If you want to turn with me this
evening to 1 Corinthians chapter 11, we are going to be coming to the
Lord's table this afternoon. And I wanted to look at where
the Apostle Paul instituted this in the Jephthah
churches here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11. And let's begin by
just reading it. Begin in verse 17. 1 Corinthians
chapter 11 and verse 17. Now in this that I declare unto
you, I praise you not, that you be come together, not for the
better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come
together in the church, I hear that there be division among
you, and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies,
divisions, fractions, parties among you, that they which are
approved may be made manifest among you. When you come together,
therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.
For in Eden everyone taketh before other his own supper, and one
is hungry and another is drunken. What? Have you not houses to
eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God,
and shame them that have not? What shall I say unto 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 broke it and said,
Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in
remembrance of me. After the same manner also he
took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament,
the new covenant in my blood. This do you as oft as you drank
it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show, proclaim, preach the
Lord's death till he come. 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. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh
damnation, or judgment, to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
And here's the judgment, verse 30. For this cause many are weak
and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge
ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with
the world. Wherefore, my brethren, when
you come together to eat, tarry one for another. And if any man
hunger, let him eat at home. that ye come not together unto
condemnation or to judgment, and the rest will I set in order
when I come." When you come together, as we
are this afternoon, He said you come not together for the better
but for the worse. It's possible that the church
of the Lord Jesus could come together for worse and not the
better. Now when we come together for
the better, we come together with gladness in our hearts to
be here. I was glad when they said let
us go into the house of the Lord. We come together for better when
we have peace among us. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. Peace. How pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That's good when we
come in unity. when we have peace. Somebody
said the church has the best of both worlds when it comes
together. We've got the brethren, we've got the saints, and we've
got the king of saints right in our midst. Where two or three
are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them. The
church comes together for the better when Christ is honored.
And when God is worshipped, and when saints are encouraged and
edified, and when the lost are made aware of their sad condition,
that's coming better for the world. The church comes together
for the worse when she has divisions among her, when there's chisms,
when there's parties rising up. And boy, these Corinthians, they
had some of that, didn't they? They had some of that. Listen
to this passage, 1 Corinthians 1.11. It's been declared unto
me of you, my brethren, that there are contentions among you,
contentions among you, separations, divisions. What was it? Some
of you say this. I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas. And he says this. Is Christ divided? Is Christ
divided into little cliques? Does He divide Himself into little
parties? No, He doesn't, does He? Was
Paul crucified for you? No. Were you baptized in the
name of Paul? Christ is all. We come in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't come in the name of
Calvin. We don't come in the name of Arminius. We come in
the name of Christ. We're one in Him. They didn't
realize that. And he said, chapter 3 and verse
3, There is among you envions and strife and divisions, Are
you not carnal and walk as men? And listen to chapter 6 and verse
1. Dare any of you having a matter
against another go to law before the unjust and not before believers? Can you imagine men, Wayne, taking
each other to court and standing before a judge downtown because
we got a brawl between us over something? I can't imagine that.
This happened to these people here. And listen to this. You talk about immorality. It's
reported commonly, chapter 5, verse 1, that there is fornication
among you, and such fornication is not so much as mentioned among
the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife, probably
his stepmother or so. That's low-wage. That's immorality. That's right in this church.
I think if I was those Pentecostals that were using this church for
an example, I think I'd be careful about that, don't you? Well,
they had the gifts. Yeah, they had the gifts. Paul
said, you come behind in no gift. But I tell you something, they
did come behind in. And that was love. And that was unity. They come behind on that, didn't
they? Greg read that to us this morning, all of those gifts in
the churches. And God said in the members in
the body as it pleased Him, tell them about all these different
gifts. And what was the last verse Greg read to us this morning?
covet earnestly the best gifts, and when you've got them all,
yet show I unto you a more excellent way." And that's what the 13th
chapter of 1 Corinthians is about. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and angels, can you imagine what it would be like speaking
with an angel? And have not love, it profiteth
me nothing. I may have the gift of knowledge,
I may know all mysteries, I may have the gift of faith that I
could remove mountains, but if I don't have love, I'm nothing. I may give my goods to feed the
poor and my body to be burned, but if I don't have love, I'm
nothing. And boy, that's where they've
come short at, wasn't it? Love. I'd rather have love for
the Lord Jesus Christ and His saints as all gifts besides. If I have any gift at all to
preach, man, I'd lay it aside for the love of Christ in my
heart. Wouldn't you? The church in this world will
never be completely free and clear from these divisions and
fractions. Look in verse 19. For there must
also be heresies among you. There must be heresies. among
you. There must be. God has ordained
it to have heresies among His people. I can't understand that.
