We have for the past 30 years,
almost 30 years now, every Sunday evening concluded the Lord's
Day by observing the blessed ordinance of the Lord's Supper.
That's a bit unusual amongst Baptist people in our society. Most people in Baptist churches
observe the Lord's Table, some once a month, most once a quarter.
Some, whenever they feel like they're holy enough to do it,
so they never get around to it. But our Lord commanded us to
observe this ordinance often. There's no requirement that it
be done every week. But the practice in the Book
of Acts was every time they came together on the Lord's Day, they
came together both for the hearing of the word, for prayer and praise,
and to break bread with one another. And somebody said, well, Aren't
you fearful of the Lord's Supper becoming just a mundane ceremony
without meaning? Yes, that concerns me greatly. It concerns me greatly. But if
that's the case, the problem, James, is not with the ordinances,
it's with you and with me. The fact is that often reading
the word, coming here and praying, singing God's praise, hearing
someone else sing God's praise, we go through the motions and
pay no attention to what has been said or what we ourselves
have said. How many times we stand to sing
a hymn and don't even pay attention to the words that we sing. The
problem is not with the singing of hymns too often. The problem
is with our hearts. And we need constantly to seek
grace from God, the Holy Spirit, that we may have grace to worship
God, that we may have grace to hear God speak, that we may have
grace to sing his praise, to sing in the spirit and to hear
in the spirit, to preach in the spirit and to pray in the spirit.
So tonight, I want us to look at First Corinthians chapter
10, beginning at verse 16. And I want to talk to you for
just a little while about the meaning of the Lord's Supper.
Paul commends these Corinthians in chapter 11 in verse two, he
said, Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things
and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you. Keep the ordinances. We practice too. Baptism and
the Lord's Supper. Baptism is the believer's public
confession of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the Lord
Jesus came to John the Baptist and John said, I need to be baptized
of you. I'm not about to baptize you.
And the Lord said, suffer to be so now for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Well, what on earth does somebody
being immersed in the dirty waters of the Jordan River have to do
with fulfilling righteousness? I read that. How can that be?
How can it be that you being immersed in this bad history
here has something to do with fulfilling righteousness? Now,
I realize there are religious fools who actually do believe
that by baptism you wash away your sins. And by baptism, you
actually do become regenerate. And that by baptism, you actually
do enter the kingdom of God. But those folks are religious
fools. They're idolaters. They don't know God from a gourd.
What does righteousness and baptism have to do with one another?
Baptism is the symbol by which we confess righteousness fulfilled. We are crucified with Christ. We died with him. God poured
out his vengeance upon us to the full satisfaction of justice
in the person of his dear son. And then we are buried with him
and raised with him in the new birth and walk together with
him now in the newness of life. And baptism pictures that dead,
buried, risen again. That's the picture of believers
baptism. Believers baptism. Historically, in the early church,
especially when men suffered greatly by their identification
with the cause of Christ, was the line drawn in the sand. It
was a dividing mark. And it really still is today.
It still is today. Those men and women who were
converted from among the Jews, they could come and listen to
the apostles preach and go back to synagogue, get along fine.
That didn't cause anything. Mom and Daddy didn't bother.
If you've got Jewish friends and you wanted to bring them
here, they could come here and worship with us. That wouldn't be a problem.
That wouldn't cause any difficulty. But the moment they confess Christ
in baptism, that's it. Well, what about our religion?
