Let's open our Bibles again to
1 Corinthians chapter 11. This dude, in remembrance of
me. Now this was going to be our
lesson Sunday morning, so we'll start in verse 17 where that
lesson was and we'll work through some of these verses. In verse 17, now in this that
I declare unto you, I praise you not. that ye come together
not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when
ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions
among you, and I partly believe it. Now, if you remember back
in verse 2 of this chapter, Paul had praised them for following
some of the doctrine that he had taught them. He says, Now
I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things,
and keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you. But apparently
not all. There were some problems here
that they were not to be praised. and how they were observing the
Lord's table. They were to be condemned for how they were treating
this blessed privilege that we have to observe the Lord's table.
The Lord's table was given for our good so that we could remember
the Lord Jesus Christ. But Paul says, when you observe
the Lord's table to these Corinthians, he says, you're doing more harm
than good. You're not edifying one another. You're not comforting
one another. You're not strengthening or instructing. What you're doing
is indulging the flesh. And you're causing divisions
and factions and even heresies among you. Look here in verse
19. He says, for there must be also heresies among you, that
they which are approved may be made manifest among you. This
stood out to me. There are heresies among you. We're not talking about other
people and other places. Among you, among us, there's
heresies. We have to be on our guard of
heresies among us. Because Satan is always busy
sowing tares among the weak. False prophets will always prey
on the weak in faith. And when that happens, when they
can get a foothold there, when those tears can begin to take
root amongst the wheat, it's going to bring destruction and
heartache. And it's going to be among you. Not talking about people in faraway
places, it's among us that we have to be on guard. And when
someone can come in and make shipwreck of the faith, there
will always be divisions. Always. And Paul dealt with this
earlier in this epistle. You remember, he said, there's
divisions among you. Some of you say I'm of Paul.
Some of you say I'm of Apollos and some of Cephas and some of
Christ. There are divisions among you. That's why he believes it
when he hears it. And he warns us now this doesn't happen by
chance. God allowed that to happen in
this place, in this great church, God allowed that to happen so
that those people who he had given genuine faith to would
be plainly seen. Now verse 20, Paul says, When
ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat
the Lord's supper. For in eating everyone taketh
before others his own supper, and one is hungry and another
is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in?
Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?
What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? No,
I praise you not. Now what had happened here when
they gathered together to observe the Lord's table, they added
what they called a love feast. They had this love feast first
before they observed the Lord's table. And everyone brought their
own food before the service and they ate this big feast before
worshipping around the Lord's table. But the problem was they
bring this food, but they don't share it with one another. No,
they keep it for themselves. Whatever they bring is just for
their faction or maybe their family or something. They don't
share it. Well, obviously, rich people, they brought more food
or better food or whatever. And they had so much, they overate,
they drank too much and got drunk. And the poor people, they didn't
have enough food to begin with. They come and they don't have
much food. And they've got to watch this extravagance go on
over here. And while they're going hungry,
there's all this food over there going to waste. And there's already
divisions among them. It just makes the divide greater.
And Paul says, don't you have homes that you can eat in and
fellowship together in if you want? Do you have so much content
for the people of the church? When he's talking about the church
here, he's not talking about a building. He's talking about the people
of the church of God. Do you have so much content for
your brethren that you'd shame the poor when they don't have
enough to eat? And certainly, Paul's not condemning church
suppers and fellowship dinners and things. Those are good things
to have. You know, we have them. We bring food. But you share
it, don't we? Everybody brings it in. We have
more food here than we can all eat put together. And there's
leftover food. And we share and we eat and we
fellowship together. And I'm glad that we share. You know, we have these functions. And in our family, we have family
functions. Kathy Faulkner brings this bowl
of banana pudding. I mean, I love the stuff. I mean,
I just, oh, I'm so happy I see that bowl. And I just get it
and I tell her, after I get mine, mine first, then I tell her,
oh, you've got to try this. This is really good. And if Gary
was sitting over there with a big spoon, hoarding it to himself,
I'd be over here feeling just real depraved. I'd be depraved. I'd be deprived. I'd just, oh,
because I just love the stuff. We share. But if you don't do
that, you do this in this selfish attitude, I'm telling you, you
cannot worship. You cannot worship with an attitude
of selfishness and divisions that are going on. And Paul tells
them what you're doing, this is not the Lord's Supper. It's
your supper, but it's not the Lord's Supper. The focal point
had become their supper. Their party atmosphere, not worshiping
around the Lord's table. That was what the problem was.
That's what they're to be condemned for. And we're to remember this
is the Lord's supper. It's the Lord's because he's
the author of it. It's the Lord's because he's
the subject of it. It represents him, his sacrifice. It's the Lord's because it's
done to remember our Lord. This is the Lord's table. But
they seem to have forgotten that. So Paul tells them that here's
how you're to observe the Lord's table in 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. And 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 supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament
in my blood, this do ye, as often as you drink it, in remembrance
of me. Here's the instructions on observing
the Lord's table. They came straight from the Lord
after he presided over the first Lord's table, right after he
got finished presiding over the last Passover supper. And that
was the last Passover because the very next morning, the very
next day, our Lord, our Christ, our Passover would be sacrificed
and slain for us. And before he did that, he instituted
the Lord's table. And he gave us the elements for
the table. It's unleavened bread and wine.
It's the same elements that they used at the Passover. Unleavened
bread and wine. The bread represents the broken
body of Christ. He is the true bread that came
down from heaven. And when he came down from heaven,
God became a man. God came and inhabited the body
of a man. But not just inhabited the body
of a man. He became a real man. Yet without sin. That's why it's
unleavened bread. That's why this isn't Heiner's
bread. This is unleavened bread. Because in Scripture, leaven
is a picture of sin. We use unleavened bread to picture
the sinless body of our Lord. He had no sin. Yet His body was
broken. It was bruised. It was beaten. It was lashed. It was pierced
with hatred. It was broken. But our Lord says
it's not just broken indiscriminately, is it? It's broken for you. This
is my body broken for you. This is my body broken as a substitute
for you. My body, when he instituted this
supper, what he's telling his disciples is tomorrow, my body
is going to be broken. Because I'm going to bear the
guilt of your sin. And it will be broken for you. The precious
body of our Lord Jesus Christ was broken when He suffered the
full wrath of God for my sin. For your sin. It's broken for
you. His body was broken when He suffered
all the justice, all the condemnation, all the damnation that my sins
deserved. His body was broken. for me as
my substitute. And our Lord said, now when you
take this bread and you eat it, this do in remembrance of me,
remembering my body broken as a sacrifice for your sin. Then
he gave us the wine. The wine represents the blood
of our Lord. And wine has to be crushed out
of that grape. And the blood of Christ was crushed
out of his body. His body was broken. His blood
was crushed out of his body. He was crushed by God's justice
against the sin that's laid on him. And he shed his blood. And the blood must be shed. We
know that. Scripture teaches us that. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission. It's the blood
that maketh atonement for the soul. We're redeemed. Not with corruptible things like
silver and gold. but with the precious blood of
Christ. This blood is precious blood.
Just like God, when He went through Egypt and He passed through Egypt,
He saw the blood of the Passover lamb on the door, He passed over
that house and the firstborn lived. When He sees the blood,
when God sees the blood of His Son, He passes over us in judgment
and we live in Christ because of His blood. But now this wine,
Doesn't just represent any blood now. It's not talking about the
blood of bulls and goats. That old covenant that God gave
Moses, that covenant was ratified with the blood of bulls and of
goats. But this is the new covenant, our Lord said. He told his disciples,
this is the New Testament in my blood. This covenant is ratified
with the blood of the Lamb. With the blood of God's Lamb. This is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This wine must picture the blood
of Christ. Because not just any blood is
going to put away sin now. The blood of bulls and goats
never could put away sin. This has to be sinless blood.
Pure, perfect blood. It must be the blood of God. So God became a man. He became
flesh and blood. And He offered Himself as a sacrifice
for the sin of His people. He offered His blood Not to you
and me. He offered it on the altar to
God as an atonement for the sins of his people. And because of
the blood this wine represents, the sin of God's flesh is gone.
It is no more because of this blood. Now this do, he said,
in remembrance of me. You drank this wine remembering
my blood was shed to put away your sins. Nothing but the blood
can put away sin. You drink this wine and remember
it. This do. This do. Like, why would we do
anything else? Our Lord said this do. Don't
change the bread. Don't change it from unleavened
bread. Use unleavened bread to picture the sinless body of our
Lord. This do. Don't change the wine
to grape juice. Seems like wine is not very politically
correct. But don't change it. Don't change
it to conform to man. Grape juice will spoil. It's
still got leaven in it. Use wine. Wine that will never
spoil. You can just keep using it and
using it. Open the bottle and take a little out. The rest of
it never spoils. Use that wine that will never
spoil to picture the pure, sinless blood of Christ. Don't ever change
it. Don't change it because of what
it represents and don't change it because our Lord said this
do. It's not open to interpretation.
I like things that are simple. I mean, I really like things
simple. This do. OK, I can do that. This do. But,
you know, food, I don't care how nourishing it is, how good
it tastes. That food will never do your
body any good. It will never nourish you and
strengthen you and give you life unless you eat it. It's not going
to meet the needs of your body just by looking at it. It's not
going to do your body any good just by studying what all the
nutrients are in it and things. It's not going to do you any
good by knowing how it goes through your stomach and through your
bloodstream and stuff. It's only going to do you any
good if you eat it. You've got to eat it. The shed
blood will never cleanse any sin, will never save any sinner,
unless the blood is applied. Our Lord said, take and eat,
take and drink. We have to reach out by faith
and take hold on the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to reach out
by faith and grab Him, feed on Him. Here in a minute, when we
pass these elements out, the men aren't going to put the bread
in your mouth. They're not going to tilt your head back and dump
the wine down your throat. You take it and you eat it. Nobel's going to do it for you.
You have to do it. Or like the woman with the issue
of blood. She didn't just creep up where
she could see the Lord, did she? She reached out and touched Him.
And that's the hand of faith that reaches out and takes and
eats. We sing the chorus, reach out
and touch the Lord as He passes by. Reach out by faith and take
Him and feast on Him. And that's not presumption. I'm
not telling you to do that so you can say, well, you know,
I made a decision. I get a little glory in this because I reached
out. No. That's not presumption. All that is, is following our
Lord's command. He said, take and eat. And we
follow His command and take and eat. Our Lord gave Himself for
you. for his people. He sacrificed
himself. And it's like he told his disciples,
all things are ready. Come and dine. He sacrificed
himself and he says, take and eat. That's what he says to his
people. And this is the Lord's supper.
Now, this doesn't look like the kind of a feast or supper, you
know, we have people over at our house, we want to make things
look good. We put out the best china and, you know, there's
Every night we got the paper napkins or tore up paper towels
or something. Not when company comes over.
We got the folded cloth napkins out of the drawer to use. And
you got the china and you got a centerpiece. We don't have
centerpiece every night we eat dinner, but we do when company
comes over. The table looks good. And this doesn't look all that
fancy to the natural man, but I'm telling you what this represents
is the greatest feast a man can ever have. The Lord Jesus Christ. Take and eat. That's what he
tells us. In verse 26, he says, for as often as you eat this
bread, as often as you drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death till he come. Now, there's no timetable set
for the Lord's table. He says just as often as you
do it. It's frequently, but there's no set schedule. And it will
continue Until the Lord come, you know, the Passover continued
from the time Egypt or that Israel left Egypt until our Lord died. No more Passover. The Lord's
table is going to continue from the time he died to the time
he returns. Generations. I mean, you think
of the generations have done over history what we're doing
tonight, bread and wine. And generations, I don't know
how many, but as many generations there's going to be, as long
as the Lord tarries, are going to do what we're doing tonight.
Bread and wine. Remembering our Lord. And as
often as you observe this table, as often as you eat the bread
and drink the wine, you do show the Lord's death. And what that
means, literally, is to tell throughly. As often as you do
this, you tell throughly the Lord's death. Well, how do we
tell throughly the Lord's death? Well, first, if we're going to
throughly tell the Lord's death, we've got to tell why He died. What made the death of Christ
so necessary? And you know, the answer is sin.