I can't understand why Christ had ordained Judas as one of
His apostles, but He did, didn't He? There must need to be heresies
among you. This word heresy, it don't always
mean what you and I think it means. Sometimes we think it
means preaching damnable, something that's damnable. But really the
word here means a set. A party, a little party in the
church that causes disturbance and sows discords among the brethren. There's a crime in our society
that if you commit this crime, you get yourself in trouble.
And that's called disturbing the peace. And there's a law
in the kingdom of Christ that gets you in trouble if you disturb
the peace of His little children. Contentions, divisions among
them. Why must there be troubles, these
kind of troubles in the church of Christ? Well, look at the
last portion of verse 19, that they which are approved may be
made manifest among you. The Lord manifests His little
children by sending trouble sometimes right in the midst of the church.
Those who cause and create divisions and contentions and offenses
in a gospel church, listen, they're not friends of God. They're not. You are my friends if you do
whatsoever I command you. Blessed are the peacemakers. And what happens, the Lord Jesus
will allow, He suffers these troublemakers in the church to
cause division just to make manifest His little children, His friends. You know how you know you're
a friend of God? You're a peacemaker. The world hates you. And you
don't have much peace out in this world. But I tell you what
you do have among God's little children. You've got peace with
them. You follow peace with them, don't
you? And when the Lord calls you from your sins and He gives
you the peace of Christ in your heart, you're a peacemaker. You're a peacemaker. I tell you
what you'll do. You'll sit down and be quiet
before you'll cause trouble. You will. You will. And when you've caused trouble
and you come to the knowledge that you've caused trouble, you
know what'll happen? Your heart will be broken. Your
heart will be broken. And if it's not, you got a big
problem, don't you? Got a big problem. But the Lord
allows these divisions to come in His church that He may manifest
who His little children are. And I tell you how they'll be
manifest. They'll be the peacemakers. They'll be the peacemakers. Everybody
else will be fussing and cussing and maddering and wetting. But
they'll be weeping. They'll be crying. They'll be
praying. Oh, Lord, forgive me when they've not done anything.
Lord, have mercy upon us. They're peacemakers. They're
peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the children of God. So there's going
to be heresies, there's going to be divisions in the church.
I don't know how you remedy that. I honestly don't know how you
remedy that. You can be as careful as you can be as the pastor.
And just about the time you think, man, we've got everything so
settled down, here comes the divisions, here comes the contention,
the heresies. I don't know. I don't think it
can be remedied. I think God's ordained it that way. I really
do. And in verse 20 and verse 22,
look how quickly some of these churches left the proper use
of this ordinance of the Lord's Table, even while the apostles
were here and still alive. Look what he said. When you come
together unto one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper.
For in Eden every one of you take before himself another his
supper, and one is hungry, and another is drunken. Why have
you not houses to eat and to drink in?" Boy, how they were
bringing their lunches, and they were eating their dinners for
the Lord's table. And some of them were drunken
and some of them were glutton. And what a mess this was. And
you know, if the church could get in a mess like this while
the apostles were still here, you and I shouldn't be amazed
if we get in a mess now. You know what? It's amazing to
me the church has stood all these years. For 2,000 years the church
has stood. All the trouble within it, all
the weak flesh, all the trouble that's without it, the gates
of hell coming against it for 2,000 years, and here it stands. I wonder how it stands. Just
good luck, I guess, huh? You know what the Lord Jesus
said upon this rock? I will build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I had Brother Fortner
said something in a message one time that stuck with me and I
think he's on to something. He said it's not so much the
gates of hell is coming against the church. He said it's the
church bombarding the gates of hell. I like that, don't you? The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. I never know gates to attack
anybody. We always attack the gates. And
that's what the church is doing, isn't it? And really, the church
has been overcome in hell now for 2,000 years. That's because
Christ is her head. Christ is building the church.
And you know there's been a church for 2,000 years, and there'll
be a church when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again. I like to
read verse 22. What? What? Is there not ball leagues that
you could join? Why bring them into the church?
What? Don't the world have its gymnasium
and sports facilities and socials? Do you despise the church of
God and bring this into the pure worship of God? That's what's
happening today, isn't it? In verse 22, he says this, Have
ye not houses to eat and drink in? Here in beginning in verse
22 and following, Paul is going to show us the table of the Lord
is not to be used as an ordinary meal. It's not to fill our bellies. That's not what we've come here
to do in this service. It's to fill our memories. He's
not forbidden them to eat where they gathered. They did that
a lot in the early church. You look in Acts chapter 20,
around verse 11 or so, Paul was preaching all night, then they
came back early the next morning and they all ate a meal and he
preached some more. So he's not forbidding them to
eat a common meal where they're gathered. You and I do that every
Sunday. But he's saying that's not the
Lord's table. You don't fill your belly with
the Lord's table. It's to fill your memory. We
have two elements. that we use in the Lord's Table.
