Turning to 1 Corinthians 11,
in just a few moments I'll be referring to this scripture.
By way of introducing my message tonight, let me say several things. First of all, there are many
reminders of Christ. There are many memorials of Christ
our Lord. The believer sees Christ in all
things. In the book of Psalms, chapter
19, verse 1, the psalmist writes, The heavens declare the glory
of God. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night showeth knowledge, and there is no speech
nor language where their voice is not heard. And then in Psalm
139, Psalm 139, verse 7 through 11,
David writes, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall
I flee from thy presence? The Lord Jesus is everywhere.
He said to his people, Lo, I am with you always, even to the
end of the earth. If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee." So heavens, the heavens declare
the glory of God. We see God in the beauty of the
heavens. We see God in the rain. in the
sunshine, we see God in the snow, we see God in nature, we see
Christ in all things. And then our Lord tells us in
Matthew 6 that even the animals remind us of the care of the
Master. In Matthew chapter 6, He was
rebuking the disciples for little faith. He says in Matthew 6,
verse 26, Behold the fowls of the air. Look at them. Behold
them. They sow not, neither do they
reap, neither do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than
they? Learn a lesson from the birds. Which of you, by taking
thought, can add one year to your life? One cubit to your
stature is one year to your life. And why take ye thought for raiment?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not,
neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Even the flowers remind us of the care of the Master. Wherefore
if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and
tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. Your heavenly Father knoweth
you have need of these things." And then the Bible. Every time
I look at the Word of God, I am reminded of Christ the Redeemer.
The Scripture says in 2 Corinthians, or 2 Peter, chapter 1, verse
21, that The scripture came not in old time by the will of man,
but holy men of God speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The Bible is a memorial reminder of the Lord Jesus Christ, of
His glory, of His grace, of His mercy. God made the world, and
God wrote the Bible to speak to the world that He had made. David Estrada told me something
very interesting while he was here. Over in Egypt, millenniums
ago, over 2,000 years ago, they made paper or scrolls out of
a plant called papyrus. It grew tall and they would take
this papyrus plant and put it through a certain procedure,
and then they would write on it and make scrolls, and that's
what the Bible was written on originally. And they have found
some of these papyrus scrolls, or parts of them, in some caves
around the Dead Sea. They call them the Dead Sea Scrolls. And the ones that they had found
up until just a few months ago were copies of the book of Jeremiah,
and parts of the book of Isaiah, which were written in Hebrew.
They found them in jars and they found them in caves. And this
paper that was made out of the papyrus plant had been preserved
all of these many years. These scrolls were written back
200 years before Christ. They were copies of the original
scriptures written in Hebrew 100 and 200 years before Christ. But they had not found any of
the New Testament. In fact, a lot of German writers
had written great and learned theses and papers on the fact
that the New Testament really wasn't written by the Apostle.
But it was handed down word of mouth and was written two or
three or four hundred years after Christ was crucified. In fact,
David Estrada said there were many volumes of writings by German
authors that discounted the verbal inspiration of the New Testament.
And he said in these caves, just in the last few months, they
have found additional scrolls, and he had pictures of them.
In fact, the This papyrus paper, they call them papyrologists
or something like that, fellows that study this paper that are
authorities on dating the paper. They can date the paper without
even reading the scroll. They can date how old the paper
is. And they found in cave number
seven, just in the past few months, they found in cave number seven
several pieces of this paper. And they thought it was just
more of Jeremiah and Isaiah and these other books, and they dated
it. This papyrologist decided that
these papers that they found were dated back to 55 A.D. And David, in his writings, calls
it A.C., after Christ. That would be about 17 years
after Christ was crucified. He was crucified around 32 or
33 A.D. And these scrolls, which they
found, and I saw pictures of them, they were so big, just
different ones, different pieces of this papyrus paper, and they
dated to 55 A.D. And they dated them before they
ever studied them. But this papyrologist and a rabbi,
or rather a Catholic priest, a Jesuit priest, was studying
these papers, and he discovered they were not written in Hebrew,
They were written in Greek. And he began to study these writings,
and he came across the word G-E-N-N-E, and he thought he had found generation.
