Well, thank you so much for your
kind, generous hospitality again. Thank you for being our friends
for so long. Thank God for friends. And the
older I get, I especially thank Him for old friends. Open your
Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 1 Corinthians chapter
11. When Brother Larry told me a
week or two ago we were going to have the Lord's table this
morning at the conclusion of the conference, my mind immediately
went to this portion of scripture. And I was fairly certain that
this would be what I'd be preaching to you about this morning. The
title of my message is, Who is Worthy? who is worthy. Let me just talk to you for a
minute or two before we get to our text. Just hold your Bibles
there at first Corinthians 11 and let's begin with a consideration
of a question. What is the most important aspect
of your life? What's the most important aspect
of a believer's life, the life of one who is born of God, who
seeks to honor God, who lives by faith in the Lord Jesus. What's
the most important aspect of your life? Many would say, well,
that would be my time of private Bible study, my quiet time, my
time of private prayer, getting together with God's saints
and having prayer meetings or home Bible studies, perhaps witnessing. What's the most important aspect
of your life? The single most important aspect
of every believer's life. I'm certain this will be shocking
to some who hear it. The single most important aspect
of every believer's life is public worship. Public worship. Not private worship,
public worship. Not home Bible studies, public
worship. Not prayer meetings, public worship. I promise you, if you neglect
the worship of God in the assembly of his saints, in the local church,
as we are hopefully engaged in this morning, those other things
do not really exist. If there is no public worship,
I assure you there is no private worship. The single most important
aspect of every believer's life is the worship of God in the
assembly of his saints and that which is called the Church of
God. In all ages of time, from the
very beginning, those who are gods have been known and identified
by their public gatherings for the worship of God. Wherever
God has had a people in this world, he's had a congregation
to worship him. Sheep are social people. They're social animals. You only
see sheep alone when one of two things are so. Either the sheep
is lost or it's sick. You never see sheep by themselves
unless they're lost or sick. And God's elect are sheep. No matter how few they are, they've
always been gathered together in public worship. In the public
assembly, we bear public, united testimony to the world of our
Savior, of our God, of his grace, and of his salvation. This local
assembly has been in this community for half a century, I reckon. bearing witness to our God, His
gospel, His grace, and His salvation. That's what believers do in the
public assembly of God's saints. As an assembled body of believers,
we strengthen and cheer, comfort and reprove help and encourage
one another in the way of faith by prayer and praise in the preaching
of the gospel and by the blessed influence of that fellowship
you just mentioned. We have one with another and
with God our Savior. We help one another along the
way. We strengthen one another. We encourage one another. We
reprove one another. We comfort one another. From
the beginning of the Bible, from the very beginning, this has
been true. Adam and Eve taught their sons
Cain and Abel to worship God. Genesis chapter 4 the first thing
we read about those two boys. They're grown men now and they
came together in public worship Cain came as an unbeliever Abel
as a believer, but they came together in public worship wherever
men settled, wherever the saints of God, the patriarchs, pitched
their tents. The first thing they did, they
set their tents up for the household, and they built an altar and worshiped
God with those in their community, wherever they went. The first
thing Noah did when he came out of the ark, he gathered his sons
together, and they built an altar, and they worshiped God as the
family of God. Not just a family of blood kin,
though that's all they were. This was the family of God. They
had a stronger tie than the blood in their veins. They had grace
in their hearts, and they worshiped God as one family in the Lord
Jesus Christ throughout the Mosaic economy. The Jew who did not
worship God in the tabernacle or in the temple with the rest
of God's people was cut off from the assembly. Is that right,
Bruce? It cut off. They were considered reprobate.
They were considered as the uncircumcised and the Gentile. In the book
of Acts, God's church was scattered all over the place by persecution. No sooner were a few believers
settled here or a few settled there than they gathered together
by a riverside or in somebody's house or in an open field and
they worshiped God in the assembly of his saints. Public worship
is the single most important aspect of every believer's life
This is that by which we are identified as God's people With
David every saved sinner is resolved to worship God Saying as for
me I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy
and in thy fear Will I worship toward thy holy temple? Let this
be true of you and to me. By this, let everyone examine
himself or herself. Those who willingly, habitually
absent themselves from the worship of God don't know God. I'm not looking for something
to say. I want everybody here to hear what I just said. Those
who willingly, habitually absent themselves from the worship of
God do not know God. Now you may know your church
creed inside and out and recite it frontwards and backwards.
