We have new members in our congregation
here to observe the Lord's Table with us this evening and visitors. And I don't think that I've mentioned
in a long time where these linens under the the elements
and covering the elements where they came from. But they have
a special meaning to me and to many of you. During the many trips to Mexico,
visit with Brother Walter Groover and Betty, it's been my privilege
to go out to literally hundreds of services through the years.
preacher schools, preaching services, in the little church buildings,
out in people's yards, under some branches on sticks. And we were in a little village
up way below called Tella, where Moximo was pastor. And we had
preaching service, and then we observed the Lord's table. They love Christ there, and they're
saved and redeemed. We are saved and redeemed as
they are. We love Christ as they do. Paul reversed that when he
talked about the Gentiles. He said, we'll be saved like
they're saved. Not they're saved like we're
saved. They observed the Lord's table. And they had linen, beautiful
white linen, exactly like these. The one underneath and the one
on top with the bread and the wine and the writings in reference
to observing the table in memory of our Lord. And in that setting,
everything is so Simple. Building simple. Concrete floors. But they make it beautiful. They
put flowers and they hang curtains on the windows. They make the
Lord's house and the place where they worship as beautiful as
they can and as comfortable. And I saw these linens, just
like these, on the table. And I knew that somebody in the
church had worked long and hard to make those, sew those by hand. And I asked Brother Walter who
made them. He said, Victoria. Kevin, you
remember Victoria? Beautiful. Mexican lady. So lovely. Loved Christ. Loved
the gospel. Faithful. Years and years and
years and years. Baked us a cake one time when
we were down there. Brought it to church. But she
made those by hand, and I said, and that's the way to get things,
you know, I didn't mean it that way at all, I said, oh, I'd love
to have some of those for 13th Street Church. Well, a few months
passed, and Victoria made us a set of these linens for the
Lord's table. I don't know how many years,
10, 12, 15 years we've had these linens. Well, she got cancer
about four or five years ago and just wasted away, just so
sick and so thin and finally died with cancer. And the Lord's
table is very special to me and everything about it, and your
gathering here and our being together and our Lord the host. eating the bread, drinking the
wine in his memory, but then also think of believers, brethren,
sisters all over the world, and this kind of brings them to me,
as we observe in this table, that his sheep and his people
are in all countries, and that which unites us is him whom we
believe, and his precious blood and his body which is broken
for us. And so as we gather here tonight
to observe the Lord's table, God's people everywhere are gathering
in the same name, taking the same bread and the same wine
for the same purpose, on the same foundation with the same
hope and the same assurance and confidence in Him whom we love. And our Lord commanded us to
gather around this table, and as far
as I can determine from the scriptures, in years of looking into the
word of God and preaching the gospel, as far as I can tell,
our Lord only left his church these two ordinances. As far
as I can determine from his words and from the writings of the
apostles and the that only two ordinances were given to the
church to be observed until he comes, and that is baptism at
the Lord's table. Our Lord commanded the disciples
when he gathered them together before he went back to the Father,
he said, All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye
therefore. This is a command. You go and
preach the gospel and make disciples. And you baptize them. That's
a command. You baptize them in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then Brother
Ronnie was reading this Luke 22. Turn over there with me.
And our Lord took the bread and the cup in verse 17 of Luke 22. And He took the cup and He gave
thanks and He said, Divide it among yourselves, for I say unto
you, I will not eat of the fruit of the vine, I will not drink
of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.'
And he took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to
them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. This
do, this do, this do in remembrance of me." And Paul, the apostle
in 1 Corinthians 11, said, What the Lord gave me, what I received
of Him, I deliver to you. At the same night in which he
was betrayed, he took bread and gave thanks and break it and
said, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you
show the Lord's death till he comes. So there are two ordinances,
baptism and the Lord's table commanded of our Lord. Now the
religious world and church organizations today have many religious ceremonies
and holy days which they observe. which I cannot find in the scriptures. I cannot find any command to
do this, these ceremonies and ordinances which they have, which
they carry on in the name of religion, cannot be found in
the scriptures, cannot be found in the epistles. Like, for example,
Christmas, and getting together once a year and celebrating the
the birth, the Lord's birth as it's being done. I don't find
the Lord commanding us to do that anywhere in scripture. And
Easter, I know the early church rejoiced in the resurrection.
