going to get back to Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 13 at the end of this message, and I'm going
to speak on this subject, what is the requirement for baptism
and the Lord's table? Now, you and I can be right on
baptism, its form, its mode. We can be right on how the Lord's
table should be observed. And we want to observe these
things according to the scripture. Baptism by immersion. The Lord's
table we take at night because they did it at night. The same
night the Lord was betrayed, he took bread. We take bread,
unleavened bread and wine because that's what they used then. We
take the bread and eat, pray, and then we take the wine and
drink and pray because that's the order they did then. And I have no doubt that we ought
to do things the way they did it. Now, that being said, you
can be right on those things and split hell wide open. That's an important, important
part of this message. What is the requirement? Notice
I didn't say what are the requirements. What is the requirement for baptism
and the Lord's Supper? Now in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
there are two ordinances. baptism and the Lord's supper
or the Lord's table. In the Roman Catholic Church,
there are seven and they don't call them ordinances, they call
them sacraments. But there are only two in scripture,
baptism and the Lord's table. And notice I called them ordinances
and not sacraments. And that is very important. To call them sacraments is to
say that divine grace is imparted through them. That's what is
meant by a sacrament. They are not that. They are not means of grace. They are not vehicles through
which grace is conveyed. They never are. And to make them
that is to make salvation by works. That's all it is. You get grace through being baptized. You get grace through observing
the Lord's table. No, you don't. That would make
salvation my works. These things do not convey grace. There's only one means of grace. You know what that is? Faith.
By grace are you saved through faith. Now, it doesn't say by
grace are you saved through faith and reading or hearing the gospel
or reading the Bible or praying, as important as those things
are. But there's one means through which grace comes, and that is
faith. And that's the gift of God. By
grace are you saved through faith. Now, somebody may ask the question,
can you be saved without observing these ordinances? And the answer
is yes. The thief on the cross was not
baptized. The thief on the cross did not
ever observe the Lord's table. And he was saved. The Lord said,
today you'll be with me in Paris. I mean he was given full assurance
of his salvation and he was never baptized and he never took the
Lord's table. But if you do not observe them,
speaking of baptism and the Lord's table, if you do not observe
them, you better have as good an excuse as he did. He couldn't. He was nailed to
a tree. He died within a few hours. He would have if he could have. Now understand, baptism, the
Lord's table, they're not sacraments. They're not means of grace. There
is no saving efficacy in those. but they're very important. Baptism is very important and
refusal to be baptized is quite simply disobedience to Christ. What else can you call it? If
someone refuses the marriage ceremony and cohabits with the
person that they're living with, but they refuse the marriage
ceremony, But we love one another. We love
one another. What's a ceremony? What's a piece
of paper? We love one another. Where's the commitment? When
you're married, you are committed for life. It's a very strong
statement. I'm committed to this person
for the rest of my life. And cohabiting without being
married speaks of several things, but among them is no commitment
to that person. No true commitment. And I look
at somebody not baptized, being baptized, being pretty much The
same way, I'm not committed. I'm not committed. I believe,
but I'm not committed. Now, a ceremony. Somebody says,
well, how important are ceremonies? Well, look at it from another
direction. Let's say somebody takes the
American flag and stamps on it and desecrates it and burns it
and tears it up. You could say, It's a piece of
material. What is the big deal? What is
the problem with that? It's a free country. What does
that flag represent? I know it's a symbol, but what
does it represent? To stamp on that flag and show
disrespect to that flag is to show great disrespect for this
country. and those people who died to
make it to where we're free. Yes, it's a symbol, but it means
something very important. But if I look at baptism as a
sacrament, or a means of grace, it's a debasing of the ordinance