It's called here the cup and the bread. We use unleavened
bread. And the reason we use unleavened
bread is because that's what Christ used. When they were eating
the Passover that night, they eat unleavened bread. And the
reason they eat unleavened bread is because leaven represents
sin. It represents wickedness. And there was no wickedness in
the body of Jesus Christ. sincerity and truth. Eat the
unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And we use wine because
it represents the pure blood of Christ. We used to use grape
juice years ago, but I believe that wine represents the pure
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The older it gets, the better
it gets, ain't it? And it seems here in verse 21
that that's what they were using because it says there are some
of you are gluttonous and some of you are drunken. And that
word means intoxicated. So they must have been using
wine in the service. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess. But let's get here now to verse
23. Look in verse 23. I received of the Lord Jesus
that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord the same night
in which He was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks
and blessed him. I received of the Lord what I
delivered unto you." We've had some now for quite some time
that's been saying that there was a distinction between Paul's
preaching and Christ preaching. And they're trying to figure
out who to believe, Paul or Christ. That's how silly this world has
gotten, this religious world has gotten. There was no distinction
between Paul and Christ preaching. Paul's preaching never originated
in his heart. Everything he got comes from
heaven. It comes from the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he says here. I delivered unto you what the
Lord delivered unto me. So it never originated with him,
but it came from the Lord, as all the Bible did. These people
penned it down, but where did they get it? The Lord gave the
Word, and great was the company of them that published it. The
Lord gave it, they wrote it down, and you and I proclaim it, but
nobody has the right to change it, because it's the Lord's blessed
Word. I received, I received, and then
I gave it to you. But you in the last part of verse
23, notice when the Lord Jesus instituted this, The same night
in which He was betrayed. The same night. I want you to
turn over to our whole 1 Corinthians 11, and I want you to turn over
to John chapter 13, and look at this with me. Just back to
your left, in John chapter 13, this is where the Lord tells
us. It's amazing that it had been
several years now when the Lord told the Apostle this. And he
still got this night on his mind, the night in which he was betrayed.
There was a solemn, this was a solemn night. They had gathered
there in the upper room and around the table, they were eating the
Passover meal, and there were candles setting on the table,
a lamp or two around the wall, and the streets were forsaken
of people, shadows on the walls. And that's the setting where
the Lord Jesus was with His apostles in the upper room. He tells us
that in verse 1 of chapter 13. Look at this. Now before the
feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come,
that He should depart out of this world unto His Father, having
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the
end. And supper being ended, the devil
now put into the heart of Judas' carriage Simon's son to betray
Him. Jesus, knowing that the Father
had given all things into His hand, and that He was come from
the Father, He rose from the supper, and laid aside His garment,
and took a towel, and girded Himself. And then the following
verses there, He washes their feet. And look in verse 10. And Jesus said unto him, Peter,
he that is washed needs not say to wash his feet, but is clean
everywhere. And you are clean, but not all.
For He knew who should betray Him, therefore He said, You are
not all clean. Look down in verse 18. I speak
not of you all. I know whom I have chosen, but
that the Scripture might be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with Me
hath lifted up his heel against Me. And look in verse 21. And
Jesus, when Jesus had said this, He was trouble in spirit. and
testified and said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall
betray me. Then the disciples looked one
on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning
on Jesus' bosom one of the disciples whom Jesus loved. And Simon Peter
therefore beckoned to him that he would ask who it should be
of whom he spake. Then lying on Jesus' breast,
he said unto him, Lord, who is it? And he answered, It is he
to whom I gave a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped
the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And
after the sop, Satan entered into him, then said, Jesus, unto
him, What thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew
for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought
because Judas had the bag that Jesus had said unto him, Buy
those things which we have need of against the feast, or that
he should give something to the poor. He then, having received
the shop, went out. And it was night. It was night. Oh, what a solemn night. And
it was this night that Judas betrayed the Son of God. And
after all these years, the Lord Jesus is still thinking about
it. How he must love his church that in this night, this awful
night, he instituted this supper, the very night that he was betrayed.
Look at what he could have been doing. He could have been seeking
His Father for comfort. He could have been meditating.