In fact, the Lord's day, the first day of the week is the
day He arose and that's the day that early church met to worship,
to preach the gospel on the day of the resurrection. But it wasn't
a special observance every year which which is moved according
to the moons or something. Sometimes it's in March and sometimes
it's in April. It changes every year, so the
Lord didn't command that. Lent, which is a big celebration,
doing without certain things, fasting once a year, Good Friday,
these things are never mentioned by the apostles in the writings
to the early church. I don't find anywhere that these
men, the pastors and other people, took pilgrimages to Jerusalem
to visit the gravesite, and Bethlehem's manger, and Golgotha's hill. I don't find that they ever,
they went away from Jerusalem rather than going to Jerusalem.
They didn't. And keeping the seventh-day Sabbath?
Nowhere. are we commanded in the New Testament
to keep the Sabbath, the seventh-day Sabbath. And the wearing or displaying
of crosses. You can read every epistle over
and over and over again and you'll never get any slight indication
that any of these people wore any type of identifying garb
to designate them as believers and
Christians. However, I do find, I do find
constantly, constantly the observance of baptism. For example, turn
to Acts chapter 2. This was after our Lord arose
from the grave, appeared to the disciples for 40 days, ascended
back to heaven, and here Peter preached the first message after
that, Pentecost, And it says in verse 38, Then Peter said
to them, the people that heard him, and inquired as to what
they should do, he said, You repent and be baptized. You're
commanded to repent and to be baptized, every one of you, without
exception, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you and to your children, and to all that are far off,
even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many
other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Deliver yourselves
from this perverse, crooked generation. Then, listen, they that gladly
received his word were baptized. And the same day there was added
unto them about three thousand souls, listen, And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread. What breaking of bread? Our Lord
took the bread, gave thanks and broke it and said, take eat,
this is my body given for you. The breaking of bread is they
met to observe the Lord's table. They were baptized and observed
the Lord's table. Now, turn to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. You know the many examples of
baptism throughout the book of Acts, but here in Acts 20, verse
7. And upon the first day of the week, that's the day of his
resurrection, when the disciples came together to break bread,
to observe the Lord's table, to remember his death, Paul preached
to them. They came together that day especially
to break bread. And then Paul preached to him,
ready to depart on the morrow and continue his speech, and
continued his speech until midnight. And then I quoted, you turn to
1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 11, and this is where I'll take
the title of my message tonight, 1 Corinthians 11. It says here,
in verse In verse 26, Paul's instructions, I quoted the earlier
verses where Paul instructed them about observing the table.
Then he says in verse 26, as often as you eat this bread and
drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until He comes. I'm calling this message showing
His death until He comes. Now before the men distribute
the elements, I want to talk to you about this blessed supper.
And it's like I said to someone today, there's no better worship service
than to worship around the table of the Lord together. No more
meaningful service. And I want to talk to you about
what this supper means to me, and to you, and to every believer. And you can jot these things
down if you'd like to. I think they're very important.
The first table marking the end of the Passover and the beginning
of the Lord's Table was in Luke 22, which was just read to us
by Brother Traban. And that first table gives us
really all we need to know about the observance of the Lord's
Table, how to observe it. and the meaning. First, those
present were all believers. Those present were all believers. They were his disciples, men
who believed the gospel. He said to them, to those who
knew him and who loved him, this do in remembrance of me. When
he gave them the bread and the wine, they'd drink, eat it and
drink and this do in remembrance of me." One cannot remember what
he doesn't know. One cannot remember what he hasn't
experienced. And so Paul says, how does he
hedge the table about? He says, let a man examine himself,
and so let him eat. Not leave it to me to examine
people, or you to examine one another, but let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat. And this examination is to look
into our minds and determine if we know Him. Paul said, I
know whom I have believed. I know Him. I want to know Him
better, but I do know Him. I know whom I have believed.
I know who He is, whence He came, what He did, and where He is
now. I know it. It's to examine our hearts. Do
we love Him? I inquired my mind, do you know
who it is? This Jesus of Nazareth? Yes. Do you love him? I can say
with the Apostle Peter, Lord, you know I love you. Not like
I ought to, not like I want to, not like I will someday, but
I do love you. And you know that. It's to examine
my faith. Do I believe him? Do I believe
the account which God gives concerning His Son? Do I believe His Word?
