Exodus chapter 12, and this will serve us for a
text. It says in verse 25, It shall
come to pass, when ye be come to the land, which the Lord will
give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep
this service. And it shall come to pass when
your children shall say unto you, and this is as the years
have gone by, certainly nineteen hundred and some odd years have
passed since our Lord died on the cross. And your children
shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? Why are you
doing this? What is the meaning of this?
What means the bread? What means the wine in our case?
What means this Lord's table? that you shall say it is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover." What's this got to do with us?
Just hold that passage there and turn to 1 Corinthians 5,
verse 7. purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us." Now let's go back to Exodus
12, that's what it means. Verse 27, when the children say,
What mean ye by this service? that ye shall say, It is the
sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of
the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and
delivered our houses, and the people bowed their head and worshiped.
And the children of Israel went away and did as the Lord had
commanded Moses and Abel, and so did they." Now, I know there's
nothing simple about the worship of the Lord, the gospel of Christ
our Redeemer. It's called a mystery, a profound
mystery. And I know it's impossible for
us to open any man's heart and reveal to him the things that
these things reveal and speak of. But I'm going to set forth
the Lord's table and the observance of the Lord's table as clearly
and plainly and simply as if I were talking to a little child.
And he had come to me like one of the children of the Israelites
and said, Why do you all do this? What
does this mean? Why are the people so solemn?
Why are the people so reverent? Why are the people so interested
in what you're doing. You pass this bread around and
this wine, and everybody says, oh, what a great service, what
a worshipful service we have. The Lord was with us in great
power. What does all of it mean? Well, this is where it started,
Exodus 12. Will you go over there with me, and let's see what we
can find out, just briefly. In Exodus 12, verse 1, and you've
got the background in the other chapter, no need to repeat it.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Abel in the land of Egypt,
saying, This is it, this is the month, the day of deliverance.
This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, and
shall be the first month of the year to you. Now speak ye unto
all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this
month They shall take to them every man a lamb according to
the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. They got a lamb. If the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the soul. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Now, your
lamb shall be not just any lamb. Don't go out there and pick one
that you don't want. and bring it to the Lord. You
go out there and pick a lamb without blemish, the best one. Clean, not crippled. Pick the best lamb without blemish,
without spot. A male lamb of the first year,
one in full health and strength. Not an old one, not an infant,
but one a year old in the full strength of his life. take it
from among the sheep or from the goats, but a male lamb of
the first year, without blemish or spot. And you shall put it
up, keep it up, four days." He did this on the tenth day, on
the fourteenth day of the same month, you keep it up until that
day. Observe it, watch it, look at
it. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall
kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood,
take the blood, and strike it on the two side posts of the
house in which you eat it and which you live, and on the upper
door post of the house wherein you shall eat it. And you shall
eat the flesh in that night, that lamb, roast it with fire,
and eat it with unleavened bread, no leaven, leaven is a type of
evil, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw,
nor sodden it all with water, no mixture, just the lamb roasted
with roast it with fire, his head, his legs, and with the
inner parts thereof. Let nothing remain until the
morning. That which remaineth of it until the morning, burn
it with fire. And ye shall eat of it with your loins girted,
your shoes on your feet, your staff in your hand. Eat it in
haste. This is the Lord's Passover. This is the Passover. And this
is what he's talking about, pass over, a very simple word, what
it refers to. Just exactly when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. When I deal in judgment and wrath
with Egypt, I'll pass over you. I will pass through the land
of Egypt this night, and I will smite all the firstborn of the
land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the princes or
leaders or kings of Egypt, God there, I talk about those God's
own shrines. I talk about the leaders. I'll
execute judgment. I am the Lord. And this blood
will be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And
my friends, I know in our day and in the day of liberals and
so forth that we're trying to do away with the blood in worship,
in preaching, in these things. But this is redemption by blood. God says almost all things are
under the law purged with blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. I've given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your soul. It's the blood that makes an
atonement for the soul. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no forgiveness. And he said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. And the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day
shall be unto you for a memorial, and you shall keep it a feast
to the Lord throughout your generation. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Now go to verse 21. Then Moses
called all the elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out
and take your lamb according to your families, and kill the
Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood
that is in the basin, strike the lintel in two side posts
with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall
go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the Lord
will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he sees the
blood upon the lintel on the two side posts, the Lord will
pass over the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come
in unto your houses to smite you. And ye shall observe this
thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons forever, and
it shall come to pass when ye come to the land, which the Lord
will give you, according as he hath promised, ye shall keep
this service, and it shall come to pass, when your children shall
say to you, What do you mean by this Passover? But ye shall
say unto them, First, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover."
