We are gathered here this evening to observe the Lord's table. This supper was commanded by
our Master in the book of Luke, chapter
22, which we'll read in a few moments. And this supper was taught was
taught to the early Church by the Apostle Paul, who was the
Lord's apostle to the Gentiles. The Lord's Table, you see, is
really one of only two ordinances which were given to the Church
to observe. The Lord's Table is one of only
two ordinances. Now we have the Old Testament,
which is the gospel promised, the gospel given in pattern and
picture and type, prophecy and so forth, all the way through
the Old Testament. And then you have Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John, which are the accounts of the Lord's personal
ministry here on this earth. wrote inspired by the Holy Spirit
and set forth our Lord Jesus Christ as the King of the Jews.
And Mark wrote of the life of our Master, His miracles, His
words, His works, and set Him forth as the Servant. And Luke wrote the life and times
of our Lord and set Him forth mainly as the Son of Man. John
the Son of God. Now, in the book of Acts, you
have the beginning of the ministry of the apostles. How shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation which was spoken first
by our Lord, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then confirmed
by them that heard him? We have the formation of the
church, churches as we know them, the early ministry of the disciples,
the going out of the people ministering the gospel, and so forth. And
then begins the epistles on which I've written these commentaries,
Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Galatians, and Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and so forth, all the way through
to the book of Jude. And these epistles were written
by Paul and James and John and Peter and Jude and others who
were inspired of the Holy Spirit to instruct the churches, instruct
the churches in the preaching of the gospel, the ministry of
the word, and how to properly conduct ourselves in the house
of God. Instructions about husbands and
wives and children and employers and employees and servants and
masters and going to law and so forth and so on. All of these
things are instructed in these epistles. Now, I've read these epistles
carefully. I've read them not only verse
by verse, literally word by word and comma by comma, and searched
and inquired and diligently studied. And most of the observances that
are carried on traditions, ceremonies, and observances that the religious
world is so interested in today, I can't even find at all in these
epistles. I can't even find it. All this hard and fast emphasis
on ten percent, tithing, laying aside the ten percent, you do
this and God will reward you, you do this and God will bless
you. You have to go to the book of Malachi to preach that and
to teach that. You've got to go to the book
of Malachi in the Old Testament under the law and the giving
of the law to promote that and to inspire people to seek God's
blessings on this basis, because it's not in the epistles, not
one time. Did you know that? It's just not there. You'll read.
I started to say I didn't put these books out to put on the
shelf and look at, I put them out to read. And you won't find
that teaching in the epistles. It's not there. None of the apostles
used it. None of them. They didn't inspire
people this way. They didn't promote holiness
this way. They didn't promote obedience this way. Not by the
whip of the law, or not by the promise of reward, and not by
the coercing people to give a certain percentage. It's just not there.
And then all these different ceremonies. I just used that
to start into this Christmas. celebration of the birth of Christ. It's just not there. The early
church did not carry on this celebration and this holiday,
had no part in it. Just didn't do it. Easter. And the amazing thing is this,
that it changes every year, sometimes in March, sometimes in April,
sometimes in May, so it can't be the day Christ arose. Actually,
the day He arose is the first day of the week. That's Sunday.
And the disciples met together on the first day of the week
to break bread, and Paul preached to them. It's just not there. And these
sunrise services, when everybody runs out, you know, and puts
on their Easter corsage, and all their finery, and all their
churches get together and go to the football stadium, watch
the sun come up, and start singing, He Arose. The early church didn't
do things like that. It's just not there. There's
not even a hint of such a thing. I need my hand. Not a hint. And we're not commanded to observe
these ceremonies and these ordinances. Good Friday. I can't find anywhere. You know, it seems to me if the
church is supposed to set aside a day called Good Friday and
go through some commotions on it, it'd be somewhere in the
Word of God. Just somewhere in the Word of God. Because the
Word of God is our only rule of faith and practice. Is that
not right? was just not there, not a word
there, nothing there about observing Good Friday. Actually, there's
a whole controversy going on about whether Christ was crucified
on Friday or whether he was crucified on Thursday or Wednesday, having
laid in the grain three days and three nights. One fellow's
written a whole book on it, challenged me to disprove it. I don't have
time to try to disprove it because I'm rather not interested in
Good Friday. Not the least bit. I'm interested in the fact he
died. Not so much when, but the fact he did. And the fact he
arose, not so much what time of day, but he did. He did. And then left. I don't want to make fun of these
holidays, but what I'm trying to say is they're not in the
Word of God. It's just not there. It's just, please, it isn't there. There's no commandment, instruction,
or example having to do with any of these things. Sunday Masses. Continuing the sacrifices of
Christ, Sunday after Sunday. The word Mass is not in the New
Testament. It's just not there. Pilgrimage
to Jerusalem. Had a dear friend ask me not
too long ago, have you ever been to Jerusalem? I said, no sir.