You may be a Calvinist of the finest order. You may defend
the creed. You may fight for the doctrine,
but if you willingly absent yourself from the worship of God, you
don't know God. Sheep gather in worship. Sheep worship the redeemer. The local church is indeed the
greatest privilege we have in this world as God's people, gathering
with his saints in his house. Listen to how God describes this
local church. Listen right here. This is how
God describes it. Are you ready? I'm not talking
about the building. It wouldn't matter whether we're
meeting in here or meeting in the garage or meeting out in
the field. We're thankful to have a nice, comfortable, heated,
air-conditioned place with padded pews. That's wonderful. But the
building is just brick and mortar and wood and such as that. That's
what you dig out of the ground. I'm talking about God's church,
this assembly of God's people. Do you know what God calls it
in his word? This is the house of God. This is the house of God. My house, that's important to
me. My house. And I'm not talking about the
wood frame under the roof that I live in. I'm talking about
my house. That woman there, our daughter, our son-in-law, our
children, grandchildren, that's my house. This is the house of
God. Our Savior said, the disciple
said, your mother's asking for you. He said, this is my mother
and my brother and my father and my son and my daughter. This
is my family. This local synod, Fairmont Grace
Church, right here in Silicon, Alabama, who'd ever dreamed such
a thing, is called the Temple of the Living God. The temple
of the living God. Paul said to the Corinthians,
said, you are the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3. The spirit of
God dwells in you. And he's not talking about this
body. He's talking about that in chapter 6. But in chapter
3, he's talking about the assembly of God's saints. He said, you're
the temple of God. Brother Larry can bear witness
to this. Sunday mornings in Danville.
Unless it's so bitterly cold or raining so hard I can't stand
to be out there. I always greet our folks on the
front porch. I'm the first one there. And I stand at the front
porch, watch folks drive up. And it's not just to be friendly.
I hope I'm that, but that's not the reason. As I see you drive
up, I'm praying that God's come in with you. And that you have
sought the Lord to come worship. And there's something Mystical. I didn't say magical. I said
mystical. Something wonderfully blessed
about the gathering of God's people by God's Spirit in the
Savior's name. When you came in here seeking
to worship Him, God the Holy Spirit came with you. Read the book. Read the book.
We're assembled. This is the temple of God. Bruce,
if we came here for his glory, to worship him, just two or three,
this is the temple of God. God, the Holy Spirit's here with
you. This is what the church is called, Ephesians chapter
two. An habitation of God through the Spirit. An habitation of
God through the Spirit. If we had some grasp, Of those
three statements with regard to God's church, the house of
God, the temple of God, and habitation of God, man alive, you couldn't
beat folks out the doors. You couldn't keep folks out.
This is the church of God. Well, Brother Don, what about
universal church? We understand that. We understand
that God's church is universal in this sense. It's made up of
all God's elect, red, yellow, black, and white, made up of
all God's elect, rich and poor, bond and free, all God's elect,
Old Testament, New Testament, in heaven and on the earth, the
whole body of Christ. That's the church of God universal.
But that takes nothing away from the blessedness of the local
assembly. You see, this is the only place
on God's earth where the Son of God promises to meet you. Where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Not I
might be. And it doesn't say where two
or three gather together in my name. where two or three are
gathered together in my name. Gathered by God's spirit. Gathered
by God's providence. Gathered by God's grace. God's
brought them together. That's it. God's brought them
together. The building of a local church is not by programs and
initiatives and organization and skill and wit and wisdom
and a sales job. The building of a local church
is the work of God's spirit, performed by the gospel. As men
and women hear the word, God gathers. He gathers. And where two or three are gathered
together, believing the Lord Jesus, seeking his glory, seeking
him, trusting his blood and his righteousness, I wonder if there
are two or three who've been brought here this morning Because
you want to see Christ, hear Christ, worship Christ. Just
two or three. If so, the Lord Jesus says, I'm
right there with you. I'm there with you. When we come
together as a local church in the name of Christ, this church
is the temple of God. And here God sends out his word
by the gospel. He gathers his elect by the preaching
of the gospel. I know that, uh, Folks put a
premium on door-to-door witnessing and passing out tracks and going
down to the shopping center and button-holding folks and all
that stuff. I'm not discouraging that. I don't care how you tell
folks about Christ. Just tell them. If it embarrasses
your neighbor, go ahead and embarrass your neighbor. That doesn't bother
me a bit in the world. But I'm going to tell you how God saved
most of you. I'll tell you exactly how God saved most of you. As
a matter of fact, I'll take a survey, this little congregation here.
Who here was saved? Who here was saved except right
where you are right now by hearing a man preach the gospel? Anybody? Anybody? That's how God saves sinners,
Larry. You folks just walked in here. Oh, maybe God brought
you here to reveal Christ in you. What a prospect. What a prospect. That's how God saves sinners.
He sends out his word from the sounding board of a gospel church
and causes sinners to hear. He edifies and strengthens and
comforts his people by the preaching of the word. He instructs them.
He reproves them. He establishes them in the faith.