and it's a denial of what it means in the first place. Now
what does baptism signify? And this is very important because
when the writer to the Hebrews gives the six oracles or ordinances
or elements of the faith. There in Hebrews 6, 1 and 2,
one of those six elements of the faith is the doctrine of
baptisms. Now what is the doctrine of baptisms? The doctrine of
baptisms is union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the
doctrine is. It's union with Christ. When
I'm baptized, I'm saying, here's everything in my salvation. Here's
all my hope that when he lived, I was in him and I lived too. And when he died, I was in him
and I died too. And when he was raised from the
dead, justified, having pleased the father, I was in him. And I did too. And this is all
my salvation and all my desire. Union with Christ. Now, what
is the one requirement for baptism? There's only one. Faith in Christ. Looking to Christ only. I love what our Lord said in
Mark chapter 16, verse 16, Whoso believeth and is baptized shall
be saved. Now, I think it's interesting
that, you know, the Lord quite often lets, says things in such
a way to give people enough rope to hang themselves if that's
what they want to do. Because you can take that verse of scripture
and say, see, you need to be baptized to be saved. It says,
whoso believeth and is baptized, the same shall be saved. And
he went on to say, he that believeth not shall be damned. Now, if
you want to take something like that, You can hang yourself with
it, but why does the Lord state it that way? Whoso believeth
and is baptized, the same shall be saved. What's the one requirement
for baptism? Believing. Believing. Whoso believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. What must someone do to be baptized? Believe the gospel. Do you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do you believe that He's
God's Christ? Do you believe the Father is
pleased with Him? Do you rely on Him only as everything
in your salvation? Then you are to be baptized. Now, one thing I know about infant
baptism, that infant does not believe. It's as simple as that. That infant does not believe. Now, a lot of people practice
infant baptism. I've heard people say, well,
so-and-so did it, and so-and-so in the past, and they preach
the gospel. You know, my thought is I don't care about any of
that. I really don't. You say, well, somebody 200 years
ago did this. Who cares? What does God's word
teach? That's all I care about. What
does God's word teach? Sure doesn't teach infant baptism
because that infant cannot believe. And if I do not believe I should
not be baptized, infant baptism makes a mockery of scriptural
Baptism, if you baptize an infant, I don't care what you say, you're
saying somehow that makes it better for that infant. Somehow,
you might not even be able to explain how, but somehow if that
infant is baptized, he's put in a more savable state. Somehow grace in some way is
conferred through that act. And really when it comes right
down to it, it's salvation by works. That's all it is. If you
practice infant baptism, that is salvation by works. Baptism is the believer's confession
of Christ. Now let me show you a passage
of scripture, Mark chapter 1. Verse 4. John did baptize in
the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins. And that is repentance. It doesn't
mean you repent and then your sins are remitted. It's really
repentance, a change of mind with regard to, unto the remission
of sins. That's what repentance is more
than anything else. Preachers all the time say, repent of your
sins. Repent of your sins. I want to
say, what do you mean by that? Well, I know what they mean by
it. You need to stop committing them and turn and look to Christ. We ought to stop committing them.
I'm not calling that any question, but that's not what repentance
means. It doesn't mean stop your sins and turn to Christ. That's
putting something between the sinner and the Savior. That's
not what that means at all. Repentance is a change of mind
regarding the remission of sins. a complete change of mind. Look
in verse 5. And there went out unto him all
the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized
of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. Now, does
that mean some individual gets up before his baptism and says,
I confessed? I took drugs, I had sex outside
of marriage, I name just a litany of sins that I actually have
committed. And once you get all those confessed,
I stole something, I hated somebody, I murdered somebody, whatever
it might be, I confessed my sins, and now I'm a candidate for baptism.
That's foolishness. You know that, and I know that.
