If you would care to turn in
your Bibles with me, Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. Peggy Wooten, I told you about she's going
to have a hysterectomy. That procedure is scheduled for
October the 8th, so we want to remember her in prayer at this
time. You'll notice either in the little
holder in front of you or on the floor at your feet. I'll
tell you about this now and then again when it's time. This is
the COVID safe way we found to observe the Lord's table. And
when it's time, if you turn the wine side down on the top, you'll
peel that off and there's the bread. And then when it's time,
you turn it over and peel that off and that's the wine. And
at the end of the surface, to keep this contact safe, take
your cup and throw it away. with those trash cans by either
door. You just take his boat away, and we got all bases covered,
alright? Alright, Luke chapter 22. We're
going to begin our reading in verse 7. Then came the day of unleavened
bread when the Passover must be killed. And he sent Peter
and John saying, go and prepare us the Passover that we may eat.
And they said unto him, where wilt thou that we prepare? I
love this. Lord's sovereignty. He said unto
them, behold, when you're entered into the city, there shall a
man meet you bearing a pitcher of water. Follow him into the
house where he entereth in, and ye shall say unto the good one
of the house, the master saith unto thee, where is the guest
chamber where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples? And
he shall show you a large upper room furnished, there make ready. And they went and found, as he
said unto them, and they made ready the Passover. And when
the hour was come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him.
And he said unto them with desire, I have desired to eat this Passover
with you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not
eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of
God. And he took the cup and gave thanks and said, take this
and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. And he took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and
gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for
you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after
supper, saying, This cup is the new testament of my blood, which
is shed for you. He will end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our God and our Father, we bow
before your throne of grace this evening. We bow humbly and thankfully. Oh, how thankful we are that
sinful men and women such as us can come before the throne
of grace, the throne of Almighty God, and be accepted, be heard
in and because of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we've met here this evening with a need and a heartfelt desire
to worship Thee. And Father, I pray that You would
give us the spirit of worship. That You would enable us not
to just go through the motions of religion and play at church,
but Father, that You would, by Your Spirit, speak to the hearts
of Your people through Your Word, through the Word preached this
evening. And enable us to worship in awe and wonder, to worship
our God. Father, I pray that everything
that is said and done here this evening be said and done to the
praise and the glory and the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us see no one but him. Let us think of no one but him. Let us trust no one but him. Cause us to be taken up with
our Lord Jesus Christ, especially as we worship around your table,
that is given for us to remember the sacrifice of Christ our Savior. Father, how we thank you. We
thank you for this time. We thank you for the way you've
blessed this congregation over so many, many years. Father,
we're thankful. And we pray that your hand of
mercy and grace and leadership would continue upon us. Don't
let us alone now. Don't ever let us alone. Don't
ever take your finger off of us or we'll surely perish. And
Father, for those whom you brought into the time of trouble and
trial, we pray for you. We pray a special blessing at
this time for Peggy and Earl. We pray that you bless in a special
way. Comfort their hearts. Be with
the doctors and nurses Father, use them as an instrument to
heal our sister and relieve her of this pain that she's been
going through. And others, Father, so many,
everyone's got needs and hurts and problems. Those we know of,
those who are suffering silently, Father, you know. You know. We
pray that you would strengthen them. Above all, that you'd give
grace for the hour. Give a special portion of your
presence. till such times you see fit to provide a way out.