That's what he first started, but he found out that he was
studying the passage of Scripture about the man who was demon-possessed in the land of the Neserites.
And he found out that this paper that they had discovered in cave
number 7, written in 55, 17 years after Christ was crucified, were
the writings of Mark and of James and of Timothy, Paul's letter
to Timothy. And they are absolutely thrilled
to death. And they have taken already,
David said, these German authors and have moved their books to
the basement down there in the library. They've taken them out
of the out of the library and off the shelves because just
this one discovery in cave number seven has disproved everything
that these men have written. The Bible is a supernatural book
and God has preserved it through the years. Holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now I'm not saying that
the fact that these men have discovered portions of Timothy
and portions of James and portions of Mark And there's another book,
I forget which one it is. That doesn't prove to me that
the Bible is God's Word. I already believed it. And I
believe it now. I believed it back before I ever
heard this. But this is further proof. This
is further clarification of the fact that this Bible is the Word
of God. And the New Testament was written
by Paul and James and John and these men who were inspired by
the Holy Spirit. Speaking about these men and
their books condemning our belief in the Bible and saying the Bible
is just an ordinary book handed down. A man wrote a poem one
time. Let me read it to you. It said,
I stood one day beside a blacksmith's door, and I heard the anvil beat
the vesper chime. Looking in, I saw upon the floor
old hammers worn out with the beating years of time. How many
anvils have you had? said I. to wear and batter all
these hammers so. Just one, said the blacksmith,
and then with twinkling eye, the anvil wears the hammers out,
you know. So I thought the anvil of God's
word for ages agnostics, infidels, atheists, and skeptics blows
have beat upon. The noise of falling blows was
heard. But the anvil is unharmed, and
all the hammers are gone." God's Word reminds us of Christ. We
see the heavens. The heavens declare the glory
of our Lord. By Him all things were created
that were created. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. The animals. We see the birds
and the animals and the flowers. These all remind us of the care
of our Lord. Consider the lilies. Behold the
fowls, Christ said. Let these be object lessons.
Let them teach you of the faithfulness of our God, of the mercy of our
God, of the grace of our God. This book, this precious book,
and I think one of these days all of us are going to realize
just how valuable is this book. As I said this morning in my
message, Christ declared, my words are going to judge you.
We need to make more of the Word of God. We need to study the
Word of God. It's not the writings of men
that God blesses to the salvation of sinners. It's the writings
of God. It's the Word of God. We're born
again of incorruptible seed, the Word of God. And then turn
to John 16. In John 16, the Holy Spirit reveals
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, another thing that thrilled
me about David Estrada's visit here, I don't think all of us
quite realize just the the type of man that God has brought into
our fellowship. This papyrologist and these Jesuit
priests and other men who are investigating these Dead Sea
Scrolls and these manuscripts that have been found dating back
to 55 A.D., David is a very close friend of theirs, and he sits
in on their sessions. And he is the one who wrote the
article for Eternity Magazine about this discovery, about this
find. It was written under his byline,
and he made a thorough study of it. And as I told you so many
times before, Dr. David Estrada, if there's a Reformation
in Spain, it's coming through that instrument, I believe. He's
a great man. All right, in John 16, verse
13. The Lord Jesus said to the disciples, how be it when he,
the Spirit of truth, is come? This is the Holy Ghost. He will
guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself.