Like Abraham of old, I believe God. Oh, I say with a centurion,
Lord, help thou mine unbelief. But I do believe that Jesus is
the Christ. I believe. It's to examine my
soul. Do I trust Him? Have I, as Paul
said, committed my all? that I am and have and hope to
be to him. All my trust, Wesley wrote, on
thee is stated. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of thy wing. To whom shall I go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. So I examine myself again. My mind, I know who He is. My heart, I do nothing. My faith,
only in Him. I believe God. My soul, I've
committed to Him. I trust Him. Believers. And another thing
about these believers, no one was appointed to officiate over
them. was not designated to officiate
at this table. The Lord's the host. It says
here in verse 14 of chapter 22, and when the hour was come, he
sat down and the twelve apostles with him. There was no one standing
there in a gaudy robe, elevated above the others, but the Lord
sat with them. He was the host. He prepared
the table. He himself is the bread. And
he himself is the wine, and he does the serving. He said, I
am among you as he that serveth. He serveth. It's no grand function. They weren't on their knees in
front of him. They were sitting at the table
with him. It was no complicated ceremony. It was a common meal,
a common everyday meal, a table with bread and wine. simple elements,
and they sat about, lovers of Christ and he of them, and they
ate the bread and the wine. And this table, like I told you
when I mentioned the linen, can be observed anywhere, in a jungle, in a tabernacle, in a home, in
a backyard, just as long as you have Believers. Bread and wine. And these two simple elements
tell us a whole lot. As I say, everything we need
to know is right here. These two simple elements. Unleavened
bread and wine. Very simple. In some of the foreign
countries where I've been, in Spain, in France, in Mexico,
Everybody has bread, and most of those countries, wine. Fruit
of the vine, where the grapes are squeezed out and make their
homemade wine and their unleavened bread. But these two elements
powerfully preach. The bread and the wine, first
of all, set forth his incarnation. He said, this is my body, this
is my blood. But God is spirit. God is Spirit. God doesn't have a body and blood. God is Spirit. But the Lord Jesus
Christ, our God, became a man. In the fullness of time, God
sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were born under the law. And He became a man. The
Word was made flesh, this is my body, and blood. Secondly, this unleavened bread,
and to me, I'm particular about it, and wine, represents His
holiness. Common, ordinary bread cannot,
to me, represent His holiness because it was corrupt and spoiled. But this bread has no leaven.
Leaven is a type of evil. And Christ, my Lord, when He
took flesh, like our flesh, but it was different, it was without
sin. It was without sin. He was perfect. Perfect. His blood had no sin. His body had no sin. Great juice
rocks and corrupts and molds. Wine doesn't. Let it sit for
days and months and years. And the unleavened bread the
same. It pictures my Lord's holiness. Like me, yes. Numbered with transgressors,
yes, bore our sins, yes, but had none of his own. And this
bread and wine shows his suffering. This bread was made from beautiful
wheat, flowing in the breeze as the breeze blows across the
fields and it's so gorgeous. But in comes the sire, cuts it
down, takes it to the mill, grinds it up, puts it in the oven and
bakes it. Brings it out and breaks it.
His body was broken. His body was crushed. His body
suffered. His body was baked in the fires
of God's wrath. This is my body. You gotta break
it. And the wine? The wine is literally
stalked from the grapes. literally squeezed out of the
grapes as it flows away from the beautiful grape. Separated from the wine and the
bread is separated. He gave them first this and then
that. And when wine and when the body
and the blood are separated, that's death. You separate my
blood from this body, I'm dead. And sin brought death. And all
of this teaches me. It's such a beautiful picture
of my Lord's incarnation, His holiness, His suffering, and
His substitution. He gave them the bread and said,
this is broken for you. That's the attitude for you,
in your stead, so that you won't be broken. This bread is shed
for you. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
a chastisement of our peace. On Him by stripes I'm healed. And then the bread and the wine
is eaten. It's received in me. In me. And when I take this bread
and this wine and eat it and drink it, it's showing Christ
in you is the hope of glory. Christ on the cross is our substitute
and sacrifice, but Christ in you is the life of God. He is
the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the life must
be received. He said, He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life and shall never die. And then I note this statement
here that he made. This one statement is the very
key. the very key to the meaning of
this table. This do in remembrance of me. This do, simply, the bread and
the wine. Don't make it a gaudy grand ceremony,
but this simply do, the bread and the wine. Take the bread,
break it, give thanks, break it, eat it, the wine, drink it,
in remembrance of me. In remembrance It's not do this
in order to be saved. He didn't say that. It's not
a saving ordinance. It's not a sacrament. He didn't
say this do in order to have your sins forgiven. He said in
remembrance. He didn't say this do in order
to unite the church in harmony or discipline the church. He
didn't give it for that reason. He didn't say this do in order
to continue the sacrifice. To continue the sacrifice, it
doesn't have to be continued, it's finished! Not a mass, it's a memory. He didn't say, do this in order
to make people feel religious. He said, do this in remembrance
of me. Alright? What do I remember? How do I remember Christ? When
I take this supper, I remember him as my substitute, my representative,
my redeemer. By one man, sin entered this
world and death by sin. So death passed upon all men.