Perhaps it is this very fact, the fact that the local church
is so vital to our soul's welfare, that makes it Satan's huge target
for opposition. The two things most vehemently
attacked by the wiles of the subtle serpent, the devil, are
the sin-atoning work of our Lord Jesus Christ, his finished work
at Calvary, the actual redemption of our souls by the sacrifice
of God's Son, and the local church. Those two things. More than anything
else in history. I was watching. Sheldon and I
don't watch much except Gunsmoke and Fox News. And so we see a
lot of tomfoolery. That fellow who ran for president
used to be a preacher for some guy. His name was Huckabee. He
had some fellow on last Saturday night, I think it was. Some fellow
out in Seattle. I thought I'd be interested to
see what he'd say preaching. Doesn't go to church, got no
use of public church, public assembly, God's saints, just
we want folks to serve Jesus. Shoot your middle shine shoes. That's nonsense. That's nonsense. If you serve the Son of God,
you serve him in his kingdom through his church. That's exactly
right. There's no serving him otherwise.
The Holy Spirit gives us crystal clear instruction concerning
these things in scripture. The Bible is not ambiguous. The Bible just doesn't speak
clearly about these things. I beg to, and I don't beg to,
I'm just going to differ with you. The Bible speaks as plain
as it can be. Our worship services are to be
orderly worship. I sat down this morning and read
the last chapters of 1 Corinthians. Do you know what they're all
about? Orderly worship. Orderly worship. Some folks laugh
because you have a bulletin here. Look at that, I've got a call
to worship, message of scripture reading. You mean you actually
planned this? You actually took time to pick out a hymn? Well, let's see, number 33, that'd
be good. What is that? Have we ever sung
that before? That careless nonsense is not
worshiping God. That's not worshiping God. The scriptures speak about
orderly worship, orderly worship. At our conference a year ago,
I had somebody who knew better started this nonsense. I said, put your hand down and
quit shaking your fanny. It ain't happening here. Ain't happening
here. Not as long as I've got anything
to do with it. We come here to worship God, not to be seen to
men. Orderly worship, orderly worship, so that things are done
decently and in order to promote the reverent hearing of God's
word. The scriptures are very plain.
We come together and read the word. Y'all don't have any Iwana
clubs and Becker clubs and Bader clubs and whatever other kind
of clubs they've got? No? Well, what do you do? We read
the scriptures. I never heard tell of that. Come to God's house,
you'll hear his word read. We pray. We give praise to our
God. We sing hymns of praise. Not hymns of emotional feel good. Hymns of praise to the triune
God. And we focus on the preaching
of the word of God. The preaching of the word of
God. Some of you heard this, I know, but it'll bear repetition.
Back years ago, I got a call from One of the gals at the local
newspaper, advocate, messenger. And I've forgotten her name now.
I'll give it to you. I might think of it in a minute.
But it's just as well. She said, Reverend Fortner. She called me a reverend. I said,
Donald do. She said, she's Reverend Fortner. We're doing a survey for Easter
Sunday. And we wanted to write some articles
about what the churches are doing for Easter Sunday. Said, what
are y'all going to be doing Easter Sunday? I said, we're going to
meet here and worship God. And she said, Doug, you don't understand.
I mean, we want to see what the various things are the churches
are doing. On Sunday during your worship services, I said, I'm
going to preach the gospel. And I knew what she was getting
at, but I just kept leading her on. Finally, she said, I'm not
making myself clear. She said, what are you doing
that's special? I said, I'm going to preach the
gospel. She said, I mean, what are you going to do that's different?
I said, I'll tell you what. You'll be here at 10 o'clock
Sunday morning. You can't believe how different it's going to be.
That's what we do. That's what we do. We come together
to worship God. We baptize believers, bury them
in water, fulfilling all righteousness. Wow, that sounds like a Campbellite. Fulfilling all, how does immersing
someone in water and bringing them up out of it again fulfill
all righteousness? Our Lord said it did. Read Matthew
chapter three. Symbolically, he fulfilled all righteousness
for his people by his obedience unto death and raised again,
declaring us justified by his sacrifice. We come together and
we break bread and wine, observe the Lord's Supper. Observe the
Lord's Supper so that we can remember our Redeemer. Vividly portrayed in his sacrifice
symbolized in the bread and wine before us All right. Now with
that is the background. Let's look at first Corinthians
chapter 11 verse 27 first Corinthians chapter 11 verse 27 I'm certain
that no portion of Scripture No single portion of scripture
has caused more uneasiness or been more disturbing to God's
people throughout the ages of the world, throughout the ages
of this gospel age, than these three verses of scripture I've
chosen for my text this morning. 1 Corinthians 11, 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. Now, just in case I forget to
say this, be sure you mark these two things. Let a man examine
himself. But Bruce, that's not where it
stops, is it? and so let him eat. It didn't say examine yourself
and don't eat. It said examine yourself and
so let him eat. 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. That's the key to the whole chapter. Not discerning the Lord's body. And many of the Lord's people,
most of you, myself included, look at that and we'd say, well,
is anybody unworthy of eating this bread, drinking this wine?
