Open your Bibles now to 1 Corinthians,
chapter 11. Let's begin reading at verse
23. Now, I am taking my text from
this passage of because my subject tonight is
the Lord's Supper. And when we want to understand
what the word of God teaches about any subject, if we honestly
want to understand what God teaches about any subject, we do not
approach the scriptures with closed minds seeking proof for
what we already believe by tradition or custom. and there we search
out various texts and try to build up some kind of support
for a doctrinal system. But if we honestly want to know
what the Scriptures teach, we go to that place in the Word
of God where the subject itself is being taught, and there we
understand what the Holy Spirit teaches. Let me give you a couple
of examples. If you want to know what the
Word of God teaches about redemption and justification, you will not
find it taught in John chapter 3. John chapter 3 is not talking
about redemption, it's talking about the new birth. And so men
and women who go to John 3 to try to prove their doctrine of
universal redemption are being dishonest with the scriptures.
Redemption is taught in Romans chapter 5 and 2 Corinthians chapter
5. And if you want to honestly deal
with the scriptures you go to those texts where the subject
is taught. We have a lot of controversy
in our day about the matter of divorce and remarriage. Lots
of churches are severe and some are not nearly as plain as the
scriptures teach. And they go to various places
to try to deal with it. I have often heard folks quote
Romans chapter 7 in verse 4 as reasons why no divorced people
should be accepted into the church of God. Romans chapter 7 is not
dealing with subjects of marriage and divorce. It's dealing with
a matter of law and grace. 1 Corinthians chapter 7 is where
the matter of marriage and divorce and the home and remarriage and
such things as that are dealt with. And if you honestly want
to know what the scriptures teach, about any subject, you go to
that place in the Word of God where the Holy Spirit gives plain
instruction about that subject. And when we come to the matter
of the Lord's Supper, we want to understand what the Bible
teaches about the observance of the Lord's Supper. I hope
we honestly want to understand. You go to 1 Corinthians chapter
11. That's the place where the Apostle
Paul gives plain, clear instruction concerning the observance of
the Lord's Table. We'll begin reading in verse
23. I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered
unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was
betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks,
he breaketh and saith, Take, eat. This is my body, which is
broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. And after the same manner also
he took the cup, and when he had sucked, saying, This cup
is the new covenant in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink
it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread,
and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Whosoever shall eat this bread,
and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of
the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. Now, we have come here this evening,
as we do every Lord's Day, to observe the Lord's Supper. I
know that true believers, because of poor instruction or no instruction,
have varied attitudes and concepts about this matter of observing
the Lord's Table. Men and women run to one of two
extremes when it comes to thinking about or discussing observing
the Lord's Table. They either approach the Lord's
Table with flippant irreverence, which was the problem at Corinth.
The Corinthians came today and made a party, a drunken party,
a feast of delight and happiness at the Lord's Table. They celebrated
the Lord's Table as we might celebrate the birthday of a child,
and they made it a time of reveling, ungodliness, and things that
were totally unworthy and unbecoming of the Lord's table. And many
today observe the Lord's table the same way, just flippantly,
just kindly, casually make it a holiday celebration Churches
all around town at Christmas season had a candlelight service
and observed the Lord's Table. Folks from all over town get
together, no matter what they believe, no matter what they
profess, and they all join together in a flippant time to celebrate
the Lord's Supper. Now, that's contrary to the teaching
of Scripture. We're not to approach the Lord's
Table with flippancy, with carelessness, without concern. But the other
extreme is a morbid fear of observing the table at all. I have met
over the years many men and women who, because of poor instruction,
have refused to take the Lord's table for fear of desecrating
the table." Now, listen to me. It's not possible. It is not
possible for God's children, men and women of faith, to desecrate
the Lord's table, eating it to the glory of Christ. You can't
do it. You can't do it. we eat and drink the Lord's table
for the glory of Christ and the worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. Both the matter of flippancy
and the matter of morbid fear are contrary to the gospel of
Christ, and therefore I thought it might be helpful for us once
again this evening to seek from the Word of God some clear instruction
about this sacred ordinance. Before I look at our text and
the subject matter, let me try to clear up some rather common
errors about this table. Number one, the bread and wine
of the Lord's table do not become, now listen, they do not become
either literally or spiritually the body and blood of Christ. When we eat the bread and drink
the wine after we have blessed it, that is, given thanks for
it, it's still going to be bread and it's still going to be wine.