What about how you were raised? Well, that's all idolatry. That doesn't sit well with the
family. That doesn't sit well with the
folks in the church. Baptism is still that by which
believers publicly identify themselves with Jesus Christ, the Lord,
and identify themselves with the gospel of Christ and confess
the gospel in symbol. Every time someone is baptized
here, recognize we have now another representation vividly set before
our eyes of how God saves our souls. through the obedience
of his darling son by which he has brought in for us perfect
righteousness. The Lord's Supper is a picture
of the believer's communion with Christ by which we remember our
Savior. All right, let's look here at
1 Corinthians 10, verse 16. The cup of blessing, what a word
for that little Cup of wine you're about to have. Cup of blessing. Was this conveyed blessings to
us? No. No, but it symbolizes the
blood of Christ by which alone blessing comes to us. The cup
of blessing which we bless, this cup for which we give thanks
to God is not talking about some kind of a religious hocus pocus,
you know, we often talk about saying the blessing. On one occasion,
the scriptures tell us our Lord blessed this. And another occasion
speaks and says he gave thanks. It's the same thing. It's not
blessing it in the sense that now this is consecrated and holy. It's something that happened
to it. I remember years ago up in Dingus, West Virginia, when
Brother Mahan first started going up there to preach, I went up
with him the first time he went up there. It was a free will Baptist
church. I mean, they actually had free
will worship on the side. They worship their wills. And
God had saved the pastor and saved some folks in the church.
And, of course, they had a lot of stuff that stuck with them.
And the pastor at that time was another fellow by the name of
Vance, but it wasn't Brother Gary, not the fellow who's there
now. Brother Sammy Vance asked Henry, he said, Brother Mahan,
what do y'all do with the wine when you get done with the Lord's
Supper? Henry said, well, we put it up and use it next time
or drink it. It doesn't matter. Why? Why do you ask? Well, we always were taught that
once it's been blessed, then anything left over, you got to
bury it. Religious nonsense, religious superstition. The cup
of blessing is the cup of thanks. This means by which God blesses
us, the blood of his darling son. Now we bless God for it. We give thanks for it. The cup
of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion? The word is fellowship, communion,
the participation in, the uniting of the blood of Christ and the
bread which we break. Is it not the communion, the
fellowship, the participation in the uniting of the body of
Christ? For we being many, you and I,
believers, and I know we live in this the neck of the woods
where there are badness to spell badness with a big B and think
they're the only ones in the God's kingdom. And they will
tell you to the Lord's Supper is to be observed just by folks
in this local church. And it's not for anybody else.
Paul was not a member of the Church of Corinth. He was not
a member of that congregation. He was an apostle. He's writing
to them from a distance. But he says, we being many are
one bread and one body. The Church of God is one. And
God's elect are one wherever they are found. And you who are
gathered in this place tonight, if you're in Christ, you're one
with us in Christ. That's our friend, Brother Don
Martin. Hadn't seen you in a while. Still one of us. One in Christ. One in Christ. All right, read
on. For we are all partakers of that one bread. We're all partakers of that one
loaf, that one bread, which is the bread of life, Jesus Christ,
the Lord. Behold, Israel after the flesh
are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar. Those Levites who feast on the
Sabbath and sacrifices their partakers of the altar. What
say I then that the idol is anything? Or that which is offered in sacrifice
to idols is anything? Why, no. No. I'd like you to
poke fun at the idols. Poke fun at Baal and idol worshipers. Sometimes I do. I like to poke
fun at them. What stupidity. We're just talking about baptism.
What silliness. Folks think water is going to
wash away sins. Idol, nothing. It's nothing. It's insignificant.
Well, we ought to respect other religions. Well, let's see if
we should. Let's see. Is the idol anything or that
which is offered in sacrifice to idols anything? But I say
that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to
devils. Folks get all upset, hear about
folks worshiping the devil. Most folks do. Most folks do. Most who call themselves Baptists
worship devils, but they don't. And not to God. I would not that
you should have fellowship with devils. Now, watch what it says
in verse 16. It says the cup of blessing which
we bless. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ and the bread which we break? Is it not the
communion of the body of Christ? And we being many are one bread
in one body. But we are partakers of that
one bread. We're partakers of Jesus Christ, the bread of life.