The Holy Spirit didn't come to call attention to the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit didn't come to inspire men to study the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit shall not speak
of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. and he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and
show it unto you." The Holy Spirit's task and mission and object is
to bring men to know Christ, to love Christ, to believe in
Christ, to trust in Christ, and to preach Christ. That's the
goal and object of the Holy Spirit's ministry, is to focus our attention
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. In the fifth place, but there
is no memorial, we can take the heavens and the firmament and
the earth and the animals and the birds and the flowers and
even the Word of God, but there's no memorial, there's
no object lesson. There's no lesson quite like
the one that we've come together to observe tonight, and that
is the table of the Lord. This is the memorial that the
Lord Jesus ordained himself. Turn to Luke chapter 22. Now
just before our Master went to the cross, before our Master
went to Calvary to bear our sins in his body on the tree, he gathered
his disciples about him. In verse 19 of Luke 22, he said,
it says, he took bread and he gave thanks. and he break it
and gave it unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given
for you, this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup,
the cup of wine, after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament,
or covenant, in my blood, which is shed for you, this do. in remembrance of me. It's not
do something else, it's do this. Do this in remembrance of me. It is not a fellowship supper. I have pastored churches and
I have held meetings in churches where they never observe the
Lord's table. And I've said to the minister
and I've said to people often now, I said, why don't you all
observe the table of the Lord? Why don't you observe the Lord's
supper? And this is the answer that I get many times. Well,
we would, but people just aren't in fellowship in the church.
There's division in the church, and there's strife in the church,
and there's conflict in the church, and we just don't feel worthy
to take the table of the Lord while there's division and conflict
in the church. And I say to them, this is not
a fellowship supper. This is not me fellowshipping
with John, and with Brother Brown, and with Brother Roach. This
is not our coming together in a fellowship supper. This is
in memory of Christ. This is the Lord's table. And
then another thing, one preacher said to me one time, well, we
have so many visitors in our churches from other churches.
And you know, we believe in close communion, and we don't invite
others to our table. I never will forget what cured
me of that years ago. I just accepted that because
it was handed down from my Baptist ancestors, but it is an error
and it is a heresy to restrict the Lord's table to a local congregation. That means that if a man is unsaved,
as long as he's a member of the church, he can come to the Lord's
table. But if a man is saved and not a member of that church,
he can't come. Roland Hill, the great English
preacher, was holding a meeting for a church one time. This happened
years and years ago, and this is the statement that I read
that set me to thinking on this subject of closed communion and
led me to despise it. And I do, I despise it. Roland
Hill was invited to preach for this church. The pastor invited
him to come preach. The members of the church loved
him. Roland Hill knew the Lord, they knew he knew the Lord, and
he was invited to preach for them. And he was sitting down
here, and they were serving the Lord's table. The pastor got
up and prayed, and they broke the bread, and then the deacons
began to distribute the bread. And they came by Mr. Roland Hill,
and he reached up to take the bread. And one of the deacons
pulled the plate back with this remark. I'm sorry, Mr. Hill, but you can't come to our
table. And Roland Hill already had his hand on the bread, and
he put it back. And he said, I'm sorry. I didn't
know it was your table. I thought it was the Lord's table.
And when I read that, I thought to myself, it's not my table.
It's not my table. I don't restrict it. I don't
police it. The Spirit of the living God
polices the table of the Lord. The royal banquet of mercy is
served up by one host. Not the pastor, not the deacon,
not the church. It's the Lord's table. This is
my body, he said, not the body of the church. This is my body
that you are partaking of. This is my blood. This do in
remembrance of me. Not in remembrance of your conversion,
not in remembrance of your experience, not in remembrance of your local
congregation. This do in remembrance of me.
It's not a fellowship supper. It's a memorial feast. It's in
memory of Christ. And it's no certain time or certain
day. I hear people arguing about when
to take the Lord's table. There is no day given. The Scripture
says, as often as you do it. you show the Lord's death until
he comes, whether it's once a week, or once a month, or once a year,
or once a quarter, or whenever it is. It's in memory of Christ
as often as you take this bread and this wine, you show the Lord's
death until he comes. Now then, 1 Corinthians 11, let's
look at this again. It's not for all men by any means. It's not at all for all men.
Who is the Lord's table for? It's strictly for those who discern
the Lord's body. What does the word discern mean?
Understand. Judge rightly. Now look, if you
will, at verse 27. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat
this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, in an
unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the
Lord. It's solemn and it's serious. But let a man examine himself. And so let him eat. Now what's
the examination? Is the examination like this?