In other words, it's not our doing that's here. This is not
our ordinance, this is not our ceremony, it's the Lord's, it's
the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. Not unto us, not unto us, but
unto his name give glory. The Lord chose us, the Lord set
his love upon us, the Lord made us objects of mercy, the Lord
purposed to deliver us, and the Lord delivered us always by sacrifice,
by sacrifice. And then the second line, he
said, the Lord's Passover, the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover,
he passed over the houses of the children of Israel. He passed
over the houses of his people. of his people, of his nation,
he smoked the Egyptians and he delivered our houses. Now then,
this ordinance was observed, and I don't know, I turn to Luke
22, I don't know whether the Israelites and the Jews kept
this ordinance as it ought to have been kept, as it was prescribed
by God to be kept. I do not know. It may be that
they changed it like men today have changed what we call the
Lord's table. They may have changed the elements,
they may have changed the different things, because I heard one preacher
say, Well, I can observe the Lord's table eating a banana
and a glass of water. I don't know. I don't know how
they carried it on. I don't know whether when they
came here in Luke 22 to observe the Passover, if they strictly
followed that which was laid down in the Word or not. But
I do know that the Passover was kept. The Passover was kept,
and you'll encounter this word many times in the four Gospels
concerning the Passover. But now here in Luke 22, and
I want you to watch when it changes, from the Passover as observed
by Israelites to the large table as observed by his people. And
where it changes over is in the hands of him who is our Passover.
It changes over in the hands of him who is our Lamb. in the
hands of him who fulfilled all that this represented." Now,
Luke 22, and this is why I'm saying, I'm just talking to a
child, he says, Well, why don't you kill a lamb? Why don't you
take the lamb's blood and put it in a basin and roast the body
of the lamb and eat it, roast it with pie and eat it with unleavened
bread and put the blood on the doorpost? Because God's lamb
has been slain. God's lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ
He has been slain. He's our lamb, he's our sacrifice,
he's our sin-offering. You see, young people, actually
this lamb that was slain and roasted with fire, this blood
put on the door, it had no power to forgive sins. These people
weren't forgiven of their sins because they slew a lamb and
put the lamb's blood on the door and ate the lamb's roasted body.
You see, hold Luke 22 a minute and go to Hebrews 10. I listen
to this, and it's very important that you see this. Verse 1 of Hebrews 10, "...for
the law," the Levitical law, the tithes, these things that
Moses and the people of Israel did, "...having a shadow of good
things to come." Now, the shadow is not the person. The shadow
is an outline of the person. It can tell you whether it's
a man or a woman. It can tell you whether it's
a tall person or a short one. It can tell you a lot of the
fat person or a thin person, the shadow can. It's the shadow
of things to come, the law is, not the image of those things.
And it can never, with these sacrifices, those sacrifices
which are offered year after year after year, make the comers
there unto perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? Because if the worshippers, once
forgiven, once sins purged, once sins put away, they'd have no
more conscience of sin. They'd have no more sin. In Christ
there is no sin, you see. But in those sacrifices, every
time they slew a lamb, every time they brought an atonement,
there's a remembrance of sin made again every year. It is
not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away
sin. So that clears it up right there.
