If you turn this morning to 1
Corinthians chapter 11, I want to draw your attention to a few
verses that we read from verse 23. 1 Corinthians chapter 11
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 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 ye drink
it, 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. Paul in this chapter, as we began
to note last week, begins to look at the assembly of the saints
when they come together in the meetings of the church. Having
corrected a number of problems which were going on amongst the
people at Corinth in the earlier chapters, in chapter 11 he addresses
the gathering of the saints. He opens, of course, by dealing
with the foundation of their gathering, which is that they
have as their head Christ. And he deals with the subject
of headship and how the woman's head should be covered and the
man's head uncovered when the people are gathered for worship. Because this shows forth that
Christ is the head of his bride, the church, and that she covers
her glory in his presence. Paul opens the chapter by saying,
be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now, I praise you,
brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the ordinances
as I delivered them to you. So he sets the context that he's
speaking about the gathered church. He praises their keeping of the
ordinances, the various traditions, the things that Paul had taught
them regarding how they should assemble and how they should
conduct themselves in the meetings. But he reminds them of the importance
of headship, and the sign of headship, which they had set
to one side. And he goes on after this in
verse 17 to say that, now in this that I declare unto you,
I praise you not, that you come together not for the better,
but for the worse. For first of all, when you come
together in the church, I heard that there'd be divisions among
you, and I partly believe it. for there must be also heresies
among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest
among you. When you come together therefore
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. Now here
Paul moves on to one of the great ordinances, the great pictures
of the gospel that the church is called to partake of as a
remembrance of the death of Christ. This is what Christ taught his
disciples. and what Paul addresses here.
And unfortunately, when the Corinthians gathered, though they claimed
to be remembering the Lord's Supper, their conduct and their
remembrance of it was shameful, for they turned this wonderful
picture of the gospel and of Christ's death and this remembrance
of his death which should be a solemn event, a serious event
in which the people of God are united as one people as they
have this common picture of Christ's death set before their gaze. And as they as one people know
that they are all sinners washed by his blood, all sinners for
whom his body was broken. Unfortunately the Corinthians
had turned this wonderful remembrance into a mere time of feasting
and indulgence. And when they came together,
though they said that something that they would be doing in their
assembly would be to remember the Lord's Supper, that their
remembrance, Paul says, is not the eating of the Lord's Supper.
When you come together, When you come together, when the church
comes together, what's it for? Is it to take of the things of
God and turn them to our selfish ends? Is it to take the Lord's
supper and turn it into a feast that pleases the flesh of man?
Is it to take the things of Jesus Christ and turn them into some
man-pleasing ideals? which we like, which we can twist
and alter to our ends, or is it the common to worship the
one true and living God? Mindful of who we are before
him as nothing, before he who is over all. Mindful that we
are of the dust and that we are in his hands.
mindful that we are his created beings who have rebelled against
him and who deserve his eternal wrath and judgment and yet we
can come and gather in the church because of his wonderful grace
and mercy to us in that he gave his only begotten son as a sacrifice
and an offering for sin. How do we come together in the
church? Why do we come together and what
do we come together for? to become together as the charismatics
do for a time of entertainment, for a praise meeting, merely
to sing with the music of the world and the noise and the stupidity
of the world around them, to dance, to let go of all our emotions,
to become and make a pretense that this is to worship God when
really it is to entertain ourselves. Really it is to be let go of
and let go of our own emotions and be wanton and free in the
presence of God. Is that what we come together
for? The brethren gather and their meetings are centered,
their open meeting is centered around the breaking of bread
as they call it. They would say this is the remembrance
of the Lord's Supper. And when truly remembered it
is. But we will never understand the importance of the supper,
except we know the gospel. And when we come to the Lord's
Supper, we cannot come to it in isolation. It is a picture
of the gospel. And when the church gathers,
the gospel must always have the preeminence. Except the gospel
be preached, we will not know what the supper means, and for
whom it's for. and why we're called to remember
it. We cannot make the mere breaking of bread and drinking of wine
to be the whole substance of the meeting at the expense of
the preaching of Christ. And this is why Paul in his letter
to the Corinthians begins by reminding them of the importance
of the preaching of Christ and him crucified. You can have the
form, you can have the meetings, You can have baptism and the
supper and the songs, but if you neglect the gospel, all is
of nothing worth. What have we come together for?
