And we're going to stay right
there in that passage that Brother David just finished reading. The title of the message is,
In Remembrance of Christ. And I'm sure you've already noticed
in the bulletin, and if you have one of the cups, if you don't
have one, we can make sure you get one, that we're going to
take the Lord's Supper today after this message. And I don't
often I don't always, when we take the Lord's Supper, preach
on that exact subject. I do preach the gospel every
time I get up, Lord willing. And of course, that's the issue
of the Lord's Supper, is the gospel concerning the glorious
person and finished work of Christ. And that's what these elements
represent. You know, there are two ordinances
that the Lord gave to the New Testament church. The first one
was believer's baptism. Understand, I said believers,
not infants. Believers. And that ordinance
is a confessional. It's a public confession of a
believer's identification with Christ in his death, burial,
and resurrection. And that's why we do it. He commanded
us to publicly confess him. That's what he's talking about
in believer's baptism. And then the second ordinance
is a memorial ordinance. It's the Lord's Supper, which
we are to partake of until he comes again, the church. And
it's an ordinance of memory, of remembrance, continually reminding
us of the glory of the person and work of Christ. That's what
it's about. This ordinance is not about you. It's not about
me. It's about Him. It's about Christ. Now you might often hear people
refer to these ordinance as sacraments. I don't do that. We could argue
about what the word sacrament means, but most people have the
idea that if it's a sacrament, it has, as one old preacher said,
salvific value. That means there's something
in keeping that ordinance that contributes to your salvation,
and that's not true. Believer's baptism will not save
you. Believer's baptism will not wash
away your sins. There's only one thing that'll
save you and wash away your sins, that's the blood of Jesus Christ.
And on the same token, taking the Lord's Supper will not save
you, will not contribute. This ordinance is, if you partake
of it, if you enjoy it with us today, you're remembering that
the only way of salvation is 100%, Christ, crucified and risen
from the dead. So you understand that. But here's
Brother David brought out, the Corinthian church was abusing
the Lord's Supper. They were making mockery of it.
There was a problem here. Look at verse 17, he says, now
in this that I declare unto you, I praise you not, I'm not commending
you now for what you're doing, that you come together, not for
the better, but for the worse. We come to worship in order to
encourage us, in order to motivate us, to teach us, They weren't
coming together in this worship service for that purpose. It
was for something worse. And what was it? Verse 18, for
first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there'd
be divisions among you. And he says, and I partly believe
it. What he's saying there, it's kind of way we would say it like
this. I hear there are divisions among
you and it doesn't surprise me. because this church had a lot
of problems. You remember he talked about divisions in 1 Corinthians
1, dividing over preachers. I like this preacher, I like
that preacher. And he's talking about gospel
preachers now, not false preachers, not false prophets. But they
were dividing. There was a lot of division in
this church. But here they were dividing even in partaking the
Lord's Supper. This supper is to bring believers
together in one body. That's what he said over 1 Corinthians
10. And he says, so I partly believe
it. It doesn't surprise me is what he means by that. Verse
19, for there must also be heresies among you. Now the word divisions
is the word schism. You've heard schisms, separation. The word heresy here is the word
sex. So it's S-E-C-T-S. And so what
he's saying here is this. You've got divisions that have
brought you apart. And he says, for there must also
be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made
manifest among you. Now, what's he talking about,
those who are approved? Well, he's talking about approved
of God. Now, how can a sinner like me be approved of God? How
can sinners like you be approved of God? There's only one way,
as we stand before God in Christ. And to take this supper, which
symbolizes a believer's union with Christ, that which brings
the body of Christ, the church together, and abuse it could
mean that you don't believe it at all. And actually what he's saying
here, when he says there must be also heresies, these things
must come about. Well, who's directing that? Well,
I'm gonna tell you something. This may shock you, but it's
true. God is in charge of it all. And what purpose would he
have in this? That those who are true believers
might be manifested. Am I a true believer? That's
