May God be pleased to grant you
grace to heed what you just heard. Venture on Him, venture wholly,
let no other trust intrude. Cast your soul on the Son of
God. Believe Him. Believe Him. He promises, Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. Thank you, David. The most blessed privilege we
have in this world, you've heard me say this so many times, I
fear you may not really hear it. The most blessed privilege
we have in this world is the privilege of public worship. I'm not talking about going to
church. Millions do that all over the world every Sunday.
I'm talking about worship. The most blessed privilege we
have in this world is the privilege of public worship. The privilege
of gathering in the assembly of God's saints. For you and
me, the privilege of gathering right here in this place with
God's saints in this local assembly. It's described in the book of
God this way. Now listen, listen. I'm talking
about right now. You and me right here. Joe, this
is the house of God. This is the house of God. This
is the temple of the living God. God's temple. This is an habitation
of God through the Spirit. Now, we recognize the universality
of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. God's church and kingdom
is not limited to one body of believers, to one denomination
of believers, to one group of believers. I stress that because
we live amongst folks who like to spell Baptist with a capital
B that's real bold, and they think the Baptist church is only
the true church. The Baptist church, for the most
part, is just as heretical as all the others. We live amongst
folks where the Campbellites were started, the Church of Christ,
and they think that's the only true church. Well, God's church,
I can't stop there. The Campbellites have none of
them know God, none of them, none of them. Folks who believe
in salvation by works may as well call papist believers. That's not God's church, but
God's church is made up, it is made up of all true believers
in every age. Some folks suggest because we
believe the church to be universal, we deny the local church. Not
at all. Not at all. And they suggest,
well, you folks believe that all the churches go together
and make up one big church. Anybody who's heard me speak
for five minutes knows better than that. But all true believers,
beginning with Adam and going to the end of time, in every
age and nation and kindred and tongue, make up the church of
the living God. All God's elect are the body
and bride of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord God has ordained
his worship in local churches just like this. This is the only
place in the world. Place where God's people gather
together. This is the only place in the world where God promises
to meet with us. Only place in the world. Only
place we promises to meet with his people, the Lord Jesus said,
where two or three are gathered together in my name. I happen
to know that today, in various parts of the world, there are
places where just two or three people gather together and worship
God, watching our videotapes, having somebody preach to them,
just two or three. So we can't really call that
a church. Oh, I beg to differ. Just as really one of God's churches
as this is, where two or three are gathered together in my name.
come together in the name of Christ, trusting him, trusting
his blood and his righteousness, trusting him alone as our savior,
our representative with God, trusting him alone and seeking
his glory. I wonder if there's two or three
people who come in here tonight like that. There might be two
or three thousand and only two or three gathered together in
his name. But he said where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there I might be. That's not what he said, is it?
There am I in the midst of them. The only place on this earth
where God promises to meet with his people and local church.
When we come together as a local church, In the name of Christ,
God, the Holy Spirit, comes with us. And the gathered assembly
of God's saints, the Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration,
says, is the temple of God. Spirit of God dwells in you. So that when we come together
to seek the Lord, not just go to church to punch a time clock
and say we went to church three times a week. We come together
to worship God. We come together, trusting Christ
to seek his glory, to seek to know him and hear from him. As
we come together, you say, well, this is just mystical. Isn't
it true? Everything good is mystical. I mean by that, you can't really
put it in a box. You can't really set down an
order and say this is going to happen. But as we come together,
trusting Christ and seeking his glory, I can't tell you how I
don't do it Sunday night, Tuesday nights, but Sunday mornings,
I'm about always standing out there to greet folks as they're
coming in, right up to the last minute. How come? Because I'm
anxiously anticipating the gathering of God's saints. And as you come
through those doors together, Larry Brown, we bring God with
us to one another. Let's see if that's not so. Look
at 1 Corinthians 3. 1 Corinthians 3. I want you to
see it for yourselves. Verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now Paul's
writing to this Corinthian church. And if there's any church in
the New Testament of which there might have been some suspicion
about this thing, Corinth would have been the place. But Paul
writes to those who are God's saints at Corinth and says, you
are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. Now, what's this next line? If
any man defile the temple of God corrupt, the word is divide
destroy. If any man destroy the temple
of God, him shall God destroy. The very same word. For the temple
of God is holy, sanctified, which temple ye are. God sends out
his word through gospel churches. God gathers his elect by the
preaching of the gospel and in gospel churches. God instructs,
comforts, edifies, and establishes his people by the ministry of
the gospel in gospel churches. And God is worshiped by his people
in divinely ordained ordinances of public worship maintained
by gospel churches. By the reading of his word, by
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, by gospel preaching, by
confessing Christ in baptism and in the Lord's Supper. Brother
Allen Kibbe, I don't think I've ever discussed this with him.