Well, not for the aberrations of the Catholic mass or the Anglican
Eucharist, where they've taken the Lord's Supper and so twisted
it and maligned it and corrupted it that it has no resemblance
to that remembrance that Christ gave and which Paul reminds us
here of in chapter 11 of Corinthians. They take these things and they
turn them into some superstitious rite in which they claim that
Christ's body and his blood are literally conveyed to the partakers
as they eat and they drink. And they lead the superstitious
to think that there is some miraculous event going on. When the reality
is that the blessing of God is conveyed by grace through the
preaching of the gospel. And scripture never tells us
that these things are a literal conveyance of Christ. But they
are a remembrance of him. They are a picture of the gospel. And it is the gospel and the
gospel alone which conveys Christ in his living saving power to
the believer. and the Lord's Supper as a picture
of that gospel can indeed be that which the spirit will use
as he declares the gospel through it and declares the gospel which
accompanies it in the meetings as it is preached to the saving
of the soul. But there's nothing mystical
about the bread and the wine by which grace is conveyed or
by which the literal body and blood of Christ are conveyed
to those that eat of these emblems. This is a corruption. and it
lies at the heart of Catholicism and the High Church, Church of
England following of it. It is a remembrance. The gatherings
of the Catholic Church and the Church of England as it copies
it with its man-made priesthood. are again a corruption of the
truth. For we have one great high priest, Christ, and the
Levitical priesthood to which once was under the old covenant
has been done away with. And the only other priesthoods
which the New Testament recognizes is the priesthood of every believer.
But there is no man-made priesthood ape in that of the Old Testament,
which continues under the New Testament or the New Covenant. These things are foreign to the
Church of Christ. They are of man. They are corrupt. The Church, as Christ says, is
built upon that revelation which he made known unto Peter, that
he is the Son of God. But the Catholics twist that
verse to make Peter himself that foundation of the church. And
they recount their ancestry back to Peter, and a supposed visit
of Peter to the church at Rome, and his burial ground there.
But all this is superstitious nonsense. And when they come
to gather in their meetings and they praise Mary, rather than
Christ who is the head of the church. They come together, not
for the better, as Paul says, but for the worse. They come
together unto condemnation. As Paul says at the end of the
chapter, when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that
we should not be condemned with the world. Come not together,
under condemnation. Why do we gather? We gather for
the gospel, we gather to worship Christ, we gather to see Christ,
we gather to remember the Lord's Supper as it portrays Christ
in his gospel. The gospel is paramount, it's
paramount, it is the message which is made known in the church.
Many speak of the gospel and say they have the gospel and
know the gospel. But they say that when the church
is gathered, when the believers gather, We cannot simply preach
the gospel, we must move on from the gospel, we must have the
teaching. Gospel to them is that simplified
message regarding Christ's death, which is made known to the unbeliever,
that he might be saved. But having been saved, believers,
they say, need teaching. So they split the gospel into
two as being that part which they call the gospel which is
for unbelievers and that part which they call teaching ministry
which is for believers but the scriptures again know none of
this and our gathering together is not at one time for the gospel
and at another time for teaching We gather for the Gospel, the
Gospel is one and all. It contains both that call to
the unbeliever, that making known of Christ and Him crucified,
and all the teaching and doctrine of the Gospel around that, that
flows from that in relation to that. The whole thing is the
Gospel. All the instruction in the New
Testament, all the ordinances indeed, regard the Gospel. The ordinances in themselves
are not the gospel but they're being preached and declared and
made known. The truth of them being made
known is part and parcel of the gospel ministry. You cannot separate
it in two. We gather for the gospel. This
alone brings in the glory of God rather than the glory of
man. as we saw last week and as Paul
emphasizes in the opening chapter in this epistle, that no flesh
should glory in the presence of God. He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. How will he? When he knows he
is nothing, when he knows he is one of those nothings for
whom Christ died. and when he looks by faith unto
Christ as he is made known in the preaching of the gospel.
