If you would, open your Bibles
again to 1 Peter 1. The title of the message this
evening is The Precious Blood of Christ. We left off our study last Wednesday
in verse 16, so we'll pick up in verse 17 this evening, where
Peter says, And if you call on the Father, who without respect
of persons judges according to every man's Past the time of
your sojourning here in fear. Now, Peter says, if you call
on the Father. And every time I read that, I
think we'd better be calling on the Father. Most men don't. But we'd better. And if you do
want to call on the Father, you better call on the Father for
mercy and for grace in Christ Jesus. Because God judges according
to every man's work. Now we know, in that great day
of judgment, Christ will judge every man's work in strict, exact
justice. Every man, every woman will be
judged impartially. Who you are related to or where
you come from won't matter. Those things matter in our judicial
system. You know, where you're from,
how much money you've got, who you're related to can tip the
scales of justice in our judicial system. but not with God. God looks on the heart, not the
outward flesh, and that's where He's going to judge, in the heart.
And the one and only thing that will determine where you spend
eternity will be your works. I know that sounds like a shocking
statement, but I'm going to make good on that. If we stand in
our own works, we'll be damned. Because all of our works are
sin. And Scripture says the wages of sin is death. But if we stand
in If we believe in, if we trust in the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ as our representative, if his work is our work by faith,
then we'll be welcomed into the presence of God for all of eternity.
You see, God can only accept absolute perfection. And everyone
who believes in Christ, they have been made as righteous as
Christ himself. So the Father will accept them
in Christ. He'll accept them in the finished
work of Christ. We'll either be judged on our
works or the finished work of Christ, our substitute, our representative. Now that ought to make all of
us call on God for mercy. God, be merciful to me and do
not judge me in myself. God, please only see me in the
person, in the work, in the blood, and the righteousness of our
Lord Jesus Christ. That ought to make us call for
mercy. And if you do, this ought to be obvious, call reverently. Call on God reverently. And if
God has had mercy on your soul, this you'll do. Pass the time
of your sojourning here and your journey here below reverently
in fear of the Lord. Be reverent and oh so thankful
that your sins have been judged in the Lord Jesus Christ. If
you believe Christ, you've been set free from the bondage of
the law, from the condemnation of the law. And that'll make
you live a holy life. This is still Peter's train of
thought here. He told us in verse 16, be ye
holy, prime holy. He's telling us have a holy walk
in this world below. Now, if you know you've been
set free from the condemnation of the law and why you've been
set free because of the substitutionary death of Christ. You'll live
a holy life and just don't get caught up in the ways of this
world. Don't get caught up acting like the people who live here,
because remember now, if you're a child of God, you don't live
here. You're not from here. You're just passing through.
A believer is a pilgrim. And your citizenship is not of
this earth. You're passing through this place
on your way home. Just don't put down roots. Don't
worry too much about what's going on around you because you don't
live here. You're on your way home. You're just passing through
this world, so don't get attached to it and don't start acting
like the people of it. You have a different citizenship.
And verse 18, for as much as you know, you'll do this for
as much as you know. that you're not redeemed with
corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers. Now, redemption, Peter
says, you know what you're not redeemed with. We'll get to how
you redeemed in just a moment. But redemption is so vitally
important. And Peter seems to indicate here
that we need to be redeemed from two different things he's talking
about in this verse. First, we need to be redeemed
from sin. We need to be redeemed from the
sin that began in Adam, and he passed to his son, and to his
son, and to his son, and to his son, all the way until it got
to you and me. And we pass it on to our children.
We need to be redeemed from that original sin in Adam. When Adam
fell, everyone who would ever descend from the loins of Adam
was made guilty. God imputed guilt. to every son
of Adam. And a sin nature was imparted
to every son of Adam. And we received that sin nature
from our father. And you can't help it. You pass
it on to your children and you try to beat it out of them the
rest of their life. You try to just teach them. You can't beat
it out of them and try to teach them not to act on it. They can
frustrate you to no end. Because they got a sin nature.
My mother's got gray hair because of her firstborn. I mean, it's
just it's the way of the world. It's just our sin nature. But
in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are redeemed. We are set free
from the condemnation of that law. We're set free from the
condemnation of sin and the ruling power of sin. Now, every believer
still sins. Don't ever get me wrong that
a believer doesn't sin. We sin. Henry said sin's on the
property, but not on the throne. We still sin, but sin no longer
rules and reigns over God's people. We're set free from the bondage
to sin the same way Israel was set free from the bondage that
they were in in Egypt. They were set free the night
of the Passover lamb, that night that Brodale disread for us.
They set that lamb up and watched him for days. And when the appointed
time came, everyone killed their lamb in the evening, roasted
its body with fire. The father went and put the blood
on the doorpost and went in and shut the door. They girt their
loins, they put their shoes on, put their staff in their hand,
and they ate that lamb in haste because they're leaving that
place. They're not staying there anymore. And God said, I'm going
to pass through this land. And when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. But if there's not blood on that
doorpost, if the lamb has not been slain, and that blood has
not been applied to the doorpost, the firstborn is going to die
in every house in Egypt. And every Egyptian, we don't
read of any Egyptian having the blood on the door. Every Egyptian
home, their firstborn died. Every one of them. Can you imagine
that sorrow and agony that swept through that land? And the Egyptians
went to those homes of the Israelites and said, get out. Don't ever
come back. They went out free. Spoiled the
Egyptians. The Egyptians were giving them
all their gold and all their silver and every precious thing
they had. Just take it and get out. Just
spoiled them worse than any army ever could have. They were set
free from Egypt. Well, a believer is redeemed
from sin. Set free from sin because Christ
our Passover was slain for us. who are redeemed from sin. But
secondly, Peter points out here, we also need to be redeemed from
false religion that's passed down from generation to generation
to generation. Now, if you and I are going to
know God, we must be delivered from this bondage of false religion. God deliver us from trusting
in a religion just because our ancestors did. You know, someone
says, well, I believe this because this is what my family always
believed. You know, I can't believe what you're preaching, because
if I believe what you're saying, my mother's not saved. My mother's
lost. God must deliver us from that
bondage, or I'm telling you we'll die in our sins. I don't know
your mother, but I guarantee you this, she was born lost.
Guarantee it. And I'm not just saying that
out here to the nameless masses. That applies to me. To me and
Janice. I don't want my children to believe
the Gospel that I preach just because their mama and daddy
believe it. I don't want that for them at all. I want my children
to believe the Gospel because God's given them faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not because of anything I said.
Not because of anything their mother said. Because God gave
them faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it's just
vain. I mean, honestly. And that's what I pray for all
of our children. that God would give them faith.
That they don't just grow up and say, well, I'm going to keep
going here because this is where I always went. But that God's given them faith
to love and cling to and depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ and
His sacrifice that this table represents. Now, you who believe,
you believe Christ and you believe the gospel just because God's
Word says it. That's enough. If God gives you
faith, you read it and say, yeah, I believe that. Someone accused
me once of only believing what Henry said, and then they went
on to tell me that what I was preaching was not what Henry
majored upon. And I told him, well, first of
all, yes, he did. And second, make no mistake. I love Henry Maine, I owe him
my life, I love him. He taught me much of what I know
of the Scripture. But I don't believe what I believe.
I don't preach what I preach because Henry said it, or Charles
Spurgeon said it, or John Gill said it, or Matthew Henry said
it, or any of them. We believe what we believe. I
preach what I preach because God's Word says it. This is what
God's Word says. We're going verse by verse. I'm
going to show you how a person's redeemed. Now, I'm going to show
you that. I don't preach that because that's
just what somebody told me. That's what God's Word says.
God's Word is the only ground of faith. We believe this gospel. We preach this gospel, this gospel
that saves because God's Word says it. And a believer is no
longer the servant of sin and they're no longer the servant
of religious traditions and the traditions of men. We've been
delivered from both of those masters by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, surprising as this is, some
people really do believe that they're redeemed by something
they did. Now, most of them are not bold
enough to tell you that I saved myself, but they fully believe
that they contributed in some way to their redemption, to the
redemption of their souls. The Jews, that Peter's writing
to, thought the exact same thing. They thought, oh, they're keeping
the law, they're giving the silver and things, giving the silver
to the temple and the tabernacle. They really did think that contributed
to their redemption. And if you look over in Exodus
chapter 30, I'll show you this, where they got this from. They took a mighty truth of God
in a picture of Christ that he gave them and turned it into
false religion and passed it down from generation to generation
to generation. Exodus 30, verse 11, And the
Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Now takest the sum of the children
of Israel after their number. Then shall they give every man
a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou number'st them,
that there be no plague among them when thou number'st them.
This they shall give. everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
A shekel is twenty giras, and half a shekel shall be the offering
of the Lord. Everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give
an offering unto the Lord. The rich shall not give more,
and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they
give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your
souls, that thou shall take the atonement money of the children
of Israel, and shall appoint it for the service of the tabernacle
of the congregation, that it may be a memorial unto the children
of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls."
Now, I love this scripture. I've read it before. Probably
everybody in this room knows exactly what that silver is picturing. It's picturing the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But these Jews, they took this
twisted it into false religion, and they passed it on down to
every generation, till it became just fixed in everybody's mind.
Well, I just believe this because this is what my parents believed,
and their parents, and their parents, and their parents, all
the way back to Moses, that that silver that we give atones for
our sin. That's our redemption. Now, that
silver was used in the service of the tabernacle. And over the
generations, it was later on used in the service of the temple.
And it was a tax. That's all it was. It was a tax
that pictured atonement in the Lord Jesus Christ. But they pass
it on down as this silver that they give is their redemption. That's so foolish. That's just
utterly foolish. And Peter's going to deal with
that. There is absolutely nothing that a sinner can do or a sinner
can give that will remove the guilt of sin or the stain of
sin. If a sinner is going to be saved,
I'm telling you, we've got to be delivered from that kind of
religious bondage. God's not going to save anybody
under that kind of lie. We've got to be delivered from
it. Now, the word redeem, it means to buy back, to liberate. Well, a child of God has been
bought back from bondage to sin, and we've been bought back. We've
been liberated from the bondage of false religion. Now, by nature,
We're sold under sin. We've sold ourselves under sin.
We've put ourselves in bondage to the law and the law's got
a price on our head. And God is never, God's elect
are never going to go free unless that price is paid in full. It can't be ignored. It's got
to be paid in full. Well, now what'll pay it? You
know, if I'm in prison somewhere in bondage and somebody says,
well, if you pay the price, you can go free. Well, the obvious
question is, what will it take? What will it take to redeem me? What will it take to buy me back
and set me free? Well, this price cannot be paid
with corruptible things. That should just be obvious.
Silver and gold are corruptible. They're perishable with the using.
They're not valuable enough to redeem a soul that's immortal. Silver and gold are corruptible.
How can they redeem a soul that's immortal, that's incorruptible.
Look at Matthew chapter 16. A soul. What's the price of your
soul worth? What's it worth? Matthew 16 and verse 26. For what has a man profited if
he should gain the whole world and lose a soul? Or what shall
man give in exchange for a soul? A soul is eternal. It's incorruptible. So corruptible
things are not sufficient to pay the price of redemption.
Not to redeem a soul or not. So the Lord Jesus Christ came
and He paid that ransom price for His people. He paid the price
that the law demands And Christ set his people free. He set them
free from bondage to the sin. He set them free from bondage
to the law. He bought them back by paying
the penalty of that broken law. And he paid the price with his
own precious blood. In verse 19, Peter says, For
as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, received
by tradition from your fathers, but how are you redeemed? with
the precious blood of Christ. Peter calls the blood of Christ
precious. This blood is precious. What
this wine represents is unspeakably precious. I'm going to give you
a few ways that the blood of Christ is precious. First, the
blood of Christ is precious to the Father. That's the blood
of His only begotten Son. How precious is the blood of
your children if you saw it spilling out? This is the blood of God's
only begotten Son. It's precious to Him. The blood
of Christ is a sweet-smelling savor to God. It's sweet because
this is the only payment that can take away the stench of sin
that offends the Father. Now, God said He will by no means
clear the guilty. Isn't that what He said? I will
by no means clear the guilty. The blood of Christ is so precious. His blood cleanses his people
so completely. It's not just like restitution
has been made, so now we can look the other way. Now, the
price has been paid, but it goes further than that. The blood
of Christ applied to the hearts of God's people makes them not
guilty. God will by no means clear the
guilty. And how did He clear you? By washing you in the blood,
the precious blood of His Son, and making you not guilty. That's
how precious this blood is. The blood of Christ is so precious
that the Father accepts that blood and says, that sinner is
not guilty. They're accepted in the blood.
They're accepted in my presence. That blood is so precious that
the Father does not see nor remember those sins anymore. I'm telling
you, that's precious. Our sin's been blotted out under
the precious blood of Christ. So the blood's precious to the
Father. I'm telling you, the blood's precious to the believer,
too. Because the only way a sinner can have our sin forgiven, the
only way our sin can be blotted out, the only way we can be made
not guilty, is in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Colossians
1.14, Paul said, "...in whom we have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Our sins have been forgiven
under His blood. The blood of Christ is precious
to a believer because it's only in the blood that we can be cleansed
from our sin. John said in 1 John 1.7, the
blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Now that doesn't just mean every
sin we've ever committed, although it does, but it means more than
that. It means that the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses
us from original sin in Adam, and it cleanses us from every
sin of commission, of omission, of thought, of heart, every sin
that we've ever committed and original sin in Adam. We're cleansed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ is
precious. to a believer because only the
blood of Christ can justify. Paul said in Romans 5, 9, much
more than being now justified by His blood will be saved from
wrath through Him. How are you ever going to be
made just? Only in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if you're a sinner, that's precious. Being justified, being made holy
is precious. The blood of Christ is precious
to a believer because the only way we'll ever have peace with
God is in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is torment in enmity against
God. Just utter torment. I saw a picture
the other day of the devastation in Germany right at the end of
World War II. That's what war brings. Just
utter Devastation. Those people were delighted not
to be at war anymore. Peace is precious. Oh, to have
peace. Peace in your heart. Peace with
your neighbor. Peace in your home. Peace with
God. To not have that enmity of our
carnal mind against God anymore. Oh, that's precious. How'd you
get it? through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Colossians 1.20, He obtained
peace for us through the blood of His cross, the blood of His
sacrifice. Third, the blood of Christ is
precious because it's rare. This is the blood of the God-man. There's not been another God-man
to ever live. This blood is what it takes to
redeem a sinner. Now, God doesn't have blood,
does He? God's spirit. But a man has blood. But man
can't justify. Man can't, sinful man can't die
and redeem anybody. So God became a man. So he'd
have blood to shed as a payment that would satisfy God. God had
to provide blood that would satisfy himself. And that's exactly what
he did. And I'm telling you, it's effectual.
It got the job done. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. It just took one.
one offering because this blood is so precious. One was all took.
For the blood of Christ is precious because it's sinless blood. There
is no sin that stains this blood and takes away from its value.
You know, suppose someone finds an artifact, some old document
or something, or maybe they even find a baseball card that's worth
millions. And they take it to the appraiser.
They're going to claim their money. They're going to sell
it. I always thought, boy, if I find a gin that goes to a garage
sale and buys a picture in the back of it that's got the Declaration
of Independence, old Frank ain't on that thing. I'm selling it.
Well, suppose I go to sell it and the appraiser looks at it
and says, it's worth a few dollars. There's a stain on it. Not worth
much. There's no sin that stains the
blood of Christ and takes away from its value. The blood of
Christ is so precious, it's priceless. Oh, it's precious. And the sinlessness
and the value of the blood of Christ was proven. John says
in verse 19, we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Now he's talking
about that Passover lamb that we read about in Exodus 12. Christ
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before sin was
ever committed, the blood of Christ already stood as payment
for the sin of God's elect. Well, then it should be obvious
to us that salvation must come through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ and not through anything we do. His blood already
stood as payment before man was ever created. Now, you'll never
fully see the truth of salvation and you'll never appreciate fully
the glory of salvation until you see this, that salvation
was purposed in eternity past. God purposed it. Salvation is
the eternal decree of God. It doesn't have a beginning.
It's eternal. In Hebrews 13, 20, we read that
the blood of Christ is the blood of the everlasting covenant.
It's a covenant that's everlasting. It never had a beginning, never
will have an end. Before there was a sinner, there had to be
a Savior, or else no one ever would have been saved. You know,
people want to argue about God's electing love all they want,
but now if God didn't purpose to save me before He created
the world, I'm telling you, He never would have chosen to save
me afterwards. He had to do it in His purpose, in His decree,
before the world was founded. We're redeemed through the blood
of the everlasting covenant. And this blood, this Passover
lamb that we're talking about, that lamb, it was proven. It was watched for four days
to make sure there wasn't any hidden defect or any hidden disease. And when they examined that lamb,
Saul was perfect. Only then did they slay that
lamb. They roasted his body with fire. They applied the blood
to the door because that lamb was proven to be perfect. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
For 33 1�2 years, he lived on this earth perfect. For three years, he had a three-year
span of public ministry. Every step he took was watched
and examined. to trick him and get him to slip
up and get him to mess up. And they examined him. And even
those that examined him, that wanted to kill him, had to say,
we find no fault in him. We've got to find somebody to
lie about him in order to put him to death. He is the sinless sacrifice. His blood was proven to be perfect
and sinless. And it's eternal blood. It came
to us in verse 20. He barely was foreordained before
the foundation of the world. This is eternal blood. And sixth,
the blood of Christ is so precious that God the Father never one
time wasted a drop of it. He didn't waste a drop of that
blood. That blood was only shed for the sins of God's elect.
And that blood brings all God's elect to Him. It redeems them
from their sin. It redeems them from false religion
and brings them to Him. Verse 20, He barely is foreordained
before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these
last times for you who by Him do believe in God. They raised
Him up from the dead and gave Him glory that your faith and
hope might be in God. Christ and salvation in His blood
was hid for generations, wasn't it? But Christ has been revealed
to you who believe. He's been revealed to your heart.
Why is it you believe? Because God's given you the gift
of saving faith. And when He gives you the gift
of saving faith, you can't help it. You just believe. But now,
this salvation that God purposed in Christ in eternity past, it
was purposed. In His mind, it was accomplished.
But it was hidden. The angels didn't know anything
about it. God created the heaven and the earth. And He put man
in it. And He let Adam fall. Why didn't God just stop Adam
from sinning? He could have, couldn't he? Well, sure he could.
But he didn't. Why? So Christ could be revealed
as the Savior. If Adam never fell, you'd never
see the glory of Christ and His redemptive work and His sacrifice
for the sins of His people. And after Adam fell, God gave
him a picture of redemption. He killed an animal and clothed
the nakedness of Adam and Eve. And for generations, that's all
they had. They had Christ in type and shadow
and pictures. It was hidden in those Old Testament
scriptures. Now, the fathers still saw, didn't they? We looked
at this last week. The fathers saw the prophets
and inquired and searched diligently, and they prophesied of the grace
that should come to you. They had a glimpse of that coming
Savior. They wanted to see more clearly,
but they saw him. But they only saw him hidden
in those types. and shadows and pictures of the
Old Testament scriptures. And then there came a day when
God's son was born in Bethlehem's manger and the Savior was revealed
to the world. The shepherds saw him, the wise
men saw him, Simeon saw him. God revealed him to Simeon. Simeon
saw that baby and said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
He was revealed. And that baby grew to be a man.
And at God's appointed time, he came down to the river where
John the Baptist was baptizing. And he was revealed to the world
again. John saw him and he said, behold, the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world. Go to him. Look to him. Don't
follow me. I'm not worthy to bend down and
untie his shoe. You follow him. John saw him. John heard what John the Baptist
said, and John the Apostle, he followed Christ. Andrew saw Him. Peter saw Him. Nathaniel saw
Him. Paul said, I saw Him. As one born out of due time,
I saw Him. He was revealed to me by God's grace. And then a
while later, at God's appointed time, Christ was lifted up on
the cross for all to see. This thing wasn't done in the
corner. It was done at the time when Jerusalem was the most packed
with people coming to observe this Passover, coming to observe
the last Passover. And He was lifted up for all
to see. And that sacrifice of Christ, lifted up on the cross,
our Lord says, will draw all to Me. Now, that's not all the
sons of Adam, but it is all sinners. Every sinner is drawn to Christ
because of His sacrifice for their sins. when he was lifted
up on the cross. I don't know about everybody
else, but that's censuring us all. He said, truly, this is
the Son of God. Has to be. He saw. Now, Christ
is ascended back to glory. No one on earth can physically
see or hear Christ. But believers today still see
Him. Plainly. You still hear Christ
plainly. through His Word, through the
preaching of the Gospel. And you see Him. Carter, you
see Him. Joyce, you see Him. You see Him. Isn't that wonderful? I mean,
that's so amazing. You see Him. Christ was manifest for you. He was manifest to save you from
your sins. He was manifest to be the sacrifice
for your sin. He was manifest to be the object
of your faith. And He has revealed Himself to
you. And you see this. You know this.
Your salvation was purchased by the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ that He offered to the Father when He was sacrificed
on Calvary's tree. Your redemption was purchased
through His broken body and His shed blood. And that's what we're
going to observe in the Lord's Table. That's what these elements
of the Lord's Table represent. That bread represents the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not one great big loaf.
It's cut up in pieces. His body was broken, was bruised
and mangled, bearing the punishment of the sin of His people. And
His blood was shed. His blood flowed out till that
body died. And that blood wasn't offered
to you and me. He took it behind the veil into
the holiest of all. That blood was offered before
the Father. And the Father said, that's enough. The price is paid in full. And
the price is not just paid. That blood has made my people
not guilty. Now, who's the Lord's table for? Who should observe the Lord's
table? Well, the Lord's table is for believers who have been
saved. They've been redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ. This is something that you know. You're not in any doubt about
this. This is something you know. Peter
says, we know. I know what I'm not, what didn't
redeem me. And I know how I was redeemed
through the precious blood of Christ. And if you know that,
then this table's for you. Well, how do I know if Christ
died for me? How do I know? I can answer that
very simply. Do you believe? Do you? If you believe, then this table's
for you. If you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you believe He died for you, and all of your faith,
all of your hope, all of your confidence is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, then He died for you. That's what Peter says here,
look at verse 20, who verily is foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifested these last times for you. Well,
there's not a period there, is there? Who is the you that he
died for? You who by him, by his power, by his mercy, by his
grace, by his gift of faith, by him, you believe in God that
raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith
and hope might be in God. Christ died for you who believe. And if you believe, not only
should you, you must partake of the Lord's table. Because
this is the Lord's commandment to us, that we remember Him by
observing this table. Now look over 1 Corinthians chapter
11, I'll show you this. The one and only fence around
God's table is this. Do you believe? Do you believe that Christ paid
for your sin and He was raised again for your justification?
Verse 27 of 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 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. I'm not going to examine you
now. You examine yourself. And so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. For he eateth and drinketh unworthily,
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body." Now, Paul tells us to examine yourself. What
are you supposed to examine yourself for? Am I supposed to examine
myself to see if I sin today? Thankfully, that's not the answer,
is it? Examine yourself to see, do you believe Christ? Is Christ
all of your salvation? Is all of your redemption found
in the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ? If so, then eat. Eat worthily. All you need to
be worthy to eat the Lord's table is faith. Believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now to eat unworthily is to eat
not believing that broken body and not believing that the shed
blood of Christ is all of your hope of salvation. When we eat
the Lord's Table, we take this bread and this wine as a confession. What this represents is all my
salvation. His broken body, His blood shed
before the Father for my sin is all my salvation. I have no
other. The sacrifice of Christ is the only hope I have that
my sin would be forgiven. Now, if you can say that, then
this is a blessed time of worship. Blessed to remember your Savior
who redeems you from all of your sin by His precious blood.