It does not change in substance, and it does not change in any
kind of physical or spiritual way. There are those who teach
that the bread and the wine, by the blessing of the priest,
becomes the real body of Christ and the real blood of Christ.
That's the teaching of papacy. It's called transubstantiation. It's the transfer of the substance,
of the elements, and that's contrary to Scripture. We're not really
eating our Lord's blood, or eating his flesh and drinking his blood
in a literal sense. The other doctrine that's just
as bad, really, is the doctrine of consubstantiation, and that
is that by the blessing of one who administers the ordinance,
this bread and this wine spiritually becomes the body and blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is true. The bread represents
Christ. The wine represents Christ. It's symbolic, no more than that. It is the symbol, the picture,
the type, the representation of the body and blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Lord's Supper,
and I'm going to get in trouble, wrong person hears this tape,
maybe they'll pay attention, but the Lord's Supper is not
a church sacrament. It is not. That is to say, it
has no saving efficacy. It has no saving merit whatsoever. A person can eat the bread and
drink the wine, even in the most properly strict observances,
and still perish in his sins. This is not a sacrament of the
Church. We don't observe sacraments,
we observe the ordinance of our Lord. And thirdly, It is not,
strictly speaking, an ordinance of the local church. Now, it's
not. The eating of the bread and the
drinking of the wine in the Lord's table, we do it in the assembly
of God's saints. But it is not, in the strict
sense, an ordinance of this local assembly. It is not the church's
table, it's the Lord's table. I wish that could be heard loud
and clear. This ordinance is administered
by us as a local assembly, but it is positively wrong. It is positively wrong that we
should ever endeavor to limit the observance of this table
to our immediate church family. We do not go out and throw the
doors open and invite the community to come into the Lord's table,
but at the same time, We do not find in the word of God any time
where the Lord's table was restricted to men and women of a particular
local church. That's contrary to the scriptures.
God's church and kingdom exist beyond the four walls of this
building, and the condition of a man or a woman eating the Lord's
table is only that that man or woman be a believer, that they
have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is not our responsibility,
nor does it lie in the realm of our prerogative, to determine
who may or may not eat of the Lord's table. That, my friend,
is the responsibility of the person who receives it. It is
not our responsibility. This is the Lord's table, and
all the Lord's children are welcome. All who are true believers, all
who are born of God's Spirit, I've had the privilege a few
times of being with brethren in other countries and in other
parts of this country, whom I see very seldom, and sitting at the
Lord's Table with them. And it is a blessed privilege.
A while back, a couple or three years ago, we were observing
the Lord's Table one Sunday evening, and Brother Henry Mahan and his
wife, Brother Milton Howard and his wife were sitting there.
And in all the years I've known them, that's the first time we'd
ever broken bread at the table together. It's a delightful privilege. Very much part of my family.
Merle is. We're members one of another in Christ Jesus. Now,
having said that, let me show it to you from the scriptures.
Turn over to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Here in Acts chapter 20, you
can read the context for yourself, we see brethren from Sopater
and Berea and Thessalonica and Derbe, and some from Asia, and
we see the Apostle Paul, and some from Philippi, and some
from Troas, and in verse 7, look at it, and upon the first day
of the week, when these disciples came together to break bread. These disciples from all these
various parts of the country, all these various countries,
would come together. On the first day of the week,
they met with God's people, and there they broke bread, and Paul
preached to them. In the New Testament, there was
no such thing as this kind of sectarian divisiveness between
local churches. But true local churches were
one in heart, one in purpose, one in doctrine, and they practiced
all things as one in Christ Jesus. Now, the thing I want us to see
this evening is that the Lord's Supper is a symbolic representation
of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed
for us. Our Lord himself, on the night
of his betrayal, gathered his disciples into an upper room
to keep the Jewish feast of the Passover. But now the true Passover
is about to be sacrificed for us. And as Israel remembered
the Passover and their deliverance out of the land of Egypt by the
keeping of the feast of the Passover, our Lord would have us to keep
a memorial feast by which we might be regularly reminded of
our redemption by the blood of Christ. And therefore the Savior
took the bread and the wine, that which was at hand. The Jews
customarily, in the feast of the Passover, had unleavened
bread and they had fermented wine. It was customary. And our
Lord reached out on the table, and he took a loaf of bread,
and he took a cup of wine. And when he took the bread, he
established a perpetual ordinance in his church and in his kingdom.