Where the gospel is sidelined, error comes in. Why have the
charismatics got to the state that they have got into? Because
they've neglected the faithful preaching of the truth of the
gospel. How has Catholicism and Anglicanism so corrupted these
things? because they've opposed and rejected
the gospel. Why have so many churches that
claim to be orthodox, reformed, Calvinistic become so dead? Because they've split the gospel
in two and set the gospel to one side to move on to their
serious teaching and they forget to speak of Christ and him crucified. Without the gospel, God is not
glorified and God is not present. Ichabod is on the door. The glory
of God has departed. All the gathering, all the activity,
all that is said is simply a show and a pretense. All is of man
and all is for man. Not so in God's church. not so in the gathering of his
assembly, not so when his children come together into one place.
For they come for the gospel, and they come for the remembrance
of the gospel, and they come to remember those ordinances
which are given alongside the gospel, that make known the gospel. For in the gospel alone Christ
is glorified, and the gospel is firstly preached in the gathering
of the saints. But it is also set forth in figure
by those ordinances that Paul had taught the Corinthians. It's made known in the headship
of Christ and the ordinance of the head covering that he makes
known in the early part of this chapter. But it's certainly made
known in those two great ordinances which Christ spoke of, the in
baptism and remembrance of the Lord's Supper. the latter of
which Paul deals specifically with here. Two wonderful pictures
of the death of Christ and our interest in it. Baptism of course,
being for the individual, but the Lord's Supper being for the
plurality of God's people as they gather. Each individual
believer is called to be baptised to testify that he has died and
he has risen with Christ his Saviour. but the gathered saints
are called to remember Christ's death in the supper as a congregation
united in him. Baptism is for the individual.
It's a wonderful picture of the death, the burial, and the resurrection
of the believer with Christ. It's for believers, exclusively
for believers. It's their testifying before
others of what happened in Christ as they died with him. A testimony
before man that their life, their old life, their life in Adam,
that life of sin and corruption has been laid in the grave never
to be brought up again and that they are now risen anew in Christ. Anew. As Paul says, the sixth
chapter of Romans. Therefore we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. knowing this that our old man
is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed
that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead
is freed from sin now if we be dead with Christ we believe that
we shall also live with him. He speaks of baptism here course
there is that actual baptism where in reality at the cross
we really died with Christ. As Christ was baptized in fire
in the cross under the fires of God's wrath against our sins,
so we spiritually with him were baptized with him, we died with
him, we were crucified with him. Our old man is crucified with
him Paul says. And elsewhere in Galatians 2
he says, I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live, yet
not I but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I've been crucified with him,
we were baptized in his death with him, but having been baptized
spiritually with him in his death, we testify before others, through
the figure, the type, the picture, the ordinance of baptism in water,
that we have been baptized with him in death. When we are baptized,
when we are laid under the waters and lifted out of them again,
by full immersion in the waters, we show forth in a figure that
we have been laid in the grave, that we've been plunged under
the waters of death, as Christ was plunged under the waters
of death, and we in Him. and that we've been lifted up
with Him alive by the Spirit of God, risen again from the
dead in Him. Our sins having been washed away,
our sin having been destroyed. We show it, we show it in this
picture and it's believers who are called to show it. It's for
believers, it cannot be anyone else. Some liken baptism with
the rites of circumcision taught in the Old Testament. where the
children of Israel were called to circumcise their children
on the eighth day as a figure of the cutting away of the flesh.