We're not supposed to confess our sin, our individual sins
to one another. You confess them before God,
not before men. What this is saying, we're making
this confession when we're baptized. And I thought about, just because
I thought about it doesn't make it so, but I thought a lot about
this. When I'm baptized, I'm confessing I'm a sinner. I'm
a sinner and the only way I can be saved is if I'm united to
Christ so that what He did, I did. That's my only hope. I hear people talking about good
Christians. That's an oxymoron. If you're
a Christian, by your own confession, you're a sinful person needing
God's grace and needing God's mercy. So when they were baptized,
this act of baptism is the believer's public confession. It's not coming
down front and getting up the nerve to come down front and
say everybody I believed and, you know, in result of the altar
call and all that. No, no, that's not your public
confession. Baptism is the believer's public
confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you
two places people struggle with regard to baptism. This is people
who hear the gospel. There's two places they struggle.
Number one, when I was baptized, first baptized, I didn't believe
the gospel that I believe now. Now, let me take care of that
for you. You weren't baptized. You might've
got dunked underwater, but you weren't baptized. You see, the
only people who are baptized are people who believe the gospel. That's who's baptized. And so
if you went through a religious ritual without believing the
gospel, you never were baptized in the first place. Now here is the second thing
that we have trouble with. I look back when I was baptized
and I think, how much did I know? How much did I really know? How
much did I really understand? Now let me remind you, the qualification
for baptism is not knowledge. It's not how much you know. who
you believed. That's all that counts. Did you
look to Christ only as everything in your salvation? Sure, you know, I hope I know
a lot more now than I did when I was first baptized, but that
doesn't invalidate my baptism. It doesn't. It's not what, it's
who. Do you look to Christ only? Do you believe what baptism signifies? That your only hope of salvation
is if you were in Him when He lived, you lived, when He died,
you died, when He was raised from the dead, accepted by God,
you were accepted. That is faith in Christ. You look to Him only. Faith is the one requirement
for Christian baptism. Now what about the Lord's table?
We are observing the Lord's table tonight. We do this on the first
Sunday of every month. And like I said, we do it at
night because that's when they did it in the New Testament.
The same night the Lord was betrayed, he took bread. And with regard
to the Lord's table, you know, I'd like to see everybody here
every Sunday night. I would. Sunday is not called
the Lord's morning, but the Lord's day. I realize there's some people
that can't come every Sunday. I realize that. I'm not trying
to put anybody under bondage. But if there is a service that
I wouldn't want to miss more than any other service, it would
be when we observe the Lord's table because the Lord said,
this do in remembrance of me. And what's more important than
that? This do. As often as you do it,
in remembrance of me. Now there's tonight, by God's
grace, there's some people getting together for this one purpose.
The remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ. The remembrance of his
death on Calvary's tree as everything in our salvation. And not sure
for that? This do, in remembrance. of me. And I do not understand
not showing up for this above any other service we have. Now,
would you turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. What is the requirement to take
the Lord's table? And I've got to ask that because
I can remember a time when I did not want to take the Lord's table.
And I was a believer, but I didn't want to take the Lord's table.
And I wouldn't really wanna show up when they were having it because
of the scriptures found here in 1 Corinthians 11, particularly
this one about whoso eateth unworthily. He fails to discern the Lord's
body, he eats and drinks to himself damnation. And all I thought
of, and I thought of worthiness, is am I worthy to take the Lord's
table? And so I missed the complete meaning of it and really didn't
want to take it because I was afraid of what would take place
with me because I didn't really deserve to take the Lord's table.
And for a long time I did not like the Lord's table because
I didn't understand it and it scared me and I didn't want to
eat and drink unworthily and eat and drink to myself damnation. Now let's look at this passage
of scripture in first Corinthians chapter 11 beginning in verse
17. Now in this I declare unto you
I praise you not that you come together not for the better but
for the worse. Now think of what Paul's saying to these people.
He's saying when you come together to take the Lord's table it's
not for your benefit. It's You're meeting for the worse,
not the better. Now let's see why it says this. What if Paul
said, you all are wasting your time taking the Lord's table?