Now, what's verse twenty to twenty one? You cannot drink the cup
of the Lord and the cup of devils. You can't have communion both
places. You can't be in fellowship with those who worship devils
and those who worship God. If you have fellowship with will
worshipers, you don't have any fellowship with those who worship
Christ. If you worship Christ, you can't have fellowship with
those who worship at all to their own will. and the cup of devils. You cannot be partakers of the
Lord's table and of the table of devils. And I wish that every
one of you sitting here could join us in this blessed ordinance. I usually say very little about
it. I say so, I say little deliberately because I don't want there ever
to be any indication of priestcraft in this place. Me having something
to do with administering the ordinance is utterly meaningless. Or any other preacher. Any other
preacher. It's utterly meaningless. I deliberately
have nothing to do with it. I don't look up to see who's
taking the bread and wine, and I urge you not to look to see
who's taking it. It's none of your business. It's
their business and God's. Nobody else's. But this ordinance
is for believers only. It is not for you who do not
know the Redeemer. If you trust Christ, he commands
that you be baptized and confess him as a believer by immersion. If you trust Christ, he commands
that you eat this bread and drink this wine. But if you don't trust
him. To participate in these ordinances
as though you were a believer is to eat and drink damnation
to yourself. How can that be? You continually
over and over harden your heart, convincing yourself that everything's
all right with your soul when nothing is right with your soul.
So if you believe, take the bread and take the wine. But Brother
Don, I'm not a member of this church. If you believe on the
son of God, eat the bread and drink the wine. It's yours. Your worthiness is not your association
with Grace Baptist Church in Danville or your association
with any denomination. Your worthiness is Jesus Christ
the Lord. He and he alone makes us worthy. Well, but I've always heard if
you have any unconfessed sin in your life, I guarantee you,
you do. I guarantee you, you do. Your
heart's as deceitful as mine and desperately wicked, and you
don't know it. You don't know it. No, no, no,
no. You don't you don't muster enough
holiness to make yourself acceptable to God. That's in Christ, Bobby. He's our holiness. He's our righteousness. He's our redemption. The bread
and wine, however, is for believers alone. So I urge you. We don't
observe a private ceremony and shut the doors. Make sure only
folks or members come in. This is public. We want our sons
and daughters at their earliest ages to watch and watch how we
take the bread and take the wine. I was in Mexico. First time I
was there, I don't remember, 75, 76, somewhere in there. And we happened to be there on
one of their high holy days when they were having all kinds of
festivities at the local Catholic, whatever you call it, shrine
or Tomb of Death, whatever you want
to call it. And there were literally 2,000
or 3,000 people in this place, crawling on their knees from
the back of the building for some man dressed up in a Masonic
order costume, holding a religious stick in his hand to put bread
on somebody's tongue. and give them a sip of wine out
of a chalice that they held, as if somehow you get grace from
the preacher, you get grace from the priest, you get grace from
the church. No, no, no. Each man, each woman
with a hand of faith takes Christ for himself. I can't believe God for you.
I've got Steffi's eye. Mama and daddy can't believe
God for you. You must take Christ for yourself. You must trust
Christ for yourself. You take the bread and eat it,
and you take the wine and drink it. And that's the symbol, the
picture of how we receive the Lord Jesus by faith in him. So Brother Don, I thought, The
Lord has to come to us and and he comes in us by sovereign grace. And it's not by an act that we
perform. You're exactly right. You thought right. And when he
comes in, you reach out and take him and you keep on reaching
out and taking him. This ordinance is for those who
believe the bread and wine set before us are divinely appointed
symbols of our Redeemer. They represent his body. and
His blood. They are just symbols, but they
are symbols by which our Lord Jesus gave in commandment that
we are to use in remembrance of Him. We don't use grape juice
and soda crackers. I've been asked a number of times,
well, what would you do if you went to a church and they used
grape juice and soda crackers at Lord's Supper? First time
we had it and I was there, we used wine and unleavened bread.
Well, but what if people didn't want to? Well, they can go home.
It's just that simple. Well, is it that important? It
represents the body of our Lord, His holy humanity, His perfect
humanity, that with no sin, with no defilement, with no corruption,
no principle within to cause corruption. The wine represents
His blood, the blood of the New Testament, shed for many for
the remission of sins. Well, I just, we just don't believe
y'all drink wine. Well, don't drink it at home.
That's all right. That's all right. You don't have to drink
any wine. Well, what about folks who are alcoholics? You know,
I have had a remarkable discovery. I had discovered that when God
saves alcoholics, He saves them all over. I've never had any
trouble with anybody. I've been pastoring for nearly
40 years. I've never had any trouble with anybody wanting
to revert to becoming drunks because they kept the Lord's
table. Now, if I ever had that problem, I'll deal with it. But
so far, I've not had that problem. This represents our Redeemer.