The guilt of Adam's sin is passed to everyone he represented. And
he represented the whole human race. His guilt is passed on
to every son of Adam. Look over Romans chapter 5. That's
original sin. Guilty of Adam's sin. Romans
5 verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man, sin
entered the world, and death by sin, so that death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned. And literally that's
translated, in whom all sinned. All of us sinned in Adam. And
the reason that we sin is because of the sin nature that we're
born with. We've got Adam's nature. That's why we sin. And the law
demands that every sinner must die. Without exception, where
there's sin, there must be death. And we're guilty. I mean to tell
you, we're in a mess. But the Gospel teaches us that
Christ came to die as a substitute for sinners. assumed the guilt, the sin of
his people, the sin of God's elect was imputed to Christ.
And he must die for that sin. God's justice demands he must
die because our sin was imputed to him. So that's why he had
to die. But second, if we're going to
truly tell his death, we have to tell how did he die? Well,
he was crucified. Well, why didn't they stone him?
Why didn't they run him through with the spear? You know, the
one time they wanted to cast him off a cliff, why didn't they
do that? Why didn't they take a sword and cut his head off?
Because he has to die as a substitute for his people. He must die under
the curse of the law to redeem them who are under the law. Scripture
says, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And our Lord
was crucified on a cross because he had to suffer our curse. the
curse that we're under. You know, when Adam ate that
fruit that God commanded him not to eat, he was under a curse
and he put all the rest of us under a curse and Christ had
to die under that curse to set us free from the curse. When
Adam fell, he realized he was naked. He's always been naked,
but this is the first time he realized it. He was naked. When
our Lord died, first thing they did was strip him naked. And
they kept him naked until they nailed him to that cross. And
he hung there between heaven and earth naked, dying under
the wrath of God. He died naked so that we'd be
clothed. He died under our curse. God
told Eve, because of your part in the fall, you'll have travail,
birth pains. You think of the pain our Lord
suffered. as he offered himself a sacrifice
to God. It's unspeakable, the pain that
he went through. Eve also, God told her, you'll
be subject to your husband the rest of your life. Christ came
to earth. God has no equal, has no superior,
yet he made himself subject to his father, subject to his own
law, bearing our curse. God told Adam, Adam, because
of your sin, the ground is cursed for your sake. It's going to
bring forth thorns and thistles to you. And it did. It brought forth thorns and thistles.
And how many years later, some wicked Roman soldier went out
and gathered up some of them thorns, fastened them together
in a circle, crude looking crown he called it, and went and shoved
those thorns into the scalp of the Creator. bearing our curse,
the thorns and thistles that come from the ground that's cursed
for our sake. God told Adam, Adam, you're going
to eat your bread in sorrow, in the sweat of your brow. I
ask you, did anyone ever have sorrow like the Lord Jesus Christ,
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief? And just the thought
of being made sin. Just the thought of having our
sin imputed to him in the garden made him sweat as it were great
drops of blood. Nobody had sorrow like he had
sorrow. And I can just see old Adam,
not long after the fall, out there trying to scrape together
an existence, planting some seed, trying to keep enough food to
feed him and his family. He's sweaty. He's thirsty out
there in that field of thorns and thistles. Our Lord, as He
hung on the cross, what did He cry? I thirst. Oh, I thirst. Showing us how
He's suffering the hell that His people deserve. He suffered
hell for me and for you. Remember the rich man in hell?
What did he ask Abraham? Send Lazarus down here. Let him
dip his finger in some water and put a drop of water on my
tongue. I'm tormented here. I'm thirsty. That's what our
Lord suffered for you and me. He suffered the curse that we've
served. When Adam fell, he was thrust
out of that garden of Eden, never to come back. Thrust out of the
presence of God. Well, our Lord bore that curse.
As he hung on the cross, he cried, My God, my God. Why has God forsaken
me? God forsook His own Son because
of me. Because of my sin laid on Him.