You can either nod, yea or nay, whichever you wish, whichever
is true. I know for years that you had
no public assembly, no public place to meet. You listened to
the messages on radio or on television or through the computer, does
God speak sitting by your radio or your computer like he speaks
when you're here with God's saints? No. You folks did the same thing.
Now you gather with two or three, that's another story. That's
another story. There is the temple of God. Here
God ministers to and feeds his people. Perhaps the very fact that the
local church is so vital to the welfare of our souls is the fact
that makes it so much the target of our adversary, the devil.
He constantly stirs up confusion about the local church. He constantly
stirs up confusion about its proper place and its usefulness
and its ordinances. So the Holy Spirit gives us crystal
clear instruction concerning these things in Holy Scripture. Now, I recognize that there are
things about which the Spirit of God says very little about
how the church is to be governed and such as that. It says very,
very little. There's great latitude given
in that regard for each individual congregation to determine. But
God, the Holy Spirit has given us crystal clear instructions
as to how we are to worship him in this place. There's no question
about it. I'm certain that few passages in the word of God had
been more horribly misrepresented and more horribly misused and
abused than first Corinthians chapter 11 verses 27, 28 and
29. So I want you to open your Bibles
on your laps and hold them open on your laps to 1 Corinthians
chapter 11. Paul says here in verse 27, in
this context, he's talking about orderly worship, particularly
at the Lord's table. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread. Talk about this bread right here.
And drink this cup. This cup right here. Whosoever shall eat this bread
and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord. Now, somehow you ought to mark
that so you won't miss the bold declaration Paul makes here.
Person who eats and drinks unworthily is guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. He tramples underfoot the blood
of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Christ. But let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation. He that eateth and
drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself. And here's the key to the passage,
not discerning the Lord's body. These verses of scripture had
been troubling over the years throughout the centuries to countless
sensitive souls more so than any others, I'm sure, in the
New Testament, simply because of terribly poor teaching and
preaching by men who do not understand the scriptures and do not understand
the gospel. Many of the Lord's people read
these verses and think, surely, if anyone is unworthy to receive
the Lord's Supper, it's me. Is there any one of you here
tonight who doesn't think that of yourself? anyone. You're right. You're absolutely right. You
are not worthy to receive this ordinance, and I am not worthy
to receive this ordinance considered as you or be considered as myself. In Christ, we are. Which of you
thinks yourself worthy to call God your father? To kneel in your heart before
the throne of grace? Who's worthy of that? Which of
you is worthy to walk through those doors and sit here with
God's people in worship? Churches have kowtowed and begged
and treated people as though God were a beggar at the door
of mighty rich man, and God just can't get along without you far
too much. I remember Brother Jack Shanks,
years ago, he got up down in New Caney and had a lot of visitors
there that morning. He did something real unusual.
He said, you folks who are visiting, he said, y'all ought to be very,
very thankful for these folks who provided you a place where
you can go. Y'all ought to be very, very
thankful, folks who built this building and paid the light bill
so you can come here and sit in comfort and hear a man preach
the gospel. Well, that's no way to get folks
to come to church. No, but it might be a way to get folks to
pay attention and listen to God and worship God. We come to the
house of God and worship Him, not because somehow we find worthiness
in ourselves, We worship Him who makes us worthy. Many of
the Lord's people have been taught to absent themselves from the
ordinance of the Lord's Supper because they feel unworthy. Satan roars against weak, untaught
or poorly taught believers and accuses the believer of sin and
guilt and tries to put him on legal footing as he stands before
God. That's what the roaring lion of hell always does. And
anyone who tries to put you on legal footing before God is Satan
roaring against your soul. Anyone, anyone. Our standing
before God is not in ourselves. It is in Christ our Redeemer.