It's not possible. You say, well, how were their
sins forgiven, how were they saved? Just the same way that
Abraham was saved, by believing in Christ. You see, when Abel
brought the sacrifice, he brought the sacrifice believing in redemption
by the blood. He brought the sacrifice not
before Elohim, not before an absolute God. It's like Luther,
somebody said, we want nothing to do with an absolute God. We
want something to do with Jehovah, God in his saving character,
God in his redemptive character. And any time you come to God,
or any man in the Old Testament ever came to God, he came to
God in his redemptive character, in his redemptive person, and
that's through Christ. And that's the reason that when
Abraham and Isaac started up the mountains, and Isaac said
to his father, he said, well, here's the wood and here's the
fire, where's the land? Father, you know better than
to come before God without a lame. You know better than to post
God without a sacrifice. We can't post God without a sacrifice. God will not speak to nor be
spoken to without a sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice. And Abraham
then turned to Isaac and said, My son, God himself will provide
the lame. So it's useless for a man in
a foxhole to cry, God save me, deliver me, and I'll serve you
the rest of my days. He's got to come to God through Christ
or not be heard. It's just folly, it's utter folly
for us to try to approach that mountain, that mountain on which
God revealed his holiness and his immaculate righteousness. They said that men couldn't approach
that mountain, even a beast touched that mountain, it'd be stoned.
Even a beast, let alone a man. There's no coming to God. God's
unapproachable. absolutely unapproachable apart
from a sacrifice. We're fools to try it. It's like
old Isaiah who went into the temple to offer a sacrifice. He wasn't a priest. He wasn't
appointed to offer a sacrifice. God killed him. God struck him
with leprosy and killed him, and it drug him out. And this
is the thing. We must not approach God except
with a sacrifice. And when these men brought from
Abel right on down, they were not saying, our salvation is
in this lamb and our salvation is in this animal blood. An animal
can't make atonement for a man's soul. They were saying, we do
this till Christ comes. We do this till Christ comes.
We're looking to the sacrifice. We're looking to the blood. We're
looking to the mercy of God through the sacrifice of his blood. Now,
we do this in remembrance of Christ. See what I'm saying?
We do this in remembrance of Christ. They had the Passover
every year until Christ the Lamb was slain and his blood, not
on a doorpost, but on the mercy seat of glory, in the presence
of God. And when that was done, from then on, no more Passover
feast, no more Lamb slain, no more blood sacrifice, no more
offering, nothing like Christ the effectual, sufficient Lamb
had died. Now then, watch what our Lord
said. Now, the Feast of the Unleavened
Bread, which is called the Passover, that's what we've been talking
about. And the chief priests and the scribes thought how they
might kill him, for they feared the people. Then entered Satan
into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve,
and he went his way. Communion with the chief priests
and captains, how that he might betray Christ unto them. They
were glad, and they covenanted to give him money. And he promised
and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence
of the multitude, and somewhere quietly, you know, where nobody
would see him. Then came the day of unleavened bread, when
the Passover must be killed. And our Lord Jesus Christ, now
he said, I didn't come to destroy the law, I came to And our Lord
Jesus Christ was circumcised the eighth day, just like every
Jewish child. They brought him to the temple
for Mary's purification, just like any other Jewish child.
He went to the synagogue on Saturday, just like any other Jewish child.
He grew up under the law, under the civil law, the moral law,
the law of the home, the Levitical law, all these laws, and obeyed
them and fulfilled them perfectly. And our Lord went to Jerusalem,
Feast of the Tabernacle, Feast of the First Fruit, Feast of
the Passover, he did every one of these things. He didn't destroy,
he came to fulfill the law. He came to fulfill it. And this
is the reason why we don't have the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the Feast of the Tabernacle, the Feast of the Passover like
this, is because it's been done. You couldn't add anything to
it, it's done. It would be folly for you to do this. It would
be trying to add to the work of Christ. This is the reason
we don't keep the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day on Saturday.
It's been kept. Christ is our Passover. I don't
have a certain distance to walk on the Sabbath day like these
men did, the washings and the baptisms and the feast days and
all that. If I did that, it would be me
saying, Christ's work is not sufficient. I've got to add something
to it. I've got to put myself in it. I've got to do this, you
know. I don't do it because it's done. It's done. The great transaction
is done. I am my Lord and he is mine.
It's done, Eddie. And a fool is the person who
wants to add to it. Your unworthiness to his worthiness,
your imperfections to his perfection, your flesh to his Almighty Spirit. What a fool I'd be. That's done. He taketh away the first. All
that touch-not, taste-not, handle-not, meats and drinks and holy days
and all these My Lord fulfilled them. They served their day. They served as pictures, types,
and shadows. If I lived back before the cross,
I'd do every one of those things. I hope I would. I'd be obligated
to. I'd keep the Sabbath day. I'd
go to the synagogue. I'd do all these feast days.
I hope so. I hope I wouldn't be like those
making a dinner feast out of the house of God. But those things
are done now. But here in verse 7, "...then
came that day, when the Passover must be killed, when the Passover
must be killed. And he sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare
us the Passover, that we may eat, just like I always have
thirty-three times, I guess, in thirty-three years." I don't
know how old the boy had to be to start taking twelve, I guess,
fourteen or something. Anyway, all these years. And
they said, Well, where were thou that we prepare? And he said
to them, Behold, when ye are entered into the city, shall
a man meet you bearing a picture of water, following him into
the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say to the good
man of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the
guest chamber, where I shall eat the Passover with my disciples?
And he shall show you a large upper room furnished, there make
ready this Passover, as one Moses gave two millenniums ago." And
they went and found, as he had said unto them, and they made
ready the Passover. And when the hour was come, he
sat down 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. They had unleavened bread there
because they ate the Passover with unleavened bread. You remember?
And I'm sure they had something to drink. You couldn't eat unleavened
bread and roasted lamb without something to drink. And they
had wine there. And our Lord Jesus took the cup and gave thanks. And he said, Take this and divide
it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall
come. He took bread and gave thanks and break it. and gave
it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you.
This do in remembrance of me." There are so many things right
here. This bread was not actually the
body of Christ. His body was right there in front
of them. His body hadn't even gone to the tree. He's saying
this bread is a symbol. This bread is a symbol. This
is not a sacrament. any more than that Passover was.
You say, what do you mean, sacrament? It has no saving benefit, it
has no saving power. You can take a lost sinner, a
rebel, and give him all the unleavened bread in the church house and
all the wine in the church house, and he'll be a sick drunk. But
he won't be a saved sinner. That's just so. That's right. It has no saving power anymore.
It's a picture. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, this
do in remembrance. Not in order to save, but in
remembrance of it. Likewise, the cup after supper
saying, this cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for
you. Now then, the Lord Jesus himself
is the Lamb of God. the Lamb of God. He is without
spot or blemish. Now, you remember me telling
you they took the Lamb, they took a male, our Lord the Man,
Christ Jesus, of the first year in the glow and strength of his
youth, 33 years old, right in the prime of his life, without
spot or blemish. Now, turn to Hebrews 4, verse
15. You see, the pictures and types
in our Lord's Word are so beautifully perfect. The Lamb which Israel
slew was a Lamb without spot or blemish, a perfect Lamb. Here in Hebrews 4, verse 15,
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeding
of our infirmities. but was in all points tempted
as we are, yet without sin." Christ knew no sin. He had no
sin. He was perfect. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us. Then this Lamb was put up for
four days and observed. Our Lord lived on this earth
for thirty-three years. He was observed, and they said,
I find no fault in him. Even his enemy, I find no fault
in him. He was slain, the Lamb was slain
and roasted with fire. That's our Lord dying on the
cross, dying on the cross. All the suffering, he cried,
I thirst, burning fever. All of these things can be talked
about when our Lord died on the cross, like a lamb roasted, his
body broken and suffering for our sins. And he shed his blood,
and watch this, before the Lord. My friends, the sacrifice of
Christ, I read in the Old Testament, and all of these lambs were slain
before the Lord. You see, the sacrifice of the
Lamb was not toward the people at all. If we could just see
this, if we could just get this in our head. Christ didn't die
on the cross, and the sacrifice was suffering. I hear a lot of
preachers making a play on on this, the fact that poor Christ,
he just suffered and died, and don't you feel sorry for him,
kind of generate some pity in the heart. He did that for you,
don't you think you ought to do something to him, all this sort of thing.