And some will say that in the New Testament circumcision as
a figure has been replaced with the act of baptism. And as the
children of Israel were called to baptise them, to be circumcised
and to circumcise their children, so we as believing families should
be baptised and baptise our children, we should sprinkle our children.
as a like figure. But what they fail in drawing
such a comparison to do is to distinguish between the births.
Those born children of Israel in those days were physical children
of Israel. And when they had children, physical
children, they circumcised their physical children. Yet those
who are believers born again by the Spirit of God today who
are baptized, When they have physical children, these children,
until such a time as they too are born again by the Spirit
of God, are not children of God, children of Israel, of the new
Israel, as their parents are. So they have no right to baptize
them ahead of the time when they should be brought to faith. It's
when they beget children by the Spirit that they should then
be baptized. The children of God's children
today are those who are brought to faith by the Gospel, and when
others by our testimony or by our preaching of the Gospel are
brought to faith in Christ, then they should be baptized. This
correlates to the circumcision in the Old Testament. Baptism
is for believers and believers only and for the children of
believers being those spiritual children who are brought to faith
by the testimony of Christ in the gospel. When we believe,
we should be baptized. The children of Israel of old
were circumcised the eighth day. Eight days after being born,
the child was circumcised. There was no waiting. Then why
should there be any waiting with baptism today? When someone confesses
faith in Christ, when they know that they've been born again,
when they can say with a certainty, once I was blind, but now I see. When they say, here is water,
what hinders me to be baptized? There should be no hindrance.
They are not called upon to be able to explain the gospel in
full doctrinal terms at such an early age. But if they confess
Christ and they want to testify to Christ before their brethren
and before the world around them, that Christ has died for them
and they have died in him and have risen again in him. And
if there be water, then there should be no hindrance. Let them
be baptized. It's a wonderful picture of the
gospel. But it's a picture of the gospel
which is remembered by believers once they're born again. And
it is a picture which is for individuals. It's a picture,
it doesn't save us, it's not that which causes us to be born
again. But it's a picture of what has happened to us. a testimony
of what has happened to us. But it's something that we as
individuals, when we're born again, when we come to faith,
when we recognize the importance of it, that we do to testify
to others of the saving grace of God that he has made known
unto us. But in the 11th chapter of Corinthians, Paul deals with
this other wonderful picture of the gospel, this other wonderful
ordinance. The Lord's Supper. The Lord's
Supper. This wonderful picture in the
bread and the wine of the body of Christ broken for his people
and of the blood of Christ shed to wash away their sins. This
is an ordinance for the gathered church. When ye come together,
when ye come together in the meetings, when you hear the gospel
preached, when you come together, Remember this. Remember this. There's no command given how
often this should be remembered. There's no command that says
it should happen every time we come into the church meetings. But as often as we do this, whether
it's every week, whether it's once a month, whether it's yearly,
as often as we take the wine and eat the bread, we do in remembrance
of Christ. We remember that body which was
bruised, which was slain, which suffered the innocent for the
guilty, which hung upon the cross in agony, which men spat upon
and reviled and rejected which they put a crown of thorns upon
its head, which they beat as they led him to the cross, which
they nailed through the hands and the feet to that cross. This
body was broken. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, His only begotten Son, the Son of His love, was
broken for the guilty. And His blood, perfect blood,
pure blood, unblemished blood, life-giving blood, His blood,
when He cried out, it is finished, having died, When a spear was
thrust in his side, his blood came forth with water from his
side as a testimony that salvation was accomplished, that sin had
been destroyed, and that the sins of his people had been judged
to the uttermost and washed away by this blood. It's a wonderful
and a powerful picture of the gospel. It presents to us the
essence, the heart of the gospel, Christ and him crucified. And in a wonderful picture, in
wonderful imagery, it sets forth the reality of the depths of
what happened when Christ was crucified. What happened to his
body? and what happened through his
blood. For there are two distinct aspects
to this remembrance of the Lord's Supper, the bread and the wine,
the body and the blood. Many have much to say about the
blood of Christ and the blood of Christ washing away their
sins. And they're being able to approach
unto God because of the blood of Christ. They're being forgiven
because of the blood of Christ. They're being pardoned because
of the blood of Christ. Many, many speak of the blood
of Christ. But so little is said of the
body. They eat the bread. They pray the prayers. They know
his body was broken, they know he suffered in the body. But
so much concentration is on the blood. And yet the picture shows
both. The picture shows both. For both
have a vital part to play in the salvation of a sinner. Christ's
body needs must be broken. His blood must be shed. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission, it says. There is no remission from sins.