Like baptism, this is an ordinance both practiced and commanded
by our Lord Jesus. It is maintained by the apostles
during the apostolic era, and it was maintained throughout
the ages of the early church. And it is to be observed by us,
as Paul says here, until he comes. I'd sure like to have been there,
in that little room, that small band of believers, on the night
of the crucifixion. By this time, our Lord Jesus
had already told his disciples all that he must suffer and all
that he must do, how that he must die being betrayed by the
hands of one in his own midst. and how that he would rise again
for an occasion. There sat a table. I rather suspect
it was not nearly as ornate as the pictures would have us to
believe. It was just a table in an upper room, probably nowhere
near as nice a table we ate at today. In an upper room, just
a small one, where the Lord gathered with his disciples, and there
they sat, the twelve of them and the Son of God. The King
of Glory, sitting in the midst of his disciples, breaking bread. What a privilege. There was the
King of Glory talking and fellowshipping with his little band of loyal
subjects. And then our Lord reached out and he took a loaf of bread
and a cup of wine. And I suspect there was dead
silence. What's he going to do? What's
he going to show us? Why did he reach and get that
loaf? What's the meaning? Why has he got that cup in his
hand? What's he going to tell us? Well, he took the bread as
an emblem of his body, and he blessed it. He asked a blessing
upon it, and he gave thanks for it. That's what it means to bless
the bread. Then he broke the loaf, and thereby
he signified how that his body would be torn and bruised and
broken for us under the wrath of God. Then he gave the loaf
to his disciples. He just passed it to them, the
whole loaf. And you take these. And each one took the bread,
and with his own hands he tore the bread. The symbolism, I think,
being true, that each one must by faith reach out and take Christ
for himself. And so each of these took Christ
and took the bread, symbolizing him, and ate the bread themselves. Our Lord gave it to them, and
he said, Take, eat, this is my body. That is, this is my body
in symbol, this is my body in picture, this is my body representatively. And then he took the wine, an
emblem of his blood, and he blessed it, and he drank it, and then
he passed the cup around the room. Just simple, nothing won't
hate, nothing impressive, nothing ritualistic about it. He just,
he took the bread, passed it around, he took the cup, gave
it to this disciple, he passed it around. And he told his disciples,
this cup is the New Testament, the new covenant in my blood.
This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me. And
thus our Lord showed his willingness and readiness to pour out his
life's blood for the remission of our sins. You and I can't
go back to that night. We think about it and we imagine
what it must have been like, but we can't go back there. We
will tonight observe the same supper, using the same elements
for the same purpose, with the same Savior present with us,
observing the table with us tonight. Now, I want to try to answer
three or four questions concerning this ordinance, so that we may,
by the grace of God, show forth our Lord's death until he comes. The first question which concerns
us is this. Who? Who should observe the Lord's
Supper? Who should? Regrettably, as I
said earlier, many of God's children have been taught to fear coming
to the Lord's Table. I know some believers who haven't
observed the Lord's Table for ten and twelve years at a time.
I know whole congregations who are for ten and twelve and fourteen
years, they haven't had the Lord's Table set before them. And that's
atrocious. It's horrible. It's contrary
to everything taught in the scriptures. Some think that to show great
reverence for the Lord's table, they must not eat it. We'll stand
back and we'll look at this thing and show our reverence for it
by not observing it. Now answer me this. Since when
did a servant show reverence for his master by refusing to
do what his master told him to do? Since when did a child show
reverence for its father by refusing to do what the father had plainly
said to do? And our Lord Jesus gave the bread
and he gave the wine, he said, eat and drink. Now he gave us
his plain word and we do not show reverence to him by refusing
to eat and drink the bread and the wine which he has set before
us. Clearly, there are some people who should not be partakers of
the Lord's table. The Apostle Paul gives a very
strong warning to those who might be so brazen as to come to the
Lord's table and eat and drink unworthily. Let's look at it.