Been a lot of places, but never been to Jerusalem. Well, have
you ever really wanted to? I said, no sir. I really haven't. Oh, it'd do wonders for your
ministry. I said, tell me what it could do for my ministry.
You see, there's nothing holy about that place at all. And
I don't find any of the apostles I don't find any of the people
in the churches of Thessalonica and Galatia and these other places
getting together tours of Jerusalem. They stayed out of that place
because they're killing them over there. There's nothing holy about
it. There's nothing that it can do
for you. I'll tell you what it can do for you. It can make an
idolater out of you real quickly. You get over there and start
dipping water out of the River Jordan, believe me, I'm like old Naaman. The waters of the Ohio are better
than the waters of Jordan. They chloridate them or something,
you know, make it fit to drink. But believe me, don't go over
there. Don't waste your time. It's not
in the Word of God. It's not pilgrimages to... See,
our Lord is everywhere. Our Lord dwells in the hearts
of His people. He doesn't dwell in particular lands. He doesn't
dwell in houses made with hands. He dwells in the hearts of His
people. And He's here, right here. Don't go to Jerusalem and
see God. There's nothing authentic over there. The Lord would not
permit those things to continue. They're nothing but idolatrous
shrines, is what they are, and people are making money on them.
But it will do you more harm than good, I guarantee you. Also, the building and wearing
of crosses is nowhere in the epistles. Nowhere in the epistles. There isn't any kind of sign
used in the epistles or discussed in the early churches about crosses,
wearing of them, putting them up, or anything else. It's just
not there. These are things we've added.
These are things that we've become We become slaves of these religious
visual aids, and what you can't find in the scriptures, you better
leave alone. If they speak not according to
the word, it's because there's no dawn in them, no light in
them. And I just wouldn't, if I were you, I wouldn't wear a
cross, I wouldn't carry a cross, I wouldn't put one on this building
anywhere, I just wouldn't do it because it's not in the scriptures.
You see, actually, when I preach the cross, I'm not preaching
something made of wood. I'm preaching justification by
the grace of God through the sacrifice of His Son. We're preaching
substitution. That's the cross. That's the
preaching of the cross. It's the cross of Christ. It's
the Christ of the cross that we're preaching. It's not the
cross of the Christ we're preaching. It's the Christ of the cross. And I know that there are some
denominations in religions today that make much of the cross,
and believe me, I think it's a substitute for the person. Really, the more you have in
your heart of Christ, the less visual aids you require. And
the more visual aids and aids and atmosphere and reminders
that you need, the less of the person you have. I don't find anywhere in the
New Testament, anywhere in the epistles, any keeping of a seven-day
Sabbath. I know there's seven-day Adventist
and there's seven-day Baptist now. Did you know there's seven-day
Baptist? A friend of mine went into the seven-day Baptist not
long ago and wrote me a whole lot of stuff about how I needed
to look into the observance of the seventh day. The early church
didn't do it. There's nothing in the twenty-one
epistles about the observance of a seventh day. It's not there. The church didn't assemble on
the Sabbath day. Nothing in the Word of God about
those things. However, I do find, in the New Testament, I do find
two ordinances. I do find two ordinances, and
I don't call them ceremonies, I call them ordinances, which
our Lord gave to the church, and which the early church practiced.
Turn to Matthew 28. Matthew chapter 28. If you look first at verse 18
of Matthew 28, listen to this. Matthew 28, 18. Now this is after
the Lord had been crucified, buried, and risen again. And I'm going to deal with this
as simply as I can. I want to be simple in my preaching. If you think that I'm too simple,
let me know and I'll try to get a little more simple. Because
we need to, that's right. In Matthew 28 verse 18, And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the world. Our Lord commanded us to be baptized. Is that not right? That's an
act, that's an ordinance, that's an observance. That's something
that we do in His name, and He commanded it. He commanded it. And the early church practiced
it. If you'll turn to the book of Acts, chapter 2. Acts, the
second chapter. Acts, the second chapter. Here's the first message the
Apostle Peter preached. on this Feast of Pentecost, and
it says in verse 36, Acts 2.36, Peter said, Therefore let all
the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they
heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and they said
to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized. And why did he tell them that?