There is no taking away of sins, no forgiveness. Blood must be
shed. But it is also true that as fallen
sinners, as those who are corrupt, as those into whom sin entered,
when Adam rebelled against his maker in the garden. As those
who are born of Adam, descendants of Adam, have had sin pass upon
them by natural generation and death by sin, those who have
corrupt sinful hearts, it is also true that the cause of their
sins, that sin within them must be taken away too. It's one thing
for their sins to be forgiven, What of what they are inside?
What of that sin that dwells within their flesh? What of that
evil heart? How can they be saved except
God take away their sin? How can they be saved except
there is a new heart put within them? How can they be saved except
they be washed on the inside as well as on the outside? Christ's
salvation is a wondrous salvation for it did nothing by half measure.
He shed his blood to wash away our sins. He was made to be sin
that he might take away our sin in his own body on the tree.
That he might take away the body of sin as we are crucified with
him. The bread broken speaks of the
body broken. And the body was broken not simply
because Christ should suffer for our sins. Not simply because
the wrath of God was poured down upon him because of our sins. Not simply because he must die.
but because he must take away what we are, because we must
be crucified in him, because the body of sin that we carried
must be nailed to that cross in him and taken away. And this
is what Paul referred to in that passage in Romans 6, which we
read. when he spoke of the baptism
and when he spoke of us being crucified with him. He says,
knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. It's not just that our sins were
judged, But that body of sin, us, our old man, what we inherited
from our father Adam, humanity riddled with sin, what we are,
must be crucified too. And spiritually we were nailed
to the cross with Christ. Paul says, I am crucified with
him. our old man is crucified with
him we were united with him in his death and our body hung there
united with him and God judged our sin in his body as we were
one with him upon that cross that our body of sin might be
destroyed he of course in himself was perfect perfect otherwise
he would have suffered for his own sin and his own sins but
God so united his people with him he so crucified his people
with him spiritually that they became one with him at the cross
and God judged their sin that body of sin in Christ that it
might be destroyed and that they should rise again from the cross
with him sinless not simply that their sins have been taken away
but that they have no sin within them they rise again with him
with a new heart perfect righteous pure a new nature a new spirit
no longer broken but whole yes the body was broken oh what christ
suffered in the flesh when his body was broken, that he might
set his people free from sin which reigned over them. Were
you crucified with Christ? Can you look upon the cross can
you hear the gospel and look to Christ and him crucified and
say with Paul as you look upon him I am crucified with Christ
my old body of sin is nailed there to the cross with him it's
been done away with. Can you look with a certainty
can you look conscious that you are a sinner by nature conscious
that you were born in sin but rejoicing that God has made known
unto you by his gospel through faith rejoicing that when you
look at Christ upon the cross you can see yourself nailed to
that tree what you were in Adam your old man is done away with
the condemnation is taken away do you look upon his body broken
as broken for you do you look upon him as he cried out in suffering
as crying out in suffering for you? Do you see his love flowing
forth from the cross to you in particular? Did it flow to you
in particular? Yes, his body was broken. What
a powerful picture. A powerful picture that Paul
and Christ call us to remember. Remember. take eat this is my
body which is broken for you for you plural for you all you
believers all you in my church all you as you come together
in the church this is my body which is broken for you this
do in remembrance of me eat this bread and remember my body broken
for you it's not a feast it's not something to be taken lightly
eat it and remember me as I suffered for you to take away your sin. Nothing stills the heart before
the Lord quite like remembering just what he did to save his
people upon the cross. Nothing stills our heart quite
like remembering in this ordinance this supper, quite why he died,
how he died, how he suffered, for whom he suffered, for us,
because of our sins, our guilt, our sin, our corruption. This is my body, which is broken
for you. God have made him to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. His body was broken, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. Take eat, take
eat, this is my body, not literally as in the mass, but spiritually
in remembrance. not a means of gaining grace
by our action of eating this, but as a remembrance in the gospel
of what God has already done in grace for us. We remember
who are already saved. If you're not saved, if you cannot
say with a surety that Christ died for me, then this is not
for you. Don't partake of it. If you're
in the gathered company and you cannot say that Christ is my
Saviour, when the cup and the bread are brought round, let
them pass by. As Paul says, 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. 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.