But what was He doing? Giving this institution to His
disciples. Comforting them. Telling them
what it meant to give them His broken body and His shed blood. He was ready to go to war. The
battle had already begun in his soul, and before this battle
was over, the Lord Jesus would pour out His blood and agony
and be forsaken of men and God. And where was his thoughts? Where
was his heart? This night, he was instituted
this supper that you and I, right now, are about to partake of.
That's how important it was to him, and God help it, to be that
important to us. His body and His blood. I tell
you, if a husband ever loved his wife, it was the Lord Jesus
loving His church. Ain't that something? Love your
wives as yourself. And He loves His church as He
loves Himself. And it's things like this that
prove it. Look back at our text again.
Look in verse 24. Look at our Lord's attitude concerning
this. And when He had given thanks,
and when He had given thanks, boy, what a solemn hour this
was. And yet, what does He do? He gives thanks. This should
be our attitude, brothers and sisters, in everything. If the
Lord Jesus stopped here and gave thanks at this solemn hour of
His suffering, that should be our attitude in everything of
giving thanks. I'll try that sometime. In your
dark hours, in your night time, just stop and give the Lord thanks. Just start thanking Him for everything. Thank Him for the Savior. Thank
Him for His body. Thank Him for His blood. In everything,
give thanks. That should be our attitude.
If He was thankful when He was going to suffer, how much thankful
we ought to be now that His sufferings are over. He gave thanks. This is a solemn ordinance for
us, a time of remembrance of our Lord's dying. You and I dare
not approach this institution or this supper with an attitude
of pity or sorrow in our hearts. But let's approach it with thanksgiving.
and gladness because we're going to partake of the body and the
blood of our Savior that redeemed us. I don't pity Him. We mustn't pity Him. We mustn't
be like those women who cried and He turned to them and said,
Don't weep for me. Don't shed your tears for me.
Weep for yourselves. We've got nothing to weep about
this afternoon, haven't we? We're ready to remember our redeeming
Lord. This is the blood of the new
covenant which was shed for many for the remission of their sins. And here's how the covenant runs.
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. One dear man said about this
covenant, this table, he said, when I remember our Lord's death,
I remember my sins, and then I remember my sins are not remembered
anymore. I'm thankful. Aren't you thankful?
We rejoice. Our Lord put great value upon
His humanity. He said, This is my body. This
is my blood. But not just His body and blood,
but His body broken. And not just His blood, but His
blood poured out. His body unbroken could not profit
us at all. The flesh profiteth nothing.
Not even His flesh can profit us until it's broken. This is
My body which is broken for you. How did it get broken? He bore
our sins in that body, that human body. And our sins and the judgment
of God met together upon the cross in the body of the Son
of God. And the judgment of God broke
Him. It crushed Him, this body. And in that broken body, He satisfied
the judgment of God upon our sins forever. Listen to Hebrews
10.10. We are sanctified. We are set
apart from this world to God through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once and for all. Can you imagine the value
of the body of Jesus Christ? This is my body. This is not
the body of some beast. But this is the body that was
conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin's womb. A body
hast thou prepared me. A real humanity the Son of God
took to Himself, occupied it, suffered in it, rose in it, ascended
in it, and that humanity He is in today will never be separated
from Him. A humanity and deity joined together
and one glorious person. And by that humanity being broken
upon the cross of Calvary, He has atoned for the sins of all
His people. This is My blood, He says. This
is My blood. Could I say this? This is the
blood of God. Some of our forefathers They
didn't understand where the infant got its blood. I was asking my
doctor one time where the infants got their blood. We've been told
now from medical science that the blood comes from the Father.
Are we not told that? Could we not say then this is
divine blood shed through the humanity of the Son of God? I
don't know, but I know this much. Paul said in Acts 20, God has
redeemed the church with His own blood. That is not one of
these mysteries I guess I will ever understand. This was not
the body of the beast or the blood of bulls and goats, but
this was the humanity and deity of the Son of God joined together
to purge away our sins. Brothers and sisters, the value
of this body and this blood cannot be estimated. And this is why I personally
Believe the death of Jesus Christ to be effectual. I do not believe
such value as this could be in vain hanging on the cross for
anybody. It must accomplish that for which
it was given, the redemption of all God's people. This is
my body. It's my body. And verse 26 says,
Every time we eat this bread and drink this cup, we're preaching
the gospel. You do show forth His death unto
Jesus' coming. Why did He die? To reconcile
us to God. Make us friends again, won't
He? That's the gospel, isn't it? We're here tonight and we're
going to proclaim the gospel. Here's the broken body of Christ.
