does a person good to look at things in the world as
they are from other perspectives. And of course, you know, flying
in a plane and looking out the window and seeing all the things
that's going on on the ground, and it makes you realize how
insignificant insofar as men are concerned, that each one
of those things is. Because, you know, when you're
25,000 or 30,000 feet up in the air and you're looking down and
you're seeing all of this stuff going on, and, you know, it's
just like you're looking at an ant bed. I mean, really, because
that's just about how it really appears. And so that You know,
I think a lot of times men have a tendency to think of themselves
more highly than they ought to think. And just to look out over
all of the things that God has done, and then to
remember what David said, Lord, what is man? that thou art mindful
of Him, or the Son of Man, that thou dost visit Him. And yet
in His great mercy and kindness, He
has indeed visited us. And He has not only visited us,
but He has given us blessings that we could never imagine or
come up with in and of ourselves. Now, we've been looking here
in the 11th chapter of 1 Corinthians. And I'm going to begin reading
there in verse 20. Verse 20, When ye come together,
therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
For in eating every one taketh before another his own supper,
and one is hungry, and another is drunken. Why have ye not houses
to eat and drink in? Or despise ye the church of God,
and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall
I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took
bread. And when he had given thanks,
he broke it. And he said, Take, eat, this
is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of
me. After the same manner also he
took the cup, when he had sucked, saying, This cup is the new testament
in my blood. This do ye, as often as ye drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread,
and drink this cup, ye do so the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are
judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned
with the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when
ye come together to eat, carry one for the other. And if any
man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come not together unto
condemnation, and the rest will I set in order when I come."
Now, of course, what Paul is upbraiding them about was evidently
they had lost sight of what it was to eat the Lord's Supper. And they had come together in
feasts and then more or less just called that the communion
of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Now there is certainly
reason to believe in the Scriptures that the early church there was
a connection between the eating of a meal and the taking of the
Lord's Supper. There is reason to believe that,
but then there is also reason that we would understand what
Paul is saying here, that that can get out of hand if people
lose sight of what it is that we are doing. You know, the purpose
of coming together to eat a meal, this meal, is not to be fed,
but to remember the Lord's death until He comes again. And so
it is important that we keep that in mind. See, this is a
specific case. Now, I don't believe that what
Paul is speaking about here is widespread. I think this is a
particular instance that the Lord has shown us for our benefit,
that we might learn some things about what the Lord's Suffering
is. It is indeed what is specifically
given to them that they might learn it, and from them we can
learn it. And so whenever Paul is setting
these things forth, I think we can read more into this than
what is here in the sense of how this will be applied to us.
Now, I think that this is specifically Paul is speaking to the Corinthian
church. And keep in mind that this was
all occurring in the very early days of the church, and they
didn't have the New Testament as we do, as we can come and
read the letters of Paul and we can gain these things. This
was teaching that was taking place on a a daily level. In other words, they were getting
the truth as it laid out to them for the first time. Now we, as
the children of God, learn from those things that we find in
the Word of God. But that doesn't mean that everything
that occurs in the Word of God one time is going to occur a
bunch of times. And a lot of times people make
that mistake in thinking, well, if it happened then, it can happen
again. Well, it could, and it may. But
I believe that many of the occurrences that we see taking place, especially
like in the book of Acts, and as is mentioned here, are not
necessarily meant to be considered as events that would occur throughout
the course of the life of the church over an extended period
of time. Now, he says to them, I'm going
to tell you what I'm going to tell you what the Lord's Suffering
is. He said, this is what I have received of the Lord. Now, he
didn't get it second hand. He didn't learn it by tradition.