Now, that sacrifice was unto the Lord. And this is very important,
he died before the Lord. You see, it was God whose justice
was offended. It was God whose law is broken.
And Almighty God sent Christ into the world to be our substitute
and sacrifice and sin offering, that he might be just and justified,
that he might be righteous, a merciful and a loving but righteous Redeemer.
And this sacrifice was unto him. It wasn't just an offer extended
to the whole world, it was a sacrifice to God to enable God to be just
and justified. That's awfully important. And
another thing, we don't worship the cross. And it's so devastating,
and we've got so much of the human in us, so much of the flesh
in us, that we like something we can see, and something we
can touch, and something that will give us a religious atmosphere. Actually, if you could find the
cross on which Christ died, and be crucified on it yourself,
it would just be a shortcut to damnation. That cross couldn't
help you one eye over. I hope I can say this, if somebody
could find that cross and offer me a piece of it, I'd turn it
down. I'd turn it down, because it would make an idolatry out
of me. This happened over in Cain, when Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, he made that serpent of brass in
the likeness of the serpent that had bitten the people. He put
it on a pole and lifted it up, and those people who were actually
dying lived by looking to that brazen serpent. They looked to
it and lived. Now just humanly, human nature, what do you suppose
they did with that serpent? They took it down and saved it,
Russell. They saved it. And they put it away. And you
know those people worship that serpent? And if we had the cross
today, we'd worship that blooming thing. Sure as it were. And damn
our souls. We sing that way, we sing, I'll
cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay
down. I'll cling to the old rugged
cross, not me. You cling to it, not me. I'm
going to cling to Christ. You cherish the old rugged cross
if you want to. It's a monument of shame. It's
a monument of humiliation. As far as I'm concerned, they
can tear it up and burn it and throw it away. It won't help
you one iota. But I'll tell you who can help
you, him who died on that cross. And you know what they did with
that brazen serpent? They saved that thing until Hezekiah took
over, you remember? And he told them, he said, you
take that thing and grind it to powder. You know what it is?
You know what that serpent of brass is? It's a worthless piece
of brass. You know what he said? He showed
me that one time. That serpent is a worthless piece of brass.
It won't help anybody. And that cross won't help anybody.
Exactly right. And so we don't have crosses
in here. I hope we don't have any in here.
That's what that is over there. That ain't no cross. Candles
and crosses, and we like organs playing while we pray. You know,
that gives atmosphere. Say what we'd better do, we'd
better do away with atmosphere and look to Him. And I tell you,
the more you have in here of Christ, the less you need these
vigil aids. And you can always remember,
the more vigil aids you need, the less you have Christ. You
need to lean on those things. These are things he told us to
bring. Now, what about his blood? Turn
to Hebrews 9. Watch this. They put the blood
on the door, but Hebrews 9. Watch this in verse 11. I'm trying
to make this so that you tell the children, why are you doing
this? Hebrews 9, verse 11, a high priest of good things
to come," that's righteousness and sanctification and justification,
"...by a greater and more perfect tabernacle," that's his body
which he tabernacled among us, "...not made with hands," that
is to say, not this building, "...neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into the holy
place," not that tabernacle, "...but into heaven itself, having
obtained eternal redemption for us." look at Hebrews 9.22, almost
all things are by the law purged with blood. In other words, they
sprinkled the book, they sprinkled the congregation, they sprinkled
the vessel, they sprinkled the priest, they sprinkled everything.