Well, have I been a good boy all week? Have I not done anything
or said anything or thought anything that is sinful? Am I worthy to
come and take the bread and wine which represents the body? That's
not the examination. Here is the examination. Do I
know who Christ is? Do I know why he came? Do I know
what He did on that cross? Do I know the significance of
the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do I know that He bore my sins in His body on the tree? Can
I take this bread and see my crucified Lord and see my crucified
Savior dying in my place and in my stead? Can I discern the
Lord's body? Read on. For he that eateth and
drinketh in an unworthy manner eateth and drinketh judgment
to himself," not what? Not discerning the Lord's body. The hymn writer put it this way,
"'In memory of thy cross and shame I take this supper, O Lord,
in thy name.' this juice of grape, this flower of wheat, my outward
man doth drink and eat. Oh, may my inward man be fed
with better wine and better bread. May thou pure flesh and thy precious
blood supply my spirit's daily food." I thank thee, Lord, who
died for me. O may I live my life for thee."
That's discerning the Lord's body. Now here's the main object
of the Lord's table. Is this just a ritual of religion? Are we just going through and
following a ritual tonight? No, sir. Is this only a ceremony
to make us feel pious and make us feel holy? No, sir. Is there
any saving benefit or saving power in that bread? No, sir.
I can't put Christ physically into anybody. He has to be begotten
and born spiritually by the power of God. I cannot put Christ's
blood into any man. This bread is only bread, and
this wine is only wine. But the bread is eaten and the
wine is drunk as symbols representing the body and blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, I cannot speak for you,
but I can speak for myself. And I can say that when I take
this bread tonight and when I drink this wine, I view Christ Jesus
in a threefold way. Number one, if you'll turn to
Revelation chapter 13. Now, this is the way I feel personally.
One day, when one of these men comes up and hands me this bread,
which represents the broken body of my Lord, and when he brings
me the glass of wine, which represents the blood of my Lord, the first
thing that I try to remember and think about and dwell on
is that who this is that I'm remembering. And you know who
he is? Revelation 13, verse 8 says this,
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names
are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. That's the first way that I look
at Christ. He is not just a Savior right now, a Savior 2,000 years
ago. He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of this world. Back yonder in the counsels of
God, back in eternity, I was loved in Christ and chosen in
Christ and accepted in Christ and made a child of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Back yonder before the foundation
of the world, Christ stood as the surety of the everlasting
covenant. His blood was the blood of the
everlasting covenant. I'm taking wine here that represents
not an accident on Calvary's hill, not a miscarriage of justice
on Golgotha's brow. I am taking wine that represents
the definite purpose of God that was founded in the council halls
of eternity before the foundations of this world were ever laid.
And Christ's blood is the fulfillment of every sacrifice from the first
one made to the last one represented before Calvary. Every Passover
feast every day of atonement, every bull and bullock and lamb
that was ever slain. This is the wine of the everlasting
covenant. This is the blood of the everlasting
covenant. And then secondly, Hebrews chapter
10. When I take the bread and the
wine, I see Christ as the eternal surety, as the eternal substitute,
as the eternal redeemer, the priest having neither beginning
of days nor end of days. And then I see him secondly in
what he did, not only who he is, but what he did. Hebrews
10 verse 12, listen to it. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. I see in this broken bread, in
this wine, Christ's body and blood, broken and shed, one time,
one time, one offering, perfecting forever all that believe on him. And that includes me. And then
I see, thirdly, when I take the Lord's table, the third way that
I try to view Christ in my heart, in my mind, not only as the eternal
surety, not only as the once-for-all sacrifice, but I view Him where
He is right now, Hebrews 7.25. Wherefore, He is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing He
ever living. to make intercession for them.
We're not worshiping a dead Christ. That's the reason that we don't
have any crucifixes around here, because Christ isn't on the cross.
Christ is at the right hand of the Father. He reigns. He is seated. He is victorious. He's at the right hand of the
Heavenly Father. That's the reason we don't have
any pictures of Christ hanging on the cross. He's not dead.