You're desecrating it. You're destroying the true meaning,
which is what he's saying to these people. And this was a
true church. Don't forget that. Could a true church get so messed
up? Of course it could. Of course it could. Never think
in terms of that. Anything can happen if the Lord
doesn't permit it. But let's go on reading. For
first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there'll
be divisions, schisms among you. And I partly believe it, for
there must be also," notice this word, there must be also heresies
among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest
among you. Do you hear that? There must
be heresies among you. People believe in false gospels,
false things. that is necessary. It must happen
so that they which are truly approved may be made manifest
among you. Verse 20, when you come together
therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
You say you're meeting to eat the Lord's Supper, but that's
not what you're doing. For in eating, every one taketh before
other his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken."
Now, think about what he's saying. You're coming together for the
Lord's table for a feast. You're hungry, you want to satisfy
your hunger. And the drunken is actually intoxicated. Somebody takes the wine and actually
becomes intoxicated through it. That's what he's talking about.
When you get together for the Lord's Supper, you're not getting
together in remembrance of him. You're getting together to have
a feast, to have a good time, to get your bellies filled, to
drink up. That is why you're drinking.
That's why you're eating. And that is not the Lord's table. 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? Some had a bunch of food, and
they bring their food. Does it bring your own food?
Kind of like a potluck. Well, I don't guess it's a potluck. I guess
everybody just brought their own food. Some had a feast. Some didn't
have much money and didn't even have enough to eat. And so you
had this one group feasting. You had another group that didn't
have hardly anything. 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 in this? I praise you not. For I have
received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that
the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took
bread. And when he had given thanks,
He'd break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is
broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Now, before I go on reading,
there's a verse of scripture that the Catholic church has
taught transubstantiation. When you eat that bread, it turns
into the body of Christ. When you drink that wine, it
turns into the blood of Christ. Transubstantiation. And some
people watered it down, no, it's consubstantiation. That only
works with believers. When believers eat it, it turns
into the body of Christ. And when they drink it, it turns
into the body of Christ. But if an unbeliever drinks or eats,
it doesn't do him any good. It can only be believers. So
here, once again, you can take these verses of scripture and
all the things you could teach from them and preach from them.
This doctrine of the real presence of the body and blood of Christ
comes from these verses. And if you take them on face
value, I guess you can look at it that way if you want to. Like
I said, the Lord has truth stated in such a way, if you want to
hate yourself, you can do it from the Bible. You can prove
anything you want from the Bible. Men have been doing it for centuries.
Verse 25, after the same manner also. He did the same thing.
He took the cup and we'd sup, saying, this cup is the New Testament
in my blood. This do as often as you drink
it in remembrance of me. In remembrance of what I have
done for you, in remembrance of my person. Verse 26, for as
often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, You do show the
Lord's death till they come. Everybody that eats this bread
and drinks this cup is preaching a sermon. We're showing the Lord's
death. Oh, what does the Lord's death
mean to you? What's the Lord's death mean to you? It's Christ
that died. That's the only hope of my salvation.
That's all I have. It's Christ that died. You're
showing forth. That's what you're saying. It's
Christ that died. That's my hope of salvation.
My sin became his sin and he put it away. He died, was raised
again. Everybody that observes the Lord's
table is preaching this sermon. You're showing forth the Lord's
death until he come. 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." Now, does
that mean you have to have sufficient worthiness before you can eat
the bread and drink the cup? Do you know that churches actually
use this to discipline people? You've got a board of elders
Big shots in the church. And if somebody's life isn't
measuring up, no, you can't eat. You need to get your life straightened
out before you can eat and drink. And they use that as a means
of discipline. Wow. You want to take that responsibility
yourself? Nobody has the right to do something
like that. The Lord said, examine yourselves,
and so let him eat, not let him not eat, let him eat. Do you
feel, well, my life is such now that I think I'm worthy to eat
the Lord's table. I've got a handle on sin now, and I've stopped
this sin, and I've started doing this thing, and I think I'm ready
to eat the Lord's table right now. That's called eating it
unworthily. That's what that is. That's having
no discernment, no understanding of what we're doing when we're
observing the Lord's table. Verse 27, wherefore whosoever
shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily,
look what it says next, shall be guilty of the body and the
blood of the Lord. Now, some sins are worse than
others. This is one of them. to eat the
Lord's table unworthily is equivalent with being the murderer of the
Lord Jesus Christ and driving the nails in his hands and in
his feet. Now that is scary, isn't it?