And we worship God the way he prescribes, not the way we decide. Christ is present. As we gather
in his name to worship him, he's present with us by his spirit
in every act of worship and every act of devotion. He's constantly
with us. But there is a special sense in which our Lord manifest
himself to his people as we observe this blessed ordinance. It is
this ordinance by which he clearly manifest both his person and
his work. It's a holy gospel ordinance.
by which believers embrace and worship and yield themselves
to the Lord Jesus symbolically and really. Symbolically, I've
talked to you about taking the bread and taking the wine, but
we really do. Merrill, if all we do is eat
the bread and drink the wine, we've not done anything. But
if, as we eat the bread and drink the wine, we again taste and
see that the Lord is gracious. If, as we eat the bread and drink
the wine, we truly remember our Redeemer, then something real
takes place. What's the meaning then of this
ordinance? Let me answer it for you with five brief statements.
First, we observe the Lord's Supper, as I've already hinted,
as a symbolic confession. Symbolically, confessing our
Redeemer, before any could be saved, before the Lord Jesus
could save you and save me, before we could ever be accepted of
God, justified in His sight, righteous before Him without
sin. Jesus Christ, the son of God,
must take on himself our nature, live in obedience to God as our
representative, and satisfy the justice of God by the sacrifice
of himself. This bread represents our Lord's
holy humanity. Look in chapter 11, 1 Corinthians
11, verse 26. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till
he come. The only way he could save us
is by his death. And yet the only way we ever
can enjoy the benefits of his death, the only way you can ever
enjoy the benefits and the blessing of his obedience is by personal
faith in him. Again, I say watch. Watch how
we eat the bread and drink the wine, each one personally taking
Christ for himself. By eating the bread and drinking
the wine, we again publicly avow that we trust Christ alone. I try consciously. I don't always
succeed, but I try consciously. Every time one of those men passes
the bread to me, passes the wine to me, and I take it, I try consciously
again to avow to my God, my faith, and my Redeemer. Lord Jesus,
I trust you. I have no hope but you. No righteousness
but your righteousness. I have no acceptance with God,
but by your blood, I have no cleansing from my sin, no hope
of eternal life, but by your obedience. Second, our observance
of the Lord's supper is a grateful commemoration. Back up to verse
25 here in first Corinthians 11. After the same manner, also the
Lord Jesus took the cup when he had sucked, saying this cup. is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink
it in remembrance of me. This ordinance then is a commemoration,
a blessed remembrance of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. I have in my possession a worthless
little table. Insignificant. You could buy
it anywhere for $10. Pretty old. It's the only possession
I have of two of the dearest ladies in my life before I married
the one sitting up here in the front. My great aunt and my grandmother. And it's out in the garage right
now. You really don't want it sitting in the house. It's not
something you want in the house. old scruff table. But every time
I look at it, I remember the best days of my youth. They were
spent away from home, spent in the mountains with Ma and Grandmother. And I can't help but to remember.