But he got this from the mouth of the Lord. The Lord taught
him. He says, I receive this from the Lord. Now, how that
happened? I can't say except that I do
know he said he didn't confer with flesh and blood after he
was converted, but he went into the desert. And the Lord met
with him there. And the Lord taught him. Now
Paul is a specific, the Lord used
Paul in a specific fashion. As Paul said himself, he was
born out of due time. That is, he was specifically
set forth for a particular purpose. And the Lord, of course, has
given us the bulk of the practical knowledge of the Christian faith
through the writings of the Apostle Paul. Now, of course, we do get
plenty of stuff from the rest of the letters, but if you took
the letters of the Apostle Paul, and you didn't have anything
else to go by, you would have the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and how those things are to be applied in the practical
everyday lives of God's people. And so he said, this is what
I received of the Lord, which I have delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, and
we've talked about that, He took bread. Even though this was on
his mind, in the same light in which he was betrayed, he was
coming and he knew he was going to be betrayed. In fact, he pointed
it out to the one who was going to be betrayed. He said, now
is the time, go do what you've got to do. Now, was he saying,
don't do that? Did he try to talk Judas out
of that? No, he knew what Judas was going to do, but you see,
that was in the purpose of God. And so it was time, and he said,
go do what you've got to do. Do it quickly. Go get it done. Because it has to be done. And
you're the one that's going to do it. And so the same night
in which he was betrayed, he took the bread, and when he had
given thanks, he broke it. Now isn't that an amazing thing? He gave thanks for the breaking
of the bread. which represented the breaking
of his body. He said, Thank you, Lord, that
this bread is that which will show my people that I have given
myself for them. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for the ability to
carry this out. And when he broke it, he said,
Take, eat, this is my body which is broken, Now, I've always thought
that it was a kind of an interesting choice of words when he says,
this is my body which is broken for you, but the Scripture is
very specific in saying not a bone of his body was broken. And regardless
of all the things that happened, he was yet in that way a perfect
sacrifice. Because you see, in the Old Testament,
the lamb or the cow or whatever it was that they were offering,
it had to be without spot, without blemish. It couldn't be an old
cow that had a broke leg or something like that. whole and complete,
without spot, without blemish. And so he says, this is my body
which is broken for you. Now how was the body of Christ
broken? It certainly wasn't His bones
that were broken. But he said that this breaking
of His body, if you break something, then you make it where it's not
fit for the use that it once had. It can't continue in the
form. If you take a glass and you drop
it on the tile floor and it goes into a million pieces, you can't
pick it up and drink out of it anymore, can you? Because it's
broken. And so in that way, the body
of the Lord Jesus was broken. Specifically saying it's put
to death. It's broken. It's that which
is made of no use as a body, as we think of it. But it did,
of course, have its specific purpose. And he said, this is
my body which is broken for you. Now who is he speaking to? He
is speaking to his disciples. He is speaking to all who take
that bread in faith. He said, this is broken for you. It is not a general atonement. But it's a specific atonement
because He did it for you. And that's a glorious thought.
And sometimes, of course, in the zeal of many, in the misguided
thought that they have to think about, well, Christ just died
for everybody. Well, there's no specificity,
I can't even say that word, There is no particularness in the concept
of Christ dying for the world. But there is in the fact that
he specifically had a people that he said, this is my body
which is broken for you particularly. And then he said, this do in
remembrance of me. And that is what God's people
are to do, is to remember the Lord And in the same fashion,
he took the cup after he had sucked, and he said, this cup
is the New Testament in my blood. Now, the cup, that's an interesting
thing. You know, a lot of people go
to great lengths to prove that there was wine in that cup. I believe there was wine in that
cup. But when you go to the New Testament
and you look, you won't ever find where it says there was
wine in that cup. It says the cup. And so it is
the fruit of the vine. But it's, you know, now while
I believe there's reason to set forth that it was wine in that
cup, at the same time, you have to be careful in making a mountain
out of a molehill because it does not matter if it is wine,
alcoholic wine, or grape juice. It doesn't really matter. Now,
it does matter from the standpoint of if you say, well, what did
they use? I think it's pretty, you can
say with pretty much confidence that it was alcoholic wine that
they had in this cup. But I'm known of people to fall
out with one another and get mad with one another over such
an issue as that. And it's just not, it's not worth