Okay, let's go on reading. But let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. Now, what
is it we're examining? Is Christ Jesus the Lord really
the only hope I have? Am I looking only to what he
did as everything in my personal salvation? I want to examine
myself. Am I looking to my works? Am
I looking to any evidences in me that makes me think I'm worthy? Better not eat. That's a failure
to discern the Lord's body. Now I discern the Lord's body
and I discern the Lord's blood when I understand who he is,
what he did, why he did it. and what he accomplished by that.
And I'm looking only to him. That's what we do when we discern
the Lord's body. But let a man examine himself.
I love that passage in 2 Corinthians 13 5. Examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith. Now I'm looking forward to eating
at the Lord's table because I know this is all I have. I believe
that. I believe that. And I'm going to do this by His
grace in remembrance of Him. It's a celebration. It's not,
you know, am I worthy? Well, of course I'm not worthy.
But He is. And this is all my hope. This
is all my salvation. But then a man examined 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. Condemnation, not discerning
the Lord's body. For this cause, because men eat
and drink unworthily, for this cause many are weak and sickly
among you, and many sleep, many have died. Now, I don't know
what I'll say about that. Somebody gets sick, did they
take the Lord's table unworthily? Don't think things like that.
Somebody gets some illness, wonder what they did. Don't think like
that. Sickness is of the Lord, and
if you're sick, it's of the Lord, and it's for your good and His
glory. So don't look at someone, you don't, well, I wonder what
they did. I think of that passage of scripture where the Lord and
his disciples went by the man who was born blind. And this
disciple said, who sinned, this man or his parents? He's born
blind. And the Lord said, neither. Don't look at things like that.
But still, this passage of scripture does say. I don't know what all
to say about it. I wish I did. But it does say
that those who eat and drink unworthily, many are weak. Many
are sickly, many sleep, many die because of this. So this
shows how serious this is. I've heard people say, well,
it doesn't mean that. Well, what does it mean then? What does it mean?
I don't know what to say about it. I can't give a detailed explanation
of what all is meant by this, but it sure doesn't sound good,
does it? I want to eat worthily and drink worthily, looking to
Christ only. Four, I love this verse. If we
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Now here's the
one judgment that's good. Judge yourself. Judge yourself. You judge anybody else. It's
wrong. It's wrong. All the time. Paul
said, let us not judge one another any more. I love that scripture
where the Lord says, judge not that you be judged. For with
the same judgment you judge, you shall be judged. And with
what measure you meet, it'll be meted out to you again. Now
that sure enough doesn't mean that if you judge somebody, God's
going to judge you and send you to hell. Because if that's the
case, ain't none of us going to be saved, are we? Whenever you
judge someone, they're going to be looking for
faults in you. They're gonna judge you, they're
gonna scrutinize you, they're gonna make you miserable. And
that's what the Lord means. And then Paul said, judge not,
let's not judge one another anymore. But here's one judgment that's
good. You don't have enough sins, I don't have enough sins to make
a proper judgment about anything with regard to anybody. Why do
you do it then? Because I'm a sinner. It's wrong,
we shouldn't do it. But here's a judgment we should
make. If we would judge ourselves,
if we would condemn ourselves, if we would criticize ourselves,
if we would see our own sinfulness, we should not be judged. You
see, that person who judges themselves comes to Christ with a rope around
his neck. God be merciful to me, the sinner,
guilty as charged. And somebody that comes like
that will not be judged. But when we are judged, We are
chastened of the Lord, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, that
we should not be condemned with the world. Now, I don't want
to be chastened, but I want to be chastened, don't you? I don't
want to be chastened, but I want to be chastened. Because whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every sum that he
receives. Wherefore, my brethren, when
you come together to eat, tarry one for another, And if any man
hunger, let him eat at home, that you come not together unto