It's me. And you're right. You're right. If you're looking at you. You're exactly right. Which of
you is fit to take the bread and the wine? Well, let's take
something a little more simple than that. Which of you is fit
to call on God in prayer? Which one? Which of you is worthy to lift
your eyes to heaven and say, Abba, Father? Who? Who? Who is it that's worthy
to just, when we get ready to go back in the back a minute
ago, or in a little while, and Brother Larry asked somebody
to give thanks for the food, to just sit right where you are
and nobody even look at you and you say, Lord thank you for the
food. Which of you is worthy to do that? Which one? Well, surely then, this is not
a prohibition to receiving the Lord's table. It's instruction
about receiving the Lord's table. It's instruction about how we
are to worship our God. But Satan roars against us, especially
against the weak, untaught, or poorly taught child of God, and
accuses him of sin and guilt, and always attempts to put us
on a legal footing before God. Satan's, he's subtle. He'll do
his dead level best to raise Moses up and put you on a legal
footing before God so that you think that you can find something
in yourself to give you confidence with God. Well, ah, boy, I just
got here through hearing that tremendous sermon on good works.
I had never done any yet, but I made up my mind to do something
now. Now I'm good. Now I'm worthy. The fact is, when Paul speaks
of unworthiness, he's not talking about our being in a certain
frame of mind or our looking and examining ourselves and seeing
how clean our lives are and how morally upright we are or how
strong we are in faith or whether or not we prayed up and read
up and gone to church enough to take the Lord's Supper. Paul's
doctrine here reaches beyond the ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
In reality, the question is, who is worthy to worship and
serve God? Who's worthy? Who's worthy to
eat this bread and drink this wine? The same person who's worthy
to pray. The same person who's worthy
to worship God, the same person who's worthy to meet God in judgment,
he's worthy of the Lord's table. Who's unworthy? The one who can't
pray, and the one who can't worship, and the one who dares not meet
God in judgment. Now let's see if I can make good
on that from the text in which the scripture's found. In this
part of 1 Corinthians, Paul, by divine inspiration, is setting
in order the disorderly affairs of this Corinthian church. But
more importantly, he's setting before us the proper order of
public worship in all gospel churches. Particularly in verses
20 through 34, the Holy Spirit tells us exactly how we should
and should not observe the Lord's Supper. Hold your Bibles open
here. And follow with me through the
scriptures. We'll begin at verse 20. First, the apostle speaks
of a specific time and a specific place. When you come together,
therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
Now, three things are obvious in this 20th verse. Number one,
there was a specific place where the Corinthian church assembled
for public worship. We meet with a lot of folks who
fancy themselves learned spiritual people, who care nothing for
commitment and responsibility. They'd like to run from one place
to another, or go to no place at all, or meet together with
God's saints when they please with no personal responsibility. They are spiritual welfare bums.
They don't want to have to commit themselves to anything. And so
they say, well, we don't believe we ought to meet in a church
building. We ought not meet in a house. We just ought not really
commit ourselves to anything at all. And they think that's
marvelously spiritual. That's marvelously carnal. When
the local church where you worship meets together, It's your business
and your privilege, your responsibility, and your honor to be there. I
made a statement a while back, and some young fellow wrote to
me and was reprimanding me pretty sharply for being so self-righteous.
I apologize, but I'm going to make a statement again and hope
you understand. He didn't. God saved me when I was 17 years
old. That lady became part of my life shortly thereafter. She
can verify it or she can tell you it's not so. And these 40, nearly 46 years
since God saved me, I've never absented myself from the house
of God for anybody, for anything, not once. Not Sunday morning,
not Sunday night, not Tuesday night, not Wednesday night, not
for anybody, not once. And God give me grace, it's not
going to happen tomorrow. Not for anybody, not for anything,
not going to happen. Well, my baby's playing soccer
today. You know what my baby's doing? Both of them playing some
kind of sports game all the time. I love to see them if it's sometime
when I'm not worshiping God. But it ain't going to happen
while I'm worshiping God. Not going. Not going. Yeah, but they're
playing for the championship today. I'll read about it in
the paper. I ain't going. I ain't going. I've got something
more important than Shelby Fortner, or Faith and Doug Hacker, or
Will and Audrey Grace Hacker. I've got a God to serve, and
a God who just might speak to me by His word. Now, Louie, that's
just more important than anything else. That's just more important.