In all these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name which
is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way and was wretched and vile as
could be. But my Savior in love gave me
peace from above. He reached down His hand When Christ Jesus reached down
for me When He reached way down for
me I was lost and undone Without God's precious Son reached down
his hand for me I was near to despair when he came to me there
and he showed me that I could be free Then He lifted my feet Gave me
gladness complete He reached down His hand for me When Christ
Jesus reached out for me when he reached way down for
me I was lost and undone without God's precious Son and he reached
down his hand How my heart does rejoice When
I hear His sweet voice In the tempest to Him I then flee There
to lean on His arm Safe, secure from all harm Since He reached
down His hand for me When Christ Jesus reached down
for me When He reached way down for
me I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son When He reached down His hand for me I was lost and undone without
God's precious Son It doesn't get any better than that. Alright, if you would open your
Bibles with me again to Luke chapter 22. I have a very simple
title for the message this evening. I've entitled the message, The
Lord's Table. I think every believer looks especially forward to observing
the Lord's Table. Because every time we observe
the Lord's Table, it's a special time of worship. And the reason
for that is this. That the Lord has given you eyes
to see Christ. All you can possibly see in the
Lord's table is Christ. Nothing else. Nothing else. There's
no contribution made by us to be seen in the Lord's table and
those elements. All there is to see in the Lord's
table is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what makes this such
a time of blessed worship for us. because we see so clearly
redemption in the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord's
given the church, some people say, two ordinances, two ordinances
that we're to observe, baptism and the Lord's table. Now, these
are not sacraments in the sense that there's no saving power
in these things. There's no saving power in being
dunked under the water. There's no saving power in eating
and drinking the bread and the wine of the Lord's table any
more than there was in eating the Passover lamb. Many people
ate the Passover lamb and didn't know God, did they? These things
are not sacraments, they're ordinances given to us as clear pictures. These things are so clear, unless
you do it on purpose, you can't mistake what they mean. That
redemption is found in the sacrifice of Christ, in his life, His death,
His burial, and His resurrection. There's so clearly Christ. That's
why there's such a time of blessing to us. Now I said some people
say there's two ordinances. Some people say the Lord gave
the church three ordinances. Baptism, the Lord's table, and
preaching. The preaching of Christ. And
preaching is not preaching unless it's all Christ. Unless the message
is all Christ. Otherwise it's just talking.
But if that message is all Christ, then that's going to be a blessing
to God's people. All three of these things bless the hearts
of God's people because how they point us to Christ, how they
cause us to look to Christ and to rest in Him. But the ordinance
I want us to look at tonight is the Lord's Table. I want us
to see how the Lord's Table, what we're observing tonight,
is all Christ. It's all Christ. And number one,
Scripture. gives us several different names
for the Lord's Table. And each one of these different
names shows us Christ in a different facet. And we won't turn to these,
just let me tell you about them. First, this name, the Lord's
Table. The Apostle Paul said that in
1 Corinthians 10, 21, he calls this the Lord's Table. And I'll
tell you why it's the Lord's Table. Because Christ is the
master of the feast. He personally ordained this table
so that we would remember what? This is the Lord's table to remember
the Lord. Paul said when he received instructions
for the Lord's table, he received them directly from the Lord.
He didn't receive them from men. He received them from the Lord
because this is the Lord's table. Christ is the master of the feast
and Christ is the feast. See, it's all Christ. This table,
the Lord's table, shows us how the Lord saved his people by
giving himself to be sacrificed for their sins. It's the Lord's
table. Secondly, 1 Corinthians 5 verse 8 calls the Lord's table
a feast. And that shows us that Christ
is a feast for needy sinners. Not just barely enough now, a
feast. Christ is all we need. Well, I wish we'd get that through
our heads. I wish the Lord would teach us that. Christ is all
that we need. Christ alone is enough to save
the worst of sinners to the uttermost. Christ alone is enough to save
the innumerable number of God's elect. The people that are going
to be in glory is a number that no man can number. And by one
sacrifice, Christ saved every one of them. An innumerable number
of people. You know how that's possible?
How can Christ be enough for all those people? Because He's
a feast. He's a feast for sinners. And
thirdly, 1 Corinthians 10, 16 calls the Lord's table the cup
of blessing. That shows us there's no blessing
in drinking that little bit of wine. It's what it pictures. The cup of blessing shows us
that every blessing a sinner can ever hope to receive is because
it was purchased. It was purchased by Christ's
sacrifice. as when Christ was sacrificed
for our sin. God's not going to bless us because
we aren't good enough, or we don't do bad things, we do good
things, or our faith is strong enough. The only reason any of
us can expect God to bless us, the only reason any of us can
expect to find any blessing from God, is that Christ died for
us. All blessing is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and He purchased those blessings for His people. His death for them is their substitute.
And fourthly, 1 Corinthians 10, 16 also calls the Lord's table,
the communion of the body and the blood and body of Christ.
The communion of the body and blood of Christ. Now people take
that and without comparing it to scripture, just take that
and make it to mean, try to make it mean something that doesn't
mean. This is what the Catholics teach. They teach something called
transubstantiation. And that's just a great big word.