condemnation. And the rest will I set in order
when I come." Now, what is the one requirement for the Lord's
table that we're getting ready to do? Same requirement as baptism,
believing the gospel. Faith. Faith is the one requirement. So I want to spend the last couple
of minutes asking this question, what is faith? It's critical that I know. And
I've got several go-to scriptures I always love to go to to illustrate
and define what faith is according to the scripture. But here's
one that I don't use as much. And it's the one I read at the
first of this message. If you want to understand what
faith is, whether you should be baptized, whether you should
take the Lord's table. Let's go there. Hebrews chapter
11. Verse 13, these all, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah,
the people had mentioned up to this point, These all died. Now, don't forget that's your
end. These all died. Every one of
them. These all died. If the Lord doesn't
return first, me and you are going to die. I always think
it's kind of funny. If you went to the doctor tomorrow
and the doctor said, you're going to die, you'd be so upset. The
Bible tells us that. You're going to die. These all
died. But how did they die? These all
died in faith. Now that's how I want to die.
In faith. You know what that means? That
means they persevered in the faith. They continued in the
faith, grounded and settled, and they were not moved from
the hope of the gospel. And it means they never graduated
past faith. They never got above it. The just shall live by faith,
as you've received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Faith. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. These all
died in faith. They persevered in the faith,
and they never got past faith. Now, what's it say about them
next? These all died in faith, not having received The promises. God gave them some promises.
The Messiah is coming through you. He promised all the land
of Canaan, all these promises that he gave them, and they never
experienced them. They never really entered in. They never received the promises.
Now, salvation is by the promise of God. Amen. What's that mean? It means this, the reason you're
forgiven is not because of anything you've done or even asked it
for. You're forgiven because God promised
you'd be forgiven for Christ's sake. Your salvation began with
the complete forgiveness of sins. And it doesn't have anything
to do with anything you've done. It's all because of the promise
of God. Justification. You know what
justification means? You don't have any sin. Have you experienced that? No. You still feel it's sinful, more
sinful now than you've ever felt. No, you haven't experienced that.
They haven't received the promises. It's promised that you're just
like Christ, perfectly conformed to His image. Have you entered
into the experience of that? No. They didn't receive the promises. They died in faith, having never
in their life experienced these promises. But what's it say about
them? But having seen them afar off. Having seen them afar off. Now, faith sees by the ear. Ear is the sight, the faith. And you've heard, perhaps far
off, but you've heard how you can be sinless before God. You've heard how you can be justified
before God. You've heard you are justified
before God. Now, you haven't received it
in your experience. You still sin, but you've seen
it far off. You've seen it in the Word. You've
seen it in the preaching of the gospel. You've seen it far off. I have. I've seen it far off.
No, I haven't experienced it, but I've seen it far off. And
what's it say next? having seen them afar off, these
promises of God, and were persuaded of them." They were persuaded
of them. Now, this is interesting. This
is spoken of in the passive. It's literally, they've been
persuaded. If you're persuaded, it's because
you've been persuaded. And you know who was who persuaded
you? God himself. Are you persuaded that the Bible
is the word of God? You know why? God persuaded you. Are you persuaded that Christ
is all in salvation? You know why? It's because God
persuaded you. So they saw these promises afar
off, the promises of complete salvation. They were persuaded
of them. I believe this. I believe this. God has persuaded me. I believe
that everybody that Christ died for must be saved. I believe
that his precious blood cleanses us from all sin. Now, do I receive
it in a sense of experience? No, I still sin. But I believe
I'm cleansed from all sin because I've been persuaded. And I love
this next word. They embraced them. They embraced them. They welcomed
them. This is good news. I love this.