Here's His blood, the blood of the covenant. He came into this
world to save sinners. That's the gospel. Verse 27,
look here at what he says. 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. Unworthily. We see a lot of people today
trampling the flag of our country under their feet. That's sad. Because of what the flag symbolizes. But you know something? It'd
be much better to trample every symbol of this country under
our feet than it would be to trample the blood and the body
of Jesus Christ under our feet. And that's what they were doing,
unworthily. What does this mean? Well, it doesn't mean to eat
and drink with a consciousness of unworthiness. I don't know
if we came together tonight and we thought we were worthy, that'd
probably be the time to refrain from eating this. This is not
for those who feel a worthiness. This is for those who feel an
unworthiness. This is for poor sinners needing
a substitute and have found a substitute. If a man thinks himself to be
something when he's nothing, he probably shouldn't eat of
this. But when a man knows he's nothing, he's fit to eat of this. This is for nothing sinners.
That's who this is for. It doesn't mean when he says
unworthiness that he feels unprepared to eat. Well, I wish I could
come here with a clear memory. And I pray to this end. I prayed
yesterday, Lord, please give me a, give, move upon my heart
to give me a clear memory. to discern the body of Jesus
Christ. But you know, when I sit here
this afternoon and I partake of this blood and this bread
to remember Him, sometimes my mind strays. I wish it didn't. I wish I could be more prepared.
But I pray to that end. Then I come here and I sit and
I do my best to remember my Lord and Savior. It doesn't mean this. Being unworthy
doesn't mean that I haven't committed any sin. And I feel unworthy
because I know that I've sinned. Boy, some of these church members
had sinned, hadn't they? They had sinned awful. But you
know, that wasn't why that they were unworthy. That wasn't Paul's
meaning about it at all. If anything, if you hear you've
sinned, this ordinance should point you to the Savior who bore
your sin. If you hear and you feel sin
upon your conscience, then look at this broken body and look
at this shed blood and say, My sin is atoned for. Neither does unworthily mean
that you are a new believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't
come to Him because I've not did anything for Him. I've just
believed on Him. If you've just been washed from
your sin, You are welcome to come and remember Him. This is
not a memorial to your service. This is a memorial to the death
of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. What does unworthily mean? He
explains it here in verse 29. Not discerning the Lord's body. That was their whole problem.
This word discerns means to separate, to discriminate, to cause to
differ. We separate this bread and this
cup and distinguish it from an ordinary meal. We just ate a
good meal back there in the kitchen. This is different. This is different. Back there we filled our bellies.
Here we're going to fill our memories. That's what they weren't
doing. They'd turn this into just an
ordinary meal. Some of them were gluttonous.
Some of them were getting drunk. Some of them didn't have anything.
They didn't distinguish this broken bread and this wine as
the body and blood of Jesus Christ. And therefore the Lord judged
them for it. He chastened them. And some of
them were sick and some weak. This bread is not the literal
body of Christ. This cup is not the literal blood
of our Lord Jesus, but they're symbols. They're symbols of His
broken body. And just as we take these symbols
and eat them and drink them and they become one with us, they get into our stomachs and
nourish us. So when we live by faith upon
a crucified Christ, we become one with Him. And when we live
by faith upon Him, we're nourished. We're nourished from Him. This should be a time of being
thankful and it should be a time of nourishment because we are
ready to partake of Christ, His broken body and His shed blood. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. This
has nothing to do with physical, does it? He has given us these
elements and they are physical. But when we look at that broken
bread, we look through that bread and by faith we see our Savior
and we take Him in. The physical bread goes into
our mouth and down in our stomach, but the spiritual bread, it goes
down into our hearts and strengthens us. The wine will go in and cheer
us, but through that wine we see blood poured out and that
cheers us, redeeming blood. So may the Lord bless us as we
come to this table. Our Lord, we bow before You today. We thank You for this time, this
blessed special occasion. Lord Jesus, that we have to come
and remember You. Thank You for this bread that
represents Your broken body. Thank You for giving it to us
to remember You by. And Lord, we acknowledge it's
sad on our part we ever forget You. It's sad on our part that
You had to give us something to remember You by, forgive us
of our poor memories. But help us to not, as we partake
of this bread, this broken bread, and drink this cup, to remember
You, Lord Jesus, Your death, Your agonies upon the cross,
and how You loved us, and what You accomplished there, our eternal
redemption. Oh, we bless Your name. and grant
us someday by your grace, by your tender mercies, to sit down
with you in heaven and sit with you there, not by faith but by
sight, and enjoy you there as we've never been able to do in
this life to such a degree that we've never been able. Bless
this bread to our bodies and to our hearts this wine to our
spirits. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen.