Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
11. I will start reading in verse 23. I'll read some verses here first.
Verse 23, 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. When he had given thanks, he
broke it and 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, he said,
This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft
as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as oft as ye eat this
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till
he come." That's the title of the message, till he come. Verse 27, 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." I wrote out by that,
serious. This is serious. 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, tarry one for another, 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, we have gathered here tonight. to worship and to preach the
gospel of Christ, to sing his praises and to observe, to observe
the Lord's table. It is a service in which we remember
our Lord's death till he comes. I love that statement, till he
comes. I believe it was my pastor, our
pastor, that I heard say that he read this on a tombstone once,
till he comes. I thought, wow, that's so appropriate.
He doesn't have a copyright on it. We can use it too. Till he
comes. And until he comes, we are going
to stand and we are going to proclaim the substitutionary
work and death of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. Now, let's look at this. Let's
start back up here in verse 23. Now, I want us to notice, first
thing, who gave this ordinance? You know, the importance of it
is who gave it. Who gave this? Well, we know
right here, Paul says, For I have received of the Lord that which
I have delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus Christ the same
night which he was betrayed, took bread. Paul said, I received
this from the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave it. He gave it to the apostles. He
gave it to Paul. Paul gave it here to the Corinthians. He gave
it to the church. It's of God. This ordinance is
of God. Now, there's only two ordinances.
We are not loaded down. We are not loaded down. You know,
you go back in the Old Testament. That was loaded down. To go through
and do what they did day after day after day. That's what works
will do for you. Works will wear you out. But
grace, just two ordinances. And there's no effort in them.
One's baptism. You submit to baptism and someone
baptizes you. And then you take the Lord's
table. These are the only two ordinances that we have been
given. And listen, it's the Lord's table. It's not our table, is
it? I know we're keeping it, but
it's the Lord's table. It's not the Baptist table, the
Methodist table. It's the Lord's table. And if
it's His table, then it's for sinners. It's for sinners. If it's His, it's for sinners. Anything beyond this is wrong. Anything beyond baptism and observing
the Lord's table and remembrance of Him is not to be done. We're
not to turn this into a big ceremony and try to make it look more
spiritual. No, let's keep it simple. Keep it simple. Our Lord just gave us these two
things to do, and we need to keep it simple. Now, what are
the elements of this table? Unleavened bread and wine. That's simple, isn't it? Unleavened
bread and wine. The bread represents His broken
body, and the wine represents His shed blood. Not grape juice,
wine. I believe that's the way it's
supposed to be. Do it just like he gave it. Now
they represent his body, his broken body and his shed blood,
but they don't turn into it. They do not turn into his body
and his blood, not at all. They just represent. They represent
the one who died. The one whose body was broken.
The one whose blood was shed, that's what they do, they represent.
That's what they do, and that's all they do, is represent. Now
it says in verse 24, And when he had given thanks, this jumped
out at me when I was reading this, our Lord always gave thanks. He's giving thanks here to the
Father. His body is about to be broken.
He is about to be made sin. He is about to undergo the wrath
of God. We have no real concept of what
that is. But he's about to undergo that.
And so right here at this night, it says the night, the very night
that he was betrayed. I mean, it was imminent. It was upon him. And what does
he do? He gives thanks. That reminds
me of a psalm. In all things, give thanks. What
a pattern. What a pattern our Lord is for
us. An example. He always gave thanks. Even in
His darkest hour, He gave thanks. And then after that, He'd break
the bread. He'd break it. He didn't hand
it to them and say, you've got to break you off a piece. Listen. This is what I could see when
I was reading this. He willingly gave Himself. He'd
break the bread. The Father delivered Him up for
us He break the bread. And then this whole thing of
the breaking of the body of Christ, he's in full control of. He's
in full control of it. It says he break the bread. He
has absolute control over everything that's going on. He's orchestrating
this whole matter. You know, you've got a crowd
crying, crucify him, crucify him. You've got a mob that looks
like it's out of control. No, it's not. It's absolutely
under his control. And he is accomplishing his purpose
in redemption is what he's doing. He break the bread. He has control
over it all. He did it willingly. He did it
willingly. And then he says to his disciples,
and he says to everyone here who believes the gospel, take
He didn't say take and look at it, examine it. No, you take
and you eat. What is salvation? What is your
hope of glory? What is my hope of glory? What
is it? The scripture says Christ in you. Christ take, eat. Christ beside of me, Christ walking
through the midst of the crowd is not salvation. It's not myself. Christ in you. Take, eat, you
do it individually. You take and you eat. We are
to take by faith the broken body of Christ and eat it, consume
it. It's like over in Exodus 12,
he said, don't leave any of it. Don't leave any of it remaining.
Eat it all. Look over in John chapter 6.
John chapter 6. Look in verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, you have no life in you. You're dead. Whoso eats my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him." I tell you what, those
Jews, when they heard that, boy, they was like, you've got to
be kidding. But you know what, he goes on down, he said, the
words I speak to you, they are spirit in their life. He's talking
about faith. He's talking about faith. They
didn't understand that. They could not discern what he
was saying. You know, you go down into this
chapter, we'll get down here in a little bit. It says that
in verse 29, he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. When he said
this over in John, there was many of them heard him and they
were like, I know they had to be thinking, we're not cannibals.
You're saying, you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood.
They're like, we can't do that. Oh, yes, you can. By faith, by
faith, we eat his flesh and we drink his blood. We receive him
into ourselves. When you eat something, what
do you do? You take it into yourself. It
goes into your body and it nourishes your body. I mean, it goes into
you. You take it into yourself, you
digest it, you draw nourishment from it. And if we are to have
life, eternal life, Christ said, He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood hath eternal life. If we are to be nourished in
Christ, if you are to be nourished spiritually, if your soul is
to be lifted up, it will be through eating Christ by faith. Receiving Christ by faith. That's what's going to happen
if you're going to enjoy Him, if you're going to draw any nourishment
from Him and life from Him. You're going to consume Him.
You're going to consume Him. Take and eat, He said. He says here, which is broken
for you. You know, listen, every word
in the Word of God is important. There are no fillers in the Word
of God. Every word is important. Which is take, eat, this is my
body. It represents my body. Which
is broken for you. For you. His body was broken. His death on the cross was for
someone. It was for a multitude of sinners
given to Him by the Father. That's Bible. It's for His elect. It's for sinners. It's for sinners. It was not broken. than left
to see what we would do with it. You wouldn't do that, would
you? And look how sinful we are. We wouldn't even do that. God
is infinitely wise. He's not going to leave the end
result of salvation up to a bunch of dead people that hate Him
anyway. Well, if some people just stop
and think. No, no, no. It's for Israelites.
It's for Israelites. Who are the Israelites? It's
everyone who believes God. Everyone who believes God. But
there's also, it says, broken for you. It denotes his sufferings.
He didn't give them twelve. There wasn't twelve loaves of
bread given to him and told him to enjoy it. No, this is broken.
It's torn. You pull it apart. The Scripture says that his visage
was so marred more than any man. That's how beaten and how mutilated
his body was. He said it's broken. That denotes
his suffering. Have you seen anybody broken? Their spirit broken or their
body broken? Our Lord was broken. I wish I could emphasize that
the way it ought to be emphasized. But no matter what, it takes
the Lord to reveal that. It takes the Lord to just reveal
that. Now who is this table for? He
said you. Broken for you. Who's you? You
who believe. You who believe. You who have
discernment of the Lord's broken body and shed blood. You know whose body was broken,
don't you? It was the God-man. It was God
in human flesh whose body was broken. You know why it was broken. That God first might be a just
God and a Savior. That He might satisfy God's law
on our behalf. It had to be broken. And you
know what was accomplished by it. Eternal redemption, satisfaction
of God's law, salvation. Accomplished by it. In other
words, you understand the gospel. You understand the gospel of
substitution. You're not scratching your head. Like that blind man, I was blind,
but now I see. It's for the church. It's for
the church. It's not for us to do at home.
It is not for us to do at home individually. It is for the body
of Christ to come together and do it together. We do it here
as a body of Christ, as a family of Christ. We are one body. And then it's for sinners. Oh,
I tell you what, it's for sinners. It's for the ungodly. Christ died, he said, for the
ungodly. That let the door, that opened
the door for me. Did it open it for you? I believe
it did. He says, broken for you. And
then he says here, after the same manner, verse 25, after
the same manner also he took the cup. When he had supped,
saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood, this do ye, as oft
as you drink it in remembrance of me. After the same manner,
he took the cup. One is never taken without the
other. Never. One is never without the
other. And this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This cup is the new covenant
ratified and established in my blood. That's what he's saying. The blood of bulls and goats
did not ratify the covenant of grace. No. No, it took much greater blood
than that. Not at all. Look over in Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 12, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean, sanctified unto the purified of the flesh, how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?" He said, this cup is the New
Testament ratified and established in my blood. Not the blood of bulls or goats,
the blood of the Son of God. The blood of God is spoken of
in Acts. Now he says, this do ye, don't
add anything to it. Do not, he says this, he's telling
his disciples, he's telling us, telling his church, this do. Don't add anything to it. Don't
try to make it look more spiritual or anything else, or don't add
ceremonies to it. Just this do. Just keep it simple and just
this do. This do. Leave it as it was given. Christ crucified is all we need. That's all we need. Let's not
do anything that distracts from that. Don't do anything that
starts distracting from Christ and Him crucified. Don't do anything
that starts distracting from this, what this resembles, what
we're doing this for in remembrance of Him. You start adding all
this other stuff, you'll forget what you're doing this for. You'll
just forget what you're doing. You get so caught up in all the
other stuff, you forget And it's sad, I tell you what, it's sad,
but it's a commentary on us that we have to be told to remember. Remember. The greatest thing
that ever happened and ever will happen in this world, we are
told to remember it. Don't forget it. And so as often
as you do it, he's saying, you know, you do this as often as
you, doesn't say how many times, but as often as you do it, now
you do it for this purpose. in remembrance of me. As often as you drink it, you
take this cup, you do it in remembrance of me. When we do this, we affectionately,
affectionately remember our Lord's substitutionary death till He
comes. We do this affectionately. We
remember everything about Him. About Him when we do this. Because when we do this, we are
remembering not an ordinance, but a person. In remembrance of me. Bringing me to mind and what
I've done for you. Do this in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come."
Now, I'm not the only one preaching
here tonight. You know that? I'm not the only one going to
be preaching here tonight. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter
9. We all can't stand in the pulpit, but we all do preach
when we do this. First Corinthians, let me get
my place back here. Chapter 9, I'll show you something. Okay, now look in verse 14. Even so hath the Lord ordained
that they which preach the gospel shall live of the gospel. That
they would preach. Now you go back over here. He
says, you do show the Lord's death. That word show is exactly
the same thing as preach. So when you do this tonight,
you take the Lord's supper here, his table, take the Lord's table. Every one of you is going to
preach. You're going to preach his death till he comes. That's what it is. You're going
to do what I'm doing. You're going to preach. That's
what that word means. It means that. You're going to
show His death till He comes. Christ crucified is our message. Christ crucified is our hope.
Christ crucified is our joy. And we are going to show that
till He comes. Till He comes. And it says in verse 27, let
me deal with a few verses here and then we'll partake of the
table. Wherefore, also, 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. That used to. I mean, it really
scared me when I very first started understanding this, understanding,
understanding the gospel, understanding the scriptures and You know,
these things are serious. The most serious thing you'll
ever do in your life, and you're doing it tonight. You're doing
it tonight. Not discerning. Here's what it
means, eating and drinking unworthily. It's not discerning the Lord's
body, not understanding the gospel. Not understanding the gospel.
And here's how serious it is. He says, you'll be guilty of
the blood of the body and blood of our Lord. And he says in verse
30, for this cause, many are weak, sickly among you, many
sleep. That's how serious this matter is. But now, listen, unworthy
does not mean. And I say it gave me great comfort
when I learned this, it does not mean It does not mean that
you must be without sin. Not a person in here fits that
mold. That shoe won't fit anybody. It doesn't fit any of us. A person
can't have sin in their life. You've got to die for that to
happen. You've got to leave this world. Here's what I mean. I'm going
to give you an example. It's not that there's no sin, that
I'm not sinning or I haven't sinned. It has nothing to do
with that. Unworthy would be believing that Jesus Christ died
for every son of Adam and that some of them are going to perish,
and some are not. Now, brethren, that's not understanding
the gospel. That is not understanding. That
is not discerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's not discerning that because
that didn't happen. That did not happen. Everyone
for whom Christ died shall be saved. As a man said to me one time,
he said, he said, Christ died for Judas as well as he did Peter.
I tell you what, I'm serious. If that's what you believe, you
better not be taking this because you don't discern the gospel.
You don't have an understanding of what's going on. You don't
know what he did. You do not know what happened
at the cross. You don't really know who died on that cross.
That's not discerning the Lord's body. It's not discerning him. So he says here in verse 28,
so examine yourselves, not each other. Oh, you know, I know some
of this group should take it. Now, some of you shouldn't take
it. Maybe somebody made me mad last week and you shouldn't take
it. No, he says you examine yourselves. He doesn't even say for the pastor
to examine them. He says this is an individual
matter. You examine yourselves. Examine yourselves here in verse
28. But look down here in verse 31. For if we would judge ourselves
We should not be judged. If we examine ourselves, here's
what we are doing. We are judging ourselves. And
if we judge ourselves, here is what we come up with. Guilty. I am guilty. I am a sinner. I'm a sinner and I need mercy.
I need this blood. I need his broken body. I need
cleansing. If we judge ourselves, They will
not be judged. They'll not be judged. Who may take? Who may take the
Lord's table? This kept me from being a pastor
one time. I can see why now. But there
was a church very serious about me being a pastor. And they came
down to this issue. Whether it be closed or open,
it came down to that issue. And I said, I told them, I said,
open. I said, it's the Lord's table.
And they said, well, we believe in closed communion. And I said
to them, you mean to tell me if my pastor
comes here and we have communion, that I've
got to tell him to leave or I've got to pass him by? I said, that's
not going to happen. And that was the end of that. And that
was the end of that. It's the Lord's table. So who may take it? All who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Who may be baptized? All who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. As He's revealed in the Word
of God. So He says here, Eat! Take it. You believe on Christ,
you take it. You take it. And in taking it,
you're preaching the gospel tonight. All right. We'll have the Lord's
table now.