if you can't say that you have an interest in this blood, if
you can't say that Christ's body was broken for you, if you don't
have that assurance by the Spirit of God that you've been quickened
unto life, quickened by the Gospel, brought to faith in Christ, if
you can't look upon his sacrifice and say that I died with him,
I am crucified with him, that body was broken for me, that
blood was shed for me, I know it, Once I was blind to it I
couldn't see it but now I see I know. If you can't see that
let it pass by. Examine yourself. It's called
upon us as individuals to examine ourselves. Others can't determine
whether we're worthy to take of the bread or the wine. Others
can't see upon our hearts. Sometimes it may be obvious to
us that there are some who are obviously are not believers and
they shouldn't partake. But sometimes we think of others
as being real believers. They show outwardly such identification
with the people of God that we'd think that they're definitely
worthy. But inside they might be dead. And only they can examine
their own hearts. And Paul encourages the brethren
to examine themselves. This is open to all believers
who gather in the church to partake of. He encourages them to partake,
but only first after examining themselves. Was this body broken
for them? Was this blood shed for them?
If it was, then grace has already been bestowed to them. And this
is why we take it in remembrance of what Christ has already done.
We don't take of it that we may gain that grace and that salvation. We take of it that we may remember
it. Paul goes on, 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 ye drink it 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. This cup is the new testament
in my blood. The new testament, a new covenant,
which is shown forth in the shedding of Christ's blood. Because he
died, the covenant, the testament of God, the new testament was
read out. The will, as it were, was read
out when Christ died. God took the will that was made,
Christ's will, Christ's testament, when he died. And he said, this
is the will of God, this is the will that should be read when
my son has died. And these are the inheritors
of all his riches. which He gives to those named
in this will. And the names named in that will
are all the names of all that elect company that God gave unto
His Son before the foundation of the world. They're all named
in this covenant, in this will. They have a benefactor, Christ.
They are the ones to whom His riches, His inheritance shall
be given. and it is given when the son
has died. When he died that will was read
out and the will said that all the riches of heaven's glory
in Jesus Christ shall be his people's. It is theirs forevermore. No one can take any of it from
them. The Son has died, His testament
has been made and it's read out today to all this company by
name, you, you, you and you, you have inherited this. All the riches of God, all spiritual
blessings in Jesus Christ in heavenly places are yours because
He died and because His blood was shed. as a testimony of that
death, as a testament to the fact that he died. It's yours. Believer, do you know it? The
will has been read out. This inheritance is yours because
Christ died, because his blood was shed. Oh you may say, how
can I inherit it everlasting salvation? How can I inherit
the righteousness of God? How can I inherit heaven's glory
when I'm full of sin? When I've done so much wrong?