what I ask myself in self-examination. Do I believe in Christ? I'm gonna
show you that in just a moment. Are you a true believer? Or are
you just going through the motions? That's what this is about. So
he comes in and these factions, they're not pleasant. They're
necessary in God's purpose. But look what he says here. Look
at verse 20. He tells us specifically what
he's talking about. When you come together, therefore,
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. You're not eating the Lord's
supper. You may say you are, but you're not. He says, for
in eating every one taketh before other his own supper, and one
is hungry and another is drunken. Can you understand what he's
saying here? They were taking their own family meals into the
service, wherever they met, eating and drinking, some of them even
got drunk, and calling it the Lord's Supper. And he said, that's
not what it's about. He says in verse 22, what, have
you not houses to eat and drink in? Now notice he didn't say,
don't you have houses to eat and get drunk in? He just said
to drink in. Your family meals are to be held
at home, not the Lord's Supper. Now, there are some who take
verses like this and say, well, you all shouldn't have a meal
back here. That's not what this is saying at all. There's nothing
wrong with us having a meal back here after the worship service,
but back there, that's not the Lord's Supper. You understand
what I'm saying? If we called that the Lord's
Supper, we'd be like the Corinthians, be abusing it. So he says, what,
have you not houses to eat and drink in, or despise ye the church
of God, and shame them that have not? In other words, you know,
in the church, back then especially, You had those who had plenty
and those who had very little. So those who had plenty, they
came and they brought their meal and they feasted sumptuously.
And those who didn't have much, they went hungry. And that's
what he's saying. You're despising the church,
the family of God. He says, what shall I say to
you? Shall I praise you in this? I
praise you not. So there's the problem. Well
then, beginning at verse 23, he begins to tell us what this
ordinance of the Lord's Supper really means, what it's all about. Look at verse 23. He says, for
I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.
Now it's the Lord himself who instituted this supper. This
is not the product of man. This is not just some religious
exercise that some man decided, well, we need to do this. The
Lord instituted this on the night of the Passover when he met with
his disciples just prior to his being arrested and then suffering
unto death. And you remember what the Passover,
what it meant? Remember the Passover back in
Egypt? They put the blood of the lamb on the door. God said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. So this is really connected
to the same symbols and truth that were taught during the Passover.
You can read about the Lord instituting this supper in Matthew, Mark,
and Luke. When he sat down with his disciples
and he broke bread. And it says in verse 23, he says
that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed,
he took bread. Now this is unleavened bread.
In the Bible, when you read about the Passover, it came in concordance
with what they called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and they
were to remove all leaven out of their house. Now, y'all know
what leaven is, don't you? That's the stuff you put in flour
to make it rise. A little leaven, leaven, the
whole lot. Leaven, in that sense, was a picture or a symbol of
sin. And what he was teaching them,
that in the body and the blood and the death of Christ, there
was no sin in him. He's the sinless sacrifice. And
that's what he says here. He took bread, look at verse
24, and when he had given thanks, he prayed, and he broke the bread,
his broken body. His body was broken. And he said,
take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in
remembrance of me. This is not the heresy of saying
that the bread actually turned into the body of Christ. The bread wasn't turned into
or miraculously changed into the physical body of Christ and
made him cannibals or anything like that. And the wine that
he took was not actually turned into the blood of Christ. But
these were symbolic elements. This body, he says, this bread
symbolizes his body. Now what does that mean? Why
does he make a distinction between the body and the blood? Well,
his body refers to his sinless humanity whereby he gave himself
over as an offering for the sins of his people who were given
him before the foundation of the world and his body was offered
without spot to God. Let me read you a portion of
scripture from the Old Testament. This is Isaiah 53, verse 10. Listen to this. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. That word bruise means crush.
