Well, what I want to do this
morning is not actually look at Ephesians, we'll just suspend
that series just for this week, but what I want to do is to apply
last week's practical teaching from Ephesians chapter 4 to the
Lord's Table. And you might say, well, how
on earth are you going to do that? There's no mention of the Lord's
Table in Ephesians chapter 4. Well, Ephesians chapter 4 is
all about the characteristics of the new man. it's about putting
off the old man and that new man which is created by the spirit
of God putting on the new man and so we likened it to removing
the old man from his seat of management in the office in the
factory that's full of the old machinery of the flesh and putting
on the new man and being subject to the desires and the heart
and the wants and the longings of the new man who is created
by God. By God the Holy Spirit. Because
this is the truth. Don't claim allegiance to Christ
and be happy to let the old man rule. That's serious. Think about
it. You know, Salvation is entirely
of the Lord, but don't claim allegiance to Christ and be happy
and contented to let the old man rule. Yes, we sin all the
time. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But don't go claiming
allegiance to Christ and be happy for that old selfish man of the
flesh to have the dominance to be in charge. You see, a certain
lifestyle, a certain mindset, the mindset of this world is
utterly inconsistent with the new birth. Cannot be. Cannot
be. Children of God fall and sin
all of the time, but they bitterly regret it. It's soon pointed
out it's quickly repented of, that sin grieves the heart every
day, the trust is always resting in the Lord Jesus Christ outside
of self, but we're never happy with the state of self, and with
the sin that is in this flesh. Our righteousness is never earned
in one area at all. There are those in our days who
teach that justification is by Christ but sanctification is
by us and sanctification is the work that we do to earn righteousness
with God as the basis of our rewards when we get to heaven
that is commonly taught in these days in evangelical even reformed
circles that is taught this is why they say we need to obey
the law of God of course we need the law is good as Cliff was
saying earlier the law is good But the idea that we do that
to earn righteousness, to get reward, is completely alien to
the scripture. Nevertheless, don't be fooled.
Remember what Ephesians 5 and verse 5 told us. That no whoremonger,
no unclean person, no covetous man, no idolater, because covetousness
is idolatry, none of those things of the flesh has any inheritance
in the kingdom of God. that ought to draw us up short
and really make us think. This is serious. So how do we
apply it to the Lord's table? You see this morning at the end
of this service we're going to, as we do on the first Sunday
every month, we're going to share bread and wine in response to
our Lord's command. This do in remembrance of me. On that last supper he took bread,
he broke it, He gave thanks, he gave it to them and the blood
and he said, this is my body which is broken for you, this
do in remembrance of me. Likewise he took the cup when
he had supped and blessed it and said, this is the cup of
the new covenant in my blood. Remember me when you drink it,
remember me. He talked about eating his flesh.
and drinking his blood. And in obedience to that pattern
and that command, we're going to partake of the Lord's table. What's it all about? Why do we
do it? Why do we have this thing where a group of people, it must
seem odd to the world, mustn't it? You know, I know they know
about mass and about high Anglican communion, but this idea of a
group of simple people getting together in a simple schoolroom
and breaking a piece of bread and sharing some wine together
and it being of great spiritual significance. Well, this is why. Because it's about our identification
with Christ. It's about our union with him.
It's still symbolical of our union with him. When Jesus spoke
about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, he wasn't talking
about cannibalism. We eat his flesh and drink his
blood spiritually. Because what we're saying is
we're totally united with him. You know when you eat some food
and drink some liquid, it becomes part of your body. It becomes
part of the cells that make up your body, that flow around your
body. And what we're saying is that
the flesh and blood of Christ is part and parcel of us, but
spiritually. We're united with him spiritually. We're in him spiritually. We're
saying that when he walked this earth under the law of God, because
he was born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those
who were under the law, that we walked it in him. I identify
with him. I have no other hope. He is my
only hope, my only righteousness. My righteousness is that which
was earned when the Son of God took on him flesh, in the likeness
of sinful flesh, yet without sin, and walked this earth perfectly,
so that the Father said from heaven in the hearing of those
that were there, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
Hear ye him, listen to him. He is the one who is my righteousness
and I eat his flesh. I eat that which symbolizes his
broken body to say I'm there. That's my only hope. By faith,
I look to Him. I'm there. I'm in Him. I trust
Him. I trust Him to have saved me,
to have done all that's necessary for me. And His blood that was
spilt, because my sin deserves death. The soul that sins, it
shall die. And the life is in the blood.