His Lord told him to tell them that. In the book of Mark, he
said, Preach the gospel to every creature he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He told them what his Lord told
him to tell them. Repent and be baptized. In the
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall
receive the Holy Ghost. But the promise is unto you and
to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call." And with many other words did
he testify and exhort, saying, deliver yourselves out of this
untoward generation, this perverse religious generation. Get out
of them. Come out from among them. Find out what the Word
says. Deliver yourself from this perverse generation of religious
people. That's what he's talking about.
That's exactly what he's saying. Now notice both of these ordinances
given by the Lord have to do with his death, not his birth,
not even resurrection, but his death. Baptism signifies his
resurrection, his death, his burial, and his resurrection.
Now turn to Luke chapter 22, Luke 22 specifically, and you'll
find, and you know the strange thing, the strangest thing? The churches of today, the religious
organizations, would just go hogwild over Christmas, Easter,
Lent, Good Friday, Sunrise Services, Sabbath, all these things. But
these two ordinances are strangely neglected, strangely ignored. They're the only two the Lord
gave us. In Luke chapter 22, it says, beginning with verse
14, And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles
with him. And he said to them, with desire,
I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For
I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be
fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave
thanks, and said, Take this, take this now, and divide it
among yourselves. Now watch this. You divide it
among yourselves. Well, bring out something to
mend on it. For I say unto you, 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, or broken for you, this
do. Do this now, do this in remembrance
of me. Likewise also the cup, after
supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which
is shed for you. The early church practiced this.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Corinthian church, passes
right on to them what the Lord gave to him. What the Lord gave
to him and to the other apostles. Verse 23, 1 Corinthians 11. For he said, I have received
of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, the church.
I got it from Christ and passed it on to 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." Now watch here. Our Lord's body was sitting there
in the body with them. He gave them the bread. The bread
was not literally his body. His body was right here. Here
was the bread symbolic of his body. The breaking of it symbolic
of the bruising and breaking of his body. His body was still
sitting there. They were not eating his body,
they were eating bread, which was symbolic of his body. They
would come up and take a bite out of him if they wanted to
eat his body. It was sitting right there. But this was the
bread. You see what I'm saying? It doesn't actually become the
body of Christ. You don't take into yourself
the body of Christ in that fashion. You take into yourself the flesh
and blood of Christ by faith, not by literal chewing. A lot
of people would like to make it that way. They'd like you
to fix them up spiritually and physically and eternally by handing
them a wafer dipped in some wine. That's a real shortcut to heaven,
isn't it? Chewing it up that way instead of believing on Him,
instead of by faith receiving Him. That's the easier way there.
This is the God-given way by faith. This is my body, which
is broken. Now watch this. This do. This
do. Same thing the Lord said, Paul
said, This do. Not something else, don't add
anything to it. This do. This do. Don't make
a possession on praying around the church. Don't appoint one
of the fellows above the other and put a silly outfit on him,
have him doing something. The disciples weren't kneeling
in front of him, and he wasn't dipping it, putting it on their
tongue. He handed it to them and said to them, divide it.
You divide it. There wasn't a boss there, a
pope there, a cardinal there, a priest there, a presider there.
They were all together. Christ was the host. You do this. Why are you doing
something else? I want to go into some of these places where
they're observing what they call sacrament and communion. Why
are you doing this? He didn't say, do this. He said,
this do. And when he had given thanks,
he'd break that bread and said, take eat. This is my body. All
right, verse 25. After the same manner, also he
took the cup. And when he had supped, saying,
this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do ye on the
first Monday of the first quarter of each?" No. Every Sunday morning?"
No. Well, on the middle Wednesday
of the second quarter of every?" No. This do as often as you do
it. There ain't no rules. I don't know why we're that way.
I guess it's just that old Adamic nature that makes us want to
get into molds and patterns and do things ordered by headquarters. This is the time to do it. No,
there is no set time. Nowhere in here. Nowhere. As oft as you do it. Not as a fellowship supper. in
remembrance of me." Now, this first table of the
Lord here in Luke 22, and I would advise you to make a careful
study of those very brief verses there, but this first table of
the Lord gives us all we need to know about the observance
of the Lord's table. In the first place, those who
were present were believers. They were believers. Now, you'll
have to handle this business of the way you want to handle
it. But these who were present were
believers. And you can't, whether Judas
was there or wasn't there, change the fact that these were believers.