It's not on the basis of our law, obedience, or our works
of righteousness, but on Christ and Christ alone. The old serpent
is hellishly subtle and clever. Isn't it amazing that under the
guise of humility and holiness, he tries to persuade folks they
can't worship God. Under the guise of humility and
holiness, he tries to get folks to disobey the Redeemer and be
kept from the Lord Jesus Christ so that we look at ourselves
and we think we're so humble because when they have the Lord's
table, we just go, I couldn't go to that. I couldn't receive
the bread and the wine. The fact is, our Savior would
have us always turn the eyes of our faith out of ourselves
and only to Him. Don't ever look to yourself. Don't ever look in yourself. Don't ever look to your experience,
your knowledge, your feelings, your emotions, past or present. Don't ever look to yourself.
Look away from yourself to Christ for everything, for everything. Worship the son of God alone
as your savior. So tonight I want to answer just
one question. Just one question. Who is worthy? Who is worthy? Who is and who
is not worthy to receive the bread and wine of the Lord's
Supper? I want to answer the question distinctly so that you
can't possibly miss my intent. And then I want to show the answer
to you from the scriptures. Who is worthy? Every true believer. Every sinner who trusts Christ
alone as his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption
is worthy of receiving the Lord's Supper and is graciously obliged
to eat the bread and drink the wine. Now, this is what that
means. If right now God Almighty gives
you faith in Christ, if this minute God causes you to believe
on his son. You're worthy to eat the bread
and drink the wine. If you believe on the son of
God, eat this bread and drink this wine. If you don't believe,
if you don't believe, don't do it. Don't do it. Now I'm not
going to be watching you and nobody else is. I forbid the
notion. So you can't do that. I'm pastor
here. I forbid the notion. I'm not watching and nobody else
is to try to keep you from it. It's your responsibility. Don't
eat the bread and don't drink the wine if you're not a believer.
But if you trust Christ, the Lord commands you eat this bread
and drink this wine. Now, let's see if I can make
good on that. Keep your Bibles open here. First Corinthians
chapter 11. It's impossible to understand this text versus 27,
28 and 29. until we understand the entire
context in which it's found. Now that's just a good rule of
understanding and reading scripture. Don't ever try to understand
any statement, any question, any comment drawn out standing
on its own. Don't pull a text out and set
it over here and say, well, what does that mean? Put it back where
you got it and read the context and find out what it means. Set
it over here and make it say whatever you want to. You can
understand it any way you want to. Put it here and read honestly
and you can't miss what it says. in this part of 1 Corinthians,
by divine inspiration, Paul is moved of God to set in order
the disorderly affairs of the local church that was at Corinth.
But more importantly, he sets before us the proper order of
public worship in all gospel churches. And that's what 1 Corinthians
11, 12, 13, 14 is all about. particularly this 11th chapter,
verses 20 through 34. The Holy Spirit tells us exactly
what we should and should not do as we observe the Lord's Supper. Look at verse 20. We'll start
right there. When you come together, therefore,
into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper. The three
things are obvious here. There was a specific place where
the Corinthian church assembled for public worship. Now I say
that and it needs stressing in this day when folks excuse themselves
from worshiping God in public and they run here and there and
they They say, well, we don't have one church we go to. We don't commit ourselves to
any one ministry. We like to hear preachers from
this place and that. And they have no responsibility
and give themselves no responsibilities in their own minds. The fact
is, those folks who think they're so spiritual and they think somehow
there's something spiritual about not having a specified time and
a specified place for worship, are only excusing complete irresponsibility. They call this freedom. I call
it irresponsibility and neglect. When the local church meets together,
it is your privilege, your greatest privilege, and your responsibility
to meet with them whenever they meet together. God save me. when I was 16 years old. And I haven't missed a worship
service since when I could be there. Haven't done it. And if
God gives me grace to live another 40, 50, 60 years, that's not
likely. But if I live to be 100, I intend
to practice the same thing. How come? You think you gotta
go to church to be saved? No, but I can't get along without
you. And I can't get along without worshiping God, and you can't
either. I can't get along without God's people in the fellowship
of the saints, and I can't get along without hearing the word
of God, and you can't either. I can't get along without our
Redeemer in the blessed fellowship of the gospel, and I can't get
along without being instructed in my soul in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, and you can't either. I can't get along
without prayer. And I can't get along without
joining you in prayer. We don't have what people generally
refer to as prayer meetings. That's by design. That's by design. I don't ever intend to have that
mishmash of nonsense where folks all get together and we pray,
we have little groups and everybody Kneels around two or three here
and two or three there, and a whole lot of muttered commotion. Oh, we feel so good. Makes you
feel so close to the Lord. Anything that does that's hellish.