Verse 27, Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink
this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and
blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." Now notice
the wording of verse 28. Paul says, let a man examine
himself and decide whether or not he should eat. So what it
says, Lindsay, you're looking at it. He says, let a man examine
himself and eat. Do you see that? Let a man examine
himself, and having examined himself, having proved himself
by the word, by faith in Christ, let the man eat the Lord's table. He does not say let a man examine
himself and not eat. He says examine yourselves. Examine
yourselves. What's the point of examination?
Verse 29. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning
the Lord's body. Now that's the pointed issue.
Do you or do you not discern the Lord's body? Truly, truly. Do you or do you not recognize
in your heart your desperate need of a substitute? Your desperate
need that God himself should come to this earth in a body,
and that in that body he should bear your sins, and in that body
he should put away your sins, and in that body should rise
again for your justification. Do you or do you not discern
it? If you do so, discern the Lord's
body. If you do so, trust the Son of
God. Eat the table. That's what he's
saying. If you don't so discern his body,
don't you dare eat this bread, and don't you dare drink this
wine. Any unbeliever is unworthy to receive the Lord's Supper.
Any professed believer, like many here at Corinth, whose life
is a scandalous reproach to the gospel, is unworthy to eat the
Lord's Supper. And Paul is saying here, now
don't you come here to this ordinance flippantly and carelessly and
irreverently, but you come knowing yourselves your need of a substitute,
knowing yourselves your need of Christ Jesus. And if you do
not trust the Savior, don't eat the bread and don't drink the
wine. But, now listen, every true believer
not only may, but is commanded to eat the bread and drink the
wine." Everyone, everyone. It's a pity that many have made
the Lord's Supper a place by which they display their arrogance
and pride and their sectarianism, and they refuse to admit those
who are not in agreement with them or who are not a part of
their particular local assembly. I recall reading the story of
Joseph Irons, I believe it was. He was preaching, engaged to
preach at a strict Baptist church in England years ago. And they
had asked him to come preach. But just before he started to
preach, they had the Lord's table. And as they passed by, Brother
Irons was sitting there. He reached to get the bread,
and one of the deacons said, oh no, brother, you can't eat
at our table. You're not a member of our church.
You can come preach, but you can't eat at our table. And Mr. Irons, a little nicer than I
am, he said, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was your table.
I thought it was the Lord's table. This is a table open to God's
children. It's open to God's children,
whoever, wherever they are. Rich or poor, old or young, learned
or unlearned, it doesn't matter whether black or white, male
or female, this table is open to God's children. Our worthiness
to come and receive the Lord's table is not in ourselves. David, I wish I could get that
clear. Somebody says, well, I'm not
worthy to eat in the Lord's table. I know you're not. I know you're
not. Anybody here is. Are you worthy
to pray? Huh? Are you worthy to pray? Oh, no, no, Pastor. Well, do you pray or don't you?
Huh? If you're God's, you pray. I'll
tell you that. If you're God's people, you pray. And our coming
before God does not depend on our feeling, or on our thoughts,
or even on our deeds. Our coming before God, we come
to him in the name of Christ, in the worthiness of Christ,
washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, and we call
upon God as our Father in prayer. That's our worthiness to come
to this table. No, I am not worthy to take the bread and drink the
wine. I am not worthy here to celebrate
redemption before this body of believers and before God my Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I'm not worthy that I
should stand here and declare to you the Word of God, but I
am worthy. Christ is my worthiness. Do you
see that? I'm worthy in Him. Ye are complete
in Him. And when I come before God at
this ordinance, as any other time, I come to Him trusting
Christ. looking to Christ. That bread,
that bread, oh that blessed bread is the picture of him by whose
sacrifice and by whose life imputed to me I am worthy of God's acceptance. That wine, that wine is the picture
of the precious blood of Jesus Christ the Lord, by whose blood
my sins are washed away. I'm worthy because of him. Do you see that? He's our worthiness. And this table of the Lord is
for the believer a means of grace, just like the preaching of the
Word of God is. There is never a time when a
believer is made more aware of his own sinfulness and his utter
dependence upon the redeeming work of Christ than at the Lord's
table. Here, as these brethren pass out the
bread and wine, I'm sitting there, I've got the bread in my hand
and the wine in my hand, and I look at it, I am greatly humbled
with the realization of my sin. That bread and that wine, the
reason for that bread and the reason for that wine, the reason
for that broken body and that shed blood is my sin, Muriel. That's the reason for it. Now,
I need to be reminded of that very often. Here I'm comforted
with a sense of divine And I need to be reminded of
that. That broken body, that shed blood, that life that was
given for us for the remission of sins, God has accepted. And that wine and that bread
stand perpetually as a reminder to you and I who believe that
redemption is accomplished. It's done. It's done. Our sins
are blotted out. I know so! The blood of Christ
tells me so. His blood was shed. And with
His blood being shed, there's no possibility that God in heaven
can charge us with sin if His blood was shed for us. No possibility
of it. No possibility of it. And Paul makes it clear that
the person receiving the Lord's table must examine himself. Again, in verse 28, he says,
let a man examine himself. Over the years, I've had fellows
say, well, Pastor, maybe we ought to examine folks before we admit
them to the Lord's table. Maybe we ought to have a separate
service so folks can't get in unless they've got a card. Maybe
we ought to Maybe ought to have a committee so folks can go around
and investigate. I know churches where they do
this junk. Go around and they have a committee
to investigate folks, see if they're worthy to eat the Lord's
table. What pompous arrogance, near akin to papacy. I don't
care what name it bears. No, it is not the responsibility
of this preacher or of any elders, or of any deacons, or of any
church to examine men and women to determine their eligibility
to receive the Lord's table. But it's your responsibility.