The life is in the blood. And so the sin debt is blood.
Blood must be shed. The life must be shed. And he
poured out his life. He poured out his life blood.
He poured it out and he really did die. And we partake of these
symbols and we're acknowledging that God became man and as a
man he really did die. And I died in him. I am crucified
with Christ, says Paul. nevertheless I live yet not I
but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me you see it's spiritual this eating flesh and drinking
blood of the Son of God but it's symbolized in a physical reminder
because Christ knows how prone to forget we are in this flesh
he gave us reminders And one of them is this, the reminder
of bread and wine. Remember, his body broken. Remember,
his blood was shed for your acceptance in heaven, your acceptance in
glory, your standing confident before the judgment seat of Christ
is on no other basis than the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And as we partake of it as a
company of his believing people, Is that your hope? Is that in
your heart your hope for eternity? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I will not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. If that is your hope, if
that is your hope, then as we do this, we're united with Christ. We have fellowship with Him.
We are together with him and not just with him but with one
another as his people, as brethren, as parts of his body. And we're
all leveled. You know, James was talking about,
in James' epistle, about not regarding one higher than another.
We're all leveled before the throne of God. We're all equally,
utterly unfit. I don't care what you've got
in this world, what qualifications, what money, what traditions,
what lineage, it's utterly irrelevant. It makes not a scrap of difference
in the sight of God. You're no better than anybody
else, and don't think you are. Gosh, the things that people
have done on the basis of thinking that they were somehow in the
flesh superior to others created in the image of God. It's appalling. Human history is littered, littered
with the debris of it. We're all leveled, we're all
brought down to the same equally unfit level yet in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Do you know we're supremely qualified
Oh, you know, are you going to be in heaven? Is there going
to be any kind of hanging of the head in shame that you weren't
a good enough Christian? That you got there by the skin
of your teeth? That you're not really entitled, but go on, we'll
let you in by the skin of your teeth. You're not a... No, in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you are supremely qualified in him. So is this table for you? Is
it for me? It's for true believers. It's
for true believers. Only for true believers. And
it's a serious thing. It's not a flippant thing at
all. Are you qualified? In Colossians 1 we read about
Christ, the more modern versions put it, that he's qualified us. I think the King James talks
about making us meat for glory. Are you qualified to partake
of this table? You see, lots of churches have
various ways of trying to control who takes the Lord's Supper.
They have inquisitions that are really quite severe. I never
ever want to get into those things, the trouble that it causes where
you get minor divisions being a reason why one can take the
Lord's Supper and another one can't. In my opinion, there's
only one qualification, and that's heart-faith. And the test of
it is an individual's own conscience. And so I leave it. You know what
my approach has been since we've been meeting together. It's individual
responsibility. As we'll see shortly when we
come to look at it in more detail, let a man examine himself. Examine
yourself, whether you be in the faith. Do you have faith for
Christ? It's an individual responsibility. Anybody that comes and is aware
of that, that there is a warning about not coming flippantly,
is welcome to come and partake of the bread and the wine. And
who am I to delve into somebody's heart? But I'll tell you this,
if somebody were to come on a regular basis in whom I had no confidence
whatsoever that there was any saving faith and that it was
just coming for a social event do you know I would have a word
with that person and say you really ought not to take this
you really ought not to do this not because of what you're doing
to us here though it is an offense to true believers to do it in
the wrong way but because of this because of this. Look what
it says in verse 29. Sorry, I'm in 1 Corinthians 11
now, the communion passage. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and
verse 29. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, he that partakes of the Lord's supper unworthily,
eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body. Do you see how serious this is?
Do you see how we mustn't come to this in a flippant, presumptuous
way? You know, we'll talk about the
qualifications in a minute, but do you see the warning that there
is here? I wouldn't want somebody in whom I had no confidence that
their profession of faith was anything other than just an external
sham to be partaking of this without knowing that you risk
standing before that judgment seat, eating and drinking damnation
to yourself. Don't come to this flippantly
and in a light way. You need to ask yourself a couple
of questions, we all do. Because verse 28 says this, but
let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. Examine yourself. I'm not talking
about a morbid introspection. Not this morbidly examining how
we behaved in the last week and therefore am I qualified to come
to this table. And I'm not, by contrast to that,
talking about hypocritically looking for self-righteousness.