fallen out over, because it cannot be proven one way or the other
in Scripture. But I digress. He took the cup. What he had
in that cup, I believe, was wine. And he said, This cup is the
New Testament in my blood. This do as oft as ye drink it
in remembrance of me. And he said, Take this cup and
drink it. Now, I would say this, he didn't
say take these cups. He said take this cup because
it was speaking of one cup. Now, again, I wouldn't fall out
with somebody over this because it really has to do with what
one is taking, not the specific decanter or container that one
has. But I believe that he took this
particular cup and he passed it around to his disciples. He
said, take this cup, take this. And they each took from that
same cup. And it was that which represented
his body and his blood because it is one cup. It is not many
cups. Again, that's not to say that
it would be wrong or that it is wrong to use individual containers
of wine, but I think that it is more in keeping with the illustration
here if we use one cup. But the most important thing
is not how many cups you use or what's in the cup per se,
But it is that when you partake of it, you do it in remembrance
of Him. And so it is that we are to do
as often as you drink it. Now notice that He didn't say
do it three times a week or three times a month or one time a month
or four times a year. He didn't say how many times
that we are to do it. But He said as often as you do
it, however often that may be, do it in remembrance of Him.
I believe it ought to be often. I believe the example of the
early church is that they did it each time they came together.
And I believe that that is a scriptural matter, but it's not, again,
it's not, you know, a thing, a point of order that we could
fall out with one another over, because He did say, as often
as you drink it, however often that is, do it in remembrance
of Him. But don't do it just to be doing
it. Don't do it because it's a habit.
Don't do it because you want to get together and eat. but
do it in remembrance of Him. Four, as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till
it come, or you manifest it, you declare it, you set it forth
as that testimony, as a monument so to speak, of the Lord Jesus
Christ each time. That's what it is. I mean, when
we see this cup and this bread sitting here on this table, We
are reminded of those things, but it is the taking of them,
the eating of them, and the drinking of them that we do in remembrance
of Him. And that is how each individual
person eats this bread and drinks this cup. Because we could say,
well, here's the bread, here's the wine, okay. But that's not
good enough, is it? He said, eat it and drink it. And that is a very literal matter. And in doing so, we will manifest
or declare the Lord's death till He comes. Now here he says some
things that are very important that we understand. And I believe
again, like I said to start with, that he's speaking in a specific
application here. to this particular church because
of that which he's already upbraided about. I don't think this is
a general application that goes from time on. It says, Wherefore,
whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord
unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Now, are we not all guilty? of the body and the blood of
the Lord? Is there anybody that's not guilty? I mean, is it not
our sin that put him there? I mean, are we not guilty of
being that which caused his death? So that's not what he's talking
about. But he's rather talking about those that would take this
cup without due regard to what it is, as he specifically talked
to them about coming together and eating and drinking and getting
drunk and some eating and some not having something to eat and
just making it into just a feast with no benefit. And so he said,
Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord
unworthily." Now that concept of unworthily, all of us are
unworthy. But it is a matter of being unworthily. And what it has reference to
is the regard that we have unto what it represents. That's what
it is to take it unworthily. It's not to take it not being
worthy because who of us would ever come here and take it? We
couldn't. Because in reality, the only
way that a man can worthily take this would be to know that he's
unworthy to take it. So it can't be talking about
that. But it is talking about a specific instance of being
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. That is, that you
just disregard it. Because what regard you have
under this is of the utmost importance. If you don't have any regard
to it, if it's just a religious tradition to you, then it's of
no use. Or if it's just something that
you do because you want to do it, that is what it is to take
it unworthily. And you're guilty of the body
and blood of the Lord. That is, you have no regard to
it. That's what he means. Now listen to this. But let a
man examine himself. Now this is the important matter.
Now, are we going to examine ourselves and see if we've committed
any sin, and then we say, well, no, I committed a sin this week,
I can't take it. Of course not, because would
we ever take it? No. I mean, could you ever get
to a place? Was there a window of opportunity
in your lifetime when you could say, okay, everything's in order,
I'm not mad at anybody, and nobody's mad at me, and now I can go.