Would to God, every time I take that bread and take that wine,
I so thought of my Redeemer and remembered Him. Remembering him
by this vivid, vivid symbol he's given me, his covenant. His covenant. Before the world
began, Alan, the Son of God bound himself to my soul in a covenant. Bound himself to my everlasting
salvation. Bound his honor to my eternal
salvation. Oh, take the bread and take the
wine and remember with thanksgiving his covenant. The bread and the
wine represent his crucifixion. The bread and the wine separated,
blood separated from the body, sure death. The Lord Jesus really
did die the painful shameful, ignominious death of the cross
in our room instead. He really did bear our sins in
his own body on the tree. He really was made sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And he calls the
year of my redeemed the year of the vengeance of my God. So that God Almighty awakes in
the fury of his holy vengeance and the fury of his heart and
anger against sin and violently slaughters his son that we might
live forever. Take the bread and the wine and
do so in grateful memory of his great compassion. Do you remember
when the Lord Jesus was at the tomb of Lazarus and the scripture
says, Jesus wept. The Jews said to one another,
behold, how he loved him. Take the bread and the wine. In your mouth, eat the bread
and drink the wine. symbols of our Savior's death
and behold how he loved you. Third, the Lord's table is a
table of communion. Sweet, blessed, intimate communion. Communion with Christ and communion
with his people. Look at our text again, verse
16, first Corinthians 10. The cup of blessing which we
bless. Is it not the communion of the
blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many
are one bread and one body. But we're all partakers of that
one bread. That word communion. What a great word. It implies
unity. Harmony. Oneness. Fellowship. Delight. Love one for another. Oneness
with Christ. Oneness with his people. Unity
with Christ. Unity with his people. Harmony
with Christ. Harmony with his people. Delight with Christ. Delight
with his people. Love with Christ. love with his
people. This is a picture of our communion
with our Savior. We're one with him and he's one
with us. The bread in one loaf is broken
and each piece is broken from that one loaf. But the loaf is
one and we are one in Christ Jesus, the Lord, one with him. And he won with us as really
and truly as he and the father are one. We're one with him.
This is also a picture of our communion with one another in
the body of Christ. Turn back to Psalm 133. Psalm 133. This is one of those
songs of degrees. One of David's songs, he says
in verse one, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity. Many of you have commented to
me over the years, what a special thing God's given us in this
place. Oh, what a special thing, brethren
dwelling together in unity. Oh, what a rare, rare blessing. It is like the precious ointment,
that is that holy anointing oil that God required Moses to make
when he gave instruction about building the tabernacle representing
the Holy Spirit with which the priest was anointed. That precious
ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments. That precious
anointing representing the Holy Spirit poured out upon Christ
without measure. He's our Aaron. And it runs down
upon his beard and covers his garments so that his whole body
is anointed with that same blessed unction. You have an unction
from the Holy One and you know all things. The Spirit of God
dwells in you. You have the anointing of Christ
upon you. This causes believers to dwell
together in unity. Watch this. As the dew of Hermon
and as the dew descended upon the mountains of Zion for their
The Lord commanded the blessing. Here we are in Christ, the church
of God, and here God commands his blessing. The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee. The Lord commands his blessing
forevermore. When we eat this one bread and
drink of that one cup, we profess that we're one body. One body and hearty, holy fellowship
with Jesus Christ and one another. One in heart. One in doctrine. One in purpose. Let me repeat it. One in heart. One in doctrine. One in purpose. You can't be one in heart if
you're not one in doctrine. And you can't be one in purpose
if you're not one in heart and one in doctrine. This is that
holy anointing that gives us a blessed oneness. We have one
heart. One heart that beats for the
glory of God and the good of his people. One doctrine. It is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. One purpose. And it is to make
him known. to make him known. Oh, God, thank
you for every open venue you've given us, every open door of
utterance for the gospel by which Christ is made known. A young
man visiting here this morning and his family, Brother Ron's
had some correspondence with him. He told me, he said, like
I knew you already, I listen to you all the time on Free Grace
Radio. Every open door of utterance,
pray for God's blessing upon it. We have this one purpose
for which we exist in this world, to make him known. All right,
here's the next thing. We are partakers of the Lord's
Supper, and as we partake of this blessed ordinance, it is
designed to give us a renewed consecration. to our Redeemer,
a renewed consecration to His glory, a renewed consecration
to His cause. Look at chapter 11 again, 1 Corinthians
11 and verse 28, verse 28. Paul says, let a man examine
himself. Now, I know the tendency is in
religious organizations is Either no examination or the churches
examine you and you examine one another and see if you're fit
to have the Lord's table. No, no. But you're about to receive
this bread and wine again before you do examine yourself. And having examined yourself
so that it means. What do you mean examine yourself? Is Christ
mine? Am I his? And Lord God here again. I give myself to you. Here again,
I set my life to you. I set my heart to you. I'm devoted
to you. I'm yours. I'm bought with the
price of your blood. And I eat this bread and drink
this wine in remembrance of you acknowledging that I'm not my
own. I've been bought with a price.