I think they kind of try to hide from people what it really means,
because anybody in common sense knows this isn't so, but this
is what they teach. That the bread and the wine,
when the priest blesses it, he does that mumbo-jumbo over it
and says stuff in Latin nobody can understand, that that bread
and that wine actually physically is changed into the body and
blood, the actual flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put it kindly, that's hogwash. That's hogwash. God's people
aren't cannibals. That is not what the Lord meant
when he talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
But more importantly, more importantly, Christ is not sacrificed over
and over again for sin. We don't need his blood to be
shed again, his body actually to be broken again. There's no
need for that. There's a need for one sacrifice.
One sacrifice is enough. if you got the perfect lamb.
And that's what God's given us, the perfect lamb. So when we
talk about the communion of the body and blood of Christ, this
is what we mean. It means that God's people, when
they take the Lord's table, what they're saying is when they take
this bread and this wine, they eat it and they drink it. What
they're saying is that they've been made partakers of the sufferings
of Christ. And not that they suffer the
same as He did. Nobody suffered like our Lord
suffered. What we're saying is that believers have been made
partakers of the blessings of what Christ purchased by His
death for them on Calvary Street. We're made partakers of the benefits. Believers are made sinless. They're
made righteous by Christ's death for us. That's the only way we
can be made righteous, is by Christ taking our sin and dying
for us in our place, taking the punishment that we deserve. And
we take the Lord's table. This is a confession. We're saying
that I am such a vile sinner. The only way my sin could be
put away, the only way I could be made righteous, is if the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for me. That He took
my sin and He died for me. That's the only hope I have.
That He took my sin and His body on the tree and He died as my
substitute. And when He died, because of
His perfection, He satisfied God's justice for me. That's
how I'm redeemed. That's being made a partaker,
having the partaker of the benefits of the death of Christ. That's
the communion that we're talking about there, being made partaker
of the benefits, being made righteous and washed clean and accepted
in his sacrifice. Fifthly, Acts 2, verse 42, calls
the Lord's table the breaking of bread. Every time we observe,
to the Lord's table. This is what we see. The only
way a sinner can be saved is if Christ is broken for us. Now this is the first time we're
using these means to observe the Lord's table, but normally
what happens is we have the element set down here and the unleavened
bread is in what looks like a gigantic cracker. And one of the men breaks
it. The groom says, you hear it,
don't you hear that bread being broken? That's a picture. Christ's body was broken. He
didn't just... This idolatrous picture that
you see people painted of this, you know, man hanging there.
I mean, man, he's six foot four. He's gorgeous. He's got this
long, fit, beautiful hair. His face is perfect. His body
is perfect. He's got this little loincloth.
You might see a little dribble of blood somewhere. It took a whole lot more than
that to save me. How about you? His body was broken. He suffered and died for my sin.
That's the breaking of bread. And sixthly, the Lord's Table.
Now this is a gospel for us. It was given to us when Christ
died, right before He died. That's when this was given to
us. But you know what the Lord's Table was not a brand new thing.
This was not unheard of at this time that the Lord brought out
bread and wine. The Lord's Table is not a new
thing. The Lord's Table teaches us,
proclaims the eternal gospel of eternal redemption in Christ.
I can make good on that. Way back in Genesis 14, you can
read it later on if you want, we meet a man named Melchizedek,
the priest of God, king of Salem, king of peace. Didn't have a
father, didn't have a mother, didn't have beginning, nobody,
just came out of nowhere. And this man Melchizedek, the
priest, he met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings.
This was a great slaughter. God obviously gave Abraham the
victory there, didn't he? And Melchizedek met him. And
this is a time to give thanks to the Lord. This is a time to
worship God. But Melchizedek didn't bring forth the land to
be sacrificed. Remember when Abraham met those strange men
as they came to go down to Sodom, what did Abraham bring forth?