I've heard people go to great lengths, you know, to talk about
all of that stuff. And it's not. It's certainly,
you know, if you've got some matter of fault with a brother,
you need to go to that brother and do it. But that's not what
he's talking about here. He's saying, let a man examine
himself. Examine himself for what? What is it that I'm doing? What is my point in this? This is what it is to examine
yourself. Let a man examine himself and
then listen to what he says. He does not say, let a man examine
himself, and then if he doesn't find himself to be worthy, don't
eat it. Does he? Why? Because the Lord said, do
it in remembrance of him. So the purpose of the examination
is to bring our thought and mind back to what it is that we do
this for. And that's what it is. When we
have regard to the brethren, when we have regard to those
for whom Christ died, and we have regard to what it is that
Christ did, That's what it is to have regard to the body of
the Lord. Because he says, He that eateth
and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself,
not discerning the Lord's body. Now, that's a pretty strong word,
and it probably is stronger than what's really the point Paul's
bringing out here. Damnation, I mean, we normally
would think of that in the sense of, you know, utter damnation. I mean, he's, you know, he's
had it. That's not what he's really getting at here. He's
saying he is heaping upon himself condemnation because he is having
disregard to those things that the Lord has given. And he said,
because he doesn't discern the Lord's body. That is, he doesn't
have respect unto it. He doesn't see it for what it
is. And for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you,
and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves,
we should not be judged. Now, I don't believe this is
a specific application to this church. And I don't believe that
you will find That is the case. I mean, is sickness... I mean,
would there be people from time to time among God's people that
partake of this without proper regard? Probably so. I mean, we've probably all done
it from time to time. Have you known of anybody that
got sick as a result of it or died? No. But there was in this
case, wasn't there? I mean, because the Lord would
make an example. Because the Lord would show that,
why? To benefit the body. You know, so that we might see
this for the import that it is. And so surely the Lord can do
that, but I don't think that a man needs to live in fear that
he's going to get sick and die because he maybe didn't have
the proper regard for it one time or whatever. But He's showing
us the seriousness of what this is. And so it is that this did
indeed occur in this specific instance. And I'm not going to
say that it would never occur at some other time, but I think
that the specific application is to the Corinthian church,
and that's how it played out. And because he says, wherefore,
my brethren? Well, he says, when we are judged, we are chastened
of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world.
Now that's the whole purpose of this. is so that we might
see what it is, how important this is, that we might judge
ourselves. That is, we might look at these
things so that we wouldn't be condemned with the world because
the world doesn't have regard to it. We want to be separate
from the world and have regard to the things of God. But when
we are judged of the Lord, we are chastened of the Lord that
we should not be condemned with the world. Because if we belong
to the Lord, He will chasten us. He will teach us. And He
will lead us. And I believe He leads us by
example in this case with the Corinthian church. We say, hey,
this is serious business. I mean, if the Lord brought death
and sickness on these people for the thing they were doing,
how important is that? It's very important. And so the
Lord would have us to learn from that example. Wherefore, my brethren,
when ye come together to eat, tarry one for the other, specifically
applying this to them. He said, look, don't be doing
what you've been doing. Wait on one another. Eat the
Lord's suffering in the proper fashion. If any man hunger, let
him eat at home, that you come not together unto condemnation,
and the rest will I set in order when I come." So, I believe that
this is, again, a specific warning to these Christians there at
Corinth that they take heed to what they're doing. and be wise
and to look at what they're doing, examine themselves. Why are we
doing this? See, evidently they weren't examining
themselves at all, were they? They just said, hey, we're going
out here, we're going to have us a feast. And, you know, they
had no regard to their brethren, and they had no regard to the
things of God. And so consequently, they manifested
the judgment of God. upon them in the sense that He
would chasten those that belonged to Him, lest we be condemned
with the world.