He ever lived. And he makes intercession for
us. And as I come fumbling and stumbling and falling to this
table, and far from perfect, fallible, foolish, I know that
at the right hand of God I have a high priest that makes even
my poorest effort acceptable to the Father. In him. In him. Now let's look, secondly, at
some important facts about the Lord's table. First of all, and
I know, I know that the religious nature of man likes complicated
things. More the more you can complicate
anything. If we could have a bunch of candles
burning up here and turn the lights down low and have a spotlight
on me, and if I could have on a black robe with a whole lot
of kissel and tassel and silk and satin up here and some kind
of headdress, and I could go through a lot of mumbo-jumbo.
The natural man makes, that makes him feel good. Real religious,
you know. But this is a simple ceremony.
The Lord Jesus entered the upper room with his disciples around
a rough table, and he had a loaf of bread there and a glass of
wine, and he broke the bread and handed it to the disciples
and said, Take, eat, this is my body, broken for you, this
do in remembrance of me. And after that he took the cup
and he blessed it and he said, Drink ye all of it, this is my
blood, shed for the remission of your sins. There wasn't any
spotlights or candles or hocus-pocus, and when we complicate this simple
service, we destroy it. And we deny what it represents.
The gospel of Christ is uncomplicated and it's simple. The gospel of
Christ needs none of man's paraphernalia to make it effectual. It's just
plain old gospel, broken body and shed blood. Secondly, it's
universal. It's not sectarian. Christ said
to his disciples, drink ye all of it. Peter comes to the table. He will very shortly deny his
Lord, but he's at the table. Thomas comes to the table. He
will very shortly swear that he doesn't believe Christ rose
from the dead, and demand a sign, but he's at the table. The other
disciples are there, and they too will be offended because
of him, and flee. But they're there. This table's
not for the righteous only, it's not for the elders only, it's
not for the deacons only, it's not for the mature and worthy
only, it's for the believer. It's for the man who can say,
Lord, to whom shall I go? Thou hast the words of life.
It's for the man who can say, we know who you are, With all
of our imperfections and doubts, thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. We have no right to turn any
child away from the Father's table. No child. He may be the black sheep of
the family, but he's a child. He may be the weakest of all
the believers, but he's a child. And you've got no right to take
the stick of discipline and turn away a believer from his Father's
table. I'm not going to do it. You want
to, that's your responsibility. And then this table of the Lord
is a memorial, it's not a sacrament. It has no saving power. This
Christ is received by faith, and the heart that receives Him
knows Him, and the heart that knows Him will remember Him.
Now, last of all, we may come to the table though others are
still forgetful of Him. That's not our responsibility.
Our responsibility is to judge ourselves, not other people.
Our responsibility is to censure ourselves, not other people.
Our responsibility is to remember Christ ourselves. Drink ye all
of it, and this do in remembrance of me. And then we may come to
the table, though weak and unworthy, and scarcely able to do anything
but remember Him. And then we may come. We may
come. Think of it. We may come. What
a blessing. Blessed people to be permitted
to come to the table of the Lord. Now, if you're sitting here tonight
and I ask you this question, are you saved? Yes, sir. Are
you a child of God? Yes, sir. Did Christ die for
your sins? Yes, sir. Is He your only hope
and only confidence? Yes, sir. Have you confessed
to him publicly? I certainly have. Are you going
to take the bread and the wine? Well, I don't know. Boy, I know
whether I'm going to take it or not. I feel blessed of all
people on the face of the earth to have the privilege of coming
to the Lord's table. Choice people, blessed people,
honored people. And this is not a funeral, this
is a feast. This is a memorial. Don't come
to the table of the Lord burdened with regrets. Don't come to the
table of the Lord burdened with rebukes. Don't come to the table
of the Lord burdened with resolves. Come to the table of the Lord
with a blessed memory. This is a time to give thanks.
Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making
me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. Brother Lewis, you
come, if you will, and lead us in a song. Did you have one already
selected? Okay, I have that, too, in mind.
That's number 221. Number 221. We'll stand together,
and let's sing all three stanzas of 221. Will you stand with me? Some thank the Lord.