Oh, well I did that. Oh, that's pretty good. Oh, I
can come. I can come to the table because I was quite good this
week. No. When we examine ourselves, this
is the conclusion we come to. Shouldn't we come to the same
conclusion that Paul did about himself? You know, he said he
was the least of all the apostles. He said that he was the least
of the saints. He said he was the chief of sinners.
not just using words but really meaning it when we examine ourselves
we don't see any fitness for God we don't see anything that
we've done that qualifies us to be accepted by God the best
of us are judged as the chief of sinners when all things are
taken into account so what is it verse twenty seven to eat
and drink unworthily wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread
and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty Guilty. Guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. Serious stuff. Now here are two
things. That's what's going to occupy
us. First of all, and this is what I've called this message,
discerning the Lord's body. Because at the end of verse 29,
he eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body. Here's a qualification for coming. You can examine yourself and
you can say is this in me? Not have I done all of these
things that have put ticks in the boxes so that I have done
things that have obeyed the law of God and made me better than
the next person so now I am qualified to come to this day. You're not
qualified. If you examine yourself you know
that you are not qualified. But is this qualification in
you? That you're discerning the Lord's body. You're not coming
If you're not discerning the Lord's body, you're not coming
in faith. There's only one way to come
to this table and partake of these reminders of the Lord's
life and death in my place, and that's in faith, looking to Him,
looking to what He did, looking to the doing and the dying of
Christ in my place. I'm looking to the righteousness
that He earned for me, that I earned in Him. that's what the scripture
teaches that when he earned it I as his child earned it in him
That's what divine justice says. You know, I may not understand
it in this weak flesh, but this is what God's word reveals to
his saints. This is the mystery he reveals
to his saints, that when Christ earned righteousness in the flesh,
all of his people earned righteousness in the flesh in him. And that's
what I look to. I come by faith, given by the
Holy Spirit, believing. that that body that earned righteousness
earned my righteousness and I have no other basis for acceptance
with God that when his law thundered out against me and my sin that
when his law condemned me to death and said the soul that
sins it shall die when God was angry with the wicked every day
and I was among those with whom he was angry that our Lord Jesus
Christ the shed blood was propitiation. Propitiation is a turning away
of the anger of God. Propitiation is a mercy seat. You know when the high priest
went into the Holy of Holies and there was the Ark of the
Covenant with the gold mercy seat on top with the cherubim
and seraphim and how could he go in? Only with blood and only
with the blood of an acceptable sacrifice and as he sprinkled
the blood of an acceptable sacrifice On that mercy seat God said I
will come and I will speak face to face with my people as a man
speaks with his friend. The God of the universe who is
holy and just speaks with his friend on the basis of propitiation
of the mercy seat. And in the blood of Christ and
that sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, again we saw it last
week, Ephesians 5 verse 2, and you can refer back to Noah and
the sacrifice when he came out of the ark, there went up to
God when our Lord Jesus Christ died in agony. in the place of
his people there went up to God in heaven a sweet smelling savour. What was that sweet smell? You
know when the roast dinners roasting at home and you open the door
and oh that's a sweet smelling savour, I can just imagine the
gastric juices of some of us here this morning just thinking
about oh those lovely roast potatoes and things of that nature, that
sweet smelling savour. sweet-smelling savour. To God
the death of Christ was a sweet-smelling savour, for he smelled all that
was necessary to pay for the sins of his elect. For God the
Father chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world.
But he's a just God. So how can he be a savior? If
he's a just God, how can he be a savior? If he's a just God,
he must punish sin, but there it is. It's punished. A sweet
smelling savor comes up to God. And there he's satisfied. There
he can be merciful. He can be a God of mercy. He can be one who forgives sins. He can blot out sins. You see, There was a body prepared,
and we remember that body. We remember that Christ came,
he took upon him the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity,
very God of very God, took upon him flesh, and came in the likeness
of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, to die the death
of sinners in the place of sinners, to shed human blood as the sacrifice
for sin. He, a perfect man, shed man's
blood for men's sin. the second Adam. We're born in
the first Adam by nature that's our flesh but the second Adam
took on flesh to do that which the first Adam didn't do to perfectly
obey the law of God to establish justice and righteousness and
then pour out that sinless blood as the payment the sin debt payment
for sin and I'm in him if I'm his child. And this is how I
come, discerning the body of the Lord. This is how I come,
remembering these things by faith, discerning the Lord's body. I
come looking to those things. Have I got that faith? Not have
I done these things, but has God the Holy Spirit planted that
faith? To say, as that hymn says, I've
already quoted it, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus'
blood and righteousness. That's what I'm trusting in.