He killed the land, didn't he? Not Melchizedek. Melchizedek
brought forth bread and wine. Unleavened bread and wine. Now
how could he do that? Well, Melchizedek, first of all,
is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Who's the king of
peace? Who's the high priest of God? Who doesn't have a beginning
of days or ending of days? Who has no pedigree? This is
a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And he brought forth
bread and wine, picturing what Abraham was going to see, what
Abraham believed, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And that's what the table, the table of the Lord pictures. It's
an eternal gospel. It pictures eternal redemption
in Christ our Savior. That's the Lord's table. He instituted
it. He's the Lord of the table. It's
all about Him. Alright, here's my second point.
What's the purpose of observing the Lord's table? Why would we
meet here tonight to observe the Lord's table? Well, the purpose
of the Lord's table, our Savior tells us clearly, is to remember
Christ and His sacrifice for His people. See that at the end
of verse 19? He said, this is my body which
is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Do this to remember me. I thought
about that. You would think we wouldn't have
to be reminded of the greatest act in human history. You'd think
we could never forget that. The Holy Son of God was made
sin for me. Life Himself died to satisfy
God's justice against my sin. Now I know He died to save all
of God's elect, but when I take the Lord's table, I'm thinking
about His sacrifice for me. Christ died to satisfy God's
justice against my sin. Me! Of all sinful people that
He could choose, of all the sinners He could choose to redeem, He
died for me. Christ died so that all of God's
elect would have eternal life. How can I possibly forget that? Christ was lifted up upon the
cursed tree. He was lifted up high, not just
physically, but in scripture, in the preaching of the gospel.
He's lifted up on high so that his people would be drawn to
him. That's what he said, if I be
lifted up from the earth, I'll draw all. all my people, all
of the Father's given me, I'll draw all unto me. He's lifted
up on high in the preaching of the gospel so that we come to
Him, believing Him, seeing Christ crucified for my sin, Him pierced,
whom I've pierced, pierced for all that makes me mourn. How
could I ever forget that? How could I ever forget His sacrifice
for me? How is that possible? The sacrifice
of Christ upon the cross is the moment that all human history
points to, and that all eternity points to. All the Old Testament,
what is the Old Testament written to do? It's pointing forward.
Somebody's coming, and the Old Testament tells us what he's
going to do. The Gospels tell us of his sacrifice, tell us
of how he accomplished redemption for his people, and the epistles
all look back upon it. The purpose, the theme of all
the epistles. You can sell this epistle as
this. Christ is the theme of every one of them. Every single
one of them. I love Brother Fortner's writings
and all of his writings. He takes a book and he said,
discovering Christ in and just fill in the blank. Every book
of the Bible he ever wrote about is discovering Christ because
he's the theme of every book of the Bible and in glory. All those who are in glory, you
know what they're going to do? They're going to sing of one
of them. The lambslain. The lambslain who shed his blood
for us. And that song will never end. How can I forget such a sacrifice? Sadly, the answer is quite easily. Because of our sinful flesh,
quite easily. how often we forgive. And I'm
not excusing that. I can't even find words to say
how vile and shameful that is, that I could ever forget Christ's
sacrifice. And the truth of our sinful forgetfulness
is proof positive of our desperate need of saving. How desperately
we need Christ to save us. How easily we forgive. And the
Lord knew it. It wasn't worth it. And yet He
tenderly, without rebuke for our forgetfulness, gives us His
table so that we can remember Him. So we can remember His sacrifice
for us. Christ and Him crucified is all
of our salvation. And our Savior gives us this
means, these two simple elements, bread and wine, so that we will
remember, so we don't forget it. Now that is kind. loving and gracious. You know,
there are many things that I do forget. I was so proud I didn't
used to forget anything. Then I start taking notes. Now
I got to write me a note to remind me where my notes are. I can't
remember a thing. But there are some things I can't seem to forget.
And I wish I could. I wish I could. I wish I could
forget. all the wrongs and slights and
slanders things that people have said, I wish I could forget those
things. I wish I could forget many of the sinful things that
I've said and done. I wish I'd never done them. Not
just I forget them, I wish I'd never done them. But I can't. I can't forget them and I can't
undo those sinful things. That's why I'm thankful. Our
Savior will not let us forget. His sacrifice for the sin of
His people. Because He's our only hope. And
He's given us this table for this purpose. To remember Him. To remember there's no hope for
myself. Now, you know what this table
tells me about me? I'm sinful. I'm sinful. If God
had to send His Son to die for me, what does that say about
me? The depths of the depravity can't
be told, can it? This is given to remember Christ's
sacrifice for us so we don't get so full of ourselves and
we keep ourselves at His feet, at His feet. All right, thirdly,
what are the elements of the Lord's table? Well, they're very
simple. First, there's unleavened bread.