They embrace them, hug them tightly. rejoiced in what they were hearing. This is the best thing I've ever
heard. I'm embracing this. It's glorious
to me. Now they're in this thing of
embracing where it always comes as good news. Here's the reason. My need. You know, I've seen people grow
weary of the gospel and become dull in hearing. The heavenly manna has become
light bread and the gospel no longer comes as good news. It's become old and dry, and
it's just doctrine, dry doctrine. Well, when someone has reached
that point, let me tell you why. They've lost their sense of need.
They're not hearing as sinners, something above that. If I hear
as a sinner, I will embrace the gospel as good news. You know, I need, I need God
to elect me. I need Christ to die for me.
I need God, the Holy Spirit, to give me life. I need to be
preserved right now. That's what I need. It's not
old. It's not something, well, I've
already learned that. I need it right now and I embrace. And then the last thing, and
this thing of these people who died in faith, look at it, these
all died in faith, not having received the promise, they didn't
enter into the fullness of the experience of it, but having
seen them afar off, they were persuaded of them, and embraced
them, and confessed. Now this is part of faith. They
confessed that there were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now
with faith, there's always confession. And confession, there's something
public about it. It can take many forms, but there's
something public about it. I mean, you're publicly identifying
with this message. Right now, you're confessing
this message. If you believe this message, you're coming here
to take the Lord's table. You're making a public confession
right now. This is all of my salvation.
I've already said baptism is your confession. You confess
with your mouth. You confess with your life. But there's something
public about it. When you meet some of those people
who say, well, I believe people ought to just be private about
their religion. Well, you can believe that, but you'll not
be saved. Confession is unto salvation. This is part of true
saving faith. Here's what David, he called
the spirit of faith. Paul called this quote from David,
the spirit of faith. I believed, therefore have I
spoken. Now, does this mean you're able
to articulate all the Not necessarily, but you stand for it. You stand
for it. You might not be able to articulate
everything, but you're casting in your lot with those who preach
the gospel you believe, publicly confessing. That's what faith
is. Who should take the Lord's table? Everyone, without exception,
in faith, who hadn't receive the promises in the sense of,
I've not experienced sinlessness or justification. But I believe. I've seen them
afar off in the gospel. And I've been persuaded. That's the reason I believe.
I've been persuaded. And I embrace and I confess. What is required for the Lord's
table? The same thing that's required
for baptism, faith. Faith in Christ. Now, let me
remind you, faith is not believing that you're saved. Faith is not believing that Jesus
Christ died for you. Faith is not believing you're
one of the elect. Faith is not believing that you've
been born again. Faith is believing that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Faith doesn't have anything to
do with what you believe about yourself. Now, it's a great thing
if the Lord gives us grace till we know we're elect, children
of God and all that kind of stuff, but that is not what faith is.
Faith is what you believe concerning Christ. Do you believe that He's
the Son of God? Do you believe He's the Christ?
Do you believe that if He represents you before the Father, you must
be saved? You believe that? Are you relying
only on Him and you don't have anything else? That's called
faith in Christ. And when we observe the Lord's
table, we're showing forth His death together until He comes. You know, you can't take the
Lord's table by yourself. You can't say, I'm going to take
the Lord's table. I'm going to pour me some wine, and I'm going to give me
some leavened bread, unleavened bread, and I'm going to eat the
bread, and I'm going to drink the wine, and I'll take the Lord's table.
You can't do that. This is something done with the brethren, with
the church, gathering together for this purpose, doing this
in remembrance of Him. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name that we might be enabled to eat this bread and drink of
this cup in remembrance of thee, our blessed
savior. And Lord, we're showing forth
the death of thy son is everything in our salvation. And Lord, let us do this with
joy and confidence. knowing that however pleased
you are with Him, you're pleased with everybody in Him, and our
great desire is that we might be found in Him. In His name
we pray. Amen.