He hath put him to grief. These are all attributes attributed
to his humanity, his sinless humanity. When thou shalt make
his soul, that's his person, an offering for sin. That's what
he was. He was the sin bearer, the sin
offering. He shall see his seed, that's
the product of his death, that's his children. And he shall prolong
his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. Whatever he's gonna do, it's gonna be successful. It
will not be a failure in any way. There's not one person for
whom Christ died who will perish. That's what he's saying. This
is his body which was broken for us. He gave himself over. The Bible says that because the
sins of God's people were imputed or charged or accounted to Christ,
that it behooved him, he was indebted, that's what that means,
to be made like unto his brethren, but without sin. You know, when
you and I are born into this world, we're born into sin. That's
right. Sin and death. Sin doesn't come
to us when we make our first bad choice. It's already there
because it's the absence of spiritual life. That's why Christ said
you must be born again. We don't have any ability to
work forth a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice. That's why Christ came to do
that. And we have no desire for the
things of God, not the true things of God. Oh, we want to be religious.
We want people to think highly of us. We want all that. But
to submit to Christ as the Lord our righteousness, we don't want
to do that. Because that means I've got to
admit that there's none good, no, not one, including me. There's
none that doeth good. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Here's what the Bible teaches, and this is what people don't
like. Be the best you can be. Do you hear me? Be the best you can be. But when
it comes to salvation, when it comes to a right relationship
with God, the best you can be is not good enough. I had a man tell me one time
when I Showed that truth to him. He said, well that's not fair.
Oh yes it is. Because God is holy. But let
me tell you something. God has provided the one and
only way that a sinner like me can be righteous in His sight.
How is that? Through Christ. That's why salvation
is by grace. If you could enter heaven's glory
by being the best you can be, you're not saved by grace. You're
saved by works. And that's not going to happen.
By deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
And what is it to be justified? It's to be forgiven of all my
sins on a just ground. And what is the just ground?
The blood of Jesus Christ. Look down here. Look at verse
25. It says, After the same manner
also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup
is the new testament or the new covenant in my blood. This do
ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. That cup was
made, was filled with wine, a preservative, and it symbolizes his blood.
So his, this bread symbolizes his body, his sinless sacrifice. The blood symbolizes his death,
which equals a perfect righteousness. that God has imputed, charged,
accounted to his people, by which they're justified, and from which
they have life from the dead, you must be born again. And it's
all because of Christ. You know, I often say that today,
if there's any other day, that people ought to understand the
doctrine of imputed sin and imputed righteousness is our day. I won't
ask for a show of hands, so don't raise your hand. How many of
you have a credit card? What do you do when you spend
money on a credit card? You incur a debt that you're
responsible to pay. That's the imputation of a debt.
Well, that's what our sin has done for us. It's created a debt
to God's law and justice, which we have no way of paying. We
can't even contribute a penny to that debt. And that's why
Christ was set up to be the surety for God's people before the foundation
of the world. He said, I'll take the debt,
put it on my account. And it behooved him, Hebrews
2.17 says. He was indebted to be made like
unto his brethren. And he came and this Son of God,
this deity, this second person of the Trinity, united his deity
with a perfect, sinless humanity and walked this earth as God-man. Keeping the law, which you don't
do, and I don't do. Going to the cross to shed His
blood because the wages of sin is death. Satisfying its justice
perfectly. That's what the Bible means when
you see the word propitiation. It's a sin-bearing sacrifice
that brings satisfaction. The debt's paid! That's what
this supper is about. This is His blood, He said. That
means my debt's paid. These people who claim to be
Christian, who are preaching salvation conditioned on you
and me, they're saying our debt's not paid. We've got to do our
part. In other words, they might say
Christ paid 99% of it. You've got to pay 1% of it. That's
a denial of Christ. Paid in full. Have you ever sang
that hymn, Jesus paid it all? One line says, all to him I owe.
Really what it should say, Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. He secured the salvation of his
people. And listen to verse 26, for as
oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the
Lord's death. You're setting forth in these
symbols the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is righteousness
established, upon which he was resurrected from the dead. and through which his people
come to God and be accepted. That's what it all means when
we take the Lord's Supper. Now look at verse 27. Here's
the question. Who is worthy to take this supper? To partake of the Lord's Supper?