I've had the great privilege. And our daughter was born. I
wasn't pastoring then, but I was scheduled to preach in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. I was up about all night. Faith was born at
1 o'clock in the morning. I went home, finished, prepared. I don't
think I slept in it and had the liberty to preach that morning
on birth. Our granddaughter was born. I
preached the message on a child is born next day. Oh, you ought
to have been to that hospital. I was there, and I left in time
to go worship God. Nothing's so important. Nothing.
You see, God's church would soon cease to exist if everybody decided
to run to this place or that or no place at all according
to his own whims. How long do you reckon those
folks up in Newcastle will be around if everybody decided to do what
that one fellow did and went fishing today? How long do you
reckon they'll resist? Well, how do you know? Is that
important? I'll tell you something else. I was sitting on Brother
Tom Harding's deck a couple of weeks ago preaching for him.
And I made this statement, not for his benefit, but for the
benefit of folks who were listening to me. I said it to folks we
preached to. Men and women who love us, and
they do. You folks love your pastor. It's obvious. I'm thankful
you do. Folks who we preach to, if they had any idea what's involved
in seeking God's message for their soul, they wouldn't miss
it for the world. Would you? Would you? My wife,
you can't tell her by looking at me, but she's a good cook.
She spreads a pretty good table. And she works at it. She works
at it. But she'd soon quit working at
it, I suspect. If she'd work all day and prepare
a meal and get things ready, she'd expect me to come home,
man, she's got macaroni and cheese in the oven, and she's got some
hush puppies to fix and put them in the batter, and she's got
a wonderful meal prepared. Just getting everything ready.
Right when I come in, I say, well, honey, I'm just not hungry
tonight. I'm going to bed. Something must be wrong. And so she does
it again. I'd rather watch the ball game. And she hadn't left me by the
third time. I'd come home, and I'd say, well, where's the food?
She'd say, well, you didn't want any, did you? Folks would not so neglect
the worship of God. if you had any idea how a man
labors in the word before God to find a message for your soul,
realizing that you might meet God before he sees you again. Yeah, brother Don, that sure
puts things in a different color, doesn't it though? When the Corinthian
church came together at the appointed time, They claim that they came
to eat the Lord's Supper, but Paul says here, this is the second
thing, he said, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. That's not
why you came together. You folks came together to throw a party.
Go, man, y'all come down to our church, we go to church down
there and have a good time. That's the reason I'm not going. They came together to have a
love feast, and they called it the Lord's Supper. They came
together to gratify their flesh. They came together to please
their lust. They came together to do what
seemed good to them to do together. Go to church and have a good
time, fellowship with each other. And third, if we don't observe
the ordinances of divine worship in the manner prescribed by God,
we don't observe them. Did you get that? They said,
we've come together for the Lord's Supper. Paul said, you didn't
do any such thing. Now wait a minute, we got it on our sign out front,
Lord's Supper today, 11 o'clock. That's where we'll be. No, no,
that's just on the sign. That's just your excuse for getting
together and throwing a party. You see, there's no worship of
God, Bruce, if we don't worship God the way he said. It's just
playing games. Go down to, where's the nearest
church building? Down that way or this way? Just
go tonight. Now, don't do it. Don't take
me serious. Please don't go down there. But if you're interested,
just walk in, stick your head in the door and see what's going
on. They ain't worshiping God. Nothing like worshiping God.
They're playing games with men's souls, entertaining folks on
the way to hell. No, no, we come here to worship
God. We come here to worship God.
Brother Larry, may I treat you like I was your pastor still,
won't I? That's your responsibility to see to it. To see to it. Somebody said, I made a statement,
that's not going to happen in Danville. I said, how can you
say that? As long as I got breath in me, it ain't going to happen
in Danville. Not as long as I'm pastor there, it ain't going
to happen. Ain't gonna happen. Well, how can you say that? I'm
responsible. I'm the pastor. This is what we do in God's house. We come to God's house to worship
and honor God Almighty, to proclaim his word, nothing else. And nothing
else is involved. Nothing else is involved. When
you come together in one place, Paul said, this is not to eat
the Lord's supper. At home, in our congregation
in Danville, We come together every Sunday night. We've done
it ever since I've been there observe the Lord's Supper every
Sunday night and We do come to observe the Lord's Supper come
to worship him. It's called the Lord's Supper
cause it's his It's called the Lord's Supper cause it's in his
house. It's called the Lord's Supper cause it's about him It's
called the Lord's Supper because it's for his people He's the
reason for it and it's for his family. All right, I gotta hurry
look at verse 21. I Now Paul talks about abuses. For in eating,
every one taketh before other his own supper, and one is hungry,
and another is drunken. These folks added to the ordinance
of Christ a gaudy feast that soon got out of hand. They had
these love feasts. You can read about them in history.