As an atom I die in Christ, my substitute, my representative,
I'm made alive. By one man's disobedience, I
was made a sinner. By another man's obedience, I
was made righteous. I remember him, my substitute.
Secondly, I remember him as my sacrifice, my one sin offering. By one offering, he perfected
forever this center and all these centers out here. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. For he hath made him to be sin
for us. He knew no sin. that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He's my sin offering,
my sacrifice, my righteousness, my wisdom, my sanctification,
my redemption. I remember him as my high priest,
who went not into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven
himself, not with the blood of animals, but with his own precious
blood, and obtained not a temporary forgiveness, but eternal redemption. I remember him as my mediator,
for John said, when we sin, we have a mediator with God, Jesus
Christ, the righteous, whoever lives to make intercession for
us. And I remember him with thanksgiving. Would you listen to something
very important here? You come to Christ for salvation. Just like you come to this table.
Not anybody here brought anything. It's already prepared. Not anybody
here brought anything. You didn't even bring it. It's
already prepared. When I come to Christ, I come
in my hands, no price I bring. I contribute nothing to this
table, to this redemption, to this salvation, to this sacrifice.
Nothing. but an appetite. All the fitness
he requires is to feel your need of him. You brought nothing.
Secondly, in a moment you received this bread and wine inwardly.
It was not sprinkled on you. It was not held by you. It was
not worn on you. It was received in you. That's
the way you receive him. In here. In here. Freely. Inwardly. Watch it now. Personally. I'll take this bread and wine,
but not for you. You'll take it, but not for me. You'll take
it, but not for her. And she'll take it, but not for
you. Personally. I believe The Lord is my shepherd. I don't know, Joshua says, about
everybody else, but it's for me. My house. We belong to Him. And that's
the way you come to Christ. You say, well, how does a man
save? Just like you come to this table. You don't bring anything. You receive Him inwardly. And
you've got to receive Him. Now, He'll give you the grace
and the will and the desire. He serves. But Lord, I believe. I believe. And I'd like for my
every friend I have to know Him, to love Him, to believe Him.
But I cannot believe for them. Nor can they for me. It's got
to be personal. In a moment to me it will pass
the bread and the wine. That's between you and Him. And
I know preachers and churches have quibbled for years about
who should be there and who shouldn't. Frankly, I don't waste my time
worried about that. I'm here. You're here. And He's here. And I know Him
and love Him and believe Him and trust Him. Do you? Then take
and eat. This is my body broken for you.
blood shed for you. And then we remember him how?
We remember him as our substitute, our sacrifice, our mediator,
our great high priest with thanksgiving. And listen, we remember him expectantly
till he comes. He's coming back. He said, I
go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again. Now you gather with other believers
around this table, and you take this bread, and bless it, and
break it, and eat it. You. And you take this wine,
and bless it, and drink it. It's my body, my blood, broken
and shed for you. And you do it, till I come. How long we gonna do it? Till
he comes. How often? As often as you do. Till he comes.
Till he comes. And you do show! You show the
Lord's death, show it to whom? To God? To myself? To my brethren? To my children? Lord, at thy table, I behold
the wonders of thy grace. But most of all, I'm thankful
that I find a welcome in this place. I that am defiled with
sin, a rebel was I to God. I crucified His Son and trampled
on His blood. What strange, amazing grace is
this that such a man finds room. My Savior takes me by the hand.
My Lord bids me to come. And Lord, had I ten thousand
hearts, I'd give them all to Thee. If I had ten thousand tongues,
they'd join. in the harmony, my Lord and my
Savior.