I was reading on this this week. I mean, you know, you know where
I grew up or what I've been taught. I didn't know that there was
argument about what kind of bread is to be used at the Lord's table,
like we should use Heiner's bread or something, you know. The Lord said, this do, this
do, in remembrance of me. What kind of bread was He using
that night? Well, He was using unleavened bread. That's the
only kind of bread that the Lord and His disciples could have
possibly been using that night. Because remember, this is the
last Passover, the last Passover. And during the Passover, The
Jews, they got a candle and they looked everywhere in their house,
every nook and cranny, the back of all the cabinets, to make
sure they got all the leaven out of their house. There's no
leaven in there. So the only bread that could possibly be
there is unleavened bread. That's what they used. Now, why
did the Lord tell the Jews, you get rid during the time of the
Passover, you get rid of all the leaven in your houses? Well,
because in scripture, leaven is given to us as a picture of
sin. And sin is purged when Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for
us. See, this is a picture of Christ.
The unleavened bread is a picture that shows the sinlessness of
Christ. He had no sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin. The sinlessness
of Christ is what makes Him the bread of life for His people.
The sinlessness of Christ makes Christ that bread. that had to
be broken. He had to be broken for the sin
of His people. Just like the Passover lamb had
to be killed. Look at verse 7 where we began reading tonight, Luke
22. Then came the day of unleavened bread when the Passover must
be killed. That Passover lamb must be killed. Its blood must be shed. Its blood
must be applied to the door. That's Christ. Our Passover. He had to be slain. His blood
had to be shed, and His blood must be applied. When you apply
that to Christ, the bread of life, He must be broken. He must be broken for the sin
of His people. Now we get bread from a grain
of wheat that's planted in the ground, and that wheat grows
to a full stalk that's harvested at harvest time. Well, that's
a picture of our Lord Jesus. He grew as a real man. I've said
this many times. I love how Bro. Nyberg said the
same thing when he was here a couple of weeks ago. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. It's not like he's God. He's
not a special prophet. He is God. Yet he grew as a real
man. He came to this earth as a real
man. He grew just like that wheat
grows out of the ground. He grew as a root out of a dry
ground. He grew as the rod or the stem
of Jesse. He descended from Jesse, from
David, as a real man. Here's the difference between
him and us. He grew as the perfect man. The sinless man. He never even had a thought of
sin. He never had the desire of sin. This perfect man. And when the fullness of time
was come, he gave his body to be broken. As a willing sacrifice,
his body was broken under the wrath and justice of God against
sin, and his body was broken under the hatred of men for God.
I'll not have this man to reign over us. But it's the sinlessness
of Christ that makes him the suitable sacrifice for sinners
like you and me. It's his sinlessness that enabled
him to put away the sin of his people. It's his sinlessness
that let him take our sin and his body on the tree and put
it away by his sacrifice when his body was broken. And when
we take that bread tonight, that's what we remember. We remember
how Christ, our sinless substitute, was broken as he put away our
sins. He suffered and died. And how
his body was broken. He suffered being bruised when
he was beaten by the fist of hardened soldiers. The flesh
on his back, his body was broken. The flesh on his back was torn
away by that cat of nine tails. His scalp was pierced when they
thrust that crown of thorns upon his head. His hands and his feet
were torn when they were pierced by those nails and hung upon
that tree. His side was ripped open when that Roman soldier
shoved a spear up in his side. That's how his precious body
was broken. That's what must be suffered.
That's what must be suffered. To put away sin. And you've heard
this many times, but let me reiterate it. His bodily suffering is unimaginable. The pain, the humiliation that
he suffered is unimaginable. And that's nothing. That's nothing.
God, He made His soul an offering for sin. How the Father poured
out the wrath and fury, His holy fury against sin upon the soul
of His Son. His body was broken to give us
just a hint of what was going on inside. God, He made a soul
an offering for sin. You remember that tonight. When
you take this bread, you put it in your mouth and you feel
it. crunching, you hear it crunching
between your teeth. That's a symptom of how Christ's
body was broken as He suffered as my substitute. His body being
broken, that crunching that you hear, that you feel, that bread
being broken in your mouth. That's the suffering I deserve.