Some churches still have them. There's a Moravian Church in
Winston-Salem, my hometown, every year has their love feast at
Christmas. And everybody gets together and
they hold candles and sing little songs and have their horse manure
party. Rather than waiting on one another,
these folks came to their feast and rudely jumped in front of
each other. Instead of waiting on the poor, the poor were left
hungry, and they called it a love feast. While the poor got nothing,
those who jumped before them gorged themselves to the point
of drunkenness. Look at verse 22. What, have
ye not houses to eat in, 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? I
praise you not. Now, back home, and I know here
in this part of Alabama, y'all got a bunch of badness who spell
badness with a big B. You think the only ones there
are are us. And most of them will speak real, real bad about
what we're fixing to do this afternoon. We're going to go
back here to this dining hall, and we're going to have a meal.
Oh, you can't do that. You can't eat in the Lord's house.
This is not what Paul's talking about. He's saying to these Corinthians,
if you're coming to church to have a party, just stay home.
That's exactly what he's saying. Back years ago. I have to tell
it. Somebody will hear this and be
shocked, but that's all right. I like shocked people. Brother
Mahan was with us up at Lookout, West Virginia, where I was pastoring.
And we had a fellowship hall behind the church building. And
Henry was trying to eat. I was sitting right beside him.
I can picture it. I can see it right now. He was trying to eat. And
he had some corn and some beans on his fork, just like this.
And a fellow kept talking to him, asking him questions. And
Henry said, he said, aren't you going to eat, Brother Cole? Don't
believe you ought to eat in the Lord's house but by hand. Henry
said, you're peeing in it, don't you? End of the argument. No, Paul
is not talking about eating a meal here, saying you can't do that.
No, he's saying if you're going to party, stay home and party.
If you come to church to please your flesh, stay home and please
your flesh. If you come to church to be entertained, stay home
and be entertained. We've come here to worship God. All right,
move on. Look at 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 break it and said, take, eat, this is my body, which
is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.
After the same matter also, he took the cup when he had sucked,
saying, this cup is the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood.
This do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For
as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show
the Lord's death. You do show the Lord's death
till he come. Now here, the Holy Spirit tells
us That when the gospel writers speak of our Lord Jesus, they
say, took the bread and blessed him. He was not doing this and
making the bread into his body. He was just giving thanks. We,
in the South, we'll ask somebody, say, well, do you have the blessing?
And that comes from a Roman Catholic tradition. Somehow or another,
we've taken this food that is really not good, and now we've
blessed it, and it's become good. No, when our Lord blessed the
food, he just gave thanks for it. And when we bless the food,
we just give thanks for it. Having said that, I want to just
touch on the things that are taught us in these verses we've
read. We're to observe the Lord's Supper the way our Lord did with
his disciples the night he was betrayed. Go back to the four Gospels and
read about it, and read what he did, and do the same thing. Just do the same thing. Well,
boy, that's awful simple. That's the idea. Well, there's
nothing ornate about that. You've got the picture. Magical ceremony? No. Hocus pocus,
mumbo jumbo? No. When is it that they show
that stuff for the old man in Rome in his Masonic order uniform
on Easter? Easter they have their high mass
and the whole world shows a bunch of men dressed in drag, walking
around with scissors in their hand, pretending to worship God. And everybody's impressed. No,
just the way the Lord did it. He breaks some bread. Pour some
wine, say, eat this and drink that. It's that simple. We're
to do things as our Lord did. That means we come to the Lord's
table using unleavened bread and wine. Unleavened bread and
wine. Unleavened bread because it represents
his body, which had no sin. That means you can't observe
the Lord's table with soda crackers or with a loaf of bread you buy
at the dine store. It's unliving bread and wine. Oh, we couldn't
drink any wine. That'd be terrible. The Savior
provided about 60 gallons in Canaan and Galilee. I reckon
it'd be all right if you drink wine if you want to. Well, I
never heard anything like that before. Aren't you glad you came
today? I'm telling the truth. We have
all kinds of foolishness going on in the name of God and spirituality. God has nothing to do with it.
We use wine in the Lord's table. Not to do so is to deny what's
represented. And that wine represents the
blood of the new covenant. The blood of a man who's God
incarnate with no sin. The blood suitable as a sacrifice
for his people. The wine and the bread representing
our Lord Jesus and the sacrifice for the mission of sins, his
body crushed beneath the wheels of divine justice. The bread
separated from the wine as the blood from the body because he
was crushed to death as our substitute. And as often as we eat this bread
and drink this wine, we're to do so in remembrance of our Redeemer. Men come at the end of our service
home and pass the bread and wine. I take my seat right there. And
I don't look up. And I don't say a word. I don't
say a thing. Because this is not a priestly
affair. And my intention is to focus
my heart and mind on my Redeemer. Remember Him who loved me. and gave himself for me. In the
true observance of the Lord's Supper, even faith is vividly
symbolically portrayed. You who are unbelievers, please
stay long enough to watch this. Now, don't take the bread and
wine. If God hadn't saved you, this is not for you. Don't take
the bread and wine. But if you're an unbeliever,
watch. Watch. This is how sinners receive Christ. See that glass right there? Debbie
filled that glass up with water a couple hours ago. And that
glass received water. But what did it do? What do you
reckon it did? That's just what it did, nothing. She poured some water in it.