Bobby, it's yours. Don, it's yours. You examine
yourself. The burden of responsibility
is on your back. Now, I have a responsibility
to plainly declare what the Scriptures teach, but I have no responsibility
to examine those who receive the table. My second question
is this. What is signified by the bread
and the wine? I've already touched on it, but
let me be clear. In this place, we insist upon
using unleavened bread and pure wine. It's common for men today
to use grape juice and soda crackers. But the practice is based upon
the false notion that the Bible teaches total abstinence from
all alcoholic beverages. Now, our reasons for using unliving
bread and pure wine are two. Number one, we do so because
that's exactly what our Lord used when he sat at the table
with his disciples. Now, anybody with half good sense
who knows anything at all about Jewish history, if he knows nothing
of the Word of God, knows that when the Jews observe the Passover,
they use unleavened bread and they use fermented wine. That's
what our Lord used when he observed the Passover with his disciples.
But there's a more important reason than that. We use the
bread and the wine because of their significance, because of
their symbolic representation and the nature of this ordinance.
The unleavened bread symbolizes the perfect humanity. of Jesus
Christ in his life. You know what leaven is, don't
you? You ladies do. You know more about it than I
do. But I know this. When you put leaven in a piece
of bread, if you leave it long enough, it's going to rot. That
leaven is a defiling ingredient. It tastes pretty good, and you
might enjoy the smell of it, but when you put it in the bread,
sooner or later, the bread's going to rot, decay, and become
nothing but rotten. And what I'm saying by this unleavened
bread is that there's no principle of corruption in it. You can
take that bread and you can leave it set right there on that table
from week to week to week to week to week to week and it'll
never decay. It's unleavened bread. It's unleavened
bread. There's no principle of corruption
in it. That's our Savior. There's no
principle of corruption in him. He had no sin and he knew no
sin. He had no original sin, and he
had no actual sin. He had no thought of sin, and
he had no deed of sin. He had no word of sin, and he
had no nature of sin. He knew no sin. Not only that,
but our Savior, living in this world without sin as a man, established
perfect righteousness for us. I've preached this so many times, and I hadn't yet made it clear.
Jesus Christ in human flesh obeyed God's law in our room and in
our stead, and buddy, that's our righteousness. That's our,
we don't have any other. They're not a righteous thing
about anybody in this room or in this world except Jesus Christ,
the Lord our righteousness. Oh, but preacher, don't we do
righteous things? Well, yeah, yeah. Righteous so
that men look at them and say that's righteous. But when God
looks at it, he says our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in his sight. And if you think that's just
a bunch of dirty oily claws, you're mistaken. He says our
righteousness are as stinking, filthy, rotting, decaying rags
in the nostrils of a holy God. I can't describe for you how
loathsome the goodness of man is to a holy God. But Jesus Christ
lived in this world in perfect righteousness. And by the obedience
of this one blessed man, all who are in him are made perfectly
righteous." Perfectly righteous. And that body, that bread, symbolizes
the body, the real humanity of Jesus Christ. He's a real man. a real man, as much man as any
man here, a real man, a man capable of suffering and death. And then
the wine, the pure, fermented wine, fitly represents the pure
blood of Christ. Now, the blood of our redemption
was not divine. People talk about divine blood.