And without shedding of blood, there is no remission. It was
therefore necessary that the patterns of things in heaven
should be purified with ease. But the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices and animal For Christ is not entered into
the holy place made with hands, which are pictures, symbols of
the truth, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us." Now, I'm not going to stand here and try to
picture to you the fact that Christ took his literal blood
and put it on the mercy seat of glory. I won't go through
that, because that's just questionable, and there's no need to do that
anyway. I simply say, turn to Hebrews 10, verse 14. But I do
know this, the blood is not literally put on the door, it's in the
presence of God that the blood is manifested for our forgiveness.
God said, when I see the blood. Not when you see it, not when
your preacher sees it, but when I see the blood. It's under the
Lord. And my sacrifice has been made unto God. By one offering,
this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting
that his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, verse
17, "...and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Now,
where remission of these is, no more offering for sin, no
more sacrifice, no more Passover sacrifice, no more lamb slain,
no more, no more. I remember their sins, no more,
no more. Why do you do this tonight, then?
Turn to 1 Corinthians 11. Our Lord gave it to his disciples
in Luke 22. He said, And he stood there and he broke
it. It was symbolic of his broken body. He blessed it and broke
it. My body is broken for you. He
took that wine, and you may find some fault with me. You may say, Well, I'm a teetotaler,
I'm this, that and the other. Well, that's all right. The Bible teaches temperance
and moderation in all things. But I've just failed to see how
that that we can accurately partake of the Lord's table and not at
least make some effort to do it like he set forth in the scriptures,
like baptism. They baptized because there was
much water there. And I'm saying that the purity
of our Lord's body, the purity of our Lord's spirit, is better
represented by unleavened bread. And like I say, this bread, this
unleavened bread which we bought years ago, it's been back there
in the In the dining hall, about four years. That's what you're
taking tonight, four years old. You try some of that white bread
four years old and eat it. You'd think you had penicillin.
But this is without liver. You see what I'm saying? The
scripture. And there's no reason to do it
any other way. This do, he said, in remembrance of me. Do this.
Not something else, this. He didn't say bring a rogue choir
and a processional, this do. All you need for the Lord's table
is a broken bread and wine, bread and wine, and believers. That's
all you need, and believers. And we use the wine because it's,
I think, truly symbolic of his pure blood. That wine stays back
there through the years and the months and doesn't deteriorate,
it doesn't, nothing bothers it, it's just there. Paul has given
us this in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23. Where you find this
in 1 Corinthians 11, some of the folks were misusing the Lord's
table. They were making a feast, they
were getting drunk at the Lord's table. They were coming together
to take the Lord's table. And folks were bringing their
own supper, and they were making a feast out of it, sitting around
drinking the wine and eating their suppers and all these things.
He said, You've got houses to do that in. You've got houses
to do that in. That's not taking the Lord's
table. When you come together to take the Lord's table, do
it this way, verse 23. I have received of the Lord that
which I delivered unto you. I got it from Christ, and I'll
give it to you the same way I got it. The Lord Jesus, the same
night in which he was betrayed, took bread. He took bread. And when he had given thanks,
given thanks to the Father, he'd break it. He'd break it. That's his broken body, the suffering
man. He said, You take it and eat
it. This is my body which is broken
for you. Now, do it in remembrance. You
can't remember one whom you don't know. You say, Well, who's to
come to the Lord's table? I've taken the Lord's table in
other places, and the preachers spent more time telling people
who wanted to come than who was to come. I got real upset. I
said, look, let's not keep talking about folks that ain't supposed
to be here. Let's talk about why we're here. And I'm saying this. Who's to come? If you know him,
you remember him. If you don't know him, you can't
remember him. It's just that clear. It's still remembrance
to me. If his body's broken to you,
take it. If his blood's shed to you, take it. If not, don't
take it. It's that simple. Just don't take it. All right? He took bread, and when he gave
him thanks, he said, Take eat, take eat, this is my body broken. He did and remembered for me.