And that's how you receive the gift of life. But having received
the gift of life, we receive Christ by faith. I'm fixing to
receive some water. Would you like to be able to
do this? You're getting thirsty, aren't you? What's this? I want
to receive some water. That's mine. And you can't get
it. You might possibly get that,
but you can't get what I had just now. It's mine. So that
everything of any benefit in that water is now mine permanently. That's what it is to receive
Christ. The Lord Jesus, here presented in his gospel, proclaimed
to sinners, God's salvation freely proclaimed in him. Reach out
and touch the Lord as he passes by. Take Christ the Redeemer. Take Christ the Redeemer. He
said, be all right. You might have seen me a little
while ago. I knew there's two glasses up here. And a third
one over there. And I figured it would be hard
for me to drink out of one of them. So I came up and got some water.
I didn't even ask who it was for. I presumed it was somebody
who was thirsty. And I was thirsty, so I did the
same thing just now. Just take it. Do you need a Savior? Do you
need blood atonement? Do you need forgiveness? Do you
need righteousness? Come, taste and see that the
Lord is gracious. That's what it is. We don't put
the bread on your tongue and pour the wine in your mouth.
No, just take it if you want it. Take it. I can't put Christ
in you and wouldn't if I could. No, but if you want him, you
can have him. Take him, take him. Just as we receive the bread
and the wine. All right, look at 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." What does that
mean, to eat and drink unworthily? This is commonly what's taught. Most of you have been in churches
of one kind or another most of your lives. And they observe
the Lord's table once a month, or once a quarter, or once a
year, or once every. I was in church one time. They
were real strict about the Lord's table. We were in there for about
a year and a half, had it once. But then you have a private ceremony,
a private service. Visitors are not welcome. And
you who are here ain't sure you're welcome either. Got any unconfessed
sin in your life? Now, if you take the Lord's table
after that question has been presented, that's getting up
there pretty good. Any unconfessed sin in your life?
John, when don't you have unconfessed sin in your life? You got sin
in your life you don't know anything about. Can't confess what you don't
know. Have you been praying like you ought to? No. Have you been
reading the Bible like you ought to? No. No. Now, please pray
more. Please read your Bible more.
Please open your heart to God and confess your sin. But that's
not what this is talking about. Are you living like you should? No. No. I seek to honor God? What you were talking about a
little bit ago? Man, believers do. Believers just do. They seek
to honor God in their lives. They seek to glorify the Redeemer.
They seek to behave in a manner that doesn't bring reproach to
the gospel. Honestly, I do. Oh my God, I
want out of here. But do I live like I ought to?
No. No. I can fake it in front of
you and make you think I do. I can even fake it in front of
my wife and make her think I do. I can't fake it to Don, and I
can't fake it to God. You understand that? Well, that's
not what it's talking about. What's it talking about? He that
eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself. Well, that can't be. That can't
be. Larry, if you're a believer,
you can't drink damnation to yourself. He's given you eternal life and
you can't perish. If you're a believer, you can't possibly put condemnation.
There's therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
It can't possibly be talking about that. Well, what is this
talking about? Eating and drinking unworthily.
Look at verse 28. Let a man examine himself. And
so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Let a
man examine himself. Well, we're going to have elders
meeting tonight. And we're going to take the folks
in one at a time for this next month. And we're going to examine
you all and see if you're worthy to eat the Lord's supper. Who are you? Who do you think
you are that you can make such a determination? We're going
to examine your life. We've got some questions to ask
you. We want to get our measure and stick out and see how you
measure up. And if you measure up just right and answer the
questions right and we vote on it right, we're going to let
you have the Lord's Supper. This book says, let a man examine
himself. That means Terry Hoag, it's your
business to examine Terry Hoag. It's not your business to examine
Don Fortner. Is that right? Well, I don't know whether Brother
Lester will be eating Lord's Supper or not. I know he's been
wearing polka dots on his shirt. I saw him the other day. He was walking down the street
beside the fellows. I know who he is. And if he's in that company,
I ain't sure he ought to have Lord's Supper. Well, I talked
to him about that. I've been pastoring for over
40 years. And you know what I've never had anybody to do? What
I've never had anybody do? I've never had one person in
40 years to come in my office and say, Brother Don, do you
think a believer ought with reference to himself? I've never had anybody
come in and say, Brother Don, do you think I ought to, as a
believer, do this or do that? I've never had anybody say that.