God doesn't have blood, but it wasn't human either. It wasn't
merely human. Now hear me, it wasn't purely
divine, and it wasn't purely human. It was the blood of the
divine human. It was the blood of the God-man. So that he who redeemed us is
God, and he who redeemed us is man. His blood had no taint of
corruption, no taint of sin. It is the blood of the spotless
Lamb of God. It is the blood of the incarnate
God. It is the blood of that one who
is the God-man. The wine symbolizes the purity
of Christ's blood, the riches of his covenant, and the sweetness
of his love. I recall not long after I was
converted, Shelby and I were in a church, and the dear pastor
was scared to death somebody was going to get hooked on wine
at the Lord's table, so he made bitter wine. Bitter wine. It's got to be bitter wine. No,
no, not this wine. The wine of redemption is not
bitter wine, not for us. It's sweet wine. The sweet wine
of His grace and of His love. And we celebrate the Lord's table
with the sweet wine of pure, rich, fermented wine which Jesus
Christ gave Himself as the symbol of His blood. Now thirdly, why? Why do we observe this ordinance?
This is the real significance of it. If we look upon the Lord's
Supper as a mere religious ritual without any meaning, then our
outward observance of it is meaningless. And if we look upon it with some
kind of religious superstition, as though eating this bread and
drinking this wine had some saving efficacy, then our observance
of it is an abomination. I want you to follow the example
and the command of our Lord in observing the Lord's Supper,
but I want us also to know why we're doing it. Our purpose in
observing the Lord's Supper is really twofold. First, it is
the remembrance of Christ. Been away from a loved one for
a long time. I'm talking about weeks. Been gone a while. You are young enough still to
remember your courting days. You remember when you were separated
for miles and distance and time. And boy, every picture, every
picture. Well, look at that. I remember when Shelby and I
were separated, the year of our engagement, we were separated
about nine months, almost 10 months. Boy, that picture, I
wouldn't have, I'd have thought I fell over that picture. I wouldn't
have taken it. It's still hanging in my office.
I look at that picture every morning, every evening, look
at that picture every time I got a chance during the day. It reminded
me of her. Now, the picture wasn't near
as good as having her around. But the picture reminded me constantly
of one who was dear to my heart, but whose bodily presence I could
not enjoy. You follow me? Look here. That's a picture. Picture. His bodily presence we cannot
now have. We cannot now have. It's expedient
for us to go away for a while, but he left us a picture. It reminds us of who he is, who
he is, and what he's done. We remember our Lord by the picture
that he's given us. This do in remembrance of me,
in remembrance of me, he says. This is what he's saying. I'm leaving you here, frail,
fickle, corrupt, defiled, weak men and women of the flesh in
a world full of care. You know how easy it is to forget
it? Huh? Anybody here need instruction
on that? You know how easy it is? Murray was talking about
it yesterday. You've got to concentrate on that job. You get to work
on that job, concentrate on that job. You know how easy it is
to forget him? You know how easy it is, Bob, when you've got something
just giving you fits and you're in a tizzy? You know how easy
it is to forget him? Wes, you know how easy it is
sitting at your table, chatting with your boys, to forget him?
To forget him. It's so natural to this flesh. So natural to this flesh. Oh,
sinful, excuseless, corrupt, vile. Yes, all those things.
But it's so natural to this flesh to forget him. Thank God he's
given a reminder. He's given a reminder. He says this do. And do it often. in remembrance of thee. We remember
his person and we remember what he's done for us. We remember
his promises and his performances. We remember, we remember as the
blood of the covenant. Remember? Remember? A covenant
made, ordered and sure before the world was made. A covenant
sealed and ratified by the sacrifice of Christ. A covenant applied
to your heart by the power of His Spirit. Remember the covenant.