After the same manner, he took the cup. When he had supped,
he said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, the covenant
of grace, the covenant of mercy, pure grace, pure mercy, the gift
of God for us. This dude, how are we supposed
to take it? As often as you drink it. Nobody
knows. It's not said. As often as you
drink it in this passion, you do it in remembrance of me. For
as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show
the Lord's death till he comes. Young people, that's what we're
doing. I'm showing you right here, with this bread and this
wine, I'm showing you my hope of pardon. I'm showing you my
hope of remission of sins. I'm showing you my hope of forgiveness,
my hope for eternal heaven, my title to glory. God bested this
world in judgment of when he will. He said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Not when I see your church membership,
not when I see your theology, not when I see your Calvinistic
doctrine, not when I see your efforts and good, when I see
the blood, when I see the blood of Christ. When I see the blood
of my Son shed for you and the body of my Son broken for you,
and how is that mine? By faith. By faith. That's how it's mine. I believe
it. I believe there's no way to God but by Christ. I believe
there's no door to God but by Christ. I believe there's no
forgiveness of sins but by Christ. I believe there's no salvation
but through Christ. But I believe that through Christ
is perfect, absolutely perfect. And so when I take this bread
and eat it, I'm showing his death for my sins. When I take this
wine and drink it, I'm saying my hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
spring. I wholly, completely, totally lean on Jesus' name."
Now then, verse 27, "...whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink
this cup of the Lord unworthily." I've known preachers. I asked
a preacher once, how long has it been since you observed the
Lord's table? He said, three years. I said, why so long? Well,
a church is not in harmony. The people are unworthy. Now
listen to me. If your basis on which you're
taking this bread and wine is that you feel that you're worthy,
you better not take it. I'm serious about this. If you
feel that your life is so clean and so pure and so righteous
and so moral and so holy, if that makes you a candidate to
take this bread, you better not take it. That's eating unworthily. But if you feel that you're a
sinner, guilty before God, and you need a Redeemer and have
a Redeemer in Christ Jesus, and your sins are washed with the
blood and your righteousness is in His obedience, and you
can discern and see the significance of Christ's death, it's the wisdom
and the power of God to you, and you believe that, take it!
Take it! All right? Verse 28, "...let
a man examine himself." Don't let somebody else examine him.
What are you examining for? Faith! You're looking for some
faith in Christ, you're looking for knowledge of Christ, you're
looking for dependence on Christ. If you can find it, eat it! Let
a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and
drink of that cup. Now, here's the key, verse 29,
"...he that eateth and drinketh as a ceremony as a sacrament
in this passion, unworthily eateth and drinketh, condemnation, judgment
to himself, not discerning." The word discerning is judging,
understanding the Lord's body. That's the important thing. As
we come to the Lord's table, we carefully observe and discern
the things I've tried to say. Just like the Jews and the Israelites,
when they kept the Passover, They went in the house and shut
the door and relied on the blood, relied on the roasted body of
the sacrifice. I tell you this, I go in and
close the door and rely on Christ. Look to him. I discern his body. So we're going to serve and we
have a large number, so be patient and be prayerful. Meditate upon
these things that are said. And if you want to, what we do
while we are passing the Lord's table, read that chapter again,
Luke 22 and Exodus 12 here, and meditate upon the Lord's sacrifice
for our sins, and observe the Lord's table with us. Matthew 26, another account of
the Lord's table, verse 26, Matthew 26, and as they were eating,
Jesus took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it to
the disciples and said, take, eat, this is my body. And he
took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink
ye all of it. This is the blood of the New Testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you,
I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until
that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
And when they had sung a hymn, a psalm, they went out. So let's
turn, if you will, to number 210. And I'll leave them, Mike,
if you would. Number 210. I looked over the
words of this hymn, and I think it's very appropriate for closing
this service tonight. Number 210, Saved by the Blood. Will you stand and sing it with
me? Saved by the blood of the crucified
one Now ransom from sin and a new work begun Sing praise to the
Father and praise to the Son Saved by the blood of the crucified
one My sins are all pardoned, my
guilt is all gone. Safe, safe, I'm safe by the blood
of the crucified one.