I promise you. I promise you. But it feels so
good. Satan's good at making you feel
good. We come together to worship, and that's what prayer is. We
come together to call on the name of our God and to have him
speak to us as he does by his word. The local church would
soon cease to exist if everybody decided to run to this place
and that whenever the wind came along and do something else whenever
the doors are open. We have the privilege of public
worship and we have the responsibility to our God and to one another. to our God and to one another.
Second thing that's obvious in this 20th verse, when the Corinthian
church came together at the appointed time, they claimed that they
did so to eat the Lord's supper. They met in Christ's name, according
to Christ's command, so they said, with the pretense of observing
Christ's ordinance, but that wasn't the case. No doubt there
were some, maybe many in the local church who did indeed come. As I've said, we must come trusting
the Redeemer, seeking his glory. But the great bulk of them came
together for other purposes. They had no concern at all about
the glory of God and the things of God. The bulk of the congregation
was concerned only in their frivolous festivities that they called
worshiping God. By this time, churches had already
been corrupted in many ways. The Galatian church with Judaism,
the Colossian church with Gnosticism, these folks that call it, do
you know what they substituted for the Lord's Supper? Down south
where I come from, Winston-Salem, there's still churches that get
together and have love feast. Isn't that sweet? They get together
and call it having a real high communion. They have love feast. They have a big party. They have
a big party and sing amazing grace. They have a big party
and sing holy, holy, holy. But it's just a festivity and
nothing else. That's exactly what happened
here at Corinth. And then thirdly, if we don't
observe the ordinances of divine worship in the manner prescribed
by God, We don't observe them at all. If we don't observe the ordinances
of divine worship in the manner prescribed by God in his word,
we don't observe them at all. People say, well, it doesn't
matter whether you use wine or grape juice. Oh, it does matter.
It doesn't matter whether you use unleavened bread or soda
crackers. It does matter. It doesn't matter whether folks
are baptized or just sprinkled. It does matter. It does matter.
It doesn't matter whether you swash a little water on somebody's
face or bury them in baptism. It does matter. You will either
observe God's ordinances and worship God God's way or you
will not observe the ordinances at all. And you won't worship
God at all. The Corinthians said, let's go
to church and worship God in the observance of the Lord's
Supper. And they came to come together for a party. And Paul
says, when you come together, it's not to eat the Lord's Supper. We observe the Lord's Supper
here every Sunday evening. I chose to lead us in this direction
from the beginning for one reason. Nowhere in the scripture that
requires that. Nowhere in the scripture that requires that.
The scriptures only require that it be done often. But in the
scriptures, Through the whole book of Acts in the New Testament,
believers who came together as often as they came together to
worship God, they came together and broke bread. They came to
worship, they broke bread. And our Lord commands us to observe
this ordinance often, that we often remember him and often
eat this bread and drink this cup. Look at verse 21. Paul says, for in eating, everyone
taketh before other his own supper, and one's hungry and another's
drunken. Here, Paul explains exactly why
the Corinthian practice was not an act of worship at all and
couldn't be considered observed in the Lord's Supper. Again,
he's telling us they simply added to the ordinances of Christ a
gaudy feast, which soon got out of hand. They came not to worship
but to feast. Their love feast was a rude,
self-serving party. Rather than waiting on a brother,
each one jump up in front of the other one, rather than taking
care of the poor, the wealthy gorged themselves and left the
poor without. Now, Paul is not suggesting here
that we're not to have our church dinners down in the basement
of the church or if you wanted to have them here in the auditorium.