When my past record is full of actions, thoughts and deeds?
that are so awful and which I remember and when I continue to sin surely
this prevents me having such a reward but the blood says otherwise
For the blood cries out, it speaks, like the blood of Aaron that
cried out, the blood spake. That blood that fell upon the
ground of the innocent, it spake. And Christ's blood, the blood
of the innocent, cries out, saying, the sins of all my people have
been washed away. Because when I died, I suffered
for them in their entirety. First to last. for every individual,
for every elect person that my father gave me, for all my children,
for all their sins, past, present and future, to the very end of
their lives, when they pass out of this world into glory, for
those sins they committed before they heard the gospel, for those
sins they committed when they heard the gospel, for those sins
they will commit after they have been brought to faith in the
gospel, for all their sins, I paid the price to the uttermost. My blood has washed them clean. They have been blotted out. I
shall make them whiter than snow. They are made whiter than snow. All these transgressions have
been blotted out because of the blood of the New Testament. This cup is the New Testament
in my blood. Was his body broken for you?
Was his blood shed for you? Oh praise God, wonderful grace
if it was. What a sacrifice. What a priest. What a saviour. And what a remembrance. What joy to remember his death
in the supper. The supper. When the disciples
were at the Last Supper with Christ before his death, they
ate the bread and the wine and Christ spoke of it in anticipation
of that time when they should look back and remember his death.
He spoke of these things. He spoke of the death that he
should die. And here Paul reminds them of it. Reminds them of the
picture of it as looking back upon his death. But it was at
a supper. held in the evening, when we
remember this, whenever we remember it, whatever time we can, ideally
in the evening, at the time the disciples remembered it, but
it really matters not, whenever and however often we remember
it, we show forth his death till he comes. As often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you do show forth the Lord's
death till he come. What a showing forth! How we
should live to preach and declare the gospel to the world around
us, and how we should rejoice in showing forth his death till
he come. What an ordinance! As Christ's
headship is shown so clearly by the head covering, As our
death, burial and resurrection is shown so clearly through the
individual ordinance of baptism. So we have this wonderful picture,
this wonderful ordinance done by the body of Christ when it's
come together, this corporate remembrance. Oh, what a time
of being one in Christ, united in Christ, glorying in Him alone. This unites the body of Christ,
it's a common remembrance of what we once were, and what Christ
has done to save us as a people. This takes away the glorying
of man, for in him we're all the same, we're all alike, whatever
we are, male, female, black, white, British, Irish, Scottish,
French, German, American, wherever we are, we're all the same, we're
all sinners. all sinners and if we're in him
we're all sinners for whom his body was broken and his blood
was shed all sinners for whom he died all sinners who have
been slain with him all sinners who died with him and yet when
we died with him he was the one that felt the pain he was the
one who was broken he was the one that suffered Oh the forgiveness,
oh the love of God that's seen here, the overwhelming wondrous
love of God, the overwhelming grace of God for those that deserve
it not. What a remembrance, what a remembrance. Today, the 11th day of September
2011, 9-1-1, 10 years since the awful
attacks on New York City 10 years ago. Today many people will remember
that atrocity that was committed. They will remember the thousands
of people whose lives were shed, whose lives were lost because
of the evil of others. They will remember the evil of
man that was unleashed on that day. And they will also remember
such heroism by so many others, who helped others, who cared
for others, who were injured, who tried to save others. They
will remember those firemen who lost their lives trying to save
hundreds of people from that collapsing building. Those who
gave their lives for others. And it's true. that sometimes
men can do great acts for others as Paul says in Romans chapter
5 but there's no remembrance and there's no act and there's
no death that any have died which is like the death of Christ for
Christ did not die for good people Christ was not simply trying
to save those who were in trouble who needed help but Christ died
for the guilty Christ died for those who hated him and despised
him. Christ died for those who rejected
him and would have nothing of him. He gave his life not for
the good but for the guilty. As Paul says, when we were yet
without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Yet peradventure at times like
at that time ten years ago yet peradventure for a good man some
would even dare to die sometimes they do but God commend if his
love toward us who believe on Christ God commend if his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us
much more than being now justified by his blood we shall be saved
from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. When we were sinners, when we
were enemies, Christ loved his people and gave himself for them. Believer, when you were a sinner
When you were an enemy of Christ, Christ loved you and gave himself
for you. Oh, remember him. Remember him. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till
he come. Amen.