And He took it for me. That's what we remember when
we take that bread. When I take that bread, this
is what I'm saying. Christ had to suffer that. He
had to be broken for me to put away my sin. Now, the second
element in the Lord's table is wine. And again, I know there's
arguing about this, that you should use grape juice and grape
juice is just no. And I tell you why. Number one, the Lord used wine
and He said, this do. He didn't say, do something else
you feel like doing. You know, morals change. You think, you
know, wine is bad. Oh, it's okay. Don't use wine.
Use something non-alcoholic. No, sir. He said, this do. And
the Lord used wine. And it was wine. It was fermented
wine. Grape juice, I learned this this
week. I didn't understand this, but
grape skins have yeast in them. As they naturally grow, grape
skins have yeast in them. So when you, and yeast is the
same thing as leaven, you know that. So when the grape is crushed
up and you get grape juice, well, there's yeast in it. There's
leaven in it. So grape juice cannot be a picture of the sinless
blood of Christ. It's got leaven in it. His blood
had no sin. But when grape juice is fermented,
the process of fermentation removes the yeast. There's no yeast in
it. There's no leaven in it. Now that wine can be a picture
of the sinless blood of Christ. And it must be, in order for
our sin to be put away, the payment must be made in blood. Isn't
that right? Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. Now listen, it's gotta be perfect. Animal
blood couldn't do it, could it? My blood couldn't do it, my blood.
There's a person in this room Without a moment's hesitation,
I'd die for her. I mean, I'd let somebody slit
my throat to let her live. I mean, without a moment's hesitation,
I'd do that. Trade my life for hers? That's a good trade. In
a moment, moment, I'd do that. My blood wouldn't do nothing
for your sin. Let's live for it, but my blood wouldn't put
away your sin. My blood's sinful blood. It's got to be perfect,
sinless blood. Only sinless blood can atone
for sin. So Christ gave Himself to have
His body broken and His blood shed so that the sin of His people
would be put away. See, that blood wasn't offered
to you and me, you know, to make us feel sorry for Him so we decide
to accept Him. That blood was offered to the
Father. You and I have sinned against
the Father. Payment's got to be made to Him. No offering's
got to be made to you and me. Payment must be made to the Father
and the Holy God. can't accept anything less than
sinless perfection. So the father was pleased with
the blood of his son. Isaiah told us it would please
the Lord to bruise him. Now, the father made it clear
to us, he loves his son. He loves his son. All of his
love is given to the son. Yet it would please the Lord
to bruise him. You know why? Because the only
way the sin of God's elect could be put away is by the breaking
of the body of Christ. Breaking his body so that blood
would gush forth and be shed before the Lord. And that's why
when we observe the Lord's table, we take the bread and we eat
it. Then separately, we take the
wine and we drink it. Somebody doesn't take that wafer
and dip it in the wine and then give it to you. The body and
the blood together, there's no death there, is there? The body
and the blood separated show the death. This is what we're
showing. There's got to be death. Christ must die. There's no other
way for our sin to be put away. Here's another picture of the
sacrifice of Christ about the wine. You know, when they make
wine, the first thing they got to do is get grape juice. And
the way they get the grape juice is They crushed those wines.
In this day, somebody would put them in a wine vat, hopefully
they'd wash their feet first, and they'd go stomp them grapes,
you know, get that wine out of there. That's how the blood of
Christ came forth. His body was crushed when He
sacrificed Himself. He offered Himself to the Father.
And the blood came forth when His body was crushed. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how by Himself He purged our sin. It's by His precious
blood that was shed forth when His body was broken. Look over
1 Peter 1. Here's something else that we
remember. So clearly we remember this.