What they do is they say, Brother Don, Do you think a believer
ought to smoke, or chew, or drink, or drink coffee, or have this
color, or eat corn? Oh, no. A believer ought not
to do that. Well, would you talk to Shelby? I've seen her do it. I'll tell you the truth. I've
never had anybody ask me what I ought to do. Here's what somebody
else ought to do. Because we'd like to examine
each other. We'd like to set a judgment over
each other. The book says, let a man examine himself. Not the
church examine him. Himself. As a matter of fact,
your pastor and I were talking about this the other day, when
our Lord served the Lord's Supper, first time he served it, read
the Gospel of John, and you'll find out there was somebody there,
man alive, if he had been in one of our Baptist churches,
we wouldn't have served the Lord's Supper for 20 years until we
got rid of it. No, we can't have the Lord's
Supper. Judas is here. Judas is here. You know how Jews behave. You
know what Jews fixin' to do? The Lord did. He knew what he'd
already done. And he gave him the bread and
wine anyhow. Because you see, it is your responsibility to
examine yourself. And the one issue to be examined
is what Brother Donnie dealt with Friday night. whether you
be in the faith. Do you or do you not trust the
Lord Jesus Christ? Are you or are you not devoted
to Christ, your King? Are you or are you not subject
to Him who is Christ the Lord, bowing to Him, worshiping Him,
devoting your life to Him? If not, don't eat, but rather
trust the Lord and then eat. Believe on the Son of God. Now,
it is my prayer that some of you have just now begun to believe. You came in here not knowing
God, and now you find yourself believing God. When the brethren
pass the bread and wine, take a piece of bread. Take a
cup of wine and worship the Redeemer. This is for you. So let it meet. So let it meet. The next verse
here. Verse 29, I believe it is. Once
you've made this examination of yourself, commit yourself
to the Redeemer, trust the Savior. Once we've been made known to
know the Savior, it's been made known to us that we have faith
in Christ. Thus to him let us eat. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. Eateth
and drinketh damnation to himself. That's as strong a language as
you can use. Now folks try to make it say less than it does.
It says you eat and drink unworthily, you eat and drink damnation to
yourself. But it's not just talking about the Lord's Supper. Please listen to me. The reason
we don't baptize babies, that new baby will be here in a week
or two, and you're not going to have a service day. You're
going to dedicate the baby to the Lord. You're not going to slosh water on his face
and call it baptism. Why don't y'all do that? Because to do
so is to give that child the presumption and to live in the presumption
of regeneration without the knowledge of Christ is to constantly practice
that which brings you to damnation. The practice of religion with
presumed faith when there is no faith is to continually eat
and drink damnation to yourself. To continually eat and drink
damnation to yourself. Oh, don't do that. How is it
that men and women eat and drink damnation to themselves? Not
discerning the Lord's body. What's that mean? They don't
know their need of the Savior. They don't know why Christ came.
They don't know who Christ is. They don't know what Christ accomplished.
We eat the bread and drink the wine, remembering our Redeemer. Remembering him who loved us
and gave himself for us Cherishing blood atonement perfect righteousness
Cherishing God's free saving grace in Christ Jesus and each
time we eat the bread and drink the wine as a body believers
we Do so as one body in the Lord Remembering the Savior and I urge you, as you take the bread
and drink the wine, remembering the Savior, to consecrate yourself
anew to Him. Give yourself anew to Him who
gave Himself for you. I read a few weeks ago about
a fellow named William Borton, a young man His family is associated
with board and dairies. He lived in Chicago at the end
of the 19th century. God saved him. His mother was
a believer. His dad was a reprobate. And after God saved him, he went
to school at Princeton. And he came back to Chicago and
told his dad, the Lord had called him a missionary. His dad said
to him, said, if you go to Mission Field, you will never have any
part to do with this company again. And he left and went to
Mission Field, going to serve. under East India Missions. I
believe it was a mission group established by Adrian Judson.
While he was in training to learn foreign language, he contracted
cerebral meningitis, never recovered. He died before he ever got to
the mission field, still a young man. And when his parents got
his belongings back, his mom or dad, one, was just thumbing
through the Bible, and they saw three Notations that young man
had made. One was made about the time his
dad told him he'd be disinherited if he went to be a missionary.
And he wrote, no reserve. Next notation of the family was
just about the time the young man found out he was dying. And he made this one comment,
no retreat. He wasn't going home now. And
just before he died, he wrote one more thing. No regrets. No regrets. That's called consecration to
him who is consecrated to you. Amen.