They were believers. They knew Christ. They loved
Christ. They belonged to Christ. They were chosen by Christ and
brought to Him by faith. Everybody who came to this table
was a believer. Everybody who ate that bread
and drank that wine was a believer, is a child of God. Those only
ones got any business taking the bread and the wine. This
is not to save people. This is a memorial table for
people who are saved. Paul said, Let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat. Not let the preacher examine.
It's not my business. I don't know who's saved and
who's not saved. I don't know the tariffs from the wheat. Only
God does. Only God does. And you don't
either. And don't ever invite anybody to or away from the Lord's
table. Let Him invite them, and let
Him excuse them. Don't ever. Just set the table
and say, here's the table, and let them come as they're led
in their heart, and stay away as they're led in their heart.
But don't you start shuffling the cards. You'll make a mistake. You do it every time. You start
making rules about who can come, who can't come, start handing
the bread here and wine there, Watch out. Our Lord will discipline
His church. They're His children. They're
His children, only believers. So let a man examine himself
if he discerns the... And he said, this do in remembrance
of me. You can't remember one whom you do not know. And I'm
not talking about knowing him in doctrine, I'm talking about
knowing him in heart. He said, as oft as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you show the Lord's dare. You show the
Lord's death. You show it to God, you show
it to yourself, and you show it to others. But you're demonstrating
when you take that broken bread and eat it, and when you take
that wine and drink it, you're showing, you're showing how He
suffered and bled and died for you. You're saying, God, this
is my hope, this is my foundation, this is my refuge, this is my
trust, this is all my salvation, all my desire. It's Christ alone.
That's it. A man doesn't dare be a hypocrite
about that. You just wouldn't play that game, would you? Under
God, I wouldn't play that game. Just leave it alone, you know,
if you can't talk that way. Just leave it alone. Just don't
fool with it. Just stand on the sideline and
look, but don't do that. The blood of Christ in the body
of his dear son is too holy for us to tamper with. But come,
if there's a genuine faith and a genuine trust and a genuine
leaning on Christ, come! It didn't say, let a man examine
himself and go away. It said, let him examine himself
and eat. You say, well, I'm not worthy. That's when you are worthy. If you thought you were worthy,
I'd warn you against taking it. Well, there's sin in my life.
Well, if you ever come to the conclusion it's not, I'd say
stay away. Now, I'm not talking about open rebellion
now. You know what I'm talking about.
And what I said a while ago, Peter was not appointed to serve
the table. No man was elevated over another. The Lord is the host, and they
observed the table at a common meal. There was no grand function. There was no complicated ceremony.
All these disciples just gathered around their Lord, and he gave
them the elements of the table. He said, divide it among yourselves.
Divide it among yourselves. And you know, there were two
simple elements. Two simple elements used, and
that's the unleavened bread. You say, how do you know it's
unleavened? They were taking the Passover, and when the Passover
was observed, Cecil, there was no leaven in the house. Well,
there'd not be. Read the book of Exodus. Isn't
that right? There'd not be any leaven in
the house. Leaven is evil. There'd not be any leaven in
the house. God said, get all the leaven out. And so this bread
our Lord break and handed to them was unleavened bread. And
that unleavened bread reveals our Lord's holiness without sin. Absolutely without sin. Our Lord
had no sin. He did no sin. There was no sin
in Him. And when it's, it is available. I tell you, if the
Jews could have unleavened bread in the wilderness, we could have
it in Iceland, couldn't we? Seems like he could. Can't eat
a bread at all, just leave the yeast there. Leave it out. Isn't that what it is? And bake
it. Too much trouble. He went to
a lot of trouble to save your soul. Well, that's just, you
know, crackers and grape juice. Well, you go ahead and fool with
it. Just go ahead. I'll tell you.
Our Lord gives us specific instructions about the table. And with a little
effort, it can be done. And He said, take unleavened
bread. And that unleavened bread's His holiness. And the wine is
purified. It's fermented. It's without
leaven. It's without bacteria. It's without
decay. You can just set it down and
it lasts however long, forever, I guess. hundred years. Pictures
of his holiness. I wouldn't take the Lord's table
any other way. Because that's what it says here in this book. People say, well, the wine the
Lord served was grape juice. It wasn't no such thing. It's
wine. He wasn't a grape juice bebber.