Realizing that outside of Christ I am utterly condemned and deserving
of an eternity of hell. But, as Isaiah 44, 22 says, I
have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a
cloud thy sins. And is your heart burning when
you hear these words? Is your heart thinking, that's
for me, my sins, you know, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious
thought, my sin not in part but the whole is nailed to his cross,
and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
oh my soul. Thy sins, as a cloud have been
blotted out for I have redeemed thee I have paid your sin debt
I have bought you back and discerning the Lord's body is having that
faith to believe to grasp and to rest to rest in Christ's atonement. What about you? I'm not asking
are you good enough to partake of the Lord's Supper but I'm
asking where are you looking? That's it. Where are you looking?
Are you looking to Christ alone? And then you'll say, this will
help me remember. As together we focus on the broken body and
the shed blood, which was all that I might be accepted by God. Examine yourself. Is that faith
in you? Are you discerning the Lord's
body? Then come and partake. Partake freely. There's nobody
to stop you. Absolutely nothing to stop you.
But then secondly, secondly, To not discern the Lord's body
is to have little or no sign of the new man's management of
the heart and affections. You see that? Is there any sign
within of that new man of the Spirit of God managing the heart
and the affections? You see, as we're going to see
next time in James, true faith which I've just been speaking
about under that first point of not discerning the Lord's
body, true faith works. True faith has a hallmark. And it's only genuine if that
hallmark is there. You know what solid silver is. That's what you look at. You
look at the Antiques Roadshow, it'll tell you. Look at this
thing that looks like silver. Does it have genuine hallmarks
on it? If it does, it's solid silver.
It's the real article. It may look like it, but if it
doesn't have real hallmarks on it, the hallmark of faith is
works, true works. True works, not self-righteousnesses. True works. That which doesn't
work is probably not true faith. James said this, it's a few verses
on from what we were looking at earlier, yea a man may say
thou hast faith and I have works show me thy faith without thy
works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Now I realize that in saying
this that there's a danger of this sermon being what I would
call not a good sermon because I always have said the test of
a good sermon is where does it leave you looking? Does it leave
you looking at yourself? Or does it leave you looking
at Christ? well let me be absolutely clear I want you to look at self
but I want you to despair of self and having despaired of
self I want it like the law as a schoolmaster to drive you to
Christ because you look at yourself and you find no worth but look
to Christ and you'll see all the worth that you need but you
see we can't ignore what the scripture teaches us We have
to be as true to scripture as we possibly can. We have to interpret
scripture with scripture. We cannot just have a line of
doctrine which seems to make us believe that we can trust
Christ and then live just exactly as we want because the way we
live makes no difference to our relationship with God. No, the
way we live is hugely important. You've heard this many times,
but here's maybe a variation of it. If I am a child of God,
What I do can never change my relationship with him. If I really
am a child of God, what I do can never change my relationship
with him. And you read the scriptures and
you look at some of the people of God in the scriptures, and
some who stand out as shining lights of the people of God,
men with a heart after God's own heart, did some dreadful,
dreadful things. And so it's true, if I'm a child
of God, what I do can never change my relationship with him. But,
as a child of God, my relationship with him will profoundly affect
the things that I do, and the way that I think, and the way
that I behave. You know, you'll have heard this
one as well, that someone said a long time ago that when an
unpleasant and violent man is saved, the first person to know
about it is his dog. Because his dog, who can't speak
the language, or think in the way that a person thinks, can
see straight away that that angry, violent man is now really quite
a kind person, and very compassionate, and very considerate, and there's
a change. Don't say that there's truth
inside when it doesn't flow out to others. No, you don't look
for it for merit to take with you into glory, it's Christ is
your merit. But true faith produces change.
Look at verse 30. You see Paul says this, he applies
this about them eating and drinking unworthily. He says, for this
cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. saying, what he's actually saying
is that what I as a believer do results in God's chastisement
of his people. And even to the extent of what
Paul is saying here, premature death of some of those in Corinth
because of this, because of the way they were living and the
chastisement of God brought upon them. We're never ever to think
that you know you can equate chastisement with sin you know
there was that case where the disciples with Jesus they saw
a man born blind from birth and they said who sinned this man
or his parents you know somebody must have sinned to produce this
level of chastisement and Jesus says no that's not the case at
all you can't equate one with the other no so don't get that
wrong but I do think there's something here that's saying
we can't ignore this fact about the way we come to the table
and the way that we approach it Many are weak and sickly among
you and many sleep, he says, because you're not coming in
the right way. It does matter. The scripture's
clear. There is a link. So, think of
an example then of eating unworthily. Let's apply it. An example of
eating unworthily. Think about your relationship
with others around us, not just of those who are fellow brethren,
but around us. Think of your relationship with them and with
brethren. You see, unworthy behavior is
not discerning Christ's body. Isn't it? You're not discerning
the body of Christ. You're not discerning the body.