Am I worthy? Are you worthy? Well, look at
this. He 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. What does
that mean? That means you eat the bread
and drink the wine, not knowing what it's all about. Not believing. in the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, this is an ordinance not for unbelievers. It's for believers. Those who do not believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who do not rest in Him for all salvation,
who do not plead His righteousness alone, they're not worthy. Why? Because they don't trust
the One. What's this all about? This dew and remembrance of me?
You don't believe that? You know what, this ordinance
is for sinners saved by grace. That's what it's for. Not discerning,
he says. Be guilty, look at verse 28.
But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. You know, self-examination. It's
really a wonderful thing if you know what it's talking about.
Over in the book of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 13. And I know, here's
something that I was taught growing up in false religion, taught
wrongly, that before I'm worthy to take the Lord's Supper, I've
got to go back during the week or the month or however, and
I've got to take inventory of my life, and if there's any sin
in my life, then I've got to repent of that sin, do something
to get rid of it, then I'm worthy to take the supper. That's a
lie. Is there sin in my life? Is there
sin in your life? Well, if you're a human being,
there's sin in your life. There's sin in my life. First
of all, we all fall short of the glory of God. There's not
one moment in my life that I can say I've achieved by my works
or my thoughts the perfection of righteousness that God requires
that can only be found in Christ. The Bible says Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
So what is this self-examination about? He says in 1 Corinthians
or 2 Corinthians 13, five, he says, examine yourselves to see
if you come up to snuff. That's not what it says. Examine yourselves whether you
be in the faith. Prove your own selves, know you're
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except
you be reprobate. What does it mean examine myself
to see whether I'm in the faith? examine myself to know whether
or not I'm truly looking to Christ as the author and finisher of
my faith. Or am I looking somewhere else? Am I looking to my experiences? Am I looking to my baptism? Am
I looking to my works? I've got an article in the bulletin
this morning, the Lord's Supper, who is worthy. None of us are
worthy in ourselves. Our worthiness is Christ. Worthy
is the lamb that was slain. Revelation 5. You know who's
singing that song? Worthy is the lamb that was slain?
The saints in glory. And in glory we'll have no sin
within ourselves. And yet we'll still sing glory
to God. Worthy is the lamb. And that's
what this supper's all about. I'm taking this supper because
my worthiness is Christ, not me. Whether you had a good week
this week or a bad week, that's not your worthiness. It's Christ,
the Lamb of God. And so he says in verse 29, he
that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. That's the result of unbelief.
He that believeth not shall be damned. Now, these people needed
to be taught. And even believers need to be
taught these things. So he says, for this cause many are weak
and sickly among you and many sleep. He's talking about death
here. What he's saying here is that
some of these believers were abusing the Lord's Supper and
they were suffering under the chastisement of God. Even unto
death, even sickness and death. Now this is not a threat. God
doesn't always visit us in equal proportion to our sinfulness. If he did, we'd all be dead. But he says here. For this cause,
he said, for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.
Think about these things. Take inventory yourself. Is Christ
my only hope? Can I sing from the heart? My
hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus'
name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
That's it. And so verse 32, but when we
are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not
be condemned with the world. That chastening. You know, we
need correction a lot. We're children of God if we're
believers. You know children have to be
corrected. We certainly do. But that's not God damning us,
that's the Lord chastening us, the loving chastisements of a
father. And he says in verse 33, wherefore my brethren, when
you come together to eat, tarry one for another, wait on one
another. Look as a body, he says, and if any man hunger, let him
eat at home. Don't come to the Lord's supper to get fed from
your hunger, unless it's a spiritual hunger, but your bodily hunger. And he says that you come not
together under condemnation and the rest Will I sit in order
when I come? Just like Brother David said,
Paul says, now when I get there, I'm gonna straighten this thing
out. That's the apostle. Well, we're gonna stand and sing
Amazing Grace.