Now, please, don't do it. Don't bring it up here. I won't
keep things neat up here. But there's nothing holy about this
place. There's nothing holy about this building. No sense in which
those things are forbidden. He's talking about something
else altogether. He's talking about believers abusing the worship
of God and turning the worship of God into what they want for
their own carnal pleasure. Look at verse 22. What? Have you not houses to eat and
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? I praise you not. I have had two distinct occasions,
one several years ago, one just not long ago, in which I've done
something that I much regret. and the worship of God. I made
a choice about what would be the lesser of two evils, and
both times I'm confident I made the wrong choice. Several years
ago, Shelby and I were at a Bible conference. Folks were required
to pay to attend. And numerous times before we
got ready to eat, this particular day they had hired somebody to
provide a roast, The pastor announced, now if you haven't paid your
$5 or five, whatever it was, if you haven't paid your money,
you can't eat. You can't eat. And then served
up the meal and we sat down in front of folks watching us eat. And I thought, what on earth
should I do? I should have said, no, thank
you, and went and sat on the wall. But I decided it would
cause less commotion if I just went ahead and ate the meal.
I shouldn't have done it. It was wrong. For the sake of
not offending folks, I offended God and offended others who were
gods. God, forgive me. In the same
circumstances, I promise you, Bobby, it won't happen again.
It won't happen again. Recently, I was in a place where
the Lord's Supper was to be observed, and they brought out a loaf of
whole wheat bread and some grape, I'm sorry, some
Kool-Aid. And I thought, everybody here
is watching me, see what I'm going to do. Do I cause disturbance
and not eat the bread and wine or eat the bread and drink the
Kool-Aid or do I just let this go this time? And I decided it'd
be best to cause no disturbance. And this first public statement
I made about it since, I mentioned it to men back in the office
a couple of weeks ago, it was wrong. It was dead flat wrong. I didn't observe the Lord's Supper
at all. We just did something folks call the Lord's Supper.
No, you will either observe God's ordinances as God requires or
you won't observe them. And if folks get upset with that,
they just have to get upset. It's all there is to it. Now
look at verse 23. For I have received of the Lord,
that is the Lord God taught me, that which also I delivered unto
you. I make you that promise. I make
you that promise. I don't stand in this place and
give you what I think this book teaches. I don't stand here and
tell you that this may say this or it may mean that it may mean
the other thing. This is what this fellow says is what the
other one says. I'm not going to deal with the
subject or a passage in this book with speculation. Merle,
if I come here, I have sought a word from God for you. Whatever it costs to get that,
that's what I'm doing. He's what I received to the Lord.
That's what I delivered to you. Here it is. That the Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when
he had blessed it, when he had given thanks, remember the gospel
narrative, I believe that Matthew said he blessed it. He said he
gave thanks. He break it and said, take eat.
This is my body, which is broken for you. And this do in remembrance
of me. After the same manner, he also
took the cup which he, when he had sucked, saying, this cup
is the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood, sealed
and ratified in my blood. This do ye as often 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 till
he come. Here the Holy Spirit tells us
that when the gospel writers say that Christ blessed the bread
and the cup, there's no indication at all that he performed some
kind of a mumbo-jumbo magic trick. He didn't come out with a, you
know, clown's costume that's real ornate with a collar around
his neck and crosses and chains hanging around him and a funny-looking
cap on and a stick in his hand and a smoking cinch and wave
it around and say, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and suddenly
it changed. He didn't change the bread. He
didn't change the wine. He gave thanks for it. He gave
thanks for it. The bread and wine is his body
and his blood representatively. Only representatively. So if
you drink the cup and eat the bread, you don't get any spiritual
benefit from it. and you don't get any physical
benefit from it. The only benefit you get is if
in eating the bread and drinking the wine, you remember the Savior
and then you worship Him. Then you worship Him. We are to observe the Lord's
Supper the same way our Lord did with His disciples on the
night when He was betrayed. He took bread. The bread the
Jews used at Passover, unleavened bread, because that bread, that
bread unleavened represents his holy body that was crushed for
us beneath the wheels of divine justice when he bare our sin
and his body on the tree. Unleavened bread because he is
the holy lamb of God. To use something else is to distort
the whole picture. Unleavened bread. Bread with
nothing in it to corrupt. Bread with nothing in it to make
it go bad. Bread with nothing in it to cause
it to become rotten. Our Lord Jesus is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. The virgin born son of God. who
is altogether without sin, who did no sin, and when he was made
sin for us, was crushed beneath the wheels of God's justice.