What is his body? It's his church. You're not discerning
other members of that body. You're not having the right level
of respect and consideration for them. You're not discerning
Christ's body, the church, your brethren. You're coming with
animosity in your heart to others. If you come like that, that's
unworthily. That's eating and drinking unworthily. And that's to be guilty of the
body and blood of the Lord. And you're in danger of eating
and drinking damnation to yourself if you come in that way. Coming
with that animosity in the heart is coming unworthily. Don't come
like that. You see, I know we bear imperfect
fruit all the time. You can't look and mark yourself
for how much fruit you're bearing. Have I been loving enough? Have
I been generous enough? Have I visited enough prisoners?
Have I visited enough sick and widows? You can't mark yourself
on that sort of basis. And all of our fruit is always
imperfect, but I tell you what, there is always a sign that there
is the right material there to produce fruit. Let me give you
an example. I've got a lime tree, a citrus
lime tree, that lives throughout the winter in the conservatory.
And in the summer, from late May to late September, it goes
outside in the garden where it gets maximum sunshine. And it
produces genuine Mediterranean citrus limes, especially in a
good summer. The last two winters have been
very cold, and last winter, absolutely frozen. I put it in the greenhouse
for October, and it got absolutely frozen solid. And it didn't do
it any good at all. And by the time I got somebody
to help us to get it indoors, it had been well and truly frozen.
And it's looked a very, very sickly thing. And if you looked
at it the other day, you'd barely see a green leaf on it, it was
just like a few twigs sticking out of a plant. It looked dead,
it really did, it looked absolutely dead. No fruit, no limes, not
at all. Do you know in this last week,
the sun's been out one or two days, and it's shone into the
conservatory, it is covered in little green leaves. from soil
level right to the top, little tiny green leaves all over it.
It's covered in them. And you squeeze those little
green leaves, and guess what? Lime. Powerful smell of lime. Do you see what I mean? There's
no perfect fruit there. We're a million miles from perfect
fruit, but yes, there's the sign of fruit there. There's the sign
of what is going to produce fruit there. And so it is. So it is. In the child of God, yes, the
fruit's imperfect. But there's a sign of it. You
want to produce it. You want to suppress sin. Think
about following up this example tension between brethren coming
in an unworthy way coming with an unholy anger you know we looked
at anger there is a holy anger in Ephesians 4 but there's an
unholy anger one that goes on one that is mean one that is
irrational towards others and that's coming unworthily now
turn back with me to Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the
Mount Matthew chapter 5 and I want you to look at verse 23 23. See Jesus in the Sermon on the
Mount is talking about coming to the temple sacrifice and bringing
your gift. Well we could say that's the
equivalent of coming to the Lord's Supper and are you coming in
a worthy manner. Now look what he says is an unworthy
manner to come to that situation. Therefore if thou bring thy gift
to the altar and there remember us that thy brother hath ought
against thee." You've got a dispute with your brother, you're not
in a good relationship with somebody else. God is saying to us, don't
bring a gift, I don't want your gift, leave it there, go away
first, be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer
your gift. You see that? Isn't that clear?
You know, that's to come in an unworthy way. If you are coming
in a way where there's something eating up inside, go and sort
it out first before you come. Don't come with that burning
up inside. In Matthew 18, there's all the instructions about how
to do that in a correct and scriptural way, without making too much
of a great song and dance about it, but to do it in a correct
way, to be reconciled, to have that bitterness taken away, because
God sees the heart You know, we, looking at one another, don't.
We just see the exterior. But God sees the heart. We read
in Matthew 18, verses 21 to 35, about that parable of forgiveness,
Jesus teaching there. The scripture has a lot to say
about forgiveness. In that parable, let me remind
you of it. The rich man with lots of servants, there's one
who owes him an amount which is beyond, it's like me saying
to you that all of a sudden you owe some rich person a billion
pounds. You might be able to scrape together
a few thousand pounds. If you've been very prudent,
you might be able to scrape together a few hundred thousand pounds.