He was a wine bebber. You don't take a little grape
juice for your stomach's sake. And Paul told Timothy that the
preacher wasn't to be given too much wine. Why? If it's grape
juice, let the old boy drink all he wants. It's amazing to me that simple-minded
religious people can be swayed so easily just
away from God, to defend principles that aren't worth defending. The unleavened bread and the
wine reveals the holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ, his perfection. And then the bread is broken.
His body was broken, such is suffering. And the wine, how
do you get wine? You squeeze the grape, and the
wine pours out. Trotted, the winepress, you trotted
under feet. He walked the winepress of God's
wrath alone. And he was the one that was bruised
and beaten and shed his blood. And then the bread and the wine
are separated. We're not supposed to dip the
bread in the wine and put it back together. Our Lord died
and shed his blood. His blood was separated. But
what happens when blood leaves the body? Death. What's the wages
of sin? Death. What'd our Lord do for
us? Died for us. And we take the bread, we take
the wine separately. because his blood was separated
from his body in death. You see, it's... And then the bread and the wine
are taken within us. Turn to John chapter 6. That's
to set forth his union with us, the union of Christ with his
people. See, salvation is not a... Salvation is just not an
outward affiliation. Salvation is not just agreement
and joining forces with certain doctrines and fighting like crusaders
of old, you know. Salvation is the Lord living
within, personally, individually, the Lord living within, the Lord
Jesus Christ. our Incarnate Lord, our Crucified
Lord, our Risen, Ascended, Enthroned Lord, and us, we're one as the
Father and the Son of One. And we take Him into our bodies
in John 6, 48. Listen. John 6, 48. I am the
bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and the dead, but this is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
I'm the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he'll live forever. And that bread that
I give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. You
see, that's another thing the bread and the wine show is His
incarnation. God is Spirit. If Christ had
not become flesh and lived here as a man, they wouldn't have
taken material bread and wine to illustrate and represent Him. It'd have to have been Spirit.
God is Spirit. But when you take actual bread
and actual wine, you're saying, here is a Lord who became flesh
and blood, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones. Can be touched, handled, and
so forth. He became a man. And so we take
into our bodies And he said in verse 53, Jesus said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Now, what
we're doing tonight, we're not eating his flesh and drinking
his blood here. We're showing here that we have eaten his flesh
and drunk his blood. Spiritually, we have received
Christ. We have embraced Christ. We have
laid hold by faith of Christ. And it's not just an acquaintance.
It's not just adjoining a movement, it's Christ lives in me. I'm
crucified, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. And the key statement, if there
is such a thing, in these two accounts of the Lord's table
are these. This do. This do. Don't argue with it. Don't argue
with it. This do. There it is. This too. Our Lord, on the night he was
betrayed, took bread. He took unleavened bread, because
there's no leaven in the house. It's a Passover. And he break
it. He gave thanks and break it.
And he gave it to them and said, divide it among yourselves. This
is my body broken for you. This too. And he took wine. And he blessed it. And he said,
this is my blood shed for you. Drink ye all of it. Every one
of you. Drink it. This is my blood, which
is said to you. Now, let's do. Not this and something
else, not what you think it ought to be done, not if you've got
somebody say, well, I'm an alcoholic in the service. Well, God, you just have to change
your ways. We got problems down here. No,
you change your ways. Leave his like they are. We compromised everything we
got to get along with folks. It's time the church stopped.
This is not a social organization. This is the body of the living
God. Do what he says. Let man do what he will. Do what
God says. He said, this do, and do it in
remembrance of me. You don't do it as a fellowship
supper to bring people into unity. You don't do it as a saving ceremony
to make men well, physically or spiritually. You don't do
it as a mass to provide a perpetual repetition of his death. You
do it in remembrance of me, that's what he said. As often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death.
Not the mystic, mysterious and superstitious, but the fact he
died for me. I remember Him with concentration
of thought. I remember Him with the deepest
gratitude. I remember Him as the only object
of my faith. I remember Him for His eternal
love. I remember Him for all that He did in righteousness,
obedience, and death. I remember Him for all that He's
doing, and I remember Him, bless the Lord, for all that He will
do. based on what he has done. He pleads his blood. Listen,
the broken bread, the blessed cup from which we now are called
to sup, without thy help and grace divine will prove to be
no more than just bread and wine. But come, great master of the
feast, dispense not only bread but thy grace to every guest.
and direct our thoughts out of self to Calvary, and help us,
Lord, to remember Thee. Let us with light and truth be
blessed, that on Thy precious bosom we may rest, and at Thy
supper each may learn Thy blessed body and blood to discern.