A covenant full of promises that are yet to be fulfilled when
the Son of God comes again. Not only do we eat the bread
and drink the wine in remembrance of Christ, but we observe the
Lord's Supper as a testimony as well. You see, these ordinances of
the gospel are preaching ordinances. We observe them publicly because
people need to understand what they say. Some of you here have
never yet experienced the saving grace of God in Christ
Jesus. And though I've preached it to
you and preached it to you and preached it to you, you've been
taught it in Sunday school classes and you've heard others preach
it to you, you don't yet see how it is that God in heaven
can be just and yet justify sin. You just can't see it. You can't
see the glory of redemption. I'm going to show you. God sent
his son into the world in human flesh. And God made his Son to
be sin for us, and when God made his Son to be sin for us, that
one who is our representative and our surety bore the horrible
wrath of God Almighty in his body until at last he poured
out his life's blood unto death, and by his blood justice is satisfied,
and now God in his holy looks on that blood and he forgives
the sins of all who trust him. He's just and yet justifies the
ungodly. Now one last thing. When? When should we observe the Lord's
Supper? Come back to that passage in
Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. It seems to be that since it
is the Lord's supper and not the Lord's breakfast, we should
observe it in the evening and not in the morning. And since
our Lord was raised on Sunday, on the first day of the week,
and since that was the day for its observance in the early church,
it seems to me that it is best that we should observe it on
the Lord's day as well. But concerning these things we'll
not be insistent. Why? Because the Word of God
does not plainly say, observe this ordinance on Sunday evening. It doesn't say that. We dare
not insist upon what God does not insist upon. But our Lord
does tell us in the scriptures here that these disciples in
the early church, look at verse 7, Acts 20 and verse 7, and upon
the first day of the week when the disciples came together What? To break bread. I believe you'll
find the same thing over in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and
verse 22, or 42 rather. Those folks who received the
word and were baptized and added to the church, they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and the breaking
of bread. As you know, a couple of years
ago, we began observing the Lord's table every Lord's day. I put
it off for a long time because I fear that it should
become a mundane, meaningless ritual. And the longer I wrestle with
it, the more I realize that's an unjustified fear. If the preaching
of the gospel becomes mundane and meaningless, the problem's
not in the message, it's in the hearer or the preacher. It's
somewhere, it's not in the message. And if this bread and wine becomes
mundane and meaningless to you or to me, the problem's not in
the ordinance. That's not the problem. The problem's
in here. And honestly, I don't know about
you. I haven't talked to any of you
about it much personally. This right here, this Sunday evening service,
the preaching of the gospel, The singing of hymns of praise
to Christ. And the breaking of the bread.
When I'm away from this place, I miss it. I miss it. This is
a reminder I need of the Savior. I need it. What a way to conclude
the week gone by. What a way to begin the week
ahead. Observing and celebrating redemption
by Christ Jesus. Our Lord did tell us this, we
are to observe this supper often. Often. We need daily to feed
upon Christ for the sustenance of our souls, and we need to
be continually reminded of his love and grace. You say, well,
you shouldn't have to be reminded so often. I know that. I know that. My God, I know that. But I know that I do. I need
to be constantly reminded, constantly reminded, constantly reminded
of who he is, of his great love, what he's done, what he's promised. I need the reminder. One of these
days I'm not going to need it anymore, but I do for now. And
so we observe the table often, every Lord's Day. And I plan
to keep on doing it that way. We need it. Eating the Lord's
table, drinking the wine often. And we should come to the Lord's
table as a church body, as a body of believers. This is not an
ordinance that's to be observed in private. It is not something
that we do when we get together, just a time of fellowship. When
I'm away from this place on the Lord's day, I do not observe
the table unless I'm at another house of believers where the
table is observed, but in privacy, no. It's a public ordinance to
be observed publicly by the people of God as a collective body of
believers. The Apostle Paul speaks to these
Corinthians, and he tells them, when you come together to eat
the Lord's table, well, that's what we come together for, particularly,
specifically, to eat the Lord's table. And we should come to
the Lord's table, eat the bread, and drink the wine until he comes. I take that bread, that wine, and every time I take it, my heart beats a little faster
in anticipation that maybe, maybe, before I have a chance to taste
that bread and swallow that wine, you come. I'm eating the bread
and drinking the wine in celebration of redemption, in remembrance
of who Christ is and what he did, and in anticipation of seeing
him face to face. Every time we come together like
this, we're reminded of the fact that Christ is now absent for
a while bodily. He is not present with us physically,
but we're filled with anticipation of the day of his appearing.
Oh, what a blessed thought. Maybe, maybe Christ will come even before
we finished eating and drinking tonight. I believe it'd be better for you
to think about that than for me to preach on it.