge us after
Christ's blood has put away our sins? Oh, I want to hear you. No, no.
Lord, I'm coming in your name. I'm coming in that precious power
of that blood. And I tell you what, those of
you who don't know Christ, you plead the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You plead that broken body. And
I tell you what, it's a proclamation. Bless His name. It's a proclamation
of the results of His death. Look again with me over in Matthew
26, in verse 28. It's a proclamation of the results
of His death. Oh, we can't talk about My Lord
Jesus enough in the things that He did. Look what He says in verse 28,
or verse 27, And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave
it to them, and watch what He says, drank He all of it. You've got to take all the blood.
And why should you take it all? Because, listen, for this is
My blood. of the New Testament, of this
new covenant, of this covenant of grace, of this covenant that
I did it all, this covenant that says it is finished, this new
covenant that God made with His people and with His blessed Son,
for this is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for
many for the remission of sins. shed for many. Who is the many? As many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God. To as many as believed
on His name. To as many as were ordained to
eternal life, believe. To as many as. Are you one of
those many as? I hope you're one of those as
many as. I wish everybody in here was
one of them tonight, everybody. But Christ's death answered the
demands of God's broken law, and it brought in an everlasting
righteousness. And you know, you like to get
those bills, you know, it says payment remitted. Remit such,
and you send it off, and they send it back paid in full. Well,
when we come paid in full, sins remitted. Christ paid it all,
all to him I owe. Sin had left a scrimgeous stain,
and he washed it, washed it, white as snow, washed it. And then it's an illustration
of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, take eat. Ain't that
what he told his disciples? Take eat, this is my body. Take this cup, this is my blood. And, O Beloved, receiving the
bread and receiving the wine, this picture, this tells us of
our willing, willing reception of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
the grace of the Holy Spirit Himself enables us, enables us
to receive Him, enables us to believe, enables us to say, I'm
going to take this bread, I'm going to take this wine, I believe
Him. I believe Christ. I trust Christ. Who else am I going to believe?
Who else can you trust in this world like you've trusted Him? Twelve years ago today, Ed Elmore
was taken into glory. Went into life. And when we've
been there 10,000 years, We've only just begun. And beloved,
that faith starts right here. And nothing better illustrates
that faith in the body and blood of Christ than this bread and
this wine here. That broken body, I believe it
was broken for me. That shed blood, it was broken
for me. And I want Him. I want to express my faith in
Him. I want to express my faith in Him. I want to believe on
His name. I'm going to believe on His name.
Oh, I don't believe like I should, but I do believe. Oh, how I believe. One of these days, my faith is
going to be perfect. One of these days, my sight is
going to be perfect. And then let me show you this
over in 1 Corinthians 10. Turn back over just one chapter
back to 1 Corinthians 10. And let me show you this. This bread and wine shows us,
shows us the unity of the church. How the church has unity, we
as one, as far as God's concerned. Look up there, 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 16 and verse 17. Shows our communion. It says,
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
of the blood of Christ? That word communion means union
with, fellowship with. We have this common union with
Him, this common union with one another. So the cup which we
bless, and we bless it, we offer thanks for it. Is it not the
communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break,
is it not the communion of the body of Christ? Now listen to
it, for we being many are one bread, just one bread, just Christ,
just one body. We're one body. And we're all
partakers of that one bread. So all of us, all of us, are
considered, as far as God's concerned, we all take the same cup, we
all take the same bread, we're all in the same body, we all
have the same blood, we all have the same hope, we all have the
same pain. And that's what he's talking
about. And I tell you, when they took that bread, there was one
loaf. And Christ had one body. And the sages done gone all beloved,
they partook of that body. They partook of that cup. And
so we're all one in the Lord Jesus Christ. All one. All one. And then back over here in verse
26 of chapter 11. Let me show you this. We're supposed to continue this
ordinance and taking this bread and wine until the Lord Jesus
Christ comes again. He said in verse 26, for as often
as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death. And we're going to do it to what?
Till he comes. Till he comes. Wouldn't it be
wonderful if we're sitting here tonight and the Lord Jesus came? You know, we're sticking that
line back that time we were leaving here. Wouldn't that be something?
And he's going to do, that's going to happen one of these
days. That's going to be a people on this earth. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to appear. And he's going to appear in glory.
And the dead in Christ are going to rise first, and then we to
which we are alive and remain shall be changed in a moment
in the twinkling of an eye, and we'll be called up together with
them to meet the Lord in that, and so shall we ever be with
the Lord. And it's all because his body
was broken and his blood was shed to guarantee that we go
to glory. Guarantee. that we'll enter into
glory one of these days. I bless his name.