The wine. I just don't believe we ought
to drink wine, preacher. Well, you've given way to religious traditions
that are totally contrary to scripture. I'm not suggesting
everybody ought to drink wine. I'm telling you it's wrong to
tell somebody they can't. It's wrong to tell somebody they
can't. It's wrong to have the idea that somehow you're spiritual
if you don't drink wine and you're not spiritual if you do. Somehow
you're behaving evilly if you drink wine or that might cause
people to want to have a glass of wine with their meal. That'd
be all right. That'd be all right. Oh, you
shouldn't say that, preacher. That'll be all right. If you
want to have a glass of wine with your steak, have a glass
of wine with it. If you want to have a beer with your steak,
have a beer with... How did you hear what Brother Don said? I'm
here to break tradition, not maintain them. Drunkenness is
another story. Well, why the wine? Because the
wine, as it did in the Old Testament right at Passover, in the New
Testament ordinance of the gospel of observing the Lord's Supper
represents the blood of the Lamb of God, our sacrifice. One slain without impurity. One slain without corruption. One slain with no sin of his
own. His blood is the blood of one
who is called and is God. Acts 20, 28, God purchased the
church with his own blood. And I promise you, I promise
you, if it means I stand alone for the rest of my life, never
again will I knowingly take the Lord's supper or call it that
without unleavened bread and wine. It will not happen. It
will not happen. Why? Because to use something
else, is to imply, I don't suggest folks who use something else
are consciously implied, but to use something else is to imply
that it doesn't matter that our Lord is without sin. It doesn't
matter that he knew no sin. It doesn't matter that he is
the virgin born son of God, the wine and the body, the wine and
the bread separated speaks of the body and the blood separated,
which is sure death. Our Redeemer poured out his life's blood unto
death as our substitute. In the true observance of the
Lord's Supper, we beautifully show forth In this symbolic ordinance,
our Lord's death, he said, until he come. That's the purpose of
the ordinances. Baptism, I hate to even say baptism
by immersion. That's like saying baptism by
baptism, or immersion by immersion, because that's what the word
means. Baptism, the immersing of men and women who confess
Christ as Lord and Savior. This by this ordinance, we confess
the gospel. Our Lord said to John, as you
can be baptized of him. And John said, Oh, no, I can't
do that. Me baptize you. And the master
said, Suffer it to be so now. For thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Well, now how on this earth does
sticking a fellow in a tank of water fulfill righteousness?
Or baptizing him in Jordan River fulfill righteousness? It can't
possibly have anything to do with the accomplishment of righteousness.
Oh, yes, it does. It's got everything to do with
it symbolically. Our Lord said, now, John, here
we're going to show in this ordinance how righteousness is brought
in, how righteousness is established, how the Son of God makes his
people righteous by my obedience unto death as their substitute. And so John buried him in the
waters of Jordan. and he rose up and walked out
of the waters of Jordan, just as he, when he was slain by the
sword of justice, was buried in the earth and rose up out
of the earth in new glorified life. And the believer is buried
with Christ in baptism. Every time I had the privilege
of baptizing a newborn child of God, I again reiterate in
my own mind and in my own heart, I'm crucified with Christ. And I'm buried with Christ, dead
to the law and dead to this world. And I've risen with Christ and
I walk with him now in new life. That's the meaning of the ordinance.
This ordinance means Christ redeemed me. My sins are gone, washed
away. He who obeyed God's law in my
room instead, died in my room instead. And I live by faith
in his blood and his righteousness. So I take the bread. I don't
come have you kneel before me and stick it on your tongue,
some paper's witch doctor. No, you come and you take it. Because I can't stick faith in
you. I can't put it in you. But you take the bread and you
take the cup and you eat the bread and you drink the wine.