Give me grace now to glorify God in my body and in my spirit,
which are God's. Turn to Philippians chapter three.
This is what I'm talking about. Philippians three. Paul is urging believers to press
on. urging believers to continue
in the faith, urging believers never to never to be turned aside,
but to set their hearts continually upon the Redeemer. And he uses
his own example. He says in verse 13, Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended. That is, I haven't arrived yet. But this one thing I do. Forgetting
those things which are behind. Oh, I have a lot of trouble with
that, don't you? Forgetting those things which
are behind. I'm not talking about things that you did to me. I'm
not talking about things that somebody said about me. No. I'm talking about myself. Forget
the past. I've been such a miserable failure.
I've been such a faithless man. I've been such a useless human
being. Forget yesterday. It's over.
Forget it. God did. The Lord did. He said, I blotted out your transgressions. I blotted them out as a thick
cloud. Your iniquities and your sins, I will remember no more.
Paul said, now forget it. God reckons you righteous. God
reckons you dead to sin. You reckon as God does. Forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things
which are before I press Toward the mark for the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. What's that? everlasting
life looking For the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life Let us then consecrate ourselves anew to our Redeemer I say this every day, many times
through the day, I form the words vocally. God forgive me most of the time,
they're just words. But this I desire, Lord God calls
me to know your son, to know him, and the fellowship of his
sufferings, power of his resurrection, make conformable to his death.
Give me grace ever to bow to him, to surrender to your will,
to obey you. God, give me grace to be obedient.
Obedient to that which is revealed in your word. Obedient to that
to which I'm directed by your spirit. Obedient in faith. Doing what I know God would have
me to do. I have people ask me all the
time about knowing the will of God. And usually the same person
only asks once or twice. Because the answer is always
the same. If Ben comes to me and says, Brother Don, I've got
a couple of choices. What do you think I ought to do? I'm struggling
to know God's will. I'll respond. I'll say, well,
Ben, I appreciate the situation you're in, but the problem is
not knowing it. It's doing it. That's the problem. You know
what God would have you to do. You know what He'd have you to
do. I don't have any question. Things come down, you know, you know
exactly what God have you to do. Just as soon as you're faced
with something, the difficulty is being willing to do what God
have you to do. Now that takes some grace. That
takes some wisdom, some understanding that only God can give. Lord
God, set my heart and my life to your honor, just to your honor. And then fifth, the Lord's Supper. This blessed ordinance is a prophetic
celebration as Israel ate the Passover to celebrate God's deliverance. Every year they ate that lamb
that was roasted with fire and they drank that wine and they
celebrated. Oh, God brought him out of Egypt.
God brought him out of Egypt. This is at the same time the
most solemn of ordinances, the most solemn aspect of worship
that can be. And my soul, it ought to cause
you to just dance. It's the most delightful. Christ,
redeem me. Christ redeemed me. He brought
me out of death. He brought me out of bondage.
He brought me out of a horrible pit where I had no standing and
set me on a rock higher than I. It's a celebration of redemption. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite
mercy. His child and forever I am. He
gave me life. He came to me when I was dead. And he passed by, and he said,
live. And here I am, alive, with God
living in me. With God living in me. Imagine
that. Imagine that. With God living
in me. And there's another aspect of
this redemption. As we eat this bread and drink
this wine, the Lord said, do this in remembrance of me till
I come. I try. I really do. I try with every every Sunday
evening. Take the bread. And take the wine and remember our
Lord's words when he gave it to the disciples, he said, I
will no more eat This bread, drink the fruit of the vine until
I drink it anew with you in my father's kingdom. Maybe, just
maybe, this is the last time we'll keep this ordinance. Just
maybe, just maybe tonight, the Lord Jesus will gather the last
of his sheep into his bosom, into the fold of his grace. And
before we're done, we will be drinking the wine at the marriage
feast of the Lamb in heavenly glory. And that's the meaning of the
Lord's Supper. That's what it is to eat this
bread and drink this wine in communion with the Son of God
and in communion with one another. Amen.