Because of the sin of all of His people laid on Him. And God
told Adam, if you eat that fruit, you shall surely die. And he
did. Sure enough, 900 years later,
he died. And every one of us, We've had
loved ones die and if the Lord doesn't return, we're going to
die because of this curse we're under. And our Lord Jesus willingly
took the sins of His people and God killed Him for it. He died. They took a lifeless body down
from that tomb and that dead body, or from the cross, and
that dead body lay in a tomb for three days so that His people
will never die. Never die eternally. And that's
how our Savior died. As a substitute. Bearing our
curse. But thank God the story doesn't
end there, does it? That's what John preached on
Sunday morning. He told his disciples, now I'm going to go to Jerusalem.
I'm going to suffer and die. But in three days, I'm going
to rise again. He did die for our sins according
to the Scriptures, didn't he? Under the curse? Under the wrath
of God? But three days later, he was
raised again for our justification. He accomplished the eternal salvation
of his people. He had travail and birth pains
like nobody's ever known. But he shall see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied. Everyone for whom he died is
justified, completely justified. But now, who did he die for?
If we're going to truly tell the death of our Lord, we must
know, who did he die for? We died for the elect. Look over
in John 17. He didn't die for the whole wide
world. You can't read the Bible and
think that. John 17, this is right before
our Lord goes to the cross. What does he pray? Here in verse
4. It's not in verse 4. Let me find
it. I know it's here. Somebody help me. You know what
the verse is. Here it is, verse 9. He says,
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me. for they are thine." He's
going to die for the elect. Christ is going to die for sinners. Are you a sinner who needs a
Savior? Then this table is for you, because
that's who He died for. Now, where is He now? What is
the result of the death of Christ? What is the result of this death
that we picture in this table? Well, He's seated at the Father's
right hand. He became a man But he ascended back to glory, having
accomplished the eternal purpose of redemption that his father
gave him. And right now he's seated at his father's right
hand, ever living to make intercession for the people that he died for.
He's gone to prepare a place for all those that he died for.
And he's going to bring them there because he's the victorious,
successful Savior. And when we eat the Lord's Supper,
that's the death that we show. We show why he had to die. My
sin. He had to die under the curse
of the law for my sin. But he rose again for my justification. He's seated now at the Father's
right hand, preparing a place to bring me there someday, all
because of his death. And when we take and eat this
table, we show our faith in him. We show our complete and utter
confidence in Christ and Christ alone. He's my only hope. I put
all my hope in Him. In His broken body, in His shed
blood, in His resurrected kingship. I take and I eat this bread and
this wine because He died for me. Because He is my life. That's why I take and eat it.
Now verse 27, back in our text. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall
be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause
many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. And whoever eats
this bread and drinks this cup unworthily, that means not discerning
the body of Christ. That means eating this supper
without faith in Christ, without making any difference between
these elements and other common food that we eat. Not recognizing
this is no ordinary supper. This is the Lord's supper. Someone
is unworthy, not fit to eat the Lord's table if they've never
been born again. A dead man can't eat. A dead
man is not fit to eat. He doesn't have the capacity
to eat. He doesn't have the capacity to discern this food. A dead man spiritually cannot
eat this bread and drink this wine. Also, you're not fit to
eat this table if you eat it with a leaven of malice and hatred,
like what was going on in Corinth. And for that cause, many had
eaten unworthily. And God judged him for it. Some
of them he killed. Some of them were sick. I tell
you, you do not trifle with God's Son. You can trifle with anything
else you want. Do not trifle with God's Son. Do not trot underfoot the Son
of God and count His blood as a common thing. Don't do it. That's unworthy. So Paul says,
let a man examine himself, and so let he meet. So let him drink."
Well, how do I examine myself? What am I looking for when I
examine myself? We're looking for faith. Looking
for faith in Christ. We're never going to find something
in ourselves that makes us worthy, are we? We're worthy to eat this
table if we've been washed in the blood of Christ. If we've
been given faith in Him. And here's the simplest way I
can tell you to examine yourself. Are you hungry? Then take and
eat. I come home from work and Jan's
fixing dinner and she says, are you hungry? I said, yeah. She
said, well, I've got some food for you. Sit down. Are you hungry? Do you hunger and thirst for
Christ? Then eat. Take and eat. Do you
desire Christ? Do you desire Him more than anything? Anyone? Anything? Do you desire
Him? then take and eat. This table
has been prepared for you.