We take that wine. We're remembering what Peter
told us here about the blood of Christ. In 1 Peter 1 verse
18. We take this one, this is what
we're reminded of. For as much as you know, you
know this, you're not redeemed with corruptible things, silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers. There's nothing about you, you're
not part of the equation in redemption, are you? You know that. Nothing
we do could ever contribute to our redemption. But how are we
redeemed? With the precious blood of Christ. As of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, who by Him do believe God, that raised Him
up from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope
might be in God." Now, you know that you're not redeemed with
these corruptible things. You know that, don't you? But
when we take this cup, we're reminded, I'm not redeemed in
the idea, but with the precious blood of Christ. And I take that
wine. I'm confessing my faith, my hope. All my hope is in Him. We take
that wine and we drink it. This is not just, you know, some
kind of ceremony we do. It makes everybody feel good.
We go home. This is serious business. Paul, you read Paul's instruction
to the Corinthian church there about the Lord's table. This
is serious business now. We take this bread and we eat
it, we take this wine and we drink it, it's a confession.
It's a confession before God. It's a confession before our
family, before our friends. The only hope I have, I am so
sinful and so vile, the only hope I have that my sin could
be purged away is in the sacrifice of Christ. That's why we have
these elements in the Lord's table, the bread and the wine,
unleavened bread and wine. And that brings me to my last
point. Now we know the table that pictures Christ. It's all
Christ. We know the purpose of the table is to remember Christ.
We know the elements of the table that are pictures of the body
of Christ. But here's the fourth thing. This is important. Who
is it that's supposed to eat the Lord's table? Who is it?
Every believer. It's so simple. Every believer. Do you believe? Every time you
read about baptism in the New Testament, The only fence put
around it is this. Do you believe? Paul said, let
a man examine himself, and so let him be. What do you examine
yourself for? Do you examine yourself that you lived a good
life this week, that you've been good to your husband and your
wife this week, you've been good neighbors this week, you haven't told too
many lies, you didn't cheat nobody. No, that's what you examine yourself
for. You examine yourself for this. Do I have faith in Christ? Has God given me faith in Christ?
If you believe that Christ is all it takes to save you, then
you're to eat this table. This table is given for you.
Who is it that is to eat the Lord's table? It's everybody
who knows Christ. Everybody knows Christ. If you
don't know Christ, this table is not for you. This table is
given so we remember Him, isn't it? We can't remember somebody
we don't know. If you know Christ, This table
is for you. You can't remember somebody that
you've never seen and you don't know. But if by faith you've
seen Him and you know Him, then this table is for you. You're
to eat it and to remember that Christ was sacrificed for you.
And every time we observe the Lord's table, we fully show the
Lord's death until He comes. God's church is going to be observing
the simple, simple ordinance. Unleavened bread and wine. till
he comes. It's till he comes and we're
going to need to remember him. We're going to need to remember
him. We take this bread and this wine. It shows redemption. The only hope we have of redemption
is in the sacrifice of Christ for me. No question his blood
was shed. His blood was shed. When I drink
the wine, I'm saying his blood was shed for me. His sacrifice
was made for me. All right. Now, first, remember
how it would be. If you turn here, get your cup. It's either,
if you're on the front row, it's at your feet. If you're not in
the front row, it's there in front of you. And if you turn the wine down,
you'll see this little handle over there, and you can get the
bread out. Before we eat the bread, Jean,
would you give thanks for the bread, please, sir? Dream it. I'm not used to doing this. This
is the way forward. Gene prayed. I forgot to read this verse.
He took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them
saying, this is my body, which is given for you. This do in
remembrance of me. Now the wine, if you turn that
over, you peel that off. In verse 20, likewise also the
cup after supper saying, this cup is the New Testament in my
blood, which is shed for you. Eric, would you give thanks for
the blood. Hmm. Hmm. of the City of North Dakota,
D.C. At the present time, I would like to ask you to please
rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America and to the republic for which
it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. I don't know if it's right to
say or not, but the Wednesday night service It's probably my
favorite service. I love coming together in the
middle of the week and coming out of the world. I know many
of you made a special effort to be here tonight and out in
the midst of it and come together to hear the gospel and to worship
our Lord. What a better way, what a better
thing to do in our midweek service is to remember our Savior. I hope it has been a blessing
to you. We'd be dismissed and remember.
Take this and throw it away. Don't leave it. It's your seed.
Don't leave it. Throw it away. Made it easy. Eric made it easy.
Put two trash, one on either side. So take and throw it away,
okay? You'll be dismissed.