Because by faith, each child of God takes Christ for himself
and believes Christ for himself. Now, 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 is that talking
about? Unworthily. The common notion
is this. I remind you, religion likes to
control with fear or any other way religion can control. Religion
wants to control your life. to manipulate you, to keep you
in line, to make you, if it was a political party, toe the party
line and do whatever it is. If you won't toe the line, we'll
withhold funds. We'll keep back rewards. If you
do toe the party line, we'll give you plenty of money. We'll
give you an extra star in your crown. Religion loves to control. And so they'll use the Lord's
Supper now. And we're going to have this
most solemn ordinance of the Lord. And if you have any unconfessed
sin in your life, if you're not living with the Lord like you
should, let's try the reverse of that. Let's try the reverse
of that. If you don't have any unconfessed sin in your life,
if you are living for the Lord like you should, now then, pop your suspenders
and you take the bread and you ever so humbly eat the bread
and drink the wine because you are worthy. That's called dumb religion. Read it for yourself in Philippians
chapter 3. Well, if it doesn't mean to eat with unconfessed
sin, if it doesn't mean you eat and drink unworthily if you aren't
living like you ought to, What on earth does it mean? To eat
and drink unworthily is to eat and drink without faith in Christ. That's exactly what it is. We
don't sprinkle water on our babies and call it christening or baptism
either one. Because when you do, you convince
them, start with, that they're Christians when they're not.
And they go through the practice of religion all their lives,
eating and drinking damnation to themselves every time they
walk into the church door, presuming they are one of God's elect.
Presuming they are God's children when they have no life from God
in them. We don't coerce people into making
a profession of faith to make them think they're God's children
when they don't. That's exactly what our Lord
meant when he said to the Pharisees, you encompass land and sea to
make one disciple. And when you've made him, you
make him twofold more the child of hell than he was before. That's
what people do in religion all the time. All the time. I don't
try to talk anybody into a profession of faith. Nobody ever anywhere. Just preach the gospel and wait
for God to work. Look at verse 28. How do you
know this is what it's got to be? For one thing, God's people
can't eat and drink damnation to themselves. That's just not
a possibility. That's not a possibility. Paul
says, but let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of that bread
and drink of that cup. Two things. It is your responsibility
to examine yourself, and there's just one point of examination.
Rex Bartley, do you believe on the Son of God? How blessed that
every week, every week for the last 32 years, you've been compelled
in the observance of this ordinance to pause and examine, do I trust
Christ? Do I trust Christ? I've got that sewed up. It was
sewed up 30 years ago. Well, you're in trouble. You're
in trouble. Do you trust the Son of God?
Not like I should. Not like I want to. Yes, I trust
him. I trust him. Here's the second
thing. Eat the bread, drink the wine.
It's commanded. It's commanded. As much as baptism's
commanded. Eat the bread and drink the wine.
Eat this bread, drink this wine in remembrance of Christ. In
remembrance of Him who loved you and gave Himself for you.
He commands that we do so. Once we have made clear this
issue, do I trust my Redeemer? Look at verse 29. For he that
eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation
to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. That's the problem. The unbeliever doesn't know. He doesn't understand. He has no perception of who Christ
is, what he did, or why he did it. The unbeliever doesn't discern
the necessity of Christ's incarnation because we're lost, doomed, damned,
depraved sinners. The only way God Almighty could
justify us is by the sacrifice of his darling son in our flesh. The unbeliever doesn't understand
that Jesus Christ, the God, man, our Savior, obeyed God's law
in our room instead perfectly. The unbeliever doesn't understand
that Jesus Christ, God's darling son, poured out his life's blood
at Calvary, the blood of the new covenant, and obtained for
us by the sacrifice of himself through his own precious blood,
eternal redemption. The unbeliever doesn't discern
the Lord's body. And the unbelieving religionist goes through life
practicing religion, Larry, without Christ. Practicing godliness,
but denying the power. Practicing religion without the
knowledge of God. And everything he does is eating
and drinking damnation to himself. As you take the bread and you
take the wine, drink this wine, eat this bread and drink this
wine in remembrance of the Savior. God teach us to remember him. God teach us to remember him. His sacrifice, His grace, His
glory, His goodness, His mercy. Remember Him as you eat the bread
and drink the wine. Don't pay any attention to who
takes the bread or wine. That's not your business. That's
not mine. That's not the business of the church, the pastor, the
deacons. That's the business of the person who eats the bread
and drinks the wine. If you believe on the Son of
God, has God given you faith in Christ? Then eat this bread
and drink this wine and rejoice in God's mercy. Amen.