But a billion? It's beyond the possibility of
all but the Bill Gateses of this world to come up with that sort
of personal fortune. It's impossible. Impossible.
And that's the sort of figure that in that parable was owed.
No possibility. So sell his wife and children.
Put them into slavery. Sell everything he has. And that
way reduce some of the debt. But it will only be a little
nibbling away at one corner of the debt. and let him be sold
and he pleads and pleads and pleads and that master forgives
him. He forgives him an enormous debt
and then that servant goes out and finds somebody who owes him
30 pence and gets them by the throat and says I'm going to
throw you into prison until you pay me that 30 pence and you're
not going to be let out until you've... How unjust. How utterly unjust. You see,
how inconsistent that is with being forgiven. He was forgiven
a fortune beyond your wildest dreams. Are you forgiven by the
Lord Jesus Christ? You're forgiven a fortune beyond
your wildest dreams. How can you possibly then, how
can you possibly be bitter towards another child? How can you be
unforgiving towards somebody else? Forgiving others is a fruit
of being forgiven. Do you have a heart to forgive?
To think compassionately of others? That's a sign of fruit within.
You know what we are as the children of God. 1 Corinthians, I'm going
to give you some scriptures now. We're going to finish pretty
soon. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. What? Know ye not that your
body, the flesh in which you live, is the temple of the Holy
Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God? And you are not
your own, you're not your own to do what you want with, for
you are bought with a price. You've been bought. You've been
purchased in the slave market. You have another master now.
Not the one that was your master, Satan and the powers of darkness,
but the God of the universe. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's. So examine yourself.
If you find sin, what do you do if you're somebody who will
come to this table in a worthy manner? If you find sin, which
you will, you'll repent of it. Repentance. What was it that
God granted to the Gentiles in Acts? What was the sign that
they were believed? God hath granted to the Gentiles
repentance. You'll hate it. You'll see it.
You'll hate it. You'll want to put it right. Think of Zacchaeus.
Do you remember? Zacchaeus was a very little man
and a very little man was he. He climbed up into a sycamore
tree for the Savior. to see and as the Savior passed
that way he said Zacchaeus come down for I'm coming to your house
for tea or however that chorus goes and Zacchaeus was known
as a publican and a cheat and a swindler and an extortioner
and when Christ came and spoke the gospel to him and gave him
eternal life and he believed Zacchaeus repented of his sins
and you can read about it in In Luke's Gospel, chapter 19,
verses 8 and 9. And do you know when he repented?
Do you know how he showed that he'd repented? He said, whoever
I've cheated, I'll restore it fourfold. And do you know what
Jesus said when he heard that? Jesus knows all things, but as
a man he said this for the hearing of those that heard it, and for
the reading of us that read it today. When he heard him say,
I'm going to restore fourfold, He said, that's the sign of a
child of God. He said this, he also is a son
of Abraham. Oh, wasn't he a Jew anyway? No,
they're not all Israel, which are of Israel. It's the elect
of God that are Israel. And he said, he too is a son
of Abraham by faith. Think of this verse, Titus 2,
verses 11 and 12. For the grace of God, oh we come
on the basis of the grace of God, that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men, all of his elect that means, teaching
us that, now grace teaches us, what does it teach us? Denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts. Don't go saying that you've been
taught of grace and you continue in ungodliness and worldly lusts,
you want the things of the world. We should live soberly, righteously,
godly in this present world. 1 John chapter 1 verses 6 to
8. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Happens, doesn't it? People say,
oh, I'm a Christian. I've got fellowship with him.
But their lives are just constantly walking in darkness with the
domination of the old man of the flesh uppermost in everything. If we say that we lie and do
not the truth but if we walk in the light as he's in the light
we have fellowship one with another with God's people and the blood
of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So
think about it. Examine yourself. Do you come,
and do you come to this table truly with faith in Christ alone? My faith is built, my hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Is he
your all-sufficient and only hope? That's discerning the body
of the Lord. And has that faith at least shown
repentance and hatred of sin towards others? Do you desire
to walk in Christ's light? Well if not, then don't show
off to others around you, think you'll be impressed by eating
and drinking, seek the Lord first. But if so, if you have those
characteristics, then come to this table in fellowship with
one another and with our Lord Jesus Christ. Not as someone
who's good enough, not as someone who's a good Christian, but as
one who finds peace only in Christ, who hates sin and desires to